DIA DE ACCION DE GRACIAS

FAMILY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Welp, this week is one of updates. There were cambios. We had ´em. I was really really upset because I LOVE Hermana Clark! She´s so awesome! So we were really sad when we got that call. BUT, guess who my companion is? I¨ll give you a hint...I spent 4 1/2 months with her. She´s from Colorado. She´s crazy. She and I are basically twins. Yep....HERMANA ADAMS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to find out she was my companion! Everyday, we´re still like, How are we companions?? It´s so nuts. We´re so nuts together, but we do work. We get it done. And we love it! She and I work so well!

What´s even better is that Hna. Clark is still in my zone!! Presidente Torres in the past wanted Hna Lideres to train, but now he´s having Hna Liders be companions with other Hna Liders. So Hna. Adams and I are together watching out for all of our little hermanitas. There are 8 in the zone, so we´ll do intercambios with them, and we´ve already seen the blessings of being together, because we can really focus on each hermana individually and help them to learn, grow, and love missionary work! It´s been so great!!!! This week, we´re going to do a theme of Thanksgiving scriptures since all except for one of the hermanas in our zone are gringas. It´s pretty nuts. I love it.

Except...I guess I won´t be here to send the little Thanksgiving scriptures, or do intercambios, or anything because........we´re finally doing the Christmas program!! Which is also bad because I haven´t practiced any of the music. I played through the music once and then I never went back to practice because there´s no piano in our chapel. So we´ll see how that goes. Hopefully Presidente will be patient with me, and I¨ll have lots of time to practice it up. Or maybe I´ll just sing. Who knows? All I know is that I¨m leaving today at 5 today for Guayaquil, and I´ll only be there for 2 weeks. We´ll travel around to all the zones in the mission (except for the Galapagos) and perform within these 2 weeks I guess. I´ll keep you all posted.

This week has been wonderful, though. Hermana Adams and I have seen so many miracles. Somedays we don´t have any help from members, but we don´t let that stop us from doing this work. It´s on those days that we can really feel God´s hand guiding us. One night, we went to visit someone we had just talked to in the streets, and we invited his dad to church. He told us about some houses down the street where a lot of Americans lived, so we took that more or less as a referral and headed down. My companion asked me what my favorite number is from 1 to 17, so I chose 3. We pressed the third timbre, and these two little girls salieron because they thought we were there with the pizza they had ordered. A minute later, the pizza guy showed up and we realized that it was incredible that we had pressed that door bell out of all of them. Then the mom of that girl came out and she was extremely drunk. She told us though that she had lived in the United States for a while, so she started talking to us in English...kind of. She was hilarious. She started yelling at her husband, "Baby, open the gate! Baby!" Then he didn´t open the gate, so she said, "Babies, sorry, my husband won´t open the gate." It was so funny. We told her not to worry about it, and left dying of laughter. We´re going to go back this week, though, and find her. We don´t know why God led us to that door right then...maybe just to give us a good laugh, or maybe to help one of his daughters find her way back home. We´ll make sure we do all we can.

Well, I´m out of time, and I have to go finish packing. I love you all so much! I hope you have the best Thanksgiving ever!! Mom, you´ll have to tell me how Planksgiving has been going, and dad, you´ll have to tell me how Franksgiving goes. One month till Christmas!

LES AMO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LA IGLESIA ES VERDADERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hermana Ayer


P.S. Dad! Please tell me what planet I can see!!!!!!!!!!!

P.P.S. Can you send me all the scripture references from the Book of Mormon that talk about javelines?? Thanks!

A Wonderful Week

FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, the best thing of this week (there were a few great things) was helping to set up and decorate a Christmas tree!!! A real, live, fake Christmas tree!! We put it all together and pulled the branches up, evened them out, threw on the lights, and put on the ornaments. It´s not like trimming the tree in our house, but it was fun nonetheless. On Monday, we had gone over to our Lider Misional´s house to talk to him, and right when we got there, they invited us in to help decorate the tree, and have some hot chocolate y pan. I guess since Thanksgiving doesn´t exist here, everyone just focuses on Christmas as soon as they can. Which is sad to me, because I love Thanksgiving, but I´m ready to get into the Christmas spirit. It was so fun!

Also, this weekend, we had full time with Presidente Torres. On Friday, we had a capacitacion with him and learned SO MUCH!!! He is SUCH an inspired man, and really has so much charity. That´s his focus as a president. It says in Moroni 7:48 that those who are true disciples of Jesus Christ have charity, and he wants us to be more than missionaries. He wants us to be true disciples of Jesus Christ. I love him!

