Week 34: An Honest Mistake and Good Cow

Hi Family!

Questions First,

Did you do anything special this week?
People needed lots of blessings. We blessed a lady that was throwing up alot. Does that count?

Did you have a baptism? New investigators?
Neither. Majun. It's slow-but we have baptismal dates!
How was the lesson with the preacher guy?
He didnt show. :(

Did you go to any new cities or villages this last week?
Nope. But this week we are going to a place called Sacuachil. I think thats what its called. It's like three hours away and we've already been there once.

Have you spoken in church yet?
No way Jose.

How are things going with the Branch President? How did the pancakes turn out? Did they like them?
They turned out very well! Kinda surprised me as they were made over an open fire. We used our nonstick pan though which was pretty cool haha.

What would you say is the best part of serving a mission?
All of it!

If you had to give advice to the young men in our ward, what would it be?
Go on a mission or Elder Larsen will kick your butt.
Haha nah, take a language class in school and dont sleep in Seminary. Learning about the Gospel is one of the most precious experiences and bits of knowledge that anyone can take with them.

Was there a particular challenge this week that you would like to share?
Nothin really-It's all a challenge right now.

What was the best part of the week? The funniest part?
hahahahahahah, Well for the full account see Lindseys email. I jumped for that camera! The best part is that I grabbed it! Pure centerfielder. Also, my companion is a little crazy. He likes to mess around with the kids here and the other day he started yelling and chasing some kids with a bamboo stick to scare them and play with them. They were enjoying it too so it was all in good fun. But he just takes off after this kid and he gets like 75 yards away and on top of a hill and curve where on the other side the trail disappears. well he gets to the turn and just wipes out and goes tumbling off the side. It was absolutely hilarious. I was laughing so hard.

What has been on your mind the most this week that we can help with in our prayers?
Pablo. He told us members from another church came and visited him and now He's going to that church.

Do you remember every day we love you?
Yesm. And do you remember likewise?

Favorite scripture this week?
It's actually a quote from James E. Talmage. It goes like this, (talking about God):
"No mortal can approach Him while contemplating His perfections and might with aught but awe and reverence; regarding Him only as Creator and God, we are abashed in thought of Him, but he has given us the right to approach Him as His children and to call upon Him by the name of Father."

How is the language this week?
Tough. But it's getting there. My comp knows more words but I know more grammar rules and can actually pronounce the words. I probably wont be with him too much longer. Sometimes I say really dumb things. Like last week a woman was talking about her grandchild or something that died and me not understanding and only talking about how they said they had been sealed in the temple, I said chaabil. Which is like "good" or "cool". She kinda looked at me weird. But oh well. That happens and I dont know how to excuse myself. I just hope she has enough faith to understand it was an honest mistake. :/

Well not a very eventful week. Just the same old same old. We put a baptismal date with a woman named Imelda. Dont know how old she is but shes gonna get married the 30of March and thats when shell get baptized. Her husband is already a member. We just reactivated him.

The Qeqchis have books talking about the roles and responsibilities of the men and women. haha It was hilarious but I feel sorry for the people here. It says that when the man goes to town to work the woman has to stay home pregnant! My companion and I laughed about that one pretty good haha.

Well its way hot here right now. This week was good. I threw up once for some reason and had a diarrhea attack. hahaha But other than that, it was fine. I still have vitamins and am taking them. I need to figure out how to gain good muscle weight though. It's hard to find good things to eat here but we bought good cow meat the other day and the branch presidents wife cooked it for us. Yummy in the tummy!

That cracks me up about dad. What a beast! I wish I was there to see that hahaha. I cracked up and shared it with Elder Legua. haha. He laughed too.

I love you! And miss you all!

Love,

Elder Tay

Week 33: Senahu & My Testimony in Qeqchi

Hi Family!

I got that copy of the video from a missionary here and he got it passed down from the CCM in Guatemala. Don't know if that's allowed but here I use it for the missionary effort-and you can't sell it! haha.

This last week we had a zone conference up in Senahu. That place is waaayy cool! Very mountainous and very rugged. We didnt get to do much- just hung around the hotel and went back and forth from there, the church, and a little restaurant. It's a very cool place though. Very relaxed. Very....chill? haha. I wanna show you guys these places here but the only bad thing is that everyone stares. :) Anyway, we had interviews with president and stuff and apparently my companion told president that my Qeqchi is progressing a ton. It's terrifying to think about that. I dont know if I could handle that after seeing how much stress from a lack of the language brings.

Also in the conference we got mail. Thank you for the deer and elk pictures! Now I can show people here what they're like. I also got a camera in the mail. How random is that? A camera wrapped up in Christmas wrapping with my full name on it minus my middle name! Do you guys have any idea where, and who, it could have come from? It's a great camera! :)

I saw a golden retriever weiner dog. Short long and stocky like a weiner dog but with the hair and color of a golden retriever. I can understand how that happens after seeing many dogs in the streets making puppies.

That's awesome about the mission calls! I am so grateful Michael VanValkenburg is going on his mission. I got chills when I read that. I was worried about that kid. He is a great young man. What part of Peru is he going to? Cuz that's where Elder Leguas family lives. Half of them at least. And yes his sister is cute. She's 18 and about to graduate. Dont worry-were just chatting. But Elder Legua and I are determined to be family :) haha.

What Indian reservation is Grady on? Is he learning to speak that language too? I havent heard from anyone. Not from Grady, or Brenton or anyone haha. I miss them too-especially Brenton. We had so much fun when he was living with us-he's the man.

