Farewell, 4 weeks left

This is why they call me Nurse Jaeger

Hey fam :]

A LOT has been going on this past week and I'm surprise I can still remember my name haha. I will try and remember all that good things that went on this past week :]

MTC comp Hna R & MTC friend Hna N

On wednesday we had the farewell temple trip to all the missionaries leaving. It was such a nice experience and I loved seeing my MTC companion Hna R and N again in the temple :] it brought back flash backs of when we would all go together while in the MTC. 

The day before I was able to go on an exchange back to B for a day! Wow it felt so weird being back in my old area, it brought back a lot of good memories of Hna O and Hna S. I made a couple of the members tell Hna S I said hi and to email me haha shes so sweet and today I got 2 emails from her. 

My District!

Hermana O I trained & Hermana G ~ & MTC Companion Hermana R

Hermana T and a ton of Hermanas from the Mission

It was so cool to see I my first convert! At first she didnt recognize me and I thought,  well its okay at least I can see her :] Then when she finally looked up to see us she said, "Wow, what a miracle. I'm so surpired you are here!" It made me feel so happy to see she remembered me and was happy to see me :] because of her health she still kept falling asleep in the lessons but I knew exactly what to do to get her attention :] I realized that since I spent so much time with her I figured out a way to teach her to her needs. I also saw K O and her family :] It was so fun seeing them , K actually came out teaching with us. When I was leaving she said, "You and Hna S were my favorites". I was also able to see the J family who help me out so much driving us to different lessons when it was in the freezing winter. 

My MTC Companion!

sunday we were able to have 6 less actives at church!!!! It was so awesome and a recent convert of mine J :] it was the best thing ever! Monday night we had the farewell dinner with all 40 missionaries. It was fun talking with Hna R again, we had a lot of good laughs about our missions and our time together in the MTC. As we hugged to say goodbye i told her, "Sprint to the end!" And she replied, "Of course. We started and will finish our missions together :]". It was interesting at the farewell dinner, i didnt feel like it was my turn to go home yet. i know im supposed to be here for a reason. 

Last week Ca and G had their baby girl. Her name is A and we will hopefully get to meet her this week :]  hopefully before. 

I love you all so much! I know the last 4 weeks are going to fly by so fast and then I'll be home :] I love you all and hope everything is going well. Adios!

At the Dr again.

I have given you an example

This past week was filled with bitter-sweet moments. I'm not sure why my last few weeks are being so tried but I know something good will come from it. Last Thursday there was a wedding! We hope she will excursize her faith and be baptized. After all the long nightly prayers, fasts, and sacrifices I've done I know that in the end I've done everything I could to help her and I just put all my trust and confidence in God. I know he sees the sacrifices in my companion Hna B and I are going through and I know he will bless us for them. We are planning tonight to help G be baptized next week, she is ready and shes been waiting. I pray things go well.

My companion Hna B is slowly healing. She is such an inspiration to me, she walks up and down and up and down so many flights of stairs and never gives up. It is such an honor to be her companion. She is sacrificing and going through so much to help the people here. Shes been getting crazy leg cramps out of no where, we say the doctor today and he said if it doesn't get better until next week she will need xrays.

With all that is going on for the past two weeks I came across a quote that I can really relate too, " If we are going to be disciples (of Christ), if we are going to say that we are sent by the Lord Jesus Christ, then we had better have some evidence of it. Part of that evidence will be at least a moment in that Garden with those tears, and a step or two in the general direction of Calvary made in anguish and sorrow" -Jeffery R Holland. I am a disciple of Christ, I know I was sent here to this area in H 1 with Hermana B for a very special reason. I know this is His work, I am only an instrument in the Lords hands. I know all that I go through is for Him, and he's felt my pains, burdens, tears, and fears. I know in the Garden of Gethsemane he suffered there and felt all my pains, and he overcame it. And that's what gives me hope, that I will come out of these trials too because He did. I know there is nothing impossible for God, he is all powerful and knows all. Because of this I remember to stay patient. I can only see the little picture of how things will turn out but Heavenly Father has an eternal perspective.

I love all of you and thank you for all the prayers and sacrifices you go through for me and the people in my area. This week is the temple trip for those who are leaving this transfer. I am excited to see all the missionaries I came into the mission, and feel so happy that I have a couple more weeks left in the mission. This is my life and I love every minute of it because I know the "trial of [my] faith is more precious then gold"-bible.

love- Hermana Jaeger

With greater faith comes greater trials (bike accident)

This past week has been the most stressful week of my mission. I know that the more faith Hna Beltran and myself keep exercising the more trials keep coming, and believe me this past week were some of the most hardest trials I've had to deal with in the mission. And as much as I would love to write one by one of all the trials I had to face this week I will try and keep the letter short and leave it on a good note. 

This past week our car broke down so we were put on bikes. We were able to bike to visit C our investigator who is ready to be baptized :] We went over the baptismal questions and everything was good! We set up for her to have her baptismal interview on sunday. As we left her apartment to go to the next appointment we crossed a pretty busy road. My companion Hna B was riding in front of me when a guy in a big car made a turn without looking and ran right into Hna B. It was one of the most scariest moments I've had on the mission. As the car hit my companion Hna B her bike got pulled under his car but she got pushed back and flew a good amount of feet away from the car and landed in her backpack. The ambulance came and took her to the hospital. I had no idea what to do. Something I learned from my dad is laughing is the best medicine. As much as I wanted to freak out at the situation I know I needed to stay calm for Hna B. She laughed when the medic was asking for her first name and I got it wrong. I replied, "Gesh Hna B I've been with you for about 15 week and still cant get your first name right". Though her eyes were holding back many tears she laughed. At the hospital we waited a long time for results, miraculously Hna B walked away with just some pulled ligaments which will take a few weeks to heal but she will get better. G and N were kind enough to pick us up from the hospital at 10:30pm and take us home. The next few days were rough for Hna, from the accident it left her SUPER sore so shes needed help getting up out of bed, sitting down, basically the poor thing can barely move. While all this is going on I took phone calls from numerous people wanted to know how she was doing, then canceling and rescheduling appointments because there was no way we could go out and teach people. 

On sunday my companion had enough strength to go to church. C showed up (thank goodness) and had her baptismal interview and passed :] now we have to wait on the doctors to see if its okay if she can be baptized. C and G will be married this week :]

I look back now at the weeks I was figuring out if I should extend and I'm so grateful God gave me the prompting to extend my Mission and I did. I know that I'm not only here 4 more week to help our investigators be baptized but I'm here to help my companion Hermana B. I love her so much and am really blessed to have her as my companion. The trials we are going through are only making us stronger and more determined to do Gods will. I know Satan is really trying to bring us down so that people wont be baptized but I know god is more powerful that satan, this is gods work and I know he will help us through it. I love you all. Please keep my companion Hermana B in your prayers.   love-Hermana Jaeger

Another week in Paradise! "Your not hard to notice"

Good morning!!

Loving every minute

Good to hear you all are doing so well! Thank you for the package I got last week my favorite part was the pictures, especially of Austin when he was drugged up from getting his wisdom teeth out!  HAHA poor guy. I love that he wanted to play the piano. I was listening to a song the other day and thought of Aus, I miss him playing. And I miss Garretts big hugs. And Blakes desire to go out with me to places like the pool. Everyday I am remined how lucky I am to have such incredible parents. Oh and I loved the pictures of Kelsey!!! I miss her so much.

My week has been pretty good. The members here are wonderful and they come out with us everyday!! Even though we are on bikes they follow behind us in a car haha! And they ALWAYS bring us food. Biking is getting a little easier but last night I made us go home early because the lightening was crazy! The lightening was so close and we had no car for protection. Sometimes its best to follow how you feel.  

I'm learning a lot with being a senior companion. My comp is a hard worker. I know its my burden to bear right now and I have faith in God that someday I'll get the language. Everyday I see how my patience is tested.  Our apartment is always falling apart haha. For showers its either boiling hot or freezing cold. And our sink desposal is not working.  The office said they will fix it today.

We see miracles everyday. The other day we stopped by a house the elders told us to visit,it was the house of a member who just moved to the area. She had afriend there at the house that was not a member named A. We were able to teach her a brief lesson and when we asked for her information she told us just to teach her at the members house every saturday. Then on Sunday in the morning we called and texted EVERYONE we knew and invited them to church and asked if they needed a ride. As we got to church we had a feeling we would have no one. Then in comes the new member with A AND As daughter D!!! That was probably the biggest miracle we saw that week. I prayed so hard that we could have an investigator be at church and the Lord made it possible.

Oh haha the other night we had members out and we taught our investigator F the 10 commandments. It was good but we did stay pretty long during the lesson.

