Memorial Day

FAMILAMILY!!!!!!!

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I´m sorry to hear you´re not camping at the Joseph Smith Memorial this week.  I was thinking about that on Friday and how much I want to go camping there right now.  I love camping!  But not a huge fan of snow camping.  If you want, though, we can change our climates for the weekend so you can go camping and I can get a break from sweating.  :)

This week has been terrific.  We FINALLY had a baptism in this ward!  And it was so beautiful.  Nuts to plan, but wonderful once it finally took place.  The person who got baptized is named Piedad and she´s the mom of a joven in our ward who recently got his mission call to Colombia.  She works every day of the week all day except for Thursday and Friday, so we´ve been teaching her on those days for a few weeks now.  On Wednesday, we happened to call her and asked when we could stop by on Thursday, and she told us she was at home because she had Wednesday off instead of Friday because Friday was a holiday (and she was planning on getting baptized on Friday).  So we ran to her house and were scrambling for ideas on how she could get baptized this week, and we figured out that she could get baptized the following day (Thursday), and still be confirmed this Sunday.  The problem was that she needed to have her interview still, so Wednesday night and Thursday morning was a rush of calling the Líderes de Zona to plan when we could have her interview and who would do the interview and running around to talk to the Bishop and the Ward Mission Leader to make sure the agenda was finished and the assingments were given....  It was a little bit nuts, but everything worked out perfectly and her son baptized her (his first baptism!) which was wonderful.  The spirit was so strong and she bore her testimony of how strong she felt the spirit and how she felt so clean after her sins were washed away.  I just love the Spirit and the power of the Gospel.  The Gospel is simple: faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, enduring to the end.  So easy and essential for salvation.  I love the Gospel and the opportunity I have to share it.

After the baptism, though, Hna. Pérez, some people in the ward, and I were walking out of the chapel and I ran right into a pole.  haha I´ve never run into a pole before, but there´s always a first for everything.

Speaking of firsts, June 1st is a holiday here...Día de Niño.  That means you have to do something great for Parker and Christian.  All these years, we could have been celebrating children...  Another first, I watched the old Restoration video in Spanish for the first time and it was still as awesome as ever.  With the lady that says, "I believe!" and the light that looks like snow...ah.  Classic.

There´s a song here that´s really popular.  It´s called El Pollito Pio.  You should look it up!  Also, a singer named Prince Royce.  Everyone listens to him in the streets.  In the CCM someone was listening to music outside of the CCM when we were trying to teach and I was getting so distracted.  My teacher told me it´s worse in the field and I thought there was no way it could be...but it is.  I have to concentrate so hard, and everyone is always listening to music.  I need to work on not being so ADD, I think.

Also, there´s a place here called Manavi where there are lots of white people.  Sometimes I joke and say I´m from Manavi, and I feel so good when people believe me!  Because that means my Spanish sounds legit.  Still not perfect, but definitely improving.

Dad, you´d be happy to hear that Hermana Bytheway quoted Master of Disguise the other day.  Every day I´m with her, there´s more and more we have in common--especially our sense of humor.  She and I were singing Caillou randomly the other day, too, which was just awesome.  She wrote down the moves for Insanity and Ab Ripper X, so we´ve been doing 15-min workouts of that in the morning which has been great.  haha 

Well, my time is up, but I want you to know how much I love you and how much I know the church is true.  This is the Church of Jesus Christ.  He directs the church in these latter days por medio de Thomas S. Monson.  I love him!

CON AMOR,

Hermana Ayer

P.S. I thought earlier this week about how when I look at my watch, the seconds are never on :00, but every day since then, at least once a day, I´ve looked at my watch and the seconds are on :00!

P.P.S. I used someone´s bathroom the other day that smelled just like Grandma and Grandpa Ayer´s bathroom.  :)  So grateful I can see them again someday!