You'll never guess what I did this week... I got caught up in my journal!!! After a MONTH of being behind, I am finally up to date. I doubt it will stay that way, but at least I'm up to date, right?

Dan, Steph, and kids, thank you for the package, it is GREATLY appreciated! I love getting to open stuff like it's Christmas! I'll see if I share with my companions ;) JK I definitely will, and already have. A little...
 
I didn't write a lot in my journal from the beginning of the week, because there was a lot, so I'll give you the quick run down... "On Monday, the 23rd, I hit 11 months. Crazy. On Tuesday the 24th Elder Barahona and I had a lesson with familia Valle. I've never mentioned them before because they are investigators of the assistants whom they found about 3 weeks ago. However, since the assistants are gone a lot of the time with conferences, interviews, divisions, and what not, they passed them on to us. They are what we would call in Guatemala, a "pilas family" or in English, "Golden Investigators". In the assistants first visit with them, they put a baptismal date. I have now taught them twice as well, once with Elder Cantillo and today was my second visit with them (written on Tuesday). They are a super prepared family. Their biggest challenge, however, is coming to church. But they definitely have a desire to follow Jesus Christ. After our lesson with them we met up with a member named Omner to go contact a reference he had for us. He reminds me a little of my late uncle Dave McCulloch, I think that's what I like about Omner. On Wednesday the 25th we had district meeting. We started with hangman which spelled out : "RREECCNOO LA REEPTASUS which is nothing in Spanish, or English. In english it's "RGCZIEONE HTE SRAWNE". So it comes out to be "RECONOCER LA RESPUESTA" in Spanish which is "RECOGNIZE THE SNAWRE" in English. Now the point was to put it in a scrambled order, and no one guessed it right off the bat, which was the point. Sometimes we don't recognize God's answers in our life because we aren't prepared for what's coming (i.e. no one had ever told us what it might be like, just like I didn't explain the letters would be jumbled), the answer didn't come how we expected it (everyone expected me to put the letters in word order) or perhaps we're just not accustomed to seeing that way. We must prepare ourselves and our investigators (or families) for the revelation that our Heavenly Father gives to us, and with practice it becomes easier and easiter to RECOGNIZE God working in our lives on even a daily basis."  
 
Now, speaking of Heavenly Father working in our lives on a daily basis, I have a story to tell that isn't even two hours old. On Pdays, we usually come to Zone 4 in Plaza Cuatro. However, when we get here at about, 11:30 we usually use internet first and then go to eat. Also, we usually never carry hand out copies of the Book of Mormon, sometimes nothing at all (I know, super well-prepared missionaries, thanks). Anyways... today we decided to go upstairs to eat lunch first... as we were walking towards the food court, a man stopped Elder Cantillo and Elder Welch and asked them if either of them had a copy of the Book of Mormon they could give to him. Oops. Looks like today was the day to bring that. They didn't have a copy. Luckily, Elder Barahona and I had stopped, noticing that Elder Cantillo and Elder Welch weren't with us and they yelled to us "Do you have a Book of Mormon". Now, I did have one. In English. My personal copy. That doesn't help 99% of Guatemalans. However, Elder Barahona did. Like I said, no one ever carries around a hand out copy of the Book of Mormon, and Elder Barahona almost grabbed his personal triple, but he thought to himself "No, what if someone wants one?" and grabbed good ol' blue. So, it just so happens that this man, Juan Ramon, is a member of the church (studied and graduated from BYU) told a friend months ago that he would get him a copy of the Book of Mormon and never did. A few days ago this friend, Freddy, said to Juan, "You never gave me that Book of Mormon". Well... it just so happens that of all the places to meet up in the world, Juan and Freddy met up today, here, in Plaza Cuatro, and it just so happens that WE were here and that SOMEONE had received and followed the prompting to carry a hand out copy of the Book of Mormon, and Freddy now has his Book of Mormon. But wait, it gets even better. As we ended lunch, we went to say goodbye to Juan and Freddy for a few minutes. As we were walking towards internet this young man inside a story looks at us and gives us the Guatemala sign for "What are you doing here?" and then says "Elders". Now, none of us knew this young man, but he stopped us, said hi, and we said, hello. Now, I thought that Elder Welch knew this kid. Nope. So we said, what's your name "Nefi"... go figure, it's a member of the church. So, Nefi, where do you live? Zone 12. Really? Do you want to try and guess where Freddy lives? Freddy had just given us his direction and lives in Zone 12, the same ward where Nefi attends. We gave Nefi Freddy's address to pass along to the missionaries. It just so happens that Freddy lives in the Central Mission of Guatemala.
 
Now, if you think that there is such thing as coincidence... think again. God exists. He loves us. He is concious of EVERY SINGLE child of His, and He wants us to be happy and successful in this life. If there was ever a doubt in your mind, let this be a testimony to you that Heavenly Father influences your life for good, and he puts you in the right place, at the right time, so that He can bless you and bless others. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
 
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray