Wednesday, March 7, 2018

Pamplona - Week 3…HAPPY BIRTHDAY and a Tube Up My Nose!



 Hi Momzee, how are you?! First and foremost.... 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOST FANTASTIC AND AMAZING MOTHER!!!!!πŸ™ŒπŸ’–πŸŽ‰πŸŽŠπŸ˜πŸŽ†πŸ€—πŸ‘ΈπŸ˜˜πŸ˜πŸ€ 

Wow, what a fantastic moment it is. By the way, all that goes in the blog. I want everyone to know what an important day happened yesterday on the 4th of March, 2018. My mom’s birthday. I love you mom!

So let's start things off hot today. The miracle of this week was by far amazing. So today I had a doctor's appointment that came out of the blue. I called in to the mission home nurse 4 days ago for my ear and I didn’t get any response until today at 9:15. My appointment was at 10:00 that morning!  Yikes!  And you all know how hospitals are. They can take forever! So here, you have to have a “GOP” to be seen. It’s basically a proof that you have already paid for the appointment. Anyway, I checked in to find out that I had to go to the other side of the hospital.  It’s now 10:05 am.  We went and waited by grabbing a number. A314. The closest is A267. So, we are waiting and I still don't have the “GOP” (that the mission home was supposed to send me). I decide to pray, hard. And while I am doing this, my companion is being Laman and Lemuel over here saying that it's a waste of time. He said that I needed to pray harder. He said he was going to check the email again to see if the “GOP” had been sent. Nope, not there.  Praying harder now. It didn't bug me because I knew that whatever the case, the Lord would take care of me.

So, my number gets called up. And I still don't understand super well because they talk kind of fast and my companion let me go up solo so he didn't translate for me. I explained my situation and I called Hermana Hutchings who schedules appointments for missionaries. The “GOP” then finally came in my email and so I was able to get in. Also, I understood just about everything they were saying to me. I only needed my companion to get the address of our appointment. Then we waited upstairs for about 1 ½ -2 hours!  Finally, I got in and got situated. I told them everything that was going on.  My companion was with me this time, as we were traveling to different rooms to talk to nurses and doctors. Then we went to another room where I got a super long tube stuck up my nose. They looked in my neck and another area above it, like up higher or something. Basically, the conclusion is that I have lock jaw. I have noticed that sometimes I squeeze my jaws closed. So, at night, I guess I do it as I am asleep. And the tension causes my ear to hurt. So, the pain is transferred really. So yep, I'm not coming home, lol.* 
*Some missionaries need to come home for health reasons if they cannot get it taken care of in the mission field.

The other miracle was Saturday night. We had started our fast already. It’s night time prayer before we go to bed. I tried to be very humble and sincere in my prayers. I asked for guidance and revelation. After I finished praying, I stayed on my knees and listened and felt. I felt that we were going to be giving blessings tomorrow, Sunday. Turns out that on Sunday, we were asked to give two blessings and we prayed for someone in a part member family. So, wow, several miracles that the Lord had us be partakers of. God heard my prayer and I was in tune with the Spirit enough to hear it. Praise be to His name forever. 

Pamplona is so amazing. I love it here so much. I am having so much fun working and getting to know the members. The thing is that we only have two members who live in our area so the only way I can know the rest is at church. It’s pretty difficult but I am trying my best which is what I know you would want me to do. Life is good.

So we didn't really have good numbers this week because we have been working with our investigators. We got dropped by one of them. He knows the church is true but doesn't want to by baptized. (confused look) What? As they say here, "No tiene sentido" (It makes no sense). But he kept meeting with us because it wasn’t comfortable with saying no to us. But he is still our friend. Hopefully he can realize what he is missing out on and decide to be baptized. But we are gonna hit the streets hard this week so we can get more investigators and teach more people. 

So, I have this problem. And it has to do with spending money. Elder Maybury does not like to spend money on clothes! What so ever! I can't even convince myself that it's a birthday gift to me. It’s just that I think spending €50-80 or more is just ridiculous for clothes. I don't think some type of linen is worth that much. That's why when everyone comes out wearing something pretty new and they dropped 200 dollars on it, I just think how you could have spent 200 dollars on food or something. Put that thing in the fire and watch what happens. It’s just a waste to me. Anyway, I am thinking of buying some cleats or shoes. Maybe a new sweater or something just because it's a birthday gift to myself. So, I'll update you all what happens next week.   It’s just hard for me to do.  Parents, what is your guidance?

