Well things have not been quite what I expected, once again. On Thursday the ZLs called us to let us know that we would have to come down to the capital on Sunday night so Elder Hill could sign papers for his residency application. So, last night we left Sayaxché at 5:30, got to Santa Elena(Petén) around 7, got on another bus at 9 p.m. from Santa Elena and got to the capital this morning at about 5:30. BORING! And TIRED! The bus ride was FREEZING cold, so that made it hard to sleep, but I caught a few winks, luckily I took my sweater in anticipation. We sat around the APs house for a couple hours this morning, waiting for them to be ready to leave, and then we headed out to the office, snagged breakfast, and then we went to have Elder Hill sign the paper work. It literally took a grand total of 5 minutes. We spent (to the moment) 10 hours on a bus, with at least 10 more to go so that we could spend 5 minutes signing two papers and getting his picture taken. Lame. But, what can you do? We're trying to get done with internet and everything fast so that we can hopefully peace out by 2 p.m. instead of 9 p.m. and be back in Petén before the morrow. That would be LOVELY! I do NOT want to sleep on the bus, I'd prefer a cot.
This last week has held MUCH more success than the last few. We've been working hard and trying to help Elder Pérez adjust to missionary life and learning how to teach the Gospel. It's been pretty hard for him, but we doing our best.
For weeks now we have been working with an investigator named Noemí, and she feels the desire to be baptized she just doesn't know when. Finally after almost 2 months she came to church yesterday!! Elder Hill and I were elated when we saw her walk in and sit down next to him! Better yet, she stayed for all 3 hours! On the downside, it looks like she is going to leave Sayaxché for a few weeks, so we won't be able to teach her for a while, which is always a somewhat sticky situation, so we'll just hope we can keep in touch with her!
There has been a lot of rain this last week, and we got soaked a couple times, but it was fun. Nothing like last week. Because my letter was so short last week, I didn't mention this part, but our first day with Elder Pérez we got absolutely soaked walking in the rain, and it was freezing cold! In order to make the situation less awful and painful, I started singing some hymns at the top of my lungs to lighten the mood. It actually turned out to be pretty fun :) But still really cold at the same time!
Last Friday we had a REALLY good day! We had an excellent talk with Hno Carlos Guillermo. He had been working for a couple weeks and we hadn't seen him, but it appears that they both have the desire to get baptized, they just have a couple things they need to do before they can do so, one of them being receive all of the missionary discussions and have a testimony of the Gospel as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. We also had 3 lessons with 3 referrals that night! It was overall fantastic!
Saturday was also a pretty good day. We had a lesson with Familia Morán. I'm not sure how we can help them know that their civil state is okay, but they really need to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon as the word of God. One of the most interesting things is that Hna Sonya shares a lot of our beliefs, but she is a little unsure because it seems that everyone else stands against us, even though I personal know that we are following the teaching of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We also had a nice visit with Familia Mota, whom we hadn't seen in several weeks due to the holidays, and our last cita was with Henry and Julieta. Julieta is a slightly less-active member and Henry is her non-member husband. They are 23 and 22, respectively. Henry seems very interested in learning more about the Gospel, and I feel that he should progress fairly quickly, especially if his wife can give him a good example. The difficult thing is that we can't seem him very often, once every week or two due to his work.
Yesterday in church We only had 49 in attendance, as opposed to the 71 we had last week! But it was good. We didn't get to do too much teaching in the evening because we had to leave for the capital, but overall it was a good week! I just know that I'm going to work my hiney off until the end comes!!
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
This last week has held MUCH more success than the last few. We've been working hard and trying to help Elder Pérez adjust to missionary life and learning how to teach the Gospel. It's been pretty hard for him, but we doing our best.
For weeks now we have been working with an investigator named Noemí, and she feels the desire to be baptized she just doesn't know when. Finally after almost 2 months she came to church yesterday!! Elder Hill and I were elated when we saw her walk in and sit down next to him! Better yet, she stayed for all 3 hours! On the downside, it looks like she is going to leave Sayaxché for a few weeks, so we won't be able to teach her for a while, which is always a somewhat sticky situation, so we'll just hope we can keep in touch with her!
There has been a lot of rain this last week, and we got soaked a couple times, but it was fun. Nothing like last week. Because my letter was so short last week, I didn't mention this part, but our first day with Elder Pérez we got absolutely soaked walking in the rain, and it was freezing cold! In order to make the situation less awful and painful, I started singing some hymns at the top of my lungs to lighten the mood. It actually turned out to be pretty fun :) But still really cold at the same time!
Last Friday we had a REALLY good day! We had an excellent talk with Hno Carlos Guillermo. He had been working for a couple weeks and we hadn't seen him, but it appears that they both have the desire to get baptized, they just have a couple things they need to do before they can do so, one of them being receive all of the missionary discussions and have a testimony of the Gospel as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith. We also had 3 lessons with 3 referrals that night! It was overall fantastic!
Saturday was also a pretty good day. We had a lesson with Familia Morán. I'm not sure how we can help them know that their civil state is okay, but they really need to gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon as the word of God. One of the most interesting things is that Hna Sonya shares a lot of our beliefs, but she is a little unsure because it seems that everyone else stands against us, even though I personal know that we are following the teaching of the Savior, Jesus Christ. We also had a nice visit with Familia Mota, whom we hadn't seen in several weeks due to the holidays, and our last cita was with Henry and Julieta. Julieta is a slightly less-active member and Henry is her non-member husband. They are 23 and 22, respectively. Henry seems very interested in learning more about the Gospel, and I feel that he should progress fairly quickly, especially if his wife can give him a good example. The difficult thing is that we can't seem him very often, once every week or two due to his work.
Yesterday in church We only had 49 in attendance, as opposed to the 71 we had last week! But it was good. We didn't get to do too much teaching in the evening because we had to leave for the capital, but overall it was a good week! I just know that I'm going to work my hiney off until the end comes!!
Love,
Elder Andrew A. LaPray
