Decent!

  Well family, as you can see this last week was just decent for us, but there were some good things that happened for us. So I'll just tell you what happened starting at the beggining of the week. Well, Monday was just a pretty normal day. Tuesday was alright though. We had a district class, and I focused the class on having animo, or rather, enthusiasm. Enthusiasm that we're misisonaries, that we can work, just because it(having the right attitude) really affects the work a ton. I think it was a good class. Then after we went to go teach Graciela real fast before lunch, she's the lady who randomly came to church last Sunday. So we taught her a bit, inside of the bus she has to sell juice. Then we went to lunch, then had an invasion in another sector of the zone, Talca Centro (Downtown Talca). That was good, then after that the day was pretty much normal. Wednesday was a good day too. We did a minicambio with the zone leaders, I went over to their sector with elder Ward our newer zone leader, and elder Huerta stayed here with elder Morgan. Elder Ward is a really good missionary, he's got 3 months less time than me but he's way cool, an excellent missionary. I learned a lot from him. The day we had was just mas o menos over there though. One of the best things about doing minicambios with the zone leaders is that in their sector, they have a completo stand named Donde Alex, and it is claimed to have the best completos in Talca. And let me tell you, it is. I'll include some pictures. Sooooo goood.  Also, my mtc comp elder Doxey is the Zone Leader of the other zone in Talca and lives with our zl's, so we talked a bit. thats cool.

  Thursday morning we talked a lot about how to help the zone, and my district. Thursday was just alright as well. And from then on it was rather rough for us. Friday was viernes santo, o sea, "Good Friday". a day of pure traditions like not eating meat (dont ask me why) and stuff. Also on the tv a lot it showed a lot about how they celebrate here, like having massive parties (...) or how in some parts they literally nail themselves to crosses. ugh, it just doesn't make me feel good that kind of remembering Christs Atonement. Why can't we just give it the reverance it deserves? So also because it's a 3 day weekend everyone either left Talca or relatives came over, making the work a bit hard. Friday we didn't get into a single house, except for at the very end of the night. we were doing contacts and a lady came up to the door and let us in right away. We found out that she's a member, but inactive for like 18 years. And her whole family was there too from Santiago like 5 other people, all members, all inactive for 18 years. But they're really nice people with desires to come back to church. So we talked a bit and invited them to church. 

  Saturday was also a rough day. We didn't get into a single house the whole day, except at the night with an inactive member and her non member husband. It was a good lesson. Then Sunday came around and it was hard, because no investigators came to church. But Kevin got confirmed! So we're sitting there at the beginning of the meeting and then all of a sudden a ton of people walk into the chapel, and it was the inactive family we taught on Friday! That was really cool to see. That was an exito (success) that really made us feel good. Only one lives here in this sector though, but we're gonna see if we can start working with her husband who isn't a member. Then the rest of the day was just decent.

   SO that was basically last week! WAIT! I forgot about a pretty funny incident that happened. So on Friday we were just walking down a side street, minding our own business, and a dog just runs up to me and bites me! Luckily he didnt get my leg, but he did get my pants. And he did quite a bit of damamge to the pants though, I'll attatch a picture (dont put it on the blog please, haha), but he basically ripped the stitching on the side from the waist down to the heel. So that was kind of awkward walking around like that, luckily a member lived close by and fixed it right away. 

   Now, thats what happened last week. Today I found an email from the office telling me home I'm going home on August 9th telling me I gotta tell them stuff like the airport closest to my home and stuff.....trunky email. Time is disappearing, its crazy.  This cambios half over already. Well it's good that I'm not trunky.

   So I hope you all have a great week! Hope you had a great Easter and could think more about Christ, now I invite you to think about him more throughout the whole year! Love you all, this church is true!!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

 Pics

1,2) The times are changing here in Talca.

3) Having fun here in Talca

4) the result of my 2nd encounter with a dog

Not included.... haha

 

5,6)Donde Alex completo (all that on the top is homemade mayonaise, yum. I ate 2 of those).

 

Jardin de Valle!

   Well, this week was a pretty good one here in Jardin del Valle. We're seeing some progress with some of our investigators.  Well on Monday we had a lesson with Kevin and Keyla. They're both doing good, both had a good experience.
  Tuesday was a cool day. On Tuesday we went and did what's called an invasion.  An invasion is when all the missionaries of the zone invade a single sector and work in there for a day. SO for the invasion we all went to the hermanas sector in Constitucion, a beach city. So we actually all lunched over there, had the district class over there, and then worked. It was good, we actually found a good lady there. Overall, it was an effective and fun day, and we got back home right at 10pm, so we had to just go straight into the house.
  Wednesday was an alright day. We met with Rosana, she's doing good, but we've found that there's a tiny problem. When we share with her, the husbands nice with us, and he says he'll let her do what she wants. But this time Rosana told us that her husband told her that if she gets baptized, they'll get separated. But we'll see, I'm pretty sure the Lords gonna ablandar (soften) his heart. So it's a tiny setback, but we're gonna do what we can to help her.
  On Thursday we had a miniconference with the President and Hermana Humphrey and the assisstants. And it was a really, really good conference, one I really needed. It talked about how to better fulfill our purpose as missionaries, and about working with the members better. It was very spiritually uplifting and good for me as a missionary. And to top it they gave us Mcdonalds for lunch! Yum. So after that we left with a ton of animo to work in the Lords work.
  Friday was a good day. I had to go over to La Florida to do an interview, so that was cool, I hadn't done one in a long while. She didn't pass, but we'll see what happens with her.  Saturday was also good. We stopped by Cristina and Franco. We couldn't see them throughout the whole week because now Crisitinas working. But we talked about church (they went last week), and she shared with us that she went to church expecting a sign or something, then she gets home and her husband got a job offer after looking for months!!! So that's really cool. They said they'd come to church on Sunday.  Oh yeah, and we started us an English class, it's just beginning but hopefully we'll get a lot of people to come. Last saturday like 6 came, this Saturday only 2. We'll see what happens I guess.  Then after that the rest of the night was dedicated to finding new people.  At the very end of the night we found a cool married couple that we'll see.  
  Sunday was good, but not in all the ways we expected. Keyla got confirmed (Kevin couldn't, but next week he is for sure). So the only investigator we had in church was Rosana! We actually fasted for her so she could come, and she came! So that was really good. Then right before the last hour a random lady walked into the chapel and wanted to find out more! So she stayed for the last hour and we got a return appointment with her! So that was an unseen blessing. Franco and Cristina didn't show, she had to work  :(  And after work basically all we did was work towards finding new investigators, and it worked! We had a good day of finding Sunday.
  Well, that's about it. Today we came over to Linares to play soccer against that zone. I was on fire! I scored like 6 goals or something. It was a fun game, and I got to see a lot of missionary friends.  Well, we're excited to work this week, it should be a good one. I love being here! Thanks for everything, have a great week!

Elder Ryan Mayberry

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Baps!

  Hello everyone, this week was a pretty good week for us here in Jardin del Valle. The main good news is.... baptisms! More on that a bit later. But other than that the week, actually thinking about it, was a bit hard. Mainly, what made it hard was that no one let us in their houses this week! We didn't find like any new people, so that's not good. Also, a lot of the newer people we found last week we couldn't see this week, so that wasn't good either. But we worked hard this week with Kevin and Keyla, Rosana, and Freddy and Gloria. Freddy and Gloria are doing good, but went out of town to this weekend so they couldn't come to church, aww. Rosanas doing good. She was for sure gonna come to church again, but because of the babies she didn't get to bed til 6:30, so she didn't make it to church. But we did get Cristina and Franco to church! That was good, so we're gonna focus on them too. But the best news of this week was that Kevin and Keyla got baptized on Sunday!!! It was really good. I baptized Keyla, and Elder Huerta baptized Kevin. Photos will be included.

   So the rest of the week was just normal missionary work. I did 2 minicambios this week, 1. I went over to the Zone leaders sector, where all there citas (appointments) fell, haha, so we did a lot of contacts that day. Then the next day I went over to La Florida, and got to talk to a couple of their better investigators. I'm pretty sure they're gonna baptize again this month, which will be really good for them.

   But other than that, not too much exciting happened. Oh yeah, the other really good news, Miguel got baptized!! We were in phone communication the whole time, so it wasn't a surprise, but boy am I happy for that!! This week should be a lot better, it should be pretty busy, so next weeks email should be longer. Oh, and by the way, I got the package! Thanks everyone! It's a delicious package. Well, the church is true. Oh yeah, I turned 20 months old in the mission. Yikes. Well, the good news is I'm not trunky. I love being here and I love being a missionary. Hope you have a great week! 

Pics

1)Happy birthday biscuits and gravy breakfast

2)Happy Birthday lunchtime cake

3) Me Keyla, Kevin and E Huerta

4) Us, kevin, keyla, and their mom and little brother

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Huzzah!

  This week was an excellent week for us here in Jardín del Valle. We saw a lot of successes after a long time working hard here. We saw success in basically all aspects of the work here, in finding, in getting our investigators to progress, and getting some to baptism.  So I guess I'll explain the week in terms of those.

   So in finding. We did a good job of finding some pretty solid people this week. We found 3 or 4 pretty receptive people who really are interested and want to follow the example of Christ. Among them there names are Belén (Bethlehem in spanish), Tabita, and Valesca.

   So in helping people progress and get prepared for baptism we had a lot of success with the people we've been teaching. Namely, because Rosana, Freddy and Gloria, and Kevin and Keyla's mom all came to general conference this weekend! They finally all took the first step to getting to church. Now we just got to get them to come back this next week. But were definitely excited for the future here in Jardin del Valle. Especially because all 4 of them are really, really good. I have faith that all of the can be baptized either this month or next month.

   And in the last news of Kevin and Keyla. They had their baptism interviews on wednesday, and both of them passed!! We decided though it would be best if they got baptized this Sunday the 10th. So this Sunday were gonna have some baptisms! Huzzah! It's a cause of great rejoicing to see people make covenants with God, the first covenants they need to live with Him after this life. yay!

   Other significant events this week: My birthday! It was good, I had 2 cakes, one for lunch and one in the night. It was a good birthday. I also was sick the day after, not that fun. Then the other event was general conference. Ahh, i love it! It was such a good conference, I think my favorite session was Saturday afternoons. It was just perfect for our investigators there. I love conference so much, I definintely took it for granted back in my youth (or rather up until 2 years ago haha).

   So yeah, I'm 21 now. And tomorrow I turn 20 months old in the mission. Uhhhhh.......where's time going? I have no idea.  So everythings good here. Oh yeah, cambios! I'm staying here! And so is my comp. SO here we are ready to put forth a good cambio of work.  Well thats it! The church is obviously true.  Have a great week!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry

Here we are!

Well this week was another pretty good week. The animos still up here in Jardin del Valle. We see good things with our investigators.

   On Monday we had some appointments with Rosana and Freddy, both are still really good.  Tuesday was also a good day. we had our district class. I'm pretty used to giving classes now. The class I gave on Tuesday was about how we as missionaries have to be Christ like missionaries, not just do missionary things. It's something I thought about a lot this last week, about how if we just do missionary things, and aren't christ like, we really don't get the full success that we should. On Tuesday we also taught the sister of a new convert of like 7 months, and she's really cool! And we also taught Fany Kevin Keyla who are doing really good.

   Wednesday was a pretty good day. We found a mom (cristina) and her son Franco whos 10. The cool thing is they lived in the states for like 3 years. The mom never really learned english, but Francos fluent! So it's cool talking to him in english.  And they've shared with misisonaries before, and Franco loves it, but they leave every weekend so they can never come to church. Aww. 

   On Thursday I went and did a minicambio with La florida again and it was a pretty good minicambio. We got to teach Carolina, and she's  amazing. She's sharing the gospel with her friends and her family. She's awesome. so it was a good minicambio. Friday was good too. Halfway during the day we did a quick minicambio with the zone leaders so they could get to know our good invetigators. And on the way back to the Zls sector we stopped at a completo place named Donde Alex. I had heard of it before, that it's the best completo stand in Talca, and it really is! It was a vey very good completo.

   Saturday we kinda ran around all over trying to get our investigators to church on Sunday. Rosana was a for sure, Freddy and Gloria were probables, and Kevin Keyla and Fany were for sures. But the only ones who came were Kevin Keyla and Fany came for the first time too! And she liked it! One thing we did find out this week is that Fany's not married to her spouse. Aww. But she's  really good. So we were kinda disappointed that our other investigators didn't come, but excited because Kevin and Kayla and Fany came. That means this next week should be super good.

1) General conference. Yes! im pumped! I love it. and

2) We should be havimg the baptisms of Kevin and Keyla! Should be an excellent week. And it's my birthday too! How lucky for me.

   In other good news, we borrowed a bike from a member, so now were up and running on bikes! Thank goodness, now everthings so much faster.

   Well today has been pretty normal. After internet we're going to like this fair thing called Fital, it should be pretty fun. They sell a lot of cool things so hopefully I'll find some nice stuff there. Well that's about it. This upcoming week should be pretty good. And it's the last week of the cambio! It's possible I'm changed, I'll find out next week. So here we are just seguiring adelante (spanglish).  Thanks for everything! I love you all, have a great week, I'll try to if you do!

 

Elder almost 21 years old Mayberry

 Some random Pics.

1)From the zone activity we had between Talca and talca centro

2)Suset in Don Pablo ( a population/part of town)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

3) Elder Huerta in action with his canine companion

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4) haha. The e means no parking. Firgure out what cant park there.

Decent week!

Well as you can see in the title, this week was decent. Not too good, not bad either. But we did have good parts though. 

   The first part of this week was just kinda mas o menos no mas (not to great). We had a hard time finding our investigators, and just an overall rougher time. So that wasn't too good. (I forgot my agenda so I don't have an exact recollection of what we did :(   But at one point in the week, Wednesday I think, I did a minicambio with La Florida. Remeber Carolina, the lady who we found and brought to church twice then had to pass over to La Florida? She passed her baptism interview to be baptized this last Saturday! That was cool to see her after she's progressed in the gospel a lot more. SO it was a pretty good minicambio.

   Then on Friday we did a minicambio with the zone leaders. I went over to the ZL's sector, and it was a good minicambio. I got a lot of good pointers from the ZL Elder McDonald. So then after that it was Saturday, and that's where we started having a better week. Saturday morning we went to Carolinas baptism, which was really cool. Then we tried getting people to chuch. An update on the investigators...

   Kevin, Keyla Fany (mom) are all doing super good. They love when we come over, we love going over there. The're so good!!! They love learning and love church. All 3 have baptismal dates for the 3rd of April, and all 3 commited to go to church on Sunday.

   Catalina, she's still slowly progressing. She's more open with us now, and pays attention. SO were still hoping for a miracle with her.

   We couldnt meet with Rosana or Freddy and Gloria the whole week!! Lame. Fome.

   On Sunday Kevin and Keyla came to church again! (Fany had to work, ugh!) but they just love it. We've been really blessed with them. Catalina also came and the best news is that she has friends in the primary now, and doesn't hate it anymore! Then we found a couple more people on Sunday afternoon, I'll keep you posted on them.

   SO then today we had a zone activity with the other zone here in Talca. We played dodgeball, basketball and football and ate completos. It was a lot of fun.

   So me and elder Huerta are pretty excited. We've got a lot of good people at the moment, and were very, very excited for April. We think we can see a lot of success then. 2 more weeks in the cambio, it's crazy how fast its going by. But we're excited to be working. This sector's just gonna explode!

   Well that's about it. I feel like the letter was very sporadic but oh well. es lo que hay no mas. Well I hope you all have a great week!!!!!

 

Elder Mayberry

Good Week!

  Well, this week was pretty good.  On Monday we went over to Rosana and taught her about the book of mormon. she's really good, we have a lot of hope for her.  Then the day went pretty normally. Tuesday was good, we had district class in the morning, then we went to lunch and started to work. It was a pretty decent day, and in the nighttime we went to go see a guy named Freddy. We taught him like 4 weeks ago but then couldn't find him, but we found him finally on Tuesday and taught him and his wife. They're both super cool as well!

   On Wednesday we had interviews with the President. It was really good, I learned a lot and left feeling really excited to work. We got a lot of good metas (goals) to make us improve. We're working here on being more inspired and more obedient, and we've been seeing results this week. For example we plan and pray for a specific street to do contacts, and the majority of the people we talk to there are really cool. That's what's been going on this week. SOThursday was good too, nothing to special though. 

   On Friday we did a minicambio with La Florida, and I went over there. It was overall a good minicambio, we found a really good lady over there doing contacts. The best news is that the we're gonna have a baptism on Saturday! SO that's good for them. And meanwhile back in our sector, Elder Huerta found a really cool family. 

   Saturday was a good day too. We went around to our investigators trying to get them to church. We also went to La Floridas baptism, which was really good. SO on Saturday we had 6 investigators who said they were coming to church: Catalina, Freddy and his wife Gloria, Rosana, and 2 kids from the family elder Huerta found.

   SO Sunday came around and Catalina, and the 2 kids elder Huerta found came. They're names are Kevin and Kaylee. Yeah, super gringo names. But they both loved church! so were excited about them. Catalina also looked like she had a lot better time this week than other weeeks. She is playing the rebel card with us though, for example, she went to an evangelical church with the nanny of their house on Saturday night...ugh. But were still seeing progress with her. We even flat out talked about baptism, and she knows its important but she wants to be sure to do it in the right church. Remember, she's 10 years old! Shes like super mature and kinda a brat, but progressing a bit. So well see how it goes with her. Also on Sunday we found 6 new investigators, one was real good the other were just decent. But that's how it goes I guess.
  So we're working hard here in Jardin del Valle, and starting to get some progress going, if all goes right we should have a very successful month of April. This week should be good, especially working on getting all of our good invstigators to church.

   Well, thats all I guess for this week.  Hope all is well back home, and that your having a good week. Oh yeah, and today we went to Linares and played soccer against a differnent zone. fun stuff. Have a great week!

 

Elder Ryan Mayberry