Very Nice!

Hello all! Well, this week to me was an amazing week. It was really full of the spirit, I loved it. Les cuento...
  So basically, we've been working with Melani for her baptism on Saturday, her sister Carla too (even though she doesn't have permission), and we're trying to find some other new people, and working with a couple others. One of them is Marcela, she went to church once before I got here, and was out of town last week. On Tuesday we got to meet with her. She's really good, she's for sure getting baptized this month. There is a catch however, she's very pregnant. Actually, we taught her at the beginning of the month, then when we went to her house on Friday to teach her, she was on her way to the hospital to have the baby! So she couldn't come to church this week, but hopefully she gets out of the hospital soon. She took her book of Mormon to the hospital to read, so thats good.
  Melani is doing awesome. She really has been more converted than ever, especially through the trials she's facing. She became a great investigator, reading the Bof M every day and all that, then took getting baptized seriously. And although her parents initially said they'd support her, now they've both expressed their disapproval of what she's doing. So it's been really hard on her. But she's pulling through. She's got a good support system of friends in the church. So her baptism date was for Saturday, and on Friday night we had a lesson with her at the Bishops house. Then we found out that if we had the baptism on Saturday, her sister Carla wouldn't be able to go, and she would be alone, so we decided to wait until Sunday for the baptism. Then came Sunday, the day of the baptism. It was such an amazing baptism!! It was one of the most spiritual ones I've had, Melani after also gave her testimony, and it was really beautiful, you can really tell that she has been truly converted. And then afterwards her sister came up to us and said "It won't be long til my baptism, today I'm gonna to have a really serious talk with my parents about it and make them give me permission!" She also was really affected by her sisters baptism, and its regiven her animo! So we're really excited about that. Other than those 2 we didnt have anyone else in church. Aww. So that was just a really great baptism. Now we gotta find more people to teach.
  So, a couple other things happened this week. On Thursday we went to Hualqui, the hermanas sector, and gave a couple interviews. Then on Friday we had a zone conference, my last one of the mission. Wierd. So it was an amazing conference, we watched a Jeffrey R Holland talk he gave to missionaries in the MTC in January. Amazing. He talked about how we have to be truly converted, and shared a story from the New testament about it. After christ is resurrected, Peter and the apostles aren't exactly sure what to do, so they go back to what they did before, fishing. Then the Lord appears to them on the shore, and talks to them. He asks Peter if he loved him 3 times, told him to feed his sheep. Basically, he was telling Peter that things couldn't go back to the way they were, they were called to be apostles forever. He related it to that once we're converted, we can't go back to how we were before. We must be changed. It was really good, it hit me good, seeing as how I'm going home in 2 hands (look at your 2 hands open and you'll figure it out).  Then, I realized I had to give my last testimony! So I basically just focused on 2 things: How I will be eternally grateful for my Mission, and how I'll always be thankful for the changes it's made in me and how I've grown in the gospel and become truly converted.
  Well, that's basically it! It was a great week, we're excited for this month here in Chiguayante, we should see a lot of success. Have a great week, love you lots!

Pics:
1)Me, Carla, Melani, i dont know who, Macarena (new convert), Elder Squires, Luis (Ward mission leader)
2)A view from my sector of the river Bio Bio, chiguayante is surrounded by hills basically.

3) The baptism

Greetings from the prairie!

