December 4, 2017

Light the World!!

Here is a picture of me on the roof overlooking the city from our apartment 

MOMMA!!!

I'm doing really well! This past week has been pretty normal, actually it wasn't the greatest week, we had all of our lessons cancel on us which is a bummer, but we got some new referrals from a member that sound super promising so I'm really excited about that! Thanks for the prayers, I for sure need them in every department haha. We just really haven't had any luck these past two weeks with finding or lessons, our area is supposed to be more Latino, but when we knock on doors it's just uninterested English speaking people. I'm really hoping that this referral from the member, which is a family, will be the "reward" for all the work we have put in so far. I'll try and be better about writing paper letters, I'll need to send some more soon here for christmas!

So before we went over to Juan's today for breakfast we wen't up on our appartment building's roof and took a quick pic, I hope it works for the Christmas card if not let me know. We took two I hope one of them isn't blurry! 

Haha you're counting the days until facetime not even till Christmas, that's funny. That's fun for Ammon, I've gotta write that boy a birthday email, We might be at Betty's for Christmas day but we might be here in the fam history center, because these computers have camaras and other people might need to go to Betty's, but we'll see. Love you so much, I'll send the pictures in just a second!

--Juan just sent some pics from when he took us to red lobster, first time eating lobster!

Here's a couple pics of Brig, mid-bite, eating lobster, haha

November 27, 2017

Busy, Busy, Busy...

so I think the only photos I have are from the wedding, ignore my weird face, he's tickling me haha

MOMMA!!!

So this past week was crazy and super fast too! We had Thanksgiving and meetings and lots of crazy stuff going on. We had a really great lesson with the 2 investigators of ours who are 11 and 13, they always seem to enjoy when we are there and they committed to coming to church, but they didn't make it:( it's sad but there's only so much we can do to help people make it. We've also been struggling in finding, luckily the church has the Light the World initiative going so hopefully with the holiday season we will be able to reach some of these people. I know people's hearts can be softened as the focus moves from them to Christ and I think Christmas is a pretty good way for people to start thinking about Him.

The wedding for Orlando went really well, he was sad you didn't make it haha. But it's really cool to see how much his life has changed from the first time that I knew him until now. 

Oh and seeing all the pictures of you in St George looks so fun! I miss all of you a ton and wish I could be there but I'm happy I'm here training Elder Call and serving the Lord back in my first area. The shirts fit pretty good thanks! And I grabbed a few more pairs of garments from the distribution center when we were in Oakland last week. 

It's so crazy how everyone is heading out or are already out on missions! Time just keeps flying by me! Before I know it I'll be back and moving on to the next thing which is so crazy, I guess I need to do all I can while I'm here. 2 years really is just a short time compared to the rest. I'm excited for the Christmas face time too! Where will you be? at Grammy and Grandad's? I love you so much, and I'll send a few pics in just a second!

and here's one with Betty

November 20,2017

Thanksgiving Week

Here are some pics from the baptism!

MOMMA!!!

I'm doing pretty good, the baptism went super well! Usually big problems happen haha, but this time almost everything went very smoothly which was nice and she was not dunked forward, just twice haha. 

So last week went we were looking around Nordstrom there was a super expensive suit I probably told you about, so I just had one of the senior couple sisters patch up the old one again and we'll see how long it lasts this time, maybe i just need to go on a diet or something! As for the shirts, yes please send them to Betty's house that would be perfect, and if you can get the shirts with a size 16 collar because mine have been just a little tight for like the whole time, not just because my neck is getting bigger ha.

But it's good to hear about youth conference, the pictures were super cool, glad everything worked like you wanted it to! And I hope you all have fun up in St George for Thanksgiving together thats so cool, tell the fam I say hi! 

And I found out the language learning stuff for portuguese, you just search mtc language books in google, then go to deseret book and there are a bunch there and you just click on one and find the right language haha, and don't worry we are allowed to go on deseret book here. I'm keeping it short because i'll also be talking on Thursday sometime in the afternoon right now I'm gonna go play some basketball! Love you!!!

so the baptism was super early in the morning and we started filling the font at like 7:30 in the morning

November 13, 2017

Time Flies.. When your looking for investigators

And here's a pic of the leadership in our zone after a meeting

MOMMA!!!

I'm doing good, this week has been pretty average, we weren't able to find a new investigator but we were able to see the one we met last week, and we are still working with our investigator who is progressing towards baptism and will be baptized this Saturday!!! 

So I don't know where people go to buy suits, no one ever talks about that really, but yes there is a Nordstrom Rack so maybe I can find another supa cheap one that fits me perfectly. On the new shirts, maybe just 4 of each short and long, and then I can get rid of the nastier ones haha. And ya next time we end up at the mission home I'll just buy some more G's. And if you can't find that language learning book, thats ok, I'll ask Elder Tackett where his mom found it and then let you know. 

So something cool that happened this week was we had something called a mission tour, where one of the 70, Elder Whiting, came and addressed us in Oakland for a long while, it was pretty cool to hear from him and his wife and their experiences of their missions, they both served in Tokyo at the same time but didn't meet each other till after the mission ha. He really stressed the importance of our time we have to study and how that will increase our testimonies and make us better teachers. And he talked a lot about how it's super critical to have the power of the Holy Ghost with us as we teach. 

I haven't written Kyle Mac in a while! He's only got 5 weeks on me in the mission, I saw him in the MTC remember! Maybe that means i've been out for a while too haha, It's so weird because it does and it doesn't feel like it. But I also look back on all of the experiences I've had and so much has gone on and changed, life is so weird haha.

Love you so much! Pictures will come soon!!!

so at the Mission tour I got to see Elder Kaitoku after more than 5 months

November 6, 2017

November!

Brig at church...  this member is always good at sending me pics mid week!! YAY!

MOMMA!!!!

Ya it's pretty crazy how the months keep going by faster and faster! We are doing really well here and we were finally able to find a new investiagator last night which is super exciting because it's been pretty tough out here. I kind of forgot about that haha. So we are still working with those we have on date, we are waiting for one of our investigators to get married first and then we will baptize her for sure and we are still working with the kids, they are doing better than the first visit but still need some time.

The weather here has actually been super good, I am still using those sweaters though because it's starting to get a little cold out. So my blue suit that we got for so cheap has a tear right in the middle seam, it's been sewed up once and patched up and the hole is back, so I think that suits about done. The dark grey one is still doing pretty good but I might need a new one to replace the blue one. I like my ties a lot because I have acquired a lot of new ones, hehe. But ya new ties would be greatly appreciated. So ideas for gifts, maybe some sun glasses, cheap aviators or something, and all of my white shirts are getting pretty nasty, I was wondering if I could get a bunch of new ones and throw out the old ones, same thing with my garments, but I guess I can just buy garments over here. Oh and maybe one more bottle of the hair gel stuff would be good to get me through the rest of my mission. Ya we will be at hna Betty's for Thanksgiving, and another member, Marcelo, he's going to take us to a buffet for lunch that day too so it'll be a crazy day! 

Ya Brinley emailed all of us to let us know she's been called to serve in Romania, thats so cool!!! Ya I don't really email them though. Not much else is new around here, just trying to find new investigators in a place where not a lot of people want to listen haha, but they're out there! Well I love you so much! I'll send pictures in a bit!

I told Brig I need to be better at taking pictures to send him and he said:

Thats ok, we can be bad at taking pics together becasue this is the only pic i took haha

October 31, 2017

Halloween!

Brig is sweet for letting his momma know...

hey mom! So it's temple day for us tomorrow and I will be emailing then in the afternoonish time! its been a good week! I was a little sick yesterday early morning and threw up a few times outta nowhere but i feel fine today, I got a lot of rest last night so its all good! But other than that things are going good :) I'll talk to you tomorrow!

So lots of pictures were being taken and mine was on the video setting so oops...here's a screen shot of it.

MOMMA!!!

So I'm doing good, very full of pizza, just got out of the temple at around 12 which was awesome! Now we are just emailing in the family history center under the visitors center here on the temple grounds. I did see that Greg got his call and that is super cool! I'm so pumped we are all going to be speaking Spanish haha! And good for Dev! I hope he still goes to Guatemala! Thats good to hear that Ammon is enjoying his football season a little bit more than I did haha, but ya he for sure should play lacrosse, like I'm happy I did volleyball but I really did miss playing lacrosse when I did it. So it's Halloween! Ya we have P-day today because its temple day and that goes till 6 pm, and then on every Halloween we are supposed to stay in our appartments from 6 till the rest of the night haha, so basically we have a full P-day! pretty cool that it worked out like this, but I kind of wished we could go out and see the city and night haha. And because we have to stay in at night we are all supposed to deep clean our appartments, lucky for us we have a brand new appartment so there really isn't much for us to clean! Ya I really am not sure where you would find it but I know its out there somewhere, (missionary language guide in Portuguese) I'll email Elder Tackett about it because his mom sent him the Russian stuff when we were together haha.

