RAINY days are the BEST DAYS!

Talked to a lady about who we are with this little frog in my hand, hiding it, just so i could take a picture with it!!!!  hahaha

ash and mom: i am assembling a tiny little box to send home with some yummy russian candy and some other little things! Ash: President and Sister Anderson(who are in the WVM presidency) will be in Houston this week, maybe you will see them? MOM: I met an adorable mother the other day at the relief society broadcast, her daughter has been out a year, serving in the Santiago north mission! Her name is Hermana S from Vancouver, WA. The mom cried when i told her my brother is going Chile!!!  :) ALSO President and Sister Alder who are here in the branch with us are going to be the temple president in Santiago for 3 years starting next month!! WHAT!!! And i believe recently he was the mission president for santiago norht mission.. so cool! they are amazing people if austin ever meets them :)

Pic from a member they serve with.
Kelsey and her Companion with President Taylor

Well this past week was amazing! We had so much success finding new people, we alreay have 14 scheduled lessons this week! WOOP WOOP thats so exciting :) they are all amazing spanish families :) I have grown to love the spanish culture oh so much! They really do give all that they have.... i eat like 2 plates full of food every night, and break the fast yesterday was AMAZING! haha they are humble people and always give their time to The Lord and to help us with his work :) Well i am doing horrible with keeping my journal up to date.... So i will try to type things from memory!

Well good news... Transfers are wednesday and I am staying here in Vancouver to finish training Hermana McKinlay! woot woot! She is an awesome missionary.

A little bit of the sunset here in Vancouver WA

 It is so hard for missionaries to put themselves in the shoes of their investigators and to think "okay, if i were them, and these are my questions, what would i want to hear? or what applies to me?" Once a missioanry can do THAT then, they will be an amazing missionary and will bring much success! As i continue to study and pray i recieve dirrection to help my investigators with their concerns.

So this week we had an amazing lesson with B who is getting ready(hopefully) to be baptized soon!) she promised to pray about baptism in this church :) she has so much faith and believes in so many of the things we teach! hopefully tomorrow we will put her on date for baptism.

since it is the end of the month and we are very low on miles we have been doing a ton of walking, and this is the worst the rain has been hahaha. windy and rainy, hermana and I both feel like real vancouver missionaries now! we got to watch the general relief society broadcast, it was very interesting they all talked about convanents, everyone! even the prophet! I am super excited for conference this weekend! We are planning to watch it at the church and hopefully get investigators to come with us :) but hopefully i dont have to listen to it in spanish hahaha. Well before the broadcast we had about 2 hours, so we decided to walk and go tracting... surprisingly we havent very much tracting in 6 weeks here, we dont need to :) So tracting in the rain i thought was going to be crazy.. it was but we met some amazing people! in those 2 hours we ahd 2 lessons, a new investigator, 2 return appointments and we talked with a ton of very nice jehova wittnesses, and one said its okay to come back. WHAT crazy i know! the Lord has blessed me and helped me so much with my spanish.. 7 months and i feel i have progressed so much, still not fluent, never will be, but im confortable with spanish :) 

The rain is here and it pours all day :)

I love Vancouver and the people! Within this week of tracting and talking to everyone i have noticed how much people truly need this gospel, whether they know it or not.. we met so many people this week who are struggling with life or family. Every time I think of the Savior and how much he is waiting and hoping for these people and us to accept him. I just imagine when we talk to people that the Savior is standing right beside us, teaching and testifying.. Pleading to these people to repent and come unto him... and when people deny or say now is not a good time, i picture the savior putting his head down and quietly saying he still loves them.. NOW is the time for men to prepare to meet God. NOW is when everyone needs to accept him..

haha I have never seen a sign
like this before.  It's sad it's
so specific :/

We are teaching a many, F, he knows so much about the bible and the catholic church.. he always asks us amazing questions. i create the desire to go home and study and pray for guidance. I have been spending a lot fo time reading and studying in Matthew... WOW The Savior loves us so much. even back then you can feel of the love he has for everyone. I definatly see how the bible and book of mormon go together perfectly.. today i figure out perfect scriptrues that go together...It was Matthew 18:18 and Helaman 10:7 

and Matthew 18:16 and 2 Nephi 29:8 (I especially love these two because it testifies not only of how we preach, 2 by 2, but rather of the 2 nations, the 2 books Bible and Book of Mormon.

