District Leader & Trainer - ELDER HOLLAND

Elder Hollands visit

I wont have much time to get back to all my emails this week. But i did just get changed from an area to the area directly above my sector. Its sad because i had such a short time there there with everyone but good as i am moving forward with everything. I am now a Trainer and District Leader so we will see how it goes. There are about 20 district leaders out of the 250 or somewhat missionaries here. And on top of that i am training, double duty. I am really nervous. but i have trust in the lord. Theres a reason for everything.

This past week we were teaching a family. They have the same situation as many where they have to get married first. So we shared with them and the kids and they are really excited if the mom can get baptized. She has always wanted to and knows it is true so that is awesome. I am excited for this calling and will show the Lord what i can do.

Thanks for all your support and help with everything.  Bye love you guys. thanks for everything.

My last Sector

Late night snack.  Found a store that sells US food.  Soda for the Elders

Our group from the CCM

Surprise video

We received a surprise video from members in Chile!

Finding new investigators

Us Elders sleeping

Not much new has been going on here lately. Just getting used to all the cold. While you all have summer. It gets nice and dark early now, like at 6 the sun is down. Other missionaries change there schedule to eralier in the day to be home early. But we continue in the same routine out until 10 o clock. Some times the memebers are worried about us walking in certain areas. But were careful and nothing has happened.

Recently we are trying to find more investigators to teach. We have been thinking of many ways we can find more people. We had a great meeting with our Branch President, which was actually the first ive had with missionaries and a Bishop in my mission, and it went really well. We are putting on some activities and going to set goals for the members to invite people. Even this sunday we were suprised that some member and even investigators brought their friends to the church and introduce us to them. So with more time we are finding great people who have some interest.

Mailing pacakges ~ Interchanges with a new Missionary

But i love love this sector and am doing great here with everything. I found a dunkin donuts at the mall close to here to try and get as close to an american donut as i can. Taste like pure sugar and different but its the thought of eating a donut that counts. Anyways, hope your all doing good. love you guys. have a good week

I love chile!

It's getting cold here in Chile

We ate cow heart for lunch today and it was so good and I've tried octopus and horse meat, lots of stuff! So this week was fun. Im getting nice and used to the cold and rain. Its gonna come stronger in winter! I just bought some beanies and gloves and scarves. Were getting all prepped for winter. 

My Companion Elder A and I

This past week it has gotten quite cold and the rain started to come! Im all bundled up and have lots to keep me warm. The ghetto part we live in occasionally has power cut off. So we get to sleep nice and comfy without the heater. Just a tiny thing we plug into the wall haha. While and after it had rained it felt so refreshing. The air was all nice and crisp clean cold. I just thought of how i have come to love chile and the people. It may different here then back home in ca but I find this place amazingly beautiful. And the people are amazing. This is a wonderful place and im lucky to be hear sharing the gospel.

Gods Army needs to take a rest  ~  My desk

The family that we are teaching have all been progressing great! H, M, and the kids. They are a great family and love the church. They have known the church is true for a long time and have been attending for a month or two now. But they are all reading the scriptures together and going to all of the activities! The members are getting a long great with them which is a big help in coming to church. 

Just 3 more weeks of this transfer and the we will have our Mission President change. Everything is good down here, hope for you guys too. Love you Have a good week.

Easter week

Sorry my letters short but ill be emailing monday anyway. We went to the temple today and that was great! I understood everything in spanish! 

Easter was fun. even though here they celebrate "the holy week". i ate fish and oyster and some new stuff the past few nights. but im used to it now, i just eat lots of bread and drink lots of coke when I need to. lots of food is always offered to the missionaries. i cant even eat that much. a normal day is a banana or fruit for breakfast and maybe a snack, then lunch which is rice and chicken or something, and then maybe a snack at night. its hard to eat. so im not gonna get fat! but dont worry im always full from what people offer me.

So this sunday is the baptism for M! we have one more lesson tonight with him and then an interview so we will see if all goes well! thanks for all you guys do for me. im excited to call soon for mothers day!!! its going so fast everything. hope you guys have a great week. ill talk on monday!

i recieved a mountain dew in the missionary mail which is sent between missionaries, but i dont know who sent it to me. a mystery. because mountain dew doesnt exist here so someone got it mailed to them and shared with me:) 

welp nothing new this week

Me and my Companion Elder A

We have been teaching a boy lately named M.  We have been helping him feel more comfortable with the church. he came to a mutual night to meet all the boys his age and the played games and made pizza. He had a great time and wants to keep coming. This next week he will come to church becuase he really really wants to. I know that this gospel will help him and his family. Hes already asking us questions about what to do to serve a mission! We are helping him to be baptized this next month!

