Today we had our zone activity and went bowling and afterwards went to IHOP! Super good! (Mom.}, I hope that was okay...) The change is almost over now! This Sunday we get change phone calls, and next Monday I'll be telling you all if I'll be staying in Las Victorias with Elder Henriquez, staying but with a new comp, or leaving my area. Crazy how the time keeps flying by! I also hit 13 months on Friday!
Tuesday and Wednesday were kind of rough days in the field, but Thursday was great! Our last lesson on Thursday was with some new investigators. Isabel (40) Cristofer (12) and Susan (11). We contacted Isabel two weeks ago and were finally able to teach her and her two kids. She was very enthusiastic when we first met and wanted us to talk to her kids about our beliefs. She is catholic, but wants her kids to follow the religion they choose. She and her children are very nice people and payed a lot of attention as we explained the origin of the Book of Mormon! I can see some awesome future progression!!
Friday we had interviews with President and Sister Watts, and I got a letter from my Grandpa Joel, and I would like to share with you all this story, because I think it is of great importance for every single one of us. It goes a little something like this...
"It seems that I was working hard on all the problems that I face each day. I was striving to be faithful and obedient. The Lord then indicated that he was calling me to a new assignment. He showed me a very large rock and explained that my task each day would be to push against that rock with all my might. So, I bent to the task and pushed with all my strength, day after day. I often became discouraged because it seems that no matter how hard I pushed or at what angle I attacked the problem, that old rock remained right where it was. It didn't budge even an inch despite all of my best efforts. Eventually, I became very discouraged and Satan whispered in my ear that no matter what I did, I wasn't going to move that rock from it's appointed place, so why was I getting calluses on my hands and tired muscles in my back. It was useless, I might as well slack off, or better yet, forget the whole thing because I certainly wasn't getting anywhere with what I was doing.
"In my discouragement, I prayed to the Lord and took my problem to Him. He lovingly replied, 'I didn't ask you to move the rock, that wasn't necessarily in the plan. Your job was to simply push with all your might. Useless, you say. You think it's boring? But, look at you now. You have developed strength of character as well as strong muscles; you have gained patience, empathy, and understanding. You have grown so much by your obedience to my command. If the rock needs moving, I'll move it when the time comes and the conditions are right. Continue your task and push each day as before. I will you give you strength as you persevere that the task will seem easier until it is time to call you to another work. Your faithful pushing now will prepare you for other great works that you may not yet be ready to do. And your faithful pushing, even though you may not be able to see, will prepare the rock for moving when the time is right. Patience, my son, be obedient to my command and blessings untold will follow. Push for now and I will be with you, helping you with all of your efforts, great or small."
I love that story. Thank you Grandpa, it means a lot ot me, and I hope it means a lot to YOU.
As missionaries, we contact a lot. And it's not always the most exciting thing to do, however, President Watts, in our interviews, mentioned that contacting has 3 persons that really helped give a greater horizon to my vision of contacting. 1) To find those who are prepared to be taught. 2) To pepare others to be taught. 3) To give these people their chance to accept or reject the gospel. Obviously we wish that every contact could fall into the first category, but we do not have to allow ourselves to be discourage when not everyone is willing ot accept our message!
This Friday I had to conduct 2 baptismal interviews, and I would like to share quickly the feelings I had. "It's interesting how well you can feel the Spirit as you conduct an interview. The Lord truly blesses you to help the person open up and share his or her feelings, doubts, concerns and problems. I was also slightly nervous about conducting the interview, and likewise the Lord blessed me in my efforts. I'm sure that these two sister will be great members of the church and I'm truly grateful to be the Lord's representative."
I truly am grateful to be the Lord's resprenstative here on the earth as I share this gospel with Guatemala.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
Monday, March 19, 2012
Barbara Cobbley - March 12, 2012
March 12th, 2012.
