Elder Mayberry in his New Suit!

Buenos días a todos!

Hope everyone is doing really well. This week was a pretty average week here in Los Platanos.
  We're still seeing some progress with our investigators, so that is good. Carmen is doing good. Her and Axel have decided after all not to get married, but that Carmen is gonna move out to another house once we can find one. In the end its a better decision for the both of them, she'll be able to get baptized, and they'll be able to work out any relationship problems they're having. But Carmen is really excited to get baptized and is progressing very well. We just gotta find a place for her to live and she can get baptized no problem.
  We also had a good thing happen on Sunday, when an hermano menos activo who is getting reacrivated, brought his two kids to church, who aren't baptized. So we have an appointment with them this week.
  We had a good lesson with our ex-priest family again, and we took the bishop this time. It was another good lesson. We left them with a book of Mormon to read and to have them pray about it. We still have to see how much progress they'll make though. But for now they're doing alright.
  And that's how the work is going here. It's the last week of the change, and to be honest, I want out haha. It's been hard here in Los Platanos, but it's been good. We'll see what the Lord wants though. I wouldn't mind stayting another change, but I'd prefer leaving I think.
  This week is a pretty important week for various reasons.
1. My birthday is on Thursday. Can't believe I'm turning 21, that's old.
2. ¡¡¡¡GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!!
3. Changes. So its gonna be a good week I think.
4. Dad has to sign me up for classes already.

  Today for P-Day, me and elder Russell went back to Cataldo, the suitmaker, and picked up my suit. It turned out really nice, I'll attach a picture or two, don't worry.
And that's my life. Hope you all have a great week! Talk to you in April. Wish me luck on changes
Elder Aaron Mayberry

1.Suit & vest


2.Suit & vest, unbuttoned

3.Suit

 

4.Suit, unbuttoned

 

5.Vest
 

6.Normal. Pants have cool pockets in the front
 

Exito!

Hallelujah!

  This week was one of our best weeks here in Los Platanos. It was quite a relief to know that success is actually achievable in this sector.
  On Tuesday we did div's (divisions, or a mini cambio) and I went to another sector. It was good to go to another sector and everything and be with another comp, but for some strange reason I missed Los Platanos.
  On Wednesday, I got back to the sector, and found out that Elder Russell and the other elder, had some good success. They found a few new investigators, and things went really well for them. So Wednesday we had another really good day. We found a couple more new investigators, and had a cool lesson with a new family we found. The guy is an ex catholic priest, who studied for 10 years, and a good amount of that time was at the Vatican. After a while though, he decided that being a priest wasn't for him, and he wanted a family. So he got married and now has two kids. He's still a practicing Catholic and everything, but he's really receptive. He's definitely the smartest guy I've ever taught, he knows a ton about religion and theology in general. He's fun to teach though. We have another appointment with him and his family tomorrow night, so hopefully it goes really well.
  Thursday we had another capacitation (I dont think thats an English word, but it's like a training), and it was really good.
  Friday I had to go get my chilean ID card again, so I got to go around and see downtown Santiago and it was good. Can't believe it was my last time though, it felt like yesterday that I got it the first time a year ago.
  Then Saturday we had a great cita with Carmen and Axel. We put a fecha on Carmen for the 17th of April! And she accepted no problem, she wants to get baptized. And right after we put the baptismal date, we taught al tiro the law of chastity, cuz that's they're problem. She accepted it no problem, and on Sunday they even talked to the bishop to get advice on what they should do. So we're hoping for a baptism here in April!
  So we still just gotta see if the people we've found progress, but no we actually have a decent teaching pool. The mission is a lot more enjoyable when you're having success. We're pretty happy now, and hopefully the success just keeps going and doesnt just fade away.
  Oh yeah, so here all the kids went back to school recently after their summer break. All the college kids went back this week, and there's a pretty interesting tradition. All the sophmores, juniors, and seniors in the colleges haze the incoming freshmans. They take their backpacks and their shoes, tear up their clothes, throw nasty things on them like ketchup, mustard, or whatever, and then make the kids go into the street begging for money, and when they get a certain amount (10 thousand pesos.....20 bucks), they go back and can get their shoes and backpack back. So all this week you could see poor kids walking around beggin for money. I felt bad for them. I'm glad that doesnt happen in the states though haha. But I got a picture with some of the kids that were mechoneado (hazed) so you could see.
  Well family, I love you all. I love the mission, even if, at times, its hard and fome. It's by passing through trials that we learn and grow! Wish you all a great week and I'll talk to you soon!

