Consider the Lillies‏

I remember a couple years ago while we were watching conference at home, the mo tab came on and sang "consider the lillies". I remember how touched I was to hear the sweet words of this song and from then on I desired to know the meaning of the scripture. In 3 nephi the savior brings this phrase up to the nephites, "consider the lillies, how they grow, how they toil not nor do they spin". The savior goes on to say "if god so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, even so will he clothe you, if ye are not of little faith. ..for your heavenly father knoweth that ye have need of all these things" (3 nephi 13:28-33).

Ran into a EFY friend in the
hall from 7 years ago!

This past week which all the transfers and at our transfer meeting Pres said they were closing down parts of our mission because they didn't have enough missionaries coming in to fill those that are leaving. So some got switched to english speaking.  I am still spanish.  Getting a new companion we realized we didnt have much food. We seriously only had cereal, milk, and bread and some cheese and ham. I felt so bad for my new comp and I barely had any other money to go buy fast food cause its too expensive. So I prayed really simply to God that he would provide food for us. After that prayer we were fed twice that day and the next days after. I know with all my heart the Lord takes care of his servants. I am so grateful for him and the faith I have in him to see many miracles in the lives of others and in my own life.

Okay now onto the crazy week I've had haha. So my comp and I know drive the mission van, we are now in charge of picking up 5 other hermanas for church and other meetings. Just to pick them all up and drop off takes 3 hours out of our day. For transfers we were squished into the van with A TON of luggage and everyone was talking. of course im the one driving cause we have the car and all the sisters are new. I was pretty nervous that at one point I started driving away as one of the hermanas was trying to get into the van!!! HAhaha that night I had a dream that I was driving the van full of little children and I was telling them to calm down. 

My new companion is Hna B from NY. her parents are from mexico so she is the bomb at spanish because its her first language. sometimes we will start speaking english then switch to spanish and it takes me a second to keep up haha but i love her and we get along really well:] The past sunday I hit my 1 year and 2 month mark. Its weird to think i have a little less than 4 months left, kind of weird but I'm okay with it. It gives me a bitter sweet feeling. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love Hna Jaeger

P.S. CONGRATS to my brother AUSTIN in Chile on your baptism!!! I am so extremely happy for you :] you look so happy and nice.

*For my brother Elder Aus & week of Miracles

Saint Patricks Day

This week has been full of miracles!! I want to share one story with you but for some reason I got the prompting today (a REALLY strong prompting) to focus this email to my brother Austin. I'm not really sure what you are suppost to hear from me austin but know that I'm going to try real hard to be lead by the spirit right know to know what the Lord is trying to tell you :]

Missioanry work is hard. For the fam at home ask Kels about it haha. This work was not meant to be easy., look at the life of Christ. his whole life he was doing his fathers will even though many hated him for it. They beat him and spit upon him and crucified him. And even then when he was on the cross, he loved them and forgave them "father, forgive them for they know not what they do". Even after christs death we understand that he was working in the spirit world organizing the work to being more souls unto him! He never stops doing this work. We are far from being like the savior, but we as members are asked to do the same work as our savior, to preach his gospel. when we were baptized we "took upon us the name of christ" meaning we promised to do as the savior did. Austin, I know you are working SO hard in your mission!!! To the point where your legs are starting to give out on you haha. And for this you heavenly father is extremely proudof you  and grateful for your service. Can you picture yourself at the end of your mission? I hope you picture a tall tan man with worn out shoes and soul but still with a smile on his face :] this is the most important work we can be doing. I know even after my mission and when the name tag is ripped away from me (haha cause i never wanna get released) i will still be doing missioanry work. ive come to realize HOW IMPORTANT it is to proclaim this gospel to EVERYONE because without baptism they will not be saved. This week I want to ask all of you (ecpesially austin) to read 3 nephi 11. I want you to see what is the FIRST principle christ teaches the people when he visits the nephites. That chapter in the book of mormon changed my whole outlook on   missionary work. I love you all. And austin, even if you cant see the fruits of your labors yet, i promise you....they will come. in the lords timing. 

