Nov 25th, 09

hello family, so to start out my letter i have my first baptismal date set up!! it was a cool experience, some people are just so ready to hear the word and invite the gospel into their lives, no matter their past situations. she goes beyond what we ask her to do and will tell you what it means to her,she is about 30, she has an 11 year old and has another on the way, but she doesnt have a husband, thats one thing that really suprises me is that not man women here are married but they all have a kid. even within the church, hahaha they have a nickname for this-they call it a titanic mission, where only the women and children are saved, lol. its for dec the 5, hopeflly all goes well and they remain active, thats the other thing is that many people are inactive, there is a huge list of people that are inactive in our area, so half the work we do is to try and get people reactivated. so today has been a good pday, we went to a chapel in necochea and we had the whole zone there and we watched up and ate empanadas, it was really fun, thats the other thing is that almost all the missionaries here have a whole album of movies that they have bought, ive heard some crazy stories about some of them. not a whole lot has changed, still been doing a lot of walking, so the other day we had lunch with the branch president, he is really well off and so we had alot of reall good things to eat, a roasted chicken, empanadas, salami with bread and cheese, and then this awesome pudding. almost all the food i eat is european, kinda cool. this whole place is like a mini america when it comes to stuff they like, clothes, cars, entertainment, quite frequently you hear an american song on, its nice, then i get to enjoy it also. but then with all the european culture, very frequently you greet people that you know with a kiss on the cheek, its kinda weird but its just the culture. so i done know if i have told you already but i live in this really small shack, it has a really small kitchen, a bedroom and a bathroom, it kinda sucks too because there is no yard to walk around in, it feels really cramped sometimes. also the cabbies here are nuts! they drive it like they stole it, there is really no traffic rules just dont crash or go through a red light, which there are many of. today we were in one and he was really crazy, we almost died like three times. so not much else, living it up enjoying this place, love you all have a good week

Nov 24th,09 Letter and Pictures from Mission President

My Dad received an email from Jason Mission President,Jorge Detlefsen, with a letter of how Jason was doing and these pictures.
This is what the letter said,
Su hijo Elder Seegrest ha llegado muy bien a nuestra mision, ya tiene su compañero elder Aquino, de Paraguay, quien es un misionero muy bueno y experimentado que ha sido lider en la mision y trabajado en la oficina, el le enseñara y cuidara, su hijo servira como misionero en la ciudad de Quequen, cerca de Necochea. Si bien es una rama pequeña es un lugar tranquilo y ellos podran hacer un gran trabajo.
Since I don't speak any Spanish I put the letter into a Spanish to English translator and this is what it told me.
Elder Seegrest His son has gone very well with our mission, has its elder companion Aquino, Paraguay, who is a very good and experienced missionary who has been leading the mission and worked in the office, will teach and look after their son will serve as a missionary in the city of cakes, near Necochea. While a small branch is a quiet place and they may do a great job.
I am pretty sure that some of it isn't translated correctly but I got the gist of the letter. I should just have Blake translate it for me later.
I asked Blake to translate it and this is what he said,
Loved Seegrist Family,

Your son Elder Seegrist has arrived very well to our mission, and his companion Elder Aquino, from Paraguay, is a very good missionary and has experienced how to be a leader in the mission and worked in the mission office. He will teach take care of your son and teach him how to be a missionary in the city of Quequen which is close to Necochea. There is a very small branch in the city, the area is very tranquil, and they can do a great work here.
Similar to what I got, but his makes more sense!

The Mission President, his wife, Jason and his comp.

Nov 18th, 2009

hey, family how are you doing, i am doing great, living it up in argentina, so i had this all written but then i deleted all of it so i get to start again,yay. i hate this keyboard, sorry for the typos. but life is good, not a whole lot happened since last week, last pday i played ultimate frisbee, it was awesome because its about the only thing that i can do, then we had service on saturday with a member, we were ¨cutting grass¨. more or less all the weeds in their front yard, it went well but i had a hard time understanding exactly what she wanted me to do, we were clearing the yard clearing it of trash, she wanted some to go in a fire but she was very particular about what went in, it took while but atleast she fed us, she is good at that, we have lunch with that family about once a week, so today was pretty lazy, just sat around the house and ate food, i had a hotdpg and some bread with dulce de leche, i dont know if you know much about it but its like caramel but ten times better, its soo good you should find it, so yesterday we had splits, luckily i had someone english, it can be really stressfull when you dont understand anything, so i nod alot, smile and say si, thats about all i can do, i understand the words they say i just can process it, and their accent doesnt help either, but its all good, im learning really fast. so i found out that they tax the packages by weight, not value, but they do open it as soon as you pay for it, so they can check for prohibited stuff like peanut butter, so for christmas i would like a nalgene bottle, about 24 oz, nothing big, an actual frisbee, about 175-200 grams, and some socks, candy, nothing with peanut butter, herdez salsa and gum, well enough of that, so when we went o splits, we visited an ex investigator and she was sick, so my comp asked if she wanted a blessing, surprisingly she said she did, so we blessed her and left, hopefully she will be interested again, also i have been reading in alma, about the people of ammon, they were such righteous people its really cool, they would rather give they lives and be saved than break their covenants, if only more peopl had that kind of courage and faith, so i hav finished the BoM since i have been out, i seem to blow right through it, its really cool. for once i enjoy reading it on my own. i love feeling i get when i read it. i always feel happy when i do. so one thing thathas ben really weird is all these dreams i have been had, and its not uncommon to have several in one night, some are really creepy and others and really weird and occasionally funny, one night i actually laughed in my sleep, i woke up right after that, haha atleast they are somewhat entertaining. so its ben really nice weather down here, it will be weird to spend christmas with warm weather, but it will be cool also, well not much else to say, i love you all have an awesome week!! oh and jared can you get sister gibbons email address for me, thanks

Nov 11, 2009

Hola familia, como andan? estoy bien en argentina, este lugar es muy loco!!! aight enough spanish. so to give you the rund don of my life in the hood... So it was a 2 hour flight from salt lake to dallas, then about a 9 hour flight from dallas to the international airport in argentina, then we were bussed over to another aiport to fly into bahia blanca, that flight was about an hour, all in between these flights was about a four hour wait, then when we finally got into bahia blanca the mission president and his wife were there waiting for us, they are such nice people, so we went to the mission office and waited there for a while and really did nothing. then we stayed ina hotel, really crazy stuff these hotels, epecially when you cant understand a word they are speaking. then the next day we had lunch at the mission presidents home, it was really good, then we were assigned our companions, to my luck i got one of the natives that doesnt speak a lick of english, que suerte!!! its really not too bad, he is a nice elder,he tries to explain things but still have a hard time understanding. so after that we were on our way to our areas, ours is this suburb called quequen, its right outside of necochea and its right along the coast, its a pretty ghetto place but really what place in argenina isnt?? lol its really kinda cool in its ghettoness, it like west valley only not as nice, haha and the race mixture is about even, about half white, no one is really seriously dark like mexican dark, but they do have darker more european skin. its really trippy sometimes because if how many white people there are, especially when they break out into perfect spanish. crazy stuff. my first day was quite the shock, but im getting used to it really fast. soooooo, i would send you pictures also but i dont have a camera cord, i´ll try to by one before next week. so this last sunday was primary program, its always funny no matter where you go, haha. i love the little kids they are funny. so one thing i found out is that lemons are able to grow down here!! we were at a members house and he was showing me some stuff, and he has a lemon tree, i was like ahh limones!! and hes like te gusta? and i was pr supuesto and he gave me 7, he said that they are able to grow all year long which really surprised me, this place can get pretty cold. but i guess its close enough to the ocean that it doesnt matter. so thats about it about this place other than that the members love you here and feed you alot and luch here is a big deal. its all about the lunch, oh and the siestas!! they are awesome. ive had one almost every day!! freakin sweet, they are so refreshing and im able to function the rest of they day. its crazy. oh and people here live in some pretty sketch places, its really weird, the homes are super ghetto but for some reason they all have tv with cable or satellite, a computer, for the most part, and cell phones, yet they still live in ghetto places and are dirt poor.one family lives in a railroad car! but they are so awesome, its a couple with one on the way, really cazy stuff. but they are awesome people. they are for the most part all friendly and fun to talk with, as long as you get the jist of what they are saying. well not much else to say got to go, let me know how all of the family is doing!! all the news and stuff.. hasta luego, or as we say in the hood, rasta luigi!... jk only me and jamin say that. lol bye

Pictures from the MTC and the Field

Jason's letter

Hi everyone, This is Nicole Jason's sister. I thought that I would create a blog for Jason's mission. I am going to post the letters and pictures I receive from him. I am hoping that this will provided everyone who cares about Jason or wants to know how he is doing an easy way to find out!