My Week in Pictures

Hellooooo!

We had a WONDERFUL week!  Did you? I sure hope so.

Yesterday was the first day of summer, and boy oh boy, we felt the
heat. Gotta love sweating through teaching appointments!
I think I will talk about my week through PICTURES. I have a bunch on
my iPad that I may as well share with you.

#1. We spent most of Tuesday traveling to, in, and from Manhattan for
Sister Hardman's doctors appointment so it was a wee bit boring and a
tad bit long. But we made it through just fine! And oh my goodness
when we left the doctors appointment it started POURING. well, I was
not prepared because I had forgotten that sometimes in the city it can
be nice and sunny and the start raining cats and dogs. So I ran
through the city to the subway and got drenched! Good times. The only
photo we took that day was of me and Elder Goff! His companion was
seeing the doctor as well, so we talked in the waiting room for a bit.
He's from bountiful so we have lots of mutual friends!

#2. ZTM (zone training meeting) WAS WONDERFUL. we have a good zone. We
played jeopardy for online prosecuting rules and listened to inspiring
workshops. One of my favorite feelings as a missionary is the feeling
of unity you get as you sit with a group of consecrated missionaries
and counsel together! For a break the zone leaders and STLs bought
cereal and milk for everyone, so that's why we're gathered around the
table in the picture.

#3. An inactive member, J and her son had us over for dinner! She
prepared a FEAST, I tell you. A feast. I hadn't eaten so fancy
since..... Idk when. She doesn't remember anything about the church,
really, so we had a nice conversation about the restoration as we ate.
We think/hope her son will meet with the elders! And thennnn as we
were about to leave she says "oh, I picked up some groceries for you
all. My mom reminded me you only get $30 dollars a month for food..."
She didn't just pick up some groceries for us, she picked up enough
groceries to last my last 4.5 months as a missionary!!!! I was
shocked! The elders were pretty happy about it. We shared with them.
(By the way we get more than $30 a month for food. Her mom was mistaken)

#4. This is T and 4 of her 5 little girls. They are adorable but
such a handful. When we pray with them at the beginning and end of
lessons it gets a little crazy, everyone is climbing on top of each
other and touching each other ha! We always teach them outside and
they are always in their swimsuits hahahah. We acted out the tree of
life with them this week.. It was fun!! They neeeeed prayers! Pray for
them :)
OH, when we went to T's on Thursday, a young man named T was
there! When he saw me he said "Hey, I know you!" I didn't remember
him, but he went on to tell me that one time during a blizzard I
walked up to him at a bus stop and said "it's cold!" and then started
talking to him about his family and all sorts of random things and
gave him a little card inviting him to church. After he told me that I
remembered the one day in February when I randomly said to Sister
Ewell "Let's go walk to that bus stop by our house and see if anyone
is there to fearless!" So we did. And we met T. I just find it so
interesting that the one time I decide to go fearlessing on Long
Island I run into the person again! Coincidence? I think not. He gave
us his phone numbers so the elders can go teach him :))) yay for T!

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#5. This is my companion Sister Amanda Mae Hardman. I love her
dearly!! It's been a BLAST training her. We have lots of fun together
:)))) Last week was very hard and emotionally exhausting for Sister
Hardman :( we have more doctors appointments in the city for her this
week, so please keep her in your prayers!!! I don't want her to go
homeeee. This picture is when we got pizza with the elders after doing
service for a man that runs the West Islip Beautification society. We
weeded a beautiful flower garden. I love doing service!!! Oh, and then
the old man kissed me (on the cheek) as we were leaving. The elders
thought it was hilarious.

#6. This is S (in the middle), her cousin, and N!  S is getting baptized

 soon- on July 12th, so keep her in your prayers.

She's the smartest 12 year old I've ever met. She understands
everything we give her to read and completely absorbs the truth. She's
going to girls camp with the young women before she gets baptized
hahah. She actually will get baptized the day after she gets back! I'm
excited, I think it will be SO good for her! Tonight we are doing FHE
with her fam :)

#7. Hermana Zambito and I! Her and Hermana Eberhard still come write
in their journals with us every night after planning. I LOVE them! My
favorite Hermanas ever!!!

Okkk that's all!
Love you all bunches. This work is the greatest joy. God is a God of
miracles, I know that for sure. Idk what to say, I'm just really
grateful to be here!
Have a wonderful week and don't forget to PRAY!

-Sister Layton

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Hey Peeps!

Hey peeps!

What's up?

This week was eventful. Lots of good things happening here. There are always good things happening when it comes to building up the kingdom of God, am I right?

I would like to know how the work is going over there in Utah, or wherever you might be. Anyone finding new investigators? ! I sure hope so. 

