[Attachment(s) from Brian LaPray included below]

----- Forwarded Message -----
From: Andrew LaPray <andrew.lapray@myldsmail.net>
To: Brian LaPray <bjlapray@yahoo.com>; Brian LaPray <bjlapray@gmail.com>; Tom Duncan <teeduncan@gmail.com>; Emily Duncan <bowsbyduncan@gmail.com>; sblapray <sblapray@yahoo.com>; Alexis LaPray <alexismarie17@yahoo.com> 
Sent: Monday, October 1, 2012 2:21 PM
Subject: Two Weeks in One

It's crazy how fast time is flying!! We're already in week 4 of the change!!! That's almost half way of the change! Wednesday marks half of the change. Ridiculous! Sorry about not getting an email out last week, it was super quick of time flew. My bad. I'll try to make up for it this week if there were any cool stories. 

Well.. it looks like there wasn't a whole lot to tell from the week I didn't write. I was just looking over my journal and not really many experiences to share. What an interesting blessing :) Looks like no one really missed out. The only thing I wanted to mention was Sunday. Rather interesting. 

Since it is the 4th Sunday of the month we had to talk, which is nothing out of the ordinary, so I already had a nice talk planned about "Being Born Again" which, I thought was pretty decent. Nothing knock your socks off, but it's Sacrament meeting, not General Conference, right? Then Sunday School starts, and the teacher didn't come to church, nor the person she called to give the lesson... "Hey, Elder LaPray, could you give the Sunday School lesson?".... ummmmmmmmm guess so... So I gave a nice impromptu lesson of 3 Nephi 1-7. Not the finest hour. I had 0 preparation time. Not even a quick 2 minute glance over the manual. It was start and go. It came out alright, I hope. Priesthood rolls around and, guess what, Elder LaPray gives the lesson! Good news, I already knew I was giving that lesson. It was from April General Conference "Converted to His Gospel through the Church" by Elder Donald L. Hallstrom. EXCELLENT talk! However, I kind of felt like it was Elder LaPray day. But, we are the only ones with a General Conference edition of the Liahona so I prepared the class assuming I would have to give it. I really enjoyed giving that class, probably because I was prepared. It reminded me a little of Nevis... even though I never had to give a talk and 2 lessons in one Sunday, I did have to talk a LOT and every fast Sunday I HAD to share my testimony. It's a little different as a missionary. The good news is that I like teaching. I just like it a little more when I'm prepared.

I know that you guys probably don't care, but last Monday I was in a paca and I found a SICK Beatles shirt and a Tommy Boy shirt (see attachments)... Like, Q15 for both of them! Steal! 

On Monday my hijo(son) Elder Hatch turned 20 and on Tuesday he hit 8 months in the mission. That's just super crazy because when I started training him he had 2 months. It CRAZY how fast time goes!! 

On Wednesday Elder Barahona and I had divisions here in Sayaxché. It's always interesting to go on a division with a previous companion. There are a lot of little differences that you notice with each one, and some things you remember that were the same, but it's really easy to teach together. I remember when I did a division with Elder Nelson when he was AP that we taught super well together, even though it had been almost a year since we were companions! Wednesday with Elder Barahona was very similar. We fell right back into our old teaching groove and everything flowed really well. The biggest difference is that when we were companions, I was more of the leading force, and in our division he was more of the leading force for being ZL. It's just a natural tendency. 

We met some great people in our division and got some new investigators. The goal was to put some fechas(baptismal dates) but it was good to get some new investigators as well. One of those new investigators is a 22 year old named Luis. We left him the Book of Mormon to read, 3 Nephi 11. On Friday Elder Bobadilla went back and he had read 3 Nephi 11 and really understood and had one of the most sincere desires to learn I have ever seen on my mission. He has true, honest doubts, but it doesn't put it out there that it can't be true. He really wants to know the truth about the Book of Mormon and is willing to read it to find out. It was an excellent lesson!! 

The other day I wrote one of my grandpa's stories in my journal, that all of my family knows very well, but for those of you who do not, I would like to share it. 

"It seems that once upon a time there was an Educated Cat. This cat was very smart - and he knew that there must be a better way to catch a mouse. He wanted to avoid the laborious and time consuming task of hunting, stalking, and pouncing - on a mouse. This was very hard work and the cat thought that with his education, he should be able to devise an easier way to do this essential task. He finally decided that the best thing to do would be to use a mouse trap. This seemed like the smart thing to do.

"The Educated Cat obtained an excellent trap, but found that he didn't have even a tiny bit of cheese to use as bait. He thought and thought and pawed through some magazines looking for ideas and finally he came upon the plan of simply clipping a picture of a yummy piece of cheese from the magazine. He set up the trap in this fashion and spent the rest of the evening in the warm and cozy comfort of his bed.

"THe next day he awakened and found that he had indeed been successful and had caught something in his trap - a picture of a mouse!"

I don't have time to go through the whole analysis, but in the words of my grandfather, the message is "as old as mankind. You get out of a task(life) what you put in." Now this applies to literally EVERYTHING in life, and most especially to a mission. I will get exactly out of my mission what I put in. If I put in a picture of a missionary, I will get out a picture of a mission. If I put in myself, my whole self, I will get out something much better. As the scriptures say, somewhat paraphrased, "He that loseth himself, shall find eternal life".

Love you all!

Elder Andrew A. LaPray

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Attachment(s) from Brian LaPray
2 of 2 Photo(s)