The Festivities 12/29/14

Hola Todos!

I hope all of you had a very Merry Christmas! This Christmas for me was very special. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be able to pass the Christmas here in Chile. We had a great week full of Christmas activities. We 6 missionaries here in Almendroza and the jovenes went caroling the 23rd. It was so special because we visited some of our investigators and the members who needed a little bit of help this Christmas. It was so great to see the smile on the faces of these people, you could see the spirit of Christmas working in them.

 

Then the 24th we had a dinner with our lider misional and his family and us 6 missionaries. We ate so much that I literally thought I was going to die. The Chilenos love their meat. But overall we were so grateful for this family that let us pass this special time with them. 

Then the 25th, we had our reunion de zona and we woke up early and the 6 missionaries from Almendroza made the whole zone pancakes for breakfast. Afterwards, we had another asado. Seriously just thinking about meat makes me a little bit sick. If you all at home think that we eat a lot for the holidays, you're wrong. But the best part was that the 25th I was able to speak with the fam. It was so great to see all of them.

 

Sorry this letter wasn't so great, I don't have so much time, but I love you all and hope that you all have a great new year! How blessed are we to be able to have this time to reflect on what we have done this last year and to think in what we can do this year to become better people. All of us should think about our spiritual goals and what we can do to be able to become more like Christ this year. 

Con mucho amor

Hna Ayre

Merry Christmas 12/22/14

Hola!

This week, I don't have a whole lot of time to write, but I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and thank you for everything that all of you have done for me. Each one of you has touched my life. I wanted to just bear my testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ to all of you:

I know that He lives and that He came to this world because He loves each and everyone of us so much and individually. He showed us the way we should live and that through HIm we can do all things that are en acuerdo with our Father's will. I know that all of us can change, I know that one day, we will live in His presence again if we follow his example. He gave us everything. When I think about this, I think about what I have given to Him and what I should be giving to Him. I want to be able to say to Him one day that I have given all that I could to HIs cause.

 

I love you all and hope that you have a great Christmas and that we can all give a little bit more this year.

 

Love you all

Hna Ayre

Christmas Conference

Hola todos! 

Wow, what a crazy week. there is so much that has happened this week. This time of the year in the mission is crazy. We went to San Fernando this week to have a christmas conference and it was so great. We started by having a devotional and then we all changed into sports clothes and the two zones played handball with an excercise ball, kick the can and kickball. We had lots of fun. 

This week, we saw a miracle. We are teaching a menos activo who is waiting to get married in January and her son and his girlfriend live just down the street from them. For these last two cambios, I have passed this girl, Kote in the street every week, and we'd say hi but not much more than that. But this week, in my first division as coordinadora, I decided to pass by to visit her. At first she was like, I don't share your ideas but we started talking about Jesus Christ and the love he has for every single one of us and her heart softened. And at the end of the lesson, we invited her to church and she said she was going to come! And she really did show up at church this Sunday and stayed for the 3 hours. She also participated in the classes, It seriously was a miracle! Also at the end of the lesson, we gave her a Book of Mormon, and the smile she had on her face was so big. I've never seen someone be so greatful to receive this book. I am so excited to be able to work with her more. She really is super special. 

Also this week, we had an experience super traumatizing. We were leaving one of the poblaciones with our menos activo Nadia, and we saw a man sitting on a bench covered in blood. I asked him what happened and he didn't say anything but Nadia went to go tie his shirt around his arm because we saw where the blood was coming from and it was his arm. He lifted up his arm and he had a huge wound and I seriously have never seen so much blood leave a persons body before. Its like someone had turned on a faucet of blood. And then my companion goes, we need to leave and we started walking and I saw a women running after this man with a knife. Her face was really beat up too. And then they started fighting in the middle of the street, it was horrifying. My companion and Nadia were alright but it sent me into a little bit of shock. We arrived at the capilla and all of the hnas said that I was super pale. It was horrible. But now I'm alright. And don't worry, that was something really out of the norm. Santa Cruz is super mellow.

 

My comp is doing well! She is from Guatemala and was the first to baptize in her family as of 9 years ago but then her mom, dad and brother followed after her. She is really great, she has lots of ganas to work and that is the most important. I feel like a giant next to her. 

We have a couple of conversos under our cargo that haven't been going to church and haven't been very receptive, actually they've been avoiding us. But, we are trying a new approach with them. Every Saturday, the elders and the people from the ward play soccer and our conversos love soccer, so we've decided to start playing so that maybe we can gain their trust more. I've found out that I'm actually not that bad at soccer. All of that playing when I was little has payed off. One of the elders was calling me Forlana the other day. Supposedly there's some soccer player from Uruguay named Forlan. I don't really know, I don't really know if he's good either. Someone told me that Uruguays soccer team isn't very good. 

Well, I hope that you all have a great week! I know that our Savior lives and loves us. He is so aware of every one of us and is waiting to bless us, all he hopes is that we obey him. 

Con amor

Hna Ayre

Training 12/1/14

HOla!

Wow there was so much that happened this week. Its crazy how time flies. But this week we received our cambios and I am freaking out. I will be training so I don't know who my companion will be until tomorrow which is nerve racking also this transfer I was called as coordinator which is a whole lot of weight on my shoulders this transfer. The good news is that there is another coordinator who is super great in this zone who will be able to help me a whole lot. I've been a little sick to my stomach these last couple of days for the stress, but I know that all will be ok I just have to trust that God knows what he is doing.