Elder Aaron Mayberry

1. Plaza de Armas(cool site in santiago centro)

2. Me with the poor college kids

Buenas!

Hey everyone,

  This week was a pretty alright one.
  In terms of the work, there weren't too many changes. We still have a few investigators, but this week was really hard to meet up with them. We did however, have a family home evening with a family in the ward and our investigator Carmen and her boyfirend Axel and that went really well. The hermana shared good testimony and talked about all the things we needed her to talk about. We were planning on putting a fecha on Carmen (sorry, fecha is date, meaning a baptismal date) this past week, but we didn't get to teach her. So this week we're gonna do so.
  This week we were dedicating a lot of time to knocking doors. And unfortunately, it didn't go to well for us. But it's alright. Just gotta keep doing it no mas.
  We did have a cool ward activity this Saturday though. It was put on by the young mens program, and it was focussed on the mission work, and getting the youth excited about going on a mission. So they had a bunch of RMs set up little stands with a lot of pictures and little things from their missions, which was really cool to see. Kinda weird though, cuz I'd think to myself, like, wow, those guys were missionaries. And I'm actually a missionary haha. Cuz it's something that's like the focus of life for ages 0 to 19, and to actually be here is strange to think, that I'm actually on the mission. I dunno if I made any sense, but oh well.
  Today for P-Day, we went up to las Condes, the rich part of Santiago, and went to a mall up there and went to TGI Fridays for lunch. it was pretty good. It's always fun to explore the city.
  And that's my life. Not many changes. The work is still hard here, but we're doing our best and just going forward the best we can. The summer is starting to finally fade away (finally!), like today has been cloudy and gloomy all day, and it's been wonderful haha.
  Anyway, love you all and hope you all have a great week! Talk to you soon!

Elder Aaron Mayberry

1. Big ole military school

2. The mall we went to today

No se lo que debo poner aqui (I don't know what to put here)

Hello everyone!

Things went well this week. Not as good as last week, but definitely better than weeks in the past here in Los Platanos.
  Our investigators, the few we have, are doing well. Carmen came to church on Sunday, and she was our only investigator in church. She is feeling really good in church, she says that it's brought a ton of peace to her life and she feels really good in church. So we're gonna keep teaching her and making sure she keeps progressing, and that eventually her and her boyfriend get married.
  Our other investigators are alright. We're still looking everyday and we're finding people, so that's good.
  This week we had a couple cool things out of the ordinary though. On Tuesday I did divisions with Elder Walters, who was on my floor at BYU. So that was really cool. We also did divisions on Thursday, but with members of the ward, and it went really well. I gotta go out with the stake president, and it was a great experience. He's an amazing guy. I learned a lot. And then on Friday we had zone conference. And the topic of the entire conference was the Book of Mormon. President talked about how important it is to have a testimony of the book of mormon, and why we need to use it and study it every day. A big focus we have as a mission right now, is read the book of mormon before Easter, and as we do it, highlight a few different things. When it mentions Christ or one of his titles, His attributes, His words, and doctrines we learn from the book of mormon. It's been really cool, you'd be surprised at how much of that stuff there is in the BoM. I still got a lot to go though. This idea was something that Elder Holland and Elder Anderson (two apostoles) did when they were companions in the mission. How cool is that? President, as a lawyer, also is really good at getting evidences. And he has over a thousand evidences that the book of mormon is true. So he shared some of those with us and they're really neat. So yeah all in all a good conference, except for the fact that I got surprised called to give a talk I didn't have prepared haha. Oh well.
  And today in the morning we went and played football and soccer with our zone and another zone and it was cool. After that we went down to Puente Alto and went to go pick up my suit, but I'm having him make one more adjustment, so it'll be ready here soon. And then on the way back we were informed that there were some crazy divisions that were gonna happen for today because an elder in our zone got special changed to another sector, and in order to cover for him and an appointment they had, the zone leaders were gonna go, but they also had an appointment, so now we have to do like 3 way divs so everyone can be happy haha. But we already have to meet up in half an hour and miss out on part of PDay, but oh well. That's life sometimes. So we did the fastest weekly shopping ever, came home and made macarnoi and cheese real fast and showered and now were here and soon we gotta go back to the metro. So it's kinda been a crazy Pday, with pretty much no rest haha.
  And that was the week. We're keeping the faith here, and we're seeing results! So we're happy. I love you all and hope you also have great weeks! The church is true.

Elder Aaron Mayberry