We are trying to here in Long Island. It's been successful when it comes to Hispanic people. Unfortunately we don't speak Spanish... I WISH. Oh well, it's great for our good friends the Hermanas! We love them. They come chill with us every night after planning and I just laugh and laugh with them.

Oh buuutttt we did get one new investigator named S! She's sweeeeet. 12 years old, but super mature for her age. Her mom was baptized a few years ago and has been a bit less active. We've been trying to get her back to church and teach her family as well!  Sjust moved rooms so we are going to help her make some decorations and personalize it this week! Yay. if you know me, you know I LOVE that. 

One great thing that happened is that we were welcomed into a very very nice home when we knocked. This never happens! The reason why we were welcomed is because 1. The man loves Mitt Romney and 2. Because I'm deaf and he found it very interesting. He and his wife loved us but were not interested unfortunately :( 

Soooo on Friday we knocked on doors allllll day longggggggg until 8pm because everything fell through. It was the hottest day yet, too!  Around 3 or 4 I started to feel tired of it, and was praying in my heart thinking "Heavenly Father, I'm so tired of this, no one is accepting us and we really felt like we should knock this area. I'm so hungry, it's so hot, my companion is very discouraged, blah blah blah." Oh, also I didn't eat lunch because I didn't feel good during lunch so I was literally starving lol. WELL, my prayer was answered! We knocked on the next house and it happened to be a member of the Spanish Ward!!!!  She was soooo happy to see us and of course made us eat her delicious food. We happily accepted hahah. Then after visiting for like 20 minutes we were getting ready to go and she gave us little gifts and said "I know missions are difficult, but you just gotta keep going!  We both left teary eyed hahah. It meant a lot to us.

We are teaching a family with 5 cute little girls.... It's T and her daughters- F, H, C, G, and P. They haven't come to church or accepted a date yet, but we are getting there. It's kinda hard to teach when there's 5 little girls trying to talk at the same time as you!  So they're getting there... Slowly but surely :) 

OH transfers happened and the new district is WONDERFUL. We said goodbye to Elder Bennett and Elder Thelemaque, but welcomed Elder Ashby and Elder Sainteran. Elder Ashby is Eli Brady's twin... Both in looks and personality. Elder Sainteran is from Haiti, but lived in the DR the past 5 years. He makes HAITIAN FOOD. YAyyyyy. This transfer is gonna be soooo good.

Welllllp that's about all I have to tell ya. 

God is GOOD. His love is real. 

My love for all of you is real too!!!

Have a wonderful summer week. Behave yourselves :)

-Sister Layton

The pic is with St. She bought us a squid hat hahahaha. 

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

The Temple & the METS

HELLO FRIENDS.

Ok I really do notttt know how time is flying so quickly!

Let's see what happened this week....

Well, we did go to the temple with Mi on Saturday! That was a wonderful experience. It was also, very hot and humid, even inside the temple, but we lived :) M loved it, I think. We joined with a ward from NJ at the temple. They were so nice and friendly towards us. And guess what, the sister missionaries in the ward know Sister Robinson!!!! My wardie from centerville. That was a fun connection. 

Anyhow, in the ward there was a recent convert going to the temple for the first time. I don't know his name, but what he did in the baptistry that day, I will never forget. His story is that he was a professional football player, like he played in the Super Bowl and everything. So keep in mind he's a pretttyyyy big guy. About 7 years ago he had a major stroke and lost all movement on one side of the body. Not much of he movement has come back since then.... :( a few months ago he found the church and was baptized. He did family history and brought his own uncles name to the temple to do his baptism for him. But what's amazing is that HE was baptized for him. No one had ever seen this guy walk, or even stand up for that matter. But he was determined. The Manhattan Temple baptistry isn't quite wheelchair accessible. It has staircases that lead up to it, so 5 men assisted him up the staircase. His foot started bleeding from so much movement! But he was so happy he was doing it! It took a while and a lot of effort for him to get up the staircase, and even more effort for them to get him down the stairs into the baptismal font. It looked SO painful hahah. When he finally made it into the font, everything stopped for a second. The spirit was SO strong. We were all kind of in awe at what had just happened. I don't know if anyone there will ever think of baptisms for the dead the same after seeing the trek and pain this man went through to get in the water. The priesthood holder raised his hand, but couldn't talk because he was crying. I was crying, most of us were crying! The best part of all was seeing one of the Elders pull him down under the water and come back up with the biggest smile on his face. He stayed in the water to do 5 more baptisms. 