"Today I found out one of my dearest friends passed away - Barbara Cobbley. I will never forget the first time I met Barbara. I was weeks away from my 14th birthday and we had just returned from the Caribbean. Early one morning, Grandma told me I had to go shovel the driveway and also Barbara's. Grandma told me not to let Barbara pay me but that it was a service. I tried to shovel quietly so she wouldn't even know I was outside. I was just about done when I heard a voice behind me. Caught. I was kind of afraid or nervous around elderly people, but when Barbara tried to give me a 5 dollar bill I told her it was service and couldn't accept her money and she tried more to make me take the money. I finally settled on something; she could pay me this one time, but never again. Not once after that did she try to pay me in 4 years.
"I remember seeing her outside with her two little pugs, Babe and Mandy, whom I grew to love. Despite her age, I often saw my dear Barbara picking weeds in her garden, always full of spunk and energy.
"Before I turned 15 I became her hometeacher with my uncle Orvil. I treausre those monthly visits with my friend. I will not forget our prayers together in those visists. We would all stand up, Orvil, Barbara, Marian and I and hold hands in a circle. The first time I was timid, but came to love those prayers. Barbara's hand was always toasty warm in mine. 3 wonderful years of being her hometeacher. What she may not know is that she was teaching me.
"Barbara gave me numerous opportunities to serve and love. They were usually small simple things, but things I came to enjoy. Every time she and Marian came home with a bag of dog food, there I was to take it into the garage. I will never forget my dear, beloved friend.
"Today I found out one of my dearest friends passed away - Barbara Cobbley. I will never forget the first time I met Barbara. I was weeks away from my 14th birthday and we had just returned from the Caribbean. Early one morning, Grandma told me I had to go shovel the driveway and also Barbara's. Grandma told me not to let Barbara pay me but that it was a service. I tried to shovel quietly so she wouldn't even know I was outside. I was just about done when I heard a voice behind me. Caught. I was kind of afraid or nervous around elderly people, but when Barbara tried to give me a 5 dollar bill I told her it was service and couldn't accept her money and she tried more to make me take the money. I finally settled on something; she could pay me this one time, but never again. Not once after that did she try to pay me in 4 years.
"I remember seeing her outside with her two little pugs, Babe and Mandy, whom I grew to love. Despite her age, I often saw my dear Barbara picking weeds in her garden, always full of spunk and energy.
"Before I turned 15 I became her hometeacher with my uncle Orvil. I treausre those monthly visits with my friend. I will not forget our prayers together in those visists. We would all stand up, Orvil, Barbara, Marian and I and hold hands in a circle. The first time I was timid, but came to love those prayers. Barbara's hand was always toasty warm in mine. 3 wonderful years of being her hometeacher. What she may not know is that she was teaching me.
"Barbara gave me numerous opportunities to serve and love. They were usually small simple things, but things I came to enjoy. Every time she and Marian came home with a bag of dog food, there I was to take it into the garage. I will never forget my dear, beloved friend.
Wednesday, March 14, 2012
A Week of Blessings - March 12, 2012
Anyways... back to last Monday... I don't think I mentioned this last week... but I found and bought a t-shirt that says "Are you gonna eat those tots?" I literally died laughing when I saw that shirt! Seriously, where in the world would you find a shirt that says "Are you gonna eat those tots?"... only in a Guatemalan Paca. Score. Q5.
Last Monday night we also had a lesson with a new investigator named Mario Hernandez. He's 50 years old and very catholic. Nice guy. As we explained the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and when He organized His church upon the earth he said "La Católica" (the catholic church). So we just avoided his comment and kept going on with the apostasy and the Restoration through Joseph Smith. As we explained the experience of Joseph Smith and the Restoration I could feel the Spirit testifying to me at least that we had said was true. Mario mentioned something that I think he strue for a lot of people - it's hard to accept the apostasy and the First Vision. I totally understand that. They are two principles that are foreign to a lot of people, even harder to accept when it means the religion you thought was the true church God established is not so... But it's possible to make the change when the Spirit testifies to you that God the Father and Jesus Christ appeared to a young man named Joseph Smith in 1820 and subsequently this man, 9 years later, received the authority of God.
