last email

hey mommy i think this will be the last email of my mission and its about brought me to tears... that sounds like a great list of stuff and there will be some very happy people down here. IM DONE WOOHHOOO im not sure i have told you about the work this last transfer but we have thirteen baptisms tomorrow and three more on saturday plus the four last week its been a great transfer for people doing what we ask them to do.... there will definitely be a place for the suitcases and stuff so bring whatever you want. as long as it fits on the plane were fine here. im excited to see this house that you guys have been working on for so long. it will be interesting to see how close you got it to the last one. do i still have a room there or have i alreadyu been evicted??? we will have plenty of time to send a letter or two if you want. uummmm i dont know what to say. its been two years but i guess ill see you next thursday.... ill probably call you when i finish to make sure there is nothing else needs to be done.... i love you guys thanks for always writing me. love elder virgil mayberry

August 26, 2010

hey mommy im glad you emailed me yesterday sorry you had to panick though turns out we had a bunch of teachings so we kinda canceled pday till today. tell steven to quit picking his nose so hard and he wont get hte buggers building up giving him headaches any more. for systems i will probably major in chem E and specialize in systems i think ASU is the only place that actually offers it as a degree. i would just shoot for a school with Chem E and take it from there. my view on wrestling is if i can do it without taking from school to much ill take it. plus the angel wearing a singlet told me if i get a scholarship that i should just take it.... i talked to my mission pres and he said that i will just have to get home to be released... i really dont have any schedule for when i get home so the 17th sounds like a good time to speak... we were supposed to each a lady this morning and commit her to be baptised i have been thinkin about it all morning but when we showed up she was busy and asked us to come back on monday... agency it will get you.. ummmmm brain te'epilo i cant think of what else i was going to tell you guys so ill just say i love you and hope your all still alive when i get home love me

Aug 19

hey mom i wear clean undies most of the time but im afraid i dont have any vitamins for the last year or so haha its ok though im healthy and happy. i started taking my morning program seriously and have been gtetting some really good workouts in turns out thirty minutes can get a pretty good burn going. i got so i can do 100 pushups in a row now. trying to get loking decent so more people will listen to me.. ;-) i have no idea what the rules are for importing pills and stuff im pretty sure as long as its in fairly small portions and you could justify its for noncommercial use i think your clear. ill ask tukuafu about getting released. the thing is noone seems to be able to tell me why i have to wait till i get home to be released.. the only thing i have heard is so i dont get in trouble but since im with you two the whole time i dont see things getting all that crazy.. Love Elder Mayberry --

Hurry up and email me

HAHAHA mom i love you. sorry we went ot liahona to buy somne stuff for
my comp. we just got back and i saw this email and starting laughing..
i was talking to one of the guys i came in with he hasnt emailed since
july of last year. talk about a while. they usually write letters but
i think that you can guess how realiable the mail is hear. the poor
mom gets 5 lettters at a time then wont hear from him for a few
months.
life is going really good here my comp is a stud and we do a lot of
work. i have this constant desire to just relax and wait for transfers
but he keeps me going.
i kinda miss you guys and am excited for you to come see me.
but life here is good and i cant comlain. i went to a palangi ward on
sunday that we cover. IT WAS WAY WEIRD. but was really funny to listen
to.
mom i want to be trunky so bad but my comp wants to work so bad its
really funny. we work really really hard all day everyday so i dont
start thinkin about home and so he doesnt gt homesick. we have this
horrible luckk of everyone we teach just up and decides not to take
the lessons any more but we find new people and teach them the first
threee lessons then they bail out on us. im kinda used to it but my
poor comp wants so bad to baptise these people.
i love you mom and ill talk to you later

August 4, 2010

hey cutie this letter is really going to sound broken because i am talking tongan at the same time as trying to write english so if i get confused please correct it before you post it on that blog thing where everyone can laugh at me.... ;-) i think you got it right as far as the girl thing maybe i should wait a little longer to get the whole package. so i dont start looking at the fine print on the warranty after a few years..... sounds like you guys are having fun as always. tell morgan if he spent that much time caring about school as his bike he would be salutatorian Spelling???? I still cant believe jessica is out of the house already that is way to fast...we were just teaching an assembly type thing at the government high school and i was thinkin that these girls and boys are TC and morgans age... i feel pretty old, i have been out of high school over three years now.... i cant believe keely broke down.... she was such a trooper. and the cancer car too???? what have you guys been doing lately? did someone take up street racing? i have two little rays of sunshine here as far as investigators and they take up a lot of time. luckily in tonga time is one thing that is overly abundant. i think i have most of our tavels planned out for when you come. im excited for transfers monday to see where ill be when i finish.. can you believe that i have 6 weeks left...... lov eyou guys and will see you in a few months elder mayberry

