OH my family.. how I love you so!  How was your week? My week was a lot better to be honest. We found a lot more success this past week. Maybe not so much in the numbers of the mission but to me.. we had some good successes! Where to begin with this past week full of such good things? (:

On Saturday we took a little trip to Tacaurembo which is in the middle of Uruguay for a Zone Conference with 4 other zones and with Elder Viñas from the Seventy. The conference was great. We first heard from Hermana Smith and her message was about how our faith is God given and the way that we can have more faith is through obedience and our personal righteousness. Then we had the opportunity to hear from President Smith. His message was a little about his relationship with Hermana Smith.  Three days after his baptism he met Hermana Smith.. she was actually invited to his baptism but she didn´t go because she didn´t know him. Now they have 8 kids and are as happy as ever! #funfactforyou He then posed the question.. What do you desire today? It was a really good message. I have more notes but I didn´t look them over so they not make sense in English. The main topic that I got from his message was that we can always give MORE. Check out Jacob 6:2... The Lord has MORE for us. Also.. one last insight from him. 1 Nephi 15:14.. without the Book of Mormon.. there is no gathering of Israel. Check out the talk from Elder Russell M. Nelson about the gathering of Israel.. it is awesome! Then it was our pleasure to hear from Elder Viñas. He is from Uruguay.. and he started with his story of how his family is members. He said that his parents were baptized by a very humble Elder Richard G. Scott. Pretty neat right? His whole message was about the Atonement and was basically straight doctrine for about an hour. It was amazing. Take a moment and think about the atonement in your life.. maybe for FHE you could share your thoughts about the atonement! The next thing that we did after lunch was watch MEET THE MORMONS. It was awesome. I really enjoyed it. How many of you have seen it? That was the conference.. pretty great!

CHANGES: I am going.... to stay in Obelisco to kill Elder Vargas. Which means.. 7.5 months in Obelisco. Want to just send my membership records?m (;  I am excit        cxx/1x0   x x   ed. It will be a good change..... I am going to get Elder Vargas to finish strong! We will just be living us two for this change too. Elder Huntsman felt like he should stay there. Oh well.. more Spanish for me(:

¨Life is full of people who will tell you what you CAN¨T ever achieve. Successful people hang around those who tell them what they CAN achieve.¨ -R. Dale Jeffery.

¨Do, every day something no one else would be silly enough to do.¨ -Christopher Morley.

Smile big this week and don´t forget to find the little things in life (:

Love, a very happy Elder Taylor Abel (: 

A little bbque with the Zone Boyz

Hey you guys!  How are we doing?  It was sooo good to read your emails.  I really am so grateful for your letters each week and you have no idea the amount of joy that it brings me to read about your lives and all that is going on. You all just brighten my day, week and month! 

Investigators.. Estefani is still following us with the charlas and goes to church but has no desire to get married so we are stuck.  Hard for her to progress because we can´t really give her a date for a goal if we have no idea when she will be married.  Artigas and Paula.. haven´t had a charla with them since last week.  We had one of our investigators go to church this week and she loved it....her name is Beatriz.  It was super cool to have her there! 

I would like to share an experience that I had yesterday.  Both the speakers had finished up with their talks and there was still about 10 minutes left so we had the wonderful opportunity to hear from the Bishop, Bishop Rebollo.  He talked very clearly and posed the question to the ward... where is the love in the ward?  Where is the unity that we need in the ward?  As he continued to talk, I had a thought come to my mind.... no idea why or where it came from but this is what I wrote in the back of my agenda in the little spot for notes:  We are at a dock, the boat is about to leave, if we don´t start NOW we will miss it. We will miss the boat that has the destination of the Celestial Kingdom, Eternal Life with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  Some of us have waited too long....the boat is leaving the dock, the gap is growing between the dock and the boat.  If we don´t start NOW we won´t make the jump to the boat.  We will fall short and land in the rough waters of life and most likely remain there.  The boat has all the people who keep the commandments and those who love and strengthen each other.  ID INMEDIATAMENTE (D&C 101: 57) GO NOW. Don´t look back, you can still make it to the boat if you start NOW.¨  

