I got a new companion today. Its pretty crazy, of course he doesn't speak English! and he doesn't understand me very well either. So its kinda hard to communicate, but the really good thing is, we are gonna work really really hard, he told me! He is very calm, kinda the same personality as James McCarrey, I am the leader and do a lot the stuff because I know the town and he doesn't. So its really fun for me. I'm looking forward to the next 6 or more weeks.
Looking back my companion and i had quite a few problems and it was partly my fault because I didn't talk to him about them much. But when I did he didn't really listen. So with my new companion and I am going to work a lot harder at communicating with him. He told me he is going to help me out with Spanish a lot. I am getting a lot better at Spanish, its really awesome! The biggest thing for me is just making sure I give it my best effort.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Monday, May 18, 2009
May 18, 2009
The food here is good but I do miss good American food a lot. We have been eating out a lot it seems, one of the brothers takes us out to eat every Saturday so we get some really good food. Most of the peoples houses we eat at is really good also. They don't eat sea food here very much. We eat mostly beef and chicken, which are both really good.
Yesterday at church I was talking with our branch presidents father. He was telling me that he lived in Roma for a while and he watched them film a John Wayne movie. I tried to tell him the John Wayne was one of my grandpas favorite movie stars, I think, that he thought I said John Wayne is my grandpa. I tried to correct him, but he just kept asking me why I wasn't in Hollywood and some other stuff I'm not sure about. He is a really funny guy!
hi Kaden
hi Mackenzie
hi Jensen
hi Kyla
Wow that was really hard and took. WOW 2 seconds lol. jk
Being a minority is really different, its really not that bad, most people are really nice, I just say buenas to every body, at this point most people are use to seeing a white missionary in Migeul Aleman. This week has actually been really nice, its been 70 or 80 and Saturday we got some crazy rain! it was pouring and we got stuck out in it riding our bikes, It was pretty crazy! And there was thunder. And when we were riding home everybody was standing under cover laughing at us. It was really fun. Last night i was freezing for some reason. I was really surprised!
This week was pretty crazy to say the least. I have learned a lot more about being a missionary.
And Wednesday we went to Diaz Ordaz.
This week was really slow. a lot of people weren't home and we wasted a lot of time, and we didn't teach many lessons, I was really frustrated because my companion and I would plan and then end up doing something else. This week i am gonna lay down the hammer so it doesn't happen again. But on the good side, We had 11 people at church on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! which was way awesome, and one of the investigating family's that always come wasn't there. So we easily could have had 16 people at church.
Hermano Felipe and his spouse are doing really good, They are working on getting married and he is working on not drinking. We had a really good lesson Saturday night that I taught about goals.
We had a new family attend church and they really liked it. The wife has a baptismal date for 31 I think so hopefully we will baptize their whole family!
So it was a okay, week, the other problem is I bought this really sweet Ferrari shirt! but then I got home and it was too small. It was only 200 pesos, The lady kept telling me that is was an extra grande but its was actually a medium. Oh well. It was mostly to small in the arms. One of our investigators commented on how I had lost a lot of weight, so that is really good and I have, I can defiantly feel it. Wow, I wrote a lot today. I have lots of pictures but I don't have time to upload them. I will try next week!
Love Elder Mayberry
Yesterday at church I was talking with our branch presidents father. He was telling me that he lived in Roma for a while and he watched them film a John Wayne movie. I tried to tell him the John Wayne was one of my grandpas favorite movie stars, I think, that he thought I said John Wayne is my grandpa. I tried to correct him, but he just kept asking me why I wasn't in Hollywood and some other stuff I'm not sure about. He is a really funny guy!
hi Kaden
hi Mackenzie
hi Jensen
hi Kyla
Wow that was really hard and took. WOW 2 seconds lol. jk
Being a minority is really different, its really not that bad, most people are really nice, I just say buenas to every body, at this point most people are use to seeing a white missionary in Migeul Aleman. This week has actually been really nice, its been 70 or 80 and Saturday we got some crazy rain! it was pouring and we got stuck out in it riding our bikes, It was pretty crazy! And there was thunder. And when we were riding home everybody was standing under cover laughing at us. It was really fun. Last night i was freezing for some reason. I was really surprised!
This week was pretty crazy to say the least. I have learned a lot more about being a missionary.
And Wednesday we went to Diaz Ordaz.
This week was really slow. a lot of people weren't home and we wasted a lot of time, and we didn't teach many lessons, I was really frustrated because my companion and I would plan and then end up doing something else. This week i am gonna lay down the hammer so it doesn't happen again. But on the good side, We had 11 people at church on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!! which was way awesome, and one of the investigating family's that always come wasn't there. So we easily could have had 16 people at church.
Hermano Felipe and his spouse are doing really good, They are working on getting married and he is working on not drinking. We had a really good lesson Saturday night that I taught about goals.
