MERCADO VACATION!

You all just thought Andrew was serving a mission but according to his title of the letter is vacationing and shopping....and for all things...a PURSE ...for his little sister.

Elder LaPray is doing great and as all of you know  getting Andrew to eat a salad is just short of a miracle.  He misses not only his family but his many friends as well!!!



So this last week has gone by REALLY fast! I feel like I've only been
in the CCM for a week and a half tops, it's been much faster than the
MTC. I don't know why, but everything just seems to move so quickly
when you look back! It feels like just yesterday I was packing up my
bags to head for Guatemala, and it will seem like tomorrow I am
packing my bags to really head to Guatemala! This is a random insert
that doesn't follow in the day by day, but all of the Latinos and the
old North American group left today and yesterday so now the only
people in the CCM are the people that came with us to Guatemala, a
total of 18. There are only 13 new "Nortes" coming tomorrow. (Norte is
short for North Americans), and 8 of the 13 nortes are sisters! That
is crazy! And of the new Latinos coming this group, there are only 3
sisters! So there will be 13 sisters (old and new) "sharing" 3 Latino
sisters as companions. It's pretty unusual. Anyway...

I think it was last P-day, but it might have been a few days later...
Idk, either way, I, Elder LaPray, ate... a salad. It's a miracle I
know! Even worse... I ate another one yesterday. The one yesterday was
only a few pieces of lettuce though. However, the one last week was
ginormous and I ate as much of it as I possibly could (not as much as
I could bare because it was a salad, but as much as my stomach was
physically capable of holding, it's a miracle, I know). Anyway, last
week on Thursday, I was really tired and I fell asleep during class
instruction, sometimes I do that when I already know the Spanish
grammar about which we are talking, and I was passed out for a good
15-20 minutes. My district thought it would be funny to get up, leave
the classroom, and have the other Norte district come in. After they'd
been in there for about a minute I woke up and thought to myself "What
the heck are they doing in here? I don't care, I'm going back to
sleep". I hadn't gotten much sleep the night before. Anyways, anyone
who says that missionary work isn't work, they are wrong! Even life in
the CCM/MTC is demanding and makes you tired when you don't get all of
your sleep!

I don't think I have much of a report from Friday, I'm sorry. But, I
did start reading "Our Search for Happiness" by M. Russell Ballard and
it was absolutely fantastic! I loved that book. It makes the
principles of the gospel so clear! If someone read that book in
addition to listening to the message of the missionaries with an open
heart, I don't know how they couldn't come to know the truth about
this gospel!

General Conference was absolutely fantastic! I hope that everyone
watched and enjoyed it as much as I did! I watched all 10 hours for us
and only fell asleep for a maximum of 10 minutes during Elder De
Hoyos's talk, and that's 10 max, it was more like 5! That is a new
record for me when it comes to conference and I was truly blessed by
listening to it! I think that my favorite talk came from Elder Kent F.
Richards during the Saturday morning session. It was phenomenal! I
highly suggest that you all read it when the conference report comes
out next month. It holds so much information for us that would be a
shame for us to miss, or at least for me it did! I wish I could talk
more about conference, but all of my notes from conference are
downstairs. Just know that I found it absolutely wonderful! The talks
were all spiritually enlightening and uplifting, in different ways and
degrees.

On Sunday night, after I again enjoyed conference, I talked to
President Steimle about whether or not I would have a Latino companion
full time or not. After a lot of
meditation/pondering/wondering/revelation I decided against changing
to having a Latino companion full time. After I talked to President
Steimle, he asked me to go and get my companion Elder Willardson and
so I got Elder Willardson, we went into his office, and were assigned
to be the new APs. It's not really anything special, but I thought I
would mention it. Basically all we do is conduct meetings when
everyone, Nortes and Latinos, are together as well as assign Room
Leaders and turn off lights, ACs, and close doors at night to lock up.
It will be nice to work slightly more with President Steimle as well
as the Latino Zone Leaders. Hopefully it will be an assignment from
which I can learn and grow.

So today is my focus now. It was incredibly "chilero" (cool). We went
on our "cultural visit". This including going to a huge relief map of
the country of Guatemala, the Mercado, and then a Museum and Mall. The
relief map was very interesting. You can see all of the geography of
Guatemala and relate it to how things likely played out in the Book of
Mormon. I have a better understanding of the term "narrow neck of
land" as well as going "up to the land of Nephi" and "down to
Zarahemla". It has NOTHING to do with North and South, but rather
altitude and climates. It was a neat experience. The market was really
cool too! It was like the Idaho Falls flea market on triple steroids!
Mom, the fruit blew anything from Nevis out of the water! Except that
they don't have Gineps. I saw some dragon fruit and cashew fruit as
well, including TONS of other fruits. The mangos looked absolutely
delicious! I got a really cool "mexican hoodie" although they aren't
that. I have 20 seconds, I love you all. Bye
Elder Andrew LaPray