This is it for Elder LaPray from the CCM! Tomorrow morning at about
8:00 I head out for the Mission home!
As absolutely thrilled and excited I am, I am really scared and
nervous! I wonder who my companion will be, what he'll be like, where
we'll be serving, how effective I will be, etc etc! I'm still kind of
nervous about Spanish too! Cool story, I just send Buckwheat (Alexis)
an email, and she responded back and so I sent her another short one..
it's almost like texting... but not nearly as fast or personal. Gosh,
I miss that little Punk. Lex, I hope you know I love you, I miss you,
and I think about you (you too Tom, Em, Spence, Elli, Mom, and Dad),
and I know that you guys think about me every day too (I hope).
We still don't know who the new APs are going to be so it's kind of
hard to know how we are going to be training tonight. Also, they
changed our companionships for like, 17 hours, which I don't
understand, so I'm sort of with Elder Dold (previously unmentioned)
but I'll be with Elder Willardson after 9:00 pm again tonight. Weird.
I don't get it.
I really don't remember a lot of the day to day stuff in the routine
anymore. These last 6 weeks have been a blur! I remember that Provo
felt like an eternity and I remember a lot from everyday, but here,
everything went SO fast and I don't remember lots of little details. I
think that's what happens when you start to lose yourself in the
service of others and the Lord. You lose track of time (because it's
not longer yours), and everything is given to the Lord. Plus, when you
enjoy something, the time passes as if it were nothing! And that's
exactly how these last 6 weeks of been! I have absolutely loved my
time with Elder Willardson! I'm going to miss working with him a lot!
We got along really well, we knew how to read each other in lessons,
and we taught with really great unity and were able to teach to the
needs of our "investigators" (a lot of the time). The great thing is
that we both go to BYU, and I know that somewhere in the next two or
two and a half years our paths will cross again (if not in the
mission, back in Provo). But I have a feeling that somewhere in the
mission field we'll work together SOMEHOW.
Brock, I hope you read this because today, we watched a video, and it
made me think about you and how important you have been to me in my
life. I was nearly brought to tears with the feelings and thoughts I
had (in a good way). I know how important your example has been to me,
and how much you have inadvertently helped me get to where I am now.
You know about all the experiences we shared when we lived together
and how much we learned and grew together. Brock, Te Quiero, Hermano
Mío (Google translate if you need it.) I know that you will absolutely
LOVE President Steimle, the CCM, and the people of Guatemala. They are
all fantastic!
The Gospel is true. Although I am scared out of my mind to go out into
the field and talk to real people, I know that if I just trust in the
Lord and forget about the fact that I'm working towards the end of
something, that I can reach goals that I never thought possible (See
DeathCrawl of Facing Giants). I am grateful for this Gospel and my
Savior Jesus Christ. Although this work is hard, and although I know
I'm scared, when I trust in the Lord, and do my best, I know I've been
prepared.
Love, Elder Andrew LaPray
1 Week in the Field
It´s been ALMOST a week since I entered the mission field, sort of,
and a lot as changed! Technically I left the CCM on Tuesday morning,
but I didn't get my comp until Wednesday morning. Bytheway, I have
officially been out on a mission for over 2 months now. That's longer
than the summer term at BYU was. That's crazy.
First things first... My trainer/companion is Elder Nelson. He is
about 6´6 and he is from Salt Lake City. Elder Nelson has been out for
about 9 months and he's pretty great. The fist day in the field, we
went back to the apartment, I dropped off my suitcases, we did a
little planning, and then we went out to work. We first visited the
familia Beltrand. They've been going to church for over 4 years but
can't get baptized because they're not married and can't get married
because his papers are in El Salvador and it's apparently pretty
expensive to get the papers moved here and he can't get in touch with
his brother to ask for them either. They are a really great family and
as soon as they get married, they'll be baptized. After that I meant
José Soto, Juana and Roselia Medina. José is having problems as far as
progressions go and - spoiler - we dropped him yesterday. My first day
wasn't terribly scray, but it wasn't exactly all smiles either. As far
as Spanish goes I am understanding about 80% of what people say (for
the most part, sometimes more, sometimes less) and I can say most of
the stuff I want to say most of the time, so that is really cool.
