Monday, June 19, 2017

Hello Elder!

Hey Elder Loosle!

Hope you're doing well. Granted, we've no doubt you're killing it out there because of your solid upbringing and your family's love for the Utah State Aggies! (jokes)

Well, we're sitting around the table right now after church realizing we haven't been supporting our missionaries enough. So, we've asked the kids what questions they had for the missionaries we know. Here's what we came up with (mostly the kids!):


  • What's the craziest thing you've eaten so far? 
  • Have you been able to teach anyone who decided to get baptized? Any story you can tell us? 
  • Are there lots of kids in your ward?
  • Do peoples cell phones ring during church? 
  • Do you get to take hot showers or cold showers on your mission? 
  • Have you made any new friends there? 
  • Can you or your companion cook? Who cooks the most and what do you eat?
  • How is your Spanish? Have learned anything other than Spanish? 


Anyway, we're grateful for your service and hope and pray for our missionaries as a family. Hope you feel that support! Sending a pic of the family too so that you remember who we are (granted, I have a beard now... cause why not! Ha!).

Much love,
Jon and the rest of the Bacon's (Michelle, Marcus, Seth and Lucy)



So, first off, to answer the questions....

  • What's the craziest thing you've eaten so far? Well, here people eat grasshoppers with like a salsa and spices on it call chapulines. They don't taste that bad actually... Here's a link to a picture. http://www.elementaloaxaca.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/chapulines.jpg
  • Have you been able to teach anyone who decided to get baptized? Any story you can tell us? Actually I've been blessed with a lot of success in that aspect. A baptism that we had recently was of a young girl who we found who was actually friends with some members, and had attended church before. She went to church with us, then to EFY (still as an investigator) and then a few weeks later got baptized! Now we are teaching her mom and she is preparing for her baptism on the 8th of July!
  • Are there lots of kids in your ward? There are a decent amount. We have about 100 to 115 that come out to church every week, like 15 being primary aged, another 10 being youth, and so while it is not extremely huge, we are still able to have them help us in the work!
  • Do peoples cell phones ring during church? Sometimes, and even sometimes during the sacrament! Goodness people, is it that hard to turn your phone off?
  • Do you get to take hot showers or cold showers on your mission? In some areas, my first two, I have only had cold water, but in this area and my last area I have had hot water. I even have a washer AND A DRYER now!!! Because I am in the offices, I can use the washer and dryer from here to wash my clothes.
  • Have you made any new friends there? A BUNCH!!! At first it was hard, for language and being super isolated from other missionaries, so I missed my friends at home a lot. But now I have a bunch of friends, and being a secretary has helped me get to know like almost every missionary! So, I really hope to have all of these friends after I go back home!
  • Can you or your companion cook? Who cooks the most and what do you eat? We both can cook, but he really likes cooking rice... And not much more. Bananas with cheese as well, that is boiled bananas. He has interesting tastes in food, but he is from Peru and that is what they eat in his home town. So it is fun! I normally make simple stuff, eggs, pancakes, some sort of chicken stuff, mac and cheese, but sometimes we get fancy
  • How is your Spanish? Have learned anything other than Spanish? Well, I've got Spanish down, thanks to a lot of practice and a lot of help from God. But the fun part about Oaxaca is that there are lots of little dialects that there are towns where they only speak that. Almost no Spanish. I learned a few words of a more popular one called Zapotec. Caadxi'ga' (Chawie chawie) means little by little.


So, thanks for the email! And I understand that while many times we might not write the missionaries, you can still support them in many other ways, like prayers and those are definitely felt from down here in Oaxaca! Thanks for everything!

Sunday, June 18, 2017

Week 63: Lots of work here in the offices...

Well, this week there has been lots going on here in the offices but it has very little to do with my work as a secretary. While I do have work still, because we are getting ready to receive the new president, so there are a bunch of workers here in the offices who are making a bunch of renovations to the offices to make them look very nice for the new President Conde. For me it just means that we have to stay here while they are working, and while they are working on the computers and stuff I have to do other stuff, so one thing that we have done is shred A BUNCH OF PAPERS!! And so there are some pictures for y'all.

