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

Surprise! I'm EXTENDING MY MISSION!!

This week I received my "trunky papers". Here is a little of what the letter said from president, "I am sure it is with mixed emotions that you are realizing that your release date is just a few months away...I am writing to extend a challenge to you. With all of the experiences, speaking skills, knowledge and faith you have acquired since your mission began, there has never been a time in your mission when you were more qualified and able. You are at the height of your missionary service. Never have you been more capable to have a powerful impact on this sacred work of the Lord...I challenge you to utilize these remaining sacred weeks in the mission field to increase your pace, and acheive a great work in the name of the Lord...These last precious days will never come again...I pray the Lord's greatest blessings to be upon you as you sprint to the end".

I have spent the last few weeks praying to know whether I should extend my mission or not. After countless prayers and trying to find an answer I have come to the conclusion that the Lord trusts me enough to make my own decision. I talked to my mission president about it and he said that I am only obligated to serve until August 26, and the Lord is so incredibly happy with me for serving that long. He said to go to the Lord and ask him if he would be fine with me extending if that is what I would want to do, then finished "us as a mission would love if you extended". As I pondered the next few days about this I realized something. At the beginning of this transfer I asked the Lord why I was in the area. I just wanted to know who needed my help. Since that prayer there have been countless moments and struggles from members and nonmemebrs that have shown me why I am here. I have very specific investigators who are in my area who I know I was sent here to help them be baptized. I feel I must give them all that I have (including all the time I can have to serve here) to help them be baptized and then work towards going to the temple. 

After also talking with the family :] I have come to a conclusion that I want to extend my mission and stay the extra 4 weeks until september 26th. The only reason I am making this decision is because of the people here. Form my investigators, memebers, and less actives. I feel I can really help them even more if I stay until september and not leave in august. I know right now it feels like the 4 weeks will be so long, but thinking in an eternal perspective its only a little moment. And to think how many people I can help bring unto christ in those last 4 weeks. I know this gospel is true. I want to help as many people as I can be apart of this great joy in the gospel! 

I love you. How grateful I am for your support and love. I am so lucky to have such an incredible family. I know he will watch over you until I come home :]  love- hna ashley jaeger

Bus rides & sharing the gospel in JAIL

Buenas dias a mi familia :]

Had such a good week! Valentine's day was fun, my companion and I ended the day with watching this SUPER old mormon video "together forever" HAHA with cookies, pizza, candy, ect. Thank you to my amazing mother for being so kind and sending us stuff for Valentines :] Oh also the whole valentines day when we were in the car we wore some heart glasses that mom sent us haha.

Downtown Houston TX

A lot of things happened this week. This past week was my first time riding on the bus in Houston! It was pretty fun. We first get on the bus and the driver starts driving away before I even start to sit haha so I almost fell over. As we were sitting on the bus Hna W realized one of the passangers was a lady we have been trying to get ahold of for 3 weeks! We went and talked to her and set up an appointment :] I was SUPER nervous to talk to people on the bus. I didnt know how to walk up to them, what to say, I've never done it before. After a few minutes I got enough guts to get up from my seat and go sit behind a guy who I thought I should talk to . Right as I sat down next to him I realized he was sleeping...I started laughing because NOW everyone saw me sit down by this guy who is asleep. My companion eyeballed me to go talk to the guy behind me but I was nervous. Then I thought, "Well, maybe I can just ask him a direction question." I I turned around to him and asked, "Are we going to Downtown?" As the 26 year old started to reply I noticed something hiding on the back of his neck. I quickly realized it was a SNAKE haha so I replied, "WOW is that real?" He, E, laughed and pulled the snake from behind his neck. My companion and I were so amazed. He said the snake was a baby python...haha we were tempted to hold it but decided itd be best just to tke a pic of it. We then started talking about life and he started to explain that his mother passed away after Christmas and his dad died 2 years ago. I asked if he went to a church and he explained how after his mother died he stopped going to church. That that experience weakened his faith in God. It was a perfect opportunity to talk about the Plan of Salvation and how he will be able to see his parents again after this life. We were able to get his information so the missionaries can stop by and visit. We were able to talk to about 6 more different people on the bus, it was a really cool experience. All the people were pretty different. After talking to one guy who asked what I represented he remarked, "No I dont want missionaries to come visit me. I just started talking to you cause you have a pretty face" HAHA I just said, "Well thanks...if you want to learn more heres our website". I am excited to ride the bus more and find those who are prepared :]