So Im sure everyone has heard about he is the gift iniciative that the church is doing but if not go search it up and then be an active participant. I know that we will see miracles if everyone shares this video in this time of the year. It is such a blessing to be able to help people understand the true meaning of Christmas. 

So this week our new leader misional surprised us 6 missionaries with a thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't really a surprise, we saw it coming but we acted surprised. It was really really sweet of them they cooked a turkey and then we ate a bunch of Chileno salads with it. It was kind of awkward because none of the elders are gringos and so it was like, why are we celebrating this, but it was fun. El Hermano started playing our national anthem which was funny and even funnier is that none of us could remember the words to the song. Hopefully one day that one will come back to our memories. Also this week the members surprise attacked us again with a going away once for the people leaving santa cruz and they made us sing the song we sang Come unto Christ for them and it was just so awkward. I didn't remember half of the words, neither did Hna Truman or Hna Gracia so Hna Butler like led the team but I do not do good in situations like that, I just wanted to laugh, and i did a little bit, I tried to hold it together. 

Well we are still trying to find investigators but we saw a miracle yesterday, our menos activo that we have been teaching blessed the santa cena yesterday! It was such a blessing to see him be able to use his sacerdocio again. I am so grateful for the mission to be able to help others receive their blessings. 

I love you all! 

Love

A Surprise Dinner

HOla! 

Wow there was so much that happened this week. Its crazy how time flies. But this week we received our cambios and I am freaking out. I will be training so I don't know who my companion will be until tomorrow which is nerve racking, also this transfer I was called as coordinator which is a whole lot of weight on my shoulders this transfer. The good news is that there is another coordinator who is super great in this zone who will be able to help me a whole lot to learn what to do. I've been a little sick to my stomache these last couple of days because of the stress, but I know that all will be ok I just have to trust that God knows what he is doing.

 

So I'm sure everyone has heard about he is the gift iniciative that the church is doing, but if not go search it up and then be an active participant. I know that we will see miracles if everyone shares this video in this time of the year. It is such a blessing to be able to help people understand the true meaning of Christmas.

 

So this week our new leader misional surprised us 6 missionaries with a thanksgiving dinner. It wasn't really a surprise, we saw it coming but we acted surprised. It was really really sweet of them they cooked a turkey and then we ate a bunch of Chileno salads with it. It was kind of awkward because none of the elders are gringos and so it was like, why are we celebrating this, but it was fun. El Hermano started playing our national anthem which was funny and even funnier is that none of us could remember the words to the song. Hopefully one day that one will come back to our memories. Also this week the members surprise attacked us again with a going away once for the people leaving Santa 

Cruz and they made us sing the song we sang Come unto Christ for them and it was just so awkward. I didn't remember half of the words, neither did Hna Truman or Hna Gracia, so Hna Butler like led the team, but I do not do good in situations like that, I just wanted to laugh, and i did a little bit, I tried to hold it together.

 

Well we are still trying to find investigators but we saw a miracle yesterday, our menos activo that we have been teaching blessed the santa cena yesterday! It was such a blessing to see him be able to use his sacerdocio again. I am so grateful for the mission to be able to help others receive their blessings.

 

I love you all! 

Love

Hna Ayre

Week of Thansgiving

Hola Todos!

Wow another week gone and by. My companion and I are dying with how fast the time is flying by. This next week we will have cambios and we're not thinking we will be together this next cambio and we are pretty sad about it. Also we are sad because we know that there will be some change in the house and our house is the best.

Yesterday we six missionaries ate lunch at a member's house who gave us a lunch that was rotten. It was some sort of salad and we're not sure what type of meat it was but it was not good and it had rotten egg in it too. We had correlation last night and one of the elders felt really sick and then we got home at night and Hna Gracia felt super sick and threw up. Then it hit Hna Truman at like 11 and then my comp at like 1 in the morning and me at like two in the morning. You could say we had a long night. We called the elders in the morning to see how they were doing and both of them got hit too. All of us got food poisoning bad. Only Hna Gracia and Elder Cortes were throwing up though. But we're doing a little better now.

Other than that its been an interesting week. We are in the process of finding new people nuevamente and its been a week of God testing our dilligence in the obra. We're not discouraged but we are praying that we can find someone who is prepared. Other side note, we have two conversos who we are pretty sure are about to ask us if we can stop visiting them. A member told us that they told her that they no longer believe in eternal families and don't want anything to do with the church. That was heart breaking but hopefully we can talk some sense into them this week.

We are pillows for niños for an activity in the relief society and I never thought that i would have to do anything to do with arts and crafts in the mission but I was wrong. I'm making a soccer ball and it has been a very long process. I'll send a picture when I am done.

Also on Sunday we sisters sang Come Unto Christ in Spanish in the sacrament meeting and all of you would be very impressed with how well I was able to sing. Ive been practicing a whole lot. 

We found an investigator last week whose name is Maria Jose. She is 21 and has 3 kids under the age of 5 and one that is due this week. She lives with the three of them alone during the week and on the weekend her boyfriend comes to visit her. It is a testimony to me of the importance of the law of chastity. Here in the mission I have seen so much the importance of the family. It is so sad to see these young girls who have kids and don't have anyone to support them. God's plan and HIs commandments are so much grander then our ways.

