Merry Christmas!

Going on 7 months of biking .. look what I got for christmas! A new bike!

Woooow I cant believe its almost christmas!!! I am so excited to skype everyone! i hope i have the chance to see my siblings on a mission kelsey and austin but if not know I love you both sooo much and hopefully we can all see each other on Mothers Day :]

this past week the branch had their christmas party! It was fun.  there was a good turn out we got some of our investigators to show up and there was a loooot of food! one of my best friends in the branch E was santa clause hahaha it was so funny! they covered his face with so much hair you couldnt even see his face. so it was like looking at santa but with ALL his hair covering his face AND he was speaking in spanish hahaha it was so awesome! 

Love them!

we also had the mission christmas party which was so awesome! we had a guy come who is a patriarch and he explained about the abrahamic covenent and the 12 tribes and things like that, it was really awesome! got to hear some talks, watched ephriums rescue. it was a pretty cheese movie, some parts were touching because its based on a real life person. i would totally recommend you guys watching it :] there was a kissing scene and it was so funny to see all the different reactions of the missionaries!!! some people whistled, others covered their eyes hahaha funny enough even i thought the kissing scene was awkward! i feel so over protected sometimes haha the food was so good there was sooo much of it! one of the servers was awkward though he was an RM who was totally hitting on my friend Hermana S and i haha. There was a talent show and one kid went up there and did a miming skit. I was actually laughing really hard! Then my friend next to me starts busting up laughing to then says, "HAHAHAHA oh I am so deprived of television. I have no sense of humor anymore" which made me laugh even more! then they had a mission slide show with pictures of all the missionaries of 2013. Wow that made me laugh and cry. Just seeing how quickly time flies by and then all of a sudden you're done with your mission. Mission president and his family played out the nativity! It was so cute the have 7 kids all under the age of 15 it was so cute. 

Best friend Hermana S  ~  other friend Hermana E

Trained Hermana O - MTC comp Hermana R! - Hermana N (right) same MTC district!

Our Mission President's sweet family acted out the Nativity

Im sorry this letter is so short! I dont have a lot of time today but know i love you all so much am so blessed to be a member of this church :] thank you or all you do and have done for me!

Week 4 MTC

Okay so this week in the MTC has been cool. My district is now the oldest district in the zone for the next 2 weeks. So weird. Yesterday my companion and I had to teach 4 people!!! Usually you just teach one person but it was the best day I've ever had while out on the mission. I love to teach people but again, it's way hard to do in another language.

OH! I have an embarressing story. So thanks mom for typing all my letters onto the blog....maybe I should clarify ahead of time what I do and don't want on there HAHA. I'm not mad I just can't believe this happened.

So I have 2 teachers Hermano W and Hermana R. The other day Hermana R came across my youtube video of me opening my call. She sent that video to all the teachers that knew me. Then I think my blog link is somewhere on the youtube account. So my teacher Hemana R clicked on it and started reading my blog. She laughed when she say me talking about my first P-Day and I had said something like, "The language is hard but the view is nice, but don't worry the teacher is married". I almost died haha I told her not to tell Hermano W until AFTER I left but who knows he may have already read it haha. All the girls in my district joke about it. Yesterday Hermano W told us to give him our parents emails so he can email you guys. Then he said if we wanted to give him our emails or blogs to see how we are doing. ALL the sisters looked at me and started laughing so hard, it was way embarressing. When he asked what we were laughing about I told him nothing.

It's so hard being here in the MTC for 6 weeks it feels so long! And weird to think I've already passed a month since I reported to the MTC.

I came across a scripture that I LOVE! It's Helaman 5. It talks about how Nephi and Lehi (NOT the Nephi and Lehi at the beginning of the Book of Mormon these are 2 completely different people. they are brothers) Nephi and Lehi were remembering the words their father Helaman spoke to them.
in vs 6 it says, "Behold, my sons, I desire that ye should remember to keep the commandments of God; and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. behold i have given unto you the names of our first parents who came out of the land of jerusalem; and this I have doine that when you remember your names ye may remember them, and when ye remember them ye may remember their works; and when ye remember their works ye may know how that it is said and also written that they were good"

I like to take this verse and read it as if my Heavenly Father was speaking to me as a missionary about receiving/wearing the name of Christ. "Behold my missionary I desire that ye should remember to keep my commandments. and I would that ye should declare unto the people these words. behold i have given unto you the name of your Savior, Jesus christ from Bethlehem. And this I have done that when you remember and read his name upon your nametag ye may remember him. and when ye remember him ye may remember his works. and when you remember his works ye ye may know how that it is said and also written that they were good"

I love you so much! I'm sorry this letter is random. I will go on later today and write more :]

Oh could you please tell Sister V F that I say hi, i love her, and thank her for sending me joel and brandon's letters! Tell her I see Joel every once in awhile and he is so happy! the other day he sent me canadian candy haha he's so sweet. Everytime I see him i wish i could hug him because he's such a good friend of mine! i'de send you a pic but i lost my card...