We had a new family attend church and they really liked it. The wife has a baptismal date for 31 I think so hopefully we will baptize their whole family!
So it was a okay, week, the other problem is I bought this really sweet Ferrari shirt! but then I got home and it was too small. It was only 200 pesos, The lady kept telling me that is was an extra grande but its was actually a medium. Oh well. It was mostly to small in the arms. One of our investigators commented on how I had lost a lot of weight, so that is really good and I have, I can defiantly feel it. Wow, I wrote a lot today. I have lots of pictures but I don't have time to upload them. I will try next week!
Love Elder Mayberry
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Monday May 11,2009
Family
(These are couple of letters combined, I happened to be on the computer at the same time as Brendon, so it was as close to chatting as we could get.)
Ya it was awesome to talk to you too. It felt really good. Today was awesome also. Presidente Mendoza is an absolutely amazing person! I love going to conferences because iIalways learn something new!
I am really bad with names because everybody has funny names or I don't remember them.
Its probably a 10 minute walk or so. Our house is closer to the border and on the other side of the main drag. I didn't think we were going to use the Internet until tomorrow also but presidente Mendoza said so as much of p day today as you can. I thought you said on the phone that you had sent an email. So I was expecting one. We got home at 6:20 or so. We use the Internet at a local Internet place. Its 12 pesos for an hour. so its pretty cheap.
Brendon.
My branch president has works for a mail company of some sort or something, I am not really sure, but you can send letters and packages to him while I am in Miguel Aleman. The address is...
Luis Ricardo Chavez
Elder Mayberry
1909 North U.S. Highway 83
P.O. Box 967
Roma, Texas USA 78584
Thanks for the letters they are awesome! I hope to hear from you guys soon!
Well today was conferencia especial. SO it was all of the frontera. About half of the missionaries where there, I got to see my companion for the MTC, Elder Griffith, Elder Paden, Elder Halliday. Quite a few people I know.
I had my second interview with Presidente Mendoza. He is really a funny guy. He is really really serious and then all of a sudden he will make a joke. He really keeps us on our toes, and he is really really smart! He still talked a lot about the influenza and how it was a problem but he shouldn't worry about it. and we talked a lot about preach my gospel. I always learn a lot. Tonight it has been really cool. And there are some clouds in the sky so I don't know. I guess we will see if it rains. All of the new missionaries problem is the language. Presidente Mendoza told me 2 things during the interview. Have patience, support and correct my companion and something else but I am not sure.
Elder Mayberry
(These are couple of letters combined, I happened to be on the computer at the same time as Brendon, so it was as close to chatting as we could get.)
Ya it was awesome to talk to you too. It felt really good. Today was awesome also. Presidente Mendoza is an absolutely amazing person! I love going to conferences because iIalways learn something new!
I am really bad with names because everybody has funny names or I don't remember them.
Its probably a 10 minute walk or so. Our house is closer to the border and on the other side of the main drag. I didn't think we were going to use the Internet until tomorrow also but presidente Mendoza said so as much of p day today as you can. I thought you said on the phone that you had sent an email. So I was expecting one. We got home at 6:20 or so. We use the Internet at a local Internet place. Its 12 pesos for an hour. so its pretty cheap.
Brendon.
My branch president has works for a mail company of some sort or something, I am not really sure, but you can send letters and packages to him while I am in Miguel Aleman. The address is...
Luis Ricardo Chavez
Elder Mayberry
1909 North U.S. Highway 83
P.O. Box 967
Roma, Texas USA 78584
Thanks for the letters they are awesome! I hope to hear from you guys soon!
Well today was conferencia especial. SO it was all of the frontera. About half of the missionaries where there, I got to see my companion for the MTC, Elder Griffith, Elder Paden, Elder Halliday. Quite a few people I know.
I had my second interview with Presidente Mendoza. He is really a funny guy. He is really really serious and then all of a sudden he will make a joke. He really keeps us on our toes, and he is really really smart! He still talked a lot about the influenza and how it was a problem but he shouldn't worry about it. and we talked a lot about preach my gospel. I always learn a lot. Tonight it has been really cool. And there are some clouds in the sky so I don't know. I guess we will see if it rains. All of the new missionaries problem is the language. Presidente Mendoza told me 2 things during the interview. Have patience, support and correct my companion and something else but I am not sure.
Elder Mayberry
Monday, May 4, 2009
May 4, 2009
First of course I am calling on Mothers Day! I don't know when though. My schedule is always different and I never know what is going on because my companion never tells me.
Some special request are my pillow, because they don't provide us one here, some honey because they don't sell it here and some strawberry jam because they don't have that either. I can buy bread and peanut butter. I get packages when the office receives them, when the APs make contact with the zone leaders, and then the zone leaders make contact with us. Its about every two weeks or so. We had zones conference last week and next week on Monday we have special conference, so we have p'day on Tuesday next week.