This week our main focus was getting J baptized. Starting out the week J explained to us he was not ready to be baptized, he felt he needed more time. He said he wanted to know more before being baptized. During one of my personal studies I prayed so fervently that heavenly father would help me feel how J was feeling, and that I may find scriptures that could help J really understand the importance of baptism and that he was ready. As I was reading I came across 3 nephi 11: 29-30 "... and I and the father I r commandeth all men, everywhere, to repent and believe in me. and whoso believeth in me and is baptized the same shall be saved; and they are they who shall inherit the kingdom of god. and who so beliveth not in me and is not baptized shall be damned" (versus 32-34). At first I felt this message was a little TOO strong and bold to share. Then I realized that these are the words of our Savior. He is lovingly bold. I can picture him crying out to each of his brotheren and proclaiming that that they need to be baptized or else they will not be saved. 

We read this scritpure and explained that these are the words of his loving savior PLEADING for us to follow him, repent, and be baptized. This message touched J's heart, he prayed right there to know if he should be baptized and after the prayer said he felt at peace. We explained that this was the spirit testifying to him that he is ready to be baptized on sunday. Hna W and I did EVERYTHING we could to help J prepare for his baptism. 

How grateful i am for this gospel in my life. I LOVE MY FAMILY! how happy i am to have them for eternity because honestly 1 1/2 years is way too long to be away from y'all haha. I lvoe you all and pray for you always (especially you Kels ;]). Thank you for supporting me and loving me when im far away.

B-day THANK YOU!-

Happy Birthday to my sis from Chile

First off I want to give a BIIIIIIIIIG THANK YOU for the birthday package and everything that you put inside! Tuesday morning I got a call from the mission office saying that my mom called in and said I needed to go get my birthday package HAHA so somehow we were able to go to the office (30 min away from home) and pick it up :] My comp said I have the best mom ever haha, and its true :] My comp Hna W put up all the birthday decorations, made the cake from Kels, breakfast, she was just so sweet. And telling everyone it was my birthday haha. On sunday two members brought me some birhtday cake even though I had it 2 days ago :] Even mission President called and wished me a happy birthday. I REALLY missed you all though but even though I was away from home, with all the many birthday decoartions and balloons hanging around I felt at home :]

Went to the Zoo for my birthday

Tradition to eat part of the
cake before its cut!

On my birthday I had time to think about where I was at a year ago. Crazy to think a year ago on my birthday I got set apart as a missionary. I was excited but had no idea what I was getting into. I learned and grew A LOT in my 21st year of life. Weird to think when I am 22 1/2 ill be home. My mission has defiently taught me how to stand on my own two feet. I want to make a difference in the world. I want to keep changing peoples lives even after my mission. 

This thursday i will hit my year mark...I dont know what to think. Sometimes it honestly feels like its been YEARS since ive seen you all haha. Lucky me on my year mark my comp and I get to go to the temple because we have youth recent converts who are going so we get to go with them :D I'm so excited!!! The area is doing good, we are in the process of findning news. For some reason we have a good amount of same aged as us men who we are teaching haha, one of them opened the door with no shirt on the other day HAHAHA so freakin awkward. Thats what I get for having a cute companion. 

I love you all and hope everything is going well :]

Wha'd up Houston

Hello Houston freeways!  They call this spaghetti bowl.

Me & my new comp Hermana W

Found out that I'll be serving in the city! And in a car! My bike after 7 months needed a break too! I'm so excited! Its seriously a HUGE area and im pretty sure im going to get lost haha. I love my new companion Sister W. She is so cute and such a good missioanry. I love her.

Well the day and a half before I left Brazos was hard and sad. So many members wanted me to come over and say goodbye. Tuesday night there was a handful of members who wanted me to go to the church so I can say goodbye to them. It was sad :[ Some of the members cried so much! But I knew I was done int he area and God wanted me to help another area. I hate goodbyes :[ One mebers E P gave me a birthday cake because I wouldnt be around to celebrate it there haha it was so nice. I went to visit I but she was in the hospital again so I didnt get to say goodbye. But I know the Lord will take care of her.

 The morning of transfers we were packing up to leave. Then as I turned to go back and get more stuff I saw an old man pushing his walker in the cold. It was P :] I tried to stop by and tell him goodbye but he was sleeping so I left a card for him at his door. He said he was so happy to get it he woke up to walk over to my apt to say goodbye and wish me luck :] I started crying a little. He is such a sweet man and it will be a miracle if I can see him again after my mission. But I am so excited to work here in this other area! Hermana W and I get a long really well.

I love this man!  P walked 20 minutes in the cold to say goodbye to me!

