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.

Short Video Clips

Climbed talest mountain Santiago Chile - Andes

Mix of hymns before transfers

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:)

It's cold!

 Going to miss President & Sister Essig ~ Saw my Trainer

We were gonna go to the snow today but couldn't cuz the bus wouldn't make it though all the snow.  So we played soccer and took the wrong bus into the city.   It's nice and cold, I can see my breath in every moment, in the house even when we wake up.  The water heater doesn't work so we take freezing cold showers in ice cold weather. But it was all fun!

Chile winter weather before 6pm

So this week nothing crazy happened. No one was able came to church because of the cold and rain:/ only like 30 people. It was bad. And the family we have been teaching just moved. They will continue with the sisters in their sector now. But im happy for them. Now we just gotta find more people!

Everything is all good here with the rain and cold. A lot of it! And we have a conference on wednesday. We are lucky to always get apostles and some from the 70 to speak to us a lot. And then transfers on monday. Well see what happens. Thanks you guys, love you. Have a good week.

Futbol on the cold

Semana 2 - CCM

CCM (Chile MTC)

Woah there is so much to talk about and not enough time. only have 15 minutes now because i was sending pictures and emails. well a funny story real quick. so here in chile they drink soda and carbonated stuff with every meal, my companion and i wanted regular water. so at the store last week i bought what i thought was water. we were walking on our way and i opened it up the water it sprayed all over my shirt! it ended up being a bottle of carbonated water! 

This week my district and i got to sing nearer my god to thee in spanish for the whole CCM. it was during a devotional and it went great! the 8 elders and 2 sisters in my district are all great in music so always want to sing and stuff. 

When we work out every morning and go running there are tons of stray dogs.  If you are even the slightest bit nice to them they will follow you around. so imagine missionaries running with dogs around them haha. and they try to steal the soccer ball when we are playing. 

So today most of the mtc left to there missions and it is pretty empty, haha it went from over 100 people to less than 30. but another group is coming in soon. we are the next ones to leave now!

I have been having such a great time here at the CCM, never a dull moment. most people here only talk in spanish so it really helps me learn. oh i have been reading in mosiah this week for myslef and wanted to tell you all in case you may want to read.

Santiago Temple ~ CCM (Chile MTC)

it has been fun here, learning lots with 12 hours of class a day. and they told us that our group came a little later so this is our 3rd week and we will be off and out in the field by the end of this month. my spanish is coming along good. i can talk with many of those who speak spanish here. and we are able to purchase stuff easily in spanish. they have all the same stores. today we went to the mall which is the tallest building in chile. it had all the same clothing stores and food places. we had a cinnabon and dunkin donut. everything here is the same except it has real sugar... oh and no mountain dew for me. they dont have it.

 

well i sent a letter home for the family and one to send off to kennedy, i tryed too say much but will never be able to tell you all until i get home and read you my journal. i love you guys and pray for you. i dont have much time to fix all the spelling so sorry about that. and sorry that i might have been jumping all over the place. well talk to you guys next week. i am doing great here. miss you all but i am focused on the work. Love you all. have a great week and i know i will.

and a side not is that people say regular mail is better than pouch mail outside of the ccm. so just send it thorugh the regular mail. love you bye  -Elder Jaeger

Main road that connects the CCM & Temple to all the stores.

Semana 1 (week 1)

Chile Santiago Temple (P-day in the CCM)

Wow time has been flying by. It has been so busy here but all good. I only have 30 minutes to type so i will just send out one big email today. I was setting up all of my email and figuring out my camera. Well anyway today was obviously p day but you only get three hours to do what you want and an hour at most to email.

Me and my companion walked around a lot. We have a good time together. And while buying food from a small store we ran into some 15 year old school boys who we talked to for a while and then they went on their way. But as we were coming back down the road after picking up what we needed we saw them sitting on a bench so we talked to the three of them. we all understood each other pretty well and talked for 15 min in spanish and try to tell them about ourselves. and then as one of the boys was writing down his information their bus came to pick them up and they had to hurry on and go. But it was good to get practice and talk with nice people

Me and my Comp from Tennessee 

These past few days have been filled with so much. learning, praying, spanish, gospel, reading, writing, singing, speaking, and yes eating. The food was a little different at first but you get used to it. all of the missionaries that have been here warn about the "pan" or bread. they say if you eat too much, like more than one piece you will be having a hard time in the bathroom haha. We eat potatoes, rice and chicken all the time which is great for me because ill always eat it. there is also fish, soup, and other things sometimes. Ohh my gosh and i have to tell you about breakfast!! ok so for breakfast you come to the table which is already set and has lots of things out. you pour a bowl of cereal and then pour a bunch of yogurt on top! it is so different but it is the custom and because of the milk here. I like it because i like yogurt. The milk is never refirgertaed and is put on a shelf, and when it expires they boil it and put it back in. it is really different.

The spanish language is coming great to me! I am rooming in the ccm with some latino elders and they are so funny and nice. We teach them english and they teach us spanish. It is so fun and we always laugh. 

My p day and time might change around with so many missionaries coming in and out. A normal day is waking up before 7 and studying for an hour then going to excersise and go to the huge park with all the elders and play soccer and other games. then the rest of the day is study study study and lots of class. 

I am so happy about everything though and it will go by fast. Thanks for the prayers and such, i will keep you filled in but these weeks at the ccm will be jam packed and rush to get all the learning in that i can.

Well i have a few minutes left and wish i could talk about everything. But i love you guys. I love you mom, dad, garrett, blake, kelsey, and ashley. And of course i definitley love kennedy. As well everyone else in the family and grandparents:) I hope you are all doing okay. There is so much i have to say but i am writing in my journal every night so you guys will be fully filled in in two years. I love you guys so much! have a great week and i know i will!

i tried to attach lots of pictures but it wont send so many. The pictures of the road are a main road that is connected to the ccm and temple and many stores if you walk down in either direction. There is a picutre of me in front of the temple and one with my companion. One picture is of the ccm from the front and another is the temple from the front.