Houston Bus Rides with friends 

Last night I realized how worn out missionary work makes you. After I fell asleep I woke back up at 11pm. I dont even know why but for some reason I thought it was time to get up HAHA so I pulled myself out of bed and started praying. As I was praying I thought, "Why isn't she praying too?" I was so confused and so I thought, "Well maybe I have more time to sleep" and crawled back into bed haha. I think it would be so funny in heaven to read through your prayers because I'm pretty sure in all my morning prayers I'm talking about what happened in my dreams. 

This week we also found out one of the less actives in our ward got put into jail. We decided we should go visit him and give him some hope that things will turn out okay. We got to the Jail in downtown and had to wait an hour for it to open. So we called people to try and set up appointments. Finally we were able to go in. As we walked through the doors there was a pretty good size line to see those who were in the jail. Lots of people could tell this was our first time visiting. We really did stand out from the crowd. Finally after a lot of confusion and an hour later we were just waiting for our friend to come up to the glass window. As we were waiting I was looking at ALL the other people who were talking to the inmates. Basically, I saw mothers with their children on one side of the glass trying to speak through a little speaker to their husbands on the other side of the glass-dressed in orange. It broke my heart to see families so close but so far apart. The spirit was totally not there, mothers were screaming to their kids to be quiet and yelling and cussing through the speaker to talk to their loved ones who were locked up. 

Instantly a feeling of gratitude came over me of how blessed and lucky I am to have been born to loving parents who raised me in the gospel of Jesus Christ. With this knowledge I learn of the things I need to do to make me happy, and free. As we follow Jesus Christ we really are freed and do not become inprisoned by things of the world. Finally we were able to talk to our friend. I've never met him or seen him before but somehow his face seemed familiar to me. Since we were not allowed to take ANYTHING with us to talk to the inmates we just taught through testimony to him. We told him how much God loved him and that through is son Christ we can be clean of all sins. We told him how much his family loved him and prayed for him always. He explaiend to us that many years ago he was SUCH a faithfl member in the church, he had even gone through the temple. Something happened in his life where he started to turn to alcohol to solve his probelms and became an addict to alcohol. As he talked to us he had shame in his countanence. You can tell he was upset for what he had done and wanted to change. Before leaving we asked if we could say a prayer with him, he said he would offer the prayer. With people screaming all around I could barely hear his soft words, but what I did hear touched my heart. In a place of no hope I felt peace, I felt the spirit. As E prayed his eyes filled with many tears of sorrow for what he had done and for gratitude for his family and the missioanries. Leaving the jail I came out with having an even greater desire to share the gospel with everyone. I want EVERYONE to have what I have, I feel for those who suffer.

Pizza with the Hermanas

I look at my life know and am grateful for this opportunity I have to see how our actions today really do take a big role on what happens tomorrow. This past week we also had a zone conference with our mission president. He talked about setting life long goals, we had a few minutes to write out what we wanted in our futures and how we would acheive them. One thing I mentioned was how I want to be a good wife and mother and that the mission was helping me prepare to do that. Reading my patriarchal blessing reminds me of the potential I have and how I want to always be a strong member of the church so I can fulfill what God has in store for me. Thank you for supporting me and giving me this opportinuty to serve a mission, to help others, to save souls. As I am about to hit my 22 years since I was born I still to this day am so grateful for the loving family I have. I cannot put into words my love and gratitude I have for you all :] I pray for you all individually and lvoe you with all my heart. How joyful the day will be to hug you all again :

Another week in Brazos

Sheri Dew is coming to our mission this week for sister conference.  Guess who president picked to go pick her up from the airport....my companion and I hahahahha im so nervous!