On Saturday and Sunday, we had Stake Conference! And the best part was that we had Elder Fernando Calderón from the Seventy and the temple president, Presidente Groberg, there. Elder Calderón is a riot! He is soooooo funny! We talked about the importance of counsels. The church is run by counsels. Presidents have counselors. It says in Proverbs 11:14 that in the midst of counsellors there is safety. This church is a church of order. God is a God of order. When we have counsels and talk about PEOPLE, we are helping to create order and have the SPIRIT. I love the gospel and how it works. I love the organization of the church. It´s perfect!!!! We are the imperfect people, but if we follow the guidance of our leaders, we´ll have safety!!! God wants to help EACH of His children return back to His presence. That´s why the church is organized, focusing on PEOPLE. God loves us! He is our loving Heavenly Father!!!!!!!!!!!

This week, we ran into some hard-hearted people, and it made us really sad for them. They said they couldn´t believe that Christ visited the Americas, that God had prophets here, thet they´ve given us more of their word, and that today there are prophets and apostles. They reminded me exactly of 2 Nephi 29:6-10. "A bible! We have a bible! And we don´t need more bible!" They think their complaint is so original, but it was predicted 2600 years ago. Russell M. Nelson said in his April General Conference talk, "El Libro de Mormon está en completa armonía con la biblia. Los dos registros sagrados confirman la verdad del Evangelio de Jesucristo y la importancia de su Expiación." We don´t worship men. We worship God and Jesus Christ. The Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ!

"Hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ" (2 Nephi 33:10-11)! "And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Chirst" (2 Nephi 25:26)! It´s all about Christ! We are followers of HIM! Not of man. This is the Church of JESUS CHRIST. He lives! We shared those scriptures with our hard-hearted pals, and Dallin H. Oaks April General Conference talk "Seguidores de Christo." I hope they read it and can receive a change of heart. This is the true church.

I love you all so much and hope all is well in your lives! I¨m praying for you!!!!!!

CON MUCHO AMOR,


Hermana Ayer

P.S. Today might be cambios. I´m sad, because I LOVE my companion!! I´ll update you next week.

Don´t take NH for Granite

QUERIDO FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all so much and am so glad Christian´s birthday was awesome! I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!

This week has been a good one. My companion and I have learned a lot about the power of prayer, and the importance of praying specifically. This week, we realized we've been wasting our time on investigators who can´t and/or don´t want to progress. So this week, our goal is finding new people. New people who are prepared to hear this message and live the principles we teach. One day, we were left without any help from the members, and we didn't have any direction, so we decided to just sit down on a park bench and pray. We prayed for three things en especifico 1) have the help of a member, 2) find this woman named Gladys in her house, and 3) find a family. Within one hour, we realized that God was putting His hand in our work. We called a member and found out she could help us…on Wednesday. We also went to Gladys´s house and found her…busy. And we realized we never asked for when we wanted to find a family, but knew that everything that happened that day was an answer to our prayers. We may not have been able to use the help of the members that day, and we may not have been able to meet with Gladys that day, and we may not have found a family that day, but God had answered our prayers. We just need to ask more specifically. It´s like that little video after Dudley Doright, when they said whoever opened the box would die. One guy opened the box and didn't die, and the bad guy says, “Hey, but it says whoever opens the box will die!” And the guy who opened the box said, “Yeah, but it didn't say when!” If we want the blessings NOW, we have to ask for them NOW. God will give us everything, and much of the time it may not be in our timetable, but if we pray specifically and with faith, He will ALWAYS answer us, and will ALWAYS give us what we ask for (if it´s righteous, of course).

This week was a week of firsts, though. I cut my hair for the first time on the mission! Not only that, but I cut my hair with my own hands for the first time in my life! (Well, my hands guiding the scissors, that is.) It turned out pretty well, too! I also did my first 24-hour intercambio. I had done intercambios when I was in Santa Rosa, but only for a few hours at a time. This week, I didn´t a full day one, and it was great. I wasn´t exactly sure what I was supposed to do on an intercambio, except be an example, so I did my best. I was with Hermana Crum from Bluffdale, UT…right on over there by Lehi. She´s great, and is studying psychology at BYU. We were able to find some people to teach, get some references, and commit people to go to church. I helped her to see the importance of choosing to be happy. It´s so crucial that we always have hope, that we have faith, and that we always have a smile on our face. This Gospel is one of JOY!!!!

Happy Veterans Day (11/11…make a wish), Happy 27th Anniversary of the Infamous Snowball Fighted Meeting of You Two Cuties last Thursday, and Happy 10/11/12 tomorrow…but that doesn´t happen for me here in Ecuador until December 11th.

