Week 60: Sara, Sacsuha & Conference

well hey yooz people (susan mcdonald included)!

well this last week was pretty eventful. i forgot my agenda with all my notes on it in the house but i will try and sum it up.

well first off we were able to get two members to leave with us to visit on tuesday and wednesday. first we went with a returned missionary to a place called La Laguna Seca. he helped us a bunch. we got lots of new investigators there. it is closer than sepacuite and setz'imaaj so much more likely to progress.

the next day we went up to sepacuite with a member who is preparing to go on a mission. the kid is hilarious and incredibly off the wall. he is crazy with us but then when he needs to talk in lessons he gets scared. so he ended up not saying anything at all. it was worth it though. we enjoyed the time with him and he learned alot.

one of our soon to be baptisms shared her testimony with us this last week. it was all about the Book Of Mormon. she told us that when she is having a hard time she just turns to the BOM and it takes all the pain away. she already has the whole thing marked up. i dont know if i have explained the situation with her but she is a single mom with two young children. her husband just recently left her and lives in senahu with some other woman. she is having an incredibly rough time. she told us that the book of mormon is so clear to her. she says that everything in the book just touches her to the core. she has an amazing testimony on faith also. she even came to a pure qeqchi branch this last week and said she loved it. she dont know no dang lick of qeqchi.

her sister in law is a recent convert and also an amazing convert. shes only sixteen but when pastors talk to her about the church she owns them. she is the one fueling sara's (thats the baptism and single mom) spiritual fire right now. apparently they just sit down together at night and just study the scriptures. it is amazing to see their progress. last night we went to their house again and the same thing happened. we ended up talking for about an hour and a half. the sister in law told us her conversion story and even said that her mom, who is a die hard evangelist in another church said that after never seeing a LD saint judge or fight or talk bad about someone that this must truly be the true church. we'll be talking to her soon :)

so we had conference yesterday down in sacsuha. it was awesome! (Tayler had some spiritual things about Conference that he wished to keep private-they have been edited out, sorry.)

but as we were coming back up to senahu i was getting out of the micro bus and the dang helper guy shut the door on me and my suit pants caught on the door latch and tore wide open. that ticked me off a lot. the guy didnt even say anything after. so im gonna have to figure out how to fix those seeing as i dont really have anything else. maybe sometime ill get a new suit. apparently in the cap there is a guy that tailors suits for 100 bucks. fabric you want, two pairs of pants, a vest and a suit coat. i dont know its just an idea. they are way nice suits. elder goodwin got one.

we had an amazing change of heart in one of our investigators this last week. two or three weeks ago we had an ok lesson with him. he was the one with the son that came to church that i mentioned. the last lesson we had with them he seemed hard hearted and would contradict the scriptures we would use. our departing words to him that night were dont close your heart (in qeqchi its softer. a conjugation of a desired action is used instead of a command). so we went back with him this last week. we were exhausted and not sure if we even wanted to go visit but elder fadel insisted. he was almost waiting for us. he welcomed us in and starting saying that he had tons of questions. these are his three questions. Who is a prophet and how do they become a prophet, is the nazarene church good and should i be in it, and what is the complete history of the Church of Jesus Christ. we didnt have time to finish answering his questions. he accepted a book of mormon though and im sure he will be reading it. we had to leave without answering his third question. which is perfect as that is a large subject-we'll be going back! but then he invited us to a graduation thing he was in. he had been training to be a traffic cop here in senahu. so we went to his graduation. it was cool. he wanted pictures and knew that we have cameras, but he still invited us and welcomed us when we got there. it was way cool to see his change.

this last week, the little boy who is getting baptized didnt come to church. he usually comes every sunday. we will be visiting him tonight to see what happeneed.

this last week we also set a wedding date and a baptismal date with a man and his wife. they have had some troubles lately and we walked in on them right on time. they lost their new born baby a few weeks ago. the Lord has his arms outstretched.

thats scary about kels. what the heck was it? what has she been eating? is she using pollen soap? acid soap? just wondering. hope she is improving though.