Well, because this week is Thanksgiving week I want to end with the things that I am grateful for. 

1. The blessing of being born in the gospel and raised with the knowledge of the plan of salvation, that there is so much more to this life than what we are living in right now. 

2. My family who is the best example to me of service and love to others and God

2. To be able to serve a mission and serve my Lord and thank Him for everything that He has done for me.

The best way to show our gratitude to our Lord is not through our words, rather through our works. This week I invite you all to serve someone else. To find an opportunity to share the blessings of the gospel with someone who doesn't have them.

I love you all! 

Con amor 

Hna Ayre

11/17/14

Devil Bug Bits

Made Ann's Oreo Cookies

Visit of Elder Christensen 11/11/14

Hola!

Sorry, I forgot to say last week that our p-day was changed to today. Yesterday we had a mission wide conference in Rancagua. One of the seventy's, Elder Christensen and his wife, came and spoke to us. It was awesome to be with the whole mission. I got to see my comps and the other missionaries whom I love that I haven't seen for quite a while. I loved this conference because they talked about the work of salvation and that the vista shouldn't just be on baptism rather that they will be able to go to the temple and receive all of the blessings that are theirs to have.

Elder Christensen talked a little bit about how the mission is like a mini life. When we start the mission, we are like little kids who have lots of questions and want to know about everything and then we pass through a phase as if we were teenagers when we think we know everything and then one day we arrive to become adults and we realize that we don't know anything, but if we rely on God, we realize that we can do all that we need to do. That really hit me, because it really is como asi. I have hit that point in my mission where I feel that if it weren't for the Espiritu Santo and his guia, I wouldn't be able to do anything in this obra.

So good news bad news this week. I'll start with the bad. Our cellphone got robbed on Monday. We're not exactly sure how it happened. I normally have the cell phone in my bag, but we were talking over the phone on speaker phone outside and one of the members in our branch came up behind me and pretended to grab my bag and I got all frazzled. My comp was talking on the phone still but I just was really out of it. After that moment we went to go meet up with another member to go to a cita and as we were walking, I realized that I didn't know where the cellphone was. I searched all through my bag and I couldn't find it anywhere. My comp swares she handed it to me but I don't ever remember her passing it to me and we went to go back and find it but it was gone. I had to pay for a new one. The good news is that its just one of those wlamart phones and not like an iphone or anything. I don't really know whose fault it really was that it got lost but I decided its just better to act as if it was my fault even though Im not really sure. The only bummer is that we lost all of our contacts which is like a ton of missionary work over the time that this sector has had that phone.

The good news is that for the first time in like 5 months, one of the recent converts went to church here. It was such a miracle. When I arrived, my comp said that they just read with Camila when they go to their house because supposedly the other missionaries tried lots of things to get her to go to church and she never went. But in this time a lot of things had passed in her life and we finally got her to go! I really hope that she can continue with this same animo para ir a la iglesia. 

Also this week we had a menos activo tell us she was super upset with us because she felt like we were attacking her to go to church and that we didn't understand that she isn't going because her toe hurts. I tried to apologize and help her understand, in our eyes by inviting her to come to church, its the way that we are showing her our love for her. But she now feels better that she could tell us all of our feelings. Hopefully she now can feel that we really do love her.

Well I love you all and hope all is well!

Con amor

Hna Ayre

Nothing Better Than the Mission 11/3/14

Hola!!!!!!!!!

How is everyone doing? I'm doing good here in Santa Cruz! I love it here a whole lot. There is nothing better than the mission. The time is just passing before my eyes. I don't know how its possible that I am almost half way through my mission.

We have a recent convert that we visit whose name is Oscar. He got baptized the transfer before I got here, but we are working with his mom and sister who are just two of the most amazing people ever. Maria (the mom) has a son who is in jail right now and his visitng hours are Sunday right at the time of Sacrament meeting and she and her daughter Maribel want to get baptized but they don't know what to do because they feel that it is important as well to visit their son. They are so cute, when we taught dia de reposo, we talked about baptism and Maria said, I don't feel comfortable getting baptized because I cant complete with Gods commandment's right now. But ever since that lesson, they have shown up for relief society without fail so that they can complete as much as possible with God's commandments. Her son will possibly be getting benefits this month and they will no longer need visiting hours and they will be able to go to church! We are praying that he can get these benefits because these two hermanas are just two of the most wonderful people that you will ever meet. 

This week we did an activity for halloween as the obra misional that was super funny. We did an obstacle course and everyone that showed up got blindfolded and had to follow a rope and it was compared to the iron rod and the tree of life. We had people of all ages crawling on the floor, climbing up on top of things. It was so funny. It was the best activity that I have had on the mission. Also side note, here in Chile, on halloween, everyone has school and work off. They just started celebrating this holiday as of some 10 years ago. The kids also throw eggs at the houses that don't give them treats. So in the night, we planned with the lights off so that the people wouldn't know that people were home because we didn't have treats to give out. 

As a spiritual side note, I've been thinking a lot about the talk Elder Uchtdorf gave in the conference about being grateful in all circumstances. That we shouldn't only be grateful when things are going well in our lives rather that it's a disposition that we should all have. There is no reason to stop being grateful. I also think if we strive to always have a disposition of gratitude, the moments dificiles won't be so hard to get through.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love 

Hna Ayre

Great Week! 10/27/14

Hola A Todos!

