Letter 4/29/13

Hello Fam!!! 

How are things back in Utah?? I can't believe how soon Alydia is getting married!!! I am so excited for her (I hope you have a nice cut out of me to bring to the wedding, haha).  This week in Lebanon has been great, there have been a lot of rain storms and I have been getting really wet. It is quite the fun times as you go trudging through huge ponds of water. There have been a few flooding warnings this last week. Hermana Knecht and I do have a car, but the miles you get are very limited. So we drive to a side of town, park and walk through all the neighborhoods on that side of the town. We have a good amount of Hispanic investigators that we are teaching lessons to and we have had multiple appointments with them. They have been pretty slow to progress, it is like pulling teeth with them to get them to keep their commitments (haha), but that is the work. Our jobs are to invite and then they can use their agency to follow Christ or not. Agency can be a frustrating thing at times (haha)!  I wish we could force them to come to Church and to read the Book of Mormon, but I know with time our investigators will come to the truth of the restored gospel and will start to keep commitments as they chose to follow Jesus Christ. 

This week I have really been grateful for the blessing to be born into the church. I have realized how incredibly blessed my life has been to have been born into my family and situation. So many people here in the South have been raised to hate Mormons and have been taught so many false things about our church. It is really hard to break down people's views about us and to give them the restored gospel. It has been one of the huge challenges we have had to face. But on the upside they are faithful believers in Christ and Love Him so much, so I know that once we are able to show them the truth they will be some of the best members the Church has seen. They all study their bibles daily, pray and have faith. They have so many great foundations to build on and I love it!! I can't wait for the day they open their hearts enough to truly hear our message!!! 

Fun story of the week... here in the south they have things called Ticks (haha). They dig their heads into your skin and suck your blood and they are really Gross. I have found a few on me in awful places that I won't mention, but you have to take tweezers and pull them out by their heads and sometimes you need your comps help because you can't reach them on your own (you can fill in the rest with your imaginations). It is pretty traumatic.  

This week we talked with the preacher lady of the Celebration Church and she told us how she thinks we are polygamists and how Joseph Smith was possessed by the devil and how can we dare think we can add scripture to the Bible. We talked with her and put some of these things to rest and she is open to talking with us again! I love it here so much! The ward I am in is awesome, I love the people in the Spanish group and in the English ward they are all so amazing and nice. I miss you all soo much and I am keeping you all in my prayers!

Love

Hermana Ayre

Letter 4/22/13

Hello, 

Wow, well this week has been crazy and awesome at the same time! Hermana Knect and I have been doing a lot of finding because we know no one (haha).  We have had a lot of interesting experiences while knocking doors and a lot of doors slammed in our faces :( It is kind of sad in the moment, but then we just laugh about it. TN is a very backwards place.  Things here are a lot different then they are at home. There is a lot of poverty around us and a lot of people who don't know where their next meal is coming from. Circumstances here are pretty humbling, but the people are all really happy and friendly. We have taught a lot of lessons this week and people are pretty receptive to our message. I am not around a ton of Spanish speaking people because there are only so many Spanish speakers in this area. So my Spanish is still pretty bad, but I am constantly trying to work on it. 

We went back to the Crazy Celebration church this week and boy was it an experience. First off there are a crazy amount of Churches here in the south, you can really see the effects of the Apostasy here. So anyways, on Wednesday we went to the Celebration Church. The people were really nice and welcomed us in. To start the service they say a prayer to invite Jesus in, BUT you wouldn't believe how they pray. They start yelling and screaming for Jesus and for him to come in and they all stand up and walk around with their eyes closed throwing their hands in the air begging for Jesus to come in. Then they started to speak in tongues, it was really crazy and some what uncomfortable (haha). Then the meeting went on and the preacher lady talked about some crazy vision she had. The vision starts off with her going through a wire cable and then floating above a cave. As she looked down into the cave there is a huge red dragon, there are women being molested and babies all put into a fire. Then she said that all along the walls there are naked men lined up being castrated by a bulldozer truck and that the men were having no emotions about it...... Everyone in the crowd was just eating up her vision and they all believed what she was saying. Yeah, but that experience was pretty weird.  