Wednesday the 7th was a truly great blessing for us. A couple of weeks agao we contacted a man named Eddy, and finally on Wednesday we were able to teach him. He's a family man of about 45 years. We ended up talking about the Plan of Salvation and the Book of Mormon. He really liked the things we taught and said that it all made sense to him. He was also very interested in the Book of Mormon. Every time we read a verse from it he would ask about it to make sure he understood what it was saying. He says he loves reading and will have te Book of Mormon read in about a week. We'll see how that goes on Thursday of this week! Another awesome lesson we had was with a man named Estuardo Polanco. His wife is a member and the missionaries have been teaching him for a while... However we find out that in all the time the missionaries have taught him, they've never given him a Book of Mormon! It's no wonder he doesn't have a testimony and a true desire to get baptized! He has no idea if the keystone of our religion is true or not!
Friday and Saturday were kind of rough days, but Sunday definitely made up for it! Sunday was Stake Conference and we had with us President Watts and Elder Rivas of the Seventy. Now in this conference I had a new confirming witness of the divine call of Thomas S Monson. These are the words I used in my notebook to describe the experience, "While President Rivas announced the sustaining of the First Presidency of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I could feel the Spirit testify to me that Thomas S. Monson is the living prophet of God. It is the first time I felt such a testimony upon sustaining the presiding authorities. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the true and living prophet and that he, along with his counselors and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostoles are prophets, seers, revelators, and especial witnesses of Jesus Christ". It's interesting... I remember years ago my mom saying to me how incredible it is that no matter where in the world we are we have the opportunity to know the prophet is called of God and then sustain him as such. I didn't fully understand the fullness of what my mother had taught me until yesterday.
The Stake President said something (quoting someone else) that I really enjoyed... "Cuando queremos hacer las cosas, buscamos los medios para lograrlo" or "When we want to do something, we search for the means to achieve it". He countered that with, When we don't want to do something, we justify it with excuses. I decided to focus on the first part.
As I've been here on my mission, I've learned more and more that taking notes in conferences is less about writing what the people say and more about writing the thoughts and feelings that come to your heart and mind. Half of what I wrote yesterday was no where CLOSE to being said verbally, but were the things that I needed to hear. Everyone mentions that with General Conference "So-and-so's talk was exactly what I needed to hear" or "That talk was for me"... but was it WHAT they said, or is it HOW you FELT? With conference coming up I would recommend that as you listen and "feast upon the words of Christ" that you write down the things you FEEL and YOUR thoughts, because you can read what so-and-so said in the Ensign, but you won't be able to read how it made you feel.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
February 29, 2012
The title of my email will have much more sense later on... but for not you'll have to live with what knowing it will make sense...
I finally caught up in my journal again! Last night and this morning I just wrote and wrote and wrote so that I would be all caught up. Maybe we haven't had the CRAZIEST experiences ever... but I think they are kind of cool. This last week has been REALLY hard for us though... We don't really have many investigators that we're teaching... in fact we have about 5 or so. This last week taught a grand total of 14 lessons.... 5 were to investigators and 9 were to less active members. Unfortunately that's a really low number. We focused quite a bit of time this week in contacting as well, because, like I said, we just don't have people to teach, and some of the ones we have taught just aren't in a progressing state. However, someone shared a quote from Preach My Gospel with me that really helped... it says something along the lines of... there will be people who know that the message you are sharing is true but refuse to fulfill their commitments or be baptized. You will be said because you desire the best for them, but you should not be discouraged because there are people waiting to hear the gospel and make covenants with our Heavenly Father. I know that's true, it's just sometimes hard to find those people! That's why we're trying to find them however we can!!
