Not a Boring Week

Well, my friends, this was not a boring week. Weeks on the mission are never boring, but this one was quite something.

To hit some of the highlights.....

-->To start off the week we got a text early Tuesday morning from one of our investigators that our pal, L passed away. We were pretty sad/surprised.. She was supposed to go home from rehab the next day! We have been visiting L about every week since I got here! We didn't teach her, because she was too sick, but we read Bible stories, bonded, and learned lots about her life. She will be missed! She is the mother-in-law of our investigator J and the mother of P - also our investigator. Every time we went to see L someone new was there, so now we know their whole family!

The last time we visited L I said to Sister Ewell- "L probably won't accept the gospel in this life, I just don't think she will be able to. But I think that after knowing us, her heart will be softened and she will be more likely to accept the gospel when she meets missionaries in the spirit world!" I hope this is true.

-->Also on Tuesday the Elders came to our door to tell us a sweeeeet story. Long story short, they felt prompted to stop by our investigator T's house. We had been telling her about Priesthood blessings, so she asked the Elders for a blessing to help her stop smoking. They gave her the blessing and the strangest thing happened. Throughout the blessing she kept smelling lemons!!! A very strong, distinct, smell of lemons. Then, the taste of nicotine came to her mouth and it tasted disgusting to her, she never wanted to taste it again. Then, she smelled lemons again! No one else in the room smelled lemons, only T. She said when she was little her mom always taught her that "sweet smells, like lemons, are from God." So when she smelled lemons during the blessing she knew the Elders indeed held the Priesthood and were from God! Sweeeetnesssssss. Literally.

-->I turned 20 on Wednesday. Ohhh yeahhhhhh. You better believe we ate burritos to celebrate! The Elders surprised me with French Toast Bagels for breakfast! That was so kind of them. 

Best part of my Bday: we finally contacted a less active we've been trying to meet for agessss... And she's LOVELY. she wants to come back to church, hallelujah :)

-->Thursday was swell! Remember that lady I shoveled water for? She and her daughter are doing great! We finally taught them the restoration and they lovedddddd it! We showed them a video clip of the First Vision and D shivered and said "I love this, wow, I really like this, I just love this!" With a big smile on her face. They really wanted to come to church and were planning on it, but then the member who was going to pick them up decided not to come to church. Major bummer! 

-->We were invited to L's funeral on Saturday. It was a Baptist funeral :))) It was WEIRD. Lovely, but definitely different than a Mormon funeral. Sister Ewell and I were the only white girls in the big chapel. Lololol. There was lots of singing, "praising," and clapping. Sister Ewell was loving it-- she wishes she lived in the southern states with all them black people! 

Now, I haven't been to many funerals in my short life, but that was definitely the saddest funeral I've ever been to because this family was devastated! It broke my heart to see their pain. 

I can't imagine what a funeral would be like if I didn't know my family was eternal...

I felt so blessed as I sat there. Sister Ewell and I were the only people in that whole congregation who knew the truth of Gods plan for us!! We are SO BLESSED. It doesn't matter what trial we are facing, whether big or small, the gospel can give us peace and happiness through it!

Anywho, I'm glad we went to the funeral. It meant a lot to the family! Even the family members we barely knew gave us big hugs and thanked us for coming. I hope and pray we can help them accept the gospel!!

Well, have a happy pday everyone ;)

And happy, happy birthday to my brother kybo! 

Xoxo

-Sister Layton

Pics:

Birthday lunch with the district.

T got me balloons for my birthday!

Who'd have thought it'd still be snowing at the end of March?