Great Week - May 28, 2012

Great week!


On Tuesday we we out walking to pick up a member to go out with us and met this man, Juan (name changed). Juan was deported from the United States a few months ago for a few problems he had. Technically he is Guatemalan, but this is his first time in Guatemala since he was 1, and he is now 37 years old. He feels like a stranger and that no one wants him. So we started talking to Juan about life in general and were able to start talking with him about the Gospel and the Book of Mormon, and the guidance we receive in our most difficult times through the Book of Mormon, and thus directly from our Heavenly Father. It was a very interesting experience for which I am grateful. 


Wednesday was also a good day! I would like to focus on the lesson we had with Gilda and Marian. They are our 2 investigators that have really made a huge difference in my mission and made me realize how much of an impact this message truly has on the lives of those who let it. As we reviewed the Plan of Salvation they said they could feel the peace and comfort in knowing that one day they can seen their loved ones once again, and I know that this is true. They are quickly progressing towards the firm desire to be desired with a goal of a date to be baptized! I truly am grateful to be part of their gospel journey.


On Friday we had a lesson with a less-active woman named Lorgia and we talked with her about the importance of the Holy Ghost in our lives and how sometimes it can be difficult to recognize. I love the story of 1 Samuel 3 in which Samuel hears the voice of the Lord 3 times, and believes that Eli is calling him. At this 3rd hearing, Eli understands that it is the Lord calling Samuel, and tells him that the next time he hears the voice to respond, "Speak; for thy servant heareth". What greater thing could the Lord hear than to know that we are lovingly listening to his voice, waiting to respond to what He desires us to know! 


Saturday was another great day! We had another lesson with Gilda and Marian about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or in other words Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. They both agreed that they would like to be baptized and are going to pray to know WHEN they would like to be baptized. The Lord is truly blessing this area and these two women who are ready for the message of the Gospel.


Yesterday as Elder Hatch and I went to to do our proselyting in the afternoon we went to search two people we had contaced more than a month ago and we were waiting outside the door for quite a while before someone came out and said they would "look to see if they were there"... and we kept waiting. After another 3-5 minutes we were about to leave and I felt as though we should stay and someone came to the door. His name is Jonathan and he is 20 years old. It just so happens that he is related to the people for whom we were looking... and he is also a member. From there we began to talk to Jonathan and about things that have happened in the last several years since he has been baptized. We were later telling this story to a member and she said "What, a coincidence. No. It was God"... and I truly know that it was. I have told many stories of the way that Heavenly Father places us where we need to be and when, and I know that we will be able to help Jonathan come back to church.


I am so grateful every day to be serving a mission. These experiences are once in a life time. A couple of weeks ago we were talking to Hno. Jimenez and we were talking about movies, and he said that we are making the best movie in these two years, and we will spend the rest of our lives watching the movie of our missions over and over again in our minds. I hope I can make the movie the best it can be, and that there are no parts I am "ashamed" of watching again. 


Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray

May 21, 2012

The Best Day of My Mission


 "Today was probably one of the best days of my mission. Up there with the experience of Carla in Martí, when Ana María Salazar told me how much I had helped her family, knowing that Francisco Beltrán was able to be baptized, etc. Well, a few weeks ago, Olga Morataya gave us a referral of her friend Gilda, and in our second visit with Gilda (age 50ish) we met her daughter, Marian (22) who also wanted to start listening to us. We've visited them several times since then, and they have always had great questions for us and been very interested in our message.


"Ever since we gave her (Marian) a Book of Mormon, almost 2 weeks ago, (she) has started reading it. She has also read the pamphlets we leave for them. To top it all of, they also came to church on Sunday, the 13th. So that sets us up.


"Well, our previous visit with them was Friday, May 11th, and we had set up the visit for this upcoming Thursday, the 17th. Well, on Sunday night, Marian called us and asked if we could pass by on Tuesday instead, so we of course said, 'Yes!' Right, now we're all caught up to be able to talk about why today was so great.


"So this morning we stopped by to pick up Olga, and then went to Gilda and Marian's house, and there they were, waiting for us. They had several questions about what happened in church and some other little questions. Now, I don't remember exactly how the conversation was brought up, but there was a silence, and Marian became very pensive and looked like she was about to cry.