I love this gospel and I love my mission!!! Have an amazing week all :) i cant wait to tell you next week how the week goes :)

p.s. walking in the rain, EVERY member sees us and asks what we are doing.. We respond, 

"We are doing the Lords work, a little water wont stop his work!"

hasta luego :)

I LOVE being a Missionary ~ Whoop

LIVING, LOVING & SERVING in the giant
Vancouver Washington Mission!

Woop Woop! what the heck, 7 months this week. Whaaaat! I love the mission!!! We had some amazing tender mercies this week, the branch here is amazing! The rain is amazing as well. gah one thing i have always struggled with is spelling.... and now that i am continuing to focus on learning spanish, it doesnt help my English! i cant speak or spell very well in english bahahahah so so sad! but at the same time i love spanish, it is so much easier to say things in spanish! i am still not fluent yet, but i am some what comfortable. well here are some miracles and tender mercies this week:

Tuesday the elders had set up a lesson for us with a young mother, G, they had met a couple days ago.. they told us to come with them, and they brought a member from the branch. We showed up, knocked the door, and nothing... so we decided to try two other doors... nothing. the elders felt so bad, especially since a member was with us! so us hermanas had a prompting to go and knock the door of G again. We did, and she answered! She is very young, like about my age and has a kid. at first nothing was happening at the door. But some how Hermana R (the member from the ward) was able to get us in the door! Ahh it was so perfect! first time for us meeting this girl and the first lesson.. her and Hermana R connected so well! We shared a scripture with her Alma 7:15... she loved it and felt the spirit.. THEN we invited her to be baptized, she said yes! so we put her on date :) WOOP WOOP! it was such a powerful lesson with her!

Rain here is so refreshing. I can
tell Heavenly Father sure loves
me! Nice little reminder left on the ground ;)

Wednesday around 2:30 we went to visit 2 potential families that the hermanan before us left for us to try... so we went to the building and knocked on door .. we were expecting a spanish speaking family, but rather we found a family that knew little english from Micronesia.. WHAT!! long story short, the dad was baptized in Micronesia with his family when he was about 11.. so crazy! its sad to say that he is active in another church though :/ but his son asked us to come over again to share a message with him. so we hope something happens! well after that we tried door #, again expecting to find a spanish speaking family... but an old man opens the door.. knowing little english lets us in right away! He cleans off the couch and tells us to sit, he gets his 2 cousins/brothers and tells them to come in! haha this family was from the pacific islands by Guam.. what!! wow crazy!! We talked with them a little bit, one of the guys J (who laughed becuase he has a hispanic name but is not hispanic) has heard of the church before.. he works on a boat half of the year and work with a guy from Utah who is LDS.. J said he remembers watching his friend read a "book" every night and pray all the time.. he finally asked him about the church, his friend talked to him just a little bit. Well we gave J a book of mormon, read a little with him and prayed with him.. he got so interested in the Book he said he will take it on the boat with him!! And he will talk to his friend from utah! wow, little miracle there :) Lesson learned for EVERY member of the church, ALWAYS be a good example becuase SOMEONE is watching, and hey you could change their life without even knowing it :)

Thursday we had a little miracle of finding the home of a woman that Sister T and sister A (wives of the mission presidency) talked to one morning.. there was an appointment set up at the church with this woman but she never showed up :/ and we didnt have an address or phone number, just a street to tract till we found her. well we did that, and with the help of the spirit we found her!! she was so cute and friendly! we hope to begin teaching her soon :) Thursday night we had the amazing opportunity to talk to so many people about the church. It makes my day when people ask who we are or what we are doing.. it creates such an amazing way to talk to them!

friday, satruday, and sunday were great days too! I didnt write in my journal what happened those days, and i dont ahve time to email what happened. haha but the work still continues!

