Elder Mayberry opens his spirit to the people of Concepción.

¡¡Hello all from Chile!!

Well I'm finally here. I think I'll start from the very beginning. Actually first I just wanted to apologize to everyone that I wasnt able to call anyone, I'm really sorry about that. And don't worry, I'm fine and settled in. Well, from the beggining:
  Well we left the MTC at about 6am. I got pretty much everything packed into my suitacases,(by the way, sorry if there's a ton of typos, the keyboard at this internet cafe is a bit different than at home), and we took a big bus to the salt Lake airport. It was funny, because a ton of people would tell us good luck and stuff there. Anyways, the problems started when our first plane had a malfunctioning part, and we had to wait to get a replacement. So while we were sitting there, me and elder Doxey (my very first companion in the MTC) a lady was sitting across from us and told us how much she respected and admired us that we were giving 2 years to our church. She stopped after that, but I really felt like I should talk to her. I didn't though, I was being shy. Then a return missionary randomly walked up to us and told us that we should talk to her. But we still didn't. Finally the lady finally asked us if she could talk to us for 10 minutes. So we shared with her about the church for 10 minutes, and she told us how she was supposed to be sitting somewhere else, but she felt drawn to sit by us. It was such a cool experience, we werent even in Chile, and the Lord was already putting people in our path. She sounded like a really good person who was interested in the church. It really solidified my testimony of how this is the Lord´s work, and he will help us. I hope that story made sense.

  Alright, so we finally got on the plane to LA, then ran to our next flight once we got there. However, we were already pretty late, and they had stopped boarding people. But they eventually let 10 of us go through, but 6 had to stay back (I think they ended up staying the night in LA). So the flight was super long, we stopped in Lima, Peru for a brief second, then continued on to Santiago. I talked to the people next to me a bit in spanish, it was pretty cool. SO we finally arrived in Santiago, then took a plane to Concepción. We arrived at like 9 in the morning, after leaving at 6am the day before. And I didnt even sleep on the plane much either. >Oh well. SO the mission president and the asisstants picked us up at the Concepción airport. They took us to the nearest chapel, where we had some lunch and they talked to us for a bit. <We got our cards there, which is how we draw out our funds each month or so (ill tell more about that later). So then we finally got to meet our trainers. My trainers named Elder Jorgensen, he´s from Utah and hes a really cool guy. So then he informed me that our sector (thats what an area is called here) is in a city called Talca, which turns out to be 4 hours north of Concepción by bus ride. So that was a long ride, I slept a lot. They were also playing a video of Michael Jackson music videos the whole time, so that got old by the time we arrived. So then we're finally here. The rest of that day, (it was about 8 when we got to our house) we knocked some doors. So thats how I got here, now I have to talk about how Chile is and everything else.
  So Chile is really cool. I really like it. So first, our house. Its a pretty nice house, my trainer says its one of the best he´s had. Its 2 storys and we have it all to ourself. The sector were in, Talca, is huge, we do a lot of walking. Normally theres 2 companionships here, but at the moment its just us 2. I'm gonna try to send some pictures and see if that works over the email. Anyways, I'm in Chile! Its crazy. Here's the really cool thing I like; even though I'm on a completely different continent, thousands of miles away from home, and they speak nothing but spanish here, I really don't feel uncomfortable or nervous or anything. Originally I thought I would be so nervous teaching lessons or contacting, but in reality, I haven't been nervous once, except for when I bore my testimony in church. But other than that, I really feel comfortable here, and it just makes me feel so good that the Lord knows where we should be, and that I'm exactly where I should be.