Love her ... Hermana S

Woo hoo well this friday if everything goes according to plan J will be baptized :] We have been teaching him just for a few weeks but he is so ready! Just pray for him that he feels ready too :] This past week we taught him about the word of wisdom. He actually does drink coffee and thought it was weird we don't. We taught this lesson at a members house. Right after the lesson ended the member said, "Okay here you go I made you some cinnimon tea!" HAHAHA J was like , "Umm hermana we cant drink that!!!" We had to explain that we cant drink any tea from a tea plant. Those gray lines are hard for me personally I just stay away from all kinds of tea. But J has been keeping la palabra de sabiduria which is awesome! He had work this sunday so missed spanish branch BUT went to the 9am session and took the sacrament :] Hes a great investigators.

Met a new guy this week, G. Yeah he's name is pretty common haha. The first time we met him he was so excited and gave me a hug! HAhaha but he was exitced to see missionaries again. Our first lesson he explained how he was away for a year and during that time he read all the bible AND the book of mormon!!! I was so shocked! He knows the BOM is true and joseph smith is a prohphet! He said, "Sometimes I even watch the joseph smith movie that the elders gave me!!!" The only downer is he is planning on getting baptized in the pentacostal; church next month. What he doesnt know is we are planning on having him be baptized in our church next month haha :]

It was time to take out the couch :(

OH! So this Thursday we left the appartment early so I could go to the doctor, then get my new bike, go to the pharmecy, go drop off the loner bike I was borrowing, then go home. All during those 4 hours the housing inspector of the mission went and did a surprise check on our appartment.....haha what a blessing we werent there. He had a huge list of all the things we need to do to fix the appartment. He called us later that day and said, "Did you get my love note?" Haha referring to the list of to dos we have to do. He mentionedd how gross our couch was and we needed to throw it away cause its so old. He also mentioned that we need to have weather proofing on our doors so bugs dont come in. My comp responded, "Yeah cause the other week we found a dead mouse! Well actually maybe the mouse came form the couch" hahah it was so funny.  Long story short he wanted us to carry this HUGE old nasty couch our of the apparment to the dumpster which was so far away. We got the elders help and it was fine.  Dah i got to go! haha I love you all and will talk to you next week :}

Going on 5th transfer in same area on a Bike

Found out today I'll be having another 6 weeks here in B Bike area. Obviously whatever God wants me to learn here I haven't learned yet haha.  if its his will that I should stay another transfer here in B that I would do everything I can to start being more dedicated to baptize our investigators. I know this is why I'm here another transfer. We have investigators who need both Hermana C and I. I know that my trials and tribulations "worketh patience" (Romans 5:3) and that I need to "continue in patience until [I] am perfected" (D&C 67:13).

I love being in this area for so long. Because I've been here since July a lot of people have remembered my name, even though its a hard one for Hispanics to say :] P the 78 year old member called us the other day and said, "Its gonna be cold outside today!! Are you going to stay inside? You probably should." Haha then we'd say, "We have to go work P! We are going outside." Then the otherday he said, 'Hermanita Jaeger did you know your name is in the bible?!!" I laughed so hard and told him I had no idea!! He said, "Yeah its in Genesis 31:47!!" In the Spanish scriptures it uses the word Jegar hahaha but in the English bible it like jegarhsaholhfeu or something like that. I thought it was so cute for some reason he went and was reading and looked up or found my name :] Like I've mentioned before I feel really loved in this area, and wanted. I know this is where I'm suppost to be.

This email is going to be pretty short because I don't have a ton to write about haha. BUT after church a member in the branch took us to go and decorate I's house for Christmas! When we got there she was on oxygen for her asthma :[ like the one the boys use to use? It was sad. I gave her a hug and started helping to decorate. Then as we were decorating her house she asked if I would help fold the laundry on her bed. I sat down by her and helped fold her laundry while everyone else decorated the house. She was so happy to see all the lights and Navitity Set! It brought a big smile onto her face :] we sang Silent night which helped bring in the spirit as well :]

During studies this week I realized something. Everyone will go through trials in life. Trials don't come because we are bad people. Job from the bible had trials, and he was a great man! Jesus Christ was perfect and he had the greatest trials of all. I know that trials come into our lives because they give us an opportunity to rely and strengthen our faith in God. Like my mom said, "God gives his toughest battles to his shoudlers". I also love what it says in my blessing that "the lord challenges those and allows adversity to  come into the lives of the great ones". How grateful I am to be here on a mission. I love this time of year!!! The spirit of Christ is just so strong during this time of year. Hope you all have agreat week :] I love you!