So right now we have a young couple that is going to get married this Friday, the husband is a member who is from Guatemala, he's 26 maybe, and has been living in the states for 6 years I think, the bride to be has been in the states for a few months and is also from Guatemala and is on date for the 11th of November and is doing super solid. Then we have 2 children of a less active member who are on date, the less active member, Sister Escamilla, has a super solid testimony but right now her children, ages 13 and 11, are just not that interested in being baptized so we are working with them to help them understand for themselves why baptism is something good and something they want in there lives, their date is for the 18 of November. And those are the only people we are working with haha, it's been hard to find here in SF, that's something I kind of forgot about, we plan on working with members more and contacting former investigators and what not because knocking doors just isn't that effective out here in the city. 

So for service, on wednesday we go with Juan Cahua, one of the best members ever, out to feed homeless people. and On thursdays we go to Golden Gate Park and do yard work things and different projects with this guy named Goron who's been working with misisonaries for years now I think! So we've got some fun services! It's great to hear you are all still going to the temple! Love you so much too!! I'll send some pics in just a second!!!

ward FHE's in spanish are kind of different than in english haha, corn eating contest

Sunsets almost as good as AZ

and im still making chicken sandwiches ( i'm almost positive the sandwich was under cooked though)

October 23, 2017

Back in San Fran!

So Elder Call actually got in super late at like 7ish because he missed his first flight!

MOMMA!!!

San Fran is doing well! Ya It's been pretty awesome being back not gonna lie, most of the members (at least the really cool ones) remembered me from last year so it was a lot of happy reunions on Sunday which was super cool! A few of them approached me and ask if they can feed me and wanted to give me refferrals haha! It's kind of weird becasue we haven't exactly done anything yet. Relearning the area is a little harder than I though it would be, and we are working with all new people now since they divided up the areas, so I'm not always entirely sure where I'm going yet haha! But it's really cool because we already (thanks to the other elders) have 3 people on date for november which is super awesome! OH Ya and so my comps name is Elder Call, he is from Houston Texas and we are getting along super great, just like most new missionaries he's super pumped to go out and baptize SF! His mom is from Nicaragua so he's already got Spanish down which is a blessing for me, not because I don't speak it, but because now I don't have to teach it again haha!

Ok so a little bit more about the area, most missions call it a white wash but we call it shotgunning here for some reason, and ya it's still the same thing because we are opening up a new area that just so happens to be my last area, so like I said we are just working with a lot of different people now. But we are still using public transportation which is good because I kind of know how to use that already. Oh and I wanted to ask you if you could send a Missionary Language learning guide for Portuguese to me, I know you can purchase them online but I'm not sure where you would look to find it. but that would be cool to have! I think thats all Love you!! I'll send pics in a sec!

 

So here's me and Orlando! Good guy, offered to feed me!

Here is my dad and my new son

Here are the elders in my dist at the temple for new missionary training stuff

 

and a casual selfie of me being back in SF

October 16, 201

Transfer Week

We got this text from an Amazing family in Concord, CA letting us know that Elder Dayton was being transferred  this week! This awesome family feeds the missionaries every Sunday night!! We love the Merrils!

MOMMA!!

I am doing well! I'm glad that counts as my present haha you know im pretty bad at thinking of gifts. And sorry for never writing a letter, it's hard to remember to buy stamps and then actually write the thing haha, but I will make a better effort to do that this next transfer! (The present I counted was Sis Merril sending me a video of Brigham singing a duet at their home with a sister missionary!!)

