Hello!
This has been the best week of my life!!!
The joy I feel as the Lords servant is indescribable.
I have felt Gods love for his children more than ever before this
week. At one point I could feel it radiating through my body, it was
exhilarating! I know our Father in Heaven loves us dearly. It's His
love that motivates me to work harder, laugh more, and sacrifice
everything.
I am SO THANKFUL for the #sharethegift initiative. My friends, I don't
think you realize how many miracles are happening because of this
short two minute video. I've never seen anything soften hearts as much
as this short clip about Christmas. My companion and I were very
motivated to reach beyond our limits and share, share, share this
video, with everyone! Our days of handing out the card with the
Christmas.mormon.org website on it are over. We don't hand out cards
to anyone without sharing the video first. Then, we are able to
testify, give a Christmas.mormon.org card and commit them to share the
video with someone else. ITS SO COOL, the change that happens to
people in two minutes. We've met people who are harsh when we ask them
to watch the video, but we don't give up, we hold the iPad in front of
them and push play anyways. By the end of the video those harsh people
are soft and willing to talk to us, they remember the gift they have
been given, and continue on with their day edified. We've found some
sweeeet referrals for the Spanish and English missionaries, and even
one new deaf investigator of our own from the video! Evette is our new
investigator. She didn't really want to talk to us at first and was
about to walk away, but we shoved the video in her hands before she
had a chance to say no. After the video she was like "wooooow! Come
back and visit me again!" Miracles!
Our mission has a goal to share the video to 50,000 people by
Christmas. As of now that buckles down to 15 shares per companionship
per day. It's a great goal, but I believe we can do better than that.
After all, this is New York, there's people left and right. You can't
escape from them! I believe this will be the best Christmas NYC has
ever experienced, with the He Is The Gift video floating around.
K was baptized on Sunday. Miraculously, it happened! Everything
was falling apart, everything!!!! She wasn't answering our calls,
members calls, text messages, facebook messages, ANYTHING. We didn't
know what was going on. Finally on Friday we decided to cancel some
appointments and go to her house to see her. She wasn't home, but a
series of miraculous events happened and we were able to and share the
He is The Gift video with many people. During the time we were sharing
she came home. Hurray. So we sat down with her sorted things out, and
she was once again excited for baptism.
Her baptism was wonderful! The members were all in on it, eagerly
supporting her. I hope they continue to be patient with her as she
learns sign language. President Calderwood and the Assistants to the
President also came to support her! It was great to have them there.
I'm so grateful to have witnessed the miracle of K from day one,
for Gods hand was certainly in every detail making sure that K
was given a way to return to live with him again.
Good news, I'm not being transferred. Neither is Sister Passey. We
have one more transfer together to build ZION and get this new area
running!!! I'm so stoked. Also, Sister Barker, who came out with me
and Sister Peterson is coming ASL this transfer. It's going to be so
sick, I expect this will be the best transfer of our lives!
This week it has been increasingly apparent to me that sacrifice is
worth the blessings of heaven. The challenge of our investigators or
less actives working on Sunday's is happening over and over again. It
seems to have no end! As we have repeatedly testified to our
investigators the importance and blessings of keeping the sabbath day
holy my own testimony has increased. As we have knelt in prayer with
our investigators and together ASKED God how they should go about
keeping the sabbath day holy, we have received very powerful answers.
However, it's not the answers that matter. It's the faith that
matters, if our investigators do not show faith and ACT on the answers
they receive and make sacrifices, those answers will be meaningless!
Thank you dearest friends and family.
I love you all!
Hope you're enjoying this holiday season, I know I sure am!
And don't forget to "get weird and stay weird cuz it's almost Christmas."
Xoxo
Sister Layton
Pics
1. K and I. (No we have NO IDEA what she is doing with her hand
in this pic. It's not sign language, that's for sure!)
2. Sister Peterson, K, and myself.
3. Our fav. member, M.
4. All of us together :)))
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