Other then that I am doing well :] I know this is where I'm suppost to be. I love this work and I love being a missioanry. Sad to think that this month I'll hit my year mark. To my brother serving in Chile .. Austin live it up, the mission goes way to fast.

Letter to my BROTHER Elder Jaeger

Family-  

This week I feel a great urge to direct this letter to my little brother. Austin, I want you to recap and think about all the fun events that have occured for you these past few weeks leading up to your mission. Can you see and feel the love from those who you are surronded by? I want you to remember that all those people who wished you luck will be praying for you. Every day. You will be prayed for in the temples several times a week. Angels will be with you all day. Every day. To bear you up. To protect you. To watch over you. You're setting apart as a missionary is a real thing. You have authority to preach the gospel. elder godlen from the 70 shared an interesting knoweldge with us missionaries. Austin, did you know there are 3 main powers on the world today?

The power of faith. The power of the priesthood. The power of the devil. Many times I have seen and used the power of faith on my mission. Faith seems like such a primary/basic topic but its important. You will see as you are on your mission that you will be put through situations that will test your faith. Trust in God. As you are stretched because of trials you begin to use and rely on your faith and it starts to grow. Faith brings miracles.

You have the power of the priesthood. Austin always stay vitruous and clean so you have use this power to its full advantage. How grateful I am for the power of the priesthood in my life. Without the priesthood I wouldnt be a missionary. I wouldnt have been baptized. This church wouldnt exist today. One of the things we have in our church that makes us different from the rest is the power of the true priesthood. We teach the restoration as the first lesson with people because its what our church has that no other church has claim on. How blessed we are to live during a time where the true church has been restored back ont he earth.

And here is the reason why God has called you, Elder Austin Charles Jaeger, as a missionary of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Lucifer has power and is trying to destroy your precious brothers and sisters. But remember, Gods power is much greater. We know that in the end Gods team will win in this battle. You have power. Remember that your Father in heaven" worketh by power, according to the faith of [his children]" (moroni 10:7). Trust in God. Without his help Austin we cannot be successful in our work as missionaries. If you struggle with learning the language, trust in God. If you are scared to open your mouth to someone on the street, trust in God. If you are feeling homesick or like you dont belong, trust in God. He knows you perfectly! He loves you and knows what to put in your path for you to endure and make it back home to him.

How proud I am of you Austin to go and serve your mission. The people in Santiago need you. God is preapring people over there for you to teach and baptize. All you must do is pray for guidance from God, and go out and work HARD to find those who are prepared.  "And ye are called to bring to pass the ^agathering of mine ^belect; for mine elect ^chear my voice and ^dharden not their ^ehearts;" (d&c 29:7). The elect are waiting for you Elder Jaeger! So tighten up your tie, lace up your shiney new shoes,  and go to work. I love you with all my heart.

Love- your sister Hermana Ashley Jaeger

Peace in the Temple

Temple trip had to leave here at 6am to make it to the 8am session.  :)

family!  Sorry this email is gonna be short. We moved our p-day so we could go to the temple today on tuesday :] it was so amazing. When I got into the celestial room I started to cry. I havent felt peace like that in my life since the last time I visited the temple almost 4 months ago. The whole time in the temple I just kept thinking of how much I want to be there with my family. How I want ALL my investigators to work hard to make it to the celestial kindgom! They have no clue what they are missing out on.

Also happy birthday to my little cutie brother Austi :] I'm sending a letter hope it gets there on time! Your Mission pictures are so sick austin!! sent me an invite!  Chile is coming fast.

We had a miracle week and had A TON of lessons. I know we are going to have a baptism this transfer :] R has an interview with mission president tomorrow night to see if he can be baptized. The other day he told us when we come to visit him it  makes him feel at home. All his fmaily lives in ecuador and he misses them terribly. His kids are almost all the same exact ages as the kids in our family!! He told us we are good teachers and we are his good friends. He said we are like his daughters and I thought that was the sweetest thing ever!

Me and my Comp Hermana O

Know that I am doing really weel :] I'm excersising my faith more and seeing a lot of miracles coming from it. This week I made to personal sacrifices to show Heavenly Father I will give my all to have a baptism... one was Life cereal (i am addicted i eat that stuff every day) and naps haha 

One day it was pouring so bad.  My scriptures got wet and now they are moldy :(  Have a great week and rememebr while i am watching conference I will be thinging of all of you :]

Love- Hermana Ashley Jaeger

I havent felt peace like that in my life ... 

