It's been a good week!

Hey everyone! Well this week has been pretty good. We had a lot of stuff go on this week. I think this email's gonna be all over the place, but here goes...

  Well on Tuesday we had a good district class. We learned a lot, especially about the Atonement, but more on that in a bit. Well I'll tell you about the progress of the investigators in a bit. But one of the highlights was on Thursday.
  On Thursday we had the Zone conference, where like half the mission meets up and the President and the assisstants talk to us. But it was just spectacular. It was President Chavez's last one with us. But the assistants gave an excellent presentation of the Atonement. And us as a mission are all trying to increase our understanding and testimonies of the Atonement. I will tell you right now its amazing, I've learned so much this last week about all that Christ did for us. I've learned a lot from talks, for example I would highly reccomend the talk from the last general conference by Elder Scott. A lot of things he says I had never thought of before. I know that Christ is my savior and redeemer. I love the Atonement. So that's my consejo (advice) for this week. Anyway, that was Thursday. A cool note, I got a letter back from chad! He's doing good it seems. So on Friday was the big Chile game, which they lost but still classified for the next round. Parading in the street still applied.
  On Saturday we had an activity by the missionary work to help get the ward excited to work in the missionary work. It went pretty good. We watched a movie about it, and a cool little thing, when we pushed fast forward you could still hear the voices. The cool thing is that I can understand spanish at 2x speed! haha. Well the activity went pretty good.
  Another random thing. Elder Findlay got a package, and inside was a pedometer! (one of the things that keeps track of your steps, it also converts it to miles too). So we've been using it daily seeing how much we walk. For example, on Friday we walked 7.5 miles, and on Saturday we walked about 10 miles. So were gonna figure out to see how far we could go in the 24 months if it was just spent walking (we could get pretty close to home is what were thinking). So thats neat.
  Sunday was good, Sonia came to church again. Well now I'll talk about the investigators. Sonia is doing excellent. She is doing really well. She's gonna have her baptism interview this week, so she may be getting baptized this Sunday! I'll tell you if she did or not next week. The rest of the people we have are progressing kind of, but havent been going to church. So were seeing what we can do with them, but were working on finding new people too. But I'll be keeping you posted. Elder Findlay and I are getting along really well, working hard too. Today we went and played some soccer, which is fun. All this mundial (world cup) just makes me want to play, haha.
  Well that's basically what happened this week. Next week should be pretty good. I love you all, I love this work and this gospel. Its true. Have great weeks! Heres some pictures!

Me with President Chavez,

My Comp  Elder Findlay with President Chavez,

and a pic of Concepción

Inside Zone Conference

Elder Ryan Mayberry

World Cup!!

 Well as I'm sitting here in the internet cafe the Chile team is playing vs. Switzerland, and its kinda hard to concentrate on this letter, haha. But I'll try my best, but a lot happened this week ¡CHI-CHI-CHI-LE-LE-LE VIVA CHILE! That's the cheer they shout here. And Chile just won again! They're doing pretty good it seems. Well now that the games over I can concentrate a bit more on this email. So a lot's happened this week.

  So last Monday me and Elder Grant went to the big market that sells a bunch of souveniers and bought some stuff, cuz he left Chillan for Chiguayante. So I bought some cool stuff there, then we said bye to the ward members. On Tuesday we went to the bus terminal, and I had to wait for my comp to get there. So then my comp got here. His names Elder Findlay, he's from Washington, and he's really cool, we get along really well. Something interesting, the last sector he was in was Dichato. Yes, that's the place that got utterly destroyed by the tsunami, and he was there for it. He had to run for the hills, lost all his stuff, so that's pretty interesting. Oh, and while at the terminal I got to see Elder Viana, who was with me in the house in Talca, so that was cool we gotta catch up.
  So this week was pretty good investigator wise. Well it actually had its ups and downs. We found a couple new people, and a lot of the investigators we have are remaining the same, like Anibal and Alex. But Sonia is progressing a lot, she went to church again this Sunday! But unfortunately, we talked to Cristian and he said he's going out of town for an unspecified time, Ugh. So that was a bummer. People are celebrating in the streets because of the game, haha. Well, actually that's all thats happened.
  But things are going pretty good here in Chillán. The world cup is in full force though. To show you how intense it is here, for example, people go to work the days that Chile plays, but everything is put on hold for the game and everyone stops working. At schools, the kids still go, but the schools are buying plasma TVs to show the students, and they watch it during school hours. And today, we went to go do some of the Visa stuff for Elder Findlay, but they wouldn't let us in, they were watching the game. haha, so it's a bit ridiculous. But it's also pretty cool. The parading in the streets has started.
  Well sadly that's the email I have for you. Probably half was about the world cup, haha. But things are good. I like my new comp a lot, we get along and teach well together. I'm still the junior comp if you wanted to know. Well to make up for it I'm gonna put on some fotos.

