Email #12: An interesting way to answer my prayer.

Shaved ice - for us to eat….  it's so HOT!

Momma I love you! I want to let you know that your email helped alot as I was just reading it. We had Mission Conference on Friday and I just felt the spirit so strong.  I knew that I am here for a reason and I cannot come home. I know that for sure. I really do. And yesterday I fasted and got an answer in an unusual way.  I already knew my answer but Heavenly Father made it a bit more real. I had a dream (which I don’t usually remember my dreams so when I do it means something).  I had a dream that I went home. I went home and I just wanted to go back and I felt helpless.  They said I could go back but not to the Philippines. So I went anyway but didn’t wear a name tag and it was weird. But I felt so lost. I knew what I needed to do and I couldn’t do it. It was scary. Definitely an interesting way to answer my prayer. But I got a movie pretty much about what my future would be. I am staying and I am going to kick this mission’s butt ;)

So Monday we watched Mr. Peabody as a zone. It is a Pixar movie. This one wasn’t actually bad because it has humor that you had to be older to get (like history humor). So it was better than other movies haha.

So Tuesday we went to the doctor because we were sick. We got checkups and the doctor didn’t even get out of his chair. I told him that if I don't drink 2 liters of water every morning I get a headache. He said it was because I wasn’t taking medicine. I was like -- no my body shouldn't function on medicine. So it wasn’t very helpful. But while we were waiting for him the news was on the TV. Guess what? They show the dead bodies on TV when there is a murder!. I was like what?!?!?!? Holy heck that’s a dead body!

So Wednesday we went to the hospital for Sister Sevia. She is pretty sick. She needed a urine test. So we got that and she has to stop eating salt. But I noticed that I didn’t put my nametag on . I thought I did but I didn’t. So I wore Sister Sevia’s name tag and she covered her left side with her hair because her hair is long enough you can’t tell. People called me Sister Sevia. It was funny.  She was like ughhh noooo! It was a lot of fun.

So Thursday was the day.... Well I read Ether 12:27 about weaknesses and I realized that right now I am in the start of the scripture – the weakness part. I am definitely being shown my weaknesses right now. I need to become more humble so he can make me strong. I am really trying too. I really am.

Friday was Mission Conference!!! It was wonderful I loved it. A district in my zone sang a song about finding friends from the pre-existence and they didn’t even start singing. The piano started playing and I felt so much love. I was like -- I have to be here. I am here for a reason. The Lord wants me here right now. Then all the talks were comforting too. I know I am here for a reason.  And after we went out to lunch with some elders in my district and some other elders and a sister companionship. I talked to the sister.  She is from America and she made me feel better about the language. It was a lot of fun. And one of the Elders is my batch going home.  He lives in AZ so we will fly all the way home together. So we took a jeepny and it took us to the middle of nowhere.  We were all like, “Where are we? What the heck?”  So then we all had to take another one to the mall where everything is. We were laughing because we all squished into one jeepny. It was so funny. We went WAY out of our way! It was a fun day and I needed that. Then that night we were talking about the Criman family. I realized that those boys needed Sister Sevia and I.  They needed fun missionaries. They chouldn’t have been taught by super serious people because they never would have listened.   They needed people to call them stupid or enemy or just all that stuff.  I know that I am here in this area for them. If they are the only ones that get baptized that is okay. I know that I am here for them. They had to have us. I really do believe that.

So on Saturday I had a thought. "I can do humanitarian work for the rest of my life. But I only have this chance to do God’s humanitarian work."  It is true. I have this time and it is the best humanitarian work ever! So Mosiah 24:14 is my favorite scripture so I read it and then decided to read the one after it too. Well, go read.......................... So I realized that Heavenly Father will make me strong enough to hold my burdens but not take them away. I am strong enough to do it with the help of the Lord. It helped me a lot.

Sister Sevia is super sick so last night I made her dinner. We didn’t go work because she couldn’t. So I read Liahonas for a while.  Lots of great messages in them.

Well momma I am so sorry to worry you so much. Your email helped alot. I love you tons. And I am not coming home. I am going to do great and love it!! I am here for a reason - I know that.  I love you all so much! Thanks for you prayers -  I can feel them!

Love always Sister Mayberry

I forgot my name tag --  I was Sister Sevia for the day!

My family

Just a little hot --
so SWEATY!!

Mosiah 24:14-15

And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

From Dad:

Letter from Dad:

Dear Kenna - 

I was so happy to see you when we talked on Mother's Day.  

For me - I was just really happy to see you while I talked to you.  For Mom – it was complete torture!  I had to laugh because you were sweating the whole time, wiping your face.  Glowing with sweat.  Every time we see your pictures you look miserably hot.

