Twoish Weeks Down

HOLA FAMILIA!!!

Well, here I am.  Another week down in the mission field and things are looking up.  My trial on the mission hasn´t been the food or the people or the culture or even the mosquitoes...it´s been the fact that I am DEAD tired EVERY day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.  My body literally just shuts down and I have to work SO hard to stay awake and have a smile on my face.  I never thought that would be a problem, but when I´m tired, I´m tired.  It´s been a little rough, but I´ve been working on pushing through it and just relying on the Lord to help me out with everything.  I love my companion.  She is so wonderful!  I forgot to tell you last week that I am in Milagro right now.  My ward is Bellavista.  There are two elders in the ward along with us.  The people here are wonderful, thought it´s hard sometimes because we ask them to commit to something, and in the moment, they´ll say they want to go to church, or they want us to come and teach them the next day, but then the time comes and they bail on us.  I wish there was a nice way to tell someone to just be honest from the start instead of leading us on.  That´s been the hardest--feeling like our time is wasted because the people don´t actually want to listen to us, and are afraid to say it.  We´ve been trying really hard to find people, though, who are prepared and ready for the Gospel in our lives.  The analogy our mission president uses is Mango Bajo y Mango Alto.  A lot of people are Mango Altos (i.e. people who aren´t married, people who have killed someone, people who don´t follow through with commitments, etc.), but a lot are also Mango Bajos (people who are ready and willing to accept the gospel and be baptized and fulfill the commitments).  Our purpose here is to find the Mango Bajos.  Find the people who are chosen and ready.  That has been a little hard for me because we´ve already had to drop a couple of our investigators because they don´t follow through with commitments, but we need to find the mango bajos who really are ready.  It´s been a great experience.

In response to your questions/statements from the last email: my teacher in the CCM married someone with the last name Gaoyzueta!  Probably related to your companion, dad!

Sorry to hear about Grandpa French.  Send the Searles/Stephensons my love and concern.

It is so hot and humid here.  I miss snow and cold and not sweating.  I never thought I´d say I miss cold, but I wish it could be just a tad more fresco here.

I never use my jacket even in rain, because it´s just so hot!

Sad that the Wilkey´s will be done in June.  My mission president is out then, too, and they´ll be splitting our mission to accomodate the new Guayaquil West mission.  We´ll see what happens there!

Well, my time is short, which is really hard because there´s so much more I want to write, but I just want to let you know the Gospel is true.  I love it.  It´s so simple, but so powerful, and it truly changes lives.  We have a baptism this Saturday for a 64 year old man who is just so great.  He accepts all the commitments and is excited to be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.  I know that baptism is necessary for our salvation.  It brings so many blessings in this life and in the world to come.  Thanks for all your prayers and love!

LES AMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hermana Ayer

P.S. This is picture of me and Hna. Olson outside the Guayaquil Temple after I arrived.

P.P.S. Banana here is gineo.

P.P.P.S. We taught a family filled with Evangelicos, Catolicos, y Testigos de Jehova and survived!  And committed two of them to baptism.

P.P.P.P.S.  Apparently I have ojos gatos.  It´s nice because that reminds me of Sunkist, but also not nice because the cats down here are ugly.  I love you!