Ho Ho Holy Cold Weather!

Hola! I cannot explain how FREEZING it has been here in Rosenburg! We got a message form the president telling us to be careful this week becuase its going to the in the low 20s. Haha even though I've had on two pairs of leggins, warm socks, boots, two shirts, a sweater, a jacket, gloves, and a beanie on I'm still so cold! I feel like I'm in a snow globe Hahaha the humidity here makes the temperature feel a lot colder than it is. I swear at one point I thought there was little flecks of snow dropping. Now I can say I've BIKED in the hottest weather in texas AND the coldest weather...yay. Haha :]

This week has been a really good week! Monday we had a zone activity. We played a game called, "Do you love your neighbor" HAHA it was so fun but one Elder kept saying, "Umm we should rather say do you RESPECT your neighbor. Its more appropriate." Either way the game was fun. Also went to look up a guy named A. He wasnt home but we saw a guy outside and started talking to him. Come to find out it was A!!! Haha he was so nice and was pretty interested in our message. We tried to visit him again this week but havent been able to see him :/

Tuesday we went and helped an investigators kids with homework! Angel knows very little English so I tried my best teahcing him math and he got it! Then we moved onto Reading and it was in spanish. Haha I feel like I learned more form A's homework then he did! The homework has us read a sentence then draw a picture of what the sentence said. the first sentence was, "Tengo un paragua"....I had a confused look on my face and A's mom started laughing cause she knows how little spanish i understand HAHA! A drew the picture and I found out paragua is an umbrella.  After a volleyball activity one of the members, who reminds me of dad cause hes a "big guy" haha he went and sat on my bike and BROKE IT! We were all laughing so hard and I felt bad cause he felt bad. He was kind and the next morning took my bike in and fixed it and its all good! I didnt have to pay for anything :] I'm not sure why so many people try and sit on my bike haha

Wednesday I dont remember haha!

thusrday I had a different Hermana come to my area for the day. I had to bike slower so she could keep up  I'vr been on a bike going on 6 months now!  But it was interesting to be with her cause she broke up with her boyfriend and was having a hard time and so since i had just recently gone through that I was able to help her! 

So happy to spend a day with my old companion!

Friday was AWESOME!!! Hermana O my old companion got to come back to the area here with me! It ws so fun catching up and being together like old times. We had a miracle day and were able to have 8 lessons AND have two of our investigators accept to prepare to be baptized!!! My fav lesson was with an investigator M. Shes a mom of 5 kids and is taking care of them on her own. she is amazing. she started reading 3 nephi 11 where christ visits the americas was confused about the "small voice". We helped explain that that was the holy ghost and how the holy ghost speaks to us in a quiet voice, or more like feelings. She loved it and wants to be baptized in january! We set up a return lesson for today so we can teach her WHOLE fmaily!!! We also talked to a ton of people outside (which was a miracle cause it was like in the 20s) and one guy we met his name was A! Hes about dads age and asked us to come back someother time to teach him.

Saturday I dont remember either!  haha.

Sunday was good! We woke up early and biked to peoples houses to get them up for 9am church but no one answered :[ i think like my sister Kelsey too how when people dont answer the door I picture the photo of the savior knocking on the door, waiting for someone to let him in. We did have one person come to church K. ITs so funny she loves to sit by me and she will start to put her head on my shoulder and I'll have to tell her that she need to sit up. Rules in the misison are you cant really be affectionate to kids so its hard cause I LOVE KIDS! Anyway ya the past 3 weeks I've only sat by kids and young woman and someone commented that someday I'll be a great mom :] After church we went back and tried that A guy, and he was home! The spirit was so strong during the lesson for me. We taught the REstoration and found out more about A. He is into construction but work has been really bad. Hes been debating wether or not to move his family to mexico or stay in texas. For some reaon his wife told him they should stay. That sunday A was at home with the tv on but thinking really intently about life and wanting help and guidance from God. Thats when he heard a knock on the door, and there were the missionaries. He knew that his family needed to stay here in texas to hear about htis gospel. I was so amazed that he was so open and ready to hear about this message and change his life! He said when he ran into us the other day outside he didnt have time to talk. When we left he told his wife how amazing it was that young people were outside in the freezing cold preaching about God. A's wife felt the same and they wanted to know more about our church. We are going over this week to share this message with their whole fmaily.

