He is still working his miracles on earth even during a time of MAJOR difficulty

Buon Giorno a Tutti!

So this week was really fun:)! I am going to tell you all about it but before I do, I want to share a small little testimony...................................... I love this church! I know for a fact that our Heavenly Father loves us so much and that he would never leave us in the dark MAI! God is great and only wants us to succeed in life! We have to come to the realization that this life is a TEST though. It isn't supposed to be easy! What would be the purpose of life if it didn't force us to grow and stretch and progress? He gives us so many opportunities EVERY single day to choose to follow him or not. I am so glad that I can be a part of a church that when we commit ourselves to Him, we will succeed and progress and change. I know that there is no such thing as a short cut when it comes to the Lord and I know that he has given us the tools and instructions whether it be from the Bible, Book of Mormon, profeti, apostoli, etc... we can know that he is still working his miracles on this earth even during a time of MAJOR difficulty! I am so grateful for all of you that are reading this blog and these letters because that show me how many people love me. I am so lucky to have the friends and family that I do. You have REALLY given me something to look forward to in this life. Each one of you has taught me something! So I thank my lucky stars and my Padre Celeste for EVERYTHING that you guys are! Thanks you so much! Really. Thank you.

Ok, so this week kind of FLEW by. We did a lot and it was actually really fun because Anziano Calvagna and I were just laughing the entire time because that is ALL we do and it makes for a good time! I totally lucked out partnering up with this guy:)!

So we did our first activity here in Agrigento and we did not have the turn out that we wanted, but it was still good to get the members together to have a little bit of fun togther! This activity was supposed to be for the members to get together with different cultures such as that of American (being me), Bergamasco (being Anziano Calvagna), Africano (being a TON of Africans here in Agrigento who mostly didn't show), and any other cultures that we came acress! It was really fun for me because I learned some balli siciliani and I also made a REALLY good cake;). No, I am not joking! It was REALLY good and EVERYONE here liked it! Anziano Calvagna and I made a certain type of pasta called a pasta al forno and everyone said that it was REALLY GOOD! I should be a chef;)! hahahhahhahaha

*VERY random side note: One of the BIGGEST things that I love about Agrigento is that EVERYONE asks me my first name. I love my name. I love being Anziano Layton also, but good ole Dallin Layton is needed every once in awhile ya know;). No one has heard the name Dallin and they LOVE it. I love it too:)

Another AMAZING thing that happened this week was one of the COOLEST things to happen during my mission! So there is an American woman from Tennessee (who is a member named ______ ___________ who came from America to visit some family with her aunt (who is not a member) who is quite old and who had stumbled across some REALLY OLD letters from a family member here in Sicilia. This made her kind of interested so she looked up some of the names on Family Search (the family history website) and found out the she also had some relatives here in Agrigento so she decided to come with her niece and see this family! 

We get a call on Thursday from ________ saying, "Is this Elder Layton?" "Uh.......................... Ya. Can I ask who I am speak with?" "Ya, my name is Sister ______________, I am a member from Tennessee and I need your help." At this point, I am thinking this is some type of joke that the office elders were pulling on me because I am pretty good friends with them, but I said "Ok. What can I do for you?" "I need your help with my family. I don't speak Italian and I need you to translate between us. Can you do that?" I told her, "Well ya, but You will need to wait until Sunday because Saturday we are EXTREMELY busy." She then says, "Ok. That is perfect, but can we meet tonight because I want to take you out to dinner and talk and meet you and your companion." Good thing we literally had no plans for that evening so we went out with her and her aunt to dinner and talked in AMERICAN English for once with someone other than my comp! It was so AWESOME!

So we get to Sunday morning and she calls us again, "Elder Layton! I am freaking out right now because I need to leave Agrigento tonight instead of meet with the family here in Agrigento because we have family close to Palermo that we NEED to see tonight because they can't meet any other time in the days before we need to go back! Can you please help us with this problem?" Mind you, this is right when we wake up in the morning on Sunday, so I am still rubbing the sleepiness from the eyes and I am trying to register everything that she is saying, "Ya sure. What can I do to help?" "I need you to translate for me after your church gets out." I was thinking that she was going to ask me to do soemthing else, but I told her I totally could do that. The thing that I didn't know is that they had rented out a restaurant and now these two women could not go. So instead they sent us to do it instead!!!!!!!!!!!! It was SO cool guys!!!!! Yes, we ate AMAZINGLY, but the better part is that now we have the opportunity after doing our missionary stuff to teach 4 members of their family. Two of the numbers that we got are families and we have the opportunity to change the life of some people who are ABSOLUTELY awesome:). This was one of the BEST things to happen to me on my mission! I am so happy that we had that opportunity! I loved it so much and I am so glad that I had the right tools to do the right thing and make the correct decisions at the correct time!

I love you guys! I am going to try and send pics. I don't know how, but I am going to try! I have some sweet ones to send!!!!!!!

I love you guys!  Time is moving so quickly!!!

Love,

Dallin