Cambio half over!

  Well, it's getting stranger and stranger to think, my time left here as a missionary is coming towards its end. It's starting to hit me more and more as time goes by. Well, this week was better than last week. It wasn't too eventful, but it wasn't a bad week.
  So on Monday we met up with Laura in Concepcion during our Pday. She's doing good, her animos still up. So we just kinda talked about what we'd do, and decided we'd fast on Tuesday.  Then, on Tuesday morning during district class, I got a call from Laura, telling me that her mom decided we could go teach her again!! That was a great relief. We hadn't even done the fast yet and saw blessings, haha. So on Tuesday after district class we went and visited Sebastian, he's doing great after his baptism. We also visited Laura in the nightime, and watched a movie about the life of Thomas S Monson. By the way, he truly is the prophet of God. I really see him as a role model. She liked the movie. Then we had a meeting with our new ward mission leader, he's 18 and preparing for his mission. On Wednesday we got some bad news, another one of our investigators decided she was done with us. That's like the 6th or something. But were not done with her yet, hopefully we can meet with her this week to at least share one last message and try to figure out why. So hopefully that goes good.
  And basically, for the rest of the week we've been trying to find some new investigators, but were not having much success in that aspect. We're trying hard to find new people, but it's just not working. Hopefully this next week will be better for finding. So, a side note, Chile's been in the Copa America, a big tournament between the American countries. And when Chile plays, the work bascially stops. Everyone, literally everyone, watches the game. Chile had 2 games this last week, so that was a little hard for the mission work.  
  On Sunday, Sebastian got confirmed, and Laura came. So that was good. Then in the night we had a family home evening with Melani, Carla, Darling, and their mom, and Laura. It was good, they liked it. Its just a matter of time before Laura gets baptized, were hoping it can be this next week. So have your fingers crossed (or pray for it, that'd probably be more appropriate). Another funny side note, we were sitting in the sacrament room during the first hymn, and I looked to the aisle, and a dog was walking toward the front. I laughed out loud, it was pretty funny. But quickly (and pretty nonschalantly) it was taken out.
  So, thats it! This week should be pretty good. We're working hard here. It's starting to hit me more and more, I only have 3 weeks left as a misisonary. It's a very crazy thought. But, for those 3 weeks I'm gonna work hard. Thanks for all you do! Love you all, the church is true!
Elder Ryan Mayberry

A pretty rough week.

Well, as you can read in the title, this week was definitely a rough one. I'm kinda rushed in this email, but I'll do the best I can to write all that happened.  So basically, a lot of hard things happened this week, mostly having to do with our investigators.  So lets see...
  So the week started getting rough early on in the week. On Tuesday we went and saw Paola and Romina. They told us basically that they, after having gone to church again didn't feel anything special, and basically told us we could keep coming by, but that they were pretty sure they weren't gonna progress. We had a pretty long lesson with them, but their opinion didn't change. So there went 2 of our investigators. Then on Wednesday we went to the family we found that went to church. They also told us they didn't like church, so they weren't gonna keep sharing with us. 5 progressing investigators dropping us in 2 days, kinda rough. So basically then the week was pretty normal until the end of the week. There were good things that happened this week though. So on Thursday Sebastian and Laura had their baptism interviews, and both passed! Sebastian was gonna get baptized this Sunday, and Laura was gonna do it the 17th, because of lack of support from her parents. A cool other note, Laura gave us lunch on Thursday! That's cool when your investigators give you lunch.  So then yeah, things were going pretty normally. Then, things went downhill again. On Friday I went to go visit Laura with one of the assistants (Elder Morris, who was our district leader but then got changed last cambio, who was the one who found Laura). We had a super great lesson with her, and she basically took the determination to be baptized sí o sí on the 17th. As we were praying about the date, seeing if she should get baptized then, the phone rang. It was the mom (she's against her getting baptized). Then the mom after hearing that Laura was with us basically told Laura they would talk when she got home, in an angry tone. Laura came back and sat down and started crying. So we told her things would be alright, and we left. Then on Saturday night we got a message from Laura saying that she was punished by her parents, and that she could no longer meet with us and couldn't get baptized, but that she maybe would go to church the next day.  I don't think I've ever been so sad, frustrated, disappointed in my life. Really, the whole night Saturday I couldn't sleep well. Then we got to church on Sunday, and Laura wasn't there. Basically the whole day Sunday, I couldn't focus, I was really shocked/sad (it's hard to exactly express how I felt). Sebastian was baptized on Sunday, but for me it was really hard to be happy. It was kinda a bittersweet day. The baptism of Sebastian was good though.  So in the nighttime we called Laura twice, then the 3rd time her phone appeared off, so we were very very worried. But then we got a hold of her Sunday night. The good news is that she hasn't lost her faith or her animo. She's still reading the Bom, praying and everything. Today we set up an appointment with her in Concepcion and talked to her. She's doing good depsite the circumstances, which is a huge relief to us. We're gonna see what we can do to help the parents. So after finding that out I'm feeling considerably better. As long as she doesn't loose her faith God will help her.