Wow, its crazy how fast the time is flying. The weeks just come and go. I am almost half way through my mission now and it feels like I just started yesterday.

Well, this week was a really good week, I love to see the hand of the Lord in our work every single day. I don't remember if I've told you all about one of our menos activos that we are teaching, his name is Gaston. His wife is a very active member and his son served in Argentina a couple years back and his daughter is in Colombia right now serving her mission. He got baptized after the big earthquake that happened here in 2010 and then I think about a year after went inactive. But for some reason, Gaston decided to accompany his wife to general conference a couple weeks back and from that day on has been just the most amazing person. When we taught the first lesson after he had went to conference, I'm not going to lie, he kind of scared me. He went off about how his wife is always trying to trick him into the religion and that he was catholic and that he was going to die catholic. But then, we sang a hymn and said a prayer to start the lesson and a complete 180 happened. He was a completely different person and now wants more than anything to be able to go to the temple with his whole family when his daughter gets back from the mission.

Its amazing what the spirit can do. I love that the work of the Lord really has nothing to do with us. We are just the mouthpieces for His work. All that you have to do is be obedient and dilligent and the Holy Ghost does all the rest. 

We also had a cool experience this week. We found an old investigator of the missionaries from like 7 months back and she was very receptive to us. She accepted a fecha bautismal in our first visit. When we got home that night, we looked up her record and we saw that she had had problems with the word of wisdom so when we went back for a second visit we decided that we should teach the word of wisdom. And always at the end of the lesson we ask if we can do anything to help the person quit smoking, or stop drinking tea, or coffee. And we offer that we will take the substances out of their house for them. The people almost always tell us, no we'll get rid of it, we don't need your help, that is if they accept to live the word of wisdom, but this time was different. Ana went to her pantry and pulled out all of the tea she had and just handed it over to my companion. It was a miracle. We  are hoping to see her progress. 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week

!

Love Hna Ayre

Here are some photos from the last couple of weeks here in Santa Cruz

the first is in Pichilemu

and the last is the day we had to do a deep clean of the house and get down on our hands and knees and scrub the floor. we also had to scrub the walls and fridge, we basically scrubbed everything imaginable. yet when the couple came whose in charge of the houses, they still found faults with the house. we are really sick of cleaning haha, there cant be a house much cleaner than ours in the mission. 

Staying Together 10/20/14

HOla! 

How is everyone doing this week? 

This week was another good week for us! We had transfers and all of us sisters here in Santa Cruz will be staying together. We are really excited about it. Our house is a house full of gringas and we are planning what we are going to do for thanksgiving dinner together! 

So this week, we had district conference and the district wanted all the missionaries to sing together in a chorus. There was a part in I believe in Christ when only the sisters sang and it sounded awful! The only two musically talented sisters in our zone were playing the piano and leading the choir, it was not very pretty. I would say that my singing abilities have gotten a lot better here in the mission but its still not a high enough quality that it should be heard in front of a whole group of people. 

The works going really well here in Santa Cruz. We've got a lot of really great people who we are working with who really love listening to us, but we aren't quite sure if they understand the importance of all that we are teaching them. We are really excited to see them this week and teach them about the importance of the atonement and obedience to the commandments. 

The two cousins who called us last week are doing good. They are really difficult to find and one of them has a ring back tone of a really catchy song here that has really bad lyrics and every time we call him we have to listen to that song, but thats ok, we just sing a hymn to try to get it out of our heads haha my companion always is trying to avoid listening to it by making me call. 

I am really happy here in the mission. This week I have thought about how this has been the best experience of my life. I am constantly changing and becoming a better person. I can really see the hand of the Lord in my life.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Con amor

Hna Ayre

Week of Miracles 10/13/14

This week was a week of miracles! 

We were in lunch on Tuesday and we received a phone call from a number that we didn't save in our phone. I answered it and there was a man on the other end that said, "Hello Hermana, this is Hno Juan," I had no idea who hno Juan was. So I awkwardly asked him who he was and he said that we had talked to him in the street a couple of weeks ago and that he wanted us to come over that night to teach him more about our religion. We were so excited, that has never happened to me or my companion before on the mission. So, we went to Juan's house that night with one of the members in our ward and we arrived and him and his cousin had recently moved to that house so they have no furniture and we sat on the floor with the sister from our branch and taught him and at the end of the lesson his cousin came out of the bathroom and was like I have a lot of interest in your church, I was able to attend a baptism before in Peru, but afterwards we moved here and I lost contact with the church. We are so excited about Martin and his cousin Juan. We had another lesson with them this week and we went with another really sweet sister who had told us how she doesn't sit on the floor because her health doesn't permit her to, but she got to the house and just plopped right down on the ground without any problem. I'm so grateful for her and members like her who are so willing to work in this work of salvation.

The even bigger miracle was that we were sitting in church on Sunday and none of our investigators who were committed to come to church had showed up. But the last like 10 min of the meeting Juan and Martin walked in the back door! Even more exciting is that they stayed at church for all three hours! Then after sunday school we walked outside and two of our other investigators showed up for the last hour. They have a son in prison and his visiting hours are during church so it was a huge sacrifice for them to come. They have a baptismal date for the end of this month. We are not sure if they will be able to be baptized this day yet, but we are praying for them that they will be able to. 

This work is amazing. I love how every day, if you just open your eyes to see, you can see miracles. I love the atonement of Jesus Christ and that by Him, we all can be healed from our pains and we can overcome our debilities if we just trust in him.

