Well, that's it!

Wow.

I dont think ive felt so many mixed emotions at the same time. I really cant believe that its over. What ive been doing for the past 2 years is all of a sudden coming to a screeching halt, and its pretty rough, im not gonna lie. I truly am sad to be leaving.  Well, to be honest i really wasnt feeling like i was going basically until sunday.  On sunday i had my last interview with President Humphrey. Basically, all it was were counsels from him about studying when i got home, getting married and staying active in the church for the rest. That was pretty cool. Then we went back to the sector and i had to say bye to people. I said bye to Laura and Melanis family. And it was really then when i realized i was going to be very sad leaving. Its not to fun, knowing i might not see these people ive grown to love, but its whats gotta happen.  Really, i have a lot of bittersweet feelings. Im happy to be going home to see you guys, my old friends, yet im very sad to leave the new friends i have here.  Happy to go home and be able to see movies and whatnot, but sad to never be able to preach the gospel full time. Basically thats how im feeling. Im so, so grateful to have been a missionary though. I would never trade this time for anything. Ive learned soo much, and really have become converted to the gospel.  And ive seen other people do it too. Ill be very sad to never do it again. Me da pena just thinking about it. Basically it all just feels really surreal, then i remember how i wont be able to see these people again, or invite someone to be baptized, then i get pretty sad. I think itll be that way a while. But like i said, thank goodness i came on a mission. It truly has been the best 2 years of my life. And im really excited to share everything about it with you in 2 days!!!!! See you then!!!! :)

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Oh Gosh!

...One week left. AHHH how weird.  Im just gonna briefly go over what happened last week, seeing as how i dont have a lot of time to write. So like i said on last monday we went over and taught Laura in the morning, and everything was good. So that same day we decided to pay a surprise visit to her in the nighttime, just to try to talk to her mom. So we did, and Laura about died when she saw us come by at that time, but the mom didnt wanna share, but didnt get mad either. So then i got the idea to go back the next day and have once (like dinner) with Laura and the mom. The mom said shed try to be there. So we went back the next day and had the once. The mom did join us. So for the 45 minutes we ate all we did was talk about our normal lives and whatnot, not really the gospel. Then right as we were finishing the mom told us that after the once she realized that we're good people, and so she apologized for not letting Laura get baptized. So then we basically talked about that for like an hour and a half. At the end the mom made some significant progress.  She said she still wasnt gonna let Laura get baptized yet, but that she said she probably would in the future. Im hopeing that that future is within this upcoming week, haha.

 

Today we had a special zone leader meeting. We all went to Presidents house and he took us to a really nice indoor soccer facility and we played for 2 hours, then we went back to his house and had enchiladas for lunch. Then we had our meeting. It was a really fun last Pday.  A cool little logro (acheivement), the mission baptized 106 this month! Thats the most ive seen here in my mission, so that was cool to see my last month.

 

That was basically all the important that happened.  Well, the last week of the mission. Gonna work hard. Ill be writing next monday too, so dont worry. When people are like Wow, how do you feel ending the missio, i tell them, I dont feel it, cuz thats the truth. SOmething ive been doing for the past 2 years is gonna come to a sreeching halt, i know it will but it still feels like its gona keep going on forever. So thats weird.  Well, hope all is well back home. Man, i feel weird. I love the work! Talk to you next week (in email and in a very literal sense :)

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

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

The beginning of the end!

