Hey Mom, just a question, are you still posting my emails in my blog? And do you put my subject lines as my blog posts? I know I never told you to do that, but I kind of just hoped you would... I know my subject lines are that funny, but sometimes they are kind of "punny"...
As I said last week, my new companion is Elder Flores. The translation of "flores" is "flowers". Hence, "Life with Flowers". Haha... it's okay to laugh. Anyways... ever since about June 11th or so, I've been REALLY good at writing in my journal, and my record continues with Elder Flores. It's really cool to see once again daily journal writing. There are a lot of things that happen in a day that you just can't explain after a lot of time has passed, hence the reason I never caught up on the month of May that I missed so much of. Oh well. Maybe one day I will get around to it, but I'm not exactly banking on it.
Wednesday, as you all know, was the 4th of July. Did you know that Guatemala has a 4th of July as well? It's just like every other day. But, I did put on a special tie to celebrate the United States' Independence! in only 4 years we celebrate 240 years of independence, which means in 14 years, when I'm 34 and a practicing doctor, we will celebrate 2 and a half centuries as an independent country!! Woohoo!!!! To celebrate, we worked like normal. In the morning we had a visit with Marian and Gilda and they had questions for us about Patriarchal Blessings, because that's what they talked about in Relief Society. They also heard all SORTS of stuff from people's blessings because they read parts of them in class. Definitely NOT normal... but they learned a little about them, but we definitely had to clarify a few things. Just another Sunday in Guat :) And then we had district meeting and then went to eat lunch and had hot dogs, hamburgers, and rootbeer floats! It was pretty delicious.
On Thursday night I was talking to the finance elder, Elder Nelson (not my former companion) about some questions he had about the office and he told me about some of the small little "fights" they have had in the office and it reminded me of something I learned back when I was in the office that is very important to remember when you are expressing your feelings and opinions... It's important not to blame others. It IS important to use expressions such as "I believe" and "I feel" in order to appease situations. Just because you believe something should be done another way or that someone else is imposing unjustly responsibilities doesn't mean you have to say "You're doing this" or "You're doing that"... but rather... "I feel that the way things have been going are making..." or "I believe that if we were to approach this problem/situation..." you are much more likely to be heard, less likely to offend, and you yourself are much less likely to continue being upset. I know I probably don't need to counsel anyone in that... but it really helped me and it never hurts to recap for myself.
On Saturday I was able to go to my second wedding in Guatemala. Hooray! One of our investigators and his member wife were married! which is really great news! Not necessarily an exciting ceremony, but that's okay. Now we just have to keep working with the husband and spark in him the desire to be baptized!
Life with flowers, Elder Flores, is great! We get along really well! He's a fun loving guy who loves to work hard in the work of the Lord. We're going to work harder than ever this week to receive the blessings of our Heavenly Father that we so desperately need in our lives.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
As I said last week, my new companion is Elder Flores. The translation of "flores" is "flowers". Hence, "Life with Flowers". Haha... it's okay to laugh. Anyways... ever since about June 11th or so, I've been REALLY good at writing in my journal, and my record continues with Elder Flores. It's really cool to see once again daily journal writing. There are a lot of things that happen in a day that you just can't explain after a lot of time has passed, hence the reason I never caught up on the month of May that I missed so much of. Oh well. Maybe one day I will get around to it, but I'm not exactly banking on it.
Wednesday, as you all know, was the 4th of July. Did you know that Guatemala has a 4th of July as well? It's just like every other day. But, I did put on a special tie to celebrate the United States' Independence! in only 4 years we celebrate 240 years of independence, which means in 14 years, when I'm 34 and a practicing doctor, we will celebrate 2 and a half centuries as an independent country!! Woohoo!!!! To celebrate, we worked like normal. In the morning we had a visit with Marian and Gilda and they had questions for us about Patriarchal Blessings, because that's what they talked about in Relief Society. They also heard all SORTS of stuff from people's blessings because they read parts of them in class. Definitely NOT normal... but they learned a little about them, but we definitely had to clarify a few things. Just another Sunday in Guat :) And then we had district meeting and then went to eat lunch and had hot dogs, hamburgers, and rootbeer floats! It was pretty delicious.
On Thursday night I was talking to the finance elder, Elder Nelson (not my former companion) about some questions he had about the office and he told me about some of the small little "fights" they have had in the office and it reminded me of something I learned back when I was in the office that is very important to remember when you are expressing your feelings and opinions... It's important not to blame others. It IS important to use expressions such as "I believe" and "I feel" in order to appease situations. Just because you believe something should be done another way or that someone else is imposing unjustly responsibilities doesn't mean you have to say "You're doing this" or "You're doing that"... but rather... "I feel that the way things have been going are making..." or "I believe that if we were to approach this problem/situation..." you are much more likely to be heard, less likely to offend, and you yourself are much less likely to continue being upset. I know I probably don't need to counsel anyone in that... but it really helped me and it never hurts to recap for myself.
On Saturday I was able to go to my second wedding in Guatemala. Hooray! One of our investigators and his member wife were married! which is really great news! Not necessarily an exciting ceremony, but that's okay. Now we just have to keep working with the husband and spark in him the desire to be baptized!
Life with flowers, Elder Flores, is great! We get along really well! He's a fun loving guy who loves to work hard in the work of the Lord. We're going to work harder than ever this week to receive the blessings of our Heavenly Father that we so desperately need in our lives.
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
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