Missionayeries and Carnaval

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

First of all, HAPPY CARNAVAL!!!!!!!!!! This weekend was the start of Carnaval, and it endstomorrow. Carnaval basically is a time when everyone gets everyone wet. Wet, wet, wet. They could throw normal water on you, or dirty water. It all depends. Our area is pretty tranquilo, so we haven´t been made wet, but you still have to keep your eye out. Presidente said that if they´re getting a little out of control, that we should stay inside our houses. I don´t think we´ll have a problem in our area, but we´ll see as the next couple days come a long. Yesterday, we didn´t have a ton of people in church, though, because everyone went on vacation--members, investigators, etc. They all went to the playa, and there were few left. Yesterday, we actually had to stay inside the house as mandato del Presidente, so I got to catch up on some crafty projects I had started, read in el Libro de Mormón, wrote in my journal, watched The District, etc. It was relaxing. Happy Carnaval!

This week, I´ve been enjoying especially all the different ways people pronounce my last name. People say in in the typical spanish "ayer" pronunciation, and others try to make it English-sounding by putting the emphasis on AY-er, but say it like EYE-er. Others pronounce it like they do in the west "ire," and every once in a while there are those who say it like "air" or "prayer" without the pr, as it should be. I just love my last name and am very proud to be an Ayer. Thank you for giving me a good name, and I hope that I can keep giving our family a good name. After all, that name is on the same plaque as that of Jesus Christ. I am a representative of Him. I will keep giving Him a good name as I go forth in this faithful service.

Also, I want to wish you all a very happy Most Progressive Day of the Year tomorrow!! March Forth is a day never to be forgotten.

Fun thing from this week, I tried cow hoof! It was pretty nasty. I´ll be honest. Our mamita wasn´t able to make us lunch on Wednesday, so we went to a local restaurant. They had cow hoof soup. We all were thinking to just eat the soup, but there was an hermana from Perú who started eating her cow hoof, and we were thinking, You can eat that???!?!?! So she taught us how to open it up and what parts to eat, not eat, etc. To me, it had the texture of a gummy bear, but definitely not the flavor. I don´t think I´ll be going back to cow hoof-eating any time soon.

This week, we´ve been working on finding new people. I don´t know if they have this where you are, but here the area has given us a list of 20 names of people who are menos activos and they can´t find their dirreciones. They have addresses on the list, but it´s not seguro that they live there. So what our mission is, is to find these lost sheep. It´s a way to help track down these menos activos and to also get referencias from their vecinos, family members, etc. We looked for one hermano menos activo, and it turns out that where his address was, lives ANOTHER menos activo. It was such a great [un]coincidence--obviously God led us to his house. The Lord works by means to bring to pass great things. We visited the hermano, and found out he served his mission in Quito, but his wife is Catholic and his children aren´t baptized. We invited him to church, and invited one of his sons to be baptized. His son accepted and they went to church yesterday! Now we just have to help the mom and the other son so that in a year they can all go to the temple and be sealed!!!

My comp and I also have been feeling that we haven´t been seeing the fruits of our labors. But we kept moving forward with faith, and yesterday, a miracle happened. We got to church after having run around for all our investigators with little succes to find that a girl had shown up on her own and said she wanted to get baptized!!!!!!!! That is a true miracle. Ether 12:6. I know God gives us miracles, but only after the trial of our faith. We need to be faithful!!!!!!!!!! And obedient!!!!!!!

Well, I´m out of time, but please know how much I love all of you!!!!


Todo mi amor,


Hermana Ayer

P.S. Last week on Sunday was voting day, so we only had an hour of church. They have a law where you can´t drink the day before you vote. Do we have that in the U.S.?

P.P.S. Today we had Consejo de Líderes. I was there with two of my three hijas!!!