WEEK 100 "0-100 Real Quick"

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 as me. It was a great experience. 

Sadly we were both really sick during the week so not much really happened.. although we still managed to visit and teach some people which was great. I'm feeling a bit better right now but not 100%. 

We were able to have a great meeting with our friend Sara, and she decided to be baptized on November 30th! So that will be great and we will keep working with her and keeping up with her so that she can progress and learn more before her baptism. She's the friend of a recent convert, and she is super cool!  She is super excited about her baptism. 

Saturday was an amazing day. I got to return to the blessed area of Santo André. Miguel, a great friend of mine who I taught for 4 1/2 months got married and baptized. On the 14th he got married by law, and on the 16th we had his baptism and wedding party. I felt honoured as he chose me to Baptize him, and then being at his wedding was incredible. His wife Marcia is already a member of the church soo she was so happy. It was an emotional day, as it was a moment that had been in the making for a LONG time, and I'm so glad that I got to take part of it. Man I love them so much and it was truly a moment to remember. I also gave them one of my Missionary Name Tags as a wedding gift and they told me it was a priceless gift! I will for sure have to see them again. those are the type of moments that make the work and serving a mission totally worth it.

Today we passed our PDay in downtown Lisbon, and it was great! I'll add some pics below!

See you guys in 2 weeks! So crazy that it's so close.

Elder out.

Mamba out.

parks.layton@missionary.org

Miguel and me in the font



Pday Squad




Workin' With a Future Missionary (William)

Views 





Workin with the GOAT. Elder Lehnhof


 Last Zone Conference









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