"She started to tell us that for the last little while, (months), she hasn't been sleeping well, but ever since we started visiting them, she has slept well. Even more, she is afraid of the dark and sleeps with a little light in her room. But she has been reading the Book of Mormon right before going to bed and then sleeping with the Book of Mormon next to her pillow and she can now turn of the light. She also told us that the other night she went to lock the front door, and it was extremely dark. Usually when this is the case she turns the lights on all the way down the hall, but she didn't, and when she got to the front room, she wasn't afraid, and she felt as if we were sitting there on the couch, watching out for her. She said she could feel our presence. 


"This sounds unreal. But it is true, and I know it. When Marian turned 15, she changed schools from a catholic school to a "normal" one, where those who wanted to search for God could, and those who didn't, didn't. Every once in a while she has had friends invite her to different churches, but she never went. She told us, however, that listening to us, reading the Book of Mormon, and the pamphlets has filled an emptiness in her life and is making her very happy and giving her a new sense of peace. It is such an incredible feeling to know that our message is making such a difference in someone's life."


I know that this gospel is true, and that is truly does change lives. The Plan of Salvation has been given to us for our own eternal happiness. 


Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray

Not What Happened Last Week - May 14, 2012


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I'm not going to let the same thing happen this week as did last week! I'm going to get my stories out there! Because last week I had a lot.


So, about a week and a half ago now, one morning I woke up, got showered, ate breakfast, and went outside to our "sink" to clean my bowl. As I got down to the "sink" I looked into the water and saw... A dead raven. So I go back up and shout to Elder Hatch (who is showering), "Elder Hatch, there's a raven in our "sink"" "A what?" "A DEAD raven in our "sink". So... after Elder Hatch gets out of the showered and dressed, he goes down to see the dead raven... and we then tell our land lady "Doña Hilda, did you know there is a dead raven in our sink?"  "A what?"  "A dead bird in our sink. Did you know?"  "Oh, goodness, no! I'll have my "maid" clean that out really well with bleach and everything and then you'll have nice clean water to wash your dishes with!"   Not exactly why we told her... but ok. It works. Funny story for the day. 


This last week was a pretty good week. We had several great citas with some good people. One of the best citas we had with with two investigators named Gilda and her daughter Marian. They are referrals from a member named Olga. Anyways, they have always had great questions for us, and they read the Book of Mormon, and the pamphlets we leave behind. Anyways, this week we were finally able to teach Marian about the Message of the Restoration! And she said that she believes that it is very possible that Joseph Smith saw God, the Father, and Jesus Christ and that he was a prophet and everything. It was a great lesson and they are progressing a lot! Even better, they came to church with us on Sunday and stayed for all 3 hours and they really liked it! 


On Friday we were walking around, looking for someone to teach, and as we were walking around we saw this 22ish year old kid say goodbye to his girlfriend and watch her walk away... he was of a "rougher" look... long hair, skater, lip ring, ear gauge, etc... as we walked by we said "Buenas tardes (good afternoon)" and he said "Hey guys, how's it going?(in english)" So we decided to stop and start talking to him. It turns out his name is André and his mom started teaching him english about 11 years ago and he speaks with a very good accent. So, we talked for a second and then he asked if we were going to talk to him about Jesus, and we said yes. So then we started walking and talking to this kid. He was a really nice guy, with some good questions, and we ended up giving him 2 copies of the Book of Mormon, one in english and one in spanish, and gave him our phone number in case he has any questions or wants to learn more. He was a great guy. Unfortunately, he doesn't live in our mission, but that's ok! We got a little seed planted for the future :)


Obviously, as my family knows, I got to talk to my family yesterday, and those are always great/special days. A little over a year ago, when Elder Nelson and I were companions, he mentioned that he liked to say family prayer when he talked to his family on Christmas and Mothers' Day... and I always forgot to mention it until yesterday, when I finally remembered. Having a family prayer was absolutely wonderful! It reminded me of all those times that we did prayers when my dad was in Utah, or in other places studying or doing clinicals, or anything like that. It just brings a sense of warmth and unity to do a family prayer, even when your thousands of miles apart.


Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray

"Tender Mercies of the Lord"       April 30, 2012

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This week has truly been a "tender mercy of the Lord" in the life of Elder Hatch and I. We have felt as though we have been working very hard and diligently in our missionary efforts, but we haven't had the success that we have been so desperately working towards. We have had great weeks and difficult weeks as well. But, as I said, this week has truly been a blessing straight from our Heavenly Father.

It all starts with Monday night. We had a lesson with an investigator named Carolina. Her son and daughter-in-law were baptized back in 2010, but she is now listening to us. She started listening to the missionaries back in January, a month before I got to the area. Elder Hatch and I felt like we should go over the first lesson once again with her. We taught her one of the most powerful first lessons of my mission with a very strong Spirit. As we taught there was complete unity between our companionship and the whole lesson just flowed from point to point and I felt the Spirit testify that the things we were sharing are true. Carolina was also very interactive in the lesson, expresses her ideas and opinions. At the end of the lesson we asked her if, upon knowing these things are true, she would be willing to be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and she said, "yes". It was a very strong, spiritual lesson. Afterwards we had a lesson with a less active man named Alex. My companion asked me if that would be the best use of our time, considering that we had a member with us and we could look for an investigator, but I felt that we were supposed to be with Alex. It was also a very powerful lesson we had with him, and he helped himself realize how he can help his friend Ruben truly start to accept the gospel and make the small changes in his life to come to a full realization of the truthfulness of the gospel.

Tuesday was likewise blessed. We had lots of lessons, but I wanted to to mention more specifically the lesson we had with Stuardo Polanco. They just moved out of our area on Saturday, but we had 3 great lessons with them this week. This first one on Tuesday we were able to talk a little bit about families and the temples. Stuardo had the opportunity to go to the open house of the Quetzaltenango Temple and he mentioned to us that it was absolutely beautiful and that it was without a doubt the closest someone could get to God on earth. He also said that he hopes to be able to go back there one day, and we testified to him that he can. It was wonderful.

On Wednesday we had our zone conference, combined with Elder Llewelyn's zone, so I got to spend the day with him. However, the best part in all honesty was the conference. We had a lot of great inspired words and received lots of instruction on how to help improve our areas and Elder Hatch and I received some great revelation for our own area. It was absolutely fantastic!

Thursday was another killer day! In the morning we had a lesson with a woman named Sonja that I contacted with Elder Richins on divisions 5 weeks ago, and we were finally able to teach her. It was a short lesson, but it was really good. At first I didn't think that she was really going to listen to us, but as we kept teaching her the message of the Restoration she opened up more and more and accepted a return visit from us next week! Another awesome lesson we had was with a young woman named Gabi, who is 18 and a referral from a member named Ulises. She is a really sweet girl who was very intrested in listening to us (no, not just cause I'm so good looking ;) JK. But really, it was a fantastic lesson and you can tell that she is really interested in actually knowing what our message is for her. I also conducted a baptismal interview for an 8 year old who was baptized on Saturday. Smart little kid. And we had another lesson with Stuardo, probably the best one we have ever had with him! I don't remember what all we said or how we said it or anything, but I remember that we testified of the importance of the Book of Mormon and how it has completely changed our lives, and Stuardo said "hasta hoy me convincieron que debo leer el libro" which is like "until today you finally convinced me to read the book"... But it sounded a lot cooler in Spanish. After listening to the missionaries for a while, some little thing in our testimonies convinced him of the necessity to read the Book of Mormon. It was another powerful lesson. And the coolest part, is he read the very next day! The Title Page, the Intro, and all 3 testimonies! And then on Saturday he moved out of the area, which was the hardest part.

Saturday and Sunday were also great blessings of the Lord, but not with long stories. However, I know that this work is absolutely true! Today I received an email from a woman in my old area "I helped reactivate" and whose son "I helped baptized". But it was extremely touching to hear from her and know that something I did, or said, to help bring the Spirit into their home helped to change their lives. These are the moments and days that every missionary hopes and loves to have.

Love,

Elder Andrew Anderson LaPray