Week 98: 21st Birthday, Two Baptisms...and Ending My Mission in SEAMAY!!

What ended up happening with transfers?
well it turns out i will be ending my mission in seamay! i am super happy. i love seamay

Who is your companion and where are you?
as for my companion i will not know until wednesday in the morning. elder hale unfortunately is being transferred. we still dont know where yet. all they have told us is that he will be transferred to one of four zones. senahu, polochic, coban or baja verapaz. so pretty much we are still in the dark. sounds like he will still be speaking qeqchi though.

Did you have to leave? no i dont have to leave and i have no idea about the rest. sorry but not till next monday.

(about william)
Can you give him another Book of Mormon copy?
we already did. we had another one on hand :) prepared.

Do you need money?
no. i sent blas' mom to get your cortes though. she was nice enough to do it. and they are absolutely cool cortes. she wasnt able to get blue. just two with pink as the main color. and yes the cortes come with what is called a guipil or a po'ot in qeqchi. dont worry. i got it all squared away :) and i have some corte ties on the way too for the men of the house.

(about the 40 dollars in the account)
Can you think of something to do with that money?
thank you so much for thinking of this people. they are truly very special. its hard to find somewhere to start. the whole community is poor. i will definitely be looking for a way to help somebody out with it though. maybe some future missionaries in the branch? there are, as of right now, 3 or 4 preparing to go on missions.

Did you have your baptisms? Do you have pictures? Are we getting any pictures this week?
yes we did have the baptisms. on thursday during a huge rain storm. oscar and frander are their names. amazing very smart young men. their parents were able to go to their baptism too. which was very special for them. i would send pictures but the memory card i took them on doesnt seem to want to work at the moment. besides i am in a jumper thats too small for me in them anyway. very uncomfortable to lift your arm to the square as it pulls up the WHOLE suit. its alright though. it was a very spiritual baptismal service :)

Did you get your package yet?
not yet. maybe this next thursday or within the next couple weeks.

heellloooo family!! thank you for the happy birthday wishes. it has already been a happy birthday. this last week was pretty interesting.

first we did divisions. elder hale went up to yaalijux and i stayed in seamay with elder norton. this kid can sing!

elder hale came back, that morning elder lara did the baptismal interviews and that thursday afternoon they were baptized with power and authority. their whole family came. lots of less active/inactive members. i baptized oscar and elder hale baptized frander. i want to send pictures but they dont show up when i hook the memory card to the computer. sorry. will work on that.

saw a shirt this last week that said "hollister and fitch" had no idea those two companies merged haha. jk.

i wiped out standing up the other day. we got to david tiuls house after it had rained and the ground was super muddy. well i was just standing there waiting to go into the house and my feet just went out from underneath me. got my pants all dirty, my bag with my books, and all my hand all the way to my elbow. it was hilarious.

as mentioned above i got the cortes. i just need you guys to do something. i need you to measure your wastes down to your ankles-just the girls. blas' mom is going to sow the cortes and stuff so they fit you just right. she is awesome. she is the lady in the picture of us all together with the pizza on the far left in the green. so if you could have that for me next week that would be great. and i will get some pictures of the corte for you all too.

so we decided, in light of the upcoming changes (this was before i knew i was staying), to celebrate our birthdays. so yesterday in the afternoon we made the pizzas. holy cow were they good. those were the best pizzas i have had in two years! even dominoes doesnt compare. guaranteed. cuz i have had dominoes in these last two years. vinicio-blas seniors son-in-law and i were in charge of it. we ended up doing a division to be able to cook the pizzas. elder hale and i both usually go to the computer class we give each sunday. well this sunday i stayed with vinicio who is a returned missionary and elder hale went with blas to go teach the class. worked out great. vinicio and i even had time to go visit edmundo and set another baptismal date with him!! it was awesome. a blast. thank you for the recipe mom. vinicio is trying to come up with ideas to make better money here....could you send me all baking recipes you may have? he really wants them. especially cinnamon rolls. mmmmm. thanks!

edmundo and victor didnt make it to church this last sunday. so we went there with vinicio and had a good talk with them. they seem to understand. edmundo has a testimony. he just needs to act on it. they have until the 14 of may to show progress. that is when the baptismal date is set for. hope it turns out.

pictures that i was able to get to work:

#1elder hale, jesus and I.
#2the service we did this last week. we helped a member family construct a new house. very crappy construction but the famous qeqchi word comes into play in this context "akre"
#3 green. blas's mom. little kids in red brown and blue. blas juniors little brothers and sisters. ch'ip is in brown. thats amy. in orange. blas' sister in law and the kid in green and the little tiny girl you cant really see are her kids. guy in hat. blas. senior. guy in shirt and tie. me. guy in other shirt and tie. vinicio and the lady behind me is vinicio's wife, blas's sister-who is also a returned missionary.

out of time!!

love you soooo much. thank you for all you dooooo.

elder tay