July 19th - and new pictures! :)

Just the cool elders wear scoffs ? Actually, just the elders stationed in Santiago? "Real" missionary clothes will look drab once Tyler goes back to them :!

This week...Domingo and Concepcion got baptized! We are way happy for them. Theyve been listening to the missionaries for 3 years so this is a very big step. We are also still working with Marta Lydia and Diego to get their family baptized in August. Hopefully it all works out well! Also we had zone conference in Patzicia this friday--AWESOME. I love zone conferences! Im nervous that lots of our zone will be leaving this change, but as always, we'll see what happens!

Fun information about scoff's:

The scoffs cost 12$. You can have any color combinations that you can think of! wanna know something weird? you cant make scoff too big. the way you wear it, the waist actually can be as small as you need. very hard to explain, but kinda cool!

Tyler

Below is a little email "conversation" between Tyler and me ... Started as we let him know of some traveling we'd be doing starting next week.

tyler:

jealous about all of this!!! mejor que no me digas :)

go ahead and translate that. love you!

Dad:

babelfish gives me back this ??? "better than you do not say to me"

hehehehehehe hahahahaha

Tyler:

lol! hahaha just so you dont think im a jerk, it means "better if you dont tell me anything :)"

got to love babelfish!

Dad:

like I could ever think that!

I figured it was some translational funnery :)

Dad:

by the way, using bable fish to go back and forth ...

English: better than you do not say to me

back to spanish: mejor que usted no diga a mí

back to english: better than you do not say

back to spanish: mejor que usted no diga

at which point it settles down and the english/spanish remain unchanged as you go back and forth.

Tyler:

and now translate this--

Majon khnkwenta khnkaxaaj achnaq kara. Mhskier :D

Dad:

no fair, that doesn't look very spanishy ....

Tyler:

haha its true. do you remember any navajo words still? stuff like the fruits, vegetables, water, house, whatever. youll have to think on it this week and send some, im wondering how close it is! water is the same in almost every mayan language. its "Ya." same with house (jaay), sun (qiij) and man (achie). very cool! :D

Dad:

Off the top of my head

water = twoo

house = kin

home = hoghan

man = dine

... but there are accents and such that the standard alphabet doesn't cover :(

Tyler:

Nada que ver!

(im wondering what babelfish will say. :) it means "theres really nothing similar! ;)

Couple moore pics.

Man is this area beautiful!

In this picture below, you can actually see the local folks washing their clothes in the lake (need to blow it up or grab a manifying glass or both)

July 12 Email

Week 5 of this change starts today! So so so fast. :) This week was way exciting for us in Santiago. Remember the family of Marta Lydia? They want to get baptized! We put the date for August 7th--I think it will be my best birthday present :D

Apart from that, this week was a fun one! We had divisions with San Lucas and I went with Elder Guzman--you would love him! So funny. We also had divisions with Solola and we went out to a village called Cerro de Oro--it was BEAUTIFUL. And we found a PILAS investigator! Hopefully things turn out well! :D This week we are going to be very very busy. Tomorrow we are going to Las Colinas to play soccer with Chimaltenango zone. Wednesday Domingo and Concepcion are getting married! Thursday they will have their baptismal interview. Friday we have zone conf in Patzicia, and then Saturday our converts and those from San Lucas are will have their baptisms! It will be way exciting :)

P.S--Jerm, be sure to tell Faith that I just got her letter yesterday. She sent it back in April!

Posted by Tyler's Dad

July 5th

Hey, Tyler's dad here. Here are some exerts from Tyler's July 5th email home...

This week in Santiago was a filled one! And still going :) Thursday we went to the capital--SO different from the mountains! I had forgotten. I love my pueblo here but a veces yo extraño mi ciudad. :) The people are so fun! And they have the most BEAUTIFUL spanish. They also talk way faster than mountain people. I was kind of thrown when I ordered at KFC :D Friday we went to Solola for interviews. I just love the Baldwins :) Saturday we had a lesson with Marta Lydia and her family--she told us that she had a dream this week and the spirit confirmed to her that the Book of Mormon is true! It was a very special experience. Im excited for them--we are trying to put baptismal dates with them today!

Today we had our big zonecouncil-districtmeeting-districtleadermeeting-internet-lunch day up in Solola, im there right now. I love our zone. Elder Patterson and Elder Kahaunaele are new to the zone this change--you guys would love them!

Lanie--Happy Birthday!!! Tell me EVERYTHING about HP Legos :) Be sure to send screenshots if you can! Jerm and Alex --Youth Conference at Palmyra! That was my favorite one of all. It is one of the best memories I have of mom, us walking through the sacred grove. Live it up, especially on the bus (at night! My favorite part :D Dad--Thanks for the pics! Wish I could have been there! I completely forgot that yesterday was 4th of july--nothing going on down here! :) I think I can get my shoes resoled for 30 Quetzales! (Divide that by 8 to get the dollars, and show you how much money we are saving...:) Ill keep you posted.

Till next week!

Tyler

Tylers sporting his SCOFF :p

Tyler sent this picture so that his brother (Jeremy) and his dad (me) can pick out colors that we'd want to have in our scoff's (he'll get one for us once we decide). Quite the look! Don't cha think.

Below are some exerts from his weekly email (we received it on the June 28th, and I've just been slow to post :( )

This week was so fantastic and SO fast. :D Tuesday was Pday--we went up to Solola to play soccer and then dropped down for a quick visit in Pana :) The rest of the week was pure proselyting--we found some new families and they are way awesome! Also, we put baptismal dates with the family of Domingo and Concepcion! We are way stoked for them and so excited they are getting baptized (theyve been listening to the missionaries for 3 years!). They are a beautiful family and I know you guys would love them. Another thing this week--two new hurricanes?! Youll have to check out the details but it looks like we just finished hurricane Darwin. It rained all day yesterday (only 19 people came to church! Out of 100!) and its still cloudy and cold today. Hopefully it stops here, but nobody really seems to know. They say even the news stations arent saying too much.

The week coming ahead is actually pretty packed, but we get to travel so Im always up for it :D Pday tomorrow we'll probably stay in Santiago and watch the Joseph Smith movie with the San Lucas elders. Thursday we are headed to the capital for a district leader meeting thing, (hopefully to grab some KFC afterward... :), Friday up to Solola for interviews, then Saturday we are planning a trip to San Pedro in the morning to contact some references (if you look at a map of Atitlan, its the next town over), and later in the day Domingo and Concepcion should get married. Its a lot! But it'll be fun :D The work is going wonderful, and Im learning so much as always. Heavenly Father has really been way too good to me :)

Love you guys tons :) Till next week!

Tyler