Elder Parks Layton - Portugal Lisbon Mission

Week 10 February 26, 2018 Hey everyone! Another typical week for ya boy. The Portuguese lifestyle feels normal now, and I am basically used to not being able to understand anyone! Hahah well actually, I'm really starting to understand people, it's the speaking that is tough. I can tell that I have really improved a lot with my language this week! I understand most of what everyone says, it is just hard to correctly phrase a grammatically correct sentence really quickly to respond. But I'm starting to see how I'll for sure get there at some point, and with God helping me, I know that point will come sooner than later. Even though I can't fully speak, I know I can bring the Spirit! This past week between us, the other elders, and the sisters we now have 9 people marked for baptism and are the talk of the mission haha! Anyways.... Tuesday Feb 20th  Pretty good day. Went on splits with Elder Karthigeyan and we contacted some people downtown, but then...

Week 9 February 19, 2018 Hey everyone! This was a great week for me! I will honestly never forget it. Especially Feb 17th. As I have been here, I really am starting to pick up words a lot better than I used to! Feb 13th (The Perfect Day)  Last week I challenged everyone to be perfect on the 13th, so I did my best as well. I wore my most conservative missionary clothes and made sure that I did everything as best as I could. I'd like to say it went well for me! Feb 14th (Valentines Day) For sure the best Valentine's Day that I have ever had ahah because I got to wake up an hour early and walked 30 minutes to the metro station without an umbrella in the pouring rain!!  Hahah but the day was still great. I went to my first Zone Meeting which was in Porto, so we took the metro there. So I had the meeeting in Porto, it rained all day, but I bought a really good Pizza for 6 Euros aha! My special Valentine's meal. Another cool thing is in the underground met...

Week 8 February 12, 2018 Hey everyone! I figured out the weird typing thing with these keyboards. Anyways, living here is just so crazy to me. I never thought of living in Europe and now I am! Anyways, I'll talk more about the lifestyle at the end of my email. Feb 6th. Started with a group facetime with a bunch of other missionaries throughout Portugal, and it was pretty cool, cause I saw a lot of new people, and some of my MTC friends including my good buddy Elder Taylor. Then we went out contacting and knocking doors. After that, we went for dinner at a members! Their kid was watching Calliou, which in Portugal it's called Ruca, which was funny. The next day we were getting denied a bunch, but then we taught a man named Joel, he's around 22 and has a sick stash. Anyways, we taught him the first and second lesson and he said it answered all his questions he had. We gave him a Book of Mormon and set a baptismal date for March 3rd!! This was also a good day ...

Week 7 February 5, 2018 Hey everyone! First week in the field and it has for sure been a week I won't forget.  First day was Jan 31st (Happy B'day to Chris). So I woke up in the hotel in the morning and me and my companions Elder Taylor and Elder Hunter went to President's house for breakfast. Along with all the other new missionaries as well! Following that we walked to the church where we would meet our new companions, and be trained before we actually became legit missionaries. The training took until around 5:00 and at the very end we found out who our companions were. My companions name is Elder Hernandez. I 100% love the guy! He's from Honduras, played for his national soccer team, speaks fluent Spanish, English, and Portuguese! He looks a lot like David Archuletta and he also looks a lot like Matt Conelley. His Dad is also a member of the 70!  Anyways, then we were then assigned to the Braga Portugal area!  Braga is one of the bigger cities i...