So the fires are insanely big, so i'm told, and I have to assume people are telling the truth because we were seeing smoke throughout the whole day for the past 3 or 4 days! I think I woke up on thursday and went outside to head to sports and said to myself, "wow, it's overcast today" but it was not... So the temperatures have been going down here because of the smoke and schools in the area closed for the weekend, (but missionary work didn't close, it's more important than school work:) but today it's starting to look better so that's good. But I've heard similar stories of people thinking the fire was far enough away (10 miles away) for them to sleep through the night and get out in the morning and then people knoking on their door at like 1 in the morning saying the fire is here and they need to leave now! So the destruction of so many homes is super sad, we are all praying the fires get controlled soon. I'm still not sure what the cause was, if you know I'd be curious to find out.

So San Francisco! I will be in pretty much the same area I started in, thank goodness! Except now its just like the whole northern area, which is the actually city!!! Sister Betty will totally be your best friend again because I live super close to her! just one street down from my old apartment so thats pretty neat!! Ya i'm training another missionary! It's the exact same situation as when I was trained by Elder Galaz! I am shotgun training and the district leader haha, it's gonna be a crazy couple of first weeks! So the transfers will be on Tuesday and new missionaries get here Wednesday, so I'll be sticking with my ZL's over there or something until I pick him up.

Thats so cool you got to go to San Diego again and see Rudd get baptized! And yes I'm pretty sure my return date is Aug 8 but i will have to double check on that. Ya i will need to apply for school huh, maybe I'll ask President about that if I see him tomorrow during transfers. So our last week here in Walnut Creek was super great actually! We were able to find 2 new investigators on Saturday and Sunday!! So that was super fun, we had dropped a lot of our investigators a couple weeks ago and Elder Bird was nervous he would have nothing to do with the new missionary coming in but now we're good:) So the sister I sang with is Hermana Lattin, she and I sang that song in Sacrament meeting that day because we are both leaving and ya she's a really good singer, and they are the ones that had the baptism. Ya I have been saying good bye but there are still some more people I will need to talk to tonight but it's been a pretty good time here but I'm ready to move to my next area and find some more people! I'll send some pictures in just a second! Love you!!!

So it's hna Lattin, sis Perry, bro Perry, y yo. They fed us Sunday night

and then here is all of us :)

We went and said bye to the Merril family on Sunday as well, I'm gonna miss them a lot!

October 9, 2017

October Break

so here's a nice picture of me looking real thin. Corn dogs for breakfast all day! 

MOMMA!!!

 

I am doing super well! Ya it was an interesting baptism but great, and yes they are Spanish Sisters. Ya i guess we are pretty blessed that we don't have to scrape out garbage cans to have baptisms like Africa, haha. 

So S. is still struggling, we don't think he has found a job and this past weekend his phone wasn't working at all so we think he wasn't able to pay his phone bill:/ So we hope things look up for him soon, we just need to break into his apartment complex some how so we can talk to him. 

This weekend we were able to find 2 new investigators which is awesome! Both on Sunday night and they were the only people we found this whole week so that was super nice haha. Transfers are next week, we will find out on Saturday what's happening and I'm kind of hoping I get transferred haha, Elder Bird and I are doing good but he does a lot of little things that I find pretty annoying but it's all good. 

Psh 45 isn't even that old! But lucky you got to go birthday shopping haha, Grammy & Grandad are the greatest! Dang Rudd is already 8?! I remember Dax getting baptized not even that long ago! So are those kids in surfing classes or something yet?! Good for Ammon getting some playing time in football! Ya he wrote me a little bit, it says I can't do the chat thing with him though, thats kind of weird.. 

I don't think it's that bad to wish for something to be done... haha but no I am not wishing my mission to be done, too many great experiences to be had still, and I don't want to stop learning! Ya conference was super cool I can't wait for the Ensigns this next month haha, that way I can read them in Spanish for language study haha. Love you so much I'll send some pictures in a second! 

dinner at the Merril's

this was from last weeks zone activity

and here is Elder Bills my Zone leader, he's a cool guy!

October 2, 2017

General Conference

First letter of the Day...

Hey mom I'm doing good, Just got told I only have 10 min left from the Employment center lady because there are other people here (eye roll emoji) so I will be back and hopefully be able to get on, But I'm doing super good, Conference was awesome!! But I wish you the happiest birthday ever!!!!!<3

Two Hours later...

