Thank you from Brian and Janet for all of you sharing in our missionary adventures. We love and appreciate your support.
Today marks the end of something like four weeks in the MTC! It{s
absolutely crazy! Since I didn't get to finish all of my last week,
I'll start off somewhere around Tuesday and hope nothing overlaps. On
Tuesday night we had a devotional from Elder Falabella, a member of
the 1st Quorom of the 70 in Spanish and I understood almost all of it!
I was super proud of myself! Life has changed so much in just two
short weeks in Guatemala! But, change is only progression, which is a
comforting thought! So, during personal study a couple days last week
I was studying the first few chapters of Mosiah and comparing King
Benjamin to Christ. They had a lot in common! The scriptures become so
much more... intriguing when you have something specific you are doing
or looking for, and you can ALWAYS compare the prophets to Christ, or
a lot of the missionaries, in some aspect or another and learn
something incredible. Last week, on Tuesday, we also had a teaching
experience similar to what the TRC is in Provo. Here it's called CRE.
We were teaching this "80" year old man named Daniel and he doesn{t
agree with our version of prayer, he only repeats the Lord's Prayer as
found in Matthew. However, we were able to teach him, really guide
him, to an understanding of how to pray, and why, through the power of
the Holy Ghost. It was really powerful! P-day a week ago we went to
the temple. The temple in Guatemala is literally right next to the
CCM, I don't know if I mentioned that yet or not? I can see it out of
my Window. I wrote this in a letter to a friend last week, but it's
kind of nice going to bed knowing that you have an angel watching over
you (Angel Moroni looks more or less in the general direction of my
bedroom window, and I sleep closest to the window). Anyways, the
temple here is really small, but the rooms are very beautiful! The
room we spent the majority of our time in was very small, but very
pretty. I wish I could really describe it and show you a picture, but
it's nothing like any temple I've been in up until this point, but not
my favorite. Luckily, the session was in English, so that was a
relief! Although I could hopefully understand about 50% of it if it
were in Spanish... Ojalá(hopefully).
Oh, last week, my latino companion, Elder Hernandez, was really
upset on Wednesday night. His parents are divorced and he doesn't have
a relationship with his mom, but when he got into the CCM, he wrote
her an e-mail. Unfortunately, she hasn't written him back yet and it
was really hard on him, especially because he is doing everything he
can to have a relationship with her. Anyway, because he was so upset,
I offered to give him a blessing, so Elder Willardson and I went and
gave him a blessing, but in English, because I can't do it in Spanish
yet. Elder Hernandez doesn't speak English, and I can't do it in
Spanish, but the Holy Ghost speaks both fluently, and I know that
Elder Hernandez felt the comforting power of the Holy Ghost, and I was
able to, more or less, explain what I said in the blessing to him. I
love Elder Hernandez so much! I think I might have mentioned this
last week, but after this week, I may be moving out of my district to
be with a Latino companion 24/7, rather than just during sports,
meals, etc. I am really nervous about it! My Spanish is satisfactory
to mostly get along, but it's really hard to change companionships and
districts so much, and I feel like I could maybe be more help if I
stayed in my current district, but I don't know. Fortunately, the Lord
does and whatever happens will be for the most benefit.
On Saturday night, while we were teaching one of the teachers,
well, another companionship was, we were all sharing spiritual
thoughts and experiences and one of the sisters in our district shared
a poem titled "The Fellowship of the Unashamed". It is absolutely
phenomanal and I suggest that you all search it and read it! There is
also a talk titled "Jesus: The Perfect Leader" by Spencer W. Kimball
that is also fantastic and everyone should read that as well. I am
trying to implement the teachings from this talk into my leadership as
a Zone Leader (which really isn't that much in the CCM). GAH! I'm
running out of time!
Before my time runs out, I really want to talk about what
happened on Monday! We got to go out proselyting! Ok, Awesome, I
figured out how to get new paragraphs and I have two minutes to write
about the proselyting. It was absolutely incredible! I went out with
my Latino companion, Elder Hernandez, and we went walking around the
area to talk to people about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We
were out for about an hour and a half and talked to 5 people, but
placed 1 B.o.M. What if that Book of Mormon, to Enrique, becomes the
first book of Mormon that Enrique, a future member, ever received. We
went out again in the afternoon and only made 2 contacts, but they
were really good contacts and we placed a Book of Mormon with each of
them! I sincerely hope they read it and find out for the themselves
that the Libro de Mormon is true, because I KNOW it is true. Love,
Elder LaPray
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