Week 93: Seamay for Another Change!

sounds like you all had a good week! we did too.

well last week we left off on the conference with president torres.

well besides that the week didnt really get busy until thursday. thats when we started baptismal interviews for the sisters who baptized two people. one guy was 35 years old. told me about some interesting dreams in his baptismal interview. i also did another interview for a young girl that got married and baptized. thats where i got the chicken picture. they killed lots of chickens for the celebratory meal after!

on friday morning we found out that the grandfather of a friend of mine died. that kid is one of my best friends here. he is a returned missionary and is looking for a wife. i suggested kelsey. ;) but seriously though. if she wants someone that will stay faithful to the end it is a qeqchi man. this kid is the man. very active in the church and always goes out to visit with us. even without us. you should write him kels! test your spanish and test his english. he is learning english right now. shoot. i forgot to bring his email address. he would be a really cool pen pal anyway.

the picture of the guy in black and white is his dad. that is one of the most powerful pictures i have ever taken. zoom in on his eyes. background: he is watching them put the casket in the grave.

we went to the funeral. super sad. remember how i told you guys about that really old guy that would come to church every sunday. the one that pinched the little baby's cheek and pretended like he was eating it? that was him that died. a very faithful member.

after the funeral we had a baptism. the little girl in the picture is the girl that got baptized. her name is Juana. she lives with her member aunt and uncle and her grandparents.

sunday was good. they got confirmed.

today we are in el estor. we just got back from rio dulce. it was cool. we left at four in the morning and wont be getting back home until around sixish. it was cool. a good going away trip. you guys need to let me know if you want souvenirs. cuz i will "git sum".

i did not have a transfer. i am in seamay for another change at least! i will enjoy that. we have lots of people progressing and lots of possibilities. blas senior will also be celebrating his birthday on the 27th of april. so we shall see if we get a good caldo or somethin :) i think they will help us out with that again.

this email seems really short but nothing else has happened this week. i would love to come down here as a family. i feel like these people are my people. they almost (ALMOST) feel like my family. especially blas' family. they crack me up.

well i miss and love all of you! hope you enjoy the pictures!! and how is that investigator that asked for your number doing? did they go to church again?

love,

ELDER TAY

Week 91: Inactive Members, Polochic, Corn Planting

hello family! how are you?

what i wrote in q'eqchi' last week is the same as what i wrote in english. no biggie. i love this qeqchi though haha.

in a lesson this last week we were sitting there teaching this little girl that is gonna get baptized saturday and a bug flew into my eye. dang thing. took like twenty minutes to get it out.

i had a dream about my phone and computer this last week. it was funny. i got home and asked for my computer and phone and mom just started apologizing and saying that she was sorry and all this stuff. then she told me that my phone and computer had both gotten ruined or taken or something i dont know. but i cried hahaha.

on saturday we were invited to a lunch where they gave us beef caldo (soup). not soup like yours mom. a little different. picture hopefully included. well it was super good. but they told us about this RM that had come back with all his family to visit. supposedly down to his cousins he brought. tons of people. anyway, he, his dad, and his brother went and helped people plant corn. i would love that. my companion and i started talking about it after and thinking about how incredibly awesome that would be. i would love to come back and visit senahu. we gotta do it. i would love to bring you guys down here too to see the reaction you guys would get from the people. i guarantee you right now mom that people would say you have fire on your head.

we have also been working with this other family of inactives. they are the daughter and son-in-law of the convert i had when i was here last. they haven't been to church for like 10 years. they know it is true. they bare testimony of it every time we go there. their two sons are going to church every sunday and want to be baptized. we just cant baptize them yet cuz the parents dont go. it is so frustrating. we're working on it.

as for classes, chemistry 105 would be good again. i kinda screwed up in that class. i dont even know how. its quite embarrassing. other than that i would have to see a list to be able to choose. i think.

also how am i supposed to get in shape? where will i lift weights? run? its gonna take alot more than simply running to the end of the subdivision and back.

today we had a meeting with president torres. a training thing. it wasnt a zone conference-but it basically was. we just talked about teaching tactics and how to teach with the spirit. it was great to see the polochik elders too!

monday i think we will be going to rio dulce again. that place with the castle. hopefully i dont get a change. transfers are next week.

i had a weird feeling about the family this last week. they suddenly came to mind and were pressed there. not because of what you said. i could just feel it. something was hurting this last week and today i found out what it was. its cuz they went back. weird how that communication can take place.

i love you and miss you all!


TAY

Week 89: The Cake

hello and good morning americans!!

this last week was pretty eventful.

first, after emailing we were asked to go make a cake for a little girls birthday. i cant believe we thought that was going to turn out well. k first the recipe that they had for us did not sound good so we called sister torres to get a different one. the one she gave us was a tres leches cake without the tres leches cuz there is no real milk in this country. so we tried that. we started off well but we were supposed to whip it until the whites, well, turned white. we thought we did that and we added the yokes one at a time. at that point in time we realized we were late for our internet hour so we just threw the cake mix in the fridge and we came and wrote you guys.

well after we went back the cake batter had completely deflated. and the oven that we were supposed to use (which was heated by burning firewood) wasn't hot enough anymore and they were going to make bread for their bakery. so we came up to the church in the middle of senahu. the whole time we were whipping the cake batter trying to get it to fluff up again.

so we turned the oven on in the church while they were doing some primary activity and using the kitchen to cook and do everything. it was super crowded. after a couple minutes we smell a melting plastic smell so we opened the oven and sure enough. plastic sacrament cups melting all over the racks! at this point we were nearly hysterical. we turned off the oven and re heated it and then we cooked the cake. i was scared it wasnt going to turn out but after forty minutes it was nice and puffy and golden brown. i made some frosting from some fake milk and powdered sugar and some nasty margarine and we frosted it.

when we cut it we just started laughing harder! the middle had turned into like a jello type substance about a cm in thickness that smelled strongly of eggs. i can still smell it now just thinking about it.

long story short it was disgusting. the frosting was ok. not as good as the blessed united state's frosting but tolerable.

moral: dont ever try to make a cake in guatemala.

more news about the family we are working with. we went there one night this last week and found them out on the trail going to their house. just sitting there. we started talking to them and the girlfriend lady just randomly started crying and ran off. so we went to their house to see what was wrong where they told us what had happened. apparently a member had gone to their house to by lard. 6 quetzales the half pound. well he, being awesome, gave him a full pound without charging him full price. only charged him 6 quetz. what wrenched my heart the most was the little girl-whos about 5 years old. we were sitting in their house in their front room and she just came up and huddled up against me. i have a good picture of her i will send next week. she is such a little angel. they came to church yesterday! woo! but they will be getting baptized. the next day everyone was fine and back to normal.

marvin, a 17 yr. old kid, will be getting baptized next saturday. if all goes to plan. which it should.

we had 7 investigators in church yesterday! that made me happy.

senahus elevation is like 3,715 feet above sea level. thats it. and its cold here.

saturday some members from utah and the captial came and were interviewing members for a business they will be putting in. its focus is to help the people here who are poor to become self sufficient. well they took a video of my companion and i so if you get a weird video from someone it is us in front of the market in senahu! he said he was going to send it to you. they were cool and they gave us rides to and from our area.

as for vacation i have no idea. whatever you would like to do. doesnt matter really. just want to spend time with me family.

the picture included is the branch president and his family in la tinta. they invited us to lunch. if the other one goes through it is the ex district president's little daughter from teleman. that is one of my favorite pictures.

love and miss you all!!!!

ELDER TAY