We had an interesting experience this weekend with a member in our branch who is really down in the work right now and us 4 missionaries have had a lot of conversations about doing the little things like reading and praying every single day and going to church. If we let these three things slide. We begin to get further and further away from our Savior Jesus Christ. Our light starts to dim. And really when that happens you are not only affecting yourself but everyone around you. Please everyone if you are not reading your scriptures and praying every night, start doing it. If it is just a verse to start, it will help you. I know that as you do these little things, you will have more light in your lives and more happiness and will be able to help many people! I love you all. 

con amor

Hna Ayre

Striking Gold 10/6/14

Hola Todos!

Wow, what a great week this has been! We have had lots going on in Santa Cruz. I can't believe how fast the time is flying! This week, we found an investigator of gold (we thought). On Tuesday, we started talking with a woman on the way to her house and she invited us in to her house to talk with her. We taught her the restoration and she was amazed by the idea of prophets in our days. Hna Butler and I put a baptismal date for her and we left the house on cloud 9. We were so excited to find such a good investigator. Well, the next morning we were reading our area book and Hna Butler found the name of this woman. She started reading it and the Elders that had taught her a year ago said that turns out she was a member. Well, we hardly could believe it, so we did an investigation of our own. We checked online and turns out she was baptized almost 20 years ago. When we went to her house again on Thursday, we asked her if she had ever been to church and she was like I went a couple times when I was little but my mom was really catholic so she made me stop going and then my companion asked her if she had been baptized and she said no. We were really confused and she told us some story about how her dad left her mom and had another family and had a daughter and named her the same name and they are almost identical and she said maybe she got baptized, but she doesn't talk with her so she doesn't really know. Well, we were even more confused after that story, but we continued our search and started asking members if they had known her and there were tons that know her and that she was the one who got baptized. We don't know why she lied to us or why she's so good at lying, but it was definitely a shocking event this week.

 

I loved the conference this weekend! It seriously is like Christmas here in the mission. There is so much we can learn from these inspired men. I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk about how we can gain more light and truth in our lives. It really is such a simple formula but so many people look over it. I love that one of the steps after all that we have studied pondered and prayed about is to act. We truly can't learn much without acting. Our testimonies can grow continually and we should always be searching more truth. Our Father in Heaven hopes that we ask and hopes that His children have desires to know the truth. I know that He loves us individually and is so aware of who we are and what we are going through. He expects so much of us, but that shouldn't make us scared but rather excited to serve our God.

 

I love all of you and hope that each of you were able to watch conference this weekend and gain new insights and understandings of the gospel. If not, go watch it!

 

Con mucho amor

Hna Ayre 

Santa Cruz 9/29/14

Hola Todos!

This week has been a crazy week for me! On Tuesday afternoon , President and Hna Warne came and picked me up from Curico and we drove over to Santa Cruz. It was fun to have time with the two of them and to be able to talk to them personally without being in an interview. They really are so inspired and love everyone in the mission so much. President said some really nice things about mom and dad.

 

Well, this week was basically like we did a white wash because Hna Butler has only been in the sector two weeks and I didn't know anything about the sector. We have been trying to talk to as many people as possible. On Wednesday we were talking with people on the street and we had just talked to two people really pesada ( I can't remember what that word is in english, sorry) and we saw a man walking with his two kids in the street and we decided to talk to them too and I was a little nervous that he was going to be like the two other people we had just talked with, but he was incredibly nice and said that we could pass by in like an hour when his wife was in the house. So we passed by and the wife was so nice too. We entered the house and it felt like we had known this family forever. They had passed for a hard moment a couple weeks back and they have been searching more for God in their lives. We visited them twice last week and they came to church on Sunday! I feel so extremely blessed that I was put in this new sector because I know that God needed me and my companion here this week specifically to find this family. 

We also had a baptism this Saturday for a man named Guillermo. His wife is a menos activo and he actually had her call the missionaries to come teach him. He was such a miracle and so prepared. He has the sweetest testimony.

 

This week I was able to talk to the missionary who took my place in Centinela and she told me that the family that got married when I was there will be baptized the 11th!  I am so incredibly happy for them! The mission has been the biggest blessing in my life! I feel so grateful to be able to meet all of these amazing people! 

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Con amor 

Hna Ayre

Special Transfer 9/22/14

Amanda in Curico.  Amanda will be transferred to Santa Cruz.

Excited to be Together 9/15/14

Hola Todos!

This week has been a really great week! My companion Hna Landon is an awesome missionary. We are really excited to be together because both of us are determined to work really really hard this cambio. We are always thinking about ways how we can have more success in our sector. We are praying that we can find someone who will be able to get baptized in October. We know that if we do our part, the Lord will put someone in our path who is ready. 

This week, we had to be in the house early because the 11th of September is a day in Chile when many pèople do protests and it's dangerous for the missionaries to be out super late. My companion has uno cards with her so we played uno and I decided that it's probably best for me not to play uno in the mission because it brings out my competitive side... Also it just wasn´t the same as game nights with the fam and friends. The stake also had a noche folclórico this week because next week is Chiles independence day and it was super cool. Each ward did a traditional dance from chile. The culture here in Chile is super cool. I am super excited for the 18th this week, everyone says it's just the best.

 

This week, I was studying in preach my gospel about repentance and how missionaries we have to invite our investigators to repent. I had never done that specifically in the mission until this week. This week we taught two lessons on repentance and at the end we invited them to repent of their sins they had committed in the past and they were two of the most spiritual lessons that I have had here in the mission. I learned this week that repentance is one of the greatest gifts that God has given us. And more than it is just saying sorry, its a process of change, everytime we sincerely repent, we are changing to become more like our Savior. I love Alma 36, its now one of my favorite chapters in the BoM because it talks about the joy alma recieved from repenting and it gives all of us so much hope that we can have that joy in our lives too. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Hna Ayre  

Receiving Hna. Landon 9/8/14

Hola familia!

How is everyone doing? This week was a good week! It was the last week of the cambio and tomorrow I will be recieving a new companion. Her name is Hna Landon. I continue with only gringa companions. All of the other gringas in the mission have only had one or two gringa companions and the rest Latinas. I don´t know why I haven´t been put with any Latinas, but hopefully one day so I can improve my spanish! 

This week I have really gained a testimony of personal revelation. I had a hard day this week and I was kind of just down. I went to our room and got on my knees and prayed and asked Heavenly Father to help me. I opened my scriptures afterwards and I felt like He was talking to me personally through what I read. I have a testimony that God knows us personally and He listens to our prayers. He is very aware of what each one of us is doing in our lives and He wants our happiness. He has a perfect plan for each and everyone of us. If we but just summit our will to His, we will be able to understand that plan better and we will find the happiness and satisfaction that we are looking for.

 

So I don´t know if I´ve told you all this before but we are teaching a menos activo right now who is a clown. We have taught him in his clown attire a couple of times now and can I just tell you how hard it is to concentrate?!

 

I love each and everyone of you and hope that you are all doing good. 

Love 

Hna Ayre 

Interview Time September 1st, 2014

Hola Todos!

Wow so many things have happened this week. We had interviews this week and I love being around President and Hermana Warne. They are some of the greatest people you will ever meet. In my interview Pres and I talked about the one quality that has most changed about me since I have been on the mission. I feel that in my time in the mission I have learned to rely on my Savior. President shared the scripture with me that is in D&C about how we should let our confidence wax strong in the presence of God. We can have confidence that God trusts in us and that is why he called us to this work.

So this week, Hna Butler and I went to get popsicles and we entered the store and I asked for two popsicles and the guy was like, sorry we´re all out of cigarettes... Haha it was super funny, how bad that must have looked for him that two missionaries came into the store to buy cigarettes.. We clarified very quickly that we wanted popsicles.

So this week, one of our investigators that has been studying with the missionaries for awhile now and assisting church called us and said that she wants to be baptized on the 6 of September! We were so excited for her! We went to her house and we put all of it together and the only thing she had to do was have her parents sign the permission form and show up to church Sunday. Well, she didn´t show up to church Sunday and then she was texting a boy in our ward and said she thinks shes going to wait till October. We were a little crushed. But we still have faith that she can get baptized this month, we just have to go talk to her and see what happened.

Other than that everything is good here. I still love the work and am growing every single day in my testimony that I know that God is our Father in Heaven and he knows each one of us personally. He has a perfect plan and all we have to do is submit our will to His and we will gain the most happiness in this life and a place in the Kingdom of God in the world to come!

Love you alll!

Con amor

Hna Ayre

Sopapillas 8/25/2014

Wow, this week has been a crazy week. Right now Hna Butler and I are working in two giant sectors. You could say by the end of the night we are ready for bed.

I can´t believe how much time I have now been in the mission. I´ve lived in a foreign country for 6 months now and it feels like I just left yesterday. I feel like every day I'm learning more and becoming little by little the missionary that the Lord needs me to be. I feel like the Lord has given us a huge job to do in Rauquén right now especially since we are working in two sectors and sometimes I don´t know how we´re going to be able to help all of these people with all that we have to do. But something that I am learning is that I just have to rely on the help of the Lord.  This really this isn´t my job or our job to do, it´s the work of the Lord and He is in charge and if we do our part He will make up for the rest. 

So story for the week. Here in Chile when it rains, all the Chilenos make sopapillas in their houses. Which are like scones but they have pumpkin in them and they put stuff like ketchup and mustard and mayo on them. It was raining Saturday really hard and we showed up to a menos activos house and her two daughters were making sopapillas. Her 8 and 10 year old daughter live the majority of the week in the house by themselves because she has to work every single day. But as such, the house was a little bit of a mess when we came. We entered and there was dog throw up on the ground and so the menos activos started to clean it up. Well, while she was cleaning up the dog throw up, her daughter came up and asked her is the consistency of the dough for the sopapillas was alright and she just stuck her hand in the dough to feel it without giving a second thought to the fact that she had been cleaning up dog puke. We ate the sopapillas afterwords. You know, here in the mission you just kind of stop worrying about stuff like that. 

I love you all and hope that you have a great week! 

Love 

Hna Ayre

Saying Goodbye 8/18/2014

Hola Everyone! 

Wow, what a crazy week. Hna Beeston left this morning to go home and it was so sad to say goodbye. I wish I could have had more time with her. We seriously were instant best friends. Even better we both wanted to work really hard. I am so grateful that I got to be with her because she taught me a lot about consecration. 