Oh also say hi and thank you to sister B for the letter :] and Emily S tell her I love her and appreciate her letters to me about if i need anything.

Take care! Love you so much!!!

Love-Hermana Ashley Jaeger

Week 3 MTC ~ "...and down ascended two CARROTS!" & Elder Holland visited

Buenos Dias!  email 1 today!!

I hope you all are doing well :] Well my Spanish is SLOWLY starting to improve. Yesterday we were teaching an investigator/teacher and he had expressed that his wife had a miscarriage. I'm surprised I even understood what he said. I got a little emotional and explained that my mom had a miscarriage but that this gospel makes me happy because I know I will live with him again. So "hijo" is son and "hermano" is brother. After our lesson the investigator/teacher pulled me out of class. I had told him that I had a miscarriage because I said "hijo" not "hermano" haha I was so embarrassed because my teacher thought it was probably an issue if I had a miscarriage and was out in the field. So embarrassing. Needless to say my Spanish still needs A LOT of work. It's okay though one Elder in our district said that Jesus was a women and the other Elder said Joseph Smith saw a pillar of light and down ascended two carrots hahaha! Aww learning a new language is awesome.

Our teacher was asking us questions and he asked my companion and I if we followed satan. We were so focused on what he was saying that we just expected he asked "do you two follow the example of jesus christ" instead he said "do you two follow the example of satan". We said yes and everyone started busting up laughing. it was so embarressing haha

Oh here's an even more embarressing story. Our zone loves to play volleyball during gym. I was standing out of the court waiting for the ball. All of a sudden the ball starts coming to me and I just hit it back in the court. A new Elder in our District was running towards the ball. It was super awkward when he ran into me and accidently put his hands on my waist. haha we were embarrassed because you're not suppost to hug/touch/do anything with someone of the opposite gender. Obviously our whole zone jokes about it now. He asked me the other day if I could take a picture with him to send home to his mom so she could see which girl is the cause of him getting sent home. hahaha he's not getting sent home, we just joke because if an elder and sister hugged or did anything like that they would most likely get sent home.

I saw Joel F yesterday! He tried to give me a hug twice!! haha he's well and is really happy to being the MTC!

Let everyone know I love them and thank them for theri letters and prayers.  Someone told me that under the Prophet the missionaries probably recieve the most prayers!  I am grateful for this because I need those prayers. A quote by Elder Bednar really toughted me, escpeciall as I am trying to learn Spanish.  "IT IS MORE IMPORTANT WHO YOU ARE, THEN WHAT YOU WILL EVERY SAY."  

(pic above this was the volleyball 'toucher" Elder C in the middle!!!)

Sister W from home ~  (going to Japan) 

How grateful I am to have felt the prompting to go on a mossion, prayed sincerely about it then by faith (fe') acted upon it!  That's how our faith grows.  I love everyone and miss you all so much.  I hope all is well and I know this church is true.

Love, Hermana Ashely Jaeger

Email 2 today!!!

I love Hermana N!

*I also learned that we need to be willing to walk like Lehi, not knowing where you are going but by faith you keep walking.

*"Mother's are magical"-elder holland (i so agree)

*The Book of Mormon was a record kept not for those who wrote the record but it was written for us!!!

*We don't worship the prophet, we HONOR the prophet.

*"you may be missing your dad and aching for your mom" -elder holland

"Don't take for grantid to have been born in the last dispentation. The gospel has not been on the earth for a long time amoung many people. Almost nobody had the gospel! Everytime the gospel started there came an Apostacy. I believe someday, probably not until heaven, when we see the panarama of the history of the earth that we will understand what it was we were given and to what time we were born. A mission is not just a break from 'the real world'. And don't think that after your mission you are going back into the real woRLD, THIS IS THE REAL WORLD! You will never be closer to God then on your mission. Everything God does is devoted to the saving of His children. We are favoredpeople of God to bring about the latter day glory and kingdom of God. think of the prophets of old, they knew the gospel wouldn't last long in their time but they still diligently worked. Love the scriptures and master preach my gospel because you are the generation that is going to make it!Prophets of old stuck it out because they knew that we were destined to win. This is the day and you are the troops. Others on the other side are cheering you on knowing that you can do this!!!How many temples did we have before Joseph Smith? One. And that temple was stadnign for only a few decades. Today we have about 139 temples! That example alone is amazing. Do this work for the Savior. Dont let him walk alone. My mission meant everything because it was a break through of finding these truths" -Elder Holland