Virgil's wife

hey mom i just wanted to drop you a quick line. i just wanted to say i love you and appreciate all the work you put in for your kids. life is going great here i cant complain. just trying to keep from getting trunky. some of the guys i came in with have pretty much already thrown in the towel. but i figure i made 22 months i can stick it out for 2 more so i can have a prettier wife when i get back... im pretty sure thats how that works anyway. anyway my comp is a really c\good guy and we get along really well we just have to be careful to keep it respectful since we have a lot of fun together. one of my girlfriends here said to tell you hi and that she cant wait to meet you guyz before we all go back to america. we plan on getting married after i get back. ;-) i figure i better get hitched fast before steven or jessica does. ;-) love you guys Elder Mayberry

July 21, 2010

so mom just another week in the other side of heaven. i moved houses
yesterday. same area just different residence. the mission has a nice
rental house right in the middle of our area and we were living in a
little dinky thing on the very edge of our turf. the mission didnt
remember that they were still leasing it since they have so many new
people in there now days but since i was the one who wrote the rental
agreements for all the rentals i remembered that we have six months
left on this house. we moved in and it is awesome. hot water fridge
stove washing machine. i get up early every morning and cook pancakes.
its really cool.
all our investigators ditched out on us so the kinda
stunk but life happens.....
turns out i realized parents just speak
a different language than kids do and no matter how hard you try it
just doesnt stick. we love you a lot though even if we dont listen.
dont take it personally. it happens on a smaller scale all the time on
a mission people not knowing that your giving them eternity in a
handout card... love you mom dont give up on us just yet.
for the trip here for sure we have to go to eua becasue that is the
only island i havent seen. i wanted to take you guys to hafeva but i
remember that you wouldnt appreciate a 6 hour boat ride on a stinky
dirty swaying ferry boat.... luckily tickets can be bought as late as
when you guys actually get here so dont worry about it to much. i have
the housing and all that planned out. as far as what to bring i have
some requests but ill get them to you later. just a few little gifts
for the people here. a lot of people have things planned for us i think
it would be nice to give a little back...
tell steven that i have had some pretty interesting stories here and
he'll have to try pretty hard to top them before i get released.. (non
mother appropriate stories, at least till i get home)
tell hailey and hannah i love them and still have the pictures they
sent me in the MTC. tell granny hi and i love her.
tell grandpa to stay out of trouble and that i could use a good
missionary haircut right now i havent been able to wrangle up any
clippers lately.
mommy i love you and think about you guys about once a week or so....
just kidding ;-)
turns out that even humble virgil can learn a few things if you beat
him over the head and shoulders for a full two years. thanks for
helping me get here. love you mom
love elder mayberry

Happy Birthday

hey mom. first things first this transfer started the 28 of june 2010 and my comps name is Elder Valu Fonua from eua.... i had a good birthday, it strated out crumby becuase i had a bad cold going but about noon it cleared up. we had really good food all day and i ended up teaching like 4-5 lessons. i had mentioned it to my comp and a returned missionary sister in our ward and so after family home evening with the bishop they made me a cake and sang for me. it was really nice and made me all wram and fuzzy..... i was a little bit sad to come back to the main island but i knew i would have to come back before i finished at least this way i can have a little time to get to know this area before i go home. which hopefully will keep me from getting trunky... as bad.... i got my box the other day. thanks i really appreciate it my old shirts were a bit worn after that last island i was on. i got the letters yesterday and had a good time reading all the news since i left. luckily ill finish from here probably so we wont have to do the snail mail any more lucky for you guys because i dont seem to do so well writing snail mail... as for the vocab list at the kolidge aplikations dont worry me to much, blind dates.....i didnt know fruit could go blind but if tehy taste better that way sounds ok..
homecoming??? im already done with highschool mom i wont go to homecoming again..... i think a cute grill would be great to do some bbq on. i would kill for a burger... and i dont plan on getting in any fights when i get home so dont worry about it.... hahahaha
i would like to know what you guys want to do when you come down though. the choice is whether you want to go to the other islands or stay in tongatapu. the down side of traveling is that well have to buy plane tickets but ill leave it up to you. if you guys could think about it. either way is fine. love you guys. love Elder MAyberry

