Week 54: A Talk on Temples & Ties

Did you get my email about the videos?
yes. thats weird they didnt work for the first year. but its good they finally did.

I will let you know (Austin's mission) the destination. Any guesses?
here.

How did Isaiah's house fair after that storm? Is it a reed house like the others? Does he have a family?
yeah, he does have a family. a big one. lots of kids. his house is still there. they are clearing a spot down the hill a little ways and off to the side for a new house. one time he told us that someday he is going to be a member.

Where would President put the little temporary church buildings?
well there are churches all over the place. the small prefab churches are for the more remote locations. it takes a lot to establish a branch though. we will see how things turn out. hes not considering a church building up there yet. we have to have baptisms first.

last week we were up in actela talking to a group of men. they started asking tons of interesting questions. deep, good questions. like how many families they need to have there to have their own church building. and they asked if we could come do an activity and share a movie and talk with all the people about it. it was crazy because for weeks i have been talking about that with the leaders. i hadnt mentioned it to any one person up there and then that man asked exactly what we had been planning. to the detail. they even went and asked permission for us to the mayor guy. telling him they want us to do the activity. we will see. that place really excites me.

Any progress this week with anyone? How is Romelia?
they are all progressing. they just dont tend to come to church much. we will have to get them back. we also went with a less active family. supposedly they got sealed in the temple and have lots of kids that arent baptized. we will be working with them more. they say they just cant leave their church for four or five months cuz of "callings".

Did you have a funeral for the little boy? Do they have funeral services like we do?
they do do funerals here. they do them five times. five saturdays in a row. its strange.

i gave a talk yesterday. on temples. saturday night elder parry and i organized the whole sacrament room. set up chairs and everything. then we lent ties to all the men in white shirts and made sure they sat where they needed to. to show people that we ARE different from other churches. it was the best sacrament meeting we have had in a long time. the members even commented on it.

no baptismal dates yet. working on that. when we do get some though, it will be a large quantity :) like 30 or so. maybe. i really have no doubts about that area in actela. for that im working there. president torres even told me to keep it up. so i am.

i love you and miss you all. again im sorry that your friend passed away mom. i sure am glad for the knowledge that we have though.

take care and hear from you all next week!!

ELDER TAY

Week 53: Mudslides & Missionary Work

HELLOOOO FAMILY!!

Did you talk to Elder Schone at Zone Conference?
no. elder schone is in coban. we went to senahu.

How do you do your laundry? (I think I asked before...been awhile. Still Branch presidents wife I think?)
no we switched to some members in our ward. the guy has like 6 daughters so the laundry gets done very fast. haha

What was the picture about where you were holding a picture of Megan? Have you heard from her?
i hear from her all the time.

Progress with investigators this week? Did President have ideas about the 20 people you have?
i talked at length with him about it. he says he will look into it. he says the church is starting to make little basically prefab churches to put in more remote locations. but we'll see what happens. he wrote it all down.

How are you? Happy?
yes. im very tired today though. we left at 4 in the morning yesterday for senahu and just got back to la tinta just now. (we had ZC in senahu btw)

No more snail mail letters, huh? (hint hint...)
:) working on it

Have you received our snail mail letters?
yes i did and the packages. havent really dug in but thank you so much. and thanks bay for the deodorant!

Have you heard from Nana or Bapa?
havent heard from bapa yet. sometimes i hear from nana.

Do you email Grady, Brenton, Jordan? Do they email you? Grady is in Sandpoint, Idaho now and loves it.
i havent emailed brenton yet. jordan emailed me and grady every once in a while. mind sending me brentons address again?

What's the best part from the first year of your mission? Best thing that has happened? Still know your mommy loves you?
not any one thing is the best thing. its all the best thing. and i love you too.


im sorry your friend past away mom. sounds like she was a very large influence in your life. good friends on the other side.

this week was pretty eventful as well.

tuesday we went up to actela. found a bunch of new investigators and then went with Emilio. Emilio was in some random church named new jerusalem but his son was there. well we asked if we could talk a little and i offered a prayer. well during the prayer we got hit with a wall of peace, comfort, happiness, and yes a little burning of the bosom. it was the strongest spiritual experience i have had. i know he felt it too. i know they know its true. they know what they have to do. they just need to step up and do it. we will be visiting them more this week.

happy birthday ZZZAAACCCKKKK!!

this last week on thursday we ran out of gas. so we came down to la tinta to get gas. well while here we saw a member that told us that a less active member's son had passed away that morning. we have been working with this member. trying to reactivate him. he wants to come back to church. but like emilio. he just has got to do it. well his son was nine years old and not baptized. we offered the baptismal invitation 3 days before he died. they considered it and said they would be coming back to church. they dont know what happened. something with his stomach. that little boy was a very good friend of ours though. we would joke around and play all the time.