Anyways, well I have had a lot of thoughts recently about things that I am doing to try and get better, and while there are sometimes we just really feel like we are messing everything up, and we can't do anything right, God is always there to help us.

 I've been having some hard times with the office work here, and wanting to be able to get more time working in our area, but not being able to, and while a lot of times there are many things that can frustrate us, I know that God will always help us. If we have the desire to get better and make it back to Him, He will be there guiding us and encourage us. If we fall, He isn't going to beat us down so we can't get up, He will lead us on and help us up, so that we can keep on going. I have thought of it like a baby learning how to walk. We are all learning how to walk, but when we fall, like all babies do as they are trying to walk, their parents don't ask why did you fall and make them feel terrible for not being able to walk. They show them that they can get back up again. Help them to try again. Maybe to fall again, but to eventually through the loving help of loving parents, they can make it to walking, and even running, without having to worry about tripping over themselves. I know that we all have a loving Heavenly Father who will forgive you. And He will help you to reach your true potencial. I hope all y'all have a wonderful week and keep doing great things!

Thanks for the support! Have a great week!

Week 62: Wedding!

NOTE:  Jason wrote 2 emails this day:

Well, this week has been super fun! We were able to see a Mexican wedding (very different from weddings in the states) and help out some great people who will get baptized in this coming month!
So with the pictures, we to Monte Alban again and well I realized that on the 20 peso Mexican bill it has Monte Alban! So that is one picture.

Then I have a bunch of random Monte Alban pictures with other missionaries because ALL OF THE MISSIONARIES IN THE CITY went with us! We were like 70 missionaries almost!
We also had the wedding of Victor and Pati! They'll get baptized in a few weeks, but first they had to get married and now they want things to settle down to be sure of their decision. After the wedding, we helped set up for a party and I started making balloon animals and made a dog and a TURTLE!!! HOW COOL!









Before they got married we had a family home evening with them! That is a few of the other pics!

Anyways, this week has been pretty bust with a lot of office work and work for our area, but it is nice to have a calm Pday, where we are just relaxing to help us rest and finish up a bit of work we have here in the offices. Because the assistants are out of town, so it is just my comp and I and we didn't really feel like doing anything crazy. BUT!

I do have a super awesome experience I would like to share with all y'all. So, one of our investigators was robbed this last week and she was just completely furious and she was feeling like she didn't want to hear anything more of the gospel or anything because she just was angry and wanted to hurt the person that robbed her, because she had an idea of who it was. But she let us give her a blessing and bless her house so that she could be able to be more in tune to the spirit of God, and she told us the next morning, that saying that prayer with her daughter, who is a recent convert really helped her feel the relief she needed. Also we helped her learn how to read better! It really showed me the power of prayer and priesthood blessing. Really there are 2 ways that people work miracles, by faith and through the priesthood. And if we put them both together, we will be able to accomplish anything that God wants us to. Remember that there are loads of people who love y'all and want to help!

Have a great week!

Week 62: Ok, so I don't have a lot of time...

Well today we have a bunch of stuff planned so writing time kinda got shortened.... But that doesn't mean I don't care about y'all, it just means President wants do to a bunch of stuff and it is my comps birthday so we have loads of plans XD

Also, no pictures because my camera got stolen.... By the sister missionaries XD They were using my camera and then never gave it back to me because they accidentally put it in their bag... But that is Ok, they will give it back to me tomorrow...

But this week has overall been good! I have been trying to focus on what I can do to keep getting better, and well I learned last night in a FHE that we had, that you need to really put time into the people that you are with, whoever they be so that you can really be their friends and help them while they help you!

But for now, that is all, I may send another email later with more stuff but yeah, have a great week!

Week 61: Small Email...

Lol sorry XD, but, it does seem like a cool set up! I hope you are all doing well! And that everything is great with Alyssa back at her house! Also, I may or may not have time to write a decent weekly email, so I will try but it may be small... Sorry, we have a lot planned for today but next week we won't be doing a bunch, so I'll be able to write more.