No Cool Name - Oct. 29.2011

   P-day night was a little crazy. We had a lesson with Familia Cotero that didn't go so well, unfortunately. However, the Gospel is still true and Javier still wants to get baptized and his mom is supportive of his decision (since she is a member and ever since he was a little boy she pictured him as a missionary). Funny story, there was a 17 year old member named Jenny at the lesson in addition to the other 2 members (the bishop and his son) and Javier likes her and I guess she likes him, because Javier had his arm around her through like the entire lesson. Anyway, the bishop gave her a ride home with the rest of us and in the car the conversation somehow came around to the fact that the whole family really loves Jenny, so I said "But one loves you a little more than the others" in my classic LaPray sarcasm. Perfect timing and SUPER funny!

 

  On Sunday Elder Williams came out with Elder Spilker and I and we had one awesome lesson I want to talk about. It was with a new family named familia Mesaya that we had contacted a few weeks ago. The mom is super nice and was willing to let us come back and let us in. She is a catholic and used to be very closed to listening to anyone of any religion, but has recently come to find friendships and a greater knowledge in listening to other religions. Anyways, we started talking to her about all of lesson 1 from Preach My Gospel, how the gospel blesses families, how God works through prophets, Jesus Christ's earthly ministry, the apostasy, and the Restoration. She had a hard time accepting the apostasy and Joseph Smith, but Elder Williams explained how Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon and how it gives a witness of the restoration and Joseph Smith as it's prophet. She admitted that in order to know if these things were true she would have to read the Book of Mormon, and that if the Book of Mormon is true, then Jospeh Smith was a prophet. Bingo!

 

    While we were contacting on Monday, Elder Spilker and I met this guy who came up to us out of no where and starting talking to us about Guatemalans in the US and Barack Obama and how "Guatemalans were the hardest working immigrants in the US" and then he said "Tell Obama to be good to those Guatemalans"! and then he left with a high 5 saying "chóquenla" or "hit it". SO funny!!!!!! And then he just walked away like nothing happened. Gotta love Guatemala. We also had a lesson with Fito again, after about 3 or 4 weeks. We were able to finish teaching him about the Restoration. Like most catholics, he belivies in the tradition that Peter was the first pope and that the line just keeps going down. I shared with him my testimony of the first vision and the restoration of the gospel. He then went off about how to be able to testify of something you have to have been there and I didn't know what to say. Elder Spilker, very powerfully, told him that we COULD TESTIFY of the Restoration because of the Book of Mormon, which gives witness that Jospeh Smith was a prophet by the power of the Holy Ghost. It was a great experience.

 

  Sorry, I hate doing day-to-day play by plays. I'm sure they are kind of boring. Last night Elder Spilker and I didn't teach a single lesson. It was rough. We spent the entire time walking around looking for citas or contacting. In one of the contacts we did, we were speaking through the intercom. The lady essentially said "Nope, go away"., Right as she finished this dog came up to the fence out of NO WHERE and barked REALLY angrily at us. It scared the CRAP out of me because it came out of nowhere. So not funny.l Or at least, not at the time.

 

  This morning in my personally studied I read Alma 17:1-8. I love the story of Alma and the sons of Mosiah. What I learned from Alma 17 1-8 today is how to Spiritually Prepare ourselves. 1. we must study the scriptures. 2. we must dedicate ourselves to prayer. 3. we must fast. Why? So that we may 1. have the spirit of prophecy. 2. have the spirit of revelation. and 3. teach with power and authority which will bring many unto repentance, which leads to baptism. Super cool! Elder Gallo and I also had a great companionship study about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I love the scripture Moroni 7:33. Our faith in Jesus Christ gives us the power to do ALL thing which are convenient in Christ. Or rather, Faith in Jesus Christ gives us the power to ACT and bring about WORKS of faith. Faith without works is dead. However, Faith in Jesus Christ inherently should move us to ACTION. Faith is an Action word.

