2 additional roomates!

  Once again, hello everyone!

  I sure do love being on a mission. I love it here. How are things back home? All good I hope. So this week has been very good. And we had 3 baptisms this week! But I shall start at the beginning of the week…
  The new elders are here! One's named Elder Viana and the other is Elder Christensen. Both are really cool guys. Elder Viana is especially funny. Elder Christensen is brand new, so he's still a little out of it, haha. But he is a rubio (meaning he has blonde hair and blue eyes). Needless to say he is a spectacle here. Everyone just stares at him, haha. The norm here is having dark hair and dark eyes, so whenever someone is different they get a ton of attention. So yeah, they're both super cool and are wokring very hard. So to continue…
  So to start I'll talk about some of the food. On Monday was the first time I had herbal tea. And I'm not gonna lie, I like it alot! It's really good. Who would have thought! Another interesting thing we had on Monday is whats called a zapallo Italiano. It is a zucchini with all the stuff in the middle taken out, and rice put it. Needless to say it looked pretty formidable, but it really wasn't that bad.
  So another interesting note. The past few weeks have been blistering hot. Then out of nowhere last week it got colder, then rained for 2 days. It was very weird.
  So this week we did our best to visit Geremias, Alejandro, and Daniel every day, (they're the ones who were planned to be baptized on Sunday). We were at Geremias and Alejandros house, and Geremias gave the prayer. He prayed and said he was thankful for the opportunity he has to be baptized by me. That really touched me, it is so great seeing how big of an influence I have the chance to be in peoples lives.
  So on Tuesday and Wednesday we had to go to lunch 20 minutes away by bus, in a town called Maule. We were sitting on the bus and a young boy walked on (probably like 15). He said he was a missionary of some church, then just said a thing he had memorized and tried to sell the people on the bus a pamphlet. This got me thinking about how different we as missionaries are. I do respect him for what he does, but he just didn't seem to care, you know? He didn't talk to us, preach or anything, just said a script. So yeah, something interesting. The family who lives out in Maule is called the Yañez family. To sum them up, they're old. Super old. Sr. Yañez is so old he has hair growing out the topo of his nose, haha. Anyways, when we got there, I saw that each plate had a huge artichoke on it. I was very worried, but it turned out fine. It wasn't too bad, but it is a lot of work to eat an artichoke.
  Alright, so we were at Geremias and Alejandros house a different day, and his mom was talking about why Alejandro had never been baptized in the catholic church. She wanted him to have the decisión and pick which church he liked best. Then Alejandro said, but mom, its not only cuz I like the church, it's because it's the only true church. Elder Jorgensen and I were grinning from ear to ear when he said that. I felt so happy for him.
  And another interesting guy we talked to. He knew the Bible backwards and forwards, and had all these equations and whatnot about the significance of numbers in the Bible and whatnot. Something I realized is that he had faith through these numbers and equations, and I have faith through God and prayer. It was just a strong testimony to how strong my faith is.
  Alright, the big day Sunday. So Daniel, Geremias and Alejandro were being baptized. We went over to Geremias and Alejandros house in the morning and had breakfast with them. Then we headed to church and I was so nervous during the whole church. We started to fill the font early, but it was going to slow, so we turned up the cold water and let it go. So 30 minutes before the service we discovered the water was up to the middle of our torsos! So we had to leave it like that. The baptism service went off without a hitch, and I got to baptize Geremias 3rd. It was easily one of the best experiences of my life. The apiñes (feelings) I felt for him was something I've never felt before. So spiritual. So then came time to drain the font. And unfortunately (I'm using that loosely) the water was up super high, so I had to go completely Under to pull out the drain. Not gonna lie, that felt really good too. Then I said, hey - why not do a little bit of eggbeatering? Haha, just kidding. Didn't really do that.
  So yeah that about sums up the weeks activites. It was an amazing week, definitely one of the best here thus far. I love you all, and please continue to write. Miss you a bunch, and talk to you next week!

Elder Ryan Mayberry