Bytheway, Colton and I are in the same district. We work in the same
ward and we see each other at least 3 times a week and have the
opportunity to talk on the phone (for approved phone calls) a couple
times a week as well because his companion his District Leader, the
make phone calls to our apartment every night.
There is a lot of info for the next day. April 28th marked 9 weeks of
being out on a mission. 9 weeks since I left home for the MTC. Time
has gone super fast, and at the same time kind of slow, it's
interesting. But we´ll see how different time moves now that I'm in
the field instead of being in a training center. On Thursday we talked
to a couple Recent Converts (RCs) Alex and Bride (Bree-day), 13 and 16
respectively, and gave them their triple combination and a bible. I
also had to use their bathroom while I was there and that was an
interesting experience. Everyone in Guatemala is under the impression
that toilet paper physically cannot go down the pipe and that if you
flush toilet paper it will ruin the toilet, so they put it in the
garbage can next to the toilet. I'd heard that, but kind of forgot and
hence put the toilet paper in the bowl. Unfortunately, to flush their
toilet you need a bucket of water (I knew this), but there wasn't any
water in the bathroom, so I had to get Bride... he flipped about the
toilet paper and everyone in their house was laughing at me (including
about 6 kids under the age of 6). I didn´t think it was very funnyk,
but they got a hoot out of it.
Later that night we went up into a sketchier area and got
surprised/attacked by some dogs. Also, not funny. We were visiting a
less active member who got offended by the Bishop so she refuses to go
back to church, which is absolutely and terribly sad, but it's nothing
different than what happens in the states. There are a lot of less
actives in our area and I really hope that we can help with some
reactivation.
On Friday we went to a choir practice for an activity for future
missionaries that would be held on Saturday. That lasted from about
8:30 until 11 and then we had a meeting with President Torres, my
companion and I as well as 3 other new missionaries and their trainers
(Elder Llewelyn and his comp, and then two Norte sisters I knew very
well in the CCM) to talk about the new training program that we are
the draft class for. It puts us with our trainer for two transfers (3
months) instead of 6 weeks with two different trainers and it also
adds an hour of companionship study to our first 3 months in the
mission. Hopefully this program is effective, because it makes a big
change in how we do missionary work.
We also found 3 new investigators. 2 boys who are 12 and 13 (Brothers)
and another woman in probably her early 20s named Jessica. We met
Jessica at a less actives house and ended up getting her information
and sharing another message with her. She also attended a baptismal
service the next day, which was super awesome! If only we could have
investigators at baptismal services every week! (that would require a
service every week though...) We stopped by José and he was drunk and
it was impossible to talk reasonably with him and he does this
consistently, hence the reason we have to drop him. While I was
talking to a drunk José, Elder Nelson had two awesome chats with Luis
and Mauro. He extended baptismal committments to both of them, but
they are both without dates. Luis has had baptismal dates before, but
he always does something to stop him from being able to follow
through. Mauro is way cool that and we made a contract for him to pray
3 times a day, and as far as we can tell he is doing it every day! He
is 17 and if it weren´t for his job and studying, we could have him at
church every week and probably baptized within a month. But those are
two bigh problems.
On Saturday we had the activity in the morning which we didn´t get
home from until about 11:15 so we were studying until 3 when we went
to the baptism, which I already mentioned. After the baptism we
stopped by to see José´s brother Mario and we had a pretty good lesson
with him and got him to pray... unfortunately José was drunk again and
kind of detracted from the lesson, but Mario went to church yesterday
and we´re hoping he will start reading the Book of Mormon and praying
daily so he can develop the faith to make the necessary changes in his
life and want to be baptized.
Yesterday at church we had 6 investigators, which is awesome! I bore
my testimony, as well as the other 5 elders in our ward, and it was
really cool. Elder Llewelyn´s Spanish is way awesome and I was really
touched by his testimony. I'm surprised at how much of the spanish I
am understanding. After church we went back to the apartment and did
our studying (because church goes from 9-12ish) and so we didnt have a
lot of time out proselyting because on Sundays we are back in the
apartment by 8. However, we made one really good contact and set up
some appointments for later this week. I'm hoping we have some really
great success this week and can set a couple of baptismal dates
(fechas). The mission field is tough, but I love it! I'm learning a
lot and hope to keep learning more. Although 2 years seems like a
really long time, I know it will be worth it.
Love, Elder LaPray
Pictures!!!
My Bed
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