"Be strong and of a good courage; Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee." Joshua 1:9

Monday, January 4, 2010

Week 29: Butter, Birds & Life in the Polochic

Hi All!
Nana sent that much money for my mission? Holy cow. What all is going on back home?

Yes im being obedient. I promised, so I am. I obey. And I'm doing fine :) Dont worry. Unfortunately many missionaries do stupid stuff like that. They don't see the bigger picture.

Thank you for the package. I havent gotten mail since the zone conference. Which was a couple weeks ago. That part I dont like about here. But someday it will get to me.

This last week alot happened. First the branch president held a huge party thing for his son. They were ordaining him to a preist but he had people come hours and hours to be there. Had the missionaries share some thoughts. Then he talked for about an hour or so before they did the ordination. We were late getting into the house.

Thats great about dad getting the job. It' ll probably be really weird to have a 9 to 5 job again haha. that should be funny.

BTW the mandarines straight of the trees and the fresh pineaples are absolutely amazing. mmmmmmm. Sorry about the spelling. This keyboard is horrible.

Well another baptism got postponed. Her name was irlanda-the pregnant girl. She had her baby and according to the qeqchi beliefs she cant leave her bed for forty one days or she'll probably die (i have no idea). She went into labor at three in the morning this last week. So her dad, being a qeqchi man, threw her on his wheelbarrow and wheeled her an hour and a half to la tinta. Poor guy. Life is tough here.

A bird pooped on my shoulder this last week!

I have real butter now! Not only did I bring some from coban but we did a secret santa gift exchange and the sister missionary who had me gave me butter and peanut butter. mmmm I'm livin large now. haha. Now instead of pancakes and french toast with margarine- its the same. Except with butter. :)

The other day we were walking down the trail and saw a pacmal on a tree (big lizard-10 inches long maybe). So we started throwing rocks at it trying to knock it off. Then an old man came down the trail and asked what we were doing. We pointed the lizard out to him and he promptly started picking things up to huck at it. He couldnt hit it so he just walked right up to it and nailed it with a rock. It was hilarious haha. Just a little old man!

This last week we were in a house after a lesson and the lady told us to stay a little longer. We thought she was gonna give us food but after all the evangelist members from the local church arrived and the pastor we realized something else was up. Well about 20 people entered the house and shut and locked the door behind them. Then they started to do their crazy cult stuff. Screaming, yelling, crying. It scared the crap out of me. It lasted about an hour or so. A few times during it I honestly felt like crying. Not from fear but from the disrespect shown towards my Father in Heaven and my older brother Jesus. As soon as it ended we asked if we could sing our own hymns. Then we contacted everyone in the house and respectfully invited them to church. That felt way good. And after, everyone wanted to hear more hymns so we told them to come to church and/or someday we'd come to their houses and sing.

Everyone here likes pop rocks you sent. Alot!

QUESTIONS:

1) Dad says he's trying to narrow down your location. We know you are north of the river, but are you east or west of Senahu?
Senahu is right on the other side of the mountains from me. Towards the polochic river.
2) Did you get any letters this week or your CD?
Got the one from you and austin. I forgot i had it from the zone conference. Nothing else at all though.
3) Are you cooking three meals a day? Were you able to use the rice and pasta mixes I sent?
Yes i am. And yes thank you. They were delicious. :)
4) Any new investigators this week? How about your baptism? Everything going ok?
A couple. The work is really slow. We are brainstoriming about what the problem could be. Satan sure is working very hard against us.
5) What did you do for service this week? Remember President Monsons talk about, "And what did you do for someone today?"
Service as in preaching the gospel or physical service?
6) How is the language learning this week?
It's rough. Testifying, praying and sharing a little more every time i get the chance. It's way hard but its coming.
7) Do you have district meetings and zone conferences?
Yep. Every pday we have district meetings. Zone conferences are every change.
8) When is the next change? Do you expect to move?
Nope I'm probably staying. Its in two weeks.
9) How is Elder Legua, Schone and your companion?
Theyre all good and healthy.
10) What season is it there? How is the weather?
The same. There arent really any seasons. It's been rainy and foggy. I'd send pictures but the internet is slow.
11) Any new foods/illnesses?
Nope
12) The hiking boots I found are dark and are Nike. Those the right ones?
Yep them is it
13) Cool things that happened this week?
see above :)
14) Best/Worst part of your week?
Worst is the cult thing. Best, when we left the cult thing.
15) Do you know we love you sooooo much?
Yes, what about you? Do you know?
16) Low top socks? Moisture wicking?
I dont need socks. But if you send some send huge ones like my football socks for the rubber boots. I have low topped moisture wicking ones.

I love you and miss you!!!!
Elder Tayler Larsen