Week of Amazingness ~ (Elder Holland)!!!!

OH MY GOSH SOOOO MUCH TO EMAIL THIS WEEK!!!!!!!! ill try to type it all if not ill write home the rest, but OH MY GOSH!

I was in a tripanionship for a couple days. Hermana M is my new comp/trainee, Hermana P just left for A....!

To start out with... ELDER HOLLAND came to OUR mission, the vancouver mission. he spoke to US missionaires!! AND we ALL got to shake his hand.. YES i have a couple seconds face to face with elder Holland AND got to shake his hand :) he looks RIGHT into your soul! well I took 5 pages of notes on what he said for an hour and a half.. so i cant even being to tell you what he told us.. He felt such a special spirit about our mission, the minute he walked into the door! Ill write home what he said(i dont have enough time to email it all!) 

BUt some other amazing news, YES i made it safe and sound to Vancouver, and my new companion is Hermana M, she is so ready and willing to work!! We are goign to do amazing things together :)  I absolutely love my companion, love Vancouver and love the branch!!

Well monday and tuesday i said bye to my home in Hood River :,( sad day but i will return soon!!! 

Saying Good-BYE to my Companions (trainees).  S  & V. 

The Amazing J Family!!!!

Amazing News:  a part memeber less active family that came to church on my last sunday in Hood River, the N family... well the two kids are now on date for baptism and the mom is loving coming back to church!!

Wonderful N family ~ and I love these cute Young Women who have helped us!

My trainer/mom Hermana A came back to visit the mission, so happy i got to see "mi madre" :)

R, my Trainer/Mom in the Mission Field. I love her!

We had some amazing little experiences this week by simply listening to the Holy Ghost.. WE have talked and taught many people about the gospel and they are so interested!

First day with the Spanish Branch, we went on a "Trek".   There are 4 sets of Spanish Missionaries in the Branch.

Hermana A came back to visit.  And little L between us!

The amazing miracle this week was listening to the prompting to walk and talk to a lady at a park. she invited us back to her home for water and food. we taught her about the Book of mormon and she is excited to hear more!!!!

GAHH AMAZING THINGS ARE HAPPENING HERE!!!! love you all so much. take care!

Hermana Kelsey Jaeger

Transfers & Training again :)

Tamanawas Falls Washington/Oregon

So it is transfer week, and yes I am getting transferred.. after 4 1/2 months in beautiful Hood River Oregon and White Salmon Washington I am now getting doubled into the Vancouver Spanish Branch and I will be training another new missionary... Yes my 4th companion and my 3rd time training on my mission so far. The Lord trust me so much, I need to step it up and work harder! and WOW I hit 6 months this month.... I go home in 1 year. MY mission is the best time ever. I wish everyone could see how much I have grown and how much I have learned!

Well as my time in Hood River comes to a close, I am very sad to say goodbye to this beautiful place :/ but I will be back very soon after my mission is over!

For p-day last week we went on a super fun hike to a gorgeous waterfall that we could walk behind!(see pictures!) 

Hiking with the Z Family

Hermana S, Hermana V & me hiking.

This week has been a miracle week yet again :) Well, i have some amazing stories to share! One is about The R family... The R family is a non-member family that is friends with a member family in White Salmon, the L family (he just recently got released as bishop) all the family speaks spanish. So sister L set up a dinner with the R family and invited us over to eat and talk and share a message (this happened in June). They were an amazing family. A month passed and we never heard any more about the R family.. well on saturday 2 weeks ago Sister L came with us to go teach on investigator on date, P.. well P she wasnt home :/ so sister L had a great idea, she would take us to visit the R family and see if we could teach them.. well the R family wasnt home either, but sister L said "now you know where they live, visit them soon." so 4 days later we felt a strong prompting to visit the R family.... and BAM they were home, the wife and the husband. They had just got off work. They were so nice and excited to see us! They let us in and we talked and eventually got to teach them The Restoration and give them a Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong! well we were getting a return appointment with them and they said "why dont we have dinner again at the L's home!" we got oh so excited!!! we said yes and set up a day and time(this tuesday, right before i leave!) So we called sister L and told her the good news, she was so amazed and excited!! The L family are an AMAZING member missionary family!!! Because of them they have now brought The R family to the knowledge of this gospel :) I will have to keep you updated of what will happen tomorrow!

