Lonnie's Baptism

This week was great because Lonnie got Baptized!!! It was one of the most rewarding days of my mission. Watching Lonnie's life change because of the Gospel of Jesus Christ has brought me a renewed love and passion for missionary work.  It is incredible to see the blessings/ changes that come into people's lives because they live the principles of the Gospel.

This weekend has been a spiritual bomb, I have been changed spiritually because of the new understanding I have received. I feel that this weekend my spiritual eyes have become more clear and that more light has poured into my life. It reminds me of the verses in D&C 84: 43-48.

 43 And I now give unto you a commandment to beware concerning yourselves, to give ^adiligent ^bheed to the words of eternal life.

 44 For you shall ^alive by every word that proceedeth forth from the mouth of God.

 45 For the ^aword of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is^blight, and whatsoever is light is ^cSpirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

 46 And the ^aSpirit giveth ^blight to ^cevery man that cometh into the world; and the Spirit enlighteneth every man through the world, that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit.

 47 And every one that hearkeneth to the voice of the Spirit^acometh unto God, even the Father.

 48 And the Father ^ateacheth him of the covenant which he has^brenewed and confirmed upon you, which is confirmed upon you for your sakes, and not for your sakes only, but for the sake of the^cwhole world.  

I have spent  a lot of time studying chapter 84 and the significance of studying "the words of eternal life." As you continue to read chapter 84 in verse 57 it speaks of "the new covenant even the book of Mormon" I have been trying to wrap my mind around the significance of the Book of Mormon and the power that it has in every persons life who will read it and apply it.  I have learned that the Book of Mormon is the book that  contains the words of eternal life and that it will bring more light into our lives.  We need to cherish the Book of Mormon with all diligence, and then we need to share this knowledge with everyone around us. I have around 10 pages of notes on this topic, so I wont bore yall with the rest of my sermon haha.

I have come to love the scriptures so much on my mission and I don't know if I would have ever gained that love if I hadn't chosen to serve a mission.  Whether you have read the Book of Mormon a million times or if you have never even touched the book I invite you to join with me in a serious study of the Book of Mormon every day for the rest of your life. I promise that the spirit will enter into your life with such great force. There are promises from the Book of Mormon that we cannot afford to live without.  

As for Hopkinsville things have been good and we have been teaching a lot of new people.  A couple weeks ago we met a man named Lucio. We had a strong feeling we needed to visit him and his family. They live quite a ways out of town, but we decided to go anyway. Only his wife, Angelica, and their three kids were home when we stopped by. We read 3 Nephi 11 with Angelica. The spirit was so strong. As we discussed the chapter both Hermana Hendrickson and I were able to make connections that we hadn't made before. "He that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." We felt that! We were all edified. We left a soft commitment for baptism and she said yes! We will be going back on Friday when the whole family will be together.  

Sorry if this email is all over the place haha I hope that yall have a great week!! 

Love, Hermana K Ayre 

P.S. everyone in my mission is getting pumped for Dan to come speak to us at Transfer meeting. President hasn't announced who is speaking, but he has told us that everyone needs to be at transfer meeting on Tuesday the 22. I have heard missionaries speculating that our mission is getting split or that the Prophet is coming to speak haha so the missionaries have some high expectations haha But I know that they are not going to be disappointed when they hear Dan speak and motivate them!   

Conference

Hey y'all ( I never know how to start these things so the default
beginning is "hey y'all") 

Well this week has been pretty good. The highlight of the week was conference, of course, the worst part of the week was when I heard news that Lonnie might not get baptized this
upcoming Saturday :( so if you don't know what to say in your nightly prayers you can start off by praying for Lonnie and his family :) I would highly appreciate that!!

Funny story of the week:
So Hermana Hendrickson and I were walking outside and we pass by a kid
riding his skateboard, hna h decided to stop the kid and ask him if
she can try it out. She tries for a few minuets to skateboard and it
was a total fail.  I ,being slightly prideful, tell hna h to give me
the board and I say, " this is embarrassing, let me show you how it is
done." So I put the board down and I try peddling but the board is
being really resistant, I look down and notice that the wheels are
really old and worn out, hence the problem of me not going anywhere.
At this point I realize why hna h was having such troubles
skateboarding, but me still being prideful, I know that I have to show
her how it is done. So I walk a few feet to where a hill begins
thinking that this will solve my problems with not being able to get
the board moving....  I put one foot on the board and start pushing
with the other, determined to get it goin.  Once I felt that I had
reached the appropriate speed for successes..... I took my other foot
and placed it onto the board as well.  With all my weight now resting
on the skateboard, I could tell that things weren't going to end well.
The board began to shake and then it spun and turned horizontally
leaving me going forward without a board underneath me. I landed right
on my backside with my skirt flying up to my face. I jumped up as fast
as I possibly could and then I began my walk of shame back up the
hill. I thanked the kid for his board and walked away.  Hermana
Hendrickson was nice and tried to baby me because of my cuts haha. I
was too embarrassed to even notice the pain haha.

