Thursday, March 25, 2010

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..

Sunday, March 21, 2010

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

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

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