Week 55: Marshmallows and a Girl Named Griselda

well hey hey hey familia. ¿que tal, como estan?

questions first:

How was the week teaching? Did you have luck getting anyone to church?
nope. teaching was fine though. the people know that this is His church. it is just a matter of giving up the past and looking towards the future. belief requires action and they are lacking in that. we should get them this next week though. well do everything possible.

Do you need more garments?
i dont think so. im all good.

Has anyone said anything to you about your blog? (My blog?)
no nothing. you would probably be the one to hear about it anyway. but no i havent heard anything.

Do you know your family loves you?!
yes

When are transfers? This week?
yes. thursday or friday i will know if im leaving this area or not. it will be hard. i have a lot of great friends in this area. we will have to come back to visit them.

Did you see I deposited your tax refund checks in your account? ($88)
i havent checked my personal account. ill use that to buy the mayan head though. thank you for depositing it :)

Any pictures this week?
well im trying to send pictures. the internet is really slow. they are pictures of a family we roasted marshmallows with. they thought those things were a heaven send. they loved those. better than the pancakes we made with them. they hated those things haha. but ill see if i can get it to send. the other picture of the little girl is a girl named Griselda. she's the cutest dang thing ever. she cracks me up too. but she likes marshmallows too. especially toasted.

well this was a pretty long week. we taught tons of lessons with tons of awesome people that want the blessings of the gospel. they just couldnt make it to church. maybe well get some wheelbarrows and haul them to church next week. yep i think that is what were gonna have to do!

but its probably a good thing they didnt make it to church. honestly i dont think anyone is coming to church or progressing because of how the church is operating. and until the branch is functioning as it should i dont think anything will progress. i guess the Lord may be waiting until they can have a conversion and see the difference.

this last week we had everything prepared. the branch president told us who would talk so i wrote a talk for the member that was gonna talk and went and dropped it off at his house. even asked if he had any questions about it and just tried to help as much as possible. well sunday rolled around. the person directing the meeting says " jose will now give a talk on tithes and fast offerings." well Jose just sat there for like 30 seconds just rubbing his face and staring at the ground. like in the RM when the guy is supposed to teach Elders Quorum. well he finally gets up, goes to the front, no books nothing. and says that he didnt have time to prepare a talk and that he didnt have a talk. he did say he was happy to be there though. that honestly frustrated the crud outta me. and my companion. i wrote the dang thing for him. so then after that (while the members are still just arriving at church-at like 9:30/9:50) president gets up and just rips apart everything apostate that the branch is doing. two things i like that he shared. the first: he said "every sunday you guys need to bring your books and bibles" (speaking to the members). and said-"if you dont, then what good is it to have them? if you arent gonna bring your books just sell them." that one cracked me up.
second: he said " you guys need to be awesome members. we have the blessing of having missionaries in our ward. you guys need to be so awesome that these missionaries are sad when they have to leave. make it so they dont want to leave."
sometimes the branch president is the man.

second thing that frustrated me and calmed me was primary. nobody wanted to say a prayer. opening or closing. well on the closing prayer i wouldnt let them leave until we said the prayer. they just sat there playing and messing around for like 10 minutes. it was getting way frustrating. but the little boy sitting next to me-i dont know what it was that made him do it-but he grabbed my hand, looked at me and said calmly and in the most humble way you can imagine "i'll give the prayer.".
that one touched me and im very grateful for his meekness and his example.

seeing how he acted just enforces the scriptures about little children. i wish we could get the people to see that here.

we went with a bunch of less active members yesterday. we talked about matthew and the scripture that talks about the narrow path and the large path. how alot of people go down the large path and few down the narrow path. but the narrow path is the truth. i think they understood. they seem to think that saying the most important thing about faith is just believing in Christ. but you gotta act and you gotta look for Christ. thats what is the most important. were trying to help them. its very slow.

im glad to hear you guys are all ok. what happened with lindsey? allergies or what? thats scary stuff. im sorry that happened linds. and i love you.

does a commercial bakery look very lucrative? what would be the winnings from it? just a Q.

well im running out of time. the keyboard keeps jamming and the pictures are loading slowly. i love you and am so grateful to have you as my family. you have no idea how blessed I am to have you guys.

i love each and every one of you. take care and next week i'll write more.


Elder Tay

:)
not sure if the picture will work. but will keep trying.

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