We made pizza with the young men

hmm what else happened. I ate my first big mack from mcdonalds which was kind of nasty, i also tried some horse jerky which was even nastier. But the pizza we made with the young men was fun. lots of boys in this branch, this pic is less than half of them. 

And thank you sister ashley for the email! i am doing great here. Continuing in the work every day.

Valentines day doing visa paperwork

Shawarma is good!

A lot of love around during this time of year. haha i was reading the liahona and all of it was about love and good relationaships. but its a good read, you guys should read them. i actually like reading all this church stuff now which is a big change from just a few months ago.

But obviously valentines day passed and guess what i got to do! yup went to bed at midnight the night before (which is normal for chile and the mission) and woke up to be ready at 6! we had to take the subway all the way to the mission office and pick up an envelope and visit three different places to get all of my visa paperwork done. the first one i had an appointment but it was for the wrong day so i waited for two hours. then we walked to the police office and had to wait for like 4 hours behing hundreds of people. and didnt even have time to go to another civil court thing so we will finish another day. But as we had our number and were waiting we walked the streets of downtown santiago and it is just like new york. lots of taxis and subways and buildings. i love it here!

My Companion Elder D likes to RAP to lessons

this week was great as usual. We continue to find new investigators. As well our goal is to invite everyone to be baptized in the first visit. and many accept it and we continue to teach them. It is still hard to keep people progressing as all are leaving on vacations. But of all the people we have we are really focusing on a man named C and his wife lía. they are 70 or so years old and have some family that are members. He will be baptized this coming month so we are excited as he is fully prepared! and we are all looking forward to march where it will cool down a bit and people wont be gone as much.

I also had a cute little memorable experience. We were walkling in the streets and there was a group of 6 or seven boys that were the ages 4 to 7. they were playing with toy guns and running around sweating. i decided to go a long with it for a bit amd played for one minute. then they started to ask us a bunch of questions but it was nice to talk with them as they were so kind and playful. one little guy took my nametag but another said hey thats not nice and said he wanted to put it back on. so i knelt down and he kindly put it on and dusted me off. but then another took my water and started to drink. so i grabbed it real quick but then knew they were all thristy. So i held the bottle and they all come up to drink the water i was holding as i sqeuzzed it for them. We gave them some little pictures and they were so happy to talk for a bit.

Zone Activity

i dont have time to put all of it in here but it made me think of christ why he loves all of the children. They are so pure and loving. I love the mission and i love all of the little experiences that happen daily but i cant keep track. last week of training woohoo! love you guys. have a great week. 

happy birthday to my sister Hermana Ashley! i hope you get your letter soon.

Bye:)  -Elder Jaeger

getting the hang of this

Things are starting to feel really comfortable and i can do quite a bit without too many problems. finishing up my training in two weeks then we will see where i am headed. It doesnt even feel like im in another country. but yes there are a lot of differences i am used to now. The food i absolutely love. like we always eat "salad" which is luttuce, tomato, corn, onion, and the dressing is squezzing a lemon on it. theres so much different but i love it all, the food and especially la gente (the people).

Right now we have a married couple named C and L and they have somewhere around 70 years. They are ready to be baptized and set a date in march. They are such a loving family and two of there daughters are actually recent converts. They read the book of mormon every single day and are doing exactly what they are supposed to. Most every one else is on vacations so we are still doing lots of contacts and mine have been getting better and better. i am comfortable to talk with any person about anything now! My confidence has gone up so much and i am continuing to learn so much from my companion and the mission.

My Companion/Trainer    -   On Exchanges

I have tones of intercambios every week with our mission president wanting the district leaders (my companion) to have at least one with every member of the district in one 6 week transfer. and also we do exchanges with the zone leaders and at times other missionaries. But I am learning a lot from every single missionary. 

Shoot i dont have much more time and couldnt email everyone back who emailed me this week. ah ill try do it next week. But happy valentines day everyone! i love you and love seeing all your pics! have a good week.

I spy a scary mannequin in a window

knives... knives. everywhere! haha

Dont worry its not as bad as it sounds haha. My week was a little crazy but hey, its part of the mission. 

Our sector

So the knife stories... The first was a man i started to talk with that was eating a melon with a knife, i asked him about his day and he pointed the knife at me saying he was innoecent and that he knew we were from the FBI. he put the knife in MY pocket and said that he is fine. but then i gave him the knife back and he left thinking we were from the government. And the other was when we were talking with some people outside of their house and they were all sitting but my comp and i were standing. A man came out of the house a drunk and told his family to have respect for us and let us sit. he poited a knife at them and wanted us to sit, it actually escalated until my comp had to grab the knife before someone got stabbed from the fighting! again we quickly left that situation.

MAIL!

