Last week of 2014!!

Christmas Conference with the Mission

 Best Buds in the Mission

Well it was a great week! It was nice to see you guys and talk with you. Hope you are all doing fine and getting used to the girls being up in utah now. But anyway things are going good here for me. We are ready to start a new year with new goals! Lots of things are on my mind but i will get it all figured out! I love it here and enjoy it a lot:) 

Zone Nativity.  I was a King bringing Myrrh

The other day the mission president called me which is actually rare to get calls directly from him. So we were obviously anxious for why he called us. And he talked to us for a while of how our branch was a little different and that it need as much help from us as we can give. after the call we had a meeting with the branch president and he asked us to be his counselors. HE as well talked with us a lot on how we can help and what we can do. I will be the first counselor over the preisthood, temple, and classes. Elder B is over the primary and all of the youth. we actually got to teach all of the youth and some of preisthood sunday, and we enjoyed it.

Elder B and i are glad to be serving as counselors to President A. He said we might be staying here for a bit longer but we are both fine with that as we would love to talk part in strengthen the branch for as long as we need to. We are going to focus on less active members and having activities to keep people interested. The next two weeks the branch President will be out of town but we feel comfortable doing all we need to and helping out.

Theres a reason for everything and i hope that we can make a difference in this calling and change the branch for the better. I love this work as i always have and always will. Have a good week and make good decisions;) haha but have a fun new years week, ill just be a year ahead for a few hours! thanks guys, love you BYE!

Members home we skyped from.  Elder Z from Argentina, me & Elder E from virginia but was born in Germany & Elder B!

Compuertas pic of this week with the other Elders.

ELDER NELSON!

It was pretty awesome to have Elder Nelson and Elder Viñas here with us yesterday. We each got to go up and shake their hands. We got to hear each of them and their wives speak. I wrote down a bunch of notes from all of them. 

Elder B, Elder A and I

Elder Viñas basically talked about the importance of baptism, retention, and reactivation and I am going to try to focus a lot more on reactivation in my mission. Hermana Nelson talked a lot about our premortal life and what we would have been like before, which was very special to think about. Just looking into the heavens for 5 minutes would give us a greater knowledge of any subject than if we studied it for all our life. Than Elder Nelson talked started by saying something that has now become my favorite quote. "Begin with the end in mind." And i love how he later used that to explain a story of a friend who later became a member. He said he saw his friend and thought of how good he would look in baptismal clothing, but even better in temple clothing. That is the goal for everyone. It was very special at the end when he said, "I as an apostle, invoke a blessing upon you now," and blessed us with many things among devotion and being a true disciple of Christ.

He taught us of how awesome the Spanish scriptures are and the guide for scripture study  which the English scriptures don't have. He taught us of ten doctrines and the greatest was what he said of Jesus Christ and how much there is to study about him. The whole experience was cool and i am pumped to study everything he shared.

Today we went to piedra roja because it is just a chill place to be. They have a dunkin donuts, starbucks, papa johns, sushi restaurants, and a whole bunch of other stuff there by the lake. It was nice and relaxing to be there with a donut from the outside porch deal they had their. And we visited another place after where we could buy a bunch of gringo candy and drinks! i totally forgot how could butter fingers were after one year! Love you guys, Talks to you later! bye:) sorry I wasn't able to reply to all the emails. 

  fish from my favorite place called Piedra Roja.  It reminds me of home.

Time is passing by quick!

Man ive been out for 10 months now, this is starting to pick up speed! So i was talking with a member yesterday and he was telling me that about this time in the mission field is when you have everything down and have more time to focus on working and helping others. So im pumped that im not worried about the same things as i was at the start of my mission. 