I guess it just reminded me how special and sacred baptisms for the dead really are. Sometimes they become a rote, repeated thing, as does family history, but this experience reminded me that it is worth any sacrifice to make covenants with God for our brothers and sisters. To do something for them that they cannot do for themselves is an amazing opportunity! I love the temple :) I've been lucky to go every week for the past 3 weeks!

Really, there's nothing else I want to write about.... It's starting to get huuuumiiid here. Here we go, summer! Fun fact about Long Island, there's ice cream trucks EVERYWHERE. I swear you can't go 5 minutes without hearing one.

Ok, everyone have a splendid week! The church is true. I know it! I still love being a missionary. I will ALWAYS love it. Yes, it's exhausting, and sometimes frustrating, but it's so worth it.

Oh wait. I have one more thing to tell you. The METS game last pray was WONDERFUL. I had theee time of my life. All of my favorite missionaries were there, AND some of my favorite friends from the Union Square (ASL) branch had seats by the missionaries!  I was on cloud 9! There wasn't even time to watch the game, too many wonderful people to socialize with! We also ate some good, overpriced food. Oh, and C W, from the ASL  branch gave me his mets hat! I almost cried it meant so much. 

Kkkkkkk bye guys!

-Sister Layton

1. President & Sister Calderwood.

2. METS game

3. Temple with my gurl :)

Manhattan, Temple Trip Etc...

Helloooo!!

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my beautiful big sister, Amy, whom I have so far failed to send a birthday card to.... :( I'm workin on it. Also, happy birthday to my Grandpa Robinson! I think Caseys was this week too... Happy birthday Caso! 

Today we have a  busy pday once again! We are going to the city for the Mets game! Should be FUN. almost all the missionaries are going. 

Alrighttttt I feel like Monday was a year ago... But let me tell you, it was WONDERFUL. Zone conference at Presidents home was amazing! I'm sad the Calderwoods are going home so soon :(( they have been great examples and great sources of wisdom to me. The day was full of amazing workshops, great food, and we had a zone testimony meeting. It was a beautiful experience. My favorite workshop was given by the Calderwoods son, Kaden, who just came home from his mission in Russia. He gave a workshop on personal prayers-something he really tried to master the last 6 months of his mission. He always found himself falling asleep and saying weird things during his prayers at night. So to fix the problem he started standing up and walking around as he prayed hahahah. He gave lots of really good tips and insights. I've been applying a few of them this week, including standing up when I prayed a few times. It actually helped me, because sometimes I do start to fall asleep! 

Tuesday was Pday, and we had my doctors appointments in Manhattan. It was SO FUN. Well, the appointments were quite boring, but in between was fun! We had 2.5 hours between appointments, so we took a stroll through Central Park, went to Times Square and ate some lunch there :) I'll send some pics! We went in a bunch of stores including the M&M store, Toys R Us, and the Disney store. It was a dream come trueeeeeee! I almost cried at the Disney store! You should've seen us squealing when we found a huuuuggggeeeee MINION in the Toys R Us store. Unfortunately I didn't purchase anything.... Idk about you but I'm not willing to spend $14 for 1lb of m&ms! Lol Times Square is overpriced. 

Tuesday night we looked up a former named E. She was not about to let us come back because of a long list of excuses. And thennnnn Sister Hardman started speaking creole at her... To which she says "oh my goodness, you speak creole, maybe we should talk." She let us right in the house, and we got a return appointment! Yippeeee. I love having a creole companion.

Thursday was our Trainer/Trainee meeting. We got some great training from president there and it was nice for all the new trainees to see each other since they're all going through that same phase of being a new missionary. I feel like it's good for them to realize they're not alone, ya know?

On Friday we did Family History with M. The girl is jumping right into it! She just gets the gospel. She was confirmed on Sunday, and also got her temple recommend on Sunday! We are going to the temple with her to do baptisms for her ancestors this Saturday yayyyyy.

Speaking of temples. We went to the temple with Sister C and Sister S on Saturday. They hadn't been for years! It was so fun to be with them and the other Ward members who came. It had been a while since I'd done baptisms or been in water for that matter.... Me, L, and J were so nervous hahah. We were sitting there grasping each other's hands as we waited for our turn lollll.

In other news, we haven't been able to meet with our investigators much :(( everyone's so busy :(( oh well, it happens. We do our best, and the Lord will do the rest!

Also, some Air Force Thunderbirds came to church yesterday in their uniforms!!! They looked so cool! They were treated like celebrities lol. Everyone wanted their picture taken with them, and the women in relief society couldn't stop talking about them hahahah.

Ok I gotta go..... But just know I am very alive, breathing, and doing well!

Pics: Sister Calderwood,  M&M world, Times Square!

Lots of Water & M's Baptism

Helloooooo Everyone!

OK THIS WEEK WAS CRAZY. Crazy fun, that is.