Random thing I didn't mention last Monday because I just totally spaced it. There is this random import store in our area that has a bunch of random stuff from the US. Anyways, a few weeks ago I have Arizona drinks (the huge cans that only cost $1) However, the first time I saw them they only had two kinds, both with Tea. However, last Monday I found the Strawberry Kiwi flavor that DOESN'T have tea. So I bought a couple... they only cost $13, which is like $1.50. Super worth it!
Now, here comes the story. On Tuesdays we visit a member named Gloria Garcia. Before our message we always end up talking about a whole bunch of things. Vocabulary, life, books, Nicaragua.... a lot. Well, on Tuesday we talked about a story that is about 400 years old, when a native of Guatemala wanted to sell his land ot a Spaniard. The native of Guatemala had to declare his possession of the land. This native declared the following: "... our parents and grandparents came here...; that we are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as they were called, we are of Israel... That all of us spoke one language, and the building remained in that state because of their having changed to several languages... And thus different manners of tongues were ordained among us, and our Lord God told us how the language was changed and why they spoke different tongues when they met one another. Upon greeting each other at daybreak, they did not understand one another. Because of this they were stupified and scattered themselves over all the world. They looked for a place to settle. THen came our parents and grandparents in the middle of the sea, and they were on an island in the middle of the sea, and there was a sound of trumpets, and oboes and flutes, and thus it occured in that place wehre the sound was heard, that they came, in the middle of the sea, in seven valleys and seven caves, to a seaport called Tula, and as they were leaving the caves, they called one to another and entered seven ships and came from the other part of the sea to these parts and rested here." What an interesting parallel to the Jaredites found in the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Even more, this document was archived in the public records of Guatemala 171 years before the Book of Mormon was published.
Talk about awesome, right! The document continues to explain the division of the lands and the borders of the lands according to the people who inherited it. Now, you could say that this is a random coincidence, you could say that it's not 100% consistent with the record of the Jaredites... but it's pretty darn similar! Now, I would love to read the entire document, but it's somewhere in Guatemala that I can't go... but supposedly BYU has microfilms of the original document which is in Spanish... if that is true, when I get back I can try to search for a record of that at BYU!!!! It was super cool!
The first week in April in Guatemala is called "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week" which is when the Catholics celebrate the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. It includes parades, posadas (which is when people walk around in the street singing hymns with a little altar thing, they get to a house, sing a little more, and then eat) and the beautiful colored carpets that they put in the streets. However, it also means most people don't want to hear about "Mormons" or "The Book of Mormon"... everyone is in Catholic mode. However, we decided to change our contact approach to something more like this: "(Introduce ourselves). We would like to share a message with you about Jesus Christ. We realize at this time we remember Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. The Book of Mormon also testifies of Jesus Christ and His Atonement and helps us rmjember Him at this important time. Would you allo wus to share more of this message with you?" Granted, no one let us in at the moment, but we were able to get quite a few "come back on X day at X time". Now, it's possible that these people aren't in their homes when we pass by, but they will at least have in memory two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who testified of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, which is our biggest goal.
I know that the Book of Mormon is true. Historical facts that prove it or not, I know that it was written by ancient prophets of God and translated by the gift and power of God for us in these days. It truly guides us to the fruit of the tree of life, which is the love of God which we experience as we live in harmony with His commandments and make covenants with Him. If ever you are feeling down, you can find comfort in the pages written by the hand of a man, and dictated from the mouth of God.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
I finally caught up in my journal again! Last night and this morning I just wrote and wrote and wrote so that I would be all caught up. Maybe we haven't had the CRAZIEST experiences ever... but I think they are kind of cool. This last week has been REALLY hard for us though... We don't really have many investigators that we're teaching... in fact we have about 5 or so. This last week taught a grand total of 14 lessons.... 5 were to investigators and 9 were to less active members. Unfortunately that's a really low number. We focused quite a bit of time this week in contacting as well, because, like I said, we just don't have people to teach, and some of the ones we have taught just aren't in a progressing state. However, someone shared a quote from Preach My Gospel with me that really helped... it says something along the lines of... there will be people who know that the message you are sharing is true but refuse to fulfill their commitments or be baptized. You will be said because you desire the best for them, but you should not be discouraged because there are people waiting to hear the gospel and make covenants with our Heavenly Father. I know that's true, it's just sometimes hard to find those people! That's why we're trying to find them however we can!!