The inside of the legit library we email from. haha

Well we have on amazing investigator B that said she wants to watch general conference with us! woop woop :) so excited about that! she is AMAZING, she is not on date for baptism but we plan on that changing very soon ;)

I KNOW i am called of God through a living prophet.. I KNOW i was called to speak spanish, even though i am in America and i dont speak it perfectly... its so difficult when people complain to me or judge me because my spanish isnt perfect. its difficult to learn something while you are teaching yourself and speaking it that day!! I know that those who want to hear of this gospel in spanish are out there and waiting.. whether i speak it perfect or not i know they are waiting :) I just need to find them! Being a missionary has taught me to have so much patience and trust... in my self, in The Lord, and in my companion. I love having success and feeling success as a missionary. I pray and hope for many miracles this week, but i have to go find them.. Love you all so much, thank you for everything! BYE!

HAHAHA crazy one again, walked into an 

antique store and the first thing i found was this.. 

WHAT! "JAEGER" is everywhere!

Amazing Week! ~ "AH HA" Missionary Moment

MMMMM yummy, 6 months and i finally got me some Chipotle!! YUM! with my missionary stomach i ate the Whole thing clean!

AHHHHH this week was AWESOME!! I finally had my missionary "ah ha" moment where it just clicked of why i am a missionary and why i am here. I love this gospel! I love being a missionary, it is the scariest thing ever!! Its worse than door to door sales, why? because you aren't selling anything, you are giving something FREE that you know EVERYONE needs... and when people don't accept it you cry because you know that THIS gospel is the only way anyone can return to live in the presence of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  I see and experience many miracles that i can't keep track!

One amazing miracle this week was finding a less-active/part member family... it was Tuesday night around 8:20 and we had nothing, so we thought we should go and knock these 5 apartment doors that i have bee thinking about for the past couple days.. The first door we didn't even need to knock because it was open! There was an adorable Spanish family sitting on the couch watching TV, at first we felt intruding, but the mom quickly got up to come talk to us... After we told her who we were she had said she is a member of our church... but she hasn't gone to church for almost 20 years! WOW what a miracle that we found her, and she knows it! she wanted us to come and share a message with her and her family, so she told us a day and time on Thursday.. We had the appointment on Thursday and she was so cute, she got baptized in Tijuana. She wants to come to church, but its hard because she is a 24 hour care giver on Sundays :/ we told her to pray and ask your father in heaven to help you come to church, and we promised her that he would help her if she has the desire to go! she was so nice and happy to see us, she asked us to come back over again :) sadly she couldn't make it to church :/ but we are going to ask her this week if she would like us to come and teach her and her kids once a week!

Tuesday we also had an AMAZING zone conference!!! Ah it was all perfect :)

Las Hermanas, Hermana S, Hermana P, Hermana M, Hermana Jaeger in front of the amazing beautiful Library we Email from!

MIRACLE NUMBER TWO, the family i talked about last week, with the referral for T (who moved) well we have been teaching the dad R and the daughter M he pretty much was begging to read the book of Mormon and to find the truth and to come to church!! he and his little girl said about 5 times that they want to come to church!!! So Sunday morning before church we stopped by and they said "we are going to shower and then we will come to church!" they were so excited and happy :) well we waited all 3 hours of church and they never showed up :/ or they did but left.. we have no idea but we will find out why when we visit them this week!

MIRACLE NUMBER THREE, We found an adorable little family that moved here about 4 weeks ago, i mentioned them last week.. B. Well we visited her for our appointment on Thursday and she wasn't home.. we were so sad! so we left a note, and walked around the trailer park for 10 minutes (there was obviously a reason Heavenly Father did that because we found a man named J and gave him a Book of Mormon and talked to him!!).. we were about to leave but  felt prompted to go back and try one more time.. We did, and we found her home!!! she was soo excited to see us, she said she has been thinking about us and waiting for us!!!! we had to go to dinner but we set us to visit her right after dinner... so we ate, and came back. she was so cute and excited, she had her book of Mormon, and she read a little bit! She knows it applies to her because she loved the first few chapters talking about faith and the story of Lehi's family and Nephi. we taught her the Restoration and she understood most of it! She told us ever since she met us she has felt peace and tranquility in her life :) She said she really wants to come to church, but might be out of town this weekend :/ Well Saturday night we called her... she said she could come!!!! AHHHH I started crying!!!! we quickly set up a ride for her to come to church, and her and her 3 kids came to church!!!!! They stayed all 3 hours and loved it. B was agreeing and understanding the classes :) AHH it was an amazing Sunday :) 