I have about 20 minutes to email you all today. Pday is actually tomorrow, because we have a conference at presidents house today, but tomorrow we will be in Manhattan for my doctors appointments, so idk if I'll ever have time to email! So sorry if I don't respond to anyone.

First off, I got to go to the temple for my 1 year anniversary. Say whaaat. Oh, it was sooo nice. And so fun! I was on an exchange with Sister Peterson for the day, and you all know how I feel about her- she's my soul sista! Manhattan was noisy and crowded as usual, but I sure enjoyed fearlessing on the train and walking down the city streets. I've missed that place. The temple was lovely. I felt so much peace :)))))))) 

K so what else happened... 

Oh, On Saturday around 4 we were at the church printing programs for the baptism which would take place the next day. We went into the relief society room so Sister Hardman could practice playing the hymns for the baptism. Then, I heard water. Lots of water. I said "Sister, do you hear water?" Sister Hardman's jaw dropped and we dashed to the baptismal font. We opened the door to find the baptismal font was less than a centimeter away from OVERFLOWING. hahahahahahah, we were freaking out and laughing so hard. We called the Elders cuz we didn't know how to turn it off. The Spanish Elders came to the rescue. Apparently, the Spanish Elders had a baptism that night... They turned on the water a while earlier, and weren't going to come back to turn it off til 5! Good thing we were there, or the whole church would have been flooded by 5! That was definitely a hit of the week. Silly elders :)

On Friday we had a phenomenal lesson with M! We basically just bore our testimonies to her and talked about her baptism. She was crying and kept hugging us hahahah. It was so cute.

So, M was supposed to get baptized on Sunday.... But SHE DIDNT SHOW UP FOR CHURCH. J went to pick her up, but when she got there M wasn't answering the door or her phone. Once again, we were freaking out. We called her about 20 times, assuming she had overslept. After about 15 minutes, we told J to leave her and make it to church. The sacrament was passed, she still hadn't shown up, texted us, or called us. I knew the baptism was still going to happen... Because the spirit told me, of course... So I wasn't too worried. The first speaker spoke, the second speaker, spoke, and thennnn. We got a call from M! She had, in fact, overslept! We went with J to go pick her up after Sacrament meeting ended. She was so embarrassed that she'd slept in, but so excited for her baptism. The baptism went wonderfully. She was baptized with I, the Elders investigator. They will be confirmed next Sunday :)

One thing I'd like to talk about this week is Zone training meeting! I've been having these my whole mission... But this one was SO GOOD. I have to tell you how one workshop, given by Elder Bennett, went. He stood up saying "okkkkkk I'm going to talk about obedience today, not my favorite thing to talk about." The tone of his voice wasn't very reverent. He asked missionaries to read scriptures for the workshop- "Rowley, will you open up to______" "Pincock, what does that mean?" "Bushman, will you please read______" "STLS, how have you seen the blessings of ______?" He proceeded to make a list on the chalkboard of white handbook rules that don't seem like a big deal. He paused and asked "Elders and Sisters, how do you feel right now? Is the spirit here with us?" I don't know about everyone else, but I definitely did not feel the spirit. The feeling in the room was just off. Elder Bennett restarted, saying with a reverent voice, "Elders and sisters, I'm pleased to be talking with you about obedience today. Blah blah blah. Elder Rowley, will you please open up to_____" Immediately the feeling of the room changed, the spirit was present. It was SO COOL. 

One white handbook rule is that we don't call people by their surnames alone, we don't refer to sister training leaders as STLS, etc. it seems like such a small rule, but his workshop showed that even the smallest things matter. I have gained a testimony on my mission that if you take care of the little things, the big things will fall into place. 

[real quick before I forget, does someone have Spencer Nash's email? I have to ask him if he knows an Elder in my mission]

This week I ate sweet potato pie..... It tastes like pumpkin pie, but it's made out of sweet potatoes. Also, I ate PUPUSAS. I'm telling you, if you haven't tried pupusas, go now! Google the nearest Salvadorian restaurant. It will be worthhhh itttttt.

This week is going to be craaazzzyyyyy. We are going to be out of our area 4 of the 7 days of the week. We have zone conference at presidents house all day today. He's going home :(( On Tuesday we will be in Manhattan for my doctors appointments. Thursday we have a meeting for new missionaries in the city at the office. Then, on Saturday we are going to the temple with Sister Child's to do baptisms & Sister Seniors to do endowments. 

Pray for usssss! 

Kkkk gotta go!

Xoxo

-Sister Layton

Pics:

At the temple

Us with Mi on Friday night

We took a selfie as we waited for the Elders to turn off the water.

The baptism :)