Finding JOY in the JOurneY!

How are you guys doing?  I must tell you.. I sure do love you so much! Thank you for your emails. I wasn't able to write you all back individually because of the craziness of the day and not as much time as normal but I thought I would just get right into it with the big email.... hope you don´t mind.

Things this last week went super good! I was super grateful for the work we were able to do. We got a lot done and were able to find quite a bit of new people to teach. I would like to share an experience that I had this past week. On Tuesday morning we were planning and Elder Naylor and I took turns setting some goals.... it was his turn to set the goal once we got to news with members and he set the bar high.  We set the goal of finding 5.  When he said that, I was thinking to myself, wow.... we are going to have to work hard with some members this week. (Something we should do every week) However, as the week went along we were able to find 4 new people and one of the new people has fecha baptismal for the 26th of September. His name is Ken Rey. He is the nephew of the Hermana Maria Almada.  She is also the sister who took us out and showed us like 7 houses that we could visit... basically like 7 references.  Yeah, her nephew is our next victim (; It was a week of many blessings. I am so grateful for Elder Naylor and the faith that he has.

This past week was honestly one of my favorite weeks of the whole mission. It was up there with the time that I spent with Emili and Macarena.... remember that? I had thought that I found like a new love for the mission.. which I definitely did.  However, I am finding a way to find that daily. I left the house this last week with a new energy to share the gospel.  I loved it and look forward to it this week.  The Lord truly blesses us as we work hard. It is so good to have a comp that wants to work hard too.  I mean I definitely had that with Elder Huntsman not too long ago but this time is just different.... a good different.  Such a good kid though! love him.

We have been having a competition between us to see who can jump out of bed the fastest. It is actually a mission competition between the oros and their trainers. We had a tie today which puts us at a tie for the whole time we have had together. The kid gets out of bed so dang fast though.. it’s like bro.. wait for me to wake up before you jump to your feet (; It has been fun to jump out of bed!  Have you jumped out of bed lately? It really does help you to have a better day! Try it!

Yesterday we had our first exotic food together.. we had squid! They told us what it was before we started eating it but I didn't understand the word they said so they just told us it was like fish. I ate two servings and then after we got talking about it and they described it like octopus..... and that is when it hit me.. Squid.  Pretty great. I actually didn't mind it though, it was like a soup so it wasn't just plain or anything crazy.  When I first saw it I thought it was cow stomach so when they said something like fish I dug in (;

Needless to say.... the week has been one to remember. We worked hard and are going to continue to work hard! I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Keep smiling and look for the blessings that God puts in your lives daily!  I was able to find JOY in the JOurneY.... were you?!

A very happy and excited.. Elder Taylor Abel

Elder Macdaddy? McDonalds today.. yummy!

letters from the beautiful mommy and studly skysky.. thank you!! Loved them.

Dulce de leche and bread.... free? We will take it.  Our investigator Ana has a little store in front of her house and so we asked if she sold Dulce de leche and she gave us this huge jar for free.  We then had bread left over from lunch.,,. and you all wonder why I am fat (;