back on the main island

hey mom im back in town now... the president decided that he didnt want missionaries on that island anymore so i got sent back to the main island im working in a place called ma'ufanga i cover the entire downtown of nuku'alofa its a huge area with no members.... my comp is a guy naamed elder fonua from eua he is cool just kinda spastic and hyper but its fun we get along fine. i find i can get along with people a lot easier now that i have had to do it for so long.... nothing really exciting to report except we had trouble with the boats so im just getting here at the end of the 2 week of the transfer. we ae lots of coconuts on that island and i really loved the people there but ill go where you want me to go and all that spiritual stuff... ;-) oh yeah and we got a new mission president, hes no Mcmurray but he is a good guy and has somethings that he is really good at well see how itturns out. luckily even if he really stinks he only has one transfer meeting left to torture me with. you can stand on your head for 6 weeks and not think anything of it. one of my buddies i came in with is the AP and he told me that we have just over ten weeks left... and i turn 21 on monday cool huh. sounds like you guys are all keeping busy. hope you guys stay out of trouble long enough for me to get home andtake care of you all... ;-) or is it the other way around. well i love you all and hope life takes care of you. water is wet the church is true. Elder Mayberry

6/16/10

hey mom i came to pangai for a conference and there is an internet cafe here at the school so i thought that i wouold drop you a line and tell you that im not dead yet. the island that im working on is really small and not a lot to do but my comp is a good guy and the people are really nice. the island is called ha'afeva it is the main island out of a group of about 5 really small islands just south of teh main pangai group. so to emphasize this island let me explain this to you. think of newzealand a fairly small country off the coast of australia now move east of that there is a small sland called tonga if you move north of that there is a little group of islands called ha'apai with pangai being the main city. just south east of ha'apai is a really small group of islands called lulunga. in the middle of this little cluster is a place called ha'afeva. we probably have less than 150 people on the island. luckily we cover all the outer islands off ha'afeva so we have some really interesting bopat rides that resemble something you would see in a movie. i have a pet volleyball named wilson...... just kidding but i seriously feel like that sometimes. i feel like the end of my mission is starting to get close so im trying to give it a good final push and try to keep from getting trunky for the next three months or so. my comps name is Sione Tu'akoi and he actually grew up on the island that we are working on so it makes things interesting. in some ways its really good in some ways its really bad... in the obituaries section of my letter i would like to inform you that my camera bit the dust of unkown causes. it was still working fine it just had a cracked screen bu tthe other day it wouldn't turn on for me. i dont know if it would be worth sending a new one. ill just leave it up to you guys i think i have plenty of pictures and not quite sure how long ill be up here in lulunga. but any way if you see a good deal pick me one up if not i cant say i will be to sorry i think i have donated enough cameras to tonga. sounds like you guys are having fun. know that i love you and im doing great love elder mayberry

5/11/10 letter #2

hey it was good to talk to all of you this week. i really enjoyed getting caught up with all of you. i actually heard something about that new law. i think its a good idea. but i guess that im not as quacked out as most americans. hey i was thinking a little about that trip you guys are planning down here and i think that it will be just fine. im sure that we can find plenty to do for that long. this is a really relaxed country and its really easy to just find stuff to do. if we really run out of stuff we can always just go to vava'u or eua or haapai either way just dont worry about it. well figure it out later. love you elder mayberry

May 11, 2010

hey thats crazy that hannah is getting to start kindergarten. and
hailey is getting baptized... man i guess i am getting old. i have a
little bit of a cold going on, i had a fever last night but its
getting a lot better now. hey this is kinda random but i need an alarm
clock preferably a small one that runs off AA batteries.
tell jessica good luck at state i hope she does well. i heard a rumor
that ill be moving on monday im not sure where yet but im pretty sure
to another island. im kinda going to miss my town here but life goes
on...
love you guys
elder mayberry

April 21

hahaha i forgot about my roger miller in north dakota thats funny. tell jessica thats what she gets for putting some mangy mutt in the car!!! what kind of a dog is it? when did she get a dog? how are the fish? do i still have a turtle or has he gone the way of all the earth? really random but have you happened to see my state champ ring in all the moving that you guys have done? well mammy i love you and dont get in to much trouble most of the time... love elder 'apele

