What are you willing to give up?

The work here is going so well!! The members in this ward are so amazing and they work so hard to help others. Our ward mission leader had a ward FHE at the church on saturday and we had a great turn out! The WML Hno R spoke on gifts we receive from god/christ like attributes. Each person wrote a gift or attribute of christ they felt they had and then they passed the gift to someone in the room who they felt had that gift from god. it was a sweet lesson and at the end we celebrated Hno Rs' birthday. 

Our most progressing investigators right now is C. They are expecting to have a baby girl the end of august. She is ready to be baptized. Please if you could pray and fast this sunday for C that she can get baptized? ;] The relief society is throwing her a baby shower which is so sweet because all her family is down in mexico. 

I wanted to share a quick story, something I learned this sunday about sacrifices. The teacher had us read two stories from the bible, first is the story of the young rich prince found in luke 18:18-24. This young prince is a good guy, he keeps all the commandments and does what is right. With this he askes christ what more does he need to do to enter into the kingdom if God? Christ tells him he must give up all he has and follow him. the young prince then turns and walks away crying sorrowfully because he had many great riches of the world. We then ready a story of the fisherman in matthew 4:18-22. This is when Christ tell the fisherman to forsake all and follow him, so the fisherman drop their nets and leave their father to follow Christ. These fisherman become apostles of Christ, James and John. 

Now I want you to think for a moment. From these two stories do we know the name of the fisherman? Yes, James and John. Do we know the name of rich prince? No...why is that? Because is we do not follow christ we will make nothing of ourselves, in the end. To truly follow Jesus Christ and be his disciples we must "forsake all" or give up all we have to follow his example. Then he will make of us more then we can make of ourselves. So what are you willing to give up to follow Christ's example? Through out my mission, little by little I have given up more and more of myself and I have seen the blessing from it. I have received more happiness in my life because I have been focussed on helping the lives of others. My mission has and is changing me for the better :] I know as we trust in God and follow his sons example we will return home to him with great joy. I love you so much and am so blessed to have such an amazing family! 

love-hermana jaeger

Attitude of Gratitude

last pday i forgot my nametag at home :[ during the day we were STARVING so we decided to eat at jimmy johns. i parked by this SUPER raised truck that had fatty tires. i noticed i parked kind of clsoe to the truck so I scooted through. Bad idea...I got nasty black grease all over my skirt just before going to eat. THEN as we walk outside after eating I notice I spilt some sauce on my shirt hahaha i was trying to look like a representative of christ but it wasnt workin for me that day. probably why my nametag got left at home haha God knew.

This week I came across a story about a mormon pioneer. His story of what he suffered through to get to salt lake touched my heart. And through all he went through he expressed his gratitude for his trials. for during that trial of  trecking to the salt lake valley in the blistering snow is where he said, "I came to know God". I felt impressed last week to start working on being more grateful in life. for as I look back through the 22 years of my life I realize that I have come to know my Father in Heaven more during my trials. How incredibly grateful I am, first and foremost, for my parents and ancestors, for because of their righteous actions and choices I am here today. Because of you and them I want to be a good person. Because of my Savior I want to be like him. 

As I was reading last weeks email from my brother Elder Jaeger I really like what he was talking about sitting in a battlefield. Haha I feel like I'm there too, and Im sure we can all relate to that one way or another. Life wasn't meant to be easy though, we weren't sent here to dance merrily through the flowers and live in innocence. We came here to be tried and tested. But why? The answer to this goes ALL the way back to our first ancestors/parents on earth "After (God) had created our first parents...it must needs be that there was an opposition; even the forbidden fruit in opposition to the tree of life; the one being sweet and the other bitter. Wherefore, the Lord God gave unto man that he should act for himself. Wherefore man could not act for himself save it should be that he was enticed by the one or the other" (2 nephi 2:15-16). 

We could not act for ourselves unless we had two choices, the good and the bad. THATS why we needed to come to earth :] to try and test our agency. God hopes that all his children will return back home to him. That is why he sent his son Christ, so that through him we may be forgiven. But we must do our part to receive this grace and mercy. How grateful I am for my heavenly fathers love! Even with our imperfections He loves us! He does not expect us to become perfect here on earth, but he does expect us to try. How grateful I am for this moment in life to help others come unto Christ. 