My companion can't speak English. Just a couple words-like "whats up" and "shut up" and stuff like that. I am trying to learn the Qeqchi language from him. Our knowledge of the language is about the same, the only thing is, he has more time listening to it-which makes a big difference. It seems that he knows more words and has a bigger vocabulary and I know the grammar rules better. So if I knew his vocabulary I'd be owning this language right now! I'm getting there though. No worries :)

Eight months flew by. I haven't felt it. I am coming home next year! :) haha How weird does that sound? And I will come home with all my name tags. I kept the two Spanish ones I have and they gave me one in Qeqchi. That will be cool to frame!

Well were still working with Pablo and his family. We've found Pablo drunk in the street a couple times. We can tell he's drunk cuz he just giggles like crazy. He's a funny guy. Completely dorky when he's drunk though haha.

Irlanda is gonna get baptized the 13th of Feb. Were thinking about setting baptismal dates with Imelda, Esperanza and Tecla and maybe Juan. There is just about no priesthood in this ward. More than half the people that come to church on Sundays are women. We need to find leaders very bad. Maybe we'll talk to President about that tonight. We're going to his house to make American pancakes for family home evening haha. Idk how were gonna do it though. All the people here-to cook-just have a table top of concrete or something hard and they just make fires on top of it with pieces of rebar for supports to put under the pots. The pieces of rebar are then put on top of bricks or logs to get oxygen to the fire. Don't know if you understood that description. It was kinda a hard one haha.

Well I love you and miss you all!!!

Glad you enjoyed the package :)

Oh, and we have an appt. with Pedro the pastor again Wednesday. We're gonna show him the movie of the restoration.

Love you!!!

ELDER TAY

My testimony (briefly) in Qeqchi:

Lain, ninnau nak li iglesia cuankin cui lain, aan tzakal yal. Maaka jun chic iglesia re li jesucristo. Ninnau nak laj Jose Smith quicuan choc xprofet li Dios. Anajwuan cuan jun Profet li Dios sa li ruchichoch. Aan naxnau li raatin li Dios. Naxnau lix naleb. Laj Tomas S. Monson aan jun lix moos li Dios. Jun li prefet tzakal sa li cutan ain. Ut riquin aan cuan li choxahil cuankilal. Lao li ralal li Dios. Li Dios nokoxra. Ninnau ain, sa lix caba li Jesucristo, Amen.

Week 31: Changes, Companions and Mac n' Cheese

Well not much has happened again-just busy.

Tuesday of last week we did devisions with the ZLs. I went to Teleman with an Elder from Florida named Elder Waters. He's gone now-left for the capital yesterday. He's going home. While we were on divisions he expressed his desires to hunt in Colorado. He wants to come hunt in Colorado. While we were on divisions we saw two drunk guys try and fight. We just stood there and stared it was absolutely hilarious. They were just slapping each other and falling over hahahahaha!! I was cracking up. They didnt even do anything cuz they were too drunk so they couldnt hurt each other.

Thursday we found out that my companion had a change. Elder Flores left yesterday at four to go to Coban to his new area. It was pretty sad. The people become very good friends here. Especially the members. Right now I'm in Teleman again waiting for news about who my new companion will be. From the way things are looking its going to be Elder Vasquez who only has about six more weeks than I do in the mission. This change is gonna be a change of lots of rapid learning. Or else! I'm finally getting a good foundation. Elder Legua and Elder Schone didnt have changes so I will see them every monday still. :)

Change conference is always on Mondays. They only tell us who is leaving the week before so we have time to pack. Here in the Polochic they tell us two days before everyone else. But the official changes dont happen until monday. So right now I'm kinda in a limbo. I'm with Elder Schone and Elder Vasquez. And last night I stayed in the zls house with Elder Vasquez. It's way random but someones gotta hold down the fort I guess. We're kinda the center of things and running things right now. It's strange. Don't know if I'm ready for alot of responsibility.

I havent heard anything from Grady or Brenton. They need to write me! And I need Ethan Churchs and Jordan Geddes emails if you can obtain them. (big word). I wanna see where they are and if they're where other missionaries live that I know here.

I'm glad to hear that the work plans are falling into place slowly but surely. Read Mosiah 7:33. (Pretty sure thats it.) Please pray and fast. I'm worried and I shouldnt be. Don't worry though. I wont get distracted but I just need to know my family is safe :)

So, I'm thinking you should do all in your power to get every book that James E. Talmage has ever written. The man is a genious and once, Albert Einstein was asked how he felt being the smartest man in the world. His reply was -"I dont know-ask Talmage"!

I found a book here in the zls house called Articles of Faith. It might have been included in the missionary reference library when dad was out but its not now. It talks about the Book of Mormon and other doctrines so bluntly and powerfully. I would like you to read it. He's a great writer and has a ton of knowledge.

Thank you for the recipe! I'll see what I can do. I can get the ingredients the only thing is measuring them haha. We dont have measuring cups or anything so I'll see what I can think of :)

Although I love getting packages please dont send anymore. I have what I need :) I love you all. Please save the money and take care of everything there. I can handle it here :)

I'm not on facebook. Megan gets on and accepts friend requests or whatever else I have.

I miss you-each and every one. Soon you should get some mail from me that you'll really like!!!!

Take care. I will include more details when I have them, as for now I gotta go wait and relax while we wait for changes. Zl's houses rock as they have good food. MAC AND CHEESE BABY!!

TAY
(Elder Larsen)