May 20, 2012

Howdy,

This week has flown by.  With zone conferences, we were busy all week!  We had zone conference on Wednesday for all the missionaries in the metroplex, and on Friday for all the missionaries in the northern part of the metro area. Tuesday and Thursday we were preparing for the upcoming zone conferences. 
We did see a huge miracle in our area on Tuesday though!  We went out Tuesday night dropping by the members on the ward list that we did not recognize. One of the names on that list was the Lu family.  We found out that they moved, but Stephanie Cluse lives there now.  When we were talking to her, we just simply asked her if we could share a message with her.  She accepted and we taught her the first lesson on her doorstep.  She admitted that she had not been to church in a little while and that she wants to get back into church.  She is curious about the Mormons and is excited to come to a church service (hopefully next Sunday!).  Someone told me a while ago that the Lord puts prepared people in old investigators' homes.  I have found that to be true, and with this evidence, I think it is safe to say that the Lord also puts prepared people in less active members' old homes. 

Thursday we were able to have a lesson with Jennifer Ramirez. She is an investigator for the young single adult ward here. It was a great lesson.  We held it at the steps of the Dallas temple.  There is a special spirit at the house of the Lord that cannot be imitated.  It was a wonderful environment for the lesson, and she accepted a baptismal date!  She is a little bit afraid of telling her parents about her decision, but she will be returning to the temple to think and pray as to how she should approach her parents about it. 

Today we had the blessing of seeing a new stake get organized.  The Heath Texas stake.  Rockwall and Heath were the first wards I served in, and now it is the center of an entirely new stake!  The church really is growing and expanding.  Elder Paul E. Koelicker was the presiding authority and he shared a lot about the organizational aspects of what goes into creating a new stake.  It is amazing the planning, prayer, and revelation that goes into such a huge event!  Now, the formation of the new stake has kind of left us with the task to move around some of the mission organization.  It will be interesting to see what President Durrant does and how he rearranges things.  I don't suppose any of the changes will be put into effect for another 4 weeks though, so there will be plenty of time to think and pray about what will happen.

The work continues to progress in the Texas Dallas mission (aka ZION).  I am grateful to be a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ and to be called and qualified for his work.

I hope y’all have a great week!

Love, 
Elder Riley Layton

Mom,

Sorry I didn't email yesterday. Elder Monkres, a missionary serving in Irving got sick and was at the hospital for a few days. It is really frustrating that nobody knows what is wrong with him. He has a lot of blood in his stool, and is in pain frequently. They ran quite a few tests, and just can't figure out what is wrong.  So Elder Seager, being a former companion of Elder Monkres went there and would spend the night with him and Elder Hein (a brand new missionary) would come out and work with me. So that is my explanation as to why I didn't get to email. There was a brief window of time where we could have emailed, and we tried, but the website was down. This whole week for me has been full of zone conferences.  We had two of them, and in-between the conferences we just prepared for the next one.  It is amazing how much preparation goes into every meeting.

I am so sorry that you weren't feeling well. I kind of felt bad throughout the call because it was mothers' day and I didn't even get to talk to you very much. I didn't even wish you a happy mothers' day, so I am sorry. HAPPY MOTHERS DAY! In the future be sure to wash your lettuce better.

I hope you have a great week this week!
Love,
Elder Riley Layton