I love you all so much :]

love-Hna Jaeger

10 more to go

Texas Houston District  ~  Signing my TX flag

Yep walked like this

We got transfer calls today and I found out I am staying in H 1 with Hna B :] I am so grateful to have another 6 weeks here and I'm positive the extra 4 weeks President will just keep me here in the area until I am called home. I'm starting to get emotional with knowing how fast the last transfer went and how I only have 1 1/2 left. How grateful I am for this time in my life to find out who I am through serving others 24/7. In church today we heard a really cool story as we were learning about the sabbath day that I would like to share with you.

 Afraid of B's sweet bird  ~  friend on ground trying to get in our place

My friend kept following me  ~  made left turn this sucker scared me

 L teaching me how to eat a mango & I'm messy  ~  Service for sweet friend & it was worth it!

"There was a fisherman who lived with his wife and 5 children. This father loved his family and wanted the best for them. He went out to work hoping to catch enough fish to give him income to take care of his family. As the fisherman pulled the net out of the water he found that his net was empty of fish, but found 7 clams. In each clam he found 7 beautiful pearls. The fisherman was happy and knew that with these 7 pearls he would be able to give much to his family. As the fisherman walked home he passed by a man sitting on the road, begging for food. The fisherman had compassion on the begger and decided he would give this poor man 6 pearls, for with the 7th pearls the man could support his family for awhile and then go back to work. As the fisherman traveled home the begger decided to follow this fisherman home. The fisherman walked into his home and closed the door. The begger peaked inside the window and say the fisherman put the one other pearl on his nightstand and turned in for the night. The begger quickly reached through the window, took the 7th pearl from off the fishermans desk and walked away."

Now, what did you get from this story? Maybe not much at first but that the begger is supper greedy. In this story the fisherman is like Jesus Christ, he has given us 6 days out of the week to do what we need and want. But are we sometimes like the begger, greedily taking the 7th day and doing what we want with it? The Lord has asked us to sanctify the 7th day of the week to him. and when you think about it, after ALL that Christ has done for us, all he asks of us is to spend this one day out of the week in reverence to him. Are we doing so?

So happy to have a couch

I am grateful for Sundays. though on the mission it is far from a day off rest for me haha I am grateful for the opportunity to go to church and partake of the sacrament. I love H 1 ward and am so grateful and blessed to be in this ward. The members are so willing to help our investigators. I know in the next 10 weeks I will be able to see the fruits of my labors. I know god is a god of miracles and as i trustin him and do his will I will be able to see and experinece these miracles! i just need to be patient. I love you all :] And pray for each of you everynight.  love- herman ashley jaeger

Members, Missionaries & friends came together for a service project for Hermana P

 Deer in headlights ~ District Hermanas & J from ward ~ Service for Hna P

 We love Hna P  ~  1 2 3 smile and he kissed me haha

Cutting the grass with a machete

Goodly Parents

 Texas Sunsets in Houston

Hey!  Wow how blessed I am to be serving here in H 1. We have so GREAT invesitgators right now. Most of them are apart of part- member families. (this is to you austin, if you want new investigators that will stay in the church go teach the less active or part-member families. you will find potential investigators there :]). Of course, when I met these investigators whos families are all mormon expect them, most of them were not open to learning about the gospel. But as my companion and I found ways to serve such as cleaning homes or helping in the yards these non-members started to open up more to us and started to see that we are not there to just baptize them but we are there to love them, care for them, and help them receive more happiness in life. 

With this topic I want to talk about one really sweet investigators we have right now. C has been kind of interested in learning more about the church but since the time is getting closer to when the baby is due shes more open to learning and preparing for baptism. We are praying and hoping and having faith that she will be baptized. I know this step of baptism will help them as a family work towards going to the temple :]

We have a lot of families who at least one of the spouses are not a member. For the rest of my mission I hope that I can help ALL the part-member families in my area have the goal of going to the temple. We are planning on giving temple pictures to the part member families in our area to help them remember where they should be heading. We hope form this that the nonmembers will see that baptism is just one of the steps to go to the temple and to be sealed with their families for eternity. That it is essential, not an opption, to be sealed in the temple as a family so we may live with them for ever. 

 Comp make Tacos Durados  ~  I'm burnt like a tomato

How grateful I am for my parents and for their choice to be married and sealed in the temple. Mom and Dad your choices have made a great impact upon my life and I thank you for making such righteous decisions. Your actions have really blessed and shaped my life. I am who am I am because of the example you have set for me by the way you both have lived your lives. I know my heavenly father is a god of miracles, this week we had the miracle of having 7 investigtors a church. I know this happen because of our faith in god and obedience to his commandments. I love you all and am so excited to see you in september, I know the extra 4 weeks on my mission will make our reunion all the more sweeter :]  love- hermana ashley jaeger

 Happy 4th of July