Elder Vargas taught a lesson last night to a family, using an example of Noah's name...Noé in Spanish.  He likened each letter of his name to the something we need to do to be like Noah, his family and his great ark. N: Noche de Hogar (Family Night) O: Oración (Prayer) and É: Escrituras (Scriptures).  We must have family home evening, prayer individually and in the families(wards) and we must read the scriptures in order to get on the boat and stay on the boat safe from the waves of the adversary.  Like Elder M. Russell Ballard's talk from conference is titled,¨Stay in the boat and hold on!¨  To that I add, don´t miss the boat, GO NOW and we will work together through the waves of life, towards life eternal.  In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 

Have a wonderful week and keep smiling and remember that Come What May and Love It. I love you all soooo much! Hope you have a great love day and feel my love and the love of our Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you!

Elder Taylor Abel.. One happy Elder (:

The District...our last District Meeting before changes

Find the little things to be happy for!

Well hello there!  How are we doing? Ü  I hope everyone is doing good!   I have a request from good ole' Mazzy to share what has prepared me for my mission.  So buckle up everyone and keep your hands, arms, feet and legs inside at all times!

Things that helped me serve:

 

The example of Daddy and Jordy:  It would have been hard to leave if I didn´t have examples like them in our home, who set the path for me.

 

Mommy and Daddy:  Your righteous way of living your life. Your love and support from the beginning, the good influence with every family night, scripture read and just the times we spent all together.  Also, your confidence in me.  Without this confidence, everyday would be a struggle.  I am so grateful for your help through the preparation and now while I am in the field.

 

Family:  I honestly have the best family with a firm foundation in Christ and in the only true church.  Without your examples of keeping the commandments and leading by example... I would be a lost little/older brother.

 

Friends:  Their influence, support, example, and the way they live their lives.  I really do have some of the greatest friends that helped me along this path to serve.

 

My Leaders:  Seminary teachers - for sharing their knowledge.  Young Men leaders and their support and their teachings.  Bishop and his support and patience with me.  Mission Prep every Sunday and the things I learned there.  Coach Holt and Coach Roberts and their support for me.... they really helped me by their example.  Sister Matthews and her cute spirit in our Sunday School class, always asking what was new in our lives and really caring for us.  She made me want to be a better person.

 

Washington Fields 1st Ward:  Leaders, families, couples, home teachers.... everyone and their love and support for me as I prepared. 

 

XC/Track:  Determination, pain, passion, concentration. good friendships, positivity.

 

My knowledge/testimony:  Book of Mormon and reading a chapter a day.

 

Scouting:  Taught me how to keep with something even through the bad times. 

 

My desire:  To help people and bring people to the joy of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Prophet:  His counsel on missionary service.

 

Heavenly Father:  He hears and answers my prayers.

 

Christ:  His Atonement for me. 

 

All in all.... there really isn´t anything big that helped me serve my mission.  It was just the little things that got me out here in Uruguay to serve the Lord and help others come unto Christ.

I owe it to all of you.  For everything you've done and continue to do for me!  You all helped me as I prepared myself to serve.

 

This week I had the coolest contact in my mission thus far.  I was with Denis, a corto plazo (mini missionary), for the day while Elder Cepeda and Elder Vargas were down in Montevideo for a sealing.  We had just finished our studies and were out to find a less active that the relief society president referred us to.  We walked up into a part of our area that I have never been to and we knocked on the door. The lady there was asleep.... gotta love that siesta at 4:00!  Anyways, so I was curious about this part of the area so we continued up the road to the very top street of the area and we were walking back to the main road when I saw a house with the door cracked.  For me, when I see a door cracked or open, I am totally up to contact it because at least we know someone is home. We walked half way past it as I thought to myself whether we should contact it or not.  I decided we should, so we gave it a good clap.  Out walked this lady that I knew.... but I didn´t know from where. I then told her who we were and what we are doing here in Uruguay and asked if she had some time to hear our message.  She said YES.  So I swung off my back pack and grabbed the pamphlet of the Restoration.  I then began to explain it like it was normal but really this was my first contact alone without a comp there to really help me through it.  We taught the whole lesson while standing in her front yard.  As we finished up I asked her if there was another day that we could pass by.  We took her name, address and number.  It was truly an amazing experience.  I know without a doubt that the Spirit does truly guide us.  It was really neat.  A good confidence builder and now I look forward to making contacts. I love being a missionary!  It's so great!  ps.... her name is Paula!
 