And then i came to think about how god works, the ways and the times he works. I probably will never notice much of it but as i begin to think and read my patriarchal blessing i can see it all so much better. I dont want to get into detail cuz its obviously personal. But one example of how god works to me is about my schooling. I applied after high school to all the byus and told myself if i didnt get into hawaii or provo i would leave on my mission. So i did that and had my mission call and everything. But one night i thought to myself i had to reapply, not thinking anything of it. The deadlines were just about to come up and i was leaving on my mission anyway, so why not. And i was surprised to be accepted to hawaii. So i still dont know exactly why things have happened this way but maybe one day further down the road i will understand more. I just thought i would share that even though it will be a while longer till i get any studying. Its crazy how god has all of this planned out. I read the Miracle of forgiveness by spencer w. kimball two times and it is really good. It has some strong stuff in there but it helps me see a lot better. 

Saying our goodbyes 

So just a bunch of crazyness this week with my comps bike getting stolen and the member pulling out his gun and shooting to scare everyone away. But things just keep getting better for me:) Thanks for being there, i love all you. Have a good week! Just takin some pics by our house and next to some horses haha. Nothin special  -Elder Austin Jaeger 

Morning view from bedroom

Gearing up to bike in the cold rain - staying warm and dry - when you ride in the mud

The snow doe!!

Posing with some guys board.  Cant
wait to come back after my mission.

Went to Portillo, Andes Mountain between Chile and Argentina.  Crossed into Argentina for a bit. Another elder andI  we were looking at the map of which route we "would take" if we could ski.  haha. A few more years.

This week the two quotes that i have thought a lot about are not from the scriptures but really mean a lot to me. One is from Mumford and sons in a song that says, "keep my eyes to serve, my hands to learn." And it helps me to think of my service as a missionary. My eyes to serve as i should always be looking for those who are in need in any kind of way, and that i may learn from the lord in using my hands as instruments to preach the gospel. It has many meanings the way you look at it, but always makes me think of what i am doing with my service to the lord. And the other is from a different song that says, "If you're lost and alone, or you're sinking like a stone, carry on. May your past be the sound of your feet upon the ground. Carry on." This one means a bit more of whatever may be happening, just keep going. Move forward no matter what. 

 Grandpa look what i found  -  Kids, Kites, siesta

I am having a good time in my mission and these activities lately help a lot. Our district is probably the closest in the mission. A few nights back we all got together in our house because with all the changes . We all talked about what we needed to and it was good to have a little devotional/ meeting thing. 

Dont worry about me, this is my service to the lord, not to any other person. We've had lots of exchanges for the day in our district to help us all stay energized. All is well for me as usual. - Love you Bye:)

Early in the morning waiting for a taxi

 Crossed into Arentina for a bit - dreaming

Me, snowman & Elder B  -  Portillo

 

Portillo, Andes Mountain between Chile & Argentina  -  My trainer Elder D

Pday up the mountain  -  Some famous dog hotel

Bus ride.  Long day

What a great week!!! Climbed Mt Santiago

Zone Leader & old comp back for a day.  Watched 17 miracles & ate popcorn. pday/siesta

It was awesome this week to see our recent convert M receive the priesthood and share the sacrament. He had a smile on his face and kept looking at me, he bought a gray suit and brown shoes like mine:) And we brought many less actives to church, especially the young men, we ended up with a ton on sunday!

I have been doing pretty good with all that has happened. One thing that really got to me was a death we had in our branch. It was the grandmother of the family who we brought to the temple last week. It came unexpected, on day she was fine with us, and the next day she was in the hospital. One of the last things she said was take care of my missionaries. She was like a mother to me and always gave us so much. We are passing by the family often to visit, and are helping the best we can. We are still trying to keep the members active and energized! But as missionaries we have to always been an example to everyone and i am trying my best to keep showing them the good things in life.

The 4 of us play the best futbol.  we dominated & wore same jaeserys.
played with zone & members.

I love my life and everything i have, i am doing great right now:) very happy and losing myself in what i do:) Thanks for all your support with everything, im moving on to bigger and better things!

Cleaned up after falling down Mt. santiago

Oh and in the picture i am pretty beat up after getting back and changing my clothes. We got to the top of the mountain and i started to run down and biffed it, haha so my jaw is all jacked up and i have a bunch of bruises on myslef, and one of my veins even popped haha but its all good. But, "im on top of the world eh," no matter what has happened:)