QUESTIONS:

How are your investigators this week? great

Did you make progress? yepumms

Did anyone come to church? a couple people. we also had a man that has been inactive come to church. he hasnt come to church in about 15 years. this last sunday he and his son showed up. this last week we told him that he is the head of the family and has to set the example. he knows the church is true. he will also be a great friend when i leave this area.

How about the little boy that was coming? Any progress with his family? not sure but i think i answered this one

Did you have any adventures this week you'd like to tell us about? nope. just that i pet a mink though. no wonder they are harvested for their fur haha. it was at the motel in la tinta, where we stayed for conference. it was tied up right next to the monkey.

How is your companion? hes good. knows qeqchi already which is very impressive.

How is the area as a whole? progressing. i'm not sure about sepacuite and setz'imaaj though. they are pretty hard hearted.

Do you like it? (New Area) no i love it

Do you know we love you?? do you know that i love you?

love you all, les quiero, nekexinra.

elder tay

Week 59: Sepacuite and Enduring to the End :)

well hello family!

(love you)

thank you zack and bailey for your messages to me. sounds like you guys are growing like crazy. bailey will be baptized by the time i get back and zack will be passing sacrament. we are going to have to go climb mount sopris when i get back. i still havent ever gotten to the top. and zack maybe you will be a lot better at math than i ever was. thats tough stuff for me. and bay im so proud of you for losing a tooth haha. i can just picture your toothless smile now!

kelsey and lindsey you crack me up. boys boys boys. ;) they arent all that exist in this world by the way.

haha well this last week elder fadel did a funny smokers voice that sent me straight back to baggs, wyoming listening to Crazy and jumping the dirtbikes and eating dirt. i told elder fadel about it and now he wants to hear a recording of his voice or something haha.

we also were trying to teach a young girl of 11 years to say the word "dance." when it came out as "biatch" we gave up with that endeavor.

this last week was a little slower. just didnt seem like any of the plans wanted to work out and the trucks up to the towns werent going up there when we needed them to. after waiting three hours on saturday waiting for a truck we finally got one. then as we get within halfway to the little town called sepacuite the road is blocked. we had gone up on thursday but the road was blocked by a landslide so we just turned around. we worked in town that day. then saturday the road was still blocked and completely muddy. they were still working on it but the road was still risky. so we all had to get off the truck and walk through the dangerous section then board on the other side to complete our journey.

we got up to sepacuite fine and only were able to teach about three good lessons. one family-with the help of some very guiding questions-realized that there is only one true church and that if there is no prophet there is no truth. we will be seeing their progress within the next week. but it was still a great lesson. well after them we went to another lesson and starting teaching about the same things when a truck drove by. so not knowing if there would be another one due to the landslide we booked it out of there and jumped on the truck. the family understood though.

every sunday there is a man that is 100 years old in the branch here. he comes every sunday. he is basically just falling apart. but he shows up every sunday in a white shirt, slacks, no tie, and a cowboy hat. ill get a picture of him. he always tries to speak in spanish with us. he'll interrupt the teachers in sunday school sometimes and just tell them "thank you." the man is a saint. has been to the temple and is definitely enduring to the end. well this last sunday he walked in the front doors where a member woman was standing with her baby. well he walks in with his can in hand and turns to the baby without saying a word. he then proceeds to grab the babys cheeks, one pinch on each side, and then acts like he's eating them. then he just turns and goes into the chapel. it was the funniest thing. elder fadel and i cracked up. we were laughing so hard!

this last week we still had a lot of news. about 32. to keep organized we go with the "chosen." you can feel when people need the gospel and want the gospel and also when they dont. for now we work a little with those that dont and then go with those that do. theyre all chosen just at different times.

with the flood thing elder fadel was sitting at his desk studying when the torrent came. he promptly asked "whats that?" then came to see me wrastling with the water and getting soaked. then he laughed. elder fadel and i enjoy our time here. we work dang hard but we have fun doing it. the other day i made little darts out of a pen tube and some orange tree thorns. they stick in everything. i miss making cool things danget.