I would just tell Cathy to send them and pray that they are not rock hard when I get them.lol. I really want Cathys cookies! They don't have cookies here like they have in America. They have crackers, which are cookies here, they are really good but i want cookie cookies.
The temple is in south Monterrey. It is really cool. It is in a really really nice part of Monterrey. There are some houses by it that are the biggest houses i have ever seen! Its a beautiful area.
My city is called Miguel Aleman. It is across from Roma Texas. It is not a huge city but it is bigger than Lynden, and we have some members out in Los Guerra which is like a mile away. I have no clue how many people are in the branch its not that big. The members are pretty nice. we get fed everyday and its really good food, I haven't had to eat anything weird yet. I drink over a gallon of water a day, its pretty crazy. Its been like 90-95 degrees here, which is pretty warm. My companion said in summer its average 104 or so. It feels pretty good. I come home ever night covered in sweat and I am getting a lot of rashes but I just ignore them. But yes, the town is pretty nice, there are a lot of rich people here. But there are still dogs everywhere and trash everywhere. And I have come to the conclusion that most people are not as poor as it seems. A lot of the people just spend all of there money on clothes and food and not there houses. I am slowly getting use to it. I don't think I will ever get use to the bugs everywhere though. That always grosses me out.
As far as the food, the milk here is really gross, the chocolate tastes funny, I'm not sure what it is. The ice cream taste funny and people don't eat it much.
The yogurt is really good though. I always buy the drinkable yogurts because they are pretty cheap. I found out the other day that I have been eating mashed potatoes on all of my tacos. I thought it was a corn mush but then I asked and the family said no its mashed potatoes. They eat corn tortillas with everything! Litterally! and they are really cheap like 15 pesos for 200 toritillas. they are really good too. One of the hermannas makes really really good flour tortillas! One of my room-mates eats everything raw. He eats uncooked hotdogs and he also eats raw chorizo(which is like a sausage meat) its really gross and he always tries to get me to eat it.
I have made a friend here in my branch, it is the branch presidents son. he is probably 4 or 5 im not sure. I don't understand much of what he says but he is pretty funny.
I don't think it is ever going to rain here. Its cloudy sometimes in the morning but its always hot and sunny in the afternoon. I am getting pretty tan on my face and arms. And my hair is getting lighter.
The work here is pretty fun. It doesn't seem like we are working very hard but I really don't know. We have about 10 people we are going to give baptismal dates to this month and a couple baptism this month.
Yesterday, sacrament meeting was canceled so we had sacrament meeting in our house with the other companionship. Then each of us shared a spiritual message. I pretty much just cried because I was so frustradted but through it I had grown a lot closer to my Heavenly Father because I had nobody else to talk to. One of the other elders, started trying to tell me in English how he knew that is was really hard for American missionaries and how well I was doing and how good my Spanish is. My Spanish really is pretty good, and I can understand quite a bit.
Some special request are my pillow, because they don't provide us one here, some honey because they don't sell it here and some strawberry jam because they don't have that either. I can buy bread and peanut butter. I get packages when the office receives them, when the APs make contact with the zone leaders, and then the zone leaders make contact with us. Its about every two weeks or so. We had zones conference last week and next week on Monday we have special conference, so we have p'day on Tuesday next week.
I would just tell Cathy to send them and pray that they are not rock hard when I get them.lol. I really want Cathys cookies! They don't have cookies here like they have in America. They have crackers, which are cookies here, they are really good but i want cookie cookies.
The temple is in south Monterrey. It is really cool. It is in a really really nice part of Monterrey. There are some houses by it that are the biggest houses i have ever seen! Its a beautiful area.
My city is called Miguel Aleman. It is across from Roma Texas. It is not a huge city but it is bigger than Lynden, and we have some members out in Los Guerra which is like a mile away. I have no clue how many people are in the branch its not that big. The members are pretty nice. we get fed everyday and its really good food, I haven't had to eat anything weird yet. I drink over a gallon of water a day, its pretty crazy. Its been like 90-95 degrees here, which is pretty warm. My companion said in summer its average 104 or so. It feels pretty good. I come home ever night covered in sweat and I am getting a lot of rashes but I just ignore them. But yes, the town is pretty nice, there are a lot of rich people here. But there are still dogs everywhere and trash everywhere. And I have come to the conclusion that most people are not as poor as it seems. A lot of the people just spend all of there money on clothes and food and not there houses. I am slowly getting use to it. I don't think I will ever get use to the bugs everywhere though. That always grosses me out.
As far as the food, the milk here is really gross, the chocolate tastes funny, I'm not sure what it is. The ice cream taste funny and people don't eat it much.
