Monday, April 28, 2014

Día del Trabajador

FAMILY!!!!!!

First of all, I would like to wish in advance a happy Rabbit Rabbit and May Day this Thursday (which also happens to be the Día del Trabajador here in Ecuador...which is ironic, because it´s the day all the workers stay home and sleep or go on vacation or something), and a HALFY BIRTHDAY to Christian on Sunday. May the Forth be with you.

This week was incredible and passed SO FAST!!!!!! I´ll start with the miracle people we´re teaching:

MARIA. Maria is a woman who showed up to the Stake Conference two Sundays ago, and said she wanted to get baptized. She´s from here, but the past few weeks was visiting her sister on the coast. Her sister is a member, but she didn´t know that. When she was with her sister, the missionaries came over and began to teach her. She asisted church twice over there, and loves it. She loves the Book of Mormon. She reads Teachings of the Prophets of the Church in her free time. She reads Gospel Principles in her other free time. And reads the Book of Mormon every night for a minimum of 15 minutes. She already marked all the books in her LDM, and highlighted all the chapter headings, etc. She is incredible. She is prepared. I honestly don´t know how I am so blessed to be the one to teach her. She´s lived in Cuenca for so long, but the missionaries never found her. Her sister has been a member for a while, but she never knew. I don´t know what Hermana Price and I did right to deserve such a great blessing. I am so grateful to my Father in Heaven to have this chance to be entrusted with one of His most precious daughters. He loves us so much! I know He is a God of miracles. Maria will be baptized this Saturday. Pray for her to vencer la tentación. Satan works hard during the week before a baptism. But God is always stronger. :)

FAMILIA PUMA. This family was a referencia de una familia de mi old ward in Tomebamba. The oldest daughter attended the conferencia de estaca and loved it and told her whole family that they should go. There are 5 children in the family, and all are above the age of 8! The parents are a little more duro, and haven´t had the desire to go to church. It´s hard to visit them, too, because the work until 9 pm every day. Que bestia. But I know that they´ll come around. The 4 oldest children (20, 19, 15, and 14) all went to church on Sunday, and it was funny because there´s another church on the same street but Evangelica. They accidentally went inside that church, then realized that they didn´t feel the same spirit, so they left and looked for the Church of Jesus Christ, and when they walked in felt instant peace. The Spirit is real. All the children have a baptismal date, and love the church. The oldest daughter said that they´re going to be an example for their parents and that with time, their parents will come to church and be baptized, too. What faith!! I know it´s true, too! God wants us to return to His presence como FAMILIAS!! Not alone.

LAURA. Laura was ALSO a referencia. By the Stake President. She´s his work compañera, and is going through some really hard times in her life. She loves going to church, and she loves the Book of Mormon, but she can´t let the Catholic Church go and be baptized like Jesus Christ. The more she reads and prays, she´ll get her answer. Pray that she can get an answer. She needs the renewal of baptism in her life. Like the soldiers who killed our Savior in Hechos 2:37-41. Arrepentíos y sed bautizados.

The best part of this week, was having a visit from ELDER UCEDA!!
It was so awesome! I led all the music for the meeting, and the special hermana choir. It was great. He is a great leader and speaks with the Spirit. I learned so much, and know I have so much to improve on in my last few months here in the mission, but it´s never too late to change! I wish I had time to write down everything he said, but he talked a lot about the OLD type of missionary who just sees their propósito and thinks BAUTIZAR, and the NEW type of missionary who works with the members to find, teach, baptize, retain, and reactivate--a missionary who really helps people to have a true faith in Jesus Christ.

I love this Gospel and know that we can all return to our Father in Heaven! Be the best missionaries you can and help everyone to come to the truth. If people aren´t going to church, you should feel PAIN, and do everything possible so that they can stay active! This is the only way we can return to God´s presence and enter into His kingdom! He loves us! If we love Him, we will serve His children! Mosiah 2:17.

I LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hermana Ayer


P.S. I totally ate it this week and it was hilarious. My companion was dying. Don´t worry, I just can´t walk on flat ground anymore. No harm done.


Monday, April 21, 2014

Cuencur

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

Welp, I´m back in the beautiful, cold city of Cuenca. I´ll be honest, I wasn´t really looking forward to being back here in the sierra, but it´s been a great blessing! My companion and I have already seen so many miracles! My companion is Hna. Price from Ogden, UT, and she has 3 weeks in the mission! I´m training still! Yay! I have so many hijas and hijastras, it´s nuts. It´s been so fun to be able to help her to have a good time on the mission and remember why she´s here. The beginning of a mission is really hard (the middle and the end, too, but especially the beginning). It is so important that people love the mission right from the start, or who is going to want to be here for a year and a half? (Or 2 years, for you elderes.)