Happy Easter

pea ha famili oku ou ofa lahi atu kiate kimoutolu pea kuou fkkaukau lahi ki he taimi te tau toe fetaulaki i amelika. te u akoi ha palangi foou he fehikitaki ko eni okuou tui e i ai ae ngaahi faingata'a'ia ai ka okuou vekeveke ke u feinga ke tokonii ae tokotaha foou ko eni ke ne lata i he feituu ko eni kuo kamata ke ofa'i lahi fau pehee ai. fkamu pe te mou mau ae tohi koeni i he fiefia mo e melino. oku ou faa lotua kimou3 pea kuo tala'ofa mai ae eiki te ne tokonii kimou3 ke mau ae ngaahi tapuaki kotoape a\oku mou fiemau. that means hi in tongan........ im staying put in the same area MU'A but ill be getting a new comp (ill be training a new palangi) i dont know who he is yet as they dont get here till thursday but ill let you know his name when i find out... life is going super duper down here. we baptized two wonderful people last week a 17 year old girl named 'Ofa (who really thought TCs picture was cute) and her little brother Semi 11yrs we are hoping to be able to teach there mother this week and have already started teaching their uncle from america. Mom dont read the stuff inside the parentheses(side note for thomas there have been a lot of girls down here who get really googly eyed around me and all want to marry my little brother. i started carrying some family pictures and i have about 30-40 girls waiting to marry you when you come on your mission here...) speaking of girls tell jessica to start finding me a girl to date when i get back. preferably one who wont make to much fun of my social retardation that now occurs as a result of living as a missionary in tonga for so long...... im pretty sure that i will be doing two homecomings one in St, david and one in Deming. any way my old comp is now the AP and i have been here on the main island here for 6 starting 7 transfers now. im really hoping to vacate next transfer unless my son is just way awesome... wait what am i saying he is my son how can he not be awesome!!!!!!!!! mom see how close i am to being humble these days i almost forget stuff like this every now and again.. the weather is starting to get colder now days which is nice for everything except for showering because hot water is still not a big commodity here in tonga. morning showers after my wimpy workout are a real eye opener. the other day i had to wake up early for transfers so i got a icy cold shower at five in the morning. lets just say it was more than sufficient to wake me up for the day. i dont know how it happens that nothing in this country is cold except the water i use to shower with. but any ways i love you all and hope all is well ill see you all in a year or two.... just kidding more like 6 months!!!!!!!! love Elder Mayberry

awkward

which car was that the nissan or my other one (i cant remember what kind of car it is) that you changed the tranny on? it sounds like the house is coming well. we had a pretty funny awkward situation come up this week actually two of them. the first one we had a few investigators that we invited to a family home evening at a members house, we found out later that the guy who we invited killed the other guys son. the guy that did the killing is a lot younger and has a family they were there with all their kids and the old guy whose son died doesn't really know the other guy killed him. it was a bit awkward but it worked out alright in the end. we just have to make sure to schedule them at different times from now on...... the other one there was a new missionary in the mission and he went to leave a scripture for the family to read before the next appointment he tried to leave 2 nephi 3:7 but instead he left 3Nephi 3:7 you'll have to read it to see the humor in it read the 2 nephi first... well i love you guys and hope all is going well. love elder mayberry

March 24

hi cutie life is going just wonderful down here im healthy happy and in good spirits we have been doing really well now days everything seems to be going well our teachings are really good the missionaries have been fairly quite compared to the other 2 zones so i really have nothing to complain about. i have been getting really close to some of the families here in Muá and it will be hard if i get transferred but i heard a rumor that i might be training one of the new palangis that is coming in next transfer.... we'll just have to wait and see what happens... i love you all and hope you stay out of trouble..

