Week One down!

hellooooo fam :))

Lots of good news this week!!

-We taught our first investigator, Ethan, 4 times this week! (he's not a real investigator by  the way, he's an actor.) hahahha oh man it was so scary, but so cool. He's deaf, so we had to teach completely in sign language. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on, but when I did understand what was going on, it was so cool to see myself teach WITH MY HANDS. He accepted the baptismal invitation during the 3rd lesson, so we were stooooked! And then the 4th lesson was soo so so bad, he even said he was bored! ha. oh well. 

-My branch president is awesome. He's so so cool. His counselors, on the other hand, we don't love that much. We had a meeting with the 1st counselor, who had good intentions, but completely killed deaf culture and offended many people in our group during the meeting. I don't think one person in the ASL group left that meeting upset. But it's ok, our teachers emailed him and told him that's not acceptable and he apologized :)) The 2nd counselor doesn't like us hahahahh. He says we're so loud and the other groups he's been in charge of have been very quiet. Hahahh i'm thinking "of course we're loud, we sit in a classroom all day in silence so when we're finally allowed to talk we simply cannot stop!"

-Omi and grandpa:

   --I met an elder from Thailand that knows you!! His name is elder Lualai if you remember the name. He's so nice. Anyways, I made a terrible mistake when I was talking to him. The same mistake Omi made. He picked up my nice new set of scriptures and without thinking, I asked "did you get new scriptures for your mission?" He replied, "No, i don't have anything. I have my coat and clothes, but that's all." I should've known better after Omi shared her similar experience with me. 

   --I also met Casey and Carol... I think that's their names. It was so great to talk to someone who knew my family!! They went on and on about how muc they love you, Omi and Grandpa, and the whole Layton family. It made me feel so good that they searched through the cafeteria just to find me and make sure I was doing ok :)

-Elder L. Tom Perry (whose first name is actually not Larry) came to the MTC on Tuesday. One of the perks of being an ASL missionary is we get to sit in the front row at every devotional (because we watch the interpreters.) That was saweeeeeet. I felt so lucky to get to listen to an apostle, let alone listen to an apostle on the front row!!

-I've always wanted to be able to participate in musical numbers in sacrament meeting or whatever, but unfortunately I'm just not capable of singing. But guess what, now I can because I can sign the words instead of sing them! Best thing everrrrrr. My district put together a sweet ASL/singing/piano arrangement for a song... I can't remember what it's called.... and we are going to audition to perform at the devotional. 

-I think I might become vegetarian after being at the MTC. I can't make myself eat the meat here. Thank goodness for spinach and apples and bananas and cereal. oh and bagels of course.

-GUESS WHAT. Elder Jacob Birth from centerville got here on Wednesday and is in my zone!! Hooray! 

-Another perk of being an ASL missionary is that everyone is always watching you, and always wants to talk to you, so we get to meet tons of missionaries! Missionaries from everywhere!! Some of the missionaries I've met come from 3rd world countries, are so poor, and don't have families that support their choice to serve a mission. I feel so blessed to have a family that supports me 100%.

Thank you Kyle and Emily for writing me letters, even though you're super busy newly-weds trying to move across the country. 

Letters are the best, people. We get them at the end of the day, right when we feel like our brain is about to explode.  Please send letters.  Seriously it takes 5 minutes to send a letter from Dearelder.com. and its freeeee.

The ASL is coming along slowly. I know a lot of words, but ASL grammar is so different than english grammar, and that's where I struggle. I still can't understand everything that my teachers say in class.... but I can understand more than I did last week!! I was getting frustrated one day, and my teacher could see that i was frustrated, so she drew a chart for me on the board. The chart basically showed that the amount of ASL you know doesn't really matter. As long as you love your investigator and follow the spirit, that's all you need. After that I stopped worrying about it and started to trust in the Lord more. 

Life is goooooood. Livin' the missionary life. Always avoiding the MTC orange juice.

Love, Sister Layton