Our time here in the mission really is short and it is so important to give it our all even when times get hard.  This week we found an amazing investigator. She was walking in the street and she had a face like she wanted to talk to us so we stopped and talked to her and supposedly Hna Novoa and Buttler had taught her one time, but then she moved houses and couldn't get a hold of them. We put a cita with her and returned to her house and she is super interested in the gospel. Her husband was killed in Ecuador in April and she is now living alone with her son of 4. She has just been so sad but she called Hna Novoa and Buttler after our lesson and told them that she just feels so much peace when were in her house. She also came to church on Sunday. I know that we are going to be able to help her find the peace and comfort in her life that she is looking for. I´m so grateful that Hna Beeston and I were paying attention when we saw her in the street because I know God put us in her path for a reason. She really is so prepared to hear the message of the gospel. I am so excited to keep teaching her and have the ability to see the healing powers of the atonement take place in her life. 

I know that God knows us personally and is always there for us if we but only go to him. He lets us go through trials because He wants us to become like Him and we can only do that if we go through these trials and learn from them and improve.  And even more we start to understand what true happiness is.

 

I love you all and hope you all have a great week! 

Aug. 11, 2014

Hola everyone!

Wow, this week flew! I can´t believe that I only have one week left with Hna Beeston, Im super sad about it. I would have loved to have more time with her.

This week, my knowledge of the sector was put to the test. Hna Beeston and Novoa went to the temple with president leaving me and hna Buttler here in our two sectors. Both of us only have two weeks in Rauquen. We had to work in the two sectors for two days and we were sooo lost. You could say we put some miles on our shoes those two days. Hna Beeston and Novoa will be going home next Monday and we will work those two sectors for the next three weeks. We will have lots of work to do. Those two days that we were in divisions I was a little stressed at first because I still felt so lost in the sector but I read a general conference talk and there was a quote in it that I love. It says, all of the easy things that have had to be done in the church have been done, from here on out its high adventure. It made me more excited for the work that we will be doing because it will be an adventure and that we will see lots of miracles. 

So crazy story of the week. There is a menos activo family that we are working with and they are really awesome, but their story is a little bit complicated. The dad and daughter are members of the church, the moms not and is divorced from the husband, but they all still live in the same house, but in different bedrooms. But we started teaching the mom the other day and she was so excited and we even put a baptismal date. But then we went to go visit the dad and the daughter and Patricia told that she's resigning from listening to us, so we were bummed, but like ok. Then we passed by on Saturday night when we were in divisions and Patricia opened the door and she looked at me and said why do you have to keep coming to our house. She was really upset with us and told us that jehovas witnesses only come out once a week and that we should too. I told her sorry for bothering her and that we hadn´t realized we had passed by every day (because we hadn´t passed by everyday) and then she felt bad and was yelling at us to come inside the house to talk with her. I was like yeah we´re going to call next time we come over, nos vemos.

  

This week I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish! My testimony has really grown of that book and of the importance of reading it every single day. I feel like I have really grown to know my Savior better through my reading this time.

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

August 5th, 2014

Hola Todos! 

Wow, this week has been a really good week. I miss all of the people in my old sector, but I already love everyone here in Rauquén. My companion is awesome. I am sad that I only get three weeks with her. She has been a really great example to me of dilligence. 

Something that I have thought about this week a lot is the changes that occur in yourself when you are in the service of the Lord. As a mission, every month we are trying to develop a different attribute of Christ, and it has been something that has really blessed my life. Besides the fact that the mission is amazing because you get to help others make changes and come unto Christ, you yourself make changes and come unto Christ.  I love this work and I love that I have this opportunity to be one of His servants. I feel like day by day I get more converted to this gospel. I love that the more I learn about Christ, the more I love Him and the more I want to help los demas love him and serve him. 

This week we had a really cool lesson with a menos activo. She is a really deep thinker and really ponders about what we say to her. But this week we read in Ether 12 with her. At the end of the reading, we asked her what she could do personally to strengthen and show her faith in Jesus Christ. She said I suppose that I shouldn´t deny him. And Hermana Beeston asked her and in what ways can someone deny Christ. And she didn´t understand the question so we explained to her how when her son doesn´t do what she asks him to do he is denying her. And it clicked in her head. It was so cool to see her understand that you show your love for Jesus Christ by obeying Him. She had never thought in that before. But once she did she couldn´t stop talking about how it finally clicked in her head. It was something so simple but yet so profound. 

I love you all! 

Love 

Hna Ayre 

July 28th, 2014

Wow, this was a crazy week. On Tuesday, Hna Tidwell went to the temple because she will be leaving in three weeks, so I got the opportunity to go on divisions with my companion from the ccm, Hna cook. It was so fun to be with her again and see the progress that both her and I have made since we have been out in the field. Then we also had zone conference this week and it was amazing. I love learning from our leaders here in the mission. I feel so blessed that I have the Warnes as my mission presidents. They are two really amazing people and are both really inspired in what they do and say. When I´m around them, I always think about what mom and dad and the boys are up to and it always brings back memories of the zone conferences and interviews that I went to with mom and dad.

I learned on Saturday, that I will be going to Rauquen in Curico on Tuesday. I will be companions with Hna Beastin who is another gringa from Utah. I laugh because all of my companions have been from Utah so far. Hna Beastin only has three weeks left in the mission, so I will go be with her for her last three weeks and then she will leave and another girl in our house is leaving at the same time so I will become companions with whomever is the other girls companion is who is leaving. I have a feeling that we may be really lost for a little bit. I will only have three weeks to learn the sector. It has been really hard to say goodbye to the people here in Centinela. These people have become part of my family. I feel so blessed that I had the opportunity to start my mission in Centinela. 

