Week 46: The Good Path & A Huge White Kid

(For those of you that don't know, we ask Tayler questions, then he answers them every week in his email. You'll see our question, then his answer.)

How was Zone Conference? What did you do in Coban?
it was good. elder falabela came and talked to us. he is in the first presidency of the seventy and way cool. he talked a lot about families. funny how that theme has come up a lot lately. hmmmm. we basically just hung out and ate GOOD junk food and then we all went and played pool. i won. haha.

Did you get sick after you ate your birthday pizza?
nope. its all good now. :)

Did you meet Elder Dave Mays?
take a look at the attachment!

Did you know Elder Snell is now up in that area? He will now be in Coban for P-Days!
i saw him too. as well as elder clark and elder ....shoot. i forgot his name. ill remember it. hes way cool and a great friend. they are all from my group though. do you still talk to elder snells mom?

Anything amazing happen this week?
i do have a good experience. my companion and i had just gotten done teaching lesson one to two new investigators. well one of them after the lesson looked at me and said "hermano Larsen, how do i know where the good path is? how do i find the truth? and why do all the churches want money?" i told him the prophets know the good path pretty well. and that the prophet will be on the right path. but more than anything ask of God.

his question hit me. hard. he took me, a huge white kid half bald, and put all of his trust in my hands and humbly asked me how to know.

it helped me realize just what my sacred commission is. i am here for him. im not here for me to learn. it will happen. but i am here to help them. and they are my brothers and sisters and more importantly my Father's children. his sincerity and his integrity-not to mention humility-touched my heart.

currently he is going to the adventist church. we will see if we can find him again. he wasnt there sunday for our appointment. i feel like he could progress though. now i just need to work on my qeqchi to make sure its enough to teach him the way.

Are you feeling better after taking the pills Hermana Torres gave you?
like im back home again! all good baby. i feel fine :) you actually sent me the same stuff. just with different directions for taking it. she didnt tell me the side effects though. i did get way tired on it but im fine now.

Do you know your mom loves you?
yeth

Do you think you will stay in Santo Domingo or change the next time?
to be honest im hoping for a change. i wrote the weekly letter to president and mentioned how ive been here for awhile. well see what happens.

DID YOU GET OUR PACKAGES? :) Find anything good? Who else did you get packages from?
yes i did. thank you so much. but please stop. i love them but i have enough here. well i got a package from megan and nana too. thank you so much though. you guys rock. and the shoes are soo comfortable. much better.

Where is Elder Goodwins area? Do you get to see him?
elder goodwin is in the office and no i didnt get to see him. supposedly he is here in the polochic today but i dont think i will be able to see him danget.

How is Elder Legua this week? Please tell him we are so sorry about his uncle. Are you still writing Beth?
yes we are still in contact.

Have you sent a memory card home?
next monday. i gotta transfer everything. its gonna happen for shizzle though :)

CALL DETAILS! Your mom is FREAKING OUT already. Yep, I said freaking.

well im thinking i may be calling this sunday. perhaps. i will see. ill call you before hand to make sure. where will everyone be? what is the best time? ill make sure to call you guys to set the time. now vorrees.

so right now its very hot. i mean very hot. i dont have a thermometer or id tell you. but its soo hot. i lose weight i think while im sleeping. alright im probably exxagerating (and i didnt spell that right). but still its way hot. haha we took our beds out of the room and put them in the sacrament room. thats the only place there are fans. i just threw my bed on the ground under the fan and didnt sleep with the blankets on. its dang hot. "freaking" hot. :)

when is this lexi girl gonna write me? i wanna talk to her. and hows aunt jodi doin?

well the pics slowed me down a lot. i love each and every one of you. i will talk to you on sunday. miss you!!!!

love

ELDER TAY

Week 45: Wedding, Baptisms and My Birthday!

weeeelllllll hi. :)

Details on the wedding/baptism? Everything go ok?

everything went perfect. we were all looking forward to it and at the last minute the branch president had to go to coban. we had given his name to the alcalde or mayor type guy as a witness to the wedding. and when the branch president left we had a little scare and thought it wasnt going to work out. well turns out the two guys who came to do the weddings were both members and we were able to do it. my companion and i just had to sign as witnesses. it was a cool experience cuz when we got there the whole town of actela was basically there and to start the meeting the two guys welcomed us and recognized our presence. it was cool cuz these people look up to mayors and governmental authorities a lot, and when they welcome the missionaries there is obviously something the missionaries have to offer. so well see if the respect level goes up in actela. the wedding was on friday. saturday were the baptisms. it was very cool and they both wanted me to baptize them.

What's with the ties lately? Where did all your other ties go? Do you need more?

nothings up with ties. i dont need more. i was just saying cuz i asked for a couple ties a long time ago. so i was saying if you were going to send me ties to send me paisleys and ugly. they are trading power with other missionaries haha!

We love the picture of you and other missionaries next to the water...with you in a superman pose. Anything you'd like to add to a caption underneath this picture?

not really. whatever you guys want. it was lake izabel in el estor if that helps. haha.

Did you travel anywhere this week to do any teaching?

not really. we just stayed in the area pretty close. i did do a division with an elder lusty from utah. hes way cool and we are really good friends now. i went to tucuru with him so elder tzunux could interview our baptizees.

How are things with the dad and son in law? Still coming to church?

hmmmm, not sure who youre talking about. im assuming the old man that reactivated. yes they are coming to church. the son in law is the one that got baptized on saturday!

How do you feel about the Kekchi now that you are speaking it all the time?

its cool. its coming quicker and quicker.

