Week 12

Week 12

March 12, 2018

Hey everyone! Last week of my first transfer, and the time has actually gone by really fast! It was a good week though, not as rainy, and a little bit warmer!

March 6th - I fasted for some investigators and other things. We knocked a lot of doors, and tried to contact lots but no luck. In the night, we went to a free English class taught by a member in the ward and we just helped him out! I was super excited for that because it's something that I'm quite skilled at... at least, I think hahah. Anyways, it was good to be able to speak a language and not have people understand me for one of the first times. Even though Portuguese is great.

March 7th - Elder Olivera was in the hospital the day before, but he came back, so in the morning we went to go see him. Right after we got back home, he called us and asked if we could help with a blessing, so we walked back to his house, but it was all chill. I then took Hernandez to a place where I had got my haircut before. The guy who cut my hair "Bruno" was there and he's sick. He moved here from Brazil with his wife because it's safer here. He does not speak English and neither do any of the workers. But while Hernandez got his haircut, I sat on a couch and talked with Bruno for around 20 mins! In Portuguese! It was really awesome and he was wondering a lot about the church, so I will try to teach him soon! I walk by the haircut place like 4 times a day, at least, so we always give a little wave or a head nod when we see each other. I'm also bros with the other workers as well. So that was a dope day.

March 8 - We studied a lot in the morning, then some contacts downtown. We then got on a train to Porto because we were going to stay at some other Elders apartment for the night. We did this because we had a Zone-Conference in Porto the next day, and it would be a lot easier to just go the day before. I talked with Elder Karthiyegan and Elder Perrera for a long time about our countries and lives back home. It was honestly really eye opening and crazy just to learn everything about these places and compare them to Canada. India and Brazil sound amazing, but I feel really blessed and so happy to have lived and grown up in Canada. It's really an amazing Country and I'm proud to call it my home and Country.

March 9th - It was an awesome day. We woke up and went to the Zone-Conference. My zone is most of the North part of Portugual, and all the missionaries within the zone all get together and discuss how to improve and discuss things from the President. In my Zone there are 3 new missionaries, two sister missionaries and me. So I have none of my MTC friends in my zone. But when I got there, one of my good friends from the MTC was there! Elder Hunter! He was there because his companion is an AP. AP stands for Assistente de Presidente. There are two, and one of them was at our meeting. It was so great to see my good friend, and catch up! I hadn't seen any of my MTC friends in 6 weeks! So then we had the meeting and it was great. Following that, I went to a meeting with the President and it went great! He's a great guy. Right after my meeting, I saw one of my other MTC friends, Elder Howard, he was going for a meeting! Then I had to take the metro to get to the train to go home to Braga. When we came to the stop for us to get off at, the most incredible thing happenned.... I saw THE HONEYBADGER! Hahahhah, I saw Elder Patterson! For those of you who don't know, Elder Joel Patterson is also from Calgary, we went to High School together, and even played ball together when I was in Grade 11. He's a year older than me and has been here a while, so it was crazy that he's basically fluent! But it was so awesome too see him, I ran off the train and he ran to me and we had this huge hug! Hahah everyone was looking because we yelled each others names! First time I have been called Parks in a while hahah. Then Elder Hernandez and I went with Elder Karthiyegan and Elder Olivera to get Fransisina which is a custom specialty dish in Portugal.

March 10th - It was just a day of knockin doors, and I went on splits with Elder Karthiyegan, nothing really happened though. Just knockin doors and a split for the afternoon.

March 11th - Church, Bilbo-Lages house for lunch, knocked some doors then went home for a bit. It was transfer night which means at 9:30 pm we would get a call about transfers. Elder Olivera and Elder Karthiyegan are both staying here in Braga as Companions. Sister Chagas is staying, and we're getting another new sister. And I'm staying with Hernandez, I think. This would be his his 6th transfer in the exact same area which is absolutely crazy. There are 8 transfers in a year... There might have just been an error, but I don't think so. He was looking forward to maybe getting a new area for a change. But we both get along great, so if he's staying, it will be a super good transfer!

My crazy story this week isn't really that crazy. When Elder Hernandez and I were walking a girl yelled "blondie" out of the passenger seat in her friend's car and was videoing me, when I gave her a thumbs up she started laughing and kept videoing as her other friends rolled the windows of the back seat down. I gave another thumbs up and they drove off laughing. Classic.

My challenge for this week to all of you is just to tell one person that you're grateful for them. That's it, but when you say it, mean it.

Shoutout to Schmeed, Provo is dope.

Elder out
Mamba out 
A chance encounter - Elder Layton and Elder Patterson

Elder Layton and Elder Hunter at their Zone Conference

 Elder Layton and his District

Rainy Day with Elder Hernandez

 Surprise snapshot by Elder Hernandez of Elder Layton 


Email:
parks.layton@myldsmail.net

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

Portugal 


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