Thanks to all of the family and friends that keep up on the adventures of Andrew. You're support means alot!!
Time keeps on slippin' slippin' slippin', into the future! (Good song!)
Tomorrow I hit 24 weeks, 2 weeks shy of 6 months. Can you believe that almost 6 months have already gone by just like THAT. SO fast and it all just went away... It's really not that much time, but at the same time it feels like a lot. I know it seems like I write about time a lot, but when you're on a mission you end up thinking about time a lot... everything you do is related to time! I'll try not to write about time all of the time.. but I'll definitely talk about time again in 2 weeks when I hit 6 months!
I forgot to say that last Pday we went to the dentist with Elder Proctor and Elder Plata, and while we were waiting for them, we got to watch UP! It was so awesome! And it was super funny! I also bought 12 ties for Q55... which is less than a dollar a tie! It was so dope!
We did a lot of service this week with Elder Proctor and Elder Plata helping different people build their houses and stuff like that. Basically... we moved a ton of dirt so that we could uncover some pipes (PVC tubes for sewage) and then move a pila (their sink thing) so that we could make sure that the water was going through because the pipes had been clogged up with dirt. It took quite a long time. But, it was pretty fun I guess.
On Wednesday we had divisions with Elder Wadsworth (DL) and his companion Elder Yocum. I went up to their area, Llanos, with Elder Yocum, who is in my group (same time in the mission as me). It's a really beautiful area and I liked it a lot. Right off the bat we had a 30ish minute walk to get to one of their areas so that we could talk and we had some good lessons, talked to a guy and played his guitar, had a lesson with a member and his soon to be wife (going to get baptized!!) and had a lesson with a family who is getting ready to be baptized this saturday. It was a great division and I enjoyed my time with Elder Yocum! It's always a refresher to work with someone else and to teach different people in a different way!
I always feel weird going through a play-by-play of my days, like it's probably boring, but I also feel really weird if I'm all preachy or if I just talk about the way I feel all the time and I never want to complain in emails... so I'll just keep doing mini play-by-plays I guess. The other day Alejandro (from Familia Hernandez) told us he had a dream once where he was baptized. He had this dream right after praying to know if he should be baptized. He said that in his dream he saw himself being baptized by Elder Nelson, he saw me baptizing his mom, and he saw some missionary he didn't know baptizing his little brother Carlitos(carlitos is 7, so he hasn't been baptized yet, hence the reason he didn't know the missionary [in my opinion]). I thought it was a really cool answer to a prayer. I know that for a lot of people in the US it sounds weird or a little unusual to receive an answer to a prayer in the form of a dream, but it is actually VERY common in Latin America, and I think, as my zone leader once said, that the Lord communicates with different peoples in different ways, to adapt to their traditions and how He knows they will accept these answers.
On Friday I became an all around fix it again and we helped an inactive family fix their car. Kay, well, I really didn't do anything since I know nothing about cars... I turned the key while Elder Plata did pretty much everything (he was a mechanic before his mission). And then after that we had lunch with a super less active family in their area eating Platanos (plantains), beans, and of course, the small block of cheese. It actually wasn't too bad... but I wouldn't say that I enjoyed it. I did eat it though :)
We did more service on Saturday morning, but I don't want to bore you with that. After the service the member gave us food... they were these taco things... tortillas with repollo(lettuce) and some pork. I definitely don't think the lettuce was washed and pork isn't exaclty the safest meat to eat in Guatemala... but I ate it and I hope I don't die soon :) We had the baptism of Elsa and Alejandro today!(familia Hernandez)! There weren't many people at the baptism... excluding them and missionaries, 4 others. I felt so bad! Right before the ordinance we had 6 more show up though, which I was extremely grateful for! I performed with baptismal ordinance for Hna Elsa and Elder Nelson for Alejandro. The going down part for Hna. Elsa was fine... coming back up was a little harder. Her feet slipped from under her and she couldn't get standing back up. It was awful! Luckily, we are all okay!
This morning Elder Proctor told me a really awesome quote from Brigham Young I want to share with you before peacing out for the week... "Every trial and experience you have passed through is necessary for your salvation". Sometimes our trials are INCREDIBLY difficult and we don't understand WHY it has to happen to us, but, I am reminded of another story from Hugh B. Brown, related by D. Todd Christofferson in the May 2011 Conference... although we may think that we have everything all figured and we our doing perfectly fine... the Lord is our Gardener, and sometimes He cuts us down, because He knows what He wants us to become.
Love, Elder Andrew Anderson LaPray