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

"He/She who sings prays twice" (Temple Day, Service, Death)

Well first off oh my GOODNESS how exciting my brother Austin is going to Santiago Chile!!!! Austin I love that you will be coming home Spanish speaking :D Be prepared to get some letters in Spanish after you hit a year (because by then I hope you can understand my spanish haha). Austin please know that I prayed so fervently this past week that wherever you were going that the people there would need you and love you. I know with all my heart the Lord is sending you there because he knows the people in Chile need YOU and only YOU can touch their lives. Please take my advice and study spanish haha it will pay off and you will be so ahead of the game!!! Please know that your call really did come from the Lord and no one else.

Where you all able to watch the Broadcast on Sunday about missionary work form the members? I loved it!!! We seriously cannot do this work without the members of the church. As I was sitting there I received the strongest reconfirmation that being on a mission is exactly what I need to be doing right now in my life. I am so grateful for following the promptings of the spirit and going on a mission. If I didnt go I know for a fact later down the road I would have regreted it.

Texas Houston Temple Day

I have been learning a lot. We moved our P-Day to wednesday so we could go to the temple on monday. The temple was so beautiful and the bishops wife was so kind and took us. I have never felt such peace in any other place as the peace I have felt as I enter the Lords sacred houses. What a blessing it is to be able to have a temple in our mission.

We actually have the opportunity to teach some new people this week! E granddaughter 10 has been interested in taking the discussions! We were finally able to teach her and the 3rd lesson with her she accepted to be baptized on July 13! She wants to be a member of the church so badly! She told her grandma that when she grows up she wants to be a missionary like Hermana K and Jaeger! I thought that was such an awesome thing to hear!!! We are still teaching E, we gave her 3 dates and asked her to pray about which she feels she needs to be baptized on. 

Service with Hermana V and S G

The other night we visited the D family. We had fun listening to the girls stories about girls came and were able to talk about the improtance of the scripture "ye cannot serve two masters". As we were talking abou this topic the Spirit brought to rememberance something I learned a long time ago in Young Womens class!!! I explained this demonstration of when we put a ball on a table what does it do? The ball rolls to one side or the other. This demonstration can be related to us! We are the ball and we are always moving in some direction, we cannot stand still. So we need to make sure that we are always moving in the correct direction during our lifetime. The family was sweet and the older son had gone out and bought us Blue Bell ice cream because he know how much we loved it!!! They were so kind and we asked in next week we could come by and have a family home evening with them. They were excited and agreed to be there. 

We also were able to teach two new young girls this week named A who is 12 and V 6. When we walked to their house we had planned to teach O who is 19 but as we got to the house they were having a huge party with a ton of alcohol. A and V walked over to us and told us what they were all celebrating. We taught a simple and quick lesson of the plan of salvation to them which was awesome! They loved it and we set up another time to go back and teach the whole family.

Okay so a few weeks ago we meet T family who are 3 sisters in their 30s that are neighbors. They are a great family and they love being together as a family playing volleyball and BBQing. About 4 week ago we went over to visit. We talked to one of the sisters P and met her hsuband. the husband was nice and the family jokingly told him he needed to listen to the lesson because he needs to stop drinking. The husband scheduled a day for us to go back and told us his kids need God in their lives. The day we were suppost to teach the family they were having aparty and told us to stop by in 2 weeks after all the festivities. The day we went back the family was awkwardly quiet but nice. We soon found out from one of their neighbors that P husband had died 2 weeks ago from drinking and driving. We were shocked it made me cry to think here we are as missionaries in this area and we weren't able to teach him about the gospel before he unexpectidly passed away!! I felt so sick because I woundered what he would have thought if we were abel to teach him before he died. We went over again to the family, we played vollyball with them and tried to get to know them more. Its hard because so we decided we are going to try and find a way to do service for her and have the opportunity to teach her about the Plan of Salvation.

Studies

We have been biking more often because now we have a limit of miles haha. We have had to bike quite a bit and I give props to missionaries whos only transportation is a bike. Everytime we bike I always sing a hymn because I love to sing to myself haha and too "he/she who sings prays twice" so I feel its double the protection and a continual prayer when I sing and bike haha! I love this area and the people in it! Hermana K and I see a lot of great potential in our investigators and I have a feeling this next transfer is going to be awesome.

I love you all and hope you have a great week! I will talk to you again on Monday :]

Love-Hermana Ashley Jaeger