the day he died we stopped by the house to offer some sort of comfort. that is the culture. everyone goes to the house and just sits there. well seeing as the young boy was accountable for his actiions i could not appropriately share the scripture in moroni about baptismal for children. instead i shared with him the scripture that says i pray for you constantly that you may endure. it was a very powerful experience. very humbling. i really dont know what else to say. when tragedies happen to the humblest of people it sure does hurt. everyone.

also. the dog named Parry died.

we were teaching a man named isaiah and it started to rain way hard. we got wrecked by the mud. it was basically a flash flood (not really just lots of water). but we got wrecked. we went outside to work and keep his house from washing away. we got back to the house just destroyed. completely covered in mud. poor laundry ladies. :)

i bought a machete. very cool.

we also fixed a mans roof this last week. he lives way up in the mountains. way up there. he has had lots of accidents too. fallen on his head and gotten run over by trucks. needless to say a little slow now. but again. one of the most humble people you will ever ever meet. one of the people that will have salvation. the people that make you cry just thinking about them. especially after the mission. the one that sends that heart pang. but we helped him. i hope my service will be accepted by the Lord.

we slept in Teleman sunday night. elder burden and i had to share a dang cot. our heads were in the middle with our heads hanging off. then we woke up at 3:45 to leave. it was a very good conference though.

the other day-when we ran out of gas we had a worker installing fire alarms in the church. he was staying the night but the gas ran out at dinner time. so we went outside and started a fire. we heated up water for Ramen. mmm.

elder parry and i also roasted marshmallows on the stove the other day. they were dang good haha.

hmmm, branch is progressing. still working on things. president never wears a tie. gonna fix that soon though.

had 31 new investigators this last week! and they all want to come to church. we just gotta find the one to step up and take the challenge.

thank you so much for my packages. i love you and thank you Grandma Larsen! i got the truffles! and they ain't melted :) thank you.

i miss and love each and every one of you. hey thats not my hat you sent by the way. thats dads. my hat is white and fitted. so if you are sending a picture package just toss that one in there ;) haha i love you so much and am so grateful that we are together forever!!

love,

ELDER TAY

Week 51: Volcanos, Hurricanes & Baptismal Dates

hi family!

sorry about the email last week. it must have been the connection. its a good one though. and thanks to the new email system it was saved!

happy birthday mom!
sorry its two weeks late.

well first off. im fine. nothing happened where i am. the most that happened was a light dusting of volcanic ash on the ground and lots of rain. we heard that the volcano erupted and that ash was flying and we highly doubted it would get to the polochic. but elder parry went out to the bathroom in his garment top and when he came back in he had big grey spots on his shirt. and thats how we found out that we had gotten "ashed." i collected some of the ash. its very cool. way small-smaller than sand-and super black. i can see why we werent allowed to leave cuz if that got in your lungs it would probably hurt.
we came walking back in the dark the other night from meeting with our baptismal possibility and it started raining hard. we got soaked. and there was tons of fog. i was really looking forward to the hurricane but it never came. i wasnt worried at all. we live in a fortress of a church. its not going nowheres. i swear i am in the dream mission. mmmhhmmm. there really is nothing like it in the world.

well i baptize in la tinta because the district leader lives in tucuru and thats along ways away. sorry if there are no spaces or my grammar is wrong. the keyboard sticks very badly. and also, all the people in la tinta know who i am. we are there every pday and we go down for a lot of baptisms and they all ask for me to baptize them. its funny but im honored to do it.

mosiah 23:21-22. i like.

well this last week was hectic with all that happened. we went with emilio and challenged him to baptism. he is reluctant-saying he has already been baptized and married in the church nuevo jerusalen. (new jerusalem). but we are going up there with the members this next week. i dont know though. they tend to talk. aalllooooottttt. so we may have to go visit them before we go. but im hoping to have a baptismal date with him this next week. he has also two sons and their wives with a couple children. we`ll see if it works out. it will be very cool if it does.

so we are in el estor today. i gotta buy a qeqchi bible and my companion has to buy shoes. its way cool here. not just because its civilization. its got a cool culture.
there is lots of english here too. i was just in a store and some guy came up and said "man youre tall, how tall are you?" haha i told him and asked where he was from. apparently hes from rhode island. he lives here i guess. bet he left then came back 30 seconds later and invited us to go play basketball with him later today. "if you got game come play" he says. we cant though danget. gotta go back to santo domingo and its against mission rules. which is really depressing. i dont remember voting for that.

