Week 89: The Cake

hello and good morning americans!!

this last week was pretty eventful.

first, after emailing we were asked to go make a cake for a little girls birthday. i cant believe we thought that was going to turn out well. k first the recipe that they had for us did not sound good so we called sister torres to get a different one. the one she gave us was a tres leches cake without the tres leches cuz there is no real milk in this country. so we tried that. we started off well but we were supposed to whip it until the whites, well, turned white. we thought we did that and we added the yokes one at a time. at that point in time we realized we were late for our internet hour so we just threw the cake mix in the fridge and we came and wrote you guys.

well after we went back the cake batter had completely deflated. and the oven that we were supposed to use (which was heated by burning firewood) wasn't hot enough anymore and they were going to make bread for their bakery. so we came up to the church in the middle of senahu. the whole time we were whipping the cake batter trying to get it to fluff up again.

so we turned the oven on in the church while they were doing some primary activity and using the kitchen to cook and do everything. it was super crowded. after a couple minutes we smell a melting plastic smell so we opened the oven and sure enough. plastic sacrament cups melting all over the racks! at this point we were nearly hysterical. we turned off the oven and re heated it and then we cooked the cake. i was scared it wasnt going to turn out but after forty minutes it was nice and puffy and golden brown. i made some frosting from some fake milk and powdered sugar and some nasty margarine and we frosted it.

when we cut it we just started laughing harder! the middle had turned into like a jello type substance about a cm in thickness that smelled strongly of eggs. i can still smell it now just thinking about it.

long story short it was disgusting. the frosting was ok. not as good as the blessed united state's frosting but tolerable.

moral: dont ever try to make a cake in guatemala.

more news about the family we are working with. we went there one night this last week and found them out on the trail going to their house. just sitting there. we started talking to them and the girlfriend lady just randomly started crying and ran off. so we went to their house to see what was wrong where they told us what had happened. apparently a member had gone to their house to by lard. 6 quetzales the half pound. well he, being awesome, gave him a full pound without charging him full price. only charged him 6 quetz. what wrenched my heart the most was the little girl-whos about 5 years old. we were sitting in their house in their front room and she just came up and huddled up against me. i have a good picture of her i will send next week. she is such a little angel. they came to church yesterday! woo! but they will be getting baptized. the next day everyone was fine and back to normal.

marvin, a 17 yr. old kid, will be getting baptized next saturday. if all goes to plan. which it should.

we had 7 investigators in church yesterday! that made me happy.

senahus elevation is like 3,715 feet above sea level. thats it. and its cold here.

saturday some members from utah and the captial came and were interviewing members for a business they will be putting in. its focus is to help the people here who are poor to become self sufficient. well they took a video of my companion and i so if you get a weird video from someone it is us in front of the market in senahu! he said he was going to send it to you. they were cool and they gave us rides to and from our area.

as for vacation i have no idea. whatever you would like to do. doesnt matter really. just want to spend time with me family.

the picture included is the branch president and his family in la tinta. they invited us to lunch. if the other one goes through it is the ex district president's little daughter from teleman. that is one of my favorite pictures.

love and miss you all!!!!

ELDER TAY