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

Full of Miracles

Happy Fathers Day to my awesome dad! As you can see in the picture below we helped a member pull our carpet and everything to help out in tile. My dad trained me well haha. Also, because there is SO MUCH construction here in Houston we see a lot of tractors. Today we passed one that reminded me of when dad use to take us on the tractors when we were little. How grateful I am to have an amazing priesthood holding father who has always supported me in following my righteous dreams. How blessed i am to be born of amazing parents :]

Fat cat reminds me of puss n boots 

It's over 100  ~  Burnin up in T town

the weather is so hot! oh im starting to send stuff home, so dont get emotional when you start seeing stuff in moves being delivered at the front door haha. I got kind of sad backing up stuff and sending it home but i need to cause i have a lot of stuff! i sent one off today and will send two big boxes home another day next week.

this week was full of miracles. We were able to have lots of members from the ward come and help us out with lessons! We had more dinner appointments then usual, as we went to these appointments the members had actually invited their non member family to join! Investigators that we haven't been able to get a hold of in the past we finally had lessons with! We ar gaining more confidence and trust from the members and by doing so they want to help us and have us teach their family/friends! The way to gain their trust is to love them and serve them. We have many investigators who are so close and ready to be baptized! Pray that our investigators will progress towards baptism. Since I only have 10 weeks left I feel that I need to work harder so they can be baptized before I leave! But its a good rush feeling cause I never feel like I want a break. I want to just keep working haha. I am so happy to be on a mission :] I'm excited for the return home too, its bitter sweet. Have a good week love you!  -  love hna jaeger 

Trip with the Hermanas to the Galleria Mall

 Surprise visit from E & P ~ Driving the Mom Van (missionary van) & a member helping

Make the Sacrafice

Rainy days in Houston Texas
won't keep me from saving souls!

Found out I will have a least one more transfer here in Houston with Hna B :] which will be good! The work is slow but I know it will pick up as long as we just keep working.

This past week we helped out a member in our ward who has cancer. Some of the other hermanas came with us to help clean up her home. We only spent 2 hours helping give service but you could tell by the look on the sisters face it made all the difference. All day she just sits in the home, alone fighting the pain her cancer is causing. She will have an oporation this week that can hopefully help cure her cancer. She is such a strong woman. 

This past week we didnt have much luck with seeing our investigators. It was hard but slowly we started to see miracles. People that we talked to from outside started letting us into their homes. We focussed a lot this week on how we can help our investigators get to church. Instead of praying to have them come to church, I asked in my prayers what I can do to help more of hs chrildren keep this commandment, the sabbath day. Instead of sitting at the church forever for our investigators to show up, we sacrificed our miles to drive all the way back to the homes of our investigators to help them get to church. door after door and call after call it seemed like no one wanted to come and we made a great sacrifice for nothing. Last investigators door we tried, D and H, said that they could come :] WOW I have never been so happy helping someone come to church haha. Though we were all late by 20 minutes, we made it on time for the blessing of the sacrament. 

Mexican Walmart in TX

From these two experiences and more like them I am remined of one of my favorite scriptures "The trial of your faith (is) more precious than gold" (1 peter 1:7). 

Also, I restudied what I learned in the temple :] I know my heavenly father was really speaking to me in D&C31:5 "thrust in your sickle with all your soul...and ye shall be laden with sheaves upon your back for the laborer is worthy of his hire. wherefore your family shall live". As I looked up the part that talks about that my family shall live it means that the lord will take care of their well being. This tender mercy of the lord gave me so much peace. Many times on my mission I worry for many members of my family!!! It does hurt my heart that I cannot be there when I know someone in my family is struggling. But I know the lord will watch over and protect my family as I am doing his work. I know he never breaks a promise. I know this is his work and his church. I will keep saying that until the day I die, and then on into the eternities haha. I know how precious life is, its short compared to eternity. Live, learn, and love. Forgive those who've wronged you. Live up to your potential. Let people know you're a member of the church of Jesus Christ of lattter day saints! and remember if anyone treats you poorly, or you feel like you cant handle anymore, remember your savior. and know that he's been there before. he knows how to help. i love you all so much :]

FHE fun with the C Family :]

Corny Email (HAHA)

Made by the Houston 1 Kids

This week has been good! We were able to help the spanish stake out with their stake primary program which was on temples. Each ward was asked to make a temple, in one of the pictures you can see our ward's primary kids. during mutual ALL the primary came and painted boxes for the temple!!! It was so cute and the temples were beautiful! They had the Temple President come and speak to the chidlren. Wow the spirit was so strong. He walked around looking at all the temples and was so taken back, it was so sweet. The Houston TX Temple President got emotional while talking to the children and promised them if they would just go to the temple and touch the temple wall they will receive the feeling that it is the house of God. During the activity I got to see all my other member friend from the different wards!!! I have been so blessed to have served in other wards but that they are all apart of the same stake :]

Houston 1 Kids painting Temple

Mi Familia Missouri City ~ Hermana S.

 Also this week as we were trying to find new investigators we saw a man selling "elotes" or corn so my sweet comp bought me some. It was SOOO GOOD they put mayo, parmassan cheese and chili on the corn on the comb. Wow austin if you ever have a chance to try it while you are in Chile, TRY IT its so good! I love it. We also ate a members house (G and N) and they made us fejitas OHHH man it was good I hope I can come home and cook like them haha! (and for grandpa bigler I'm still trying to find out how to make good refried beans).

We did a lot of service this week with our investigators. One person her name is V who is not a member but her sister P is. P's son had a birthday party this week and we got invited. When we went to visit V she asked if we were giong and we said yes, she told us, "Oh my nephew LOVES animals. So we are going to surprise him and bring him a PONY" HAHAHA we asked, "Does P know?" And V said, "No so its going to be a GREAT surprise!" Haha we showed up and yep there was a pony and a BABY pony haha oh it was so fun my comp was so excited cause she loves horses!

My Companion Hermana B. loves ponies :]

I'm so excited to skype with you guys in 6 days :] I am going to cry of happiness haha. I really hope Aus can talk at the same time but if not its okay :] ill skype you on christmas :] i dont want it to be stressful i just want it to be a happy day :]  I love you all so much and hope all is well. Take care!

Easter Weekend ~ Mormon Helping Hands

Buenos dias a mi familia en california y chile,

This week was a lot of fun! We had the AWESOME opportunity to go serve at the houston food bank with all the youth in the stake. Hna W and I got special permission and were the only missionaries who went to help :] we had our investigators come and help! it was so fun. Its amazing the service that goes on in places like that. It touched my heart knowing we were bagging up food for chidlren who had none. With our group and another we packaged up 5700 dinner bags for those who need food. There was a statistic that said 94% of people who are starving are not homeless people. That shocked me. I want to strive to do more service for others, especially children who dont put themselves in those situations. I have a great love for children.

Mormon Helping Hands ~ Texas Food Bank

Also this week we went to visit a member couple from the church. The husband was in ICU and he looked so bad. The wife is incredible, her husband has been in the hospital since january on dialisis and she has slept over at the hospital everynight, never leaving his side. Oh wow she is an amzing woman. 3 days after that her husband passed away. Oh it hurt my heart seeing a couple who had been together for so long be seperated. He just died this week and after 3 months of helping her husband she was able to go to church this sunday, easter sunday. I know she felt loved with ALL the members welcoming her back. 

This week Hna W is leaving me:[ aww I hate when good times have to end!!! I love her with all my heart. We laughed the other day thinking about how fast we bonded and we were always on the same page. She reminded me of moments I've spent with my sister Kelsey :] I love you guys so much and am glad you are all doing well :]

love hna jaeger