I know God puts specific people in our paths who are ready to hear the gospel! We (not just missionaries) but all of us need to always open out mouths to others and share with them this gospel! And yes not everyone will be interested in listening but God just wants us to try. Really, we are like 6 month olds compared to ur Heavenly Father and the knowledge he has. Do we expect a 6 month old to talk perfectly? do we expect a 6 month old to start running? No! We are just exited that they are trying to blabber or move their legs. Its the same with our relationship to God. He doesn't expect us to do everything perfectly! BUT he does expect us to try. I know our heavenly father lives and loves us. Becuase of that he sent his son jesus christ. I know as we follow in the saviors footsteps we will have more peace in our lives and in the end we will return back home to our heavnly father :] i love you all so much and am happy to see you on Christmas!  love- hermana jaeger

Dia de Pavo (Turkey Day)

First off THANK YOU for all my warm clothing you sent me this week!!!! That was a blessing but now its warm haha                                                           

Thanksgiving was good some members in the branch made us food which was nice :] We had a family that we've been teaching come to the dinner! It was awesome. I love them a lot, especially C shes 9 and loves giving hugs and doing hand shakes haha. Okay I have a sad story.  So during thanskgiving the turkey they had was HUGE and one (who barely knows english) said, "look they made an ostradge" (while pointing to the turkey haha cause it was so big). Then I responded back, "No es pollo" meaning "No thats chicken"....the two hsipanic guys I was with started laughing so hard!!! Then I realized what I said and said "Ahh no es pavo!" "Ohh no its turkey" Hahaha it was so embarressing!!! I mean both chicken and turkey are birds so they could at least give me THAT credit. But when I see them now they ask, "Hey Hermana how did you like the chicken?" Haha they won't let it go.

Elders photo bombing   ~   Love this family

Oh a big miracle this week was we had 3 people at church!!!! A family in the branch took 3 of our investigators. for the past 2 weeks now i've been sitting with all these younger girls which is sooo fun but wow they are fun haha. By the end of sacrament I had atleast 8 notes saying how much they loved me, how pretty I was, and how we were best friends haha. I felt so loved Brazos Branch has a big part of my heart, when I see everyone it feels like home.

Visiting 1st area with my 1st comp!

This past week we've been able to teach a pretty good amount of people! This week I got to go back to my first area in MoCity for a day and be with Hermana K my first companion in the field! It was a lot of fun we got to see people I taught AND visit a member J L who was less active but we helped reactivate him and now hes leaving on his mission!!! He was so happy and shocked to see me. It was awesome seeing how much we helped him come back to church and now he's leaving on a mission!

J is going on a mission!

Weird that I already hit my 9 month mark!!! As dad said, "Now its all down hill form here" haha. i dont want it to go by fast!!!

Something I really loved hearing about during church was obedience. The teacher explained how as children, when we are learning to swim and dad tells us, "Come on! Trust me!"  We hesitate but trust that he will catch us and so we jump! Its the same with our heavenly father. At moment in life we are scared and not sure if we can make it. But our Heavenly Fathe ris always extending his loving arms and saying, "Come on! Trust me!" I know as we are obedient to Him and follow all his council and commandments he gives to us, we will be blessed.

Making cookies with Hermana R & my comapnion Hermana C

One quote I loved this week that I want to share with you, "God knows better than you what you need. He attemps to speak to you. Listen, and follow the uncomfortable suggestions that he makes to us. Everything will fall int its place. The pain of sacrifice lasts only one moment. It is the fear of the pain of sacrifice that makes you hesitate to do it. When you are compelled to give up something or when things rhat are dear to you are withdrawn from you, know that this is your lesson to be bealrned right now. But know also that as youa re learning this lesson, God wants to give you somehting better"

Love this fam!  Wear our bike helmets.

sorry this letter is short! know i love you so much and wish you all the best ---Hermana Ashley jaeger