I'll be what you want me to be

Our experience in Ecuador has introduced us not only to learning a new language but learning to express ideas with the hands. Sort of like sign language. A witness in the baptistry can communicate to the baptizer to repeat an ordinance with a simple hand movement, the recorder can ask the baptizer if he is ready or if everything is ok, and instructions can be given to workers at the counter to bring more towels or help in some other way. All of this wordless communication seems to be understood by most people here and provides a way for the missionary to be understood even without mastering the strange verbs (and conjugations) of the spanish language. The gift of tongues is augmented by the gift of "hands'.
Missionaries who know very little spanish are still able to communicate if only with sign language, with or without a few words of spanish, or a combination of english and spanish. It is interesting to hear the missionary tell of a conversation with someone without either one understanding the other's language. They are able to exchange ideas readily and well.
The two newest missionaries are jumping right into the work here despite a lack of knowledge of spanish. They are Diane Pyper and Susan Savage of Highland/Lehi area in Utah. Both of these sisters have lost their husbands (Sister Pyper's husband passed away a mere four months before she came on her mission) but they are not wasting time feeling sorry for themselves. They have come as companions to serve here and are meshing quite well with the people and their fellow workers in the temple.
Sister Pyper is a veteran of eight missions! She has eleven children, forty five grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren. When asked how she could leave all of them and serve another mission, without her husband, she patiently explains that church leaders have promised that the children will be able to solve their problems on their own as their parents serve the Lord. This she firmly believes. Her many prior missions began with a proselyting mission at age sixteen in her home town of Philadelphia. Later she served with her husband, Jim, in the Claifornia, Fresno Mission; Athen, Greece; Birmingham, England; Edinburgh, Scotland; Nauvoo, Illinois; Washington, D.C.; and three years in the Church Family History Center in Salt Lake. These experiences will serve her well as she performs her duties in the temple of Guayaquil, Ecuador.
Sister Savage left extensive business and family affairs to her children and extended family members in order to serve the Lord here. Now she happily fills the many assignments given to her in the temple. Sister Savage was a member of the Christian Science Church when she moved to Utah several years ago. The Christian Science Church had much to offer about self improvement but seemed to lack a philosophy of service-a purpose of life. After marrying her husband, Luke, a member of the LDS Church, she agreed to attend services with him.
She tells of a conversion moment in her life while attending a missionary farewell sacrament meeting with her husband. She had asked the Lord for guidance in determining a purpose for her life. The concluding hymn was "I'll go where you want me to go". The concluding words "I'll be what you want me to be" were for her, an answer to her humble supplication and she has yielded to the will of the Lord since then.
She and her husband Luke have served together in the Hong Kong Mission, a proselyting mission in Carlsbad, California working with the marines at Camp Pendleton and then 2+ years in a MTC branch presidency in Provo. Since Luke passed away in 2007, Susan has continued to serve. Now in the temple of Guayaquil, Ecuador she is reaching out each day to help and serve the patrons who come here.