I know you're having a hard time.  I think that's just part of being a missionary.  It's got to be doubly hard - being in the Philippines and so far from home.  No matter how hard it is - your reward will be ten times greater.  I'm glad that you were able to talk to Mom.  I hope that it made you feel better.  I know you're very homesick.  But that will pass through hard work and staying focused on the work that you've been called to do.  I know this work is hard - but believe it or not - it's not going to be the hardest work that you're going to do.  As life goes on - you will have many many struggles.  I know that you'll conquer your struggles, just like now.  And, you'll have many many successes.

I absolutely HATE when you sign your letters Sister Mayberry.  You're Kenna to me!!  My little girl.  

Well,  I can't wait to talk to you at Christmas.  Or what's even greater is being able to see you when I talk to you.  Maybe you won't be sweating as much.  HA!  It's just so great!  It was the greatest day - to see and talk to you.  I look forward to every Sunday / Monday to see how your week went.  

I hope you enjoyed your jerky and trail mix.  It only cost $90 to send it.  Gladly pay it ----  : )   I miss you!  I love you !!  Before you know it - you will conquer the language and you'll be wondering why you were making such a big fuss.  Before you know it - you'll be home.  

Love – Dad

Daddy

You sure do know how to make me cry. Pretty much I just see “From Dad” and I start to cry . I love you so much! It is weird -- it isn’t that I am super homesick. It’s just I’m not sure. Idk. But whatever it is I need to get over it and I will. I know I am supposed to be here. In my MTC letter you wrote me you said the same thing. "The harder the times. The bigger the reward." I wrote that down and put it up on my wall. It has helped me through everything. I have bad days almost everyday. But they are also good days too. But when it is hard I look at that and I think of you and know that you are there in America rooting me on. And that means the world to me. I love you so much Dad. And I know it will go by fast because I can’t believe it is already 4.5 months! I love you so much!!! And when we talk at Christmas I will be fluent --I promise!!!

Love -- your baby girl

Love Pumpkin

Love Kenna

But most important … right now

Love Sister Mayberry

Email #11: I just need to breathe every once in a while.

We love AIR CON !!!

So first I will answer your questions. We paid one bill but the other one is so expensive we have to figure that out first. Sister Sevia and I have taken the bills upon ourselves to make sure it is done. And well the rest I’ll answer in my email. But you’re going to New York?!?!?!? That is awesome! You guys will definitely enjoy it.

SO Monday we had a district activity. We watched FROZEN!!! Well most of it. We had to leave part way through it. And the Disney movies are starting... today for a zone activity we are watching Rio 2. Oh boy..... haha. It wasn’t terrible. But I am also

on my mission so that’s all I have hahahahaha!

So I got my package on Tuesday!!!!!! It was great!!! All the elders were excited because it said there was only food in it. So they were like-- here Sister Mayberry let me help you. You need help.  And I said -- not from you I don’t because they wanted the jerky. Haha. But that necklace!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it!!! It is great! SO pretty I want to wear it a lot but I wore it twice and all I do is sweat. So it is already yellow. So I am going to try to find cleaner for it. But I will wear it sometimes. I wish I could more but I don’t want to ruin it. But I love it!!!!!!!!! SO cute! And the ones for my companions. Such a  cute idea. I love them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So on Tuesday we went to a new investigator named Cristlyn. She is awesome. She is a referral from sister Jenny (ya another one!!!) She is so receptive and wants to learn more. She is great and I am so excited to teach her more.

On Wednesday we went on a search for less actives and we found a few. Brother Wilmar came with us and helped us find them. There are so many it is crazy! Wednesday was really hard. I didn’t understand alot.

SO Thursday was an interesting day. Sister Boulabon (the other sister) had to go to the mission office to make her decision about whether she was going to go home or not. And they (Sis B and Sister Lamson) have investigators they needed to see. So I stayed home with Sister B and Sister Sevia. So we went to the mission office then stayed home (Sister was also super sick) so I had like 5 hours to just study the language. It went so fast. I don’t feel like it helped very much. It just made me overwhelmed. There is so much to know and I don't know it. I got too frustrated. And it rained that day so it wasn’t super hot! Man this place floods bad! Within about 45 minutes it was like the road on the way to your school after a bad storm. It floods so bad! So that night Sister Leavitt (who is the sister training leader and also my lola which means grandma. She is Sister Sevia’s trainer) and I just cried to her on the phone. This week I got too discouraged about the language. It was probably the hardest week of my life. Really. And I just cried to her. She gave me advice. She said all it takes is time and prayer. I’m like I know-- I am but nothing is changing. And it was so hard. So I just cried.