MIRACLE NUMBER FOUR, Saturday night around 8:00 we were out walking around and found a family of 7 outside, we talked with them and asked if we could come by again. Even though they are catholic we aren't giving up!! We walked the corner and met an adorable couple and a friend! the friend M immediately started talking to us said "hey are you churchins? do you have something i can read?" we gave him a Book of Mormon and then he asked "awesome thank you so much!! I need to go to church tomorrow, when and where is it?" we gave him all the info and then Immediately called the english elders and told them!! we hope and prayed that M went to church!

Practicing some soccer last night in our appartment before bed. hahah i love these girls!

Well It was an amazing week filled with SOO many miracles!!!! all we have to do is pray for the opportunities and Heavenly Father will give them, but THEN we must talk to everyone!!!

love you all so much. The work is AMAZING! <3 I cried Saturday night and Sunday morning because of all the little miracles I was able to be apart of this week!

cuidase!  ~  Hermana Kelsey Jaeger

WOW The Week Went By Fast ~ I'm gonna pop some TAGS!

Ash we have been out 198 days!!... but whose counting? hahaha LOVE AND MISS YOU ALL!  I am roommates with B M family friend, companions to A M cousin, B D cousin is serving in the same stake as me and A cousin serves in my stake also in the English zone (we play soccer on pdays). All from back home.  Small world!

hahaha we were in a trailer park about to go visit people, and out of nowhere these pony's and an alpaca came up to us! BAH it scared us!!

Well this week was amazing, we had some progress with investigators that have been being taught for a couple months. First off, we have someone on date for baptism on October 5th. WOOHOO! she is awesome and totally understands why she wants to be baptized! We invited her to stake conference and she said she wants to go! too bad her ride fell through Saturday night :/ but she wants to come to church! Well i want to share some little miracles happening here in Vancouver for my companion and I :)

Wednesday we were out around 2:00pm visiting some old teaching record in the area book... not many people were home :/ as we were about to walk by a trailer i felt prompted we should go knock this door... we knocked once, no answer, the second time she answered! it was a young mom home with her baby.... after a couple minutes at the door she let us in to share a message. For some reason this visit felt super different... we just talked to this woman B and got to know her and understand her and her family... she just moved here 3 weeks ago, she doesn't know anyone, and she doesn't know where to go to church... Her husband is okay with his wife going to church with the kids... We talked about faith with her and prayer... This woman has so little but so much faith! She is AMAZING! We read out of the Book of Mormon with her. She told us she actually went to the LDS church twice before and she talked to her friend(who is Mormon) a little bit about the church! We invited her to church for THIS Sunday and she said she will come, and she wants to hear more! AHHH we are so excited to teach her :)

This same day my companion felt prompted to go back to a door we knocked on last week. This home is a Jehovah Wittiness home... My comp said "i may sound crazy but just follow and trust me" i said "ok! we go two by two." so she approached the door and testified to the lady about the book of Mormon! my comp said "I'm not here to argue with you, I am simply here to share my testimony about the Book of Mormon with you because i forgot to last week...." AHH My companion is so brave and strong!! We work so well together, we teach and testify so strong!

Gorgeous sunset every night here in Vancouver

Another cool story. We received a referral on Friday after dinner... It was to visit T. So we visited the address but Tanya had just moved back to El Salvador... Aww man :/ well we decided to start talking to the men outside... after a couple minutes they opened up about questions they had! after a LONG conversation the man R and his daughter M invited us back over! So sunday night we visited them... They were amazing! we taught about sacrament and Joseph Smith.. mostly answering questions they had.. then awe found out that R had gone to the LDS church like 3 times before AND he has a book of Mormon in his garage!!! he said "i was always confused what that book was.. and now i realize maybe i should just read it." Hermana and I looked at each other, smiled and both testified of the book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. The spirit was SO strong! M loved the visit and R did too! we asked if we could come over to share more and they both said yes, with a big smile!!! We invited both of them to start reading the book of Mormon and told them that we would talk more about the amazing scriptures in it :) We are so excited to go back over and bring a member and get him and the family to church!

