Well, I
have officially survived my first week here in Pamplona. Yes, yes, thank you,
thank you. I am a trooper. Hahaha. Lots of things have happened, I
believe.
First the miracle:
The miracle for me
this week was this Sunday. The first one was the fast (that we did as an entire
mission). Wow, this one as hard for me. We got to church and after 5 minutes my
stomach was hurting bad. I wanted to throw up and lie on the ground. So, I said
a prayer and asked for the pain to be taken away so I could fulfill my fast and
help the mission by doing what I was asked to do. And as I was saying it, I
could feel the pain lessening and being taken away. It was so instant and so
amazing. A true blessing indeed.
The second miracle is
“V” (an investigator). She came to the baptism on Saturday, then to church on
Sunday, and then to another baptism for the other ward the same night. She is
loving it so much! She has gone through a lot but we are doing our best to be
in tune with the Spirit and help her out through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
So yeah, super good stuff.
So, we are fasting as
a mission to help the work of the Lord hasten in the Spain Barcelona mission.
We did a mission fast yesterday. Then each district in the mission has their
personal day to fast. We are like the 3rd Friday of March I believe. So I will
have another opportunity.
You know. I have been
wondering when Elder Maybury is gonna get some miracles from God. When is he
gonna understand everything? When is he gonna speak like a native? When, when,
When? I am reading the Teachings of Brigham Young in my free time and some
things that he taught were about how to help yourself now. To worry about your
salvation now, instead of waiting to do it in the future. And of course, like
always, I caña* myself for complaining against God. And I remember that I
am so much farther along than I ever could be in my language skills and
understanding than I ever would be if I were not here. Right now, I can
understand enough to give a response. I can speak enough to get the point
across. So, there are major blessings there, I just haven't paid enough
attention to them. Don't ever doubt the savior ladies and gentlemen. Because he
will make you remember everything he has given you. I testify of that.
*to cane, meaning to chastise
I read over my
patriarchal blessing, and the part about being driven to my knees. It's very
interesting because I CAN'T say a prayer if I'm not on my knees. I literally
cannot. I feel so bad for not being on my knees. I feel like I am disrespecting
God and everyone knows that if your disrespect Him, it's gonna come to you so
hard [not be good for you]. Maybe not in
this life, but we are gonna stain our immortal robes when we have to stand
before him, I guarantee it. Sometimes I feel that I have goofed up too many
times in my past to every partake of the blessing that God has for me. That I
can never reach my full potential or what I could have been without my
mistakes. If I don't make any mistakes, then I would be perfect, but I'm not. I
just feel sometimes that I can never be what I could have been. I don’t know.
I'm still figuring it out. But don’t worry. It doesn’t bother me too much or
anything. I'm still here and focused on the work! Yay! I love it all!!
Me and Elder Eiguren
are working hard here. We have 13 baptism fechas (dates). A lot are for the 17th and 24th
(of March), we might have one this week. It depends on if he feels that he
wants to go forward and not wait for his family. So, hay que trabajar con
dedicación, claro. (“Clearly, we need to
work with dedication.”)
We climbed a hill today
for preparation day and played monopoly. We took some good pictures, Elder
Maybury goofed one up. We were posing in a Philosopher pose. I thought I heard
velociraptor so as I was confirming (to see if it was coming), so I'm squating
down, laughing, almost looking like a velociraptor. Yep, I take after my dad,
hahaha! Respect! 😀😁😘
I loved the videos of
my siblings sledding in the snow. Joshua trying to jump on the snow and killing
his bottom. Love it! And the snowball, as well. Super funny.
Isabella is nothing but precious!!! I love her so much. She looks so much like
a 7-year old! It kills me a bit.
Lol.
Poor Irene Chandler.
She is doing better now that she is out of pain and in peace.
I think I might get a
ukulele. Elder Eiguren is going to teach me how to play. I'm still thinking
about it. What's your input?
We played monopoly.
Man, that game never turns out well for me. You have to not care in order to
play it. Elder Maybury can't handle it. We haven't finished it but there gets a
point to where Elder Maybury just doesn’t care anymore! Take everything from
me, I'm getting an orange, lol. Me da igual, ¿sabe? (“I don’t mind”)
I think that is
it. I'm still working on my Spanish and knowing everyone's names. Next week is
fast and testimony meeting so I will probably get up and share. I want to go up
every month this year. I am also re-reading the book of Mormon in Spanish and
English again and I am reading the New Testament as well.
I think that is it
for this week. I love you all!!!! Keep
the faith!
Love Elder
Maybury
It's pretty here...
Well, as always, it
is such a treat to hear from our son. As you can see, his personality shines
through in his emails and that makes me happy.
Happy to see that he is happy and happy to know that he is learning and
growing in many ways, but also staying my happy child who can find joy in
almost anything.
I had the opportunity
to converse back-and-forth with him a little bit this week during his email
time and that is like a GIFT to me…to see him responding to me in real-time is
my favorite time of the week. I had
asked him if he needed anything and he mentioned a couple of things and the
super cool thing is that I had already sent those exact things that he asked
for in a package to him a couple days before.
Score some points for a mother’s intuition! Hahaha!
I didn’t tell him that I sent them because it’s fun to surprise
him. Packages can be so expensive to
send that I limit them to Christmas and his birthday, so he is going to get a
little birthday package and an Amazon pantry package (thanks to help from
grandma) with some goodies and household items.
I’m glad to know that I am still “in tune” with my fellow Pisces baby
even though he is over 5,200 miles away from me.
I can’t wait for Zone
Conference next week to see all of the mail and packages he receives! As a family, we each sent him individual
cards from Utah, California, and Arizona.
He expects nothing. Yay!
Today was also a
special day. At 7am, I received a “request”
to connect with someone whose name I didn’t immediately recognize. After clicking on it, I saw that it was
someone from Spain. A member from my son’s
area in Logroño had messaged me and told me how much they loved our son and
were honored by his service to their family.
They wanted to reach out and thank his family for sending him on a
mission. Even now, it brings tears to my
eyes to hear of others watching over my son and to see how his service impacts
their lives. I responded with gratitude,
of course, and ask him if he would give my son a long hug from me when he sees
him this weekend at Stake Conference. To
be able to send my son a hug by proxy has filled my heart to the brim and has
overflowed today. I am grateful for
technology that allowed me this connection today. I am grateful for members who invite
missionaries into their homes and allow them to serve. I am grateful to my son who sacrificed 2
years of his life to serve the Lord so that our lives could be blessed and the
lives of those whom he serves could be blessed.
And I am grateful to my Father in Heaven for watching over my son, for
protecting him, for putting people in his path to give him opportunities to
love and serve, and for blessing him with a heart that loves serving others. He has been out for almost 9 months now and I
am in awe of the growth that has taken place in him in such a seemingly short
period of time. I love that young man
and the example that he is to me and our family.
If you are around any
missionaries, please, take the time to shake their hand, invite them in, share
a meal, take a picture and message their family. Such small acts of kindness will literally uplift
their lives and the lives of their family…and you, as well.
As my son always
says, “keep the faith”.
If you would like to write to Elder
Maybury or send him a card, you may do so at the address below:
Elder Alexander J.
Maybury
Spain Barcelona Mission
C/ Calatrava 10-12, bajos
08017 Barcelona
Spain
All letters require one international
stamp = $1.15 / up to one ounce
Email sent: February 26th
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