Random thing I didn't mention last Monday because I just totally spaced it. There is this random import store in our area that has a bunch of random stuff from the US. Anyways, a few weeks ago I have Arizona drinks (the huge cans that only cost $1) However, the first time I saw them they only had two kinds, both with Tea. However, last Monday I found the Strawberry Kiwi flavor that DOESN'T have tea. So I bought a couple... they only cost $13, which is like $1.50. Super worth it!
Now, here comes the story. On Tuesdays we visit a member named Gloria Garcia. Before our message we always end up talking about a whole bunch of things. Vocabulary, life, books, Nicaragua.... a lot. Well, on Tuesday we talked about a story that is about 400 years old, when a native of Guatemala wanted to sell his land ot a Spaniard. The native of Guatemala had to declare his possession of the land. This native declared the following: "... our parents and grandparents came here...; that we are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as they were called, we are of Israel... That all of us spoke one language, and the building remained in that state because of their having changed to several languages... And thus different manners of tongues were ordained among us, and our Lord God told us how the language was changed and why they spoke different tongues when they met one another. Upon greeting each other at daybreak, they did not understand one another. Because of this they were stupified and scattered themselves over all the world. They looked for a place to settle. THen came our parents and grandparents in the middle of the sea, and they were on an island in the middle of the sea, and there was a sound of trumpets, and oboes and flutes, and thus it occured in that place wehre the sound was heard, that they came, in the middle of the sea, in seven valleys and seven caves, to a seaport called Tula, and as they were leaving the caves, they called one to another and entered seven ships and came from the other part of the sea to these parts and rested here." What an interesting parallel to the Jaredites found in the book of Ether in the Book of Mormon. Even more, this document was archived in the public records of Guatemala 171 years before the Book of Mormon was published.
Talk about awesome, right! The document continues to explain the division of the lands and the borders of the lands according to the people who inherited it. Now, you could say that this is a random coincidence, you could say that it's not 100% consistent with the record of the Jaredites... but it's pretty darn similar! Now, I would love to read the entire document, but it's somewhere in Guatemala that I can't go... but supposedly BYU has microfilms of the original document which is in Spanish... if that is true, when I get back I can try to search for a record of that at BYU!!!! It was super cool!
The first week in April in Guatemala is called "Semana Santa" or "Holy Week" which is when the Catholics celebrate the last week of the life of Jesus Christ. It includes parades, posadas (which is when people walk around in the street singing hymns with a little altar thing, they get to a house, sing a little more, and then eat) and the beautiful colored carpets that they put in the streets. However, it also means most people don't want to hear about "Mormons" or "The Book of Mormon"... everyone is in Catholic mode. However, we decided to change our contact approach to something more like this: "(Introduce ourselves). We would like to share a message with you about Jesus Christ. We realize at this time we remember Jesus Christ and His atoning sacrifice. The Book of Mormon also testifies of Jesus Christ and His Atonement and helps us rmjember Him at this important time. Would you allo wus to share more of this message with you?" Granted, no one let us in at the moment, but we were able to get quite a few "come back on X day at X time". Now, it's possible that these people aren't in their homes when we pass by, but they will at least have in memory two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who testified of Jesus Christ and the Book of Mormon, which is our biggest goal.
I know that the Book of Mormon is true. Historical facts that prove it or not, I know that it was written by ancient prophets of God and translated by the gift and power of God for us in these days. It truly guides us to the fruit of the tree of life, which is the love of God which we experience as we live in harmony with His commandments and make covenants with Him. If ever you are feeling down, you can find comfort in the pages written by the hand of a man, and dictated from the mouth of God.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
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