Logroño – Week 3…Feed my sheep and catching on fire

Hi momzee! How is everything?!

Well this week has been somewhat of a rollercoaster, but first the miracle. The miracle was the visits we were able to set up. We got in contact with a menos activo (less active) and we are going to work with him on coming back to church. We also got in contact with one of your futures and I am excited to meet her. She sounds really nice. We also have more visits set up so we are excited and I know this is the Lord saying, "Here you go elders. Feed my sheep. I want to see what you will do with them. Will you bring them to their Shepard or let the wolves get them?" That is literally what it feels like. Haha. We are gonna feed these sheep good and lead them back the Good Shepard on a red carpet! Lol. 

So for the Skype call, apparently I can't do a group call. It's has to be to just one caller. You can have the other family Skype on your phone and hold it so I can see it on my screen but I can't have a group call. Only if parents are separated and from what I know, you aren't separated. I'm still trying to figure Skype out but I'll get it. I am, having trouble with the drive you shared with me. I found the videos from lasts wake email but not this week's videos. Hmm. Anyway we will figure it out. 

I am going to need some more Toothpaste soon. Also, I have a cavity. I have no clue. It's the same one. I don't drink soda or eat candy. Soda maybe once a week and it's normally light colored like 7 up. I don't really drink fanta or coca-cola. I just dont want to take all of the money. I hate that. So I'm sorry. I'm trying my best. I do wear my teeth guards but I can be doing better on those. I absolutely LOVE my ornament. Haha. It's so amazing. I literally thought it was a chapa and said to myself, "I don't remember sending one of those home." Haha, hilarious. 

So some good news. I have sent a package and a letter. The package is for Christmas so no peeking! You may open the cards though. I have another one that I am sending and that one is for Christmas so the same rules apply, no peeking. They are pretty self explanatory but if there is confusion, then I will explain on Skype. Joshu a will love his. Isabella might not like hers at first but once she opens it, then she will be stoked. Dad will like his, and you will Love yours. If you want, I can tell you what they are. I actually kind do. I do t have to tell you yours though if you don't want to know. 

I would like your prayers for me to get the language. I feel that I should be farther ahead than where I am. It's disheartening but I am trying my best. So prayers and when you fast on the first Sunday, I would like to be included. I will pray and fast with you all of course. I am glad you are seeing the blessings. It makes me feel good about my purpose and standing with the Lord. I hope I am making Him proud. I would love to know His mysteries and revelations but I am trying to work for that of course. 

I got a haircut today by a Pakistan barber. Never going back. He chopped my head. I have to form it a certain way. I'll definitely be taking some scissors to my head. Haha. Claro podemos hablar en Espanol. Quiero mostrar mi progresión a Usteds. Espero que puedo a entender usted. Estoy animado por su puesto. 

This week has been a little hard for me. My companion and I get along well enough but we don't work as hard as I want to. Or as we should. Sigh, I feel like we let the Lord down and we probably do. Logroño is difficult. It and Mataró are neck and neck right now, with how hard they both are for the work. Barley anyone says Hola back to us. Depressing. But I will continue to hold fast to the Lord and his mercy and wisdom. Esta es la clase, que no? Claro! 

Love ya momzee. I can't wait to receive those packages! Keep the faith always!

Con Amor para eternidad, Elder Maybury 

Messing around...and a photo bomb! 

District foto! 

Eating with my fresh haircut ... I'm not digging this hair cut :o( 

Trying to make my fresh new cut look better.  It's short!

I love the scriptures!

And this sweater was left in the piso by another elder.  Score! 

They have peacocks here!  Who knew?

My goodness, what a great kid.  I just love his emails each week.  I love them so much because I can see my boy and I can see the man he is becoming in each one.  Alexander has developed such a great attitude over the past couple of years of ‘moving on’.  Sure, he gets bothered by some things, but he has learned to teach himself to just move past it.  To see the good in use that and move past the bad.  To take the difficult and make it into something better.  I am so proud of him for that.  It is a beautiful characteristic for any of us to have, and especially as a missionary because the difficult moments can come on a daily basis. 

I started asking him one specific question in each email once he got into the field.  The question is: “What was your miracle this week?”  I ask him this question so he can begin to focus on the small miracles that sometimes would be missed.  Sometimes we think of miracles as being big ones (like rising from the dead), but in reality, there are little miracles that are happening around us all the time.  We just have to pay attention and change our expectations.  And, as you can see, something as simple as getting in contact with some new people to visit, IS a miracle for missionaries who are having a hard time contacting people. 