March 17 Happy St. Patricks Day

i had no idea it was saint patty's day they really don't celebrate
anything very much down here unless the king tells them to.
we got our real problem missionary back on track so i think he will
make it to the end of his mission in a few weeks.. but we have had
some more pop up. we have had 13 missionaries get sent home since the
start of this year 4 of them within the last two weeks and 2 more
waiting for the final word from the missionary council in salt lake
but its pretty sure they'll be gone by the end of the week. its really
killing our numbers. my comp is the ausy guy he is way cool and we get
along great. all is going well here and we have been having quite a
few baptisms lately. 2 last week and 4 or 5 that should be dunked by
the end of the transfer.
i think ill stay in this area for one more transfer and then move to
my final area to finish from. six months left as of yesterday so its
getting closer. love you all
elder mayberry

March 10

3/10/10 hey mommy i just got back from the doctor in town. i have another ear infection. this one is in my right ear its not as painful as the last one but its obnoxious to have it swelled shut and stuff. the doctor is a really good guy from holland though and he gave me some drops and said it should be ok in a few days. we have some good investigators here in mua and im really starting to like the families in my area. any news on your guys plans to come down? any pretty girls i should start writing. im down to only writing immediate family members and a few senior citizens. love you mom elder mayberry

March 3

hey mom just to get you up to date we have now had 1 volcano 4 earthquakes hurricanes 1 cyclone and 7 tsunami warnings luckily only one tsunami though. sounds like you guys are all staying busy. i like the idea of you guys coming after i finish. it would be hard not to run into each other on such a small island. as far as everything else goes im pretty easy i think two weeks is a good time anything longer and im going to be really anxious to get back state side to start chasin girls.... :-) hows the houe these days what part are you guys on have you got the slab done how about a wall or two. what kind of outside walls will you be using? all is well here i finally got my comp from niua he is an ausy guy and really cool. palangi.... i seem to have been stepping on a lot of toes lately. a bishop in folaha tried to baptise a crossdresser. i had to tell him it wasnt a very good ideea. he wasnt very happy because he wanted the baptism so they would look better to the stake president for their ward conference. and about a million other things along the same lines. there are a bunch of missionaries in my zone that are about to get sent home but president gave me a week to see if i could get them to confess and come clean before he boots them out... any way mom i love you tell everyone i said hi love elder mayberry --

Feb 2010

Feb 2010
Dear Family,
Hey I thought I would drop you a line this week. We just got done
with a meeting with President Hamula from our area presidency. I’m
not exactly sure what he’s here in Tonga for, I think that he just
visits e’er so often to make sure we’re alright. He gave a really
good talk that made me think a lot so I thought I would pass it on to
you all. In 3 Nephi 11 when Christ comes to the Nephites, remember
the righteous had been waiting for 600 years for their savior and
redeemer to come and redeem them. Their lives were in shambles their
homes destroyed, loved ones lost and everything they knew gone. The
Father testifies of Christ, Christ introduces himself to the people,
shows them his body and proves he is the Christ of prophecy. What is
the very first thing Christ does? Remember he will only be among the
Nephites a very short time. Read 3 Nephi 11:20-21. The first thing
Christ does is call and set apart people to baptize the multitude.
The first mission Christ set about to accomplish just happens to be
the first ordinance in article of faith #4. The faith was theirs, the
most important thing to happen at that time was for Christ to carry
out the Fathers command and baptize the people. Many of us believe
that if we could only get Christ to appear to us we be converted
steadily forever. Good news, he has and gave us whole books of
instructions and stories. The scriptures are the exact same as him
speaking directly to us in person.
(A few days later) Well life is still moving forward at a pretty fast
pace I might add. I have an interview with president set up in a
little bit. He should be calling pretty soon. Their have been some
problems president needs to know about. On a more positive note, we
should have a baptism next week. An eighteen year old girl named
Vila. I have also revamped my studies this transfer now that I’m no
longer quite as busy as I was in the office. I have finished the BofM
again and am reading the Bible. I read the old testament, up to Job
and then skipped to Amos. Then, I was on to Matthew. I’m always
surprised though at how much stuff I learn every day.
Love you All, Elder Mayberry