I am loving it here in Lebanon. The people in our Spanish group are really awesome and loving. I am keeping you all in my prayers!

Love,

Hermana Ayre  

First Letter from Tennessee 4/15/13

Hello Family!! 

All is well, I arrived safely in TN. Well my first week here has been great and a little crazy! So to start off, I landed in TN on Monday afternoon, our flight was delyed in Detroit and a nice man, who used to be one of President McKee's mission counselors, happened to be on our same flight to TN. When we arrived in TN the McKee family was at the airport and we talked with them for a little at the airport and found out that the man we were traveling with is a 70 and was flying back from General Conference. We then grabbed all of our bags and loaded up in the cars, we had 21 people in our traveling group. We then went to the mission home and had dinner. After dinner we had interviews with Sister McKee and President McKee. They are both AMAZING people and I love them and their family already. We then spent the night at the mission home and at neighbors homes that night. 

The next morning we went to the Church and got our companion assignments. We all sat in the gym and we got a letter from the President that has our mission area and companion's name on it and we opened the letter and read it in front of everyone, it was like reopening my mission call (haha).  So my area is Lebanon and my companion is Hermana Knect (connect). She has been on her mission for 6 weeks and knows just as much Spanish as I do (haha), so we will be doing our training together. We are supposed to be trained for 12 weeks, but she will be finishing her 6 weeks training with me. We are also opening an area. The last time Lebanon had Sister missionaries was 14 years ago. We have no idea about the area, we don't know where the Latinos live in this area and this area has not had a baptism for a really long time. We are here to work some milagros, haha. 

We are assigned to an English Ward but there is a Spanish group in the ward of about 50 people and we are here to make the group a Branch and hopefully a Ward soon! The dynamics of it all is a little confusing because the English Ward has been waiting for sister missionaries for a really long time and they have a lot of work for us to do in English, BUT we are Spanish Missionaries and we are here to create a Branch. The ward doesn't want the group to become a branch because if it becomes a branch we will take away from their funds and we all know how that goes. So we are not really backed by the Ward in those efforts. But the Ward has been so so so nice at welcoming us and loving us and setting up our apartment. They are all really awesome. 

Hermana Knect and I have met some really nice Latino families this week and we have started to teach them with the little Spanish we know. God has blessed us so much and put a lot of Latino people in our path. All the people think we are really crazy, haha. We were on Hobbs street the other day and we found a group of really nice Guatemalen faimlies living together that we are starting to teach. On our way walking, two black guys drove up next to us and were talking with us and questioning who we are and stuff. It was a little scetch. They were talking to me saying, "what are you white girls doin here in da hood?" We told Lamar what our church is and invited him to church, he then asked how many black people go to your church? It was just really funny and they were your typical black guys in the hood gangsters, haha. 

Later that week we were trackting and we decided to walk into some random church and talked to the Pastor. So we go into the Church and he gives us a tour and shows us their Sanctuary, the Sanctuary was crazy! It has this huge light show thing and drums and crazy music and it is like you are in a big concert about Jesus (haha). Anyway, I asked if we could sit in on their group meeting and the guy said yes and invited us to stay for their dinner. Then his wife showed up and said we couldn't stay because it was a leadership meeting and the husband asked his wife if we could at least come back for dinner and the wife said no. So we left and if was funny. But we plan to go back on their regular meeting hours on Wednesday and go talk to them some more. We are trying to break down the negative mentatily they have about Mormons and let them know that we are nice normal people and then some of them might start letting us into their homes and then maybe they will let us start teaching them. We are trying to befriend a lot of people right now! 

