Elder Ryan Mayberry's Missionary diary: This week was kinda rough.

Well, this week was kinda rough for us, as you can see in the title. But the good news, I took good notes! So this email hopefully will be a bit better. So thats good. Well, at the end of last week, the animo was super up, with great expectations for the future. Well, some things have changed, the animos still there, but this week took some unexpected turns. A ver...

Something I forgot to tell about last week. Our calefonts broken! The calefont is what heats the water. And we've been without a calefont for like 2 weeks now. Cold showers in the morning aren't too fun, but I'm kinda used to it now. But we should be getting the calefont back up and running any day now, so thats good. Oh yeah, and last Monday we almost saw a lady get hit by a car. She crossed the street before her turn, and the driver didn't even slow down, just honked at her and swerved at the very last minute. It was intense.

Tuesday was a pretty average day, except I almost got bit by a dog. We were just walking in the middle of the street minding our own business and this dog just kinda stares at us then goes at me! Luckily I think I scared it, but it left. I swear, that street has racist dogs, they only bark at us as we go by.

Wednesday was intense, it was where things started going not too good. So we had our first lesson with Paula and Catherin scheduled since they went to church. So obviously, we were super excited. So we get there, ask them how they liked church, and they both said they really liked it. Then Paula told us, 'But, I've decided I wanna be catholic'. It's pretty hard to explain how you as a missionary feel when someone says that, especailly after having taken the first big step, going to church. Lemme tell you, it's not fun. So we talked to her, and found out her doubts, and stuff. It turns out she hasn't prayed about it, so there's still hope for her. So they're not dead as investigators yet, just not progressing as fast as we had hoped. We've got our next appointment with them today, so wish us luck.

Thursday I had a minicambio with La Florida. To be quite honest I was glad to get out of my sector for a day, I just needed to get away, like a vacation perhaps. So on the minicambio I got to ride the worst bike known to man, so that wasn't too fun. But it was a good minicambio. The elders there were gonna have 2 baptisms on Sunday, the first ones in that sector in almost a year. So I'm super happy for them.

Friday was a pretty normal day. Saturday too, we just went around inviting our investigators to church. We actually found a woman that day, and she said she'd go to church the following day.

The big day, Sunday. That woman came!! That's so cool, cuz it never happens that people are found on a Saturday and go to church on a Sunday. The only not that great things is that she isn't married to the guy she lives with. But no big deal, we'll work right through it. And the other investigator who came is the 10 year old daughter of Jaime and Luisa, the couple who got married and baptized the Sunday before I got here. Seems like the easiest baptism ever...wrong. The girl is like super pesada and porfiada. (Like kinda a brat I'd say, she's not really interested at all). So we're gonna see what we can do there. And a cool exprience,we were sitting there during the Sacrament, and I had completely forgotten to see if Mario, our new convert was there. Then the sacrament gets passed to us and it was Mario, passing it for the first time! How cool! It was the first time he came in a shirt and tie too. It's was just a cool little experience. Then we went to the baptism of La Florida too, which was cool. They only had 1 though, the wife was sick, but she'll get baptized next week. It was really cool though.

So today we played some soccer in the morning. We play on a turf field, its nice, I'll take some pics for you guys. And after, we went to Piduco and said hi! That was cool going to my old sector, I didn't see to many people though. I saw Felipe and the familia Cristi. I'll go over again later to see some more of my converts.

So basically that's it. Our investigators are all running low, so we gotta find more this week. Next weeks cambios, this one has gone by sooo fast. I doubt I'm gone, Elder Demann is in his 4th here, so it's pretty sure he's gone. Well, until next time the church is true!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

The pics:

1) Marios bap