1/21/10

1-21-10
Dear Family;
Well, it’s p-day again so I figured I had better write you a letter.
It’s been a long week. I have been having a little trouble. Part of
it I’m sure is the fact that I was in the office with pretty good
companions and lots of work to do. Now I am learning some patience
and long suffering. The rest of this letter will be better I promise
I won’t complain the whole time.
I have a pretty good story for you guys from my comp exchange
yesterday. I went out with the district leader from one of our
districts and we had a very good time. We got a lot of teachings and
set up a lot of new investigators. We were tracting and ran into a
family they said they were members but the famther admitted to being
very inactive. We set up a teaching time for later that evening. We
went around tractingand met some inactive and non member families that
we set up teaching times yesterday and later this week for the two to
go back to. We went to the first family about 7:00p.m. and taught a
really good lesson. The family was eager to accept commitments to
become reactivated, and I could tell the mother had been trying for a
very long time to get her husband back to church. We were there
around 1 hour but by the end they had promised to pray as a family,
twice a day, read scriptures daily and the Dad promised to be at
church Sunday. Inactive families are kind of a hobby of mine. I love
seeing people remember why they were converted in the first place.
I’m going to be a little preach here so watch out. Family, the gospel
does bring happiness to families. When we keep the commandments the
Lord is bound when we don’t we have no promise. I would like to
challenge you family to make sure your all praying individually and as
a family, reading your scriptures every day. That’s an important one,
when we read the scriptures every day we make sure that we have
spiritual nourishment to keep our spririts moving. So any day that
you eat real food, you should make sure that you have spiritual food
to keep the other half running. I love you all and I’m sure the Lord
will bless you for all your work. Love Elder Mayberry P.S. I had a
long come to Jesus talk with my comp and several hours later we are
not quite as good of friends but have been excellent missionaries
since then.

1/17/10

Sunday 1-17-10 Hey Family, We’ll see how this works out. I must say I have been pretty dismal in the letter writing aspect of work. But I’ll see if I can fix that. I left the office finally, it was a long stay but I surely loved it. I’m out in a town in the east side of the main island called Mu’a. My companion and I are the zone leaders for a large section of the island. The zone has its fair share of challenges with its being the most spread out with some very isolated villages. My companion Elder ‘Asaeli Piukala is an excellent guy and will help me a lot this transfer to be a better missionary. There are not very many palangis in my zone. The only two are both Tongans that grew up in NZ or USA. So with that comes some of the challenges of becoming good friends with the Elders without getting in trouble or getting carried away joking around with them. My area seems to be pretty good. We have a bunch of inactives here that are mad at the church for some reason or other. If you guys have any good advice on how to calm people down when they are mad at the church please let me know. I do have to admit I’m a bit homesick for the office with its fast pace and tons of work but its good for me to work on my weaknesses and this job will definitely do that. Sorry if this letter is a bit disappointing. I don’t have a whole lot to write this place is still really new to me. I did have a really good last week in the office. I got a ton of work done and like 10-15 lessons. It was pretty sad to leave all my members. I had gotten to know a lot of them really well over the last six months and was a bit sad to leave them but that’s missionary work for you I guess. My comp and I are getting ready to go to Nuku’leka right now. We are having a Zone p-day up there, so we should have fun. Unfortunately for me I’m not much of a volleyball player and that is all the Tongans like to do on p-day. Its okay though I’ll just find some pretty girls to go teach the lessons to. Well family, I love you all. Love Elder Mayberry A second letter in the envelope- I’m sitting here on my bed in our house, a little bored so I thought I would drop you a little note before I sealed the envelope I wrote on p-day. I had a great scripture study today, reading the old testament. I read about Moses being called through the burning bush. I was particularly interested when Moses is doubtful because he is slow of speech. The Lord answers him firmly but lovingly. To paraphrase he says, I made your mouth and you still doubt if I can give you the strength to do what I ask? Moses once again asks for a spokesman and the Lordgives him Aaron. Exodus 4:11-13, 1 Nephi:3:7, 1 Cor 10:13. The Lord provides a way for us to do as he commands. When he tells us to do something he already has everything set up, all we have to do is exactly what he tells us. Love Elder Mayberry P.S. Moral of the story – be obedient P.S.S. Read 1 Cor 10:12 Don’t think too much or you’ll fall over

1/26/10

hey mom i cheated i had to come help a lady fix her computer so i
figured i would drop you a line while i was here. all is well the new
area is starting to grow on me i did actually mail you a few letters..
im excited you got the box. the bags are from a lady up in vavau she
gave them to me but i gave her some money for them because of how nice
she is (and really poor)
the necklaces are made of either whale or cow bone and are carved by a
family out where i used to work in vava'u.
im glad you got the CDS i know it took a while for you guys to get any
pictures from me but i made up for it by sending a lot. i forgot the
other stuff inside but you guys can do whatever you want with it.
i love you all and hope all is going well
elder mayberry

oh im in mu'a in zone hahake my comps name is 'asaeli piukala

1/6/10

hey cutie well transfer week is on us again i probably wont be able to email on saturday due to preparations but i wanted to tell you all that i am finally moving so you will have to start using a different color star as of monday. im moving out to the east end of the island im going to be a junior zone leader out there. but my comp is a really good guy he is a tongan by the name of 'Asaeli Piukala he came in at the same time as me and is a very hard worker and as i have never been a zone leader before it will be nice to have him there to show me the ropes. i dont know how much i will be emailing as i will be a long ways from town but my plan is to (dare i say it) write some letters on actual paper but well see how it goes. you should let me know when/if you get that package that i sent you guys. it should get there within a week or so hopefully. but hey i got to go but i wanted to say i love you guys and hope all is well. Love Elder Mayberry