This week, we´ve been trying to get to know the sector and it´s crazy because we are in the biggest ward out of all of Cuenca. We have two sides with limits, and then one side is the mountains, and the other side is until there´s no civilization. The Obispo said that there are members who live an hour and a half from here. El Presidente doesn´t want us to go over there unless we have an appointment with someone, but I don´t see the chances of us having an appointment an hour and a half away very likely.

This Sunday, we had a stake conference por satelite for all of Ecuador. It was awesome! The people who spoke were Marcus B. Nash, Rosemary M. Wixon, Jeffrey R. Holland, and Richard G. Scott! Hna. Wixon gave all of her talk in English (it was translated), and most of E. Holland´s talk was in English, but he started and ended in Spanish. At the beginning, he said, "No voy a continuar hablando en mi horrible Español. Es terrible. Es horrible." It was so great. Then at the end, he bore his testimony in Spanish, and it was incredible. It was simple, but powerful. I feel like that sometimes. My testimony may be simple, but I hope it´s powerful so the people can feel the truth of this message. He said, "Sin el Evangelio, no tenemos nada. Pero con el Evangelio, tenemos todo--luz, paz, y gozo. El Evangelio y la Expiación son los dones mas grandes en mi vida." I love the Gospel and I love the Atonement. I was so grateful to have that stake conference on Easter, because it helped me to remember the great and atoning sacrifice of my Savior, Jesus Christ. I love Him. I know He died for me, and was ressurrected. I know He lives. He lives!! Elder Scott said that Jesuscristo should be the center of our homes porque se llenará de paz y serenidad. I love the apostles and know they are called of God.

Here, Easter isn´t really a big deal--just Good Friday (Viernes Santo). Kind of sad that the Catholics only want to think about the death of Jesus Christ instead of the resurrection. I´m so grateful that we focus on His life over His death. Thanks to Him we all can live again!

I loved this quote from Gordon B. Hinckley: "Qué grande será el día en que los miembros no solo oren por los misioneros de todo el mundo sino que también pidan al Señor que les ayude para colaborar con los misioneros que están trabajando en sus propios barrios." Work with the missionaries! They need the help! Also, your tarea for this week is to read the quotes at the end of chapter 1 in PMG. [HEBER J. GRANT: love = share the Gospel. GEORGE ALBERT SMITH: exaltation = share the Gospel. DAVID O. MCKAY: missionary work = love in action. EZRA TAFT BENSON: ward spirituality = missionary work of the members. HOWARD W. HUNTER: personal conversion = share the Gospel.]

Random happenings: (1)Guess who I saw this week?? KAYLA SCHVANEVELDT!!!!!!!!
I saw her at the Stake Conference!!!!!! I didn´t have my camera, but she took a picture with her phone. (2) At the Stake Conference, we also received other miracles--including one lady who had listened to the missionaries on the coast and came back here to Cuenca where she lives and wants to be baptized!! God is a God of miracles!!!!!! (3) There´s a family in our ward who is from the U.S. and it was so refreshing to be in the home of an LDS family from the U.S. THeir kids were loco. I felt right at home. :]

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Hermana Ayer

P.S. Happy Earth Day tomorrow.

P.P.S. Elder Uceda comes this Saturday to Cuenca!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Cambioss

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

Welp, it´s official. I´m leaving Guayaquil. I´m going from exceedingly hot to exceedingly cold. That doesn´t sound like correct English, but you get what I´m saying. That´s right, folks, I´m headed to Cuenca. I´m leaving my hija to go help train another newbie who has 3 weeks on the mission. I´m really quite sad because I love her and we were teaching such awesome people and the ward is really awesome and it´s just always hard to have cambios. I´m going to open ANOTHER sector in Cuenca. It´ll be fun. This sector has been closed for a little while, so I´ll get to know everyone hopefully moderately quickly. But enough about the future, let´s talk about Ayer.......and what she did this whole last week.

This week, we met a man from Oregon! That was quite an experience. He was staying with a Latino family who we had visited before, and he said he left the U.S. because the economy is bad and it´s an "all about me" society. He was trying to hard to speak Spanish and the family was doing so well at trying to understand him and speak English back. He asked us what our secret was to speaking Spanish and we told him it was the Gift of Tongues. Kinda hard to beat that. But it´s true! When we´re in God´s service, he blesses us with gifts of the Spirit!! I´m so grateful for my calling as a servant of God and that I have the chance to help His children come unto Him.

