where can I find the .po and .mo files for translation?

Please see: https://startupwp.com/topic/translating-your-theme-to-your-language/

Because the theme is ever changing we’ve decided it doesn’t make very much sense to maintain language files, and that this should be done by the end-user for their specific projects.

We can of course help you to manage your own translations if/when you have specific questions about the process.

http://poedit.net/ is free and does not require the pro version for creating the necessary files.

In our experience, creating these files for you is a disservice as it only makes it increasingly difficult to continue managing for both us and customers.

It’s our job to make sure the theme is translation-ready, but best for the customer to actually manage their own translation files (especially considering there are many many languages and we’re only fluent in one) for consistency, quality and accuracy of the actual translations themselves.

There may be a bit of a learning curve, but in the long run it’s important for customers to manage something as important as wording, while we focus on the design.

Thanks for understanding.