Service Softens Hearts

Hi Guys,

Here is a picture of the district :) 

And a pic with the Hermanas. Don't judge the not matching outfit. I had nothing to wear this morning..... And missionaries stop caring what they're wearing on the mission lollll.

Wellll, what should I tell you about this week?

We've had lots of opportunities to do service, which is something we've been praying for, so that was good. I love service :))))) I feel like people in New York are so bad at letting people help them! We went and raked with N, who hadn't come to church since the first week of February, and lo and behold she came to church on Sunday! Service softens hearts, my friends :) Fill up your summer with SERVICE.

Oh, M moved :(((( to Texas. We are so sad, but so happy for her. Honestly, we are just happy we had the privilege of knowing her and helping her receive the restored gospel. She taught me so much! I think Texas will be SO good for her, temporally and spiritually. Her family has a summer home there, so her mom and brother are coming from China for the summer, as well as her aunt and uncle. She also got accepted to a new high school down there, which is great, because her host family here was..... Well, they were very rude people. We called the missionaries in Texas with her, and guess WHAT! There are two recent converts preparing to go on missions who are Chinese! I think M about passed out she was so happy. I, myself, was ecstatic! This means they can teach her mom and brother too! Yayyyyyy! It was so sad to help her pack and say goodbye, but you know what, I think I'm actually gonna keep in touch with this one. :)

Oh, on Friday the most awkward thing happened. We had an appointment with M.... But she wasn't home. We decided to wait for a little bit to see if she showed up. Well, there was a woman who had an appointment to inspect her house waiting with us. She was all dressed up... So I said jokingly, "you look nice, are you a missionary too?!" She goes "no, I'm just here to inspect the house!" I said "oh, good, I was worried she sent a missionary from another church, maybe a Jehovah's Witness, to come see her at the same time as us!" Well, that was stupid of me because E says "oh, well, I am a Jehovah's Witness missionary, I'm just working right now." Haaahah oops. We got stuck there talking to her for like 20 minutes discussing the bible. It was so fun! It wasn't bible bashing, don't worry. We mostly talked about the spirit world! Because JWs believe after we die we are just dust til the resurrection. Sounds boring if you ask me. They're missing that precious truth that we live on after we die, in the spirit world!! We showed her a few scriptures, and I think we actually left her curious after reading 1 Peter 3:19-20 with her. She just paused for a second and said "ummmm, I'm going to have to research that one..." 

Per President Calderwoods request, half the mission signed up to volunteer at a "global family reunion" in Queens on Saturday. It was like a family history fair of some sort. The event was expecting 10,000 people to show up, but there was a max of 3,000 people. Because of the lack of people, there was really nothing for us missionaries to help with..... And we had been asked not to proselyte.... :( Sister Hardman and I would have just gone home, but J drove us so we were stuck! But it's okayyyy, it was so much fun to see all my missions friends! A few of them for the last time :(( including Elder Felix Daniel Martinez IV, my Viewmont friend. For those of you who are interested, he and Molli already have a date set up for June 18th hahahah. Can't wait to hear about how this one goes.

Transfers is tomorrowwwwww! I am staying here to finish Sister Hardmans training as far as I know. Yippeeee. It's a swell companionship, and Sister Hardman is getting happier and happier every week! Just so you know: there's a 95% chance I will never go back to the Union Square branch! Sister Barker and Sister Peterson were called to train the new ASL sisters there in a few weeks! I'm a little bit sad, but mostly relieved ha. The city is a very wonderful, but very stressful place. In Sister Peterson's words, "it makes you feel 45 years older than you really are."

Alrightttt our pool needs some prayers. Pleaaase pray for these people: J, T & fam, C & fam, and really just pray that we can find people who are ready to accept the gospel. We are going through another phase where our teaching pool is dying and we have to build up a new one! We found J this week, and if she meets with us again I'll tell you the sweet story of how we found her :)

I feel like I should mention Plantains in this email. After all, I'm always talking about food. So, PLANTAINS. Have you ever had fried plantains? If not, you should try them this week. They're like fried bananas, but better! We went to this amazingggg Dominican restaurant with the hermanas. Like why am I not Spanish? Their food is so good. Their soda is good too- inca cola for the win.

Speaking of the Hermanas, we LOVE THEM. seriously, it's okay that we don't have Zion with our district, because we have Zion with them!!!! Hermanas Eberhard and Zambito are my favorite peeps ever. I will take a picture with them right now so you can see their beautiful faces.

Have a great summmmmer! And congrats to my 2015 grads :) can't believe that was 2 years ago for me :0

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH.

-Sister Layton