Last week the ward had a swimming activity and went to a resort... Well Brother Wilmar’s nephew went and ran away and went to the adult pool where it is super deep. He is 8 years old. He was by himself and there were no lifeguards.  He drowned and died. Ya! At the ward activity. So sad. He was 8oyears old. SO Friday we went to his funeral and it was super sad. But the parents were less active along with the mother. And now they are all wanting to get back into the church. They came to church yesterday. It was so sad.

Saturday everyone in our house was sick. So the other three went and slept for a while and I stayed down and studied language for about 3 hours. So I had a lot of extra study this week. And that one was better than the first. I have to take it step by step. Then that night we went to a buffet because Brother Wilmar’s sons birthday was Wednesday. That was a good buffet! It’s weird they call it “eat all you can” while us in America call it “all you can eat.”

Sunday sunday sunday...... Such a hard day!!  During church the teacher called me out and said I was teaching the lesson on baptism and I was like --no. I have never taught it. Haven't had to yet so I have really focused my study on it so I have no idea how to teach it sa Tagalog. I was like -- no and every one was like yes and I almost burst into tears right there. And brother Marlon was so nice. He kept turning to me and saying kaya mo iyan (you can do it). He was so nice but Brother Wilmar saved me and said Sister Mayberry chorister and if there are questions Sister Mayberry will answer them. It was so scary and I was so upset.

So after that we went to the cr (bathroom) and I just cried. It was terrible. So hard. Then we went home and now all 4 of us are sick. So we all slept until we had a meeting. And then went home and rested. Sister Sevia is super sick! Then we had FHE with Sister Jenny’s family.  Webster (their son who finally decided to listen) and Rondave (their neighbor who we are teaching!!!! And he came to church) were there and it was so much fun!!! They are my favorite family. We always joke around and it is great. I love going over there.

This week was very hard. The past week and a half have been the hardest of my life really. I have cried more this week then I probably have my whole life.  But I am here and I made it through. I know I have to be easy on myself and take this whole language thing one step at a time.  I know I can do it. I am promised that in my blessing. I just need to breathe every once in a while.

So Sister Boulabon went home. She was home sick. She left this morning. So now we are a tri-sum. And have the whole entire ward until June 4 which are transfers. It will be interesting.

Well Momma I love you so much and I love dad and Lena too!! Oh guess what? So binibini is a word and you pronounce it (be-knee-be-knee) just like Lena. It means lady like binibini Mayberry. I thought it was funny!!

Goofing around before Sister B left.

This sister's home is the whole box. 

FHE with Jenny's family & neighbors.

YUM!  It's so expensive here !

Email #10: It is interesting how I had that hard of a morning and then Heavenly Father reminds me of why I am here.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!! MAHAL KITA!!!

So to answer your questions first.  Yes that was the right investigator whose husband died. And Jamie the one with diabetes is still super sick.  Like about to get a limb cut off any day but he isn’t in the hospital anymore. He was there for 2 days I think. It is so sad we give him lessons and he just cringes during them. 

So this week was an interesting week. On Monday I found out that my package arrived. So because I will see the zone leaders tonight I will get it tonight! I am so excited!!!!! After pday was over we went to find out some information about this recent convert. We ended up giving lessons with 2 less active families. Which was great! They were both on our list of people to find. The ward has SO many less actives -- so that is a focus. We were so excited!!! Then we went to a member’s  house. They are wealthy here. When we walked in on their flat screen (What?!?!?!? you don’t see those here) was the voice. Adam Levine died his hair!!!!!! YUCK!!!!! I was shocked haha. They said they watch Survivor and Amazing Race every year! From Season 1. Haha.  And she gave us lemonade!!! That was nice to have ahh. And cupcakes from her business. So delicious!

Tuesday we went to Jamie’s. He is so sick like I said. But man realized how much people respect missionaries. They fed us dinner. They are the family that always gives us food. If they are about to eat they make us eat before them. If we come after they eat they buy us muffins and soda. SO this time we came before they ate. And they made us eat after the lesson. Jamie ate with us. And when we was done he looked at me cringing in pain. And he said, “May I please?” In regards to leaving the dinner table. I was like wow this old man who is in severe pain asking my permission to leave. I was like, “Of course -- go rest!” They respect us here so much!