Well, thats basically what happened, this week should be an interesting one. We're gonna find a lot of new people, and we're gonna focus on trying to get Darling, Melani and Carlas little sister, baptized. Despite the mission being the hardest thing I've ever done, it's definitely worth it, and I love it. This church is true. Sorry for writing such a short jumbled email, hopefully you understood it.  Thanks for everything! Please pray for Laura and that her parents will understand her a little better. Thanks. On a side note, a couple days ago my comp was like hey, you'll be home exactly one month from today... Still not trunky. Dont worry.  Pictures of Sebastians baptism will come next week.

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Weee!

Hey everyone!
   This has been a pretty good week for us this week.  We're seeing success! Oh yeah, and I have my new comp and everything.  So basically, here's how the week went. On Monday we were in Concepcion during the day and everything, then when Pday ended I said bye to elder Squires, then I went with one of the elders of my zone who was also alone, Elder Brown, and we worked in his sector for all of Monday. Then on Tuesday morning we went over to the terminal to wait for our comps. So we didn't have to wait too long, I was only there until a little before noon, then my comp got there. So we got his luggage, got on a bus and went to our house. So I'll tell you about just the interesting things that happened this week, then about the investigators progress. On Wednesday we had our district class which was good. Then on Thursday we had our zone leader council in Chillan. That was also good, I like having those smaller meetings with President. Oh, and president drove us there and back, so that was cool.  We had some good Peruvian food at a restaurant in Chillan after.   On Friday we didn't have a lot of time in the sector, we had to plan for the week in the morning, then had a couple hours to work, then I went to Hualqui with the district leader over Hualqui, and my comp went with his comp to their sector. I did a couple interviews in Hualqui for the hermanas sectors, and they went well.  Saturday was the first day of the week where we had a full work day, so that was good. And then Sunday. We had a lot of investigators in church on Sunday which was really good. I'll tell you about them. So at church we had: Laura, Sebastian, Paola and Romina, Darling (Melani and Carlas sister), and a new family of 3 Silvia, Carina, and Carlos.
  Laura's actually doing really, really good. She told us this week she's for sure getting baptized. The only thing is that her parents feel like she hasn't investigated enough, and want her to take a little more time. But other then that she's doing really really good. Sebastian is also doing amazing. He's just really gung ho for baptism. He's for sure getting baptized on this upcoming Sunday. Laura might too, we'll see. Paola and Romina are also doing alright as well. We had a couple good lessons with them telling them they have to be reading and praying every day so that God answers their prayers. So we'll see what happens with them.  The new family we found was kind of a cool story. So on Thursday we had just done a bunch of contacts and no one let us in, then we started walking to another part. We walked past this house and the thought came to my mind of knocking it. We walked a little further, then I decided we should turn around and knock that house. SO we did and the lady let us in right away! There were 2 ladies there, one of them didn't live there. So on Saturday night we went and visited the other lady who didn't live in the house we knocked. We got there then shared with the whole family (the husband too). 3 agreed to go to church the next morning, and they did! So that was really cool cuz that doesn't happen too often.  So those are the successes we're seeing here in the sector.  We're just working hard to really have a great month this month as a sector, and as a zone. I'm working hard and not trunky, don't worry. But it is starting to hit me more, that I only have 5 weeks left. Crazy! Well, this weeks gonna be a good one. Hope you have a great week too! Love you all, the church is true!

Elder Ryan Mayberry