I'M GONNA POP SOME TAGS...

Yep..... I found this within 5 mintues at a thrift store... SCORE!!!! 

(MS. JAEGER)

Everything here is amazing, i Love teaching to people and talk so openly to people about what I believe. It makes me grow more and more each day by hearing the good and the bad. because when I start to question something I read my scriptures and pray to heavenly Father and eventually always fine an answer :)

One amazing thing I have learned on my Mission by teaching other people is to put myself in their shoes, teach them what they really need to hear.. and when i invite investigators to do something, i need to do the same.

I have really felt the gift of tongues so strong!!! I can have a conversation with people, understand(most of the time) but i am working on responding to them.. Its amazing how much the Lord has allowed me to learn in such a short amount of time. I love my Savior and i love my family. I am so thankful for all the blessings I receive as a Missionary. I love you all so much.

Amazing Russian Candy!!!

Cuidase!  Hermana Kelsey Jaeger

One Heck of a Week! So Legit & Creepy...

6 MONTHS WHAT!!!???? Time is flying by like a rocket!  well i didn't write in my journal this week... oops!! so im emailing things that i wrote on my sticky notes... forgive me!! 

Taught a lesson and got some free food!  I love teaching.

well Tuesday we taught a lesson AND our investigator gave us free vegetables haha it was so nice :)

Wednesday we went to visit an investigator but she wasn't home.. we see a girl so we follow her, but then she disappears. we see a house with a door open so we look inside.. see a group of people, start talking to them.. they've all met missionaries before so they weren't interested :/ but out behind a wall comes a guy... he says "hey I'll listen to a message!' so he steps outside and pulls up a chair.. we taught him, gave him a book of Mormon and hes interested and wants to come to church! SO LEGIT. that night we also walked on the streets and met some other cool people. the Lord really places people on our path, we just have to talk to them! 

Vancouver mission is so dang beautiful every day

Thursday we did service cleaning windows. that night while we were out on the street we met an interesting man.... he said some very rude things to us and cursed the savior.. it was hard to stand and listen so i just bore my testimony about how much the savior has done for all of us. its so sad how many people don't see what heavenly father or the savior have done for us. the faith of some people is so small.... so we are responsible to teach and testify with the faith that we have so we can help build each other up! 

Friday we ate a delicious dinner, carne asada!!! SO GOOD! the members here in the branch are so loving! we taught a lady for Honduras! it was so amazing. she was so interested and accepted a Book of Mormon.. her kids are even reading in the book of Mormon! we also taught another investigator E... small story short, she has been taught by MANY MANY missionaries.... still not baptized or reading in the book of Mormon. well we visited her and found out she is from southern ca and had family in my home town!! we crated a great connection! i hope this is it for her, i hope she will listen to our testimony and grow her own and get baptized soon! 

Hermana M.  I LOVE my companion)

Saturday we ate at Costco for lunch. WOW i have never seen so many members in one area before, it was hilarious they were so nice and wanted pictures of us.. haha this day we also went to visit a referral, but couldn't find her.. so we decided to walk inside a store and ask.. turns out the guy who we talked to has a book of Mormon! we have a 2 hour conversation with him in the store about our beliefs. it was so amazing.. the spirit really guided us to him!

Sunday we had a delicious break the fast with the branch.. no investigators came to church :/ that night we also got hit on by some creepy men!!! haha it was kind of funny! he said "why are you laddies walking the street late at night, dressed all nice?" and hermana said "oh.. awkward that does look bad!! hahaha" we just walked really fast to our car! and the guy yells, "you are beautiful"! haha

We went for a sick hike/climb through The Ape Caves! It was pitch black & freezing!! But so fun!

p-day was epic! we hiked the Ape Cave by Mt. Saint Hellenes.. it was so fun, freezing, dark, and scary! but a blast!! we had some cool little miracles talking to everyone in our site that night... no matter if people are interested or not we still try to talk to them!

Me and Hermana S

Hermana P & I  ~  Looking up from inside the cave

Climbing over the rocks.

 adios!  Hermana Kelsey Jaeger