Hoy es dia!

Hoy es dia!
Updates while serving in the Uruguay Montevideo West Mission taylor.abel@myldsmail.net
Current Mailing Address:
Elder Taylor Abel
Uruguay Montevideo West Mission
Enrique Martinez 1167
11800 Montevideo, Uruguay
Uruguay

Monday, December 28, 2015

A Smiling Elder in Uruguay

Family! It seems like just a few days ago we were chatting.. oh wait?

How are you?! I must say that I am pretty darn happy with the Skype call and all. It was so good to see you all and to be able to hear how things are going. I am so glad that you received my letters, I hope that it really did help make your Christmas special! Singing with you made my Christmas one of a kind and being able to share my testimony with you guys as well.. even though I couldn´t even express myself like I wanted to.. #tearsgotintheway #babyprobs (; How goes the Reading? Have you guys restarted The Book of Mormon to finish it before I get home? I hope so (: I will keep reminding you so no worries!

Can you believe that we are heading into 2016? It is honestly kind of blowing my mind. I can´t believe that it is already here. I remember thinking back when I first got to the mission taht 2016 was seriously centuries away and here we are 4 days away. What a very special year it will be.. you will be able to welcome me home but then we have to say "see you later" to Sky Sky. So much good to come though! I am absolutely stoked for what lies ahead for us! You guys ready for 2016? Ready or not here we come!

Things with the flooding have been good. The water has stayed where it was and it isn´t supposed to rise however, we have Heard that it is supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow so we shall see.. we hope for the best! Bishop Conti announced our number in Sacrament Meeting yesterday.. we are now the guys that people call to go and help but we also have the responsibility to call the other leaders and tell them what is going on and inform them so that they can help too. Kind of crazy but I honestly wouldn´t have had this Christmas week any other way.. It was awesome to serve the people here.. whether they were members or not. Made me really think about Christmas and the importance of service.. loved it! Even with the flooding yesterday we still had a good attendance at church.. 83. Better than last week (:

Well family, I would just like to thank you once again for the wonderful call and the packages that I received. You guys really made my Christmas special and I am so grateful for each one of you! I hope that you were able to enjoy Christmas and that you have a very happy new year! Someone Kiss somebody for me at midnight (; I love love love you! Have an absolutley great week! Until next week .. until 2016! ♥

Elder Taylor Abel.. A smiling Elder in the heat of Uruguay!




1. Papa Noel vino!
2. Stocking from Pres and Sis Smith!
3. You guys are the best.. I loved it! Thank thank thank you! 

Monday, December 21, 2015

Christmas is Coming!

Family, how are we?!.. we are down to T-minus 4 days. Who is ready? Christmas and Skype ready or not here we come! How are we doing? Keep checking the mailbox.. the letters are bound to get there within the next 2 to 3 days! I have faith! I am also looking forward to receiving the packages from you guys tomorrow and if I do I would like to do the same as I did last year. You guys all save one present and we will open them up together. If I don't receive them I will open up my stocking from President and Hermana Smith.. deal? I am so stoked to see you guys. I will be calling from the church again and like I said last week around 3 or 4ish your time and 7 or 8ish my time! Ü

Life with the new comp is interesting.. the beginning of the change is always interesting because you got to work out the little tweaks in the companionship to be able to work better together but I am hoping and praying that I can have a better attitude this change. I will be honest I am not sure how this change is going to go but I have made a promise that I will not complain and that I will be as positive as I can. I obviously have something to learn from my companions last change and this change and I am going to try to find out what it is. Wish me luck! He is from Lima, Peru and comes from a family of 8 all together. He likes to play video games and has no problem with talking all the time. He is a good guy.. one of the grrreatest (;