The only Conference session I took notes from was Sunday morning, but I felt like all those memssages were directed exactly to me. I loved President Uchtdorf´s talk on being grateful IN our circumstances instead of FOR something. That morning, my comp and I were running around all morning for the people who we had invited to go to the Conferencia, and there were a lot of people who weren´t home, or were sleeping, or made excuses, or went to the playa, or whatever. My companion and I were frustrated and tired, and sweaty, and when we got to the Conferencia and heard that talk, I felt like President Uchtdorf was reprimanding me. God knew I needed that talk right then and right there. I´m so grateful for the love and mercy of our Father in Heaven. During the intermediate hymn, one of our investigators had to leave and she wanted us to accompany her to her house. My companion and I AGAIN were frustrated and grumbling, and we got back to listen to Elder Bednar´s talk. It was incredible. Right when we were walking back to the conference, I talked to my companion about the Atonement and how Christ gave everything to save us, and we have to give everything for this short time here in Ecuador. When we got back and heard Elder Bednar´s talk on cargas, it was just for me, yet again. Trials help us grow and progress. They also help us rely more on our Savior, Jesus Christ. And I loved Presidente Monson´s talk on Charity! It´s the center of the gospel! That´s the emphasis my Mission Presidente has made since he got here--CHARITY. We never will regret an opportunity we took to love and serve. Never.

Random thoughts: (1) Last Thursday, I completed 15 years since my baptism! So crazy! (2) Happy Palm Sunday yesterday. All the Catholics were selling ramos to buy. THis week is Semana Santa, and I can´t believe that this Sunday is Easter! I love Easter! (Except for that one rabbit from that Berenstein Bear´s movie we have...but I think he learned to love it.) (3) Women who want the Priesthood...Jacob 4:10...Jacob 6:12 (4) I got your package!!! Thank you so much!!!! My companion loved the pillow case!!!

Well, I don´t have any time left because I have to head out to Cuenca, but I hope you know how much I love you and how true the church is!! It´s the truth and I can never deny that! I love our family and I know the Gospel blesses families! It´s blessed ours so much, and I know it will bless my future family!

I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Hermana Ayer

P.S. Cambios means I won´t be singing for Elder Uceda anymore. Maybe they´ll do a musical number in Cuenca, but most likely not. At least I still have the music, though, from when we practiced last week.



P.P.S. 2 Nephi 9:52

Monday, April 7, 2014

ABRIL Fools



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

Can you believe it´s ABRIL already?? I sure can´t!!!!!!!! Time is flying like the wind, Bulseye. This was a great week in my opinion. It had it´s ups and downs, but an excellent week overall.

On Monday, our Líderes de Zona passed by our house to do some siguimiento of our investigators, and told us that Presidente wanted us to make a 72 hour kit. We thought it was kind of weird, but with the few resources we had, we bought some canned items and threw it together with some medicine, water, etc.

Tuesday, as you all already know was APRIL FOOLS DAY!!!!!!!!! I started it off telling my compañera there was a cocroach by her foot, and then as she started jumping around, I said April Fools! It was pretty good. I got some other people saying their shoe laces were untied. That one never gets old. At the end of the day, there was an earthquake in Chile, and there was a tsunami warning for all of Chile, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. My companion and I were just talking earlier in the day about how we needed a little change in our schedule--something to mix up the rutine. And guess what happened? That. Our Mission President is so awesome and loving and protecting, that all the hermanas in Guayaquil went and stayed in his house. It was awesome!! We got to stay in a nice, air-conditoined room, on a big comfy bed, and used hot water to shower with. I felt so spoiled. In the morning, we even had waffles!!!!!!!! So delicious!!!!!!!! Turns out that the tsunami was just the weather playing a big April Fools joke. It was great.

Also, on Friday, my companion and I didn´t even know that the volcano had errupted, but my companion felt like she was having a hard time breathing, so that´s probably why. We didn´t see any ash (Smash Dog), but it was pretty cloudy. Now I know...

THe best part of the week was definitely SATURDAY AND SUNDAY!!!!!!!! Why, you might ask? CONFERENCIA!!!!!!!!!!! I don´t have time to explain everything I would like to, but the Conferencia was awesome and I justw ant to say that I know our chruch leaders are inspired of God. They are called of God. Thomas S. MOnson is a prophet!!!!! My comp and I had to esforzarnos mucho to bring investigators to the Conference, but we were blessed with some miracles there. I know God is a God of miracles and a God of love. I was also happy to see both of your cousins, Mom, in the same camera angle!!

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



Hermana Ayer

P.S. When is easter?? I don´t have a 2014 calendar, so I´ve been feeling extremely lost and anxious. The Catholics say it´s in 2 weeks. Easter´s never been so late bfore, has it?

P.P.S. I´m playing for Elder Uceda when he comes in 2 weeks, and my comp, hna. bytheway, and hna. davenport are singing. Woohoo!

P.P.P.S. My comp and I reinacted a picture of when her mom was on her mission. Nice.