Week 96 Last Transfer

Week 96

October 21, 2019

Hey everyone! We had the Baptism of Carla on Saturday and I'm heading into my last transfer and changing areas and companions! Presidente Fillmore wanted me to train again and I couldn't be happier!!! I will be going to the area of Seixal and train a new missionary! I will also have the privilege of being a district leader one last time, which I am super excited about!

This week was so crazy. One of the craziest of my mish. It started of Monday/Tuesday when we had a division in the Algarve with the Zone Leaders there. I went on a division with one of my great buddies from the MTC, Elder Taylor! So that was an awesome division.  We even did some service cutting down trees and cleaning up a little part of a forest for the big hotel project. But it was great, Elder Taylor is a great example of how to be yourself as a missionary and how to work until the end! It was great. We then started driving back up to Lisbon at about 5:00pm to go back to our area. On the way we stopped by Santo André, which is the absolute best area in the mission and I said bye to some members and recent converts there because I dont know when I will see them again which is pretty sad... but I'll see them again one day! That whole visit was pretty rushed because we got a call from Presidente Fillmore at about 5:30pm that was interesting... there was a problem in an area which is within a 2 hour range from Lisbon so in total we were gonna need to drive about 5 hours to get there and figure things out. We got there after some crazy series of events which happened during that whole day and we ended up helping the elder pack up and go to the mission house. What happens from there I'm not sure! (I had to be vague for privacy reasons but I can fill you in privately hahah). So we got home at about 2AM and Presidente gave us until 9am to sleep which was nice. Because of the incident, we ended up staying in a tripla (group of 3) until the end of the transfer... which actually only lasted 2 days. This whole week was crazy helping Presidente with the transfers, and going all over the place to make stuff happen. On top of it all, we had a baptism set for the Saturday! So a week mixed with a big incident, transfers, a bunch of little errands, lunches and dinners, teaching our investigators, and having a baptism and confirmation, it was a jam-packed week but we were able to have an amazing week and see the Lord completely bless us, Carla, other missionaries, our area, our mission Presidente, and our transfer. Man it was awesome. 

Carla was baptized on Saturday at 9PM hahah! She has been going to church for the last 6 years... or in other words she has been to church more than my companion Elder de Lima hahah!!!! But I've known her for the past 7 1/2 months and talked to her a lot ever since my last area. A couple weeks ago I was on a division with Elder Blake (also from my MTC group) and we had a great convo with her and she decided to be baptized. She was so ready, I feel like nobody had ever really invited her to be baptized before! But I believe the Lord just prepared her for the right time of her life and that now she can fully enjoy all the blessings that come after baptism. She kept telling us she wanted to cry she was so happy! She was nervous before the baptism but after it she was so happy! She kept sending us messages of gratitude and I really could feel how the gospel changes lives, gives happiness, or provides a happiness people don't know they need. So that was just an amazing way to leave Cacém and my comp Elder de Lima! 

The past two Transfers with Elder de Lima have been incredible, another life long Brazilian Friend on my list. I learned so much from him and we never had any type of argument. He truly is a humble man, and for someone who only has been a member of the church for 3 years, his knowledge of the church is incredible! He has a super strong testimony, as he left studying to become a priest in the Catholic church to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! There aren't many missionaries like Elder de Lima! He will also be going home in December and he will finish his Masters in university there! I'm so grateful, once again, for the 12 weeks that we had together and I know that God called us together for a reason! 

I'm really excited to train and finish my last 6 weeks strong and doing my absolute best. Love you guys!

Elder out. 

Mamba out. 

parks.layton@missionary.org

Carla's Baptism Day
Falviani, Eduardo, Pietro, Emanuel, and Samanda



Elder Taylor



Elder Sales



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