So the ward mission leader is a trike driver. And he offers us rides. SO on Thursday he went and he drove us around and we didn’t have to walk! It was great!!!! We met this man named Kenny. He is so good at English.  He only spoke English. He is a stoke victim. He is open to religion. But he just kept going off. It was like him sharing thoughts and then random talking from us. And at one point he asked us, well telling us, other missionaries (from other churches) he asked them -- if someone was going to kill you and there was a gun and a bible -- you are telling me that you would chose the Bible over the gun. And the missionaries just walked away and said we will pray for you. Then he was talking about this guy that after reading about Daniel and the lion’s den decided to try it because he thought god would save him -- but he died. I said you have to be realistic with your faith.  Yes God could have saved him but you have to be realistic. Then about the gun I said that I would choose the gun. But if the choice was to deny my religion or get shot - I would get shot and die.  I know it is true so I won’t deny it. But if it is just a random gun and a random Bible and a random guy -- choose the gun. He said,  “You know what Sister Mayberry?  I respect you because you are honest. Who ever taught you did a good job because you are honest and realistic. Your preachers did a good job.”  I really liked him haha.  I want to go back. He has been taught by MANY missionaries though.

We went to a member’s house Wednesday for her little son’s birthday. He loves us missionaries. After dinner we google mapped Arizona because they wanted to see what it looks like. Did you know that they have pictures of the houses now?!?!?!?!? I was like what?!?! That is a picture of my house. WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?  They were shocked at how brown it is. Haha It was super funny.

So Russel got baptized this week!!! It was great but oh my heck. SO the water turned off at the church. But they have a big tank of water outside. So my whole district had to take buckets and bucket by bucket fill up the tank. It took an hour and it was tiring. BUCKET BY BUCKET!!!!! It was crazy!!! But fun haha! I am such a clutz.  By the end the tile was so slippery.  So I had two buckets in my hand and I slipped and got soaked and everyone was laughing.  It was super funny.  I was like -- of course it would be me. I always have to embarrass myself.  It was great. And this week I fell down the stairs....... well slipped. Only like 4 stairs but I fell hard and I had a HUGE bruise on my butt!!! Like every color of the rainbow!!! It was bad an hurt so bad!!! I am such a clutz!!! SO that night we went to go see Russel and guess what?!?!?! His younger brother decided he wanted to be taught. His name is Webster. He is so hard headed. We invited him every lesson and he refused every time. He would come to family home evening but that’s all. SO hard headed. But HE IS LISTENING NOW AND HAS A BAPTISMAL DATE !!!! We are so excited!!!! I can’t even stand it!!! And the rest of the neighborhood (all family) said that if Webster gets baptized they would listen and get baptized to. They have bets on if Webster would get baptized because he is so hard headed. It is great! I am so excited!

SO yesterday hahahahahahahahhaaha --so we thought we lost our key to our house.  We looked everywhere. SO the senior couple came over and gave us a new lock for the gate.  He looked at the door lock but said he didn’t want to mess it up. So he kept it on. So we had a problem -- one key for two sisters and the other sisters were leaving before us. So we took the key but first I climbed up the house to see if we could make it because we were going to give the sisters the key and we would just climb up haha. Well I made it. It was fun! So we ended up just taking the key. But then we found our key!!!! So when we left we were trying to lock the door and it wouldn’t lock or twist. It was messed up from when Elder Rigby came and looked at it. So we locked it from the inside and Sister Sevia went to the balcony door, kept it open and climbed down the house. When we got home I climbed up! Haha it was funny. So the senior couple has to come fix it today because the door doesn't shut if it isn’t locked. So I’ll send you the picture of the ghetto lock. It’s great!

This week I had a really bad day. I don’t know what day it was. But I was crying and it was probably the hardest since the first few days. It was hard.  But you know -- it is interesting how I had that hard of a morning and then Heavenly Father reminds me of why I am here. Sister Boulabon, the other sister, is going home this week because of homesickness. So we will have a threesome until June 4 which is transfers. But the same day as my meltdown I talked to her and told her that it is hard.  I have had the same thoughts as you. But told her why I am staying and all this stuff and it was a reminder to me why I am here. Why I am staying and all that stuff. So it was good for me because the same day that was hard, I was reminded why I am here. It was great!!!

SO MY LANGUAGE IS GETTING BETTER. Still so hard and still don’t feel like it is but Sister Jenny said my pronunciation is getting better. The first day I met her it was hard to understand me and now I say things how they are supposed to be. And they sound so much better. It is great haha. I got a kindergarten lesson from her this week on how to pronounce things too. So when I learn new words I can say them right haha. It was fun. Russel was making fun of me because it was like I was in kindergarten haha.

Well momma I love you tons!!!!!!!! Have a good last week of school.

LOVE YOU!!!

Sister Mayberry!!

Russel's baptism
May 17, 2014

Buckets for the baptism

Lost keys --  looking for a new
way to get in the apartment