So the other day, some Testigos knocked on our door and wanted to share a message about…I don´t know what. Basically, what I got out of it is that when we die, we´re going to turn to dust until the resurrection. Their message didn´t help us feel peace, or invite us to make a change in our lives, and basically left us feeling helpless, hopeless, and sad. In contrast, we as missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints help people to feel the peace and happiness that comes through REPENTANCE, o sea, through making changes in their lives. That´s what Christ did. He invited everyone to repent. He didn´t teach a sermon just to make people feel good—He taught them so people knew what they had to DO to return to God´s presence. We have to DO things. We have to ACT. We have to REPENT and BECOME like Christ. After the Testigos left, we felt just…bad. So we decided to sing Creo En Cristo (I Believe in Christ) with the windows open. It was beautiful and the spirit was so strong. I know Christ lives and I know He loves us. He is our Savior. Through Him we can have peace and joy. I know it!! I´ve felt it! I love Him so much and am so grateful for His infinite, selfless, and atoning sacrifice.

Funny story from this week, the native women here can literally carry like 200 lbs. on their back. The other day, my companion and I saw this guy walking around carrying a big, black couch on his shoulder. My companion goes, “Wow, the people here are SO strong!!” I had to explain to her that it was a blow-up couch…but yes, the people are still really strong.

Today, we went to a sweet free museum that had some ruins and llamas and stuff. Pretty cool. I threw in a couple pictures.

I love you all! Bring someone to church this week. Share a message of happiness. Be an example. :]

Con amor,


Hermana Ayer


P.S. Dad, can you look up what planet can be seen from Ecuador right now?? I´ve wanted to know for about 5 months now, but keep forgetting to ask. Please let me know!

P.P.S. People eat so much bread here! There´s a panaderia on practically every corner. It´s so good. They eat a huge lunch and then dinner is just hot chocolate and bread. Mmmm.

P.P.P.S. Kat Heal, if you´re reading this, I got your letter! Congrats on your mission call, and I loved the beluga whale!

P.P.P.P.S. I´ve never been so grateful that Grandma Ayer taught me how to play Happy Birthday on the piano. It came in really handy this week. Now I don´t take it for granted. :] Don´t take anything for granted. We are so blessed!!

Sweet 16...dulce dieciseis...whichever you prefer...

So I heard a rumor...that someone is turning...................SIXTEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT?????????????????????

HAPPY 16TH BIRTHDAY, CHRISTIAN ELIASON AYER!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU NOW HAVE 16 YEARS OF LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat????????????? I can´t believe you are that old now. Time really does fly and you are the best little brother ever!!!!!!!! I hope you have an awesome day and know of my love for you!!!

Thanks for sending me all the pictures of the pumpkins you carved. That´s something I definitely miss from being here in Ecuador. Halloween-y, American traditions. And now the Thanksgiving season is upon us.........well, upon you. Here, everything is just the same. But it´s fine. I love my new area and my companion and the hermanas we live with! We have so much fun and I love singing harmony!!!!!!! I love singing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Happy rabbit rabbit, are you voting tomorrow?, and chao daylight savings (we´re now in the same time zone again).

Enjoy the pictures I sent and know that pictures speak a thousand words, and then remember that when you read this short email.

But from this week, what I want you all to do is read Neil L. Anderson´s talk "It´s a Miracle" from the April Conference! I know you all heard it, but READ IT AGAIN!!!!!!!! It tells you just what you need to do as members of the church to help in the missionary efforts. It´s YOUR responsibility...not the missionaries´. They are here to help YOU in your missionary responsibilities. Then read 2 Nephi 26:23-33. EVERYONE is invited to take part of Christ´s salvation. Everyone has the opportunity to hear the Gospel! Everyone needs it! NO ONE is excluded from Christ´s salvation NO ONE. Everyone is invited to partake of His goodness and His love. No one is excluded from worshipping with us. Everyone is invited to worship with us in the House of the Lord and feel the Spirit. Everyone is alike in God´s eyes. We are not better than anyone else, so we have to help those who haven´t been fortunate enough to hear the gospel...to hear it!!! It´s our duty! Do it!!!!!! I love you so much!!! Help our neighbors, friends, conocidos. They need this message!!!!!!!!!! Have charity!!!!!!!!

This week, my companion and I didn´t have much help from the members, so it was a little hard, but we found a few people who want to hear the message we have. One man is named Alberto, and he lived in Worcester, MA, about 10 years ago! He always tries to speak English with us, but I can´t teach in English, so we just stick with Spanish. He smokes, but really wants to stop. He really wants to have happiness and peace in his home, so he´s seeking for the truth. And guess what?? We have it. He went to church on Sunday and LOVED it. He has a baptismal date for the 30th of Noviembre, so pray that he can quit smoking! I love the Gospel and know it changes lives!!

This weekend was las fiestas de Cuenca, so there were a lot of people gone to concerts, putting flowers on their relatives graves, eating colada morada and guaguas de pan, and of course, drinking. Nothing can stop the work from progressing, though!! We´re still esforzandonos to find new people and help everyone to partake of Christ´s salvation!!!!!!!!


I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hermana Ayer

P.S. Will, I got your postcard!! Thanks!!!!!!!!