[Investigator]* is coming to our Stake Conference in Bilbao. She is an investigator and has come a long way. I'm super proud of her. She is making friends and doing so well. 
*Names of investigators are omitted from the blog for safety reasons

To answer your question, we do have hermanas here in Pamplona. It’s a trio and they are in our ward. One came in a transfer before me. One just finished her training and the other just finished her breaking. Her breaker was actually an hermana from my group so yeah, we all kind of know each other. 

We traveled around a lot today with the time we had left. Got some notable pictures and had some great fun. They have a zoo here. Basically deer, chickens, and peacocks with your pigeons and doves. There were some ducks and two swans. So yep, your average Spanish zoo. 

I love you all and I will talk to you all again. Keep the Faith!!! 

Love Elder Maybury 


The turret came with it's own artillary! My guns!  Boom!  Hahaha


We visited a castle, a fountain and a zoo.








This is a statue depicting the running of the bulls (famous in Pamplona).
Oops, you fell. 


Some animals and birds at the zoo




It finally snowed pretty good in Pamplona and I made my first snowball! 




I made an omelet!  Yummy! 


Panorama of Pamplona



Guapotone!  (humble, of course)




Well, this was such a fun week to email.  I was able to message him early and asked him to message me earlier in his email time since I had an appointment.  As a dutiful son, he did so and we were able to exchange a few emails.  As always, he had me laughing.  It is SO WONDERFUL to see his personality shine through in his emails. 

I sure felt bad knowing that he was hurting and had to go to the doctors.  And getting a tube stuck up his nose was for sure unpleasant!  But, as a user of Essential Oils, I am preparing to send him some oils to help him relax just a bit and hopefully help his tension jaw and resonating ear pain. 

I found it very interesting to read that are only 2 members who actually live in their area.  Just a note, missionaries are assigned to a specific area and during their time during the week, they are to stay in that area to work.  They only travel outside of that area for designated events (ex: doctor’s appointments, zone conferences, P-day, or exchanges).  So having only 2 members in the area where they live, means that they must find a lot of people to contact and teach on their own versus having members give them referrals.  It certainly makes for a lot of work.  But, that is what the mission is about.  Sometimes you have referrals from other people and sometimes you don’t.  Each day you still wake up and get up and go out to do whatever work you need to do that day. 

I am happy to know that he is happy.  I am can tell that he is happy, too.  I can read it in his words.  There have been a few occasions while he has been out for these past 9 months (next week), where I have felt an immediate sense of what he was going through and I would send him an email, or an inspirational thought associated with that feeling.  He has always been surprised to see that I knew exactly what he was going through at the time.  So, right now, I know that he is happy.  I know that he is tired form working hard, but ultimately, he has been blessed with a zeal for life and a loving heart and he connects well with the people that he serves.  He has touched hearts and lives in Spain and he feels that they are his family.  I would want nothing less for him.  That is exactly as it should be.  That is proof that he is serving the people and loving those whom he is called to serve. 

This week is a special week, of course.  As he noted, it was my birthday (on Sunday) and his is today (March 7th).  I often tell the story of how he was due ON my birthday and those who know me know how much I love my own birthday and I felt that I simply wouldn’t know how to share my birthday with my child, so I spoke to him while still in utero and I explained the situation to him.  And, of course, ever the dutiful son, he waited 3 days past my birthday to make his own entrance.  And it was the perfect day for him to be born, as well.  7 has always been his best number.  He was born at 7:37 am, weighing 7 lbs 14 ounces, and his soccer number his entire life was #7.  Plus, he is left-handed and when he writes, his left hand is bent like a backwards 7…I’m sure you just checked your own left hand to see what it looks like.  Hahaha! πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ But it’s true, that’s how he writes.  So, it is always fun to share our birthday week.  We often go to lunch together.  This year, we decided that we would both eat some ice cream today.  So, if you feel so inclined, have some ice cream today in honor of Elder Maybury.  He loves ice cream more than any other food.  No exaggeration. 

I wanted to share one thought from Elder Maybury that he put in a personal email to me, in response to some upcoming changes for our family.  He said, So my words of advice, if you would let me say this, well it would be wear out the knees first from prayer, then your feet from acting on the promptings you receive from your prayer.”  But I feel that this advice can benefit any of us in our daily lives, especially as we look for direction in our lives, perhaps answers.  Wear out your knees in prayers.  I love it!



As always, thank you all for supporting my son.  He loves you all and appreciates your love and prayers and letters and emails.  As he always says, “Keep the faith”.  πŸ’•



If you would like to write to Elder Maybury, you may do so at the following address:

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)


Emailed on: March 5





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