Sister Layton In New York: Tracting & Other Advertures

So, Monday again, huh?

We had a wonderful week. It was pretty crazy, actually.

Sister Moore is no longer with us... She got emergency transferred because a sister in a neighboring area went home early due to back problems. The trio is no longer in existence :(( butttttttt that doesn't mean Sister Passey and I aren't having a grand old time together. Yesterday in sacrament meeting Sister Passey bore her testimony since it was her last fast and testimony meeting as a missionary and I just cried hahah... Not only because I felt the spirit, but because I was so sad! I'm going to miss her so much.

Being her companion at this time is one of the biggest blessings of my mission. We were talking the other day about how we have changed! Sometimes it's hard to measure your growth in the mission.... But now that we're back together we can measure ourselves against when we were companions the last time. You can see the change in ourselves simply by the way we interact with each other, the words we use, the way we work together, and even better-we can FEEL the change. The spirit is so present!! #foreverchanged

Some highlights of the week:

On Monday we went to the Fire Island Lighthouse with my favorite Hermanas and J. It was SO FUN. I've missed my Bayshore peeps. It's a pretty tall lighthouse, and if you make it to the top you actually get to step outside and walk around this little deck that wraps around the top, enjoying the view and the nice cool breeze. It was grand.

Our AMAZING deaf members, the S'es held a BBQ for our deaf investigators and some other deaf friends. It was pretttyyyy nice. I love our investigators. C accepted a baptismal date this week FINALLY. P and J are the cutest old deaf couple... They come to church every week, but they don't want to get baptized! I guess we just have to keep working on developing their testimonies. :)

Hmmm what else... Well it was the end of the month, so you know what that means- NO MILES. Also no money. Ughhh. We got to do lots of tracting, which I actually love. There's nothing better than talking to and connecting with people. The longer you're on your mission, the better you get at tracting.. At the first of my mission I hated it. But now the conversations just FLOW and it gets exciting. People actually want to talk to us! I think it's because we actually CARE about them and their salvation, where as before I felt like I was just knocking on doors. I know tracting isn't very effective, I KNOW, but I believe Heavenly Father blessed us for being obedient... Cuz we had some pretty cool experiences.

One of those cool experiences included meeting a woman named C! We knocked on her door and she was not about to let us in. she was closing the door more and more as I kept talking, then I mentioned something about the Plan of Salvation and she goes "ohhh, uh okay come in!" We had an amazing, beautiful discussion about the plan of salvation and she wants us to come back YAY. She had some really good, sincere questions about the plan of salvation. I love feeling the spirit answer questions through me... I have been reminded again and again that the spirit is the REAL teacher here.

This is definitely not a highlight..... BUT I NEED ALL OF YOUR PRAYERS very badly because I seem to have developed a terrible rash over the span of the past two days all over my face and neck, and a little bit on my arms and legs. It's pretty painful, so yes, prayers would be wonderful. We don't know what it's from, but it looks a little bit like poison ivy? IDK.