The yogurt is really good though. I always buy the drinkable yogurts because they are pretty cheap. I found out the other day that I have been eating mashed potatoes on all of my tacos. I thought it was a corn mush but then I asked and the family said no its mashed potatoes. They eat corn tortillas with everything! Litterally! and they are really cheap like 15 pesos for 200 toritillas. they are really good too. One of the hermannas makes really really good flour tortillas! One of my room-mates eats everything raw. He eats uncooked hotdogs and he also eats raw chorizo(which is like a sausage meat) its really gross and he always tries to get me to eat it.
I have made a friend here in my branch, it is the branch presidents son. he is probably 4 or 5 im not sure. I don't understand much of what he says but he is pretty funny.
I don't think it is ever going to rain here. Its cloudy sometimes in the morning but its always hot and sunny in the afternoon. I am getting pretty tan on my face and arms. And my hair is getting lighter.
The work here is pretty fun. It doesn't seem like we are working very hard but I really don't know. We have about 10 people we are going to give baptismal dates to this month and a couple baptism this month.
Yesterday, sacrament meeting was canceled so we had sacrament meeting in our house with the other companionship. Then each of us shared a spiritual message. I pretty much just cried because I was so frustradted but through it I had grown a lot closer to my Heavenly Father because I had nobody else to talk to. One of the other elders, started trying to tell me in English how he knew that is was really hard for American missionaries and how well I was doing and how good my Spanish is. My Spanish really is pretty good, and I can understand quite a bit.
Sunday, May 3, 2009
First letters from Mexico
Monday April 27th, 2009
I tried my best to interpret President Mendoza's letter and all I got was don't panic, I think, and keep baptizing 55 people a month in ever zone. so ya I'm not sure. I will tell people to email you and then you can forward them to me I guess. I don't know. I don't really like the rule just because we will probably only get mail once a month or so and I cant send mail to other people unless I wanna pay to ship it to Mexico so I'm not sure how else
I am gonna communicate with others besides email. That's a really good idea, to do the blog,I will try and send lots of pictures through email next week.
It's been awesome weather here. I really like it a lot. Its usually about 90 or so with humidity and it is always windy and usually the wind is cool, so it feels really good. I haven't gotten sunburned, yet, and I already am starting to look very Mexican. lol. I think I am gonna dye my hair dark and then I wont get mad fun of as much. Everybody thinks its really cool that I have blue eyes, especially the girls. A lot of people have never seen that before and they ask if they are fake. lol. My companion and I run every morning and I am definitely losing some weight to say the least.
The food is different then I though it would be, but it is really good. Luckily I haven't had to eat anything weird like dog or bird yet but I imagine I will at some point. My favorite thing is this pork dish that is breaded and fried and then rice and cabbage and avocados and tomatoes with lime. All in taco shells. its really really good. I actually like the corn tortillas here they are really good. And just the other day I found flour tortillas that are amazing.
Ya the food was horrible especially compared to now. But I only put on 4 pounds in the mtc, which is way better then most. One elder in my district put on 20 pounds and one of the chinos that was by us put on 30 pounds.
Ya so the Spanish. I remember that he said i would have the spirit of the gifts of tongues, and he also said I wouldn't get very sick, those are the only two things I remember. But it is extremely hard because i have nobody to talk to. The language is really coming well, and i am speaking alright. But most days it is frustrating because i have so much i wanna say and teach but i cant. My companion gave me a priesthood blessing which has helped. And my companion trained a gringo in December and he said i am picking up Spanish way faster than him. So i really am learning fast but its tough. I didn't know if we were working hard enough until my companion said we were by far the best companionship in our district. So ya all is well overall. I will happier when I can speak more though.
Love
Elder Mayberry
Date: Monday, April 20, 2009 11:25 AM
Well I sent you one email but it failed to send I guess so now I have to write another one. Mexico has been very hard. At first when we were in the mission offices it was really easy, but not so much anymore. I am getting adjusted to it though. The frist couple days have been really hard. Teaching the people is fun and meeting people but i have no clue what is going on. I had a cool experience on Thursday though. The morning was really hard. I was pretty depressed because I didn't know the language and my companion doesn't speak English and neither does the other companion ship.
I was really down and so I said a pray, probably the most sincere prayer ever. And we had to the opportunity to go the the temple and I got to do endowments and then sit through a sealing. It was really awesome. I wish I could explain more. If you get the first email it will have a lot more details and more stuff in it but I don't have anymore time. Tell me if you get the other email and if not I will tell you more next week.
Love Elder Mayberry
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Elder Mayberry
In order to keep everyone informed on how Brendon is doing I decided to start a blog. This way those that want to can read his letters. One of his rules is that he is only suppose to write to family and they can only write to him through snail mail or dearelder.com.
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