It's really hard to write in my journal now! First it was the holiday season, and now it's being District Leader. Every night we get home, plan, and then I have to take dats for the district and then give the dats to the Zone Leaders and then I need something to eat, and then I talk to the other missionaries in the house for like, 5 minutes, and then it's time to get ready for bed. There is NO time! But, I'm trying to get better. I did some catching up this week, but I'm still behind. Maybe once I leave the office things will calm down a little bit and I'll be able to keep things a little more up to date.
 
Seeing as I don't write in my journal, it makes it really hard to give good emails, I'm sorry. But I'm sure you guys don't really like hearing play-by-plays anyways, right?
 
I'll start with what I can remember. Last night as we were on our way to the area we called the assistants to ask for permission to leave the mission. How often does someone get to do that, right? The Elders Quorum in our ward lives literally on the other side of the street of our mission. Supposedly they chagned the ward boundries so that he would still be part of the ward, but I don't know if that's 100% true or not. Either way, the APs gave us permission to go see them. They haven't been to church since The last Sunday in October. That's three months. Last night when we went to see them, President Garcìa (name changed) told us that since he and his family haven't been to church not a single member, the bishopric included, has called to talk to them or even passed by. I felt absolutely terrible. I would have passed by a while ago, but since he lived out of the mission I couldn't before... They have had such a hard time in the last year and a half and I can't really explain the whole situation, but it was a wonderful opportunity for us and for him to just be able to talk. I know there are a lot of things he's been thinking about and he has just needed someone to talk to besides his family and last night he got that opportunity. After that we went and saw Lester and Marelin Garcìa and kind of gave them a little bit of cincho (chastisement...). We talked about faith using Ether 12 and how we don't recieve a testimony until after the trial of our faith and asking them if they really had tested their faith and shown Heavenly Father that they really will do what it takes to get an answer. Marelin just got out of the hospital on Thursday from an apendectomy though. Which is rough in Guatemala. Anyways, it was a good lesson and I think it really helped them. Like the missionary saying, you have to give cincho with love :) Afterwards we helped them put covers on their kids' books for school and then they gave us dinner. Scrambled eggs with hotdogs and tortillas with cheese to go with them. SUPER good. Oh, and to drink, arroz con leche. Rice with milk. It sounds weird, but you have to try it. It was a good day.
 
I guess I could talk about my birthday, huh? It wasn't anything special, but not bad at the same time. I'll give you the brief rundown as said to another friend... As far as my birthday goes... I woke up, got ready for church, got told happy birthday by my companions, went to church (no one knew at church), came home for church and waited for like an hour before anyone gave up a spot in the kitchen to make my lunch (which was delicious, FYI) and then after we ate lunch and studied, back out to work. hooray. We had our english Book of Mormon class and at the end, we played hangman and I spelled out "Happy Birthday Elder LaPray" (fishing for compliments too much?) but, what the heck, it was worth it. After the class we did divisions with some of the youth and knocked out a couple lessons and got to know some houses of some inactives, which is always good. And then some members who found out it was my birthday invited us over at 7:30 for some food. They didn't know beforehand so they gave my comp and I some how and cheese sandwiches but put some candles in there to make it special. It was a super nice gesture and I great appreciated it :) and then I went home and had to take dats... hooray! That's your typical missionary birthday on a Sunday in Guatemala. I don't mean to make it sound negative, if that's how it comes off. It really was a good, productive day.
 
I think that's pretty much it for stories for the week. I wish I had some other awesome story, but I don't. I'm still reading the Book of Mormon in English marking every time there is a r eference to Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ and I am on page 264, Alma 22 or 23 and there are only 6 pages so far that don't make any mention at all. Crazy! The Book of Mormon truly does testify of Jesus Christ, that He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. It's easy to see why Joseph Smith said that a man would draw nearer to God by following the precepts set forth in this book than in any other book. It's true. I know it.
 
Love,
Elder Andrew A LaPray