WEEK 58 Siãoto André

Week 58 Siāoto André

 January 28, 2019

 Hey everyone! Birthday shoutout to my boy Jacko which was on the 26th, hbd my mans. And to Chris' which comes up on the 31, keep killin it in France. This week was a pretty good week, we had Zone Conference and it was overall a good week. Let's go into the week:

22 de Jan, we had a division with Elders Sales and Santos, it was super great. They were both originally part of the Porto mission as well! I went with Elder Santos. We had to get them from Setubal, so we went there the day before on our PDay. In the morning we went and got them from Setubal and then came back for lunch at Irma Germana's house! She made some great Cod fish! We then went and helped another woman in the branch move some big stones into someone else's car. Following that, we knocked some doors and didn't have too much luck! We then went and taught the first lesson to a family in the branch, Familia Anika, they have a daughter who just turned 8 and they want us to prepare her for baptism. That was a fun lesson. We then went to our investigator, Patricia and Valemir's, house! We had an amazing lesson. They're both Brazilian and so is Santos. Santos is also a convert to the Church, so his story was really awesome and I could tell that they were being touched by the Spirit. It was a really great lesson, one of my most spiritual in my entire mission. Valemir and Patricia are amazing and I know that, in their time, the Lord will touch their hearts, because they truly desire to know the truth. Valemir said it was crazy to him that Patricia likes listening to us because usually she doesn't really want to listen to other religions! They leave to Brazil for 1 month here in about 12 days, so if you could pray for them to recieve a response, that'd be a huge help! And that basically ended our day and our division.

23 de Jan, In the morning we had to wake up pretty early just so that we cold take the other elders back home to Setubal. We visited a solid amount of members in the day. We have a lesson with Irma Gloria and her husband Ireneu. We visted some more less active members and then went off to a city called Vila Nova de Milfontes where we had dinner with Miguel and Marcia. Miguel is our investigator and Marica is a less active. They're doing all they can so that they can move house to live actually close to the church! They'll be able to in the future, they both believe and have real faith, it's just sad that they have no way to get to church right now.

24 de Jan, Zone Conference. It was awesome, we had the mission health expert for all of Europe come in and give us a rundown on healthy livin. Also our Mission President gave some great words of wisdom. Some of which are... "there is power in firm repetition", "You are the keeper of your brother, or be it Companion, and when you live that you will have success on your mission" and "drink more water" hahah stuff like that. We had a presentation on Family History and our President wants us doing a lot more work with it. We also learned a new way to make a contact that he wants us to start using. (Which has been working great.)  I saw a bunch of my friends that I haven't seen in a while, including the Honey Badger, Joel Patterson. That was my last time seeing him here in Portugal as he is going home (to Calgary) here in 2 weeks!! And then we basically had to drive home and that was our day. 

25 de Jan,  In the morning we had to go to the church and use the computer to do a gas reembursment. The whole day was basically passing people that potentially wanted to hear our lessons... but they didn't in the end. But it's alright, we passed by a less active family, Familia Freire, and that was nice. We're helping Duarte Freire prepare himself to get the Aaronic Preisthood right now and the family is returning back to church. After that we went to Valemir and Patricia's house, we basically just talked to them about their questions and about 1Nephi Ch3 which is where they're at together, although Valemir is at Mosiah 13... it's awesome because he is able to remember and retain the stories that he reads so well. He's an eleito. The next time we go, we're going to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ and we're hoping to invite them to be baptized, so once again please pray for them to receive a response.

26 de Jan, HBD Jacko. In the morning we had to do our weekly planning because we didn't have time the day before. We then had to go buy some bread and a cake for a little girl, Estela's birthday party. She's such a cutie. So we went to this birthday party and helped out, there was a bunch of little kids from around 7 to 10. We set up games like musical chairs and stuff and the kids had a good time. It was a great way to contact the kids' parents who came to drop off and pick up. We even found out one of the kid's mom was baptized 8 years ago in Brazil and didn't know that the church was here! So we found somebody we have to help out! It was awesome, and Estela's fam, Familia Picanço is so awesome. Some of my favourite people that I've met on my mission for sure! So the party was a great way to make some effective contacts because the people couldn't really turn us down and they were all friendly to us. As well as showing the kids at a young age the missionaries. So hopefully one day when they are contacted, they'll remember us and be interested in the gospel! It was a testimony builder that God puts people in our path as missionaries. That was a great time, and I got to wash a healthy amount of dishes. 

27 de Jan, Church! Church was great, we had 7 less actives come to church and 1 investigator, sadly Valemir and Patricia couldn't make it though. Church was good and Irma Germana gave a talk. After church, we had a Branch leadership discussion which was good to set some things in order. We then worked with the Branch President for a bit on some member map work. And after that, it was basically just knocking doors. We went to this little neighbourhood which consists of basically only Cape Verdians... which is unreal. We have about 5 people we're going to return to this week!! Good day!

Cool story, We're getting smartphones in our mission! Every missionary will get one, and we get them durring our next Zone Conference, which happens early in March, I'm pretty sure! It's really going to help the work out so much here. Everyone uses the messaging app called "Whatsapp" and finding adresses will be unreal. I'm super excited!