 

Love,

Elder Andrew LaPray

October 15, 2011

Just a note:  Andrew wanted to protect me from worry so he didn't write the following incident in his letter.  The AP's were delivering a mattress to Sis. missionaries last week and were held up (by gun) and the car stolen.  Good news - they were not hurt and cars are replaceable.

This week I realized that I have a lot of friends out on missions who have been out over a year or are coming up on a year really fast. It's kind of weird to think about. And I've been out for 245 days! (No, I'm not baggy and I don't count the days like you think, I just write it down at the top of my journal for a reference to those who read it in the future, thank you very much).

 

 On Sunday, just as we got ready to leave the house and go to the area, it started raining like CRAZY and there was so much water on the road that the taxis spark plugs got wet and it stopped. So, the taxi driver asked us to try to push start him. It was POURING rain! So, Elder Francks and I got out and pushed the car... and it didn't start. So we got in, then do it again. Then again, and again. So we got in and out of the car 4 times and on the 5th time it FINALLY started and I got SOAKED. And I was soaked for the rest of the day. I hate wearing wet clothes when I'm not swimming. It's the worst.

 

On Monday Elder Spilker and I learned how to do ALL sorts of stuff for putting in future missionaries applications in the computer. Because we have districts of the church here, Pres. Watts acts as a stake president in the interview process and he puts in all of the medical information. Well, Pres. can't do all of that because it would take a while, so we put in all of the information. But, we also have areas with people who don't even know HOW to use a computer, so we have to put all their information from the old paper form into the computer (which can cause some difficulty because the application has changed) but we learned a lot of important stuff! I talked to Brock on Monday night. I spent over an hour and a half on the phone with him just talking. I can't even explain it.

 

 On Tuesday I went to the temple with Brock and his companion Elder Grijalba. It was an indescribable experience and that's all I can say. Sorry.

 

Wednesday was change conference! Obviously I didn't have a change. The new AP (since Elder Davis went hom) is Elder Gallo fromHonduras. He is way legit! He'll go home when I hit a year. Colton is going up to Coban with an elder from Chile. Elder Nelson is going to be Zone Leader in Coban!! (So cool!) and the new office elder is Elder Cantillo (a costa rican from my group). Elder Davis went hom on Thursday morning. It was really sad to see him go. He has been a really good friend and example to me! On Thursday night we taught a lesson to the non-member brother of a recent convert and invited him to be baptized and he said yes! He said he's been thinking about getting baptized in a couple of weeks and set his OWN fecha (date) for the 5th of November when his brother can baptize him.

 

 On Friday we had a multi-zone conference! We had a member of the 1st Quorum of the 70 with us, Elder Carlos H. Amado. He's been a 70 for over 20 years. Sister Watts gave an awesome talk about who we want to be and what we are doing to become that person. We may not all be like Captain Moroni, loyal and faithful for all of our lives, but we can all be like Alma the younger, and make the ecision to be loyal and true for the REST of our lives. Elder Amado talked about a lot of cool stuf. He told us that being an especial witness of the name of Jesus Christ (an apostle) means that they have had a PERSONAL experience with Jesus Christ in which they KNOW him, and thus can testify of his divinity. How cool is that!? I mean, obviously it's what most people probably think and assume, but it's the first time I've heard that from a general authority!

 

God Speed,

Love Elder Andrew LaPray

Normal - October 8, 2011

This week has been... normal. Not. It was week six of the my fourth change! (No, I'm not baggy, this is just me and the time thing again and the whole math in me) but the end of this change marks 1/4 of my time in the field, and in two weeks I hit 8 months, 1/3 of my mission. Time really goes by so fast. It still seems like just yesterday I was back home, wasting time waiting to come to the mission, and an eternity before I'll do that again. But definitely worth the wait :)

 

So, like I said, this week has been anything but normal. For starters, conference was on last weekend (which I count as part of my week now) , which was absolutely incredible! I hope you all paid LOTS of attention, because we heard from the living prophet of the Lord God. For what greater blessing could you possibly ask? My favorite talks still came from the Saturday session, but obviously everything was good and spiritually uplifting. Sister Dalton's talk from Sunday was very powerful, in which, she told us men how to raise a daughter. I know I don't have a daughter, but it gave me a lot of ideas for the future and strengthened my testimony now. J. Devn Cornish was another of my favorite conference talks from Sunday. He talked about prayer and asking Heavenly Father for the help we so desperately need. I love that in conference we can receive so much personal revelation in conference, sometimes things that have absolutely NOTHING to do with what the speaker is discussing. I absolutely love it!