Thursday I was on exchanges here in Hood River with Hermana K. We tracted ALL day long! We had amazing experiences! It's truly amazing, Heavenly Father really does put prepared people in our path, all we have to do is just talk to them! One amazing experience was with a woman named O... Hermana K and I were walking to an apartment complex and about to start tracting, well I noticed a mother and her daughter sitting on the park, i said "hey lets go talk to her!" so we went over and started talking... O is so prepared, she wants to be closer to God and she wants her faith stronger!!! We taught her about The Atonement and Faith.. The spirit was so strong that we invited her to baptism and she said yes!!! AHH!!!!!! we were so excited! We  put her on date for september 28th! 

Friday I woke up to a BEAUTIFUL rainbow :)  full and bright rainbow! Well friday was an interesting day.... two drunk guys started talking and asking question and arguing with us.. why imperfect people are teaching a perfect gospel... It got me a little frustrated because NO one is perfect, all Heavenly Father has to work with are imperfect people! So i kept my chin up and testified and gave them a Book of Mormon. Hermana V looked to the drunk guy that was talking about Buddha and laughing the whole time. she says "whats your address...? what is the best time to come by?" they guy mumbles his address and says "visit me wednesday thursday friday or saturday any time" she says "sweet okay we will see you soon. here is our phone number and a Book of Mormon." they guy says "thanksssss, my phone number isss...... see you soon. you're all beautiful(and he winks at us)."  well hey, we got a new investigator!!

Sunday was an amazing day at church!! Finally after 4 months 2 some families finally came to church! It was a miracle!!!! This are progressing so much here in Hood River and White Salmon!!!! There will soon be a spanish branch, I know it!! We put another girl on date as well. Her name is M. The Elders found her and passed her to us. We had an amazing first lesson with her and she understood it! So we invited her to baptism, she said yes, and put her on date for september 21st! WOOHOO another child of God coming into the fold :)

so yes many many many miracles here in the gorgeous Columbia River Gorge. I dont want to leave!!!!! but I am excited to hear what happens :) I am excited to see what miracles will happen in Vancouver! I love you all so much, i'll talk to you all soon!! BYE :)  ~  Hermana Kelsey Jaeger

My companions and I having a little fun with shopping!

Amazing Miracle Week

1st Birthday in Mission Field.  "20"

Hola mi familia!!!!!!

I miss and love everyone so much. Hope all is well :) this week was amazing! 

Monday was a fun day, we went and got a bunch of candy and cupcakes and a pinata for our zone. It was a fun day celebrating my birthday early.  Thanks again for all the gifts.

Love the V Family so much!  They made my birthday extra special.  Me & my companions Hermana V & Hermana S.

We also had a young woman come with us for the night to go teach a couple lessons. We taught a cute girl named C, she is super interested and wants to grow her faith closer to the savior. We taught her the Restoration and committed her to read in the Book of Mormon, we also invited her to baptism and she said yes! It was a cool experience. We also went to visit our recent convert C.  Well we had an amazing lesson with him, crying and all. C was so humble, he was crying.  Now one amazing thing that our tripanionship has is we don't push things on people, BUT we are very bold in asking questions and inviting. 

One of they yw :)

Tuesday we had an AWESOME lesson with a woman named P who lives in White Salmon. There are little spanish neighborhoods, but it is not what you think neighborhoods are... its very different. Well I feel like i should share the amazing story about P.