Another ouch from the bike

This week was a hard one for me but I just keep my thoughts focussed on the miracles the Lord provides daily. I make an effort to talk to EVERYONE I make eye contact with and say hi too. And even though some people dont want to talk I know I left a little impact upon them. Some drunk guy told my companion and I, "Yeah you guys stand out, your not hard to notice. Its easy to spot the mormons." Haha but I took that as a complement because I LOVE that people know who I am and what I represent just by my apperance. I know the struggles and challenges I go though are just going to make me stronger. I know I am dealing with all this for a reason and I love what it says in 3 nephi 12:11-12 "And blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persicute and shall say all manner of evil against you falsley, for my sake; for ye shall have great joy and be exceedingly glad, for great shall be your reward in heaven; for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you".
I love you all so much!

My skirt got caught in the bike wheel :(.... "My Savior keeps me going"

Hello everyone!

First off to my brother Austin I've heard a little about your mission! I hear the flight there is like 18 hours away?! I know you will be wonderful though :] Hey and dont stress about the language, it will come faster once you are set apart as a missionary. You should still TRY and study some things but just remember to spend time with the family okay? Thats whats most important.

Mama Hope made these scarves for us :)

So there was a lot of confusion for me on transfer day haha. I am actually follow-up training which means I'm finishing training a missinary whos only been here for 6 weeks. I'm the senior companion but she knows more spanish then me haha! We are in her origional area called Brazo City biking area...yeah our area is pretty small. We  bike from one side of our area to the other in a hour. The area is nice, the people are so sweet and since we've been on bikes we've had a lot of opportunity to talk to people on the streets. The members here try and come out with us everyday!!! But they are all men so we cant drive with them haha so we ride our bikes and they follow us in their cars to people we want to visit.

My companion Hermana O is sweet and we work well together and we take good care of each other.

Our investigators who we are mainly focussing on his I who is a very sick woman. I'm not sure what she has but shes can barely move and before i came into the area she was in the hospital. We visit her everyday and teach her. She wants to be baptized but feels she needs to wait until after her 3 surgeries which she doesnt know when that will happen. Also we had the opportunity to talk to her husband P who is very funny and reads the Ensyclopedia for fun! We gave him a word of Wisdom pamphlet and the next day we visited he told us he didin't know Joseph smith was killed, he looked up Joseph smith in the Encyclopedia haha.

We are also teaching J A a 20 year old. Its hard to teach him because he works until about 7:30-8 at night and starts at 7am. He also has a testimony of the book of mormon and Joseph smith. We talked about having faith and trusting in God. 

Its nice the members come out with us especially at night because they're are A LOT of "barachos" or drunk guys in our area haha! the other night some came up to us and started talking. He wanted to learn more about our religion so we said he could call us when he had time. We were so thankful C T a member was there because the drunk guy was big and a little intimidating.

The other day as I was biking I was thinking to myself, "Hey I really like biking areas. There not too bad" then all of a sudden my skirt got caught in the back of my tire and stopped the wheels and I flew of my bike haha. thank goodness I put on my biking pants because my skirt was down to my knees when I feel over!!!! Cut and bruised my knee pretty bad and its hard to kneel and pray haha but I just think that whenever I'm tired or my back is hurting from my heavy back pack or when people honk and tell me to move I just think of my Savior. Aww I'm getting emotional writing this but its true. I know he knows EXACTLY what I am feeling; the physical pain, the heat, the yells from other people, awkward stairs from others and other things. My savior is what keeps me going. Funny enough, even when my body feels like its going to collapse I keep going. When someone turns us down, we keep going and praying that we are able to complete what the Father wants us to do in this little area of ours. 

My sweet companion fixing my bike for me.

I am also really blessed to have such a loving and supprotive family. Thank you for taking care of me, you have no idea and I cannot express in words how amazing you all are. Someday I wish I could just get a quick hug form y'all and then I'de be okay. But I know I'm here to help other families be together forever just like what I have.

Being the senior companion is really hard, I feel so much weight on my shoulders. I know for a fact I cannot do this work without the help and guidance of the Lord. I love the scripture in Alma 26:12 and I can relate to it because all the blessings and miracles I see as a missionary come from God. I am nothing without his help. 

Hermana O and I have had a lot of opportunities to talk to people in Spanish and even though we barely know how to speak the language somehow the people are always accepting of our message and open to us coming back and teaching them. I have full confidence in God that anything is possible. The language is still hard and I struggle everyday with understanding and speaking it, but its making me rely on the Lord every second of the day. I've never had to work this hard for so many consistant days but I am happy. I know my struggles and trials are for a moment and they are stretching me to become what the Lord wants me to be. I will not stop this work until I've done everything I can.

I love you all. You are always in my prayers. Thank you for taking such good care of me.

Love-Hermana Ashley Jaeger