Well, the first week of the cambio has ended. It hasn't been too different here as a zone leader, but I'm really liking the new sector I'm in. Lets see...
  On Monday I had to say goodbye to everyone, which was like always, it's always kind of hard. So then I had to go to the bus terminal at like 10 in the morning on Tuesday. Then I had a long trip, the bus left at like 10 and got to Concepcion at like 4ish I think. But I got there, my comp was there waiting for me, his name is Elder Squires, he's from around Sacramento, and dies this cambio. SO it'll be the first time I kill a comp. Fun.  So then we went to our sector.  We got there and went to lunch, then went out to work.
 Si my sector is La Pradera, translated,  The Prairie. The city is Chiguayante. Chiguayante is a pretty cool place, it's a good place to take pictures. It's situated right on the banks of the river Bio Bio and nestled in between some hills, so it looks pretty cool, I haven't taken too many pictures yet, but I will to send in the email next week. My sectors pretty cool too. From what it seems, in this zone there's usually a lot of success, so I'm excited about that, to help to zone have success.  In the zone theres 4 companionships of elders and 2 of sisters (who are in a city Hualqui, 30 minutes from Chiguayante.) On Wednesday we had district class and I didn't have to prepare a class (I don't have to anymore, yay!). Then we worked here in my sector on Wednesday. We're doing pretty good here at the moment, we've got a couple sisters who are gonna be baptized, Carla and Melani. Carla unfortunately doesn't have permission from her parents to get baptized (she's 17), and Melani (she's 20) has progressed a whole lot spiritually and will be baptized this Saturday! Then we have a couple other people we're gonna be working with too. So I'm excited, we do need some more investigators though, so we're gonna be working really hard to get new people. So far from what I've seen here, people are pretty receptive, ex. we got into quite a few houses last week, even though we didn't do too many knocking doors.
  Thursday I went on a minicambio within sector, Chiguay, and it went well. I was with Elder Sanchez. It was a pretty normal day, nothing too exciting. On Friday my comp and the sisters district leader went out to Hualqui, and I went with the Dls comp to his sector. It was also a pretty normal day, but it was pretty good too. Saturday was a good day too. Sunday was good, we had 4 people in church, 2 of which are progressing real good, the other 2 are new. During church I had to go to the DLs sector (Tierra Bella) to do an interview, and so that Melani would get interviewed too. The interview I did went really really well, she was super ready, but she wants her mom to support her before she gets baptized. And Melani passed her interview! So that was good. Then we went over to her house that day after church to talk to the dad to see if we could get the permission from the dad so Carla could get baptized too. We had a really spiritual lesson, but he still didnt' give permission! Ugh. Well, we'll wait a little longer I guess.
  Today was good, we played soccer nice and early in the morning. And now we're here in Concepcion doing internet! We're really excited to work here in La Pradera, and we're gonna have a really good month in June. I love you all and the missionary work!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Changes!

  Well, there went another cambio. They're going by faster and faster each one. Now theres only 2 left...it's hard to believe. Well, things are doing pertty good here in Jardin del Valle. Well first I'll tell about what happened during the week, then I'll talk about the changes brought about by the cambios. 

   Well thinking about it, I gotta write about what happened last week too! Well, here it goes.

   Week 2 May to 8: Monday and tuesday were both hard days for us in the sector.  On Wednesday we decided to take the bikes out to visit a remote part of the sector, a neighborhood called the Carlos Gonzalez. We found it, and even went a little further to see what else was there, a lot of little neighborhoods. But it's so far from everything its kinda hard to work there, becuase it'd be pretty hard for people to get to church. And starting on Wednesday the week kinda turned around for the better. We started finding new people, and having success in finding some of our future investigators. One surprise of last week was that on Friday morning I got a call from the zone leaders, telling me I'd be doing a minicambio with one of the assistants! So all of Friday I did a minicambio with the one of the assistants, Elder Pitcher. I learned a whole lot that day and we had a really great day.  A cool thing happened on Saturday. The whole day Saturday was kinda not that great, and at 9:45 at night (15 minutes left in the day) we had to do some contacts. So I said a little prayer asking for the lord to turn the day around for us. So I felt we should contact a certain street, and sure enough, at 9:57 a man asked if we wanted to go in! OF course we did and shared something real brief, but it was a really cool testimony booster for me. Sunday was alright, we didn't have anyone in church really, aww.

