Utah Ogden LDS mission under new direction
Elder Kyle Smith, left, and Mission President Jeremy Jaggi kneel in prayer before an interview at the Roy West Stake Center on Wednesday, July 8, 2015. President Jaggi was recently called up as the new mission president for the LDS Church's Utah Ogden Mission.
Mission President Jeremy Jaggi leads LDS missionaries to a reading in scripture during a training session at the Roy West Stake Center on Wednesday, July 8, 2015.
OGDEN — A new mission president, who with his wife started serving in the Ogden Utah Mission of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints July 1, says he’s feeling at home already.
President Jeremy Jaggi and Sister Amy Jaggi have come to Ogden from Thousand Oaks, California.
And they say they’ve found Ogden to be very similar to their hometown.
“Ogden kind of matches Southern California,” Jaggi said.
He first met people on the streets in Ogden June 30, the day before he took over in his post, as he visited homes alongside missionaries from the area.
“People were out with their hoses,” he said. “We found a beautiful mix of God’s children, all willing to talk to us.”
And he quoted his children as saying this: “Everyone is so nice here. Why is everyone so nice?”
“It doesn’t matter what faith they come from. It doesn’t matter the background; they have been welcoming,” Jaggi said.
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New Mission President Jeremy Jaggi talks with missionaries about the Missionary Handbook during a training session and interview at the Roy West Stake Center on Wednesday, July 8, 2015.
The family also will be visiting other areas as the parents oversee operations in the mission.
The Utah Ogden Mission covers Northern Utah and Southern Idaho. Up until President and Sister Jaggi arrived, the mission also included the Logan area.
However, with their arrival and a new mission president in that area, Logan has become its own mission.
Both in their 40s, the new mission president and his wife are just shy of being the youngest mission president duo in the church.
Jaggi said the youngest pair currently are 38 and the oldest are 72.
Their age is young enough that they said they were met with wide eyes when they introduced themselves in their new home ward, Shadow Valley.
But they didn’t let such surprised greetings bother them.
“We do know and believe we were called her for a reason,” Jaggi said.
Their arrangements included moving out some missionary pairs who previously slept in bunk beds in bedrooms in their home when it was run by previous mission presidents.
The move made room for their four children, who relocated for the three years with them: Mackenzie, 17; Emma, 15; Josh, 10, and Eliza, 8.
The family has traveled around since the Jaggis were married in 1996 following their graduations from the University of Utah.
With his jobs in the pharmaceutical and bio-technology industry, the family has lived in Monterey, California; Issaquah, Washington; Henderson, Nevada; Salt Lake City and finally Thousand Oaks, California.
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Sister Amy Jaggi leads missionaries at the Roy West Stake Center in a lesson on using music and hymns during their mission on Wednesday, July 8, 2015.
Sister Jaggi is certified to teach music lessons in a program called “Let’s Play Music,” which is a program for younger children that includes group keyboarding lessons and instruction on other instruments too.
She said she had a hard time leaving her students in California but she is looking forward to her service in Utah.
The two will have influence over up to 600 missionaries from about 23 different countries in the three-year period they’ll be here.
At present, the mission has 130 full-time missionaries of missionary age and 100 senior missionaries. The two say the mission will grow to include 180 young missionaries.
Twenty-six of the full-time missionaries serve in Spanish-speaking areas. President Jaggi said he is working to learn Spanish to better communicate with them, the Spanish members and their investigators.
In addition to the missionaries assigned to Utah Ogden mission, the mission takes in some missionaries who are waiting on visas to go to other areas as well as visiting missionaries from Temple Square, a non-proselytizing mission, who want to try their hand at teaching the gospel.
Jaggis said they already are set up for success. “We feel very thankful and blessed to serve on the heels of loving and hardworking, great leaders,” Sister Jaggi said of their predecessors, Charlene and Maury Heirs.
And they said the three sets of senior missionaries who run their office are key to their smooth transition.
Missionaries who are serving under the couple said in the short time they have had to get to know them, they have been impressed.
“Every time either one of them speak, I can feel their testimony,” said Sister Heidi Poppleton, who is from California.
“He tells us to love and does so,” said Elder Michael Draper of Maryland of his new mission president. “He reaches out to us. He’s invited us into this home.”
The two each served missions before they met and were married.
In addition, the couple said they come from great missionary examples, as their parents also served missions individually and as couples.
“A stranger is just a friend you haven’t met yet,” Sister Jaggi said, quoting her parents’ philosophy. “When you approach the world that way, it’s a very friendly place.”
You may reach reporter JaNae Francis at 801-625-4228. Follow her on Twitter at JaNaeFrancisSE. Like her Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/SEJaNaeFrancis.
