Decent!

  Well family, as you can see this last week was just decent for us, but there were some good things that happened for us. So I'll just tell you what happened starting at the beggining of the week. Well, Monday was just a pretty normal day. Tuesday was alright though. We had a district class, and I focused the class on having animo, or rather, enthusiasm. Enthusiasm that we're misisonaries, that we can work, just because it(having the right attitude) really affects the work a ton. I think it was a good class. Then after we went to go teach Graciela real fast before lunch, she's the lady who randomly came to church last Sunday. So we taught her a bit, inside of the bus she has to sell juice. Then we went to lunch, then had an invasion in another sector of the zone, Talca Centro (Downtown Talca). That was good, then after that the day was pretty much normal. Wednesday was a good day too. We did a minicambio with the zone leaders, I went over to their sector with elder Ward our newer zone leader, and elder Huerta stayed here with elder Morgan. Elder Ward is a really good missionary, he's got 3 months less time than me but he's way cool, an excellent missionary. I learned a lot from him. The day we had was just mas o menos over there though. One of the best things about doing minicambios with the zone leaders is that in their sector, they have a completo stand named Donde Alex, and it is claimed to have the best completos in Talca. And let me tell you, it is. I'll include some pictures. Sooooo goood.  Also, my mtc comp elder Doxey is the Zone Leader of the other zone in Talca and lives with our zl's, so we talked a bit. thats cool.

  Thursday morning we talked a lot about how to help the zone, and my district. Thursday was just alright as well. And from then on it was rather rough for us. Friday was viernes santo, o sea, "Good Friday". a day of pure traditions like not eating meat (dont ask me why) and stuff. Also on the tv a lot it showed a lot about how they celebrate here, like having massive parties (...) or how in some parts they literally nail themselves to crosses. ugh, it just doesn't make me feel good that kind of remembering Christs Atonement. Why can't we just give it the reverance it deserves? So also because it's a 3 day weekend everyone either left Talca or relatives came over, making the work a bit hard. Friday we didn't get into a single house, except for at the very end of the night. we were doing contacts and a lady came up to the door and let us in right away. We found out that she's a member, but inactive for like 18 years. And her whole family was there too from Santiago like 5 other people, all members, all inactive for 18 years. But they're really nice people with desires to come back to church. So we talked a bit and invited them to church. 

  Saturday was also a rough day. We didn't get into a single house the whole day, except at the night with an inactive member and her non member husband. It was a good lesson. Then Sunday came around and it was hard, because no investigators came to church. But Kevin got confirmed! So we're sitting there at the beginning of the meeting and then all of a sudden a ton of people walk into the chapel, and it was the inactive family we taught on Friday! That was really cool to see. That was an exito (success) that really made us feel good. Only one lives here in this sector though, but we're gonna see if we can start working with her husband who isn't a member. Then the rest of the day was just decent.

   SO that was basically last week! WAIT! I forgot about a pretty funny incident that happened. So on Friday we were just walking down a side street, minding our own business, and a dog just runs up to me and bites me! Luckily he didnt get my leg, but he did get my pants. And he did quite a bit of damamge to the pants though, I'll attatch a picture (dont put it on the blog please, haha), but he basically ripped the stitching on the side from the waist down to the heel. So that was kind of awkward walking around like that, luckily a member lived close by and fixed it right away. 

   Now, thats what happened last week. Today I found an email from the office telling me home I'm going home on August 9th telling me I gotta tell them stuff like the airport closest to my home and stuff.....trunky email. Time is disappearing, its crazy.  This cambios half over already. Well it's good that I'm not trunky.

   So I hope you all have a great week! Hope you had a great Easter and could think more about Christ, now I invite you to think about him more throughout the whole year! Love you all, this church is true!!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

 Pics

1,2) The times are changing here in Talca.

3) Having fun here in Talca

4) the result of my 2nd encounter with a dog

Not included.... haha

 

5,6)Donde Alex completo (all that on the top is homemade mayonaise, yum. I ate 2 of those).

 

Jardin de Valle!