P is a woman Hermana A and I trackted into in April when spanish missionaries first came here. P showed no instest, so we left her alone... 6 weeks later in the end of May when Hermana V first came here with me, we decided to visit P. Again she showed no interest. Well, just recently the english elders in White Salmon had some changes.. but they were visiting one of their investigators (who is P's neighbor), they were outside and saw a lady, they had a prompting to go and talk to her. They talked and gave her un Libro de Mormon. They told us to go visit a lady who was very interested... so we went and visited her on Saturday, and we laughed when finding out the woman they had talked to was P! P let us in her home RIGHT away and was so excited to hear a message!! we taught her La Restauracion, she lost her Libro de Mormon, so we gave her another one.. We got a return appointment 4 days later on Tuesday.. WELL we got in and to our surprise P had read ALL the way to Mosiah in El libro de Mormon!!!! AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! We became so excited and couldn't wait to share more! We taught her El Plan de Salvation AND we invited her to baptism.. she said "Si! Cuando?(yes! when?)" we all looked at each other shocked, we said "tendremos un servicio de bautismal el 21 de sieptembre!(we will be holding a baptismal service the 21st of september)" P looked at her calender and said "OK! a que hora?(ok what time?)" we said "cuando usted quiere(when you want to!), como a las 7?(how about 7?)" she said YES!! AHHH we are super excited and I hope to be here for her baptism.. she truly is and was being prepared... I know there is a time and place for EVERY one on this earth to choose to listen and accept this gospel :) 

Our Tripanionship.  Las Hermanas.

Other than that, we had amazing miracles.. we were tracting one day around 1-4(which normally is a horrible time to tract) BUT we ended up getting 3 lessons in a row! door after door! haha my brain was fried jumping between english and spanish all day long :)

ALSO, remember the man i met in Safeway my very first night here? and how he approached me and Hermana A? WELL... after 4 months of trying, we FINALLY got a lesson with him!!!! He is a less active and we want to get him back to church NOW! so that is a start of something new :)

well yes, many little miracles, I LOVE IT!!!! Have a good week everyone, ill talk to you next time :)

Now vemos, cuidase!  ~ Hermana Kelsey Jaeger

Early Birthday Celebrations!

Our tri-panionship.  The 2 Hermanas that I am training. They are amazing.  

Well this week was ALL a blur!!!!! We got a few new investigators this week, they are all very interested!! So many little miracles i cant even explain! Well still no one coming to church :/ but we are doing our best, even going with members to go pick up our investigators for church. This is a short email this week because i don't even remember what all happened! we continue to teach amazing lessons in spanish and english. little by little we improve our teaching and expand our knowledge of what and how to teach people. 

All the ermans in our District.  4 are Visa waiters :)

I got all 3 birthday packages last week at our Sisters training... i opened them.. hahaha :) sorry i couldnt wait!!! saturday we will be working so i wanted to open them asap! we laughed so hard when i opened the bottel of RANCH! We are having a party as a zone today so i get to use all the stuff you sent me:)there are only 13 of us, plus an elder couple.. so a total of 15. we want to celebrate and party today! Thank you also to everyone who continues to send me love and those that sent me a little birthday surprise and other things!!!  :)

My Birthday Boxes :)

Little miracles this week, like getting in to teach certain people that never showed interest before. Planting MANY little seeds of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I learned many things this week. most importantly is that we dont always see the fruits of our labor... just as we plant a seed, me may not see the tree grow. or we may not see the fruit begin to grow. all that is important is to plant seeds every where any time. You never know what the future holds :) 

Don't be afraid to be you! be who you are while being a representative of Jesus Christ. we all have different identities and ways to learn and teach and grow. no one is exactly the same, which is why everyone is assigned to serve a mission EXACTLY where they need to be. A mission is for us to grow and learn. we all make mistakes in this life. I am thankful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that i can try and try and continue to try to be better. 

Well time to enjoy the rest of P-day.. we are going to make cupcakes and celebrate my brithday early with my Zone! and then we all get back to work haha. We are going to have a pinata and use all the  birthday decor I got in the mail.  Sorry I opened all my birthday gifts! I couldnt wait :)  I love everything.

I opened my gifts early.  Thank you!

Time is going by so fast. i come home in 1 year... WOW!  keep working and keep serving!  Cant wait we are listening to Elder Holland come and speak to us August 24th!

I love my family so much :)  Again thank you everyone!  love you all so much!

stay healthy and stay happy :) --  Hermana Kelsey Jaeger

 

Love the Birthday t-shirts  ~  Have you heard of Sheris?  Well, it was yummy!!