so im thinking that you guys should invite the fadels over to the house. they are hilarious people it sounds like. very high energy. elder fadels mom apparently wants to go skydiving? and elder fadel did it before his mission too. so that would be a fun weekend in colorado. :)

im still up for you guys coming to pick me up. i would be able to fly home with all the mission pals though. elder schone, legua, jensen, snell, bruneel, goodwin and the list goes on. but it sounds like its already done. just in the future. so if you guys want to i would love it. and i would love to show you some of the places here.

sorry for the delay in this message. yesterday we did a pioneer day activity. polochik zone came up and we ate, played water balloon volleyball, tug-o-war, and threw around a football. saw elder goodwin and elder parry. but we ran out of time and werent able to use internet yesterday.

sounds like things are falling into place back there. just hang in there. im thinking this bakery thing is something that is needing to be done. not to mention amazing baked goods!

i miss you all and love you!!

love
ELDER TAY

Week 58: I am Elder Larsen!!

Hi Family!

you did tell me about the little girl that died. sounds like such an amazing little spirit. what a blessing to her family. maybe the greatest lesson you could have learned from her you may have already learned. to be in tune. you are already in tune. but to slow down in this hectic world and just feel It.

senahu has the perfect temperature. its hot sometimes. this last week particularly. but more than anything its absolutely perfect. i actually got sunburned this last week though. i peeled haha. wasnt expecting to get fried. but it was great.

we got 47 new investigators and 24 lessons. and 9 with less active members. we worked so hard this last week.

we went to setz'imaaj on wednesday and then sepacuite on friday. setz'imaaj is an amazing place. all the kids helped us again. the only difficulty is the distance.
on friday we had to walk all the way back from sepacuite. 2 and 1/2 hours walking. that hurt. we got home exhausted. we had lots of powerful lessons though.

then the next day we did service and went and dug some guys house out. a small hill slid off and was pushing his wall in and we must have moved a pile of dirt, using 5 gallon buckets, that was 10 feet long 4 feet wide and five feet deep. that was a lot of dang durt. i got trashed. so dirty. thats why i didnt get photos. i didnt want my camera muddy. but it was good service. and the man seems to be progressing pretty well as an investigator. we will be going back with him.

forgot this last week. we found a crab and a 7 or 6 inch long millipede as big around as my ring finger. so we caught it. and elder fadel ate the crab!

so saturday night i go to turn the sink on and the tubes just come undone where its connected to the main water line (its guatemala its pretty crappy). and water just starts spraying EVERYWHERE. i tried putting the tube back in but it would not go in cuz of the pressure and would just spray me in the face. our bathroom ended up flooding. the water in the toilet square of the bathroom got to be like 10 inches deep. luckily there is a little 12 inch tall partition that separates the toilet and the shower. but the water got up to the bowl and was going up fast. i had to call the owner of the house cuz we couldnt find the shut off valve. i ended up having to jump a barbwire fence to get to the valve. it was absolutely hilarious. i fixed it though and its all better. thanks dad for teaching me plumbing.

last sunday we were asked to bring ties to church for some of the leaders and some deacons. well the district president shows up to church to see how the branch is doing and he comes up to meet me and asks me my name. i look down to point at my plac and realized it wasnt there. i had forgotten my plac! we had also forgotten the ties. so we booked it back to the house and brought ties and my plac. i am Elder Larsen!! it was funny though. i felt like the biggest dork.

haha it was an awesomely hectic week. but we made some progress.

we had a boy show up to church. his name is marvin. hes 12. he is awesome though. came to church all alone. we went to look for his family and when we found them his dad only tried to disprove every scripture that we would show him. we finally just told him not to close his heart. im worried he got mad at marvin for going to church. we will have to see what he says. he was very "tz'aptz'o" (closed). i didnt like it. again he said that it doesnt matter where you worship as long as you are worshipping God. i wish they would just read the scriptures.

i miss and love each and every one of you. sorry no pictures this week. no time!!!!

Love

Elder Tay
HAPPY BIRTHDAY LINDZ!!