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
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