I also love that my son has a desire to work harder.  What a great characteristic for a missionary to have!!!  It’s called ‘being on fire’ and sometimes it is hard to be in fire all the time.  So, we will pray that he and his companion are both able to effectively serve in their area and have enough energy and fire to meet the needs of the people in Logroño.  Please add them to your prayers for this, I know they would appreciate it.

In this final short time before Christmas and his call home, I find myself thinking much more about my son and missing him so much.  I could not be happier for him to be serving a mission, but I miss him.  It’s just part of the process, I suppose.  It is a beautiful blessing that the missionaries get to call home twice a year.  I will surely cherish the time that we get to speak.

As always, your support of our son is ever appreciated.  Your prayers are a comfort to him and to me.  Thank you. 

If you would like to write to him, you may do so at the below address:

Elder Alexander J. Maybury

Spain Barcelona Mission

C/Calatrava 10-12, bajos

08017 Barcelona

Spain

All letters and cards require one international stamp = $1.15 (up to one ounce)

14 more days!!!!!!!!!!

Email sent on December 11th

Logroño – Week 2…My new area and a new attack on me and my companion!

Hello Hello! 

How are you all doing?! 

Wow what a magnificent week it has been. Well except for some parts. But hey, everyone has those. Logroño has been below too cold for me. Listen, I was born in Arizona and raised in California, ok. When you think of those to states, what word comes to your mind?  Well I can tell you what doesn't! Cold!  That's right brothers and sisters, Elder Maybury was not bred for the cold. He is a natural predator that likes to bask in the sun okay, not shrivel up under 3 layers of blankets at night, trying to fall asleep but is afraid to because he thinks he might die from hypothermia.  Well, now that that is out of the way, I’ll continue. 

So, I had my first Sunday in Logroño. It was a fast Sunday as well. I fasted for a lot of things. I can say that I am generally happy with the results. It just adds to my testimony that God IS there and does here us. We may get the vision in the night time but He will give us what we need. We just need to have the faith and hope that we can receive it from him. 

So, the day after I arrived in Logroño was something that has never happened to me before. So, a little background, at the train stop to Logroño, I was with another Hermana because this was our new area (after transfers). Anyway, I got off the stop.... But she did not. She did not get off in time and went all the way to Bilbao (another hour trip). So her companion got a train ticket to go up there to get her. They stayed there for the night and came back in the morning. So that takes me to my current place in this story. We were heading to the train station to pick up the Hermanas and help them with their luggage when about 2 minutes away from the piso, some man stops us, yells at us and HITS my companion in the chest and then ME in my arm!  I was shocked! What just happened! We walked away so confused. I looked back to see if he was following us and he looked blank, like why had we walked away and didn't do anything. But let me tell you something, that feeling of confusion left and just a whole bunch of " Ready to pound this dude down" juice in our veins. Are you kidding me?! Not even a full 2 days and I already got attacked! Come on! After we helped the Hermanas, we went to a library to do some online proselyting and we saw that man again! Ugh. Almost an altercation from him again. He wanted our documents. This brother is loco! We left needless to say. Then at night we were at the Church and we walked back to piso. We went through a park were 2 youth were in front of us and one of them said to the other, " You wanna mess with them?" Elder Maybury is about to lose it here. I was a bit scared to walk the streets. Loud noises or people yelling were terrifying me. But now my nerves have calmed down. 

So Logroño is surrounded by mountains! It's quite beautiful actually. On Friday, it snowed here. None of it really stood to the ground but it was snowing! I felt like a kid seeing it. I loved it. I was also sick the first 3 days here. Ugh. I think it was from all the stress of transfers. Also, I sucked on some tablets that apparently were for acid relief. I thought it was candy and the reason it tasted bad was because it was old. Well, that's a story from the good ‘ol mission right there. 

So, this preparation day we did some neat things. First, we went to a sword shop! Are you kidding me?! I didn't know that they had those. I bought a mini sword about the size of a pen. Not expensive at all. It's pretty neat. We then went to the mall and looked at stores and walked around. We went to a Carrifour which is like a Wal-Mart basically. We then went to a Wok which is Chinese restaurant. Dad, eat your heart out. We got the buffet and oh my goodness I ate so much. I had a plate of just sushi on it. It was so good. We then went back to piso and relaxed before we came here. That was mostly it for today. 