So things are going great, the sisters baptism was awesome! So many people were able to attend it actually was out the door at the very back of the room watching haha, so there was a little technical difficulty though, the plug for the font was in but the water was still exiting through it, there was this thin plastic flap thing that we put over it but when we started filling it moved it a little bit, and so water was still draining. So when the time came for her to be baptized the water level was pretty low so she went forward instead of backwards! Super interesting, never seen it done that way before. And then later that night the sisters put someone else on date which is awesome! And earlier in the week the zone leaders put 2 people on date, which isn't very common in a YSA ward so good for them! S. is doing alright, still no job but he came to the Sunday conference sessions which is good, I think he is becoming super dependant on the missionarys for everything though, rides, information and invitations to things. The branch hasn't really started reaching out and helping him with anything past saying hello and stuff at church, which is a good thing to do but he calls us almost every day and he needs to find friends in the branch because missionarys move and change so idk whats going to happen when i leave:/ 

I was able to watch all of the sessions of Conference and it was super awesome! It's so crazy how much more exciting it is for me as a missionary than it was before the mission. I will try and send a pic or video tomorrow for your Birthday if i can be we don't have a dinner with anyone tomorrow so I'm not sure if I will be able to:( but I will try! If the opportunity arises I'll take it! I love you so much! I'll send picture in just a second!

So we just switched Elder Bird as the designated driver haha

September 25, 2017

Busy Times!

District bowling was a party...and as you might have guessed, those are the only pics I took, hehe

MOMMA!!!

So things are going pretty well for us! Sounds like you guys are out and about having a lot of fun which is super awesome! We got some solid return appointments with some of our investigators who weren't progressings so much so that's exciting! S. (our recent convert) is struggling a little bit, he can't seem to keep a job right now which is too bad so he is struggling with rent and stuff so we are hoping things go better for him this week. 

We got to do this really cool service for the Salvation Army where people come in and sign up for the Christmas program and we helped them sign up, and every one I helped was in Spanish except for one person who was Greek and she did not speak the greatest of English, but it was a super cool experience and I was really glad I could be there to help out, we're going to do that same service again next week so that'll be fun! 

The sisters in our Branch are going to have a baptism this upcoming weekend which is super awesome! I actually got to interview the person, which is a really interesting experience, but I liked it. Hope you enjoy your travels and take lots of pictures for me!!! Love you! Be safe, tell everyone I say hi!!

September 18, 2017

Porque Yo Creo

Elder Dayton and Elder Bird (his son)

MOMMA!!

We had a pretty good week! It has been busy, a little stressful and kind of successful! So Saturday we had a party where all the people in the branch from different countries brought different food from their countries and a ton of people came and there were musical numbers and dances and it was a super good time! And actually one of our investigators, Gladys, came which was super surprising actually, haha So that was super fun, then we had church and that Sunday night we had the testimony meeting for recent converts in Oakland called Porque Yo Creo, which we got to go to, Salomon was going to speak, but I think he got super nervous when he saw just how many people were there. So he didn't end up speaking at it, but it was super great to see everyone that went there. I got to see a ton of SF people again which was great! I saw Betty and Kona who I havent seen in almost a year!! Can you believe that!!!! So that was super cool, I got a picture with Betty and I think she took a video of me, haha but idk where that ended up. The HOCO pics looked good! Ya us boys have never been to chatty with you huh haha, sorry it's been that way, it would probably be better if it wasn't like that. And I think the boys will be fine for a few days, Zach is a great baby sitter! 

The Branch is treating me pretty well here, I like them a lot! So the only thing different we do for exercise is we run the days we don't have sports, which is just 2 days out of the week, so it's not that much different haha, but that first run we did I finally realized just how out of shape I am haha. Not much else new happend, we did get a new investigator by trying people on our potentials list, and the sisters found someone for us which was awesome, they are doing super great right now so they're kind of helping us out haha, they totally carry the district! So just yesterday we had a really great time at this English family's house for dinner, they come to the branch and have callings in the youth programs and stuff like that, but the lesson we shared with them was super great, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and Brother Perry shared experiences from his mission and it was just super awesome to see him, being a convert when he was youngish, to just testify of the change the gospel has made in his life, and I know that even though we aren't perfect the gospel allows us to try and try and just keep trying! So that was awesome and then we went to Porque Yo Creo (Why I believe) and heard some great testimonys from recent converts so that was also a really good experience! I am tired almost all day long and still a little homesick but I am happy and I love being a missionary and having all of these awesome experiences! I love you so much! Picutes will come in just a minute!!

