February 28, 2011

Dear friends,

So this week has truly been an incredible one. To start off, we have been told who our next mission president will be; Devin George Durrant. I haven't heard much about him, other than he was an incredible basketball player for BYU a while ago. He will be replacing President Smith this summer. I am definitely very sad that President Smith is leaving. He is an amazing and a truly inspired man. I have felt his love since I stepped off the plane at DFW, and I will miss being in his presence. At the same time, I have high hopes for President Durrant, and look forward to his arrival. It's definitely a bittersweet moment.

The zone leaders gave us a challenge this week, to try and contact as many people as possible, and just to help motivate us, they gave us the "water bottle challenge" to see who can, on the doorsteps of a contact get the most water bottles. We have realized that a lot of Texans would almost give us the shirt off their backs, but wouldn't dare talk religion. Ha-ha, there have been many times when they are in the process of slamming the door and quickly we ask for a bottle of water and the entire contact does a 180, and we can at least talk to them for a second and give them a card. Ha-ha. So this contest started last Tuesday at district meeting and ends tomorrow. In that time, we have managed to obtain 78 water bottles. I have never had to go to the bathroom so much in my whole life. And just ask anyone in my family. That's saying something! Ha-ha. If we win the contest, we get a "zone blitz" in our area, where for 2 hours every companionship in the zone comes and knocks doors in our area! That would be an amazing help for the work in this area!
So it at least seems to me that when I got here the work started a little slow. It's been a little difficult for us to keep busy all the time. But this last week, both elder duke and I feel like our hard work has started to pay off. We are getting more investigators, which means more people progressing, which make it a whole lot easier to be busy all the time! The time here in the field keeps getting better and better. It is still sometimes to the point where I have a hard time waking up in the morning and getting myself going, but once we get out the door, we don't want to go back. The people here are wonderful and I just love them to death!

Spiritual experience of the week:

Elder Duke and I were going into an appointment with a guy named Jeremy that we met while we were tracting a week or two ago, and we were just about positive the whole lesson was going to be a debate filled with anti-Mormon attacks and literature. We got in and that seemed like the direction it was going. But it changed quickly. As we were teaching the lesson, he seemed to stop asking questions that were almost attacking the church and started asking good, in depth questions about things that he read in the bible that he had never found an answer for. For instance, he discussed the story about Lazarus after having risen from the dead, a man talked with him about preaching to those that had already died. We then shared with him scriptures in 1 Peter 3&4 and talked to him about how those that have not received the gospel have another chance to hear it and accept it. I can tell you right now, Elder Duke was very inspired and in tune with the spirit and answered every one of Jeremy's concerns quickly, simply and used just all the right words. Jeremy then showed us a page of anti Mormon literature he had printed off the website called "what Mormons won't tell you" and asked us what we thought of it. We told him it was total garbage and he accepted that that's what it was and left it at that. We got a return appointment for Tuesday the 8th and he told us he will read the book of Mormon and we can talk about it when we come back. We realize he will most likely be a tough investigator, but we are hoping and praying for him that he will feel the spirit tell him the truthfulness of these things. (And on top of all that, they gave us a few water bottles! ha-ha

Anyways, thank you all for your prayers, your love and support. Have a blessed week

Love, Elder Layton