The highlight this last week comes from a charla with Miguel and Antonela. They are a young couple, (not sure if they are married but we are thinking that they aren`t) Miguel is 19 and Antonela is 17 and they have a 1 year old baby girl. We were teaching them on Thursday and we decided to teach them the Doctrine of Christ. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Holy Ghost, and Endure to the End through the Sacrament. We taught it very simple and we used a lot of scriptures so it was even more clear. They understood it so well and it was almost like they had a change of heart right there in the charla as their eyes were opened to a new life by living the doctrine of Christ. The charla was incredible. They both accepted the 16th of January to be baptized, we will see if they are married or not and go from there. Just when I didn`t think it could get better.. right when we were about to end it, Antonela's sister and her boyfriend showed up (Cristina and Matias..We think that they are in the early 20`s) and E. Orihuela shared with them the Restoration in less than 5 minutes and it was a powerful declaration, by the end Cristina was teary eyed and we were able to set up a charla with them and Miguel and Antonela this Tuesday. I know that the Restoration in less than 5 minutes gets to the heart of the person if we declare it, there is no doubt in my mind that God prepares His children for us.. He is constantly blessing His children. He blesses us with new investigators and new experiences with them and He blesses them with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God is great! 

How to share the Gospel in less than 5 minutes.. 
God loves us.
He has given us prophets
Christ came to the earth and established the church
The Great Apostasy
The Restoration of the Gospel through Joseph Smith (first vision)

Well my wonderful family! I must say that I am absolutely excited to see you guys.. only 4 days! That is less than our fingers on one hand! It is right around the corner! We will see you soon! I love you and I hope you have a wonderful Christmas Adam and Christmas Eve (: 

Love, a very excited Elder Taylor Abel  

Little visit to Irene and family on the change day while we had some extra time!
Love them, Irene was so happy!



Elder Orihuela and I




Elder Correa and I right before he got on his bus. 
He was a good comp, learned a lot from him

Monday, December 14, 2015

What the Doggy Bite?

How are you? 

I should begin by telling you that this past week I sent off 3 letters.. Now each one of these letters were addressed to the good ole home. First and foremost.. please pray that they get there for Christmas.. If they don´t I will be super bummed because they have a big part in the Skype call. Pray lots.. I sent them late but I know that if they were supposed to get there that they will show up on time! So when they get there.. they are not to be opened until I we are skyping.. deal?! Man I really hope that you get them soon. When you get them.. be sure to take a photo of them ... (but put them together the right way (; You should understand what I mean when you get them.. ) and then send me the photo so I know that you got them.. sound good? 

Super excited to see you guys! Only 10 days away.. can you believe it? It is definitely beginning to look a lot like Christmas! I am thinking that I will probably call around 7ish or 8ish here.. so around 3ish or 4ish there. What do you guys think? We still have one more pday and I will let you know for sure next week but that is what I am thinking. I need to talk to my companion first (:

So.. on to the next big thing! Changes.. Who will you guys be meeting on Christmas! I was very surprised yesterday when we got the call from the assistants because I was thinking for sure that we were staying together but it turns out that Elder Correa will be making a short trip to Artigas to be the Zone Leader with my good buddy.. Elder De La Cruz. I will be staying here in Salto to start my 7th change here.. and Elder Orihuela from Peru will be joining me here. It will be the first time he is zone leader but I am confident that this new change will be better than this last one. I am super excited.. I came with Orihuela to Uruguay and now I have the opportunity to get to know him and work with him. I have heard nothing but good about him so I am ready to work hard with him. Should be good.. I am going to spend some good time tomorrow at the bus terminal because I have to make sure that everyone comes and goes ok but it will be fun (: 

So this past week was lots of walking but it was super good. We were able to find 6 new people which was awesome. We found Matias (little guy) again and it turns out that he actually wants to continue with the charlas and so we set a new baptismal date with him.. he will be baptized on the 2nd of Jan. We also found a young couple that are awesome.. they both dance. They are 19 and 17 and have a little girl. They are Miguel and Antonela.. Miguel dances super good. I took some videos of him.. I will try to send one. It made me want to dance so bad! 