Family and friends, our mission has started doing our family history and it is something super cool. I invite all of you to go to familysearch.org and start your family history too. There is a lot of work to be done in everyone's family history still and what I have learned here in the mission is that it is not only for old people. I have thouroughly enjoyed doing it. You can upload photos and memories about your ancestors and if I had the time I would love spending more time on the site learning about my ancestors. 

This work is super important because missionary work does not only happen on this earth, it is constantly happening in the spirit world too and we need to help with that work. I promise you all that if you take the time to do it, you will all feel a really cool connection with your ancestors.

 

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love 

Hna Ayre 

The Marriage

Hola Todos!

I hope you all have had a great week. Wow, time is starting to fly by here. I cannot believe that another week has come and gone. This week was super crazy for us. We had to move to a different house and that took up one day of work and then we had like three activities in the branch and so we were with the ward lots this week too.

 

Well two really great things happened this week. Our menos activo Maritza finally got a calling in the branch! She will be the secretary in the Young Womens. We are super excited for her. The only bad part is that she did not show up to church on Sunday which was a real bummer. We haven´t been able to talk to her so we hope that everything is alright. 

The other great news is that Carlos and Marcela got married this morning! It was so beautiful and so happy. I was sitting there listening to the vows and it made me think about how grateful I am for temples. It is such a blessing that we can be sealed to our families for all eternity. It is so sad the idea that some people will only have the opportunity to be married til death do they part. I am so excited for Carlos and Marcela because really that is just the beginning of their process to become an eternal family. This morning was so special for their family. Their son Wladimir had told them ever since he was little that they should get married and now they are. He was so happy.

 

It is such a blessing in my life that I have the opportunity to be God´s mouth piece in this marvelous work. I know that real happiness comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ and our obedience to it. I know that without a doubt we have a Father in Heaven who loves us more than we can know and we all have the opportunity to return to live in His presence again. We have to be obedient too though, because He is a just God and nothing impure can live in his presence. I hope that we can all return together to his presence one day and be accepted into His kingdom. 

I invite you all to share what you know to be true with someone else who needs that help this week. I love you all!  Have  a great week! 

Con Muchisimo Amor

Hna Ayre 

5 Month Mark

Hola todos!

How is everyone doing? The time is flying by for me here in the mission. I cannot believe that it is already July. This week I will complete 5 months in the mission! 

This week was a crazy week. All of the people that we normally visit in the week had their appointments fall through. We would go to their house and we couldn´t enter because they either weren´t there or that it was just a man alone. One of our investigators Brian, accepted a baptismal date last week and who accepted to live the word of wisdom and live the law of chastity totally blew us off this week. I don´t know what is happening with him but I hope that everything is alright still. Yesterday we saw him walking in the street and I made eye contact with him and he looked down and walked away, so I made sure to say hi really loud as he walked pàst and then he stopped and said hi. I was a little bit hurt by that because it felt that he was making such good progress and that he confided in us, but I just hope everything is alright with him. 

Our other investigators Carlos and Marcela are supposedly going to the registro civil to put an hour today to get married which we are really excited about. I've been worrying about Marcela because she has a really bad back and has been bed ridden many times which has impeded her from coming to church. I think one of her disks slipped out like moms. The problem is that she needs a surgery, but its too expensive so she can´t get it. She got a blessing and I hope that she can start feeling better. 

Even though this week as far as appointment goes, wasn´t how we planned, it was still a good week. Especially Sunday, the two girls Cata and Feña hadn´t come to church since the day that they got confirmed and this week their whole family came. It made me so happy because they are like my second family here in Centinela and to see them sitting all there together was a very special moment for me. Their brother Pablo still has not been baptized and we are working with him to arrive at that point. I just want them to be able to have the opportunity to be an eternal family. 

Something that I have thought alot about this week is the importance of obedience. The commandments we have been given have been given to us because God loves us and knows what is best for us. To obey brings us the most happiness we can have. 

I love you all and hope you have a great week! 

Love 

Hna Ayre 

Transfers 6/23/14

Hi everyone! How is everyone doing?

This week was a crazy week with transfers and everything, but it was still a good week. My new companion, Hna Tidwell is from Provo Utah and she only has two months left in her mission. She is an awesome missionary and I have learned lots of things from her already in just this first week. 

We are working with a family right now who are literally so amazing. They have a lot of faith. They have been together for 22 years and aren't married, but we invited them to get married and Carlos will be going to the Registro Civil to put an appointment so that they can get married this Wednesday. Marcela said that she never had a reason to get married before, but that after she read the Proclamation to the Family she understands the importance of marriage.

 

Something that I have studied a lot this week is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We can't even begin to imagine everything that He sufferred through, but we can know how much He loves us for the sacrifice that he made. He understands when we make mistakes because he suffered for our pains and temptations and he has felt the guilt that we have felt when we make mistakes. Thanks to Him, we can repent and be completely made clean again. I read a general conference talk that said, we are never too far away from Christs love that we can't come back again. All of us make mistakes, but to repent of them we can feel the biggest joy that we can feel in this life. 

I love you all and hope that everyone is all doing really well!

 

Love 

Hna Ayre