Mediocre week.

  Well, as you can read the title, the week we had was just ahi no mas. So let me run down the events for the week.
  So on Monday after doing internet we went and had lunch, and went to a restaurant named Mamut, the closest thing to an American restaurant there is. And there I got...chicken fingers with ranch, haha. 1st time in 15 months having chicken strips, delicious. Then Pday ended and we had a family home evening with a member, and there were 7 new people there! So that was really good for us to get some new people. Then Miguel Carrillo called us and we talked to him for a bit. So that was Monday. Then after that the week was just pretty average. We've been teaching our investigators, and each is progressing,  kind of. For example Elisa has committed to keeping the work of wisdom and has stopped drinking tea. So that was really good, I feel like she is our best hope for November. We also taught the sister of Moises, so that was good. Miguel and Jocelyn are still doing amazing. Paula Canales hadn't talked to her husband but said she would when we taught her again last week, and Monica said she was gonna try to do the stuff she needs to do, but slowly.
  The roughest part of this week was that on Sunday we had 0 people in church. That's always hard while being a missionary, cuz then the whole time in church your just feeling down. But I still have a lot of hope for what's to come. I learned a cool little lesson about counting my blessings on Sunday, so that helped boost my animo.
  So that was basically all that happened this week. I'm pretty sure this upcoming week will be better.  Sorry this weeks email is so short, next week I'll try to make a better email. Thanks for everything, the church is true, and until next week, chaíto!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Enchiladas, Capacitations and not your average size bugs!

  Well this week was a pretty cool one, we've seen some good things happening here in Lirquen.  So on Wednesday I had a leadership training meeting in the mission home. So I dropped off Elder Strong in Penco with the elders there and went with the zone leaders to the mission home. There the President and the assistants talked to us, and I really enjoyed the conference. It really helped boost my animo (?) and keep me ready to work. Not to mention we also ate chicken enchiladas (1st time in 15 months) and some amazing ranch dressing. It truly was delicious. 

   So then we were ready to get working really hard throughout the rest of the week. In doing so we saw good progress with Paula Canales, who is going to talk to her husband frankly about her getting baptized, but didn't come to church, Elisa; who is now feeling less confused about everything, and has now agreed to keep the word of wisdom, but also didn't come to church, Moises; we've got to talk to his mom, but he does want to get baptized, and he came to church, and Jocelyn; who is still as good as ever and her and Miguel came to church again.  Monica unfortunately had to stay at work all weekend. So that's basically what happened this week in terms of progress of the investigators, each one we have has a distinct problem, but none of them are impossible. And we found a cool lady-Sandra, who came to church last week. She is the wife of a member, and knows a whole lot of the church and wants to be baptized, but works every Sunday. So we'll see what happens there as well.

   So lets see if anything funny happened this week. Well, today on the bus to "Conce" we were sitting in back and a guy 2 feet away from me threw up all over the bus.  That was pretty....gross. Luckily we were basically in "Conce" when it happened.  Another funny thing. So it was like Thursday morning and I was in the kitchen, and all of a sudden I hear a scream and elder Strong saying Elder Mayberry get in here! My parental instincts told me elder Strong had been gravely injured. So I ran in there and he was like "there's a huge bug in here!" So we checked it out, caught it, froze it and added it to the collection. Now the bug really was huge, I'll send the picture, just imagine it flying around our house. I don't know how it got in either. But a funny story.

   So we this upcoming week are going to work on finding more new people, we've been kind of slacking in that aspect. But we will this week. I can't believe how fast this time is going by, we're already on the 4th week of the cambio, and I turned 15 months old. Ok, so now were gonna go eat at a restaurant called Mamut. I hear its the closest thing to an American restaurant, so I think I'm gonna enjoy it (it has free refils, that's unheard of in Chile). Hope you all have great weeks, I know I will!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

 The pictures:

1)¡Oh, Lirquen!

2)The bug

3)Again

4) I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else.

 

Halloween!

Hello all.
This week was pretty decent here in Lirquén.  So not too much exciting happened apart from the normal missionary stuff. One day I had to do a baptism interview, another day another one, and on Saturday we started up an English class, which was pretty good, we had a lot of people go.  And on Thursday we had special conference with Elder Zeballos of the Area Presidency, which was also good. I love hearing from general authorities. He talked mostly about diligence. And on Friday morning we had to go to Concepcion to do my 2nd visa. And the other day was Halloween, which still isn't too big here. Barely saw any trick or treaters. Now, apart from these things, not too much happened. We're still working with the same people.

Karina got confirmed this week! I did the confirmation, and her whole family was at the church to support her. That made us really happy. I love that family a whole lot, and I really hope to see the day when they get to go to the temple.  Elisa is still doing the same, struggling to get a testimony, struggling with confusion. Yesterday we went and taught her with Miguel Carrillo, (whose not even a member), which went good. But she's pretty much the same, she did come to church though for the 3rd week in a row. Monica was good, but she had to go out of town for the weekend :( Moises too:( Jocelyn and Miguel are also doing well, they both came to church again.

So right now, our focus is keep working with the people we got, but also focus a lot on getting new people this week, because the last couple weeks we havent been able to find many new people. So we'll see how that goes this week. Oh, and today we had a zone activity and made some choripan (sausage) and played some...you guessed it, futbol. Well I'm very sorry for how lousy this weeks email is, I'll try to write some stuff down this week as a reference to try to spice up these emails. Even though the emails may be boring, I am not bored here. I love it, and am so happy to be serving the Lord right now. The church is true! Have a great week.

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Wow!

  This week went very, very well for us. I feel really great after what's happened this week, and so I'm gonna try to get in every little detail of what happened. Well I just realized I forgot the planner that had all my notes about the week in it, so we'll see how this goes.  
  So last Monday we went to Karina, had a good lesson with her there, to pump her up for her baptism. Then I felt we should go to Miguel Carrillos house. We got to his house and I noticed a definite difference in him. So then we started talking and he just started telling us about all the doubts he has, how he still isn't sure about the church and how he would be better staying the way he was. I think I forgot to tell you last week, but the week before this happened he bore his testimony in Sacrament meeting about how sure he was the church is true and that he would eventually get baptized. So hearing this was really rough, and we had probably one of the most intense lessons I've had in my mission, actually I would say it was the most intense.  So I felt really guided by the spirit the whole time, it was really strong in there, trying to answer all of his doubts. So at the end of the lesson we just kind of ended it, no clear answer as to how he felt. And let me tell you, after the lesson, I was physically, emotionally, and spiritually exhausted. Totally drained! We got back to the house and I just went straight to bed. So that had me really worried the whole week. Because really, he does know its true, and I would feel I have failed in my mission if he doesn't get baptized. More developments on the story a little bit later.
  So that was Monday. Tuesday was the cambio day, so for us was a normal day. Wednesday I gave the district class, which was alright. Throughout the whole week we've been focussing on getting our investigators to church, so we've been passing by a lot for our better investigators, Karina, Monica, Jocelyn, Elisa, etc. So I'll tell you a little bit about their progress in a bit.
  Thursday was really cool. Why? Because in the morning we went to the registro civil (like the government building) in Penco, with Miguel and Jocelyn, and went and got them a marriage date!!!! Sadly it's a little far away, Decmeber 9th, but oh well, they're getting married! We've seen a lot of progress in them, and I'm really glad I've been here to see it. 
  Friday was normal. Saturday we did a lot of service in the morning, and then had a normal day. And then Sunday...
  Sunday was like the crown on top of this whole week. Why? For many reasons.
1) Karina got baptized!
2) Monica came to church for the first time!
3) Elisa, Jocelyn and Miguel, and Moises came!
4)And some developments on the Miguel Carrillo story. Good ones.

Ok, so Karinas baptism! It went really well. We did it at 4 o'clock so that all the family could do it. And Elder Strong did the baptism, so that was really cool. A little side note, at the district class we formulated the idea to do a 3 compship baptism at the beach, but we didn't get permission. I really want to baptize in the beach, it'd be soooo cool. But it didn't happen. But for a future one.
  Monica coming to church really made me happy. We should start seeing a lot of progress with her now. The same with the other investigators.
  And later in the day we went over to Miguel Carrillo, and he apologized for what happened, told us about how he really is sure that he will be baptized, told us how he'd like to probably serve a mission, and all this music to our ears! So that was like the good news icing on the cake of a beautiful week.
  And then today we played some soccer, I did good at first then got a little worse. But I think I'm getting better overall. And so here I am now! I'm really excited for the future of Lirquen, we're gonna see un montón(a lot) of success here. Just hope I don't get changed the next cambio (Nov 30). We'll see what happens. And we're seeing a lot of success as a district, which also makes me feel good. I love being here and serving, time is going by faster and faster, I can't believe Octobers almost gone. But I just gotta work even harder. I love you all, have a great week!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

A good week!

Hello everyone!
This week was pretty good for us here in Lirquen, I'm pleased with the things that have happened. So first I'll do a summary of the events that happened, then a summary of the progress of the investigators. Ok, so starting at the beginning...
  Well on Tuesday we did a minicambio with Penco Centro, I had to do an interview for them over there. So that went well, the girl passed the interview and will be baptized the 24th. On Wednesday we found out that a members mom died, so we went to the funeral and Elder Strong sang at the funeral.  On Thursday morning we had to go to Concepcion to do Elder Strong's visa and id card, fun. We waited in line for 2 hours to do it.  And as you guys also know, the miners were all rescued! That was a really cool experience,and that's basically all they're showing on TV nowadays. 
  Now on Monday we recieved an email from the Presidents wife telling us we had to do a deep cleaning of the house on Saturday morning, until lunch time. Now, we had an appointment then, so we did ours on Friday. Let me tell you, I don't think our house had been cleaned before. So we spent all morning Friday doing it, and we got only halfway done! Then our Saturday morning appointment fell, and we finished the cleaning on Saturday morning.  It was a lot of work but the house looks a lot better now. But we did leave the vines in the house there as a recuerdo (rememberance?) of how it used to be, haha. 
  Ok, now its time for the investigators.
  Karina-doing excellent. We taught her almost every day this week, and she had her baptism interview and passed! She will be baptized this next sunday, the 24th! I've really grown to love that whole family. Her mom came with her to church this week too! So things are going excellently with her.
  Elisa- Kind of a roller coaster has happened with her. So we've been trying to help her get a testimony, she's really confused about which religion is correct. So we were teaching her one day and the doorbell rang, and she went out to answer it. It turns out it was her friend, who is a Jehovahs Witness, and she was out with her for 10 mins. I could her that the whole time she was just bashing our church. So they stopped talkiung and Elisa came back and just started crying. It really made me sad seeing how confused she was. So we left her the invite to pray. And then she came to church on Sunday! And we've got a cita with her soon so well see how things go.
  Monica - We had a frank lesson with her telling her she had to ponerse las pilas (put in the batteries, you now, like get things going and start doing stuff.) It was a really nice lesson and she understood it well, and she was all excited, but she was going out of town for the weekend :( So well see with her.
  Jocelyn - Things are going well there.  We actually went with Miguel (her boyfriend) to go arrange a time when the judge could marry them, but Jocelyn had to be there as well. So were gonna go back again this week to do that. Then theyll get married and shell get baptized!
  Paula Canalles - We managaed to teach her a lot this week but she didnt come to church.
  Well, and thats about it! So today we found out the cambios, and nothing happened here in Lirquen! Im staying here with Elder Strong, and were gonna do work here. Itll be good. Thanks for all the support, i love the work! Have a great week everyone!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Aqui Estamos

  Well, here we are another semana gone.  I typed that out exactly as I thought it, that's how my thoughts come nowadays, mixed in english and spanish. Anyways, this week was pretty good for us. Again, like a lot of weeks, it had its ups and downs.  
  Well for the work, were working with the same people. We've got some people who we were focussing on more, progress less, and others progressing more, so were gonna do a little bit of switching around our priorites here. But this week was pretty good. one cool thing me and elder Strong are doing now is that now we only speak Spanish in the street. And whoever speaks English the most has to buy the other something at the end of the day. It's good practice for elder Strong, me too.
  So a little about the investigators.  Karina is doing very well, she came to church again this week and liked it a lot. She could very well be baptized this Sunday, which would be excellent. On Saturday night we were worried because it appeared that Jocelyn and Miguel had a fight, but they both showed up to church on Sunday as well. And we're trying to teach another kid thats come to church a few times.  Monica once again didn't come, ugh. Elisa was also set on coming, but couldn't. But I'm still very optimistic for the future, we're on the verge of a breakthrough here in Lirquen. 
  So today we were invited by Miguel and Jocelyn to go to his birthday barbeque at his parents house. He turned 29. That was really cool, fun to just hang out with some cool people. Ate a ton though. And so here I am!
  This week I turned 14 months in the mission, 1 year in Chile. That was crazy. I took out my 1st agenda from being in Chile, and looking through it, I could remember the people I talked to, clearly, from the first few days in Chile. It's crazy.
  And so here comes the next week, the last of the cambio.  I doubt I'm going, pretty sure I'll be here in Lirquen with Elder Strong for a while longer. It'll be great. I love the work, I love being here, and the church is true. Next week I promise some pictures!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Una Semana buena!

Hey everyone!
  This week was pretty good, in many aspects.  I do feel that this email might be a little short though. So this week we have been working with our investigators, like last week, to get them to go to church.  So we focused on that this week a lot with Monica, Karina, Jocelyn, Paula Canales, and the rest.      
  On Tuesday I went to the sector of Penco Centro to do a minicambio, and that went good. Elder Strong had to lead the sector in Lirquen, and did really well from what I hear! Then on Thursday we did what was called an invasion. All the missionaries from our district, plus the zone leaders, went to the sector of Valle Hermoso and worked there for a couple hours. That was pretty cool to do.
  So like I said we had to work really hard to get people to go to church, especially cuz we wouldn't work on Saturday (for General Conference). So that's what we did, and we saw fruit! We had 4 of our investigators go to church this week! Paula Canales, Karina, Jocelyn and Miguel, and a members friend. So that made us happy to finally see some people go to church. Although it was disappointing that some people didn't go, Monica for example, we were still happy that some did. 
  And speaking of General conference, it was really good! I've come to love conference now. I felt how special of an experience it is as I taught what conference was to our investigators. How blessed we are to listen to the Prophet of God, and his 12 apostles. Conference was really good, a lot of people spoke on the basics, which was good. We as missionaries go to all 5 sessions, so it's cool to hear all the talks. 
  So we're gonna have a lot of success in October. Me and Elder Strong are excited to work hard and see some fruits this month. It's gonna be a good one. And today we had a lot of fun as well. We went to a big field, right on the beach and played soccer zone vs zone, against the zone of Chiuguayante. It was fun playing on a big field, and we also owned the other zone!  
  And as mom has already told me, tomorrow I turn 14 months old in the mission, and on the 6th I turn 1 year in chile. That will be crazy, knowing that a year ago I was in Chile. I'm not trunky, don't worry about it. I can't believe how fast the mission is going, it's scary. But I'm here to work and will do it til the day I die (in the mission). I love being here and being a missionary, and I'm excited for the future.  I love you all!, and sorry for how small this email is!

Elder Ryan Mayberry