Scripture of the week, Moroni Ch7 V12

12 Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.

It's a great scripture that President Fillmore shared with me! Literally every good thing comes from God, that includes any idea that would be good, help others, or help yourself in a righteous way. And anything sneaky, mean, or cheaty comes from other inspiration which isn't from God. It really made me want to listen to the small good ideas that come to my mind more, and I've been trying to listen more to these good ideas. 

My challenge for this week, Read the chapter of Moroni Ch7. I only shared one verse but the whole chapter is actually really awesome. Lots to learn from it. 

Well that was my week! I hope you're all doin great! Thanks for the emails!

Elder out.

Mamba out.

parks.layton@myldsmail.net



Uma Festa

Workin with members


The Ex-Elder Dias!!! Got to see him again


Uma Rua (Street)

The Honey Badger

Sister Ngalu

Elder Jardine

Elder Terra




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 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 100 "0-100 Real Quick"

Image
WEEK 100 "0-100 Real Quick" November 18, 2019 Hey everyone! Well I have officially made it into the triple digit column on weeks that I have been on my mission, and also for the first time in these past 100 weeks, or 700 days if you want, I got sick. I have never known what it would be like to be sick as a missionary, and I was super grateful for that... so this week was a new experience.  On theTuesday we had a Zone Conference, which was great. I love Presidente Fillmore, he always says the things that I need to hear and I've grown so close to him over the span of my mission. When you respect someone so much, everything they say is more inspiring, and you care to listen even more. I feel I have learned some amazing personality traits from him that I wish to continue developing. It was also my last Zone Conference which was pretty weird. I had the opportunity to bear my testimony along with 4 other Elders from my MTC district who are going home at the same time...
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 41 "Solid Week"

Image
WEEK 41 "Solid Week" October 1, 2018 Hey everyone! One more week until the next transfer! The time has been flyin! But life here is good, we've been doin our best and workin hard! This week I had an interview with President and it was so awesome, he's so chill! But yeah I'll start with the week!  25 de Set, we had a district counsel in the mornin and it went smoothly! But I was feeling sick the whole day, so I took some time to rest in the afternoon. Then we went back to work, I still felt sick but ya know, gotta work hard!  26 de Set, we went and visited Filipe in the morning. Ever since his baptism and meeting us he's been able to have so much more strength. He is epaleptic, and he has told us how much better he's been feeling as of lately! Then we went and worked, actually went up a little mountain and knocked doors on the side of the little mountain. Didn' work out too well, but it was worth a try! Then in the night we bumped int...
Read more

Week 37 "I won bowling by a landslide"

Image
Week 37 "I won bowling by a landslide" September 3, 2018 Hey everyone!! First of all we went bowling today with 2 elders, and 2 sisters and I won in bowling proving that Canada is the best. But anyways the week was unreal, Filipe was baptized and Elder Moreira is a freakin beauty. We only talk Portuguese but it's so fun. I'm helpin him with his English as well. He has sauce, not juice... (Only some of you will get that)  but yeah, this is gonna be a great transfer! It's weird being a District Leader, because now there's even more work I need to do now. But I'm really liking it because I can start to help other missionaries on a more personal level, and service and help is what life is all about!! Let's go into the week! 28 de Agosto, Said bye to my homie Elder Terra, we had a great 6 weeks! The new way for transfers is everyone goes to this one train station and waits for their new comp! In the process I saw one of my best homies out here Elder...
Read more

WEEK 67 RAFA

Image
WEEK 67 RAFA April 1, 2019 Hey Everyone!  the bigger version of this email will come later today, or next week! I'm pretty tired and don't know when I'll have time to fully write out a solid email!! So I'll just tell you about the baptism we had!! On Sunday after church we had a baptism!! Rafa got baptized and the day was just super great! She accepted everything so willingly and really showed she believes in what we're saying. The first time we taught her she started crying, the Spirit was so strong there. We continued teaching, and once we invited her to be baptized, she ran to the other room, screamed in a pillow, and then came back and responded, "Yes please". Seeing her faith, even at a considerably young age, was a great testimony builder. She was so happy the whole day! It was also Elder Cloes' first baptism! He was super excited and he didn't mess up at all when he said what he needed to say in Portuguese. I've really tried to f...
Read more

Week 23 - Um Outro Batismo em Braga

Image
Week 23  May 28, 2018 Hey everyone, another one down for your boy. Was an awesome week, I have learned to really excpect the weirdest things here... Especially here in Braga! But its the best here! This week was awesome, Rosa Maria was baptized. She is the mom of one of my great friends here, Sol Amor. But yeah, the mission life by now is feeling like my normal lifestyle now! May 22 - We had a facetime in the morning with a bunch of missionaries, and the mission president! Then we went out and worked. In one of the more sketchy areas. I saw lots of strange things, as well as a road full of police! Pretty interesting night! May 23 - In the morning Elder Baugh and I went and put up a little banner thing in downtown and just contacted people walking around explaining more about our church, and setting things up for later. Made a killer seafood salad for lunch. Then we went to church and Elder Baugh gave Rosa Maria the baptism interview! Following that we got a call from Se...
Read more