Phone calls in Spanish! Travel plans in 2 days.

i everyone!
How are you doing? Its really great to get letters, emails, and such from all of you throughout the week; I always look forward to reading them. So how are things here? Well, its basically more of the same thing. Study, study, study, and eat. Basically I'm really ready to get out into the field and be a missionary for real.

  There have been a couple cool things this week: The first is that we got to host last Wednesday. That was super fun and exciting, it breaks up the monotony of the week. Ben Walters came in, a friend from Budge hall at BYU, and he's living on my floor! He's in Aaron's zone, so thats pretty cool. Another fun thing that we got to do this week was we got to do phone calls in spanish. They have a place here where we're able to do confirmation calls for people who've ordered DVDs, Bibles, Books of Mormon, etc. Normally we do them in English, but this last time we got to do them in Spanish. That was pretty exciting, also pretty nerve wracking too.
Also among the exciting news, we get our travel plans in 2 or 3 days!! Im very excited to get those.
  So the spanish is going pretty well. To be honest I pretty much am solid with all of the grammar, I am especially good with it on paper. In speaking though, I'm not as good. Basically what I study in spanish now is vocabulary. We plan on having at least 3 days a week where we speak nothing but spanish all day. I like those, its really the times when i get the most needed practice.
  So I think thats about all thats going on here. Basically I'm waiting eagerly to get out of here and start the real mission. (Which is only 2 short weeks away :D)
Alright, I love you all and thank you so much for all of the support, letters, emails, etc. Thanks and talk to you all later!!
Elder Ryan Mayberry

3 weeks to go! Flight plans pending. Food experimentation.

Hi everyone!                                                                                                                                         Velez(Texas), Benson(Russia), Klein(Algeria), Brase(Phoenix), Martinez(Japan) Mayberry(Chile)

How is everything back home? Things here are pretty normal, not much new happens here. So Its exciting to hear about BYU, I guess theyre doing pretty good. Yeah, so here at the MTC things are going pretty well. The spanish is coming along. The classes are pretty much all in Spanish now, and its up to ourselves if we speak it outside of class. I like to try to have 3 days a week where I speak nothing but spanish all day. I'm getting pretty confident in it. I'm pretty sure that within a month or 2 of being in the field I'll be fluent. Teaching in spanish is going pretty well too. My companion Elder Paull is a good teacher; his spanish is a little bit under par, but its alright, we still make it through the lessons. I try to help him out as much as I can. And basically when we don't know a word we just carry around the dictionary they gave us, which is useful.

Some more good news; we get our flight plans in about a week or so!! I'm super excited for that, I just can't wait to get in the field. I kind of feel restricted here, I'm pretty sure if I went in the field now I would be pretty well off. But oh well, these next 3 weeks will hopefully fly by. Something cool is that I get to be a host missionary tomorrow, I get to pick the missionaries up after theyre dropped off and show them around.

To Jordan: High schools alright, it can be pretty fun. Just make sure you do well, then get into college; thats where the fun really happens. And make sure and let me know how your football games and your fútbal games go.

And to everyone else, I have begun the long and difficult process of trying fruits and vegetables. So far ive tried onions, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, cantelope, pineapple, and a green grape. On a scale of 1 to 10, they're rated a 2,3,3,3.5,5,3,6, respectively. So thats pretty good, I just need to start working up to eating more of these now. Oh yeah, I also tried eggs too. Theyre alright.
Ok, thats all the news I have for now. If I didnt remember anything I'll type it in another message later. I love hearing from you all! Thanks for supporting me! Talk to you later!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Goodbye party for English !

Hey everyone!

How are things back California? I hope everyone is ok despite the fires, it was even hazy and smokey here in Provo a couple days. Its really hard to hear about the news here, I feel really out of the loop. One of our teachers will occasionally tell us about the outside world though, because he knows how it is to be a missionary and knows that we need some things to keep us human. We did hear that BYU won their first game against the 3rd ranked team in the nation. So that was pretty exciting. When I heard that it really made me realize that the outside world is continuing without us, but I know I am here for the right reasons, and am so excited to be leaving in 4 more weeks (ugh)

  So things here are the same old same old. We basically study and eat everyday of the week except P day, which is a very welcome change. I truly know I have been blessed; I have been able to study diligently everyday; back at school it was hard studying for more than an hour! But really, I have made so much progress, both in my Gospel understanding and in Spanish. Something interesting: we had a goodbye party to English in class yesterday. We wrote letters and did a bunch of stuff, symbolizing that were only gonna be speaking Spanish in the class now, and I'm gonna try real hard to speak it throughout the day to. Thats pretty much my only problem in spanish, I can't speak it extremely well. But I can pretty well, hopefully by the time I get out of here I will be pretty well off. Were also teaching in the TRC in spanish for the first time on Friday. The TRC is a place where volunteers come in and be pretend investigators. It's a pretty cool experience, we'll see if i can do it in spanish though.
  So I'm really dying to get to the field. Oh, another thing, I think starting tomorrow I'll be experimenting with vegetables and fruits and what not. I'll keep you updated on how that goes, haha. So yeah, I want to get to the field so badly. On our temple walk the other day we talked to an RM who just got back 3 weeks ago for about an hour. He says he feels a lot more comfortable around us, and he already wants to go back. It'll be so crazy when I get to that point, but thats 23 months away. I really am anxious to get speaking spanish fluently; the guy said it took him about a year in the field, but he was in a beginner class. I don't think it should be too long before I feel close to fluent when I get in the field. As far as studies go, I'm practically done reading the Book of Mormon in english, I'll either finish today or tomorrow. Then after I'll either re-read it in Spanish or start the Bible in Spanish. Its amazing how much I can get done here, especially when we follow such a strict schedule.
  Something funny happened this week. One of the guys in my district, Elder Barksdale has been getting a lot of headaches. So they took him to the hospital to get an MRI. That night at 10:10 (5 minutes before quiet time) 2 BYU police pulled him out of the dorms, and he came back crying. His companion said they had found something small and they had to take it out before he could go to the field. But after about 5 minutes they told us he was just kidding. So yeah, had us spooked for a bit, but it was just a little bit of fun (not in very good taste if you ask me, haha)
  Well thats about all I can think of writing for now. I love getting Dear Elders and emails and letters from you, it makes my day. To my friends who write, be sure to include you home address, so I can write back.I'll write more a little later tonight!

Elder Mayberry

Blessed by an Apostle. Chad leaves for Japan.

Hey everyone! So just writing a quick note about how things are going here before I have to go to breakfast. So things are going pretty good here, although I am beginning to get a little tired of the MTC. But I am halfway done here, then the actual mission starts, which I am excited for. Spanish is coming along well; in fact we have had 2 days where we have spoken nothing but Spanish all day. We are going to be doing 2 of these a week, but probably soon increase it to 3 times a week. Thats basically what I need to get better in spanish. I'd say im fairly confident in all of my writing and listening, but speaking is still coming to me. I am making progress though, which should be good. If all goes well I think I should probably be a very good speaker, not fluent, but definitely well off.                                                
  On another note, my companion is now Elder Paull. Because the 3 Elders left for Guatemala they had to split apart our trio to accomodate. And they split up me and Elder Doxey, but its ok, Elder Paull is a nice companion.

  Our classes have been pretty crazy. So far we've had at least 12 teachers! We had our 2 original teachers, but one got married and the other went on a trip, so we've had substitutes for the past week or so. But now we have one new teacher for good, and the other teacher who was one of the originals is stuck in Chile, haha. But he'll be back soon. Our new teacher is a really nice guy, he talks to us about the outside world a bit, because he knows how much we can feel seperated or alone here in the MTC.
  Alright, well I've got a lot more to talk about, for instance an Apostle came and talked to us at a fireside! But I've got to go to breakfast. Ill talk to you in a bit!
Breakfast is complete:
  Alright here's some more stuff I didnt get a chance to write about earlier. Like I said, things are doing very well here. I am however getting tired of the MTC. People say its nothing like your mission and it improves many times over after you get in the field. I did receive the camera and its working great. Just one thing, next time I send the memory card home leave the pictures on the card too, and I'll delete them if necessary. I think the Microsoft charge is fine, they said they had to charge us one more time. I'm pretty sure thats the last one, but if it happens again we might have to call or something. About dad posting the pictures on facebook, he can if he wants to. Just make sure he doesnt check my notifications or anything. He could even give a little update on the status or something if he wants. Also, encourage people to write me, anyway, Dear Elder, email or regular mail.

 Alright, so things are good here. Like a said, im getting a bit tired of it, but at least I'm halfway done here. Chad just left for Japan on Monday, so we got another picture with all of us BYU guys. 3 more guys from the floor have come. The highlight of the week I guess was last tuesday Elder Richard G. Scott of the Quorum of the 12 came and spoke to us. It was easily the best talk I've heard given. He spoke so powerfully and I knew that he is a man ordained of God. He even gave us some apostolic blessings (if thats the word for it). He blessed us with a gift of protection and the gift of tongues. So hopefully those help :D Anyways, if I can think of anything else Ill write a little bit later today. ¡Hasta luego, Chao!