   Well, this week was a pretty good one here in Jardin del Valle. We're seeing some progress with some of our investigators.  Well on Monday we had a lesson with Kevin and Keyla. They're both doing good, both had a good experience.
  Tuesday was a cool day. On Tuesday we went and did what's called an invasion.  An invasion is when all the missionaries of the zone invade a single sector and work in there for a day. SO for the invasion we all went to the hermanas sector in Constitucion, a beach city. So we actually all lunched over there, had the district class over there, and then worked. It was good, we actually found a good lady there. Overall, it was an effective and fun day, and we got back home right at 10pm, so we had to just go straight into the house.
  Wednesday was an alright day. We met with Rosana, she's doing good, but we've found that there's a tiny problem. When we share with her, the husbands nice with us, and he says he'll let her do what she wants. But this time Rosana told us that her husband told her that if she gets baptized, they'll get separated. But we'll see, I'm pretty sure the Lords gonna ablandar (soften) his heart. So it's a tiny setback, but we're gonna do what we can to help her.
  On Thursday we had a miniconference with the President and Hermana Humphrey and the assisstants. And it was a really, really good conference, one I really needed. It talked about how to better fulfill our purpose as missionaries, and about working with the members better. It was very spiritually uplifting and good for me as a missionary. And to top it they gave us Mcdonalds for lunch! Yum. So after that we left with a ton of animo to work in the Lords work.
  Friday was a good day. I had to go over to La Florida to do an interview, so that was cool, I hadn't done one in a long while. She didn't pass, but we'll see what happens with her.  Saturday was also good. We stopped by Cristina and Franco. We couldn't see them throughout the whole week because now Crisitinas working. But we talked about church (they went last week), and she shared with us that she went to church expecting a sign or something, then she gets home and her husband got a job offer after looking for months!!! So that's really cool. They said they'd come to church on Sunday.  Oh yeah, and we started us an English class, it's just beginning but hopefully we'll get a lot of people to come. Last saturday like 6 came, this Saturday only 2. We'll see what happens I guess.  Then after that the rest of the night was dedicated to finding new people.  At the very end of the night we found a cool married couple that we'll see.  
  Sunday was good, but not in all the ways we expected. Keyla got confirmed (Kevin couldn't, but next week he is for sure). So the only investigator we had in church was Rosana! We actually fasted for her so she could come, and she came! So that was really good. Then right before the last hour a random lady walked into the chapel and wanted to find out more! So she stayed for the last hour and we got a return appointment with her! So that was an unseen blessing. Franco and Cristina didn't show, she had to work  :(  And after work basically all we did was work towards finding new investigators, and it worked! We had a good day of finding Sunday.
  Well, that's about it. Today we came over to Linares to play soccer against that zone. I was on fire! I scored like 6 goals or something. It was a fun game, and I got to see a lot of missionary friends.  Well, we're excited to work this week, it should be a good one. I love being here! Thanks for everything, have a great week!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

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Baps!

  Hello everyone, this week was a pretty good week for us here in Jardin del Valle. The main good news is.... baptisms! More on that a bit later. But other than that the week, actually thinking about it, was a bit hard. Mainly, what made it hard was that no one let us in their houses this week! We didn't find like any new people, so that's not good. Also, a lot of the newer people we found last week we couldn't see this week, so that wasn't good either. But we worked hard this week with Kevin and Keyla, Rosana, and Freddy and Gloria. Freddy and Gloria are doing good, but went out of town to this weekend so they couldn't come to church, aww. Rosanas doing good. She was for sure gonna come to church again, but because of the babies she didn't get to bed til 6:30, so she didn't make it to church. But we did get Cristina and Franco to church! That was good, so we're gonna focus on them too. But the best news of this week was that Kevin and Keyla got baptized on Sunday!!! It was really good. I baptized Keyla, and Elder Huerta baptized Kevin. Photos will be included.

   So the rest of the week was just normal missionary work. I did 2 minicambios this week, 1. I went over to the Zone leaders sector, where all there citas (appointments) fell, haha, so we did a lot of contacts that day. Then the next day I went over to La Florida, and got to talk to a couple of their better investigators. I'm pretty sure they're gonna baptize again this month, which will be really good for them.

   But other than that, not too much exciting happened. Oh yeah, the other really good news, Miguel got baptized!! We were in phone communication the whole time, so it wasn't a surprise, but boy am I happy for that!! This week should be a lot better, it should be pretty busy, so next weeks email should be longer. Oh, and by the way, I got the package! Thanks everyone! It's a delicious package. Well, the church is true. Oh yeah, I turned 20 months old in the mission. Yikes. Well, the good news is I'm not trunky. I love being here and I love being a missionary. Hope you have a great week! 

Pics

1)Happy birthday biscuits and gravy breakfast

2)Happy Birthday lunchtime cake

3) Me Keyla, Kevin and E Huerta

4) Us, kevin, keyla, and their mom and little brother

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Huzzah!

  This week was an excellent week for us here in Jardín del Valle. We saw a lot of successes after a long time working hard here. We saw success in basically all aspects of the work here, in finding, in getting our investigators to progress, and getting some to baptism.  So I guess I'll explain the week in terms of those.

   So in finding. We did a good job of finding some pretty solid people this week. We found 3 or 4 pretty receptive people who really are interested and want to follow the example of Christ. Among them there names are Belén (Bethlehem in spanish), Tabita, and Valesca.

   So in helping people progress and get prepared for baptism we had a lot of success with the people we've been teaching. Namely, because Rosana, Freddy and Gloria, and Kevin and Keyla's mom all came to general conference this weekend! They finally all took the first step to getting to church. Now we just got to get them to come back this next week. But were definitely excited for the future here in Jardin del Valle. Especially because all 4 of them are really, really good. I have faith that all of the can be baptized either this month or next month.

   And in the last news of Kevin and Keyla. They had their baptism interviews on wednesday, and both of them passed!! We decided though it would be best if they got baptized this Sunday the 10th. So this Sunday were gonna have some baptisms! Huzzah! It's a cause of great rejoicing to see people make covenants with God, the first covenants they need to live with Him after this life. yay!

   Other significant events this week: My birthday! It was good, I had 2 cakes, one for lunch and one in the night. It was a good birthday. I also was sick the day after, not that fun. Then the other event was general conference. Ahh, i love it! It was such a good conference, I think my favorite session was Saturday afternoons. It was just perfect for our investigators there. I love conference so much, I definintely took it for granted back in my youth (or rather up until 2 years ago haha).

   So yeah, I'm 21 now. And tomorrow I turn 20 months old in the mission. Uhhhhh.......where's time going? I have no idea.  So everythings good here. Oh yeah, cambios! I'm staying here! And so is my comp. SO here we are ready to put forth a good cambio of work.  Well thats it! The church is obviously true.  Have a great week!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry