Hello everyone!
So the first week of this change is already over. That was a fast, and pretty good week. We had a few cool experiences that I'll share.
Oh yeah, I don't know if I told you last week, but I'm no longer district leader, so now I don't have to worry about preparing a class. It was nice just sitting and listening in class on Tuesday and not worry about talking for the whole time haha. Anyway.
Our investigators are doing alright. We had a sad turnout on Sunday, when we thought we were gonna have a couple. So that is honestly a bit disappointing. All the work you do in the week leads up to Sunday and seeing if your investigators get to church. And this week we just had one. We worked quite a bit, so like I said, it was disappointing. But yeah. The one that went to church was Marianela, who is still going strong as a golden investigator toward her baptismal date on the 14th. We found a new couple this week, but we just gotta see how good they are and if they actually progress. But that's basically our investigators and how they're doing.
We rode our butts off this week on the bikes and I was pretty exhasuted after this week. We've been going place to place trying to get inactives to come to church, to find new people, to teach the peopel we have, and we ride pretty fast at the same time. So it gets tiring, but I'm adjusting. Actually I'm pretty well adjusted.
We did have a few cool spiritual experiences this week though. There were 3 that come to mind.
1. So we were teaching Marianela on Tuesday night, and we had taught what we were gonna teach, and we were getting ready to go, but then she began telling us that she had received her for sure answer that the church is true! That's like what all missionaryies are waiting to hear out of their investigators. She said she already knew that it was true, but now she's gotten the spiritual response, and knows for sure for sure. So how cool is that?
2. Also happened with Marianela. We were teaching her on Saturday. Actually, quick note, on Friday we went by to see how she was doing and she was crying and not having a good day, so we tried to give her some words of animo (motivating?) and we left. So Saturday we went by and she told us that she had gotten into a fight with her Aunt (who shes living with) and was about to pack her bags and head back home to the south. She continued telling us that on Friday her aunt came home, and told Marianela, "See? were you not paying attention to what the Elders told you?" Because when we taught her tuesday, we warned her about how Satan would be trying hard so that she didn't get baptized. She then realized that this was the case. That if she would've gone home she would've never got baptizsed. But all is well. She is here and she's going strong. It was a cool feeling to know that I was used as an instrument in the Lords hand to warn her about things.
3. So we were riding home, not knowing what to do on Saturday. I was thinking in my mind what we should do and I was drawing blanks. I remembered a contact that we did though, that told us to go back on the weekend. But I thought in my head, nah, nothing will come of it. But immediately after that, I remembered a lesson I learned earlier in the mission, to always pass by all contacts a second time, no matteer how bad they seem. But I kinda brushed away the thought and we kept riding. But as we got close to where this contact was, I got a strong impression to go there. So we went. We called at the door, the lady said hold on a minute, came back, then said, come on in! Haha. So yeah. Good stuff.
Today for P-Day we did absolutely nothing and it was good. :)
Uh-huh. Things are going good here in Pirque. I'm loving it still. I can't wait for the rest of this change, Marianelas baptism, and all the other cool stuff that is bound to happen haha. This week is gonna be a cool one, tomorrow we're going to the Temple, and on Wednesday we get to listen to Elder Corbridge of the Seventy. So it should be cool. Love you all and hope you have great weeks!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
Monday, October 25, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Seis semanas mas en Pirque!
Hello everyone!
I hope everything went well for you guys this past week. It was a good week for Chile as a country and a pretty decent week for us here in Pirque.
So yeah, the big news in the world apparently was that the Chilean miners were all rescued and are safe and sound. The whole country was going crazy pretty much, and it was all that was on the TV for like a week straight haha. Everyone said that they showed it so much that people here got tired of hearing about the miners. But it's still a really cool story and they're all safe and sound. So good stuff for Chile. Pretty cool place to be serving a mission though, interesting stuff happens here, gigantic earthquake, miner rescue, bicentennial, all for my mission haha. Pretty lucky I suppose. Haha side note, it was pretty funny, the President of Chile, after the last miner was rescued, said a curse word on national tv. Good stuff...
The work is going good here in Pirque though. We're still seeing some good things happen, but we need to work harder to see even better things. Our best investigator is still Marianela, who is still going really strong and getting baptized the 14th of November. So that is good. She's been to church a bajillion times already, and she's already read the whole Gospel Principles book, so she basically knows what the church is about and stuff, and she has felt that it's the step she needs to take in her life. So yeah. The other investigators we have are beginning to progress, or have stopped progressing for a moment. So we need to find some new ones. We've been knocking a decent amount this week, but we haven't had too much success. As the four of us here in Pirque, we're working on trying to knock the entire sector, and we're getting close haha. There's just a few more parts that we need to get. Sometimes I really hate knocking, sometimes I just deal with it, and rarely do I like doing it haha. But it's something you just gotta learn to love. One elder once told me something cool that really helps your mentality while knocking, every next house that you knock could be that person or family that has just been waiting for the gospel. So you just gotta keep going along, hoping for those people.
Some interesting events here in Pirque for the week...
Yesterday we were riding our bikes and and this lady stopped us. She asked us a weird question, she asked us who we are. It's a weird question because everyone and their brother knows who those weird gringos in white shirts are, that they're mormons. But this lady didnt know, hence, the question took us by surprise. Then we found out why....she's from New York, haha. She moved from Chile to New York at age 6, and was there her whole life, and came back here 2 years ago. And in the states you rarely see missionaries in the street, so that's why she didn't know who we are. But anyway, i did a VERY rusty English contact, and it came out super funny, but she said we could pass by some day haha. We'll give teaching in English a shot and see how it goes.
Also, the familia San Martin, who we live with, bought ten baby ducks! We now have a bajilion pets in the backyard, like 20 chickens, 10 baby chicks, and now ten baby ducks. So it's cool.
Church was good this week. We only had one investigator in the church(Marianela), but we had some less actives go that we've been working with, and yeah.
Haha I almost forgot to tell you guys that I'm staying here in Pirque again! We got the call last night and all four of us are staying here in Pirque for this change. So that is exciting. I'm really happy cuz now I'll be here for Marianelas baptism and hopefully a lot more good stuff that will happen in the coming weeks. Even though we were staying, we went to the change meeting today and I got to catch up with old comps, old friends, and all that good stuff. Then we came back to the pension, ate lunch, and I took a little nap, and here we are now.
Well, I love you all and hope you're having a great time in the States. It's going really well here, and I'm super pleased that I stayed again here in Pirque. That means that I will have spent a good chunk of my mission, 6 months, here in this amazing sector at the end of this change. The church is true without a doubt, and it blesses lives. I love this work. Talk to you next week!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
I hope everything went well for you guys this past week. It was a good week for Chile as a country and a pretty decent week for us here in Pirque.
So yeah, the big news in the world apparently was that the Chilean miners were all rescued and are safe and sound. The whole country was going crazy pretty much, and it was all that was on the TV for like a week straight haha. Everyone said that they showed it so much that people here got tired of hearing about the miners. But it's still a really cool story and they're all safe and sound. So good stuff for Chile. Pretty cool place to be serving a mission though, interesting stuff happens here, gigantic earthquake, miner rescue, bicentennial, all for my mission haha. Pretty lucky I suppose. Haha side note, it was pretty funny, the President of Chile, after the last miner was rescued, said a curse word on national tv. Good stuff...
The work is going good here in Pirque though. We're still seeing some good things happen, but we need to work harder to see even better things. Our best investigator is still Marianela, who is still going really strong and getting baptized the 14th of November. So that is good. She's been to church a bajillion times already, and she's already read the whole Gospel Principles book, so she basically knows what the church is about and stuff, and she has felt that it's the step she needs to take in her life. So yeah. The other investigators we have are beginning to progress, or have stopped progressing for a moment. So we need to find some new ones. We've been knocking a decent amount this week, but we haven't had too much success. As the four of us here in Pirque, we're working on trying to knock the entire sector, and we're getting close haha. There's just a few more parts that we need to get. Sometimes I really hate knocking, sometimes I just deal with it, and rarely do I like doing it haha. But it's something you just gotta learn to love. One elder once told me something cool that really helps your mentality while knocking, every next house that you knock could be that person or family that has just been waiting for the gospel. So you just gotta keep going along, hoping for those people.
Some interesting events here in Pirque for the week...
Yesterday we were riding our bikes and and this lady stopped us. She asked us a weird question, she asked us who we are. It's a weird question because everyone and their brother knows who those weird gringos in white shirts are, that they're mormons. But this lady didnt know, hence, the question took us by surprise. Then we found out why....she's from New York, haha. She moved from Chile to New York at age 6, and was there her whole life, and came back here 2 years ago. And in the states you rarely see missionaries in the street, so that's why she didn't know who we are. But anyway, i did a VERY rusty English contact, and it came out super funny, but she said we could pass by some day haha. We'll give teaching in English a shot and see how it goes.
Also, the familia San Martin, who we live with, bought ten baby ducks! We now have a bajilion pets in the backyard, like 20 chickens, 10 baby chicks, and now ten baby ducks. So it's cool.
Church was good this week. We only had one investigator in the church(Marianela), but we had some less actives go that we've been working with, and yeah.
Haha I almost forgot to tell you guys that I'm staying here in Pirque again! We got the call last night and all four of us are staying here in Pirque for this change. So that is exciting. I'm really happy cuz now I'll be here for Marianelas baptism and hopefully a lot more good stuff that will happen in the coming weeks. Even though we were staying, we went to the change meeting today and I got to catch up with old comps, old friends, and all that good stuff. Then we came back to the pension, ate lunch, and I took a little nap, and here we are now.
Well, I love you all and hope you're having a great time in the States. It's going really well here, and I'm super pleased that I stayed again here in Pirque. That means that I will have spent a good chunk of my mission, 6 months, here in this amazing sector at the end of this change. The church is true without a doubt, and it blesses lives. I love this work. Talk to you next week!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
Monday, October 11, 2010
Mao meno no ma'
It was a pretty average week this week here in Pirque. Nothing interesting happened at all haha. It definitely went by way too fast though. It's just like everyone says, every change and every week goes by faster as you get more time in the mission, and especially after you hit one year. Ever since the year mark time has been going faster than normal, I'm not kidding. I turned 14 months in the mission this last week, so my time is dwindling down. There's still a lot to do here in Santiago though, haha.
Anyway. The week started off pretty good. We had our zone class on Tuesday and I gave the district class like normal. I always feel that my classes aren't any good haha, but maybe that's just me. Or maybe they really are bad. Hopefully not the latter.
I'll just start talking about our investigators. They're doing good. Marianela, the girl we found last week, is still doing really really well. She gets the gospel. Like she understands it really well, and it still doing good to be baptized in November. We've almost taught her all the lessons already, and she understands everything perfectly. She came to church on Sunday and was our only investigator there. The other investigators we have are doing alright. No one is progressing a ton, but they're progressing little by little.
We did service work two times this week and that was good. The first time we went to help a family move out of Pirque, and the second service we went and helped a family build their new house a little bit.
We also had to change the time on Saturday. So we sprang forward and lost an hour of sleep, so that wasn't the funnest thing.
And this Sunday, already, are changes again. I can't believe how fast these changes are coming. It felt like seriously last week that I was just getting my new comp. As for these changes I honestly have no idea what's gonna happen. I've been here for three so far, so I'd say its about a 50 percent chance of me going and a 50 percent chance of me staying. I really hope I stay though, I don't wanna leave this sector yet.
And there you have it. Sorry this email is not very interesting at all haha, but that's just how the week was. Nothing too exciting happened, was just a normal week of being a missionary. And if you're wondering what I did today for pday, I did nothing. And it was good. I'm gonna try to get a lot of pictures and stuff this week, just in case it's my last one here in Pirque. Hopefully not. But we shall see no mas. I'm very happy here in the mission and am loving it. I hope you're all doing well wherever you may be. Summer is starting to kick in here in Santiago, and it's gonna be a hot one. We're just starting spring and it's been up to 26 degrees already. Haha, I'm still not too used to the metric system, I like our system in the States that makes no sense better. Anyway. Love you all and hope you all have a great week. I shall let you know my fate in the mission in my next email. Take care!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
Anyway. The week started off pretty good. We had our zone class on Tuesday and I gave the district class like normal. I always feel that my classes aren't any good haha, but maybe that's just me. Or maybe they really are bad. Hopefully not the latter.
I'll just start talking about our investigators. They're doing good. Marianela, the girl we found last week, is still doing really really well. She gets the gospel. Like she understands it really well, and it still doing good to be baptized in November. We've almost taught her all the lessons already, and she understands everything perfectly. She came to church on Sunday and was our only investigator there. The other investigators we have are doing alright. No one is progressing a ton, but they're progressing little by little.
We did service work two times this week and that was good. The first time we went to help a family move out of Pirque, and the second service we went and helped a family build their new house a little bit.
We also had to change the time on Saturday. So we sprang forward and lost an hour of sleep, so that wasn't the funnest thing.
And this Sunday, already, are changes again. I can't believe how fast these changes are coming. It felt like seriously last week that I was just getting my new comp. As for these changes I honestly have no idea what's gonna happen. I've been here for three so far, so I'd say its about a 50 percent chance of me going and a 50 percent chance of me staying. I really hope I stay though, I don't wanna leave this sector yet.
And there you have it. Sorry this email is not very interesting at all haha, but that's just how the week was. Nothing too exciting happened, was just a normal week of being a missionary. And if you're wondering what I did today for pday, I did nothing. And it was good. I'm gonna try to get a lot of pictures and stuff this week, just in case it's my last one here in Pirque. Hopefully not. But we shall see no mas. I'm very happy here in the mission and am loving it. I hope you're all doing well wherever you may be. Summer is starting to kick in here in Santiago, and it's gonna be a hot one. We're just starting spring and it's been up to 26 degrees already. Haha, I'm still not too used to the metric system, I like our system in the States that makes no sense better. Anyway. Love you all and hope you all have a great week. I shall let you know my fate in the mission in my next email. Take care!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
Monday, October 4, 2010
Una Semana buena!
This week was actually a really good one. Hooray! Quite a few good things happened and the week ended in the best possible way it could have, with General Conference.
A little about the week though. So we finally got rid of our old garbage bikes and got new ones! They work really well and we're now flying around our sector on our new bikes. It's petty fun. I had to get used to riding them again though, becuse I wasn't in shape, but now I'm back in bike riding shape and we're going good. It really does save us a ton of money to be using the bikes, and it's more fun than just sitting in a stupid bus. Sometimes we do races with the other two elders to lunch and stuff and it makes it fun. I think I'm gonna start losing some much needed weight now that we have the bikes and summer is starting to kick in.
This week I also did a companion exchange, which we just call divs (short for divisions) in one of the more flaite sectors in the mission, Chiloé. So that was super weird actually being in a normal sector again haha. It's not as good as Pirque. Because in your normal sectors you get people that bug you, yelling things at us, and they're always blasting their music super loud at whatever time they please. Pirque is just super calm and relaxed and I love it. I really hope I stay here another change. We'll see though. Changes are already only two weeks away, which is crazy.
In terms of more spiritual things, things are doing really well. We have had some good things come to pass in terms of our investigators. When I was with elder Deaver we decided to go try and visit an old investigator, somone that listened to the missionaries before. Her name is Paulina and we taught her twice I think and then she just disappeared. A week or so later we come to find out that she had been in the hospital and she had gotten a tumor removed. We never got in to teach her again, because shortly thereafter, she disappeared again. But like two weeks ago she came back and it turns out she has cancer, and she's going through chemotherapy now. She said that it was detected super early and that she should be fine, and while she was in the hospital, she took her Book of Mormon and read it often and she said that it helped her a lot in her stay there. This last week we got to teach her again (well I didn't, my comp and another did while I was on divs) and she came to conference this Sunday! So we're hoping to see a lot of progress in her these upcoming weeks.
Also, you remember how last week I said that that kids mom told us not to come by anymore? Well, nothing changed in that situation, but we received an even better gift from the Lord. We are teaching the niece of a member here now. This niece, whose name is Marianela, is like 20 and came up here to Santiago from the south to study. Because of recent events that have happened in her life (she got pregnant in the south), she decided that she needed to turn her life in a new direction. So she comes here, lives with her aunt(a faithful member) and realizes that God has put everything in her path so that she can turn her life around and be happy. So yeah, she already wants to get baptized. She's already reading the Book of Mormon and the book Gospel Principles, and also came to church these past couple sundays. She's what you call a golden investigator. So me and elder Costner are very happy for this blessing. She wants to get baptized in November, because her birthday is then and she wants it to be like a symbol of her rebirth. She feels the guilt for the things she's done wrong in her life and told us that she wants to repent and be baptized so that she can be forgiven of her wrongdoings. So yeah. Things are basically going good here in Pirque!
And then to top it off we had conference this weekend and it was so good! I love it. I can't believe how little I appreciated conference when I was at home. Conference is a great time and we can hear what God wants us to hear and how blessed are we to have a prophet like in the olden days? It's so good to be a member of the church. Some highlights for me, President Uchtdorfs talks (all of them), Elder Costa (who had just visited us here in the mission) and I can't remember the others. I can't wait to read them again in the Liahona to get a better hold on everyting.
Today we went to a place called San José de Maipo, the only other non-city sector in the mission besides Pirque, we ate a bunch of shish-kebobs, completos, and played some stick baseball. Twas fun.
And like Ryan already mentioned, we turn 14 months in the mission tomorrow, and a year in Chile. So only 10 months left on my mission, which is actually quite depressing. I love the mission and seeing the blessings of the gospel in peoples' lives. The church is true, hope you all have a great week!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
1. Pirque
2. Me and elder Costner at a waterfall we found
3. The four missionaries at the waterfall
4. Missionary work at its best
5. From the activity today, no one is looking at he camera because just at that moment a huge gust of wind blew smoke and ashes from the campfire in our faces
A little about the week though. So we finally got rid of our old garbage bikes and got new ones! They work really well and we're now flying around our sector on our new bikes. It's petty fun. I had to get used to riding them again though, becuse I wasn't in shape, but now I'm back in bike riding shape and we're going good. It really does save us a ton of money to be using the bikes, and it's more fun than just sitting in a stupid bus. Sometimes we do races with the other two elders to lunch and stuff and it makes it fun. I think I'm gonna start losing some much needed weight now that we have the bikes and summer is starting to kick in.
This week I also did a companion exchange, which we just call divs (short for divisions) in one of the more flaite sectors in the mission, Chiloé. So that was super weird actually being in a normal sector again haha. It's not as good as Pirque. Because in your normal sectors you get people that bug you, yelling things at us, and they're always blasting their music super loud at whatever time they please. Pirque is just super calm and relaxed and I love it. I really hope I stay here another change. We'll see though. Changes are already only two weeks away, which is crazy.
In terms of more spiritual things, things are doing really well. We have had some good things come to pass in terms of our investigators. When I was with elder Deaver we decided to go try and visit an old investigator, somone that listened to the missionaries before. Her name is Paulina and we taught her twice I think and then she just disappeared. A week or so later we come to find out that she had been in the hospital and she had gotten a tumor removed. We never got in to teach her again, because shortly thereafter, she disappeared again. But like two weeks ago she came back and it turns out she has cancer, and she's going through chemotherapy now. She said that it was detected super early and that she should be fine, and while she was in the hospital, she took her Book of Mormon and read it often and she said that it helped her a lot in her stay there. This last week we got to teach her again (well I didn't, my comp and another did while I was on divs) and she came to conference this Sunday! So we're hoping to see a lot of progress in her these upcoming weeks.
Also, you remember how last week I said that that kids mom told us not to come by anymore? Well, nothing changed in that situation, but we received an even better gift from the Lord. We are teaching the niece of a member here now. This niece, whose name is Marianela, is like 20 and came up here to Santiago from the south to study. Because of recent events that have happened in her life (she got pregnant in the south), she decided that she needed to turn her life in a new direction. So she comes here, lives with her aunt(a faithful member) and realizes that God has put everything in her path so that she can turn her life around and be happy. So yeah, she already wants to get baptized. She's already reading the Book of Mormon and the book Gospel Principles, and also came to church these past couple sundays. She's what you call a golden investigator. So me and elder Costner are very happy for this blessing. She wants to get baptized in November, because her birthday is then and she wants it to be like a symbol of her rebirth. She feels the guilt for the things she's done wrong in her life and told us that she wants to repent and be baptized so that she can be forgiven of her wrongdoings. So yeah. Things are basically going good here in Pirque!
And then to top it off we had conference this weekend and it was so good! I love it. I can't believe how little I appreciated conference when I was at home. Conference is a great time and we can hear what God wants us to hear and how blessed are we to have a prophet like in the olden days? It's so good to be a member of the church. Some highlights for me, President Uchtdorfs talks (all of them), Elder Costa (who had just visited us here in the mission) and I can't remember the others. I can't wait to read them again in the Liahona to get a better hold on everyting.
Today we went to a place called San José de Maipo, the only other non-city sector in the mission besides Pirque, we ate a bunch of shish-kebobs, completos, and played some stick baseball. Twas fun.
And like Ryan already mentioned, we turn 14 months in the mission tomorrow, and a year in Chile. So only 10 months left on my mission, which is actually quite depressing. I love the mission and seeing the blessings of the gospel in peoples' lives. The church is true, hope you all have a great week!
Elder Aaron Mayberry
1. Pirque
2. Me and elder Costner at a waterfall we found
3. The four missionaries at the waterfall
4. Missionary work at its best
5. From the activity today, no one is looking at he camera because just at that moment a huge gust of wind blew smoke and ashes from the campfire in our faces
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