I hope that you have a wonderful week and find the little things to be happy for.  Without the little things.. I wouldn´t be here serving!  Always smile and remember that we have a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers our prayers, as well as our older brother who suffered and died for us and our sins so we don´t have to.  Keep that in mind throughout this week!  I certainly love you all sooo much! 

 

Elder Taylor Bradley Abel.. your happy and grateful missionary!

 

 

 

 

 

Walk In Truth

I am still learning a lot from Elder Varas and his love for the people.  He truly does care about the people of Uruguay.  Sometimes a little too much when we don't teach a thing and just talk for about an hour with them.  I don't mind talking after a charla, but let's teach something! Ü  I will now be speaking Spanish in every moment.  Elder Huntsman and Elder Caires Franca moved out of the house to live with some other missionaries.  I'm gonna miss good ole' Huntsy.  I guess we will see him on p-days and district meeting days.

Yesterday after lunch with Bishop Rebollo and his family, Shrek was on behind us in the room, so we turned our heads and may have watched for about 5 minutes.  Elder Vargas knows the whole movie in Spanish. It was hilarious.  He wasn't even watching for a minute and was still quoting it word for word.  We were all just laughing at it.  With Vargas, we are making some good friendships that were lost.  It has been fun to chat with some of the people that I never had a chance to talk with before.  Lots of great people in Obelisco!

Investigators!  Estefani came to church yesterday and really liked it.  We met a man of gold.  His name is Artigas.  We taught him about the Restoration and a little bit about the Book of Mormon.  He is a very intelligent man.  He has been a catholic all of his life and is very open to hear about others religions.  After sharing with him our message, he began to explain parts of the faith that he believes everyone needs to hear and when he was telling us this he was talking about how there are two ways in life. There is the narrow path and the wide path.  As he continued he talked about how the straight path may have rocks and may be harder to walk but it is worth it.  It was like he was truly prepared to have us stop by.  In fact, he even said that in his prayer to finish the charla.  He told us that he feels we were sent to his house.  It was a very humbling and neat experience. We have a charla with him today and I am very excited to see how his experience was with his prayers. Gotta love moments like that right? 

Studies!  My study that I would like to share with you is about 3 John 1:4. I turned to this scripture in my little quote book and I liked it so much that I wanted to study it.  If we read it, it says, ¨I have no greater JOY than to hear my children walk in truth.¨ I studied it a bit deeper with my Spanish scriptures.  JOY in the Guide for the Study for the Scriptures... or GEE in Spanish, says, ¨Condition of great happiness that is the result of living in RIGHTEOUSNESS... the plain joy is received only through Jesus Christ.¨  Now that we understand JOY a little better let´s take a look at the world ¨Children¨ In the footnotes is says, ¨Family, Children, Responsibilities Toward,¨ and ¨Family, Love Within." I decided to take the word FAMILY and go deeper.  For me, the scripture says, ¨I have no greater JOY than to hear my FAMILY walk in truth.¨  To finish the study off, I was wondering what it mean to ¨walk in truth¨ It means,¨Walk with God¨ or ¨Presence of God¨ or ¨Divine Guidance¨ or ¨Path".  For me it says now, ¨I have no greater JOY than to hear my FAMILY walk in (the path of) truth (that goes to eternal life). I took a littler deeper look at walking with God in Spanish in the GEE.... ¨To be in harmony with the teachings of God and to live like God would desire us to live; to be receptive and obedient to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.¨  I don't know about you guys but I want to walk with God!  I hope you guys feel the same way!

 

I love you sooo much and miss you like crazy.  Have a wonderful week and keep finding reasons to SMILE and to walk in truth this week!  I LOVE YOU!

Love, Elder Taylor Abel.. one happy guy!

Elder Vargas, Elder Aliaga and I in Argentina! Good day!

 

 

#throwbackmtc Elder Pederson and Elder Abel at the CCM.

Elder Pedersen served his mission in St. George.

 

Elder Vargas and I with Argentina in the background!

 

Service Project with the Argain brothers, doing some cement work.

It was a fun service....a nice and early morning out of the sun!

Elder Abel's daily running path.