Lots of good things that are happening here and only onward and upward from here! Don´t have much time to waste (; I hope that you guys have a great week! I love you all soo much! • See you in 10 •

Elder Taylor Abel.. Ready for Christmas elder (:



 
Enjoy this sweet sunset


 My gnarly dog bite. I think the Lord decided to tell me that I shouldn't be a vet after the dog got a good bite out of my hand  


Monday, December 7, 2015

Six Months to what?

Family!!

How are you? This past week was amazing. We got down to Montevideo and had some training from Hermana Smith and she talked about have a tongue of angels. Check out the talk by Elder Jeffrey R Holland. President then blew our minds with some Plan of Salvation doctrine. We then had lunch and some more trainings. The assistants trained us on the new agendas that we will have next change and then we had the opportunity to train the zone. We talked about being above the line and being a instrument in God hands.. also we shared a video of the Atonement. We then had our interviews and mine was a solid 3 minutes. I went in and President said, "The purpose of this interview is to see if there is anything that is stopping you to have the Spirit or receive personal revelation." I told him that there wasn't anything and then he talked about Elder Correa and I finding common ground. It kind of sounded like we will be having another change together. and that was basically the interview. We then had 3 hours to sit around the temple and meditate. The next morning we met around the temple around 8 and Hermana Smith shared a really cool story about the Manti temple and then we started the ordinances. We did our names and 5 others in the baptismal font. It was super cool! We then didn't have enough time to do the initiatory.  So we entered the session for another name before lunch and then after lunch we went back to the temple to do initiatory for our ancestors and the session as well. It was so neat to go to the temple 2 times in one day. I learned so much the second time because I still had the first time fresh in my mind. The temple is so great. I really liked a question that President Smith gave us.. "Adán, Adán.. Dónde estás?" ..  "Where are you?" It has really helped me think about where I want to be. I always remember that part because when I first went through the temple in Spanish it was one thing that I understood completely. "Where am I? Where do I want to be?" .. I spent some good time thinking about it.. and I invite you to do the same. We then spent a good few hours in the mission home celebrating Christmas.. we even got our own stockings! It was a great trip!

Birthday!.. The birthday was good! The familia Melo made it special. They gave us lunch and dinner. Hermano Milo was also celebrating his birthday so we all sang "Felix Cumpleaños" two times and had some cake. Wonderful family. Elder Correa gave me a shirt of his and sent out a text reminding the zone of my birthday so I got calls all throughout the day of missionaries singing (:

This past week in the area was pretty good.. we lost our 2 with baptismal date this past week but we were able to find some more people. We found another Matias and this find was very unique. We left with Hermana Chivel and we went to our set charla but it turns out it wasn´t so set after all.. the charla fell. She then told us of a cousin that she had that we could visit.. not there either. We were stuck with nothing.. we had people to visit but in the complete opposite part of the area and we weren't going to make the Hermana walk super far. Just when we thought that we had nothing the Hermana started to look around and she saw a couple outside enjoying the sun and their maté and she said we can talk to them and just walked up to them and because to talk to them. After some small talk the husband pulled out some chairs and we took a seat and taught the Restoration to him. Who knows if he is going to progress or not.. We hope he does but I was just so happy to see this member living her purpose. Could you imagine if every member was like this sweet Hermana? If only everyone understood their responsibility in sharing the gospel. ¡Que capa! Those moments in that charla was definitely the highlight of the work in the area.

Well my cute family.. who I love and adore. I must be getting going! I sure love you all so much! To finish I would just like to say..18 days (: See you very soon but for now.. until next week! Ü

Love, Elder Taylor Abel.. a missionary in training.. #6months2sexy (;


Hermano Melo and I! Difference of 33 years. Such a great guy. 




After a good workout! I'm looking fabulous (;




Santidad al Señor, Casa del Señor. During out meditation.