Week 25: Earthquakes and FHE

Letter from Our Missionary this week! He sounds good-but we are frantically making a Christmas Music CD to send to him. Guess we should have planned ahead and sent that with him! :)


HEY! I got my camera today in the morning! thank you so much! please take the money out of my account though. i don't want christmas presents this year. i'm giving everything i have and that's all i want.
yesterday i taught the young men and women in spanish about the book of mormon. what it is, who wrote it, where it came from and why we have it.
the next zone conference is in a week and a half in coban where i will get my other packages. i only got my camera today cause the ZL's had meetings with the president in the capitol and brought it back for me. but when we went to the last zone conference we were in elder leguas area and we stayed in a motel made of reeds. pretty interesting. haha.
the language is coming, but its still way hard. its coming-it just feels like its pouring in slowly. its a very simple language. thinking the Lord is just teaching me a little dedication and work ethic right now.
couple new investigators. one is named Abraham Caal (same last name as everyone-caal or coc). hes interested and wants to learn more. hes a school teacher, so i can teach him in spanish instead of kekchi. finally i getta use my voice! another one is named oscar. he came to church yesterday and he lives like two hours away walking. said he bathed in the river half way to church so he wouldn't smell bad. hes very smart and understands english too! lucky me!
well, another week and another change down. christmas season has started and i miss christmas music insanely! watched the first presidency christmas devotional last night and it was awesome. especially when the choir sang oh holy night. gave me chills. i love that song.
we went to the branch presidents house this week for FHE. he has a very big family-like seven kids. he told us how he's giving everything-even removing the one lightbulb in the house-to pay for his childrens educations and to give them futures. i almost cried. that really hit me.
uncle clinton looks like the guy in gods army.
the other night i was lying awake thinking at like 11:30 at night and we had an earthquake. it was pretty cool. smaller than the one we had in glenwood but the exact same thing happened. weird noise and everything moved, nothing more.
if you send any seeds in a package again, send sweet corn! the people here harvest lots of corn and its nasty stuff. if you send some, one packet or two packets would do.
well, no baptisms yet but working on that and have some prospects. working hard. i can feel your testimonies without you even writing them every time. and mom, i'm thinking you need to sing in the tabernacle choir, i miss hearing you sing alot.
i love each and every one of you!
take care,
love tay

Santo Domingo (& Questions from Home; Week 20)

1) Where is your area and what is it called?
it's in the pure mountains of polochic valley. the area is called santo domingo and it's extremely hot!
2) What are your living conditions like? Electricity, plumbing, etc.
well, we live in the church. we have two classrooms, one for sleeping and the other for cooking and studying. to shower we go outside to the bathroom, put a hose through the window and freeze to death showering and straddling the toilet! but we have electricity, sewer, water, little bit of furniture. it's actually pretty comfy.
3) Bugs, Spiders, Large mammals? Have you seen any?
lots and lots of bugs and spiders. other night there was a tarantula the size of my palm on the bathroom wall. no large mammals, parrots once in awhile flyin' over. nothing too crazy. in the valley in the river there are alligators-and they aren't small either. as far as i know, where i am, there are no jaguars, tapirs or things of that nature.
4) What are the people like? Are they friendly?
they are very friendly. they live in hut type things and all have cell phones. a little confused about that. haha
5) How many people are in your branch/ward?
51 people came to the branch yesterday. it's way small and our area covers miles and miles.it's very rugged too-sending pictures home today. :)

well, i don't need a flashlight. i got the one bapa gave me and it's a wind-up. i knew that was a good idea! haha. my comp is pretty cool. just a little guy and a convert.
the other day we did service and planted corn like in the joseph smith movie-with sticks and a bag of seeds. the only difference is that it was on the side of a mountain.
i'll write more next week! love you!

Goodbye City...Hello Jungle!

(Elder Larsen was transferred to the Polochic (pronounced PO-LO-CHEEK) this past Monday.)

So, right now I'm in a place called Coban. Here I will stay the night and then tomorrow I will travel five more hours by micro-bus to my area in Polochic. It's one of the most remote places where there are missionaries in the whole world. As well as Spanish, I will be learning Kekche (Q'eqchi), the ancient Mayan dialect. Not many have the chance to do so, and I am excited and nervous at the same time. These next few months will demand alot, alot of work. I can't wait for you guys to hear what Kekche sounds like though...it's insane!
I didn't have any baptisms this last week unfortunately. We did set one baptism with a lady, but that's about it. We weren't able to find Gabriel so the only thing I could do was leave a picture for my comp to give him.
Just wait until you guys see the pictures of this place-it's gorgeous and incredibly rugged. More rugged than alot of places in Colorado. It's beautiful, wish you guys were here to see it.
Elder Jensen is sad that we are leaving for the Polochic. I will miss him. We are awesome friends. This is an awesome opportunity.
I love you guys, hope you are doing well! Fill me in on the baby, etc.
Love, Elder Larsen