Friday, April 29, 2016

Long week!

This week felt really long because today was my Pday as opposed to yesterday when it normally is because we had to go to Immigration to make sure we are legal here!

Also if anyone wants to send me letters at the CCM going to MexicoMTCCarepackage.com and you can send free letters to me! Or other stuff if you want to buy me something... but if that website isn't right just google it and it'll be the first thing that comes up.

But let's not get ahead of myself here, so I'll go back to last Thursday! So after I emailed last thursday I didn't do a bunch, I had a wonderful nap for the first time on my mission which was SOO AMAZING!

But Friday was a great day! I taught a book of mormon lesson on Chapter 14 in Alma in (mostly) spanish and it was really spiritual. I know that sometimes bad things happen to good people and God let's it happen, for many reasons. Sometimes so his judgement can be just and sometimes it is to help those good people become great. But also we had weekly planning which is fun I guess. We have a companionship inventory always after weekly planning and I'm glad the Lord blessed me with such great companions! It is a great way to start my mission! We committed our investigator Jesús to church and that was nice!

Saturday was fun too! We taught Jesús (who is fake) about the BOM and he said he would read it but didn´t. He, unlike our other investigator, is really bad at keeping commitments. But we got both our investigators to say that they are going to come to church!

Sunday, as always, was a delight. I love Sundays at the CCM because no teachers, no TALL, and super spiritual. I actually gave a talk in Sacrament Meeting on the Book of Mormon in Spanish! I talked again about Alma 14 and how the book of Mormon shows us great examples of missionaries such as Alma and Amulek and how even when they are being mocked and spit upon and hated, they stand strong in their faith and trust that the Lord will aid them, and he does! So it made me think that once I get out to the field, if there are any people who try to mock or spit at me, I'll always remember who I'll be standing shoulder to shoulder with as I trust in the Lord to help me proclaim his word. Also on Sunday, I knew I would give a talk when they called my name from the pulpit, after Sacrament meeting. But while we were taking the Sacrament I felt this incredible peace flow through me and a voice quietly told me that I was going to give a talk today but it would be just fine. I mean it wasn't a great talk but it was definitely good, and the spirit was there to pick up my slack! The devotional Sunday night and the class from the CCM presidency were so good because President Tenorio has had so many great experiences in his life and he is just such a spiritual man. His faith in the gospel and in our Heavenly Father is so incredible it makes me want to take notes on everything he says. He taught on specific prayers and it is so motivating because it helped me understand that when we are honest and specific with Heavenly Father, he will bless us if we are trying to align our will to his. For the Sunday night video we watched the Testaments which is an old one but still a really good one. I really enjoyed it and then my district had a meeting afterwards to talk about it. Also we watch a little goodbye video for the districts that are going into the field and it made me sad because we were really close with the district that left.

Monday! We taught Jesús about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and while he hasn't kept many of his commitments he at least went to church! But with Vanessa we are constantly having really good lessons now, we just need to make sure we are constantly relating it to her life. We started to work out for half of out gym time as a companionship and then do basketball or volleyball for the remainder and it's fun, and hard work, but it would be more fun if we could play some music in the background. But it's all good. My companions both are stronger than I am but they push me to go as much as I can. I mean I can outrun both of them so we just have different strengths. But Monday morning the Latinos in our casa left and it was really sad but we go to talk to them and take pictures with them and I forgot my cord today but I'll send extra pictures next week.

Tuesday night we listened to a talk from Elder Oaks that was being broadcast from Provo and it was SO great! It was cool seeing all the people in provo going through a very similar experience that I am going through! And seeing a live devotional in english was a blast, because the hymns we sung were in english and the prayers and it was great!

Wednesday was a good day! I mean a lot happens every day and we actually didn't teach Jesús or Vanessa on Wednesday because Hermano Hurtado's (Jesús) car had problems so we didn't get to teach him and we had TRC! Super great! If my investigators are half as nice as these people then I'll be fine. We taught about prayer and the how we receive revelation and answers after we pray and we taught Solidad and Maria who we taught last week as well, and it was super fun! TRC is so great! 