Did you share your food with Elder Goodwin from your package?

haha no. i offered him some though-for going to get it-but he declined nicely. hes the man. and a great dang friend.

Are you able to send snail mail letters still? Cause we haven't gotten any. Hint hint.

ya im working on one. with a memory card. sorry. it is way hard. and this coban trip fell right at the end of the month when we dont have money. so i may borrow money from my personal account then redeposit it out of my mission account after.

Do you know where your dad and I were 20 years ago today and how grateful we are to have you in our lives? :)

haha i remember it very well.

Do you know what time we are supposed to call on Mothers day? What is the phone number again?

i will figure that out and let you know. have you bought a calling card?

How are your pants holding up? Socks? Garments?

all good to go. like taco bell.

well i had my interview with president this last week. which was good. he congratulated me for the baptisms and the good work. we were more than two hours late because of the weddings and he joked around with me about it and said he didnt know why everyone had to be there at the same time. he said he would rather have me doing that than anything else. after all it is why i am here.
so in my interview he started talking about the date i entered and when i leave then paused and said..."your in elder jensens group huh?" so that is why i think elder jensen is going to be assistant. he also told me how great my group is. :)

elder legua had a tough week this last week. i guess his uncle died. i finally got a hold of him over the phone. still the best friend in the mission. elder schone got a hold of me too. hes doing good. wants to be in the "chic" still though. elder jensen is doing fine too. i talked to him also.

we taught a lot this last week. lots of lessons. and lots of new investigators. we found a family whos family are all members. they were very receptive and listened and understood everything. which makes them very good investigators cuz they understood my qeqchi! we didnt see ramiro this last week. he works alot. i would say hes our next baptismal possibility. so we are working hard with him. he says he knows joseph smith was a prophet and is reading the book of mormon.

people here are very strange. they believe almost anythng they are told but are stubborn at the same time. strange combo. but they believe in the book of mormon. heck some churches even preach from it. they also know joseph smith was a prophet-but because of responsibilities in other churches they "cant leave." whatever.

we also taught a lesson this last week on the sabbath day. the adventists say people worship on sunday because of ancient paagan sun worship. hence the name sunday. but i like to hear "sonday" when i say the name of that day. it is the lords day (says in the bible) and we should do all worship and remembering him on his day.....right?

so i havent got my packages yet. apparently they are in teleman and i wont get them until wednesday or thursday. they say there are like seven though. woohoo!

well hmmmmm.......thank you for all the birthday congrats :) wish i could be eating a nice delicioso cake right now.

i miss you one and all :) and love you too

ELDER TAY

Week 44: I'm the Primary President!

Wow. week 44? are you sure? thats crazy. how many weeks are in two years? 104? hmmmm. freaky.

well anyways.

so i survived my first week as senior companion. haha.
it was pretty cool. we actually taught alot. im surprised how much i actually know. some things i actually dont remember learning. the spirit helps amucho.

well first thing we did this last week is have a meeting for the cleaning specifications of the church and the responsibilities of the leadership positions and general membership of the church. we were there of course. apparently im the primary president with elder parry as my first and second counselor! i dont remember getting that sustaining vote but....ok.

elder parry and i, our goal, is to fix this branch. the leadership is almost none-existent. we are going to have to establish an elders quorum and a relief society. good thing elder parry came. hes still fresh from the states and still remembers how church is really supposed to work.

so well be working on that.

how are ammon boswell, robert mann, and scott and christi phillips doing? dont know why they all came to my mind this last week.

well we taught a bunch this last week. it was hard. we had to see exactly where we are in both languages and our capacities. that was basically the majority of the week. our baptisms are going to happen this weekend! wooo. theyre getting married friday and baptized saturday. then next week on the 28th we have zone conference in coban.

my companion got a rash this last week and called sister torres. he mentioned our parasitical problems and she is bringing pills to the zone conference.
there is definitely something else going on down there haha. ill take the pills and see what happens. :) more diaharrea!
but other than that, im fine. im tired at night and in the morning and my appetite has been affected a little. not sure if i have lost weight though. i will see this next week in coban. i dont really feel like i have but maybe a little.

are you guys using my computer? cuz if you are please be careful. im going to need that after the mission and im not gonna have money to buy a new one. in the words of clint "just sayin".

my companion and i are doing great. elder parry cracks me up and we have a good time. i happily fall asleep each night listening to his street fighting stories and could have been wrestling dreams. fun fun fun for everyone. hahahaha a new elder is here. elder lusty. well my comp was talking to him today and saying that we lift weights all the time and that im a college football player. hahaha it cracked me up. first of all cuz im not. and there really is no second of all.

soooo thank you for sending packages. please stop worrying about me and get busy on things there. :) im here. i have what i need. please stop sending so many packages. i want you guys to save your monies.

im glad to hear that about lex. i have been praying for her...alot. i will continue. she sure needs help. like i have mentioned there is a little boy here who reminds me of gaby. the little boy here is awesome though. very faithful in church and a very good kid. doesnt yell. doesnt get mad. hes alot like how gaby was. i think about them.

well here we are. elder parry and i. im talking while hes laughing. thats how our lessons go basically. :)

i use sunscreen alot and am always carrying water. so no worries. i can take care of myself and not to mention an extremely cold shower every night. that wakes a guy up.

and no thats not too much for the lady. teach her everything. peacfully. take her to the christus for sure though. that, the tabernacle and the temple grounds. its a good idea :)

i love each and every one of you!!!

ELDER TAY