March 25th
This week is finally
done!...
Hey
everyone, I'm super grateful to be writing to you all again. As you can tell by
the heading I have been waiting for preparation day so that's why I called it
like that. Anyways...
This past
Tuesday we were in Barcelona and played volleyball. It was a whole lot of fun.
I just liked being the dork who would dive for the ball and sacrifice my body.
It was all super fun. The rest of the zone finally caught up so we had a great game
going. A man let us borrow a ball of his until we got our own so that was
really nice. He even gave us a tip, saying that many people will try and kick
us off and say it's their training court but the thing is that the nets we were
playing on are public so they can't kick us off. We a neat and friendly fella
he was for telling us that. We wrote in the church when we got back. Everything
went amazing.
The next
day we had our Zone Conference which was super inspiring. One of the best to be
quite honest. I know 3 of the hermanas that are going home. It was nice to see
them again and watch their missions come to a close after 1 1/2 year of
dedicated service. We returned to Lleida that night on a train-hotel which was
super neat! The seats even reclined!
We had a
fun ward night This last Thursday. A good amount of people came and that made
all the difference. On Friday we met with John Kennedy. He did not get baptized
this last Saturday by he has another day planned for the last Saturday of the
transfer which was the miracle of the week! We got dropped by two of the people
we were teaching. Both were really sad. All well, we will keep finding people
teach.
This past
Friday was the Young Women's New Beginning activity. It was good, but I wish that more members showed up to support, and not just those whose daughters were
young women. All well. I went to support them and help with decorating. We were
also going to have a friend of ours come but at least minute she
couldn't.
Church
was good as always. I have been trying get more our of church and it really
helps to be focused on that all week so you can live your week to the best
extent possible.
Today we
took it relaxed. We are going to go bowling today and play the arcade games
there. It's going to be fun. Oh, last thing. For our Zone Conference, Elder
Peck and I gave a teaching on how to use online proselyting because it can be
very effective if you know how to use it. It went really well including the
example that we did which was how NOT to use it, it was really funny. Then we
had another companionship do an example of how to do it CORRECTLY. It was a
blast.
Well
that's it for this week. I love you all and I hope that you are taking
advantage of every minute of this life because it goes by fast, believe me! I
love you All!
Con Amor
Elder Maybury
Zone Conference - Zaragoza
"El Faro" is the name of our mission, meaning "The Lighthouse", just as the Savior, Jesus Christ is our lighthouse in the storms of life.
There are light houses all over Spain, on the coast.
April 1st
A super fast week!
Hey
everyone, this week went by super fast and I don’t even know how. So, I will
tell as much as I can remember.
Well,
this past Monday we went to the bowling alley to play a round of bowling.
That's was pretty fun. My companion is teaching me how to throw the ball with a
spin. All 3 of my companions have been able to do it and I have also lost to
all 3 of my companions as well. THAT'S IT!!!! When I get back we are going to
the bowling alley every day! Haha.
We had
district council on Tuesday and it was really good. We talked about how to use
technology in the right way. It was really beneficial because sometimes
technology can be a temptation to us and we choose not to use it in the right
way. The safeguards for mobile devices that you can find in the church library
in the section of missionary under missionary training should not just be
applied by the missionaries but by everyone as well. Granted some of them are
not needed if not a missionary but many of them can be beneficial. Love ya. 😉
We had an
intercambio with the Andorra elders and that was fun. We made a short video for
the Ward to spread the news of our Mystery Night on Friday. It was pretty funny
and got a lot of laughs.
We did an
intercambio with the Zone Leaders in Zaragoza. I was with Elder Tingey. We contacted
for about 7 hours! (that means out on the streets trying to talk to
people). What in the world! But it was
okay. Nothing too bad. We then ate telepizza at night which was good. Now every
Thursday you can get a regular sized pizza for 5 euros or a family pizza for 6
euros. It's a good deal.
Playing
soccer on Saturday was fun, but we got burnt out there. We did win though.
Hahaha! We also had a Family Home Evening at a member’s house. The message was
great, and we played UNO after and I got so worked up that I hit myself in the
nose and it started bleeding. Then I broke one of their glasses by accident so
now I have to buy a new one, 😂
Church
was fun as it always is for me. We taught Jhon and Nallely came to church! Oh,
and so did Andrea! There are all good friends of mine here. We went to the
bishops house to eat. We had spaghetti and meatballs with icr-cream and
strawberries for desert. Delicious!
We
are going bowling again and are gonna play the games there to win some more
tickets and gwet a big prize finally!
Love you
all, keep the faith and pay attention to general conference. There will be some
big announcements, I am sure of it. I love you all and I'll talk to you again
next week!
Con amor,
Elder Maybury
April 9th
No email
sent this week because there was no time. They had a very adventurous P-day in Andorra. He did send a few pics from his time there. There are tons of pictures, but he was not able to upload them all. Here are a few.
Of note: Andorra is actually another country inside of Spain.
April 16th – Transfers Day!
Stay tuned for more updates later
this week. Elder Maybury was transferred
to his final area of his mission.
As always, I apologize for the delay in sending these posts out, but it has been busy here.
Elder Maybury was given the option to extend his mission for 30 days. I delayed in updating the blog post, thinking that we would have an answer and I could write a cohesive blog post with those updates. Well, true to the nature of my son, he pondered this decision back and forth for weeks! As his parents, it did not matter to us if he came home on his original return-home date or if he came home 30 days later, we just wanted to know so we could plan. Bless my sweet son's heart...he never wants to make a wrong choice. Unfortunately, this often ends up in INDECISION.
Even during this week's email (April 16th)...he had not yet made a full decision. He was mostly decided, but wasn't sure. So after counseling with him for a bit, setting some clear boundaries, and of course, promising to buy him a treat if he could make his decision today (WHICHEVER DATE HE CHOSE WAS FINE WITH ME)...he did finally make his decision. Hallelujah!
While I like to think the chocolate bar put him over the edge, there were two big factors for him. Number one, he truly does miss his family - he has always been happiest at home. And number two, he had made a commitment to go on Trek with his younger brother Joshua the week after he was due to return home. This would be Joshua's first Trek. James is going too. He knew how much it meant to Joshua for him to be there and I am very much at peace with his decision.
So, Elder Maybury will be returning home on May 28, 2019. He will be returning to Salt Lake City. And we are thrilled! Tears have fallen many times thinking about finally being able to hug my son!!!
He is scheduled to speak in our California ward (Hurley) on Sunday, June 16th at 9am. Yes, that is Father's Day weekend. What a treat!!!! There will be an Open House for visiting with him after church at the Juarez/Peterson residence on Rowena Way. More details next week.
My son is definitely eager to finish his mission STRONG and to work every day that he has left. He LOVES his mission so much! So, I would continue to ask of each of you...PLEASE WRITE TO HIM. He NEEDS to hear those encouraging words from those that love him and have been cheering him on from home.
All the missionaries got new email addresses, so please make sure you use this new one: alexander.maybury@missionary.org
He may or may not respond to you, but TRUST ME...he reads them all! And he is grateful to receive them.
Right now, he is so far from the mission home, that he will only receive mail one more time (around May 11th). So, if you would like to mail him a card, you may do so at:
Elder Alexander J. Maybury
Spain Barcelona Mission
C/Calatrava 10-12, bajos
08017 Barcelona
Spain
Thank you all for your love and support of my son! We are in the home stretch!
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