My 21st Birthday!

This Last week has been slow"ish", but we still had some really good lessons. 

The weeks that we ride our bikes are pretty hard because the majority of our investigators all live far out in the boonies and they can only meet with us at nights and our mission president recently said that Sisters can't ride their bikes at night. Soooo we were kind of in a pickle this last week to say the least. The work must go on. We got a few members to come out with us so that helped a lot.

Anyways, things are really good here in Manchester Tennessee. I have felt so close to our Heavenly Father these last few days, and I'm so grateful for all the things he has blessed me with.  

A talk I fell in love with this last week was, " You Can Do It Now" by Elder Uchtdorf.  A part I really liked was: 

" No one likes to fail. And we particularly don’t like it when others—especially those we love—see us fail. We all want to be respected and esteemed. We want to be champions. But we mortals do not become champions without effort and discipline or without making mistakes.

Brethren, our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward." 

On the mission you have a lot of humbling experiences and even as a missionary you still aren't perfect (shocking right haha).  I have felt so loved as I rely on our Heavenly Father to help pick me up and push me forward on the hard days. I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary and to share the gospel with others, I can't picture a better way to spend my 21st birthday then in the service of my Lord. ( oh and going to Nashville for our P day haha) 

I LOVE y'all so so so much
Hermana Ayre

Week 2 in Manchester

So this week was AWESOME! 

Sister Schmit and I have been still contacting referrals all week long and we had some great lessons with the fair referrals we meet last week. 

One really cool lesson we had was with a 14 year old girl, Tiffany, who filled out a fair referral. The first time we meet and taught Tiffany we taught her the Restoration, and she thought it was cool. This next time when we returned, all of Tiffanie's family her mom, dad and little sister all sat in for the lesson. We talked about the plan of salvation and we mostly focused on the gift of eternal families. The family loved this lesson, the mom is a Catholic, the father has no religion, Tiffany is Baptist, and the youngest girl says she is still looking for her religion (welcome to the south) BUT they all agreed on the divine nature of families and the strength families can have through Jesus Christ. After the closing prayer Tiffany said, " Man I just feel so good, I can't explain it. I can't stop smiling, Why am I so happy right now?"  

Hermana Schmit and I just smiled and expressed to her that, that is the Holy Ghost confirming the truthfulness of our message to her. Tiffany and her family then committed to read the Book Of Mormon together as a family cover to cover. AWESOME, right? 

I just love this gospel so much and I have seen how the true gospel of Jesus Christ can change families forever not only in my life, but in the lives of families I have the opportunity to teach. This week, another family we are teaching, committed to being baptized on the 19th of October.  At this time I am reminded of Alma 29: 8-10

 8 For behold, the Lord doth ^agrant unto ^ball nations, of their own nation and ^ctongue, to teach his word, yea, in wisdom, all that he ^dseeth fit that they should have; therefore we see that the Lord doth counsel in wisdom, according to that which is just and true.
 9 I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do^anot ^bglory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.
 10 And behold, when I see many of my brethren truly penitent, and coming to the Lord their God, then is my soul filled with joy; then do I remember ^awhat the Lord has done for me, yea, even that he hath heard my prayer; yea, then do I remember his merciful arm which he extended towards me. 

I feel so much joy when I see someone coming unto Christ and changing their lives for good because I know of the joy a person has when they truly come to know God and feel of the love he has for them individually. 

I know that all of us can also feel the joy of helping others come unto Christ through our examples and testimonies. We DO NOT have to be a full time missionary to feel the joy Alma speaks of in Alma 29: 9-10. As we heard this last  weekend during General Conference, it is all of our responsibility as members of the Church of Jesus Christ to share the gospel with others. I hope that we can all have a little more confidence  and courage this week as we open our mouths and share the gospel with those around us. 

I love y'all so very much and can testify of the joy that we will fill as we share the Everlasting and only true gospel of Jesus Christ with those around us.
Oh and Happy Birthday to My AMAZING Mother. She is truly an example of loving others full heartedly. I will always be grateful to my mom and the sacrifices she has made for me and my family to have the gospel in our lives. 

Love
Hermana Ayre

1st Week in Mancheter!

Hello Catwangs, 

I am doing GREAT!!! I have loved my first week in Manchester. To start off... my companion is Hermana KC Schmit. She is from Washington and I love her. Sister Schmit and I are a lot alike in our personalities and our work ethic. Sister Schmit grew up playing volleyball and played volleyball at a community college for 2 years. We love pushing each other to new limits in our work. We both loving having constructive criticism in our companionship and we have really helped each other to grow.

Each morning we both love to run and then we come back to our place and pepper for 10 mins. We have so much fun with each other. I love being able to practice volleyball with her. Oh and I still got my skills, haha. 

My living quarters are awesome!! A family in the ward, The Andersons, have a home that they let us live in. We have a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom home. Too bad we have to sleep in the same room, haha. But it has been soooooo nice having my own bathroom to get ready in. 

So in this area we have a car part time. So we go a week on and then a week off with the car. This week we did not have the car. The first 2 days we just walked everywhere and my feet blistered up real good. The whole pad of my foot was one big blister haha, it killed. I had to take a needle and pop that bad boy.

The next day I knew that I couldn't wait to get a bike, so Sister Anderson took me to good old walmart. I got a nice 99 dollar huff bike. It is pink, I LOVE riding a bike, it is so much fun and it just makes doing the work a little bit better. My bum is pretty sore, but I don't mind. My legs are also getting into shape. I feel so much better ridding my bike too because it helps me get more exercise.  30 mins in the morning is not enough time to work off all the food that I get fed. 

This area just finished a fair as well, Sister Schmit and I alone have almost 300 people to contact. It is a really crazy process trying to contact this many people within a certain amount of time. For example, this last week we only got in contact with about 16 people. We attempted to see about 45 people, but they are not home, so we have to retry to contact them. 

Hey on the bright side, out of the 16 people we came in contact with we got 12 new investigators and about 6 golden investigators.

Well that is about all for me this week!! I hope y'all are doing great!! 

Love,

Hermana Ayre

P.S. everyone better be getting pumped for General Conference I CAN'T WAIT