So, the church here is 2 stories, pretty neat. However, my most favorite thing here is seeing one of my teachers here from the CCM in Madrid!!! He helped me and another Elder during the study hour that we have to ourselves right before our exercise time there. And he lives in the piso right above ours. Fantastic! It's a small world. I had no idea. The members here are, well, they are members. I don't really know them too well. You hear things, like in every area. But I still need some more experience with them. But, I'm ready to work though, so that's what counts. The church is 20 minutes away from our area by bus. About 30-40 minutes by foot. Elder Tuttle doesn't know the area too well so it's a learning experience for both of us. Well, I think that's about it. I'll include pictures of the activities and such. I love you all! I can't wait for Christmas! And I can't wait to talk to my family!

Love you all! Keep the faith! 

Love forever, Elder Maybury 

It's to cold out here. I forgot my beanie so I wrapped my head with my scarf

My plate of sushi...yummo!

My mini sword.  It's a replica of the sword of the Templars of England

Elder Maybury doesn't feel like himself without some ice-cream

Sushi with my companion, Elder Tuttle

Swords!!!

A beautiful Chinese wood carving

An actual Samurai suit of armor! 

WHAT A FUNNY KID!!!  I have to tell you that as James and I were reading this email, we were laughing so hard – at the beginning.  That is classic Alexander!  He is a hoot!  Of course, many people will not know, but him eating antacid tablets thinking they were candy is also, CLASSIC Alexander!!!  So, so, so funny! 😂😂😂 At one point in his youth (maybe age 12), he picked up something off of the street and ate it because it “looked” like candy!  Gaaahhh!!!  You can imagine his father’s and my shock at hearing this.  But, that is just his personality.  He has done the cinnamon challenge, eaten hot peppers, and other odd things because he says, “why not?  It looks good.”  He just cracks us up! 😂

Then, of course, to read of the difficulties he was experiencing with some people in his new area had me worried.  Sigh!  This is where a mother wears out her knees praying for her child to remain safe.  I know my Zander.  He will resist the urge to fight back, but if he had to, he would defend himself.  He knows to walk away, as he has had to a couple of times in Spain alone…but I know that juice running in his veins hangs out for a little bit as he tried to make sense of why someone random person would hit them.  Please add to them to your prayers. 🙏🏼

One of the greatest things about his letters is that I can tell that he is happy in his work.  I know there are still difficult moments and that is what makes a mission a well-rounded growth experience.  BUT, if you can find the joy and the happiness in what you are doing, regardless of the circumstance, you are going to have find your happiness.  And I can see it in his emails and in his face in his pictures.  It’s in his eyes.  I know the sparkle of his eyes.  It brings me an indescribable joy to know that he is happy. 

This past week was particularly hard for me in missing my son.  I got all of the decorations out of the garage and we put up a tree.  I could start to feel the void of not having my Christmas elf with me.  Zander has always been the one to share the joy of Christmas with me.  He loves the shopping.  He loves the decorating.  He loves the energy.  He loves giving to other people.  He is always so generous.  As I listened the to the music, my heart began to overflow and I could not stop the tears.  I cried.  Actually, I sobbed.  It is his first Christmas away and I am feeling all those feelings of missing him come flooding back.  My poor husband did not know what was happening.  I was just sobbing.  He asked me what was wrong and came near to me in an effort to help.  I couldn’t dry my eyes fast enough.  I couldn’t speak and then I finally squeaked out, “I just miss him”…and then came more tears.  Thankfully, my husband is a compassionate soul and he just held me and let me cry.  Crying helped, but it will take a while before I don’t feel this way.  And, I’m not interested in NOT feeling this way.  I think it is okay to miss someone.  It shows that you are connected to them.  So, when certain Christmas songs come on, I simply allow myself to feel what I need to feel.  And then I move on. 

I am going to be over-joyed when we get to talk to him on Christmas!!!  It such a wonderful gift.  It’s the only gift I need…but I will accept others *hee hee*

‘Tis the season.  The season to give.  The season to share.  The season to serve.  The season to love.  The season to “Light the World”.  In case you have missed it, we are focusing 25 days in December to “Light the World”, meaning to the light the world in the Saviors love by focusing each day on an act of service or love towards those around you.  If you are on Facebook, you can see Elder Maybury’s posts about the importance of the gospel, the Savior, the scriptures and the people he loves. 

As always, and truly from the bottom of my heart, thank you for supporting my son.  He loves you all and feels the support of those at home. 

If you would like to send him a letter or a card, you may do so at this address:

Elder Alexander J. Maybury

Spain Barcelona Mission

C/ Calatrava 10-12, bajos

08017 Barcelona

Spain

All cards and letters use one international stamp = $1.15 (up to 1 ounce)

December 4, 2017