 Anyways, Chile is a really cool place. It isn't that poor, but its not that rich either. Its funny, dogs just roam around and do what they want, I think it's pretty funny. Also, pretty much no one here drives cars. They either take the bus or what's called a colectivo, which is basically a taxi, but you pay a set amount and it drives a specific course around the city. Talca is a pretty cool city, I like it a lot. It's pretty big too. And it wasn't too big of a culture shock here, like I said, I do feel really at home here (but not as at home than at my real home :))

  So the spanish here is pretty cool, I like it. They do talk super fast though. The first day I was pretty lost most of the time, but now that I've been here a week I'm understanding a lot more. It depends on the person who's talking, but I understand usually about 80-95% of the conversation. Another funny thing is that they do infact say 'po' a lot here. Like Sipo. They basically just add it to the end of a sentecnce whenever they want, its pretty funny.
  The people here are all really humble and kind. I think thats part of why I don't feel nervous here. Like when I was in the airports at the states I felt super nervous to talk to anyone, but here it just feels different. I've already met a lot of new families that are all very nice. Most people have a tv, but thats about it. Some have computers, not many have dvd players either.

  I think I'll run through a couple of the other days and experiences I've had here. So the lessons are pretty good. Usually we don't teach about lesson 1 (the restoration) first, most of the time we teach about faith, repentence, and baptism. That kind of caught me off guard. But I am starting to talk more during lessons and contacts. Which is good, I need to improve my speaking spanish. We usually have some appointments, but if not we do contacts, basically either knock doors or just teach people in the streets. The people here are very nice, even if they want nothing to do with our church, they still listen to us because they respect us. Its nice, the people are a lot different than Americans.
  Anyways, the schedule is a bit different than in the MTC. we wake up at 7, do a half hour of exercise, then shower and stuff for an hour, then do an hour of personal study, then an hour of comp study, then half an hour of language study. Then we go out at 11. We do stuff until about 1:30 or 2, then we have lunch. Lunch is the big meal here, we don't really eat dinner here. They have whats called 'once' here late, which is usually bread and drinks. The lunches have been pretty good. Usually some meat and rice, and like a salad or soup. The salads are pretty bad, so are avocados. Ugh, I struggle to eat half of them. But oh well. The food is usually pretty good. Then we do stuff until 10, then return, plan, and go to bed at 11. We do walk a lot, I get a nice workout walking every day. When I go to bed at night I'm usually super tired, and it seems like I just fell asleep by the time I wake up. But oh well. I love it here.

  Lets see, what other cool experiences have I had here. Well just the other day we went to the hospital to give a blessing to a little girl who has a bone infection in her foot. The hospital here in Talca has a reputation for being bad. Like dirty and stuff. Which is very true, there are flies flying around the hospital and we even saw 3 dogs running around inside. Was a bit shocking. But most hospitals arent like that. MOst of the building here are humble places, not too big, but then again they could be a lot worse.
  I'm starting to get the knack for teaching people now. I've even challenged someone to be baptized already, haha. But they said no, but what can you do. At the moment we have a lot of new investigators and a lot with the potential of being baptized, but hardly any members that are keeping their commitments. So that's the dillema. But were working hard to fix that.

  Today is first Pday (Mondays are the pdays). We went to another missionary house in Talca, but a different sector called Talca Centro. Its more in the downtown part. We hung out a bit and walked to a river. It was fun.
  Church on Sunday was pretty good. We had 4 of our investigators there. I was presented and bore my testimony, and that was the first time I've been nervous here.

  Oh yeah, about the money here and stuff. Here they use the Chilean peso, which is 500 to every dollar. Were given about 80 mil (80 thousand) a month, which is about 160 or so dollars. We have a card that we use to get it. The stores here are pretty normal. They have a lot of wal mart type stores, but a lot of people run small shops out of their houses; these are called negocios. People do what they can to live out here. Oh yeah, the apple juice here is completely different that the apple juice back home. And the milk tastes different too, not bad, but different. And the water here is safe to drink from the tap, so that's good. So yeah, I'm in Chile. Its crazy. I'm basically just writing this willy nilly, I should have planned ahead of time. Another thing, the soccer here is really big (duh). Chile just won the game the other night to qualify for the world cup, and it was nuts. There were tons of people in the streets and stuff. On the tv it showed a video of the people in Santiago, and it was even crazier. It'll be super hard to teach during the world cup, haha.

  So I can't really think of much else to share. I love it here already, I'm safe and I'm starting to get the hang of this whole mission thing. I'm super excited to be here and spread the gospel to the people. I love you all, and would love to hear back from you. ¡Chaopo! Les amo!

Elder Ryan Mayberry