But after all that it was a good week haha. i am doing a lot of missionary exchanges, like two every week, because my comp is district leader. so i am always with other missionaries and it is so fun! I finally got all of these christmas letters and mail this week. it takes a little longer to get here.

Service- digging up a tree

I love to share with the people who are so kind and loving, especially when they talk to us first and call our name. An older man this week was outside of his house and we ended up teaching him and getting to know him. He is very catholic but had lots of interest in our message. We have many investigators like that who will listen to us and actually feel that it is true as well. We pass by for them every other day to keep them progressing. But at this time during the year it is hard to keep teaching everyone. many are going on vacations or moving houses. But we are passing along our message at this time and i know that other missionaries will continue to help them progress.

This week we had lots of rejection and slammed doors. but i continue to the next person or the next house hoping they will accept. many people are prepared and waiting to hear and i just have to search for them. 

I know this is where i am supposed to be, serving the lord for two years. It is my favorite thing to do. THanks for all of your help, have a great week. Love you:)  -Elder Jaeger

Chile watermelon is different then California watermelon

New Years

Happy New Year from Chile

I just want to start by saying since jaeger is german for hunter and casador means hunter in spanish. i explain to people that my name pretty much means Elder Casador! So new years was fun other than not being able to see fireworks:/ we were in the house and there were lots of trees and buildings so we leaned out the window to see the ones we could. But we still celebrated, obviously wihtout a new years kiss. haha.

New Years Eve  -  New Years Day (no one is out)

My favorite street - I'm doing good!

This week we met a really great family. We first met the boy N walking on the street and he said we could pass by his house any time. And then we stopped by the next day and met the whole family. a grandma a mother and 4 kids. They were so nice and kind to us. We shared with them and they all commited to read the book of mormon. we returned yesterday and they actually all read the part we assigned as a family! and we answered their questions. They have lots of interest and will continue to pass by often and share with them. I will keep you updated on how they progress.

We also have the investigators who want to be baptized but need to be married first do the paper work. Always times where things get tough but we work with them. He wants to do so much for the church and have a calling but we have to wait two months or so. I will be so excited when he is baptized!

We continue to find lots of people each week. This place is california. lots of fires this week and heat. I already feel at home here. Well have a great week and start to the new year. Talk soon

Trying to gain some weight  -  Elder S from the Chile Santiago CCM

Christmas week woot woot

Our District

SaY wHaT sAy WhAt?!? Christmas already passed? dang is time picking up. And going by fast. I like to think of a roll of toilet paper for how a mission goes haha. it starts off with a lot and seems like it will never end. But once it starts being used it goes quick. You can start telling that you have less and less as it gets nearer to the end. And then before you know it you are out! And your stuck in the bathroom yelling for more toilet paper. haha but serioiulsy this is going fast, i hope you understood what i was trying to say.

Christmas dinner.  Can't have it without soda and mayo!

Anywho, This week was great and did so much. Christmas night we didnt have a time to be home really and got in at 12:30ish after dinner. oh dinner was huge and good. lots of food and vegetables. oh and mayo on everything, the rice, corn, potatoes, carrots, beats, peas, but it was soo good. the pruvians know how to cook here. And on christmas we went to visit all of the members that lived alone and had nobody to visit them. so the four of us in this ward visited them and sang and just had a good time. we washed a car for one member who is reactivated. Just lots of fun with them all. I opened my packages and loved all the gifts and candy. haha but chile isnt as bad as you think, it is pretty much los angeles. its not hard to find food or candy, but thanks for the american food! i already ate all the candy haha. I dont know why im feeling all funny today and im actually writing this all fast.

Christmas service project

Gifts under the tree  -  Thanks for all the gifts  -  Elders in our ward skyping our families

We found some awesome new investigators this week. One is a haitian who is friends with and lives with the other haitian members. He shared of who he has been here for 6 months away from all his family trying to find work and it has been hard. He told us all about his life and cried explaining the difficult time in his life. But we helped to make him feel better and shared so much with him as he had lots of interest. And the best feeling came over me on sunday. Just as we were singing the first hymn in church he walked in! he sat next to me and i had the biggest smile on my face and felt so great. During the meeting he was giving his full atention and was reading the book of mormon he brought with him. After the meeting i asked him how he got here. He said he walked and kept asking people on the street where the building was because he really wanted to make it to church. he woke up and didnt even eat anything just so he could make it to church. He has lots of interest and we will coninue helping him gain a testimony. Definitely one of the most loving people there is.

As well our other investigators came to church and i was so happy for all of them. things are starting to pick up here and we are still continuing to work every day. never a moment to stop working. 

Early morning studies in Chile...

well a new year and new goals and resolutions, so im gonna make 2014 a year of straight working non stop. Thanks for all your support and love. And thanks for the letters and packages and emails. I love you guys and pray for you. bye!