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Sunday, September 4, 2011

September 3, 2011

Friends and Family who follow Andrew's blog: As Andrew's mom I have neglected posting Andrew's emails and I know that if any of you write and tell him I may be in real trouble.  I read his emails at work and then forget.  So I have posted the last month of emails today - enjoy.  Thanks for your support!!  

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I'm in the office! That was what my interview was all about. So as an office elder I have Pday on Saturday, so you all will have to write me BEFORE Friday night, please!! I logged on today and had a grand total of 5 emails... all of them from old conversations last Monday. SO.... I'm kind ofbored right now. I don't have any emails to read or anything. But that's ok!
 
Nothing happened on Monday night, sorry to disappoint. Tuesday was my very last day in La Leyenda 3! I was really sad to have to leave! I spent the whole morning packing. I was more effective than I expected, but still not amazing. I was in La Leyenda for longer than I was at BYU last fall, and it seems like it went by 3 times faster! Really, a blink of an eye. If the rest of my changes are like that, I'll be home next week! After we ate lunch we went to visit everyone so that I could say goodbye. We tried to visit familia Beltran, and I was very disappointed when we arrived and they weren't home. They live in a dangerous area so we couldnt go back later. I really hope that everything pulls through for them and they can achieve an eternal marriage. We also went to visit fam. Ortiz and I am grateful to have known them. They are wonderful old Nicaraguan women whom I love! I also tried to go see Jessica, but she wasn't home. I was bummed, but I am super grateful to have been able to be a part of her journey in the gospel and I know that she will be a wonderful member! I also was able to say goodbye to fam. Hernandez (Elsa, Alejandro, Boris, and Carlitos). I was also able to say goodbye to a member family who has helped us SO much with Maynor. They have become really great friends with Maynor and Paty and I know it has helped Maynor in his progression in the Gospel! Saying goodbye to Maynor and Paty was also kind of hard. I love them so much and I am sad that I won't be able to see Maynor be baptized, but I hope to see them get sealed in the temple a little over a year from now! That would be absolutely incredible!!
 
 Wednesday was a crazy day! I woke up super early to leave for the change conference, and we didn't even leave until 7, which sucked because I had myinterview, but it all worked out. Obviously, I found out my change - Finance Elder. My companion is Elder Spilker and he is from St. George! He's been on his mission for ALMOST a year and he's been in the office for 2 changes (this is his 3rd). The first day in the office was good. I learned how to do some stuff and I think I'll like it a lot. (BTW, my cousin Colton is companions with Elder Plata, who I had been living with for the last 4 months, so it was pretty hilarious!) Our area is absolutely HUGE. It is ALL of zone 2 of Guatemala city. I was so lost walking around with Elder Spilker (Spilk). But we met a guy named Fito who has great potential to progress. He has a crazy life story. He is a martial arts expert (10 different arts!)and he also plays the accordion and the organ and has traveled ALL over the world. Good day.
 
 Our house is pretty awesome. We live in what is called "Martí Manor". It is the 2 APs, Elder Spilker and I, and the 2 other office elders living together. It is WAY better than my house back in La Leyenda (obviously) and we live in a really nice area. I'll send pictures next week maybe. It's legit.
 
Thursday was day 2 in the office! I woke up at 5:30, which is going to be a regular thingfor probably the next4-6 months while I'm in the office so that I can study and exercise before we leave for the office. It's rough getting up that early, but adding that extra hour to my awake time makes so much difference and you feel like you accomplish a lot! We had weekly planning and district meeting through the morning, so we didn't get to the office until about 1 or 1:30.  Proselyting time was pretty good, we had a third elder with us. We did a lot of walking again, but we went to visit an old contact and taught him for the first time. It was a really good lesson and he has potential to progress, except he works on Sundays. His name is Julian. We also had our weekly activity called "Noche Mormona" or "Mormon Night" where people come to the church and we give a spiritual message and then play a game. This week we acted out 1 Nephi 3-4. Hooray.
 
Friday was SUPER busy! After study and what not, Spilk and I left the house at about 8 am to go talk to the landlor of some of the sister missionaries about a problem that turned out to not be a problem at all. It was weird. Then we went to the office, made some checks, organized somechecks, talked to President about a project we are working on (Top Secret, sorry), and then we went back on to run more errands! We had to go pay rent bills at different banks and pay some other bills in different places and then go talk to ANOTHER landlord for some different sisters. There was a problem there though. I felt more like a lawyer than a missionary talking to people about legal contracts and negotiating business deals. This morning I was talking to one of the APs, Elder Williams, and we talked about how bizzare we feel sometimes as 19-21 year old kids bossing people around who are in their 30s, 40s, or even 60s or 70s. It feels strange to be the one telling other people what terms of contracts are going to be and dealing with finances and what not and all of it just seems bizzare for some 20 year old kid to be doing, let alone in Guatemala! I love it, don't get me wrong, but it feels strange sometimes.
 
Today is Pday. On Pdays we leave the house at about 5:30ish to go play basketball for a couple hours with some elders from our zone(They do it as exercise, we do it as a pday activity) and it was tons of fun!
 
Unfortunately, that is my entire week and I don't know what else to say. Elder Davis and Elder Williams are the assistants, Elder Spilker and I are finance elders, and Elder Hogan and Elder Francks are "pouch elders". So that's all of us. Sorry for the future boringness of my emails, cause more than half of my day is spent in an office and I can't always talk about what I'm doing, but I'm learning and loving it! Maybe I'll be an accountant one day ;) JK. I'm still going to be a doctor!
 
Love,
Elder Andrew LaPray

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