I miss you, so I am keeping you all in my prayers! Oh and my comp is from California and she goes to BYU she is 19 and I like her a lot! 

Love, 

Hermana Ayre

Last Letter from the MTC 4/5/13

Hola Familia! How is life on your Cruise? This week has gone by super super super fast! I can't believe that I already leave on Monday "CRAZY". Oh and my flight leaves at 7:15 AM so I have to be up at 3 AM " I'm really stoked about that" haha. We then land in Detroit, MI at 12:46 until 1:46 and then fly to Nashville and arrive at 2:32PM. I'm not really sure when I will have time to call you, but it will probably be around 6 something in the morning! I hope that I will get a chance to call you, but I'm nervous that I won't have time because we have 14 people traveling in our group and I'm the travel leader?? Not really sure what I have to do, but I am just assuming I have to make sure everyone makes it on our flight. 

This last week has been really awesome! Easter Sunday was probably the most spiritual day I have ever had in my life. The MTC is a choice place to spend Easter. On Easter, all of the MTC gathered together and 3,000 of us all took the Sacrament at the same time. There were 100 Elders that passed the sacrament and we all renewed our baptismal covenants. The power of having 3,000 missionaries of God all take the Sacrament at once was so amazing and spiritual. In that moment I knew that the new missionary age requirement is going to change the world.  

Just yesterday I went through "in field orientation" and it made me so excited to leave to Nashville. I am so ready for the things I am doing to have a real effect and to start spreading the gospel! My Spanish is in no way ready (haha), but that is life. I know as I rely on the Lord that He will help me in my time of need and if I am working my very hardest and being obedient, God will provide a way for me to share the gospel. I love my Heavenly Father so much and I am so grateful for all the blessings I have in my life and especially for my family. I am so grateful for all my family members and friends, you have all had the biggest impact on my life and I could not serve a mission without the support and friendship you have all given me. 

For some reason I have had a lot of dreams and thoughts of really scary/ bad/ sad things happening and I don't know why (haha). I don't know if it is Satan trying to distract me from the work or if it is just something that all missionaries have thoughts and dreams of, but I receive peace every time I turn and pray to Heavenly Father.  I have full faith in Jesus Christ and that no matter what happens while I am on my mission I will be okay because Jesus Christ is always here and He will never leave me alone. I am so grateful for the strength and comfort I receive every time I put my faith in Jesus Christ. Oh and mom don't worry I am fine, haha. 

This week my companion and I taught some awesome lessons to our investigators.  It is amazing how much the spirit will guide you if you just listen and act on the promptings it gives you. The more I act on the promptings the spirit gives me the more promptings I receive. If you show God that you put your full trust in him, he will in turn show you the trust he has in you by sending you answers and promptings. Like we read in Matthew 14: 22-32, Peter first had to put his trust in Jesus Christ by making the fist step (action)on the water and then in return Jesus granted his will by letting him walk on the water. I have learned that I must make the first step towards Christ and that he cannot make the step for me. I have also learned once I have taken that scary step that He is there and will not let me fail or fall. 

This next Monday as I arrive in Tennessee I will approach some random person that I have never met before and share my testimony of the love I have for the gospel and the love I have for Jesus Christ. It is going to be SUPER scary and it may or may not go well, but I know it is going to be AWESOME because I am sharing the best news and most important message I could ever share with someone. I know that God loves the the people I am going to approach and he wants them to return and live with him and because I know that, I love the people I am going to teach even if they do reject, yell, spit or other crazy things. Jesus loved everyone I MEAN everyone, he loved the people that persecuted him, he loved people who made mistakes, he loved the worst of the worst sinners. Even when Christ was hanging on the cross he didn't worry about himself and the pain He was going through, no he preached the gospel to the men hanging next to him. I hope I can try and love people the way Christ did and love the people that hate me or even try to hurt me. I know God loves ALL of his children, so I must too love everyone.  

Love Hermana Ayre!!!!