12/31/09

malo e lelei famili
ko au fai eku kohi kohi pe kiate kimoutolu ahoni koe'uhi te u alu au
ki haapai apongipongi.
neu pehee e sai ange kapau teu kii kohi atu ahoni kae oua nae fuoloa
eta ta'esioki. na'e kii malo pe ema faka'osi ta'u anepoo ka 'oku sai
pe ia. 'ikai ke tau ki he kaufaifekau ke mau al holo 'o taki tamaiki
fefine. 'oku kii tapu ia. ka 'oku ou fiefia he faingamalie ko eni ke u
fai atu ha faka'apa'apa ki he 'Otua i he'ene tauhi au ke u a'u mai ki
he ta'u faka'ofo'ofa ko eni. pea mo e faingamalie 'oku ou ma'u ke
fakahoko 'ene ngaue i he fonuani. 'osi mahino kiate au 'ikai ke mou
fu'u loko mahino 'eku tohi ko eni ka sai pe ia ko e kii sioki pe. mou
mata'i ofato eee
mo e 'ofa
Elder Mayberry

hey cutie
i am emailing today because tomorrow im flying out to haapai to do
some records and paper work out there. we found an entire book of
people that had been baptized that have no records in the church's
system so we are going to haapai tomorrow to find them all. we will be
up there for at least three days so hopefully it will be successful and
we can get all these people's souls saved. but i explained all that in
my other email so you can read all about it. i am pretty sure ill be
out of the office in a week or two so im excited thinking about where
i might go. (but there is a small chance i might just stay in the
office, Pres has been talking about just keeping me in here) but well
find out soon enough.
hope Christmas went well for you all. its already 2010 down here just
so you know ...this year is way better than last year. last year was my
invisible year. 2008 i was home for most of the year and 2010 i will
be home for the last few months of it but 2009 i was invisible to you
guys the whole year. well family i love you and will see you later
this year

12/15/09

(A quick email back from an email I wrote with a reminder for him to
stay humble)
i dont have time to email this very second but i just had one
correction... change the stay humble to get humble.
Love Virgil

then the real email......
hey mommy i know im a horrible writer and this week im following the
trend i just wanted to say that i will call you on your christmas i
have a few cell phones here so ill just call you from one of them so
you wont have to talk to the tongans like on mothers day. and
christmas last year. but one of the numbers is 646-77-46860 i think
thats the number but im not exactly sure of the country code but the
last six digits are for sure. i love you all and cant wait to talk to
you guys. Love
Elder Mayberry/virgil/yourson/yourbrother/thetongandude

11/27/09

hey mommy
sorry i dint email last week i was kinda busy. transfers are on monday
so we are working really hard to get things ready. we have been
trying very hard to get things prepared so we have been working harder
in the "off season" so its not quite as crazy now during transfer
time.
last week was kind of hard on me. i got sick just a cold but it sure
made things miserable for me. president and i have been working on
strengthening
some of my weaker attributes such as humility and patience. i must say
im getting a lot better at both but have a long way to go (im very
proud of how humble i am getting :) my comp and I get along very well. last
week he was helping me fix a door and i was using a knife in a way
that is not exactly the smartest way but it was working fine. but he
pulled the door out from under the knife and i almost lost my pinky
finger on my right hand. i had to get like 6 stitches which is a
pretty good cut for so small a finger. luckily turns out that finger
is pretty much useless any way so its not much of a loss really and it
should be back working in a week or so. it just cut some nerves so its
all numb and kinda gross but its no big deal it will all heal
eventually. and guess what i didnt even swear (not even in my head).
;-)
thats good that morgans doing well, he sure seems like he is
getting big from the pictures. and jessica almost graduating. i feel
old and it feels like i have been in tonga for a very long time. i
sure have enjoyed it though and things sure have been fun.
love you all and miss you
love elder mayberry