Tyler's email from Sept 27, 2010

Hey family!

Not too much has happened since Wednesday other than I got pretty sick this week--NOT fun! Pday we stayed inside all day cause I had flu or something. Towards the end of the week it turned into stomach stuff. But I think Im all good now. Otherwise, the work has been going pretty well--we found some cool people to teach in this village called Cerro de Oro (Hill of Gold), theyre way cool! Hopefully things work out well.

This week ahead, we are back to the cap for another training week. Im excited! It was awesome last time. And we'll be ending it by staying in Solola for conference weekend. Is everyone excited??? I cant believe after this I will have only one more conference left in the mission. So weird!

Hope Richmond is going well. Is it starting to feel fall-ish? It is raining here from the hurricane and I am absolutely freezing. Definitely would be better in the September fall in VA, with all the colored trees and not having to wear jackets outside. Enjoy it!!!
Tyler

I brought my memory card this week so just sent a few pics off--enjoy! One of the pics below belongs to a very funny story!

Diegos baptism!

San Pedro. LOVE it :)

Me in the bathroom with the rooster!

We went to the Calels house and they fed us some hot chocolate and bread, and then I asked if I could use the bathroom. So the mom says yeah no prob, then she goes in there and comes back out, and says "Its ok, just that theres a rooster in there. And sometimes he pecks!" (This is even funnier in spanish, if you can believe it.) So we look in there and there is a ROOSTER on the ledge between the bathroom and the shower. I was cracking up!!! Definitely not a common thing on the stateside :)

Faustinos baptism! This is such a crazy picture. His brother Hugo is on the far right and is SO cool. You guys would love him!

My favorite lady in the world. I call her Ms. Banana. She always has the BEST bananas!

Me with the Calels in Chukmuk! San Pedro volcano in the back

Me and Elder Patts with scoff! Yes jerm, that is your scoff, he he :P

Me and Elders Patterson, Hutchings, and Vahai at changes!

Tyler's email from Sept 22, 2010

Another week gone in the mission. They say the downhill slide is quick and steep. It already feels that way!

Sorry for the email lack Monday--we had a meeting in the cap that got pushed back last second so we have our district meeting and email today. In any case it was a good meeting--and they bought us Wendys! I was pretty content :)

This week was a pretty good week. Diego finally got baptized! We were so excited for him :) It was a way cool experience. I will tell you though, I have never seen a baptism in my mission go smoothly when the day comes around--the devil is always fighting against us! It makes it that much better when they actually do get baptized--Heavenly Father always wins :)

Love you guys so much. Miss you! Till next week

Tyler

Tyler's email from Sept 13, 2010

Another week in Santiago! First week of the change :) Everythings going awesome!

This week was pretty mellow but also way exciting! Diego Koche is FINALLY gonna get baptized, we are having his interview today so hopefully all works out for Saturday! Other than that, we had a zone council Wednesday--the zone is so different now! Tons of my friends are gone. But the new guys are way cool too. I think itll be a fun change! Also, its been amazing with Elder Patts. Oh gosh you guys would love him. We've been living it up in Santiago and I know we'll be able to do good work here. He's such a fan of the culture and the language, which is just what this area needs!

Yay for reading scriptures together! Imma go all missionary here on you guys and tell you to BE ALERT during scripture study (ok i know, i was always really bad at that), and dont just read! Talk about what youre reading! Look for footnotes! Share insights! Search ponder and pray! I promise you you will miss it eventually when you are in a different country studying by yourself :) Disfrutenlo!

Miss you guys more than ever. Love you so much!

Officially a year old as of Jueves.

Week of Labor Day in 2010

Another week in Santiago! Hahaha Im still here. Elder Tarax had changes! He is now in the capital and training, so pilas! Im still here, and loving it :) Looks like I'll be here at least three more months, maybe even till Christmas! We'll see :) My new companion is Elder Patterson (another one!) and he is AWESOME. We were really good friends in the zone before so its way cool. You guys would love him! He's hysterical, and an awesome example for me of a pure missionary. Im excited!

