Week 7

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 in Portugal, but it's in the north so it's been SO COLD. But summer is on the come up, so it's all chill. Anyways, this same day we bought food, then at night contacted. The first person we contacted said we could come teach her! We kept walking up the path and Elder Hernandez said, "It's your turn to say hi and contact first."  So I contacted a boy sitting on a bench, named Eliseu. We ended up walking with him to the church, and then teaching the first lesson to him! Pretty crazy day!

Feb 1st! We started with a meeting with the other missionaries serving in Braga (for a District Meeting) for 2.5 hours... all in Portuguese so I could barely understand. We then went dowtown and talked to people, managing to set up a lesson with someone. While we were downtown, there was a group of young girls who I caught taking pictures of me hahahah. The night came and we had dinner at a members house, and it was tough cause the Portuguese eat with a fork in the left hand aha.

Friday. Not all that eventful, but we went and moved furniture into this families apartment! There was this huge fridge that I don't even know how we got it to fit! In that night I was able to contact a man, and then a different man and his girlfriend and set up appointments! That was the day!

Feb 3rd. We went out in the morn and got a couple of appointments, hopefully those workout next week! After that, I went on splits with Elder Olievera from Cape Verde, and we taught a lesson in the church to a boy named Luis! Awesome guy, who has 10 sisters and seems really interested in the church! We then walked to the mall with Luis and then something crazy happened but I'll explain it at the end of my letter. Anyways, I got back with my companion and we did some contacting to close the night. I felt a prompting to talk to one guy and it turned out that he only spoke english and his friends were on track for baptism! Crazy. That basically closed the day.

Feb 4th, Sunday. When we got to church there were already some investigators there who we had passed some church cards out to earlier this week! That was great to see. It was also fast Sunday, and as I was sitting there I felt a prompting so strongly to bare my testimony. So I went up and bore it in Portuguese. It was short but I was happy! And people after (in Portuguese) told me they liked it a lot. After church we had lunch with an older member couple and the man looked the exact same as old Bilbo Baggins, it was crazy. After lunch we met up and taught a lesson to a new investigator, Paulino. He's from Angola Africa. To close our day, we had dinner at a member boy's house. Both his parents are about to set a baptism date.

At that house the mom and boys (Dad was at work) told me that I was their family and they were glad I came to serve. I cannot express in word the feelings I felt. I thought I loved the people here, but now I know I do. It's been so interesting here. Because I honestly don't fully understand the language so I'm usually just standing there thinking of what to say but things are moving so fast. I can really see how much I'm learning though. It's crazy, and I know through the Lord I will eventualy learn all I need to. It's also crazy because I'm always basically the tallest person wherever I go! It's true. Most of the time I'm taller by a lot so people look at me. But so far I've also seen 0 other blonde people, and blue eyes is super rare. I always see kids, girls, and old people staring at me. I've caught people multiple times taking pictures of me which is funny. Girls have came up to me saying I don't even really know what because I'm not fluent in Portuguese haha, but they usually just wink at me. At the mall the worker started pulling up her skirt and I ran ahahah. (Thats the mall story.) It's crazy different here, and it's tough not knowing the language, but I know I'll get there. People always tell me I know so much for only 7 weeks!

This week I challenge you to join my fitness challenge. I'm starting at 10 pushups and 20 situps every day for this week. And every week you go up 1x pushup a day, and 2x situps a day. By the time I'm done my mish, that'll be a lot of pushups and situps a day!

Love you all and I'm grateful for all the support.
Elder out
Mamba out


Elder Layton in Portugal


Parks in Braga Portugal


Elder Layton with his new companion, Elder Hernandez.



View from a castle in Braga.




 parks.layton@myldsmail.net

Elder Parks Stewart Layton
Portugal Porto Mission
Rua de Amália de Luazes, No 23, Sala 1
4200-052 Porto

Portugal 

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