   Alright, so this week. Well this week was basically your pretty normal week. Monday was went to Constitucion, which was a lot of fun. We took the train there. And throughout the week, really not too much special happened. So there's not too much to write about. But the fact that cambios were coming was looming over us.  On Saturday morning I went with my zone leader Elder Morgan to Piduco (he was born there too, and he's going home) to say bye to people. I only got to see one family, the Cristi family, and Felipe. Good news though, Felipes working on his mission papers!!! How cool is that?? So that was a cool day. On Sunday we didn't have anyone in church either, aww. So Sunday night during planning I got a call from President Humphrey, telling me I'm getting changed. I'm going to Chiguayante! Its a city about 30 minutes from concepcion, so that means im going way back down there again, to end my mission there. Im going to be a zone leader there (Aaron explained about that already). My comp will be Elder Squires, he's from California, and he was also here in Talca with me a couple cambios ago.  So thats cool. I hear its got the strongest wards in the mission, and that it's a good zone, so I'm excited to go over there and start my new assignment. So today will be full of saying goodbye and packing(ugh) and tomorrow in the morning I'll be heading over there. Im super excited to work over there. Oh, my sectors name is La Pradera fyi.

   Well thats whats going on! Next week ill have a lot to talk about im pretty sure. I love the missionary work and love being here! Have a great week this week!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

 

Pics: 1) Me and Felipe

2) Me at conti

3) the Zone

4) me

Happy mothers day!

Well, it was great talking to you guys yesterday. Well, to make things very short, we got home pretty late from the activity, and all I can really write you is just this little bit. Everythings going great here though. Don't worry about me, we're gonna have a great week this week. Love you!! Ill write a longer email next week!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Good week!

Well, this week was pretty good for us here in Jardin del Valle.  It wasn't super eventful, but it was a good week. Wait, I just remembered something big (and not good) that happened. Well, basically all I'll tell about this week is the investigators and their progress.

   Rosana: this is where the big not good thing happened. SO at the beginning of the week everything was good with her, she was doing really good, she had all the teachings, started keeping the word of wisdom, and was all ready for her baptismal interview.  So on Thursday morning we had her baptismal interview. While she was being interviewed I was in the other room, and after 5 minutes of starting the interview they called me in. Rosana looks at me and says: "Well, it's all just gotta end here, I can't keep sharing with you, I can't go to church or be baptized, so it's best if we just end things right now". Now, I'll tell you right now, many of you have no idea how that feels inside, it's definitely the worst feeling ever. So basically her husband blew up at her, worse than ever before, and told her if we ever went by while he was there he'd kick us out. So she got scared and told us it'd be best if we just didn't go over anymore. So we talked to her for a bit and helped her see how important this was, and at the end things turned out alright. She's gonna keep sharing with us (while her husband isnt there) for now, but at the moment she can't come to church or be baptized. So, that wasn't that fun. Its something unexpected, but were confident that the Lord will do a miracle and change the husband. We fasted on Sunday for that, and we're praying for it, so we have faith that she'll still be able to be baptized.  So thats what happened with Rosana.

   Franco and Cristina are doing really good. They're both solid, Cristina has already told us she knows the church is true, but she's being hesitant about baptism. But were really excited about them, I'm pretty sure theyll be baptized on the 15th. They told us they were for sure going to church this sunday, then on Sunday morning we called Franco and he told us he was sick and didn't think they were coming to church. But then like 3 minutes after sacrament started, they both showed up!! We were so happy. By the way, it was really really cold sunday morning. Then in the afternoon we were in short sleeves. The weathers confused here in Chile. Anyways, were excited about them 2.

   Kevin and Keylas moms doing good, she came to church again, and wants to be baptized, but doesn't feel ready yet. Shes also not married yet, so we gotta work on that too. Our other investigators are just kinda there, progressing but slowly. 

   Well thats basically all that happened this week for us. There's only 2 weeks left in this cambio, and were hoping to see a couple baptisms before the end of the cambio. Please pray for Rosana, the her husband will soften his heart. Good thing is that were animated to work and working hard.  Hope you all have a great week, and I'll see you (in a literal sense) on sunday!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry