Week 9

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 metro station there was a big soccer-futebol game about to happen between Porto and Liverpool. But the station was so loud with people chanting for their teams! To describe it, I'll quote what a couple girls (from England) on the metro with me explained it as "It's so lit".

Feb 15th Rained all day again, and we taught our investigator Joel again, and he still accepts a baptismal date of March 3rd! It was great because he was explaining why he believes, and I even understood it. Funny story for this day was we rang one guys doorbell, who we planned to meet with, he answered through the speaker: "Who is it?"  us: "the missionaries" then he said "(a word that is not so great)" hahah we laughed about that on the way home.

Feb 16th  Went on my first splits! That's where you change your companion with another set of Elders for 24 hours. I was with Elder Olivera and we taught a 22 year old man, Luis, his final lesson and he still excepted his baptismal date of Feb 17th! That was the highlight of the day!

Feb 17th! It was Luis' big day, and I got to baptize him! I was really excited and grateful to have the opportunity to help guide his life in such a positive direction of love and joy. I can't help but tear up for the love I have for him, and the happiness I have, and know God has in him for this decision he made. It was a really really great day that I'll never forget.

Feb 18th Church, then lunch with Bilbo again like every Sunday aha! Then we went and rung 120 doorbells, half of them did not answer and half said no. 2 said maybe another time. But the last thing we did was go and teach a guy named Joao. This was awesome. We rung the doorbell to his appartment and when he let us in the whole building was filled with this DJ music. We walked to his door, which was the source of the music, and knocked... He answered with no shirt on hahah. Joao is a big JACKED black guy, with a tatoo on his one arm like "The Rock" he is a DJ and does Kick'Boxing. We got this appointment because he thinks one of the Sister Missionaries is cute hahah. But he gave us a chance and we taught him a missionary lesson while he was making his dinner. He also have us these good Portuguese drinks and chips.

This week was so awesome and filled with so many great experinces, both for myself, but more importantly than myself, for others. I'm so grateful for my decision to be here and can already see how it is blessing me. I will end the email explaining the living arangements here in Portugal based on what I've seen. Everyone lives in appartment buildings so when we knock doors, we really just ring doorbells and sometimes they have a camera to see us, sometimes they don't. But we ask if we can come in and teach them about The Church. That's how we roll here!

My challenge for this week is to watch the video on youtube "Because of Him" when you are alone and after you're done watching it write down the first thing that comes to mind. I testify it is because of Him I have been so blessed with my life and to know all of you. I'm truly blessed.


Elder Out
Mamba Out   
Parks and Elder Olivera


January 17 - Luis Gois Costa ready for baptism with Elder Layton


Parks and Elder Hernandez on Valentine's Day! 




Elder Karthigeyen and Parks.  
He's from India and speaks English. 
He's the first Elder from India to serve in Portugal 
and the first Elder from India to serve in Europe!









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

WEEK 71 A Must Read Week

Image
WEEK 71 A Must Read Week April 29, 2019 Hey everyone! First of all, I'm still on the mission, I just haven't had the chance to send my weekly email through email as of recent. But if you wanna see my past weeks you can look up my name on  Blogspot.com  and I'm pretty sure you'll find them!  http://elderparkslayton.blogspot.com  Anyways this week is a must read as we had 2 baptisms, the mission president came to our area, and my Grandparents came and visited me here in Portugal... what a week, I'll just start it off right now.  23 de Abril, we had District Counsel in the morning and that was great! Our district is so awesome, freakin love the buds. We found this big spider in the church and Elder Cloes was all over catching and setting it free. But Elder Cloes was also feeling super sick during the day so we honestly didn't do a whole bunch other than our long car rides and getting some stuff to prepared for the Baptisms that we'll be having this ...
Read more

WEEK 102 "Just Hold on We're Goin Home"

Image
WEEK 102 "Just Hold on We're Goin Home" December 2, 2019 Hey everyone!  Well this is it, my last email. So thanks to everyone who has kept up these past 2 years, I really have grown so much.  The best part of the last week was the Baptism we had of Sara, we started working with her at the start of the transfer and it worked out perfect for her to be baptized in the last week! It was miraculous how she was able to leave smoking so easy, as I haven’t seen anyone leave it that fast I know God had a hand in that work. As well Sara's best friend Carina is an amazing recent convert who helped us and especially Sara out a lot. It was a great day and lots of people came to the baptism. I love the ward here in Seixal. I'm so happy I got to spend my last transfer here. I'll add a foto from the baptism below. Sara asked for a group of us to sing so we sung at her baptism while Elder Lehnhof played the violin and an Irmão from the ward played piano.  ...
Read more

Week 21

Image
Week 21 May 14, 2018 Hey everyone! Was an amazing week because it was Mother's Day, and I got to Skype the fam! But also in general it was a pretty good week, the mish is always chill though with a good comp like Elder Baugh. May 8th - Had lunch with the Soares family! That was awesome, they're one of my favourite fams here for sure! Then we went and visited a less active member. He was thrilled to see us, legit! Then we walked and talked with a mother and daughter, they were super interested so we got their number, then passed it on to the Sisters! Then a man Gjerdmun came up and talked to us, in English. He is from Norway, but currently lives in the middle of a forrest on the mountain with his family here in Braga. He had some mormon friends, and we just had a good chat! May 9th - Typical day in the office, grindin hard but no major success. Our effort and presence here in Portugal was hopefully portrayed though aha. May 10th - Crazy day! All our appointments d...
Read more

WEEK 50 - I Met The King of Portugal

Image
WEEK 50 - I Met The King of Portugal December  3, 2018 Hey everyone! Well as of now, I'm booked to return home next December on the 3rd... so that's in exactly one year. I can't express my feelings on that but I'll try a bit later in this message. Anyways, another one in the books as we head into the month of December! We actually had a really sweet week! Well I think at least it was good. This transfer's gonna go by so fast with all of the stuff that's happening! Here's the rundown of my week though!  27 de Nov, We had district counsel in the morning. It went well, kinda hard because basically nobody wanted to talk hahah. Elder Jardine stepped up and helped me out by responding to my questions, so that was great! After that, a man stopped us on the street and said that he was a member and wanted our help to return... he seemed a little crazy and drunk though. We gave him our contact and told him to call us later, never happened though. Durring our c...
Read more

WEEK 97 Hello Seixal

Image
WEEK 97 Hello Seixal October 28, 2019 Hey everyone!  First week of the last transfer down and it was a crazy/weird week. I got my new comp Elder Lehnhof who is from Highland utah. He has the exact same amount of time on the mission as my little brother Blaze! It’s pretty fun for me to think about the face that I have the opportunity/honour to start off someone's mission and that people had prayed for Elder Lehnhof to get a good trainer just like I was praying for my brother to get a good trainer. I'm super motivated to work so hard and just keep grinding until the last day! And that's what I'm going to do! Elder Lenhof is super cool, and super motivated to work so it’s gonna be an unreal transfer.  Our area is called Seixal and it is absolutely unbelievable! We have eaten lunch and dinner with members every single night since we arrived here, which is unheard of, especially since we completely switched the Elders who were here and didn’t know anyone. I ...
Read more

Week 99

Image
Week 99 November 11, 2019 Busy week but here are a few highlights: Elder Lehnhof  and  I found a bunch of people this week. I hurt my back mid-week, so I had to stay inside for two days.  We ate at some members' homes which is always great. The members do a good job of taking care of us.  Tomorrow is my last Zone Conference and that feels crazy.  I’ll be sharing my testimony and saying goodbye to a lot of people.  Things are going great with my companion, Elder Lehnhof.  No problems at all there.  Elder Layton parks.layton@missionary.org Elder Lehnhof
Read more

Week 4

Image
Week 4 January 15, 2018 Hey everyone! It's been a pretty great week once again! And on Tuesday it makes a full month of being gone... or you could say I'm 1/24 of the way done! Anyways, it's been great and I'll tell you about my week! Started Jan 9th! The day started with Elder Webb and I teaching 4 lessons on the Plan of Salvation, in Portuguese... which is still a grind but the language is definitely coming along. Anyways, we teach these lessons called TRC lessons, which is teaching in Portuguese to a member who speaks Portuguese but they're from Utah. The one guy said we taught with the spirit more than anyone he had ever had and we were ready for the field! Although, most of our success is probably because of Elder Webb! And the night of the 9th we had a Devotional and the speaker was Elder Bednar!! That was so good, and he's an amazing speaker. So that was a great day.  The following day was a Wednesday, and every Wednesday, the MTC gets new miss...
Read more

WEEK 78 #WETHECHAMPS

Image
WEEK 78 #WETHECHAMPS June 17, 2019 Hey everyone! So a bunch of stuff has happened recently and I´m sorry that I haven't written recently, but don't worry... I'm still here! But I only have 4 more transfers! First of all, #WETHENORTH. WE DID IT. 2019 NBA Champs, the Toronto Raptors. I have waited for so long and we finally did it. I won't write too much about this here, but you can check out my IG post my brother Blaze made for me, but let's just say... Mission Blessings. It's funny because at 7:00 am (The time we wake up) the day after The Raps won I received a text from my Mission President that said.... "#wethenorth. Toronto wins game 6. Parabéns Canada! Kawhi Leonard MVP." President Fillmore is the absolute best hahah!!!  Also happy Father's Day to my Dad, my grandpas, uncles, and my friends' dads who were like dads growing up! But straight up, I'm so grateful for my Dad and the way he raised me. He raised me to b...
Read more

Video of Elder Layton Speaking Portuguese

January 4, 2018 Parks' language teacher, Brother Machado, sent all of the parents of the Elders in his class this video this week with a text saying: "My name is Brother Machado.  I am your sons' teacher at the MTC.  I recorded them saying the First Vision in Portuguese and thought you would appreciate seeing it.  Thanks for sending them!  They are powerful missionaries!!!" The First Vision is Joseph Smith’s account of seeing Heavenly Father and Jesus.   Translated in English they would be saying what Joseph Smith had written:   “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon me.   It no sooner appeared than I found myself delivered from the enemy which held me bound. When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing ...
Read more

WEEK 53 Just an Overall Solid Week

Image
WEEK 53 Just an Overall Solid Week December 24, 2018 Hey Everyone! Thanks everyone for the Birthday wishes! Really is pretty crazy to think that my teenage years are in the past. I'm actually getting kind of old! so whack. But other than that and officially reaching 1 year out here, the week was great and full of random little surprises! So I'll just start it out now! 18 de Dez, The day started off by a district counsel! Elder Fillmore (he's in our district) gave an awesome training session to us. He compared us as missionaries to Crocadiles. The source of a Crocadile's power is his mouth and he needs to open it to be successful. As missionaries it's the exact same, our power only comes as we open our mouth. But Satan (Steve Irwin) plays an affect. Steve wants to grab the Crocs and tie their mouths shut, but as missionaries we can't let that happen. He gotta keep fighting. Later in the day we had a choir practice but before that we were knocking doors. W...
Read more