Di a Luz

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

Well, the title says it all. Di a luz. What does that mean, you might ask? Well, it means just that. I gave light. Aka I gave birth. Aka I´m traning again!!!!! I have another hija!!!!!! My hija is Hermana Arnold from Arizona/Springville, UT. She`s fresh from the CCM in México and so excited to work! It´s scary, she reminds me so much of Olivia! It makes the work so fun and made it really easy to love her from the beginning! She´s 5´1", so just a tinch taller than Olivia. But I love her so much. Presidente told us that we should only speak in English with the new missionaries, so we´ve been trying to be obedient. We actually speak Spanish all day, but she obviously doesn´t know everything yet, so I help her when she has a question. We designed10:15 to 10:30 every night to English-speaking, but that pretty much never happens. I just love her happiness and excitement to learn everything. It´s been hard because everything is really hard at the beginning, but I´m so excited to help her to love missionary work and get used to the Ecuadorian culture. (Let me tell you, it´s very different from where we´re from. But it´s awesome.)

My new companion arrived on Tuesday, which meant we (the trainers) got to go to the temple! It was such a great experience. We watched the new temple video, but not the new NEW temple video. It was incredible, and every time I go, I just know more and more that the church is true. You can´t deny the Spirit. We may not understand everything in this life, but what we don´t know should never rule out what we do know. Like (who was it?--Elder Holland?) said, we should have doubts about our doubts. That´s what I´ve tried to help the people of Ecuador come to know. We should have doubts about our doubts. Just trust in the Spirit, and the power of God to answer what we need to know. He´ll never tell us everything, because we don´t need to know everything in this life, but He´ll give us what we need to know so that we can return to His presence--and that´s the most important.

Presidente also changed the rules so we can only listen to hymns now. It´s been wonderful. When we had Consejo de Líderes a couple weeks ago, we read in the introduction of the hymnbook. I would like to invite you all to do that tonight for Family Home Evening. Some choice parts I love are:

"Hymns move us to repentance and good works, build testimony and faith, comfort the weary, console the mourning, and inspire us to endure to the end.... Music has boundless powers for moving families toward greater spirituality and devotion to the Gospel.... THe hymns can bring families a spirit of beauty and peace and can inspire love and unity among family members. Teach your children to love the hymns. (THANK YOU!!) ... Hymns can lift our spirit, give us courage, and move us to righteous action. They can fill our souls with Heavenly thoughts and bring us a spirit of peace. Hymns can also help us withstand the temptations of the adversary.... [L]et us use the hymsn to invite the Spirit of the Lord into our congregations, our homes, and our personal lives."

THANK YOU so much for teaching us to love the hymns!!!!!! Thank you for having us sing hymns as a family all the time!!!!! Thank you for helping me to learn how to play the piano from the hymns!!!!! Thank you for listening to hymns on Sunday. Thank you for always having us sing a hymn on the way to church. Thank you for the constant reminder of the power of music--especially the hymns. I always wondered why our family was always so blessed to all be strong in the gospel and so united. Not only is it because we prayed, read the scriptures, went to church, and had FHE together, but it´s because we SANG THE HYMNS as well!!!!!

The Gospel is so powerful. I know it´s true. This week, we´ve been teaching a joven who has already made great changes in his life. He´ll hopefully be baptized this Saturday. His name is Eduardo. We still need help finding new people, but the members in the ward are awesome, so we´ll rely on their help and mostly on the Lord! Through His name, we can do all things!

I love you so much!!!!!!!!!


Hermana Ayer

P.S. This week, the rain caught us. One road turned into a river. It was quite an adventure.

P.P.S. Questions of the week: "¿Por qué sus cejas son así?" and "¿Que pasó con sus cejas?" I was born with eyebrows this way, ok?? So funny.