This week was a crazy one! But way awesome :) We had the crazy hurricane on Friday, looks like you heard about that. Mudslides knocked out a lot of Solola but we were actually fine here. Just SOOOOOOOOO much rain. Like for reals I could not even take it! It gets so cold when it rains. Anywho power went out Friday night and into Saturday--Faustino got baptized Saturday but with out water the font wouldnt fill! We had to fill it by hand by dragging water from the tank outside of the church. It was crazy, but an AWESOME experience. I realized halfway into it how much I really hadnt thought twice about doing it! I think I would fill a font by hand for anyone who could enter the waters of baptism. It truly is our divine privilege. :)

Tyler

End of August

Got your package!!! Woot woot! LOVED it. We had interviews on Wednesday and I was so excited to eat everything. I think you actually put in everything that was on the list. Hahaha! Ive been enjoying it every day, and my comp has been testing all the "American food." Hes a huge fan! And I cant believe you sent dr. pepper! That was my favorite part. :) Thanks!!! Also, LOVED the pecans! Who made them?

This week was way good! We had divisions with the assistants on Tuesday so that was way fun! Wednesday was interviews, LOVED them. And then Sams baptism was sunday. I cant remember if I told you about him! He is nine and his family are all members but they never baptized him because they forgot. So we stepped in. Its kind of hysterical. :) But they are so cool--it was an awesome experience!

Sounds like everything is going good these last weeks of summer! Hoping the depression hasnt hit too bad--be sure to live it up this week! Also, I got your scoff! It is beautiful and i have been wearing it :P Hahaha ill try and send pics soon. Chase's and dads should be done saturday. get excited!

Miss you guys tons. Im almost a year old in the mission. jerm is a senior, alex freshman, and lanie 5th grade. we are all so old!

Love you

tyler

AUG 23RD

(this keyboard is really stiff so im going to write without capitals)

oh goodness another amazing week! we are already on week 5 of 6 and it is going toooooo fast. in two weeks ill turn a year old in guatemala. what the heck! :)

this week...not gonna lie! might have been the best week in my mission so far. there have been so many amazing experiences. I wish i could tell them all to you in person. but there have been things also inexplicable--the Lord has been marvelous in showing His guiding hand.

this week we started monday by leaving for solola and having pday there. elder vahai and elder long are the other district leaders in the zone so they came too and we played pokemon sorry the whole day and had "deep doctrine" talks with elder dodge at night. way fun! tuesday we 5 (elder zapata and elder dodge are the zone leaders) headed off to the capital, ate some mcdonalds, and then went to the training meeting. i got put in divisions with elders lindsley and bejar. the training was AMAZING. every day from 10 to 4 we studied more and more of how we can be better teachers, learned the doctrine, watched new PMG videos, and listened to the Baldwin's mission experiences. it was awesome. every night, me and elder lindsley and elder bejar went out into the capital in their area called El Frutal, Villanueva. It was BEAUTIFUL. i had forgotten my love of the capital! and the people were so amazing. we started putting in practice all of the stuff we learned in the training, and had some powerful spiritual experiences. elder lindsley and elder bejar are SO cool! you would love them. friday we had the last day of training, and it was kinda sad saying goodbye to everyone! there were like 40 missionaries at the training and we had all learned a lot. but it was way fun. we 5 took off to solola again, got there at 830, and finished off with some deep doctrine talks. i love the missionaries in our mission--they are incredible examples! saturday morning me and elder tarax headed back to santiago, and now we are here! the whole thing was amazing, and it was actually very nice celebrating moms birthday--i dont think i can ever forget it!

tyler

p.s--i think jerm asked this. i actually am pretty good now at tzutujil! i even like using it more than i do spanish. its way fun. cant wait to show you! (or maybe ill send a tape!)

Aug 16th

Another week done! So so so fast. And its only getting faster! This week was excellent, and we are officially halfway through the change! So crazy.

Updates--we went to San Pedro on Friday (amazing!) and have found some really incredible people to teach there. The only thing is that its very far, so its very expensive to come to church. Hopefully it works out! Also, do you remember Faustino? His mom wouldnt let him get baptized, but this week she said she would! We are way stoked. :) Prayers really do work!!!

This week is going to be very different! Elder Hinckley has started a new program missionwide and we are getting some leader training all this week! We are headed up to Solola today for Pday early. Then me and Elder Vahai and Elder Long are going to the capital in divisions until Friday! Im way stoked. And ive heard its a very spiritual experience. Cant wait!

Till next week!