 

Monday was SUCH a busy day for Elder Spilker and I in the office, but I absolutely loved it! We got so much work done. We were out running errands, busy on the computer, just doing everything. Unfortunately, our in field time was no so busy. We spent 5-7 contacting  because everything fell through, but we had some really promising contacts! I used to hate contact, then I disliked it, and now I tolerate it. I'd call that a definite improvement! This week, I actually even ENJOYED one of the contacts I made as I testified of the blessings of the gospel in our lives. We went to visit a member around 7 named Josué Castillo, who is super pilas. We talked to him about life and missionary work, service, and sharing the gospel. At the end, my companion invited him to pray, while we sang, about who could be prepared to receive the gospel message. It seems really weird, and it was weird to me at first as well, but it worked! The Lord truly does have people prepared.

 

Tuesday was Zone Leader council so we had all of the out of capital ZLs at our house on Monday night and Tuesday morning. When we were literally 3 minutes away from the office, Elder Williams, one of the APs, called us to go back home because he forgot something. So we went ALL the way back home and then all the way back to the office, just because we love him ;) However, that day had some very bad news about a missionary who had run away. It broke my heart. I don't understand what drives people to disobedience when they testify to people of the blessings of obedience and can see the reflections in their own lives. Yes, a mission is the hardest thing I have ever done, but when you get right down to it, and you do it right, it is the most fun and most rewarding thing as well. The taxi ride to the area was VERY interesting today. We didn't go with our regular taxi driver, but with one of his colleagues. Anyways, we got stuck in a little bit of traffic and he wanted to get us out quickly, so he took this short cut on the dirt path next to the railroad tracks. Well, it just so happens that on BOTH sides of the railroad tracks there are one bedroom concrete houses with metal doors. As I see the type of people walking these roads and standing in the doors of these houses, I realize that we are driving down, what I would call, Hooker Lane. They were brothels. It was absolutely SHOCKING. Luckily, that only lasted for about two minutes and we were out of there and on a different road, but those are just the kinds of mission experiences that make great stories.

 

The APs and some other missionaries were out looking for the run away today, and they were gone for about 6 hours with no luck, so they came back to the office. Then, around 2ish, he called Elder Davis and told him where he was and that he wanted to be picked up, so Elder Davis and I got President's car keys, and we were off to get him! It was absolutely crazy. That is enough for Wednesday.

 

Thursday night we had the Noche Mormona like usual. Before it started, Elder Spilker and I taught a recent convert named Cesár Guzmán and talked about General Conference. This may sound weird, but I loved seeing the light in Elder's Spilker's face as he testified of Thomas S. Monson. I think that it was the first time I have really noticed that "light" that other people say they see in us. It was a very special experience, and I hope that my face "shines" like that when I testify of the things which I know and love. The Noche Mormona was really great! Some great members gave it and they had us doing an activity in 4 groups doing all sorts of crazy stuff, learning to work together, have fun together, and learning about each other to demonstrate charity, the pure love of Christ.

 

On Friday, every cita fell through again. Literally, EVERYTHING. We contacted. That's it. In the office I played "In the land of the Tall Green Trees" with Elders Spilker, Francks, and Hogan and it took them about 2 hours to figure out how to play, but it was SO funny watching them try to figure it out. (It wasn't two straight hours, we were doing work as well). That's pretty much it.