Well this week we taught a lot of lessons, but we are not having any
progressing investigators..... It is killing us. We are still working
on finding families with real interest, we found a lot of people who
will let us in and listen to our message, but none of them are showing
an interest in the message of the restored gospel. This week we are
going to continue the hunt for people who are ready to act on the
things we teach :) we have faith that there are plenty of people ready
to accept the gospel we just need to do a little more searching and
God will lead us right to them.

Something fun that we recite ever morning in our comp study is

"Make no small plans they have no magic to stir men's souls. This is
the vision I have for the south. I believe that one day the south will
baptize more people into the church than all other English-speaking
missions in the world together. They're great hosts of marvelous
Baptists members of the church of Christ, Methodist and Catholics who
are honorable people and have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and love
Him. As they see their church veering off to the right and to the left
of these basic teachings they will begin to search for truth. And as
pivotal teachers come into the church and have influence. We will see
the time when we will baptize hundreds and thousands, tens of
thousands, in your day you will see 1 million members of the church in
the South State. There will be temples plural the South States. What a
great call you have to serve with these marvelous people. The
missionaries left the south, we are making great strides and expect to
continue."
President spencer w Kimball
Elder Vaughn J  Feathersrone

As I recite that every morning I know that The Lord is hastening His
work in the south and that there are people ready to accept the gospel
of Jesus Christ!!!
Love y'all
Hermana k Ayre

quote from conference "you are infinitely more precious to God then a tree"
Isn't that so true haha

Another Good Week in Kentucky!

Well it has been another good week in Kentucky, Hna H and I did some exchanges this last week so I wasn't in my own area much this week. We also had a zone conference on the things that we learned in MLC (mission leadership council) a few weeks ago. 

Oh I had some of the best news ever this last week, so I get on Facebook and I see a post
from Lonnie that is announcing his baptism on April 12th
ahhhhhhhhh I am so excited for him and his family.  I also heard some other good news from Jennifer this week. I can't remember if I told y'all about this family, but they are Methodists and we have been teaching them for the last 5 or so months in Manchester. Jen sent this messages to me on Facebook.


"This is random, but I took a survey today at the doctors and it asked
what my religion is. At first I was going to check Methodist...then I
saw the LDS box and I put that I was LDS. Thanks for all you have done
to get me to that point. I know it's a little step, but it means a lot
to me." AHHHH.

Haha Jen makes me laugh, I love her. She said that she is going to get baptized soon. And she also said that Robert her husband is going to get baptized!!  It has been nice to hear that all of the investigators that I had to leave are still doing so well in Manchester. The gospel is just so amazing and it is incredible to see so many people come to the
knowledge of the gospel. I love missionary work! There are many hard days but the good times always outweigh the hard times.

As for Hopkinsville, better known as hop-town, things here are starting to move forward. It has been hard to try and get our bearings because we white washed and  Hna H. and I are rarely in our area together because of all the exchanges.  I feel bad for the sisters that come to our area because they just have to sit and do nothing while I teach in Spanish, it is also challenging to teach all by yourself.  When Hna H and I are together we do a lot of finding, and looking for Hispanic families to teach. Finding Hispanics has been quite the challenge, but we are slowly finding the Mexican hot spots in town. Most of the Hispanics that live in Hopkinsville are single men that move where the work moves. The majority of them will only live in one spot for 4 months and then they go to a different town. We found 4 or 5 families this week so our finding efforts were very successful.  We are probably doing 65% Spanish work in our area, we hope to hit 100% eventually.

We had 3 investigators come to the women's broadcast and they liked it. One of the ladies we brought with us just got back from deployment a month ago, where she watched people die and get blown up, so we don't know if she really liked the meeting, it was a little sugar
coated for her liking, haha what can you do.  On the plus side this morning Andrea, the woman that just got back from deployment, started training Hna H and I.  Andrea used to be a personal trainer before she joined the army so she kicked our bums this morning, I almost threw up haha. I am happy about it though because she is going to help me with my
six months to sexy program, haha.

Well I love y'all and I hope to hear from you next week :)

Love
Hermana Ayre