Favorite picture spot!

pic from the party! Thats Colton, he's one of the Merril's kids, he's a pretty funny guy

Sis Betty with the us Elders (Sorry it's blurry)

September 11, 2017

Working Hard

The Members in Oakland/San Fran take the best care of their Missionaries!!
I love getting these mid week pictures!!

MOMMA!!

I'm glad you guys had some good talks and a good week! Elder Bird and I stayed together through transfers and we are doing pretty good! This last week was alright, we were so grateful to find a new investigator Sunday night! We were just walking trying to contact someone and he was on the street just standing there a couple houses back and when we knocked on the door he walked up to us because it was his house too, we were looking for someone else but he told us she was sick and so we talked for him for a little bit and got a return appointment which is awesome! Other than that we have sadly been dropping a few of our investigators because they are just not progressing, so this week we will be dropping more probably and working on finding some new people that are prepared to hear the gospel! Thanks for all of the pictures, tell dad to take some of his hunting trip! I will send some pictures here in a second! Love you so much bye!!

here is our zone!

last weeks zone activity

I have to share the many faces of Brig! Love this boy! And miss all his hilarious face expressions!!

September 4, 2017

Labor Day!

Nothing makes this momma more happy than when sweet members send me pictures!!

MOMMA!!!

So this past week was alright, we got to see a few of our investigators but we feel like not many of them are progressing so we are going to think about dropping them by the end of the week if we aren't seeing much progress so that will be sad but then we will have more time to find those people that have been prepared by our Heavenly Father!. Ya P-day is pretty much the same for us here, we are actually all going to get together as a zone and play ping pong and skrud over at the institute building because classes aren't going on today so that will be fun! 

Yes I was on exchanges with an elder in my district when that picture was taken, it was a super good dinner, steak and potatoes and salad! It was a nice little change hehe. I did get the package and thank you so much! So transfer calls came and the person you saw in the pic from the member is the only one that will be leaving from our district. So ya thats about all the craziness thats gone on here, I want to see some pictures if you have service right now! I love you I'll send some pictures in a bit!

So ya i just took this one picture right now haha, I did a bad job taking pics, but thanks for all the pictures!

August 28, 2017

Another Week...In the life of Elder Dayton 

MOMMA!!!

So my week has also just been a same old, same old week, kind of maybe not so much. It just went by so fast that I think that's what I thought, but now that I think about it it was a pretty good week!! We got back in contact with two investigators this last week and had super great lessons with them!  During one of the lessons the investigator looks at me once I get done explaining something and says ,usted es un maestro, which means either, you are a master, or you are a teacher, which was like super cool because that is Jesus' title in Spanish, so I liked that. We weren't able to find new investigators until this Sunday so that's always a little stressful, but now I can see that as we work hard all week, we will be blessed in the end! New investigators came through contacting potential investigators so that was good! 

Haha I'm sure you will do fantastic with your activity thing! I was just writing to dad that as we prepare we feel so much less stressed! And I have a pretty good testimony of that because I kind of have to lead District Meetings and give trainings, and it just always goes smoother when I prep a few days in advance. It's good to hear about Ammon's team though! That's a really good attitude about being the new guy and I know he'll put in the work to get to play! 

Haha that would be such a cool place to work at!! (Mason applied to Top Golf) I hope he gets the job! 

And from all the people here they say college was a great time for the year they went! (Zach started school at MCC) Whats he studying for again? 

Gladys is doing alright, she felt bad she didn't go to Catholic mass last week so she did yesterday and says she will come to ours this next week, so she's kind of going every other haha, she's a character. And i'm glad you got the pics! that family is super nice and Victor is doing pretty good, he just has a very different way of thinking when it comes to God and things like that. Alma is super great and we saw her a couple times this past week, but she did not make it to church or to English class.

I'm not too mad the package didn't come haha, I am excited for it though! message me whats all going in it unless its a surprise or something! Love you!! I'll send some pics in a second!

so i was pretty bad with pictures this week as well, so i've got some selfies haha

Here is our wall in our bedroom, lots of neat pictures on it

A Sweet Member sent these pics to me from a birthday party that Brig and his comp helped with! LOVE IT!!