 

This morning we went over to President and Sister Watts's house for the traditional week six breakfast. It was DELICIOUS! We had pancakes, eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, pineapple, and watermelon. I love them so much! And now, I'm sitting here talking to you guys! Like I said, it was anything BUT a normal week. But that's what the mission is all about! Change conference is next week, and I don't think I'm leaving the office, nor Elder Spilker. But one of the APs, Elder Davis will finish his mission, which is really sad. I love Elder Davis. He has been a super good friend and he is a great guy and missionary. I'm sure the whole mission will miss him. So, next week when I email you, there will be a new AP, and mostly likely a new office elder (but not my companion). Even in the office we don't hear changes early. Well, not TOO early :)

 

Love, Elder Andrew Anderson LaPray

General Conference Week

I love the weekend when General Conference comes around! There is seriously no better weekend in the mission! Quoted from other missionaries (several other missionaries), General Conference is the "Super Bowl of the mission", and it's true. It's my hope and prayer that we can think of and feel that General Conference is even better than the Super Bowl!

Last Sunday we had my first baptism here in Marti of the son of an active family, a boy named Geovanni. It was super legit. I know it doesn't mean anything, but it's a really cool motivating factor when you have a baptism every month of your mission. But baptisms don't measure the success of a mission. What matters is your own personal conversion to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and your committment to Him in His work here on the earth in those two dedicated years!

On Monday we had district capacitation. So every 3 months we have what are called zone conference, and inbetween zone conferences, president is visiting every DISTRICT and giving them another training period which is absolutely AWESOME. I had an incredible experience that day, but it's a little too personal to share, I'm sorry. I know most of you are probably thinking, well, if you aren't going to share it, then why even bring it up? Well, you just kind of do that kind of thing without thinking about it. I will share what I can in the best way I can. The Atonement of Jesus Christ is the SINGLE greatest gift given to us by our Heavenly Father. It allows us SO many other blessings. It is the reason we were able to come to this earth. Without the Atonement, we would have come to the earth in vain, only to receive a body that would decay and our Spirits would remain after our death, never to receive a fulness of joy. We would be subject to the punishment of our sins. We would have to endure all of our trials and afflictions alone. It's a terrible burden that Jesus Christ took away. e usually think of repentance as asking for forgiveness of our sins. But it's so much more than that! Yes, it's asking for forgiveness of our sins, but it's leaving behind the sins, and making changes in our lives to be in accordance with the laws, ordinances, and teachings of the gospel. We repent as we start keeping the commandments of God that we hadn't been keeping before and by following Jesus Christ even more than we had before. Repentance is an amazing and basic principle. Hence, the reason it is the second principle of the Gospel!

In our weekly acitivity called "Mormon Night" Elder Spilker and I shared 3 ways to make conference more meaningful (found in the September 2011 Ensign and Liahona) 1) Know that you can receive personal revelation. 2) Don't disregard a message just because it sounds familiar. 3) Know that it will be a compass for the coming 6 months, or maybe even longer.

OH!! ON Friday, in the office, we had some down time so I did some study, which included Mormon Messages from the church's website. I don't remember exactly what they are called, but one of them is called Sanctify Yourself (I think) and talks about being worthy to give Priesthood blessings, recently featured on the LDS.org homepage and can be found using the bottom link in the center column, and another one about the power of forgiveness and I have NO idea what that one is called, but I think it was called Sanctify Yourself: THe power of forgiveness, or something like that, talking about a man forgiving the man who caused a car accident that killed his wife and three of his kids. They have VERY powerful messages!

2 sessions of General Conference have already passed by and I have learned an incredible about and felt a strong Spirit testifying of the words of the servants of God. Two messages I want to share are 1) No matter how insignificant you may feel, "You matter to [Our Heavenly Father]. and 2) When our trials and experiences burden us and weigh us down, we often feel tempted to look down and sorrow in the wake of our grief, but in the words of Thomas S. Monson "It is better to look up".

Elder Andrew Anderson LaPray