it feels way good to get out of la tinta for pday.

what the heck is up with the mormon world haha. how does everyone know everyone? its kinda scary to be honest haha. are we really that social?

i have an emergency pack and i am ready to go. eagle! congrats to austin by the way.

oh and elder schone called me yesterday and said that he had gotten an emergency change back to a qeqchi speaking area. he is very excited. stoked rather. elder legua is still waiting to come back though. apparently a new zone or group of areas is opening soon. a place called cahbon. i could get a change to somewhere around there and so could elder legua. we shall see! im excited.

all the elders that are my friends are fine. which are a lot. elder turek talked to me too. hes doing fine and missing the mountains much like me. we are planning on going on some cool camping trips.

i love you and miss you. one and all!!


take care


ELDER TAY

(From last week)

helloooo family-

ok well first of all im pretty sure i dont have a few extra pounds on my body haha. just so you guys know. im starting to lose weight again.

Where are you? Did you transfer?
nope. five changes in the same place. nine months. almost a year. and my new companion is the same one-elder parry from washington. and he lives close to forks he says. the girls should like that!

How was your week? Did you travel anywhere?
well this last week we went way high into the mountains. even higher than actela. its called canal. i have no idea why. but it was gorgeous. ill get pics this next week. i have other pictures to send today. better ones.

How were your lessons this week?
they were great. we found an old man that says he wants to get baptized and married in the temple. he lives in Actela. i think this guy could be the window for the gospel in that area. everyone knows him. i think hes the reason i had the feeling we needed to work there. i think we are going to set a baptismal date tomorrow. he has a lot of family too. Ramiro we didnt teach this laast week. hes working all day and all night apparently. doesnt really have time.

I haven't asked in a week or so...how is the language?
its good. talking to other missionaries they have told me that they hear i have great qeqchi. but i dont feel like it. its hard to explain. i understand a lot. its just hearing what exactly they are saying that is the problem. like specifics. most of the time i will understand the context but specifics are hard. and the thing with qeqchis is if they ask me a question and i answer what i think i heard (and isnt right) they wont ask the question again. i dont know if its humility or patience on their part. it just puts more pressure on me.

Tummy trouble?
a little bit. im fine though

Favorite scripture this week?
john 8:12

How is the branch organization coming? (If you are still in Santo Domingo) its better. this week though we had the district conference with all of the polochic valley. president and sister torres were there. it was a good conference. pretty short.

Did you get pictures of the corn planting?
i got a picture of the place. ill send it. all they do is stick a stick in the ground and throw four corn seeds in it. thats it haha. good report huh? then after they drink toasted corn water called q'em ha.

You mentioned mango season, but what other fruits are you eating? Veggies? Where do you get them?
well in la tinta they have a market where they sell all kinds of vegetables. even giant carrots. thats where i get my fruits and veggies for the most part. pineapples are almost ripe. that will be soon. mmmm. cant wait haha.

Are the church meetings structured the same way ours are? (Like sacrement mtg, etc.) Do you help with blessing the sacrement, etc?
yep they are the same. except here the organization is a little diffferent. the president doesnt really do relief society or priesthood. so thats next on the list. and my companion and i bless the sacrament every week. soon it should be alfonso (who was my baptisma and elena-his wife-is and was a member) and a recent convert rolando.

Are you surviving the heat? Do you know what the temperature is? Does it cool off at night? Can you purchase a portable fan to plug in to the wall at night? We'll put money in your account. :)
its hard. its soooo dang hot. every day its about 95 and 100% humidity or so. so its way hot. where i am its a little bit cooler. down in the valley its incredibly hot. what a blessing im in the mountains. it cools off to like 85 at night. and if i buy a fan its reimbursible by the mission. so ill probably just do that. dont worry about money in my account. :)

well last week i found a big red snake. like pure red. a deep redish purple to be exact. i tried to get a picture of it but it went under all the grass and disappeared and i couldnt find it again. it was like 2 to 3 feet long.

the man we found that wants to get baptized and married is like seventy years old. his name is emilio chen. very cool old man. has a huge family too. we found another family of 8 that was way interested too. they dont have a church either. which is rare for here. well see how it goes. they live pretty far away from the church so we'll see if they come.

well we had a couple lost days this last week. my companion and i were both pretty sick. diahreea. again. i was pretty sick and he gave me a blessing and it hasnt come back again...or yet. im fine though. no worries. it was a good blessing. he told me i can teach these people something that nobody else can. but i got better right after it. :)

well i miss you and love all of you so much. keep asking questions. gotta cut this one a little short cuz of the pictures.

love,

ELDER TAY