Thursday was good, it went by really fast which was nice because we all really needed a Pday, and I realized that everytime I see Hermanas walk by I always say, "Hola Hermanas!" which isn´t a bad thing, but my district realized it and they just found it funny because we each have like a catchphrase and that's definitely mine. We also had weekly planning again and I decided that because next week is the 5th week at the CCM (technically 4th, but it's called week 5 because week 1 was 4 days long) I'm going solo español. It'll be muy difícil, pero yo puedo lo hacer, si trato. (I can do it if I try) But don't worry my emails will be in english. Well spanglishey,...

Friday, today! As I said, I left the prison-like walls of the CCM today to get my immigration stuff done and it was just like any other government office. Waited in a line, got a number, waited for my number to be called, gave them my stuff, waited some more, got called again, fingerprinted and then left with my paperwork. Speaking of paperwork the problems I had at the airport all got sorted out which was nice! 

Anyway, Thank you for listening to me and I hope everyone is having a great time!

Yo sé que Alma y Amulek fueron misioneros gran, y yo puedo ser también. Yo sé que este iglesia es verdadero y el Libro de Mormón es la palabra de Dios. En él buscamos la verdad del Evangelio en plenitud. 

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Week 2

So this week has been long, but not as long as the first week, which is good!

So after I sent my last email, I got to go to the temple and that was SO great! The Mexico City temple is so beautiful and for the work I did in the temple I got headphones so I could hear it in English but it was cool hearing some parts in Spanish, and hopefully when I go at the end of my MTC stay I wont really need the headphones! (hopefully...)

On Friday we didn't do any teaching but it was a lot of preparing and studying. The language studying program we are using called TALL is not very good like user friendly wise and appearance wise and there are a lot of things that personally I think can be better about it but it is helping me learn more which is the point of the program so it is working fairly well.
Saturday was fun, we got to teach two people from my district and they pretended to be investigators! We also had a stress management class which wasn't super effective but it did help a little bit.

Sunday! Sundays are truly a delight at the MTC! No teachers, no TALL, definitely my favorite day of the week. It is a bit nerve racking in sacrament meeting not knowing if you will speak until they call each speaker from the pulpit in the middle of the meeting... And it's in spanish, but it was still really good. I didn't talk but I might in the next couple weeks. I also joined the MTC Choir down here and practice Sunday night went really well and it was super fun! I love music so much, it really just fills the whole room with the spirit. The videos we saw were pretty good, one was on sister missionaries and that was really interesting. One was on a pioneer who walked 22 miles to temple square every week to be a stone cutter at the temple. He broke his leg and had to get it amputated and then after building a peg leg he did the 22 mile walk to temple square until he passed away four years later. I really liked that video. The last video was on the Savior and it was in the perspective of Thomas the apostle and the acting was kinda bad at the beginning so I couldn't focus on the spirit but once I saw the atonement it hit me that that wasn't just someone trying to recreate a story, they were showing what happened and how people of that time reacted to it and that really moved me and as soon as I started seeing it as the biggest event on Earth, because it is, I really felt the spirit. After the videos we had a district meeting that was almost like a family home evening and it was really good, because we were able to give Hermana Mapusua a blessing of comfort that really helped her.

Monday was fun, we taught Jesús (played by our teacher) for the first time and the lesson went well. It´s hard to have him understand the importance of the gospel. We also taught Margarita for the first time too(who is played by the same teacher that pretended to be Ana so it´s interesting). It is kinda hard for me to teach and love these fake investigators because they are fake... But it's what we have. It was raining a bit all day long

Tuesday was great because we had two great lessons with Margarita and Jesús and a wonderful devotional by an Area president! I think it was President Hoyels or something like that. We had another district meeting with our district to talk about the devotional and it went really well! Also it was our last lesson with Margarita because Hermana Vergara, who is Margarita, is going to be with the new district... That was kinda sad cuz I really liked her. Lots of rain but rain is good!

Wednesday was really good but kinda sad too.... So my teacher in the morning who plays Jesús, his wife was really sick so he had to stay home and we had a sub and she was really good! Also we did TRC which stands for Teaching resource Center and it was super fun! I taught three lessons with my companions to REAL PEOPLE! I mean they were members but they were being themselves and not trying to be someone they weren't and not trying to be super difficult investigators. I really felt a genuine love for them and I was surprised at how much of their spanish I understood! TRC is probably one of my favorite things during the week! Even more rain today, and we got kicked out of our classroom because they are doing construction and I don't really like our new classroom cuz its smaller and doesn't have as much stuff.

Today(Thursday) has been super fun! My companion got his haircut and its shorter than he´s ever cut it before so he doesn´t really like it but I think it's fine. We played bball for like an hour and a half and then showered ate lunch and took pictures, so a very nice and relaxing day.

Thanks for listening to me and I hope that y´all enjoyed it! I'm sorry if my responses are kinda short when I am responding to people, I'm just trying to make sure I can respond to everyone!

Yo estoy agradecidos por ustedes, y quiero ustedes saber que yo sé que Dios vive y Jesucristo también. Sé que la iglesia de Jesucristo de los santos de los últimos dias es verdadero. Y sé que estoy donde estoy necesitar.

I'm grateful for you , and I want you to know that I know that God lives and Jesus too. I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true. And I know I 'm where I need.

x

Thursday, April 14, 2016

Week 1

This week has been a lot of ups and downs at the CCM (MTC en español)... First off I filled out some paperwork wrong but they are fixing it. So that meant I had to stay at the airport for a few extra hours but I got to meet one of the Hermanas in my zone, because she got a later flight in and came alone.

At the St. George airport it was one other elder and myself headed to Salt Lake  (Elder Hobbs) and he´s really cool. He isn't in my district but because we are in the same generation ( arrived at the same time) he´s in my zone. Once we got to SLC during the 2 and a half hour layover we met up with 6 other elders and 4 hermanas(sister  missionaries) We didn't know it but that was our whole zone minus two hermanas.

After the little airport fiasco, I got to talk to Hermana McDowell for a while because she had just gotten off the plane and I was waiting on some papers. That was fun, she´s going to NY, NY. 

Once I got back to the CCM (pronounced se se emmay) I got to meet my compeñero! His name is Elder Russon and we get along very well. He´s older than I am but he seems younger than me in a lot of ways... its hard to explain...

So Thursday we got a tour and this place is big. 90 acres of lands, multiple basketball courts, soccer fields, tennis courts, and lots of classrooms... That is where we spend most of our time...

Friday was the first lesson we taught in español.... It went pretty bad... We taught a fake investigator named Ana but really she is one of our teachers. Food here es muy bueno, (is very good) and they even have some American food sometimes! I am really enjoying the Mexican food here though. We also had a gym orientation on Friday which my companion and I, along with the other 2 elders in my district, who also live in the same casa as me, wore our gym clothes to, when we were supposed to wear our missionary attire.

Saturday we had our first gym time, which was super fun! I played volleyball and basketball, but it was also sad because Saturday was when one of the Elders in my district had to go home because of a worthiness issue, and we had all become pretty close... So that was kinda hard on all of us but he´ll be back out once he straightens things out. So now I´m in a trio and it´s very interesting to say the least... But we all get along great! 
We ended Saturday with this *wonderful* *(very very sarcastic here)* program called TALL. It is to help us learn Spanish and it is built by BYU and while it kinda does the job, there are SOO many things that could have been better...  

Anyway...

Sunday was super awesome! It totally refreshed me and my desire to learn and serve! We had a wonderful sacrament meeting en español, and I actually understood a lot of it! Priesthood was in English and wonderfully great, talking about how we need to desire to serve and not desire a calling which really hit me hard because Elder Vea, one of my companions was called to be District leader on night two and that was hard on me because I feel kinda useless when I don´t have some kind of leadership position. But that was definitely what had to happen because I am working a lot more on focusing on just serving as much as I can where I can and he needed the calling because it was kinda his wake up call, as he told me. 

Sunday night we watched some church videos and thanks to my church leaders, I had seen two of the three... But they are still really good! One was the John Tanner Story, one was a Bible video on the atonement and one was the video with Elder Holland talking to young men about staying on the Lord´s side in life and not crossing the lines that are on the field. 

My bed is as hard as the floor its under almost but Sunday night was one of the first nights I got a decent night of sleep!

Monday and Tuesday morning were very similar just studying and class, but Monday we got to do a service activity of cleaning la comedor! (The cafeteria) But then Tuesday night we had a great devotional instead of TALL so that was really fun! 

Wednesday was one of the best days so far because everyday except Sunday we have been teaching Ana and Wednesday was our last lesson and she committed to baptism! It was so exiting and spiritual even though it was broken Spanish but I can already feel the gift of tongues working in my life. I know that she isn´t a real investigator but when you convince yourself it´s real then the spirit is real too. Also we committed her to be baptized on the day that she actually was baptized 5 years ago because she is a convert, and I´m not sure why that was so cool, but it just made my day.

Also Wednesday was great because we had a Book of Mormon lesson on the doctrine of Christ. Also I actually enjoyed TALL because I can tell I am learning Spanish!

Today is P-Day and we played bball and took some pictures. I bought some things at la tienda(the store) like a tie, tie clip and a shirt and lots of snacks, and I haven´t even spent 20 dollars.... 

Also my district now has me, my two companions, Elder Vea and Elder Russon, and 2 hermanas; Hermana Mapusua and Hermana Aden. Hermana Aden is going to Oaxaca with me as well! The others in my district are going to other places in Mexico and the other district in my zone that got in at the same time as me, are all headed back to the US.

I guess that´s basically all and so I´ll leave a bit of Spanish for y´all to end it!

Yo se que el don de lenguas es verdad. La bendiciones usted recibe por el Espíritu Santo senté muy bueno. Yo se que estoy donde yo debo ser.
Yo se que el Evangelio es verdadero y el bendice nos más.






Monday, April 11, 2016

Addresses

Email:

Email: jason.loosle@myldsmail.net

Mexico MTC Address:

Postage is currently $1.15 for letters mailed from US to Mexico

Carretera Tenayuca-Chalmita #828
Colonia Zona Escolar, Gustavo A. Madero
07230 Mexico, Distrito Federal
Mexico

Mexico MTC Address Pouch:

Pouch Guidelines: Only letters that are single sheet, folded into three-panels, and taped at the top and postcards may be sent through the pouch. Letters sent in any other manner will be returned to the sender.

Mexico MTC
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150


Mexico Oaxaca Mission 

Postage is currently $1.15 for letters mailed from US to Mexico

Elder Jason Loosle
Mexico Oaxaca Mission 
Huerto de los Ciruelos 101
Fracc. Trinidad de las Huertas
68120 Oaxaca, Oaxaca
Mexico

Sunday, April 10, 2016

Made it safe!

I made it to the MTC. Some paperwork problems but it should be worked out in a couple of days... Only feeling a little bit overwhelmed.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

My Mission Call

For any and all whom might have missed the video of me opening my mission call...


I'm leaving, on a Jet Plane...

And Elder Loosle is gone for the next 2 years!  He left on Wednesday morning from St. George Intercontinental International National Regional Airport.

Heading into the Airport at way too dark early!
La partida en el Aeropuerto, a manera demasiado oscuro temprano!
Da Plane, Da Plane
El avión, El avión
Waiting for the plane at Gate #2 (Yes, there are two gates at the St George Airport, but only one of them is used.)
Goodbye, Farewell and Amen

Adiós , Adiós y amén