  Well, here we are, another cambio down. Its so strange to think that I'm in the last cambio of my mission.  only 6 short weeks left. Wow. Well, this last week was a really good one. It was the last week of elder Squires, and we saw a lot of good things happen this week, mostly having to do with our investigators. So I think I'll just explain to you the advances of our investigators. Lets start with Carla...
     Carla did great this week! She got baptized! It was excellent. She was baptized on Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. Her baptismal service was really cool, Melani (her new convert sister) gave the talk, and at the end Carla bore her testimony. It was really a special moment. Another cool thing was that both of her parents were there to support her! We've seen progress with the parents in the sense that they are no longer against what their daughters are doing, but rather are giving a little more support. They even went to church for all 3 hours on Sunday. SO that was really good. 
    Next up will be Laura. Well, Laura was definitely a blessing from heaven.  She is just so great, we taught her a couple times this week and she is really willing to believe what we share, but wants and is looking for a spiritual confirmation. She went to Carlas baptism, and went to all 3 hours of church, and even said the closing prayer in the principles of the gospel class! She's so cool, I know she will progress.
    After Laura we've got Sebastian. He's just another blessing from the cielos. We met with him this week and to our surprise we got to his house, and found out that him mom and his grandma are both inactive members, and are all for him going to church and getting baptized. That was a pleasant surprise. So we taught him once or twice, and he also came to church for all 3 hours.  Excited about him too.
    Then we have our others. Danielas still really good, but she didnt come to church, aww. Paula and Romina are also in the same boat, making steps of progression, but didn't come to church this week.  So that made us kinda sad. But we are very excited for the future. It should be a great month in July, I'm very excited for it. Should be a great end to the mission. 
    So changes are today. The zone had considerable changes, 3 people finished the misison in the zone. 2 missionaries are gonna train now. One of our district leaders became the assistant. So the zones gonna be pretty changed this next cambio, but it's gonna be for the better, I can just feel it. So elder Squires is dying, and my new comp is gonna be elder Zarco. He actually got here with me, but goes home a cambio after. He's from california, but has Mexican heritage.  I've never met him, but I've heard good things about him.
     Well, I guess this really is the beginning of the end. I'm gonna work the absolute hardest I can these last 6 weeks I have. The only thing is that I'm 90% sure they're gonna fly by. Well, here's to a great last cambio.  Here's some pictures too. I love you all, I love the mission, I'm just really loving life right now. Have a great week!!!
Elder Ryan Mayberry

Exito!

Hey everyone!
This week has been pretty good to us here in La Pradera, we've seen a lot of unforseen blessings, especially towards the end of the week. Monday was a pretty normal day. Like I said, we were saying bye to people in Lirquen, then we just had a normal day. Tuesday was also normal, but during the evening we went to the sector Chiguayante, where the missionary has the bad leg, and I went out with his comp to teach. We taught a family who lived in Miami for 10 years, so we taught in english, which was interesting and fun, haha.  Wednesday was normal too. Thursday we did a minicambio with the sector Chiguay, and I went over to their sector. They really don't have any investigators, so we just knocked doors. For 6 hours! It was good. We got into one house of a semi drunk guy, but his wife was nice and we taught her. Friday was also normal. Saturday was when we started seeing the blessings.
     So we had gone to a new converts house earlier in the week to ask for a reference, and at first she didn't have anyone, then she said, wait you could probably visit my friend Daniela. Then she said she was gonna set up an appointment. So that was on Saturday. First we had a meeting at the stake center about the mission work, then Daniela and the new convert met us up there. So we taught her and it was a good lesson. At the end Daniela told us that at first she accepted to meet with us just to be a good friend, but after sharing she said she really felt good, that she was uplifted after sharing and that now she really was curious to find out more! She was really sincere, and I know she's gonna progress. Then we went in the night to Melani (our newest convert) and Carlas (her sister who didnt have permission to be baptized) house. So we got there and the mom was like, well, Carlas got something to tell you. Then Carla told us that her parents have given her permission to be baptized!!!! SO this Saturday were gonna have a baptism! Miracle! The other miracle happened while we were in that house. A couple weeks ago we had a girl, Laura, show up to church with her friend.  She really liked it, but we haven't been able to meet with her, or even get her address. So while in the house of Melani we got a call from the missionaries in Tierra Bella, the sector that borders ours. They were knocking doors and accidently crossed the boundary, and contacted and taught Laura!! So now we have an appointment to teach her. And from what the other missionaries said, Laura is golden.  Oh Boy! Were excited.
Uhh, I accidently sent that last email before finishing! Well to finish, on Sunday We only had Carla in church. But a new convert brought a friend and presented him to us saying Hey this is Sebastian, he wants to be a mormon. So we got a return appointment with him too! I'm pretty convinced that were seeing all these blessings because my comp isn't trunky. President keeps telling us that if we don't get trunky at the end of the mission, well be blessed. And we're seeing it.
      This morning we played soccer which was good as always. Today were gonna go say bye to another of my comps sectors.  So that's about it! I can't believe we're in the last week of this cambio. I'm super excited for this upcoming cambio. Next time I write I'll know who my new comp will be and my current comp will be going home! Hope you all have a great week! Love you!

Elder Mayberry