Photos:
1)Our zone before cambios

2) Me on a dinosaur

3) The statue they have to missionary work inour sector, haha

Love you all, the church is true.
Elder Ryan Mayberry

Another Cambio gone by.

  Well here we are again. Well this week was pretty good. Well it was alright actually, but it was still good. It was a pretty normal week here, lots of walking, a bit more sitting. Well I think I'll dedicate this email to about the investigators mostly.

  So first off we have Christian and his family. Well they're good, but we weren't able to teach him last week! He was always busy. That seems to be the big problem were finding here. But hopefully he's still doing good.
  Next we have Sonia, Karla, and Pablo. They're the grandchildren of the preacher we were teaching. They're also good, we taught them about the restoration and they understood it well. They even had some friends there with them that we taught too. And Sonia came to church this week! So that was good, also good was she already knew some of the people there. That's always a blessing.
  We also taught Nacho a couple times this week, but he still doesn't have permission from his dad to get baptized. So that's no fun.
  Also Anibal is doing good. we taught him, cleared up a couple doubts he had, and then he said that he was gonna go to church for sure, but didn't.
Alex, the old investigator is also doing really well. He also said he was gonna go to church but didn't.
  Basically that's what happened with most of our investigators. They either weren't there, or they said they'd go to church but didn't. So that's a little fome (lame) when that happens. But we did find a new guy this week. His names Martín. Hes 20 and he's really receptive. He's also really unique, I would call him the Chilean equivalant of a surfer kind of person, like with the way he talks and everything. But he's really good too, we've already found him twice, and he couldn't go to church this week, but he said next week he would, so I'm optimistic. His moms kinda crazy though.
  So now for a couple of the goings on here in Chillán. One thing I learned, not sure if it really works, but if you throw sugar on a fire it makes less smoke come out. Another thing, the mundial (world cup) has started, and it's apparent that when Chile plays, it'll be hard to get stuff done. The world cup's so popular here, imagine the super bowl, that everyone watches and lasts for a month. That's basically how it is, and one night, while we were planning, a drunk guy was walking down the street, singing at the top of his lungs and dancing down the street, like as if he was in a musical or something. But I wasn't fast enough to get my camera. Ugh, haha, but it was still hilarious. And yesterday it started raining, and it's pretty windy too. And in other news, I finished Jesus the Christ! It's such an amazing book.
  Oh yeah, and todays cambios! Elder Grant is leaving, but I'm not sure who's coming in his place. I'll let you know next week I guess! Well thats all I got for you, love you all, the church is true! Have a great week!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

10 months in my Mission!

Isnt that crazy? Time is just flying by. Well, this week was pretty good. Had its ups and downs.

Well on Monday, we found Cristian to teach him again, but this time we taught his family too, and it was really good! They're all gonna pray to see if what we say is true. I have big hopes with them.
  Tuesday in the morning we got the glorious news that we can play sports now! Like soccer and basketball. We couldn't for the whole time I was here, but now we can! So that was cool. Then we did a minicambio with Bulnes, and I went over there, which was good.
  On Wednesday we were walking to an appointment, and I was balancing on this like log and I split and fell. It was kind of embarrasing, but luckily there was no one around us, haha. Then we went over to teach Miguel (the preacher) and he went to Santiago and is staying there I guess. Now we both just couldn't believe it, right when it seemed he was making progress. But then we got in and taught his 3 grandchildren, and had a really good lesson! It could be a blessing in disguise. But I'm also very hopeful for them too.
  Thursday was a pretty normal day. At lunch we had a desert I never had. If I had to describe it, it was strawberry flavored foam, haha. But it was good nontheless. Oh, and on Thursday we had some little kids through a couple rocks at us. I'm not gonna lie, I think the only times I get mad on the mission is when someone throws rocks at us. Oh well. It's so amazing the love Christ had, I wish I could just have a piece of it.
  On Friday we had an activity run by us, where people talked about their conversion, and then applied it to the missionary work. But unfortunately no investigators came, but I think it helped the ward a bit (our wards pretty dead in the missionary work).
  Saturday was pretty normal. Once again we've got the problem where not a lot of people are in their houses, so were doing a lot of walking. Sunday was alright, none of our good investigators came to church though, ugh. Even thought they said they would. Its a bit fruistrating sometimes but oh well.
  And then today we made good use of the being able to play sports, we went and played soccer for a good while, which was a ton of fun. I'm pretty rusty though, but oh well.
  Well that's basically what happened this week. Next weeks cambios, so that should be interesting. I'll keep you guys updated. Love you all and have good weeks!