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

Tuesday, January 26, 2016

The Lost package....FOUND!

Family.. oh I love you!

This past week was super good, it got pretty toasty on Friday when the temperature hit in the 50`s.. 53 degrees to be exact...yikes! I will leave it to you guys to go and convert it to Fahrenheit. However, things went super well. We saw the ward progress a lot this past week and that has been awesome. It started with a meeting with the elders quorum president, high priest group leader and the 1st counselor in the relief society to go over the plan that the area has come out with and their role in helping the ward grow. It went really well, we went over the parable in Doctrine and Covenants 101. They all understood and we had a pretty effective huddle(meeting when we talk about the people who didn't come to church and assign people to visit them during the week) on Sunday. To make things even better, we got a ward mission leader now! After two changes without one it should be great to have him to help us. We are excited to get working with him and get him on the same page as the other leaders so that we can continue to see growth! Just when we thought that it couldn't get better, Obispo Conti and Presidente Tate talked in church on Sunday about respecting leaders and staying far away from the great and spacious building and the "dedo de escarnio"(finger of scorn). Basically talked that we needed to stop offending people and start loving them. It has been a real problem lately and it must have gotten worse recently for them to take a whole sacrament meeting talking about it. We hope that this ward can leave its old ways and find the iron rod that leads to eternal life. Great week!

So yesterday around midday we got a call from President Smith with our changes. It turns out that I will be staying here in Salto with Elder Emrich. Elder Orihuela is leaving to be zone leader somewhere else. I will head into my 8th change here in Salto.. that will make it a whole year. There are 16 changes in the mission field itself.. yo soy salteño (; I am super excited!  I will be honest, this whole week I have just been praying that I will be happy with my change and it worked. I am stoked.. Elder Emrich is from Missouri and has one change less than me so we are basically on the same page as far as wanted to work super hard. He was in my district for one change.. there is just one problem he is a hardcore Y fan. Ü  I also just want to set the bar from the beginning that we are going to work hard..  no options. We are the pioneers.. or the Roger Banisters.. whatever you want to call us (; I was reading today in "A future as bright as your faith" and it talked about how a pioneer is someone who goes and explores unknown grounds and that is what I want to do this change.. Leave the comfort zone.. go outside the box and work hard! It should be one great change.

Mommy.. I got the package and I love it! New white clothing is always a blessing after 19 months..English hymns are great!.. Brownies are even better (: Wonderful package! Thank you! I also received two great letters.. one from Bryce and one from Jord. Super good to have a change in letter writing.. I would love letters from the rest of you. I also got letters from the ward, from the Bonas.. (love you guys!) and from Grammy and Grampy Abel (You guys are the best.. I love you both so much and I am grateful for all you do!). Thank you for all the love during the holidays.. I am so blessed and I thank our Heavenly Father everyday for the family and friends that He has blessed my life with. 

As we head into these next 6 weeks of life.. I am gonna go into it with a smile.. who is with me?! I hope you guys all enjoy this week and are able to find joy! May the Lord bless your lives this week and may you see His hand daily.. look for Him and I promise you will find Him. I love you all! Until next week!

Elder Taylor Abel.. a caramel brownie lover (;


Lost Package....FOUND!


No Shave.....one day!


Milk and Caramel Brownie Breakfast!


The English hymn book.. Time to memorize songs!


Monday, January 18, 2016

Pushing the Limits

Family, what a wonderful day it is! How are you guys doing? I don't think you guys know how happy I am every pday morning because we walk across the street to the church and print out our emails and I read them before getting into my study. I always look forward to it.. I am like a kid on Christmas Eve every Sunday night (; Emails from you guys are always the best presents.. just imagine what a letter would do for me (;
How are you guys?! 

This past week was a little better than the last. I felt that I was able to love Elder Orihuela the way that God would have me. It really is so true that "Yes" is always the answer to the question.. "Lord, is it I?" It has been a rough change but I have learned a lot from him. He is a great teacher .. sometimes he just wants to do it all by himself and that is where we don't get along. I am hoping we can finish this change out strong and that whatever the Lord has in store I can do with a smile in my face.  Pray for good changes.. I started a long time ago. I ask however that you don't ask for me to leave or that I have a new companion.. ask so that I have the strength to do what the Lord would have me do in this time in my mission.

I have been thinking this past week and it was when we were with Elder Huamali and Elder Frame that this whole thought train came. I love to run as you all know  (ps.. I wrote Coaches Decker last week) and there is a story that has always blown my mind. First off I want you to think in a struggle or a dream that you have always had, something difficult. Now.. Back in the days the world thought that it was impossible to break the 4 minute mile. They honestly thought that the human body could not run that fast and if they did they were going to die on the track. In the 1950s there were 3 men in different parts of the world racing to get a sub 4 minute mile. One of them was named Roger Banister and he was able to do it.. he ran a 3:59 or 3:58.. I can´t remember, but he did it! Now we look at the world and see just how many people  have done it.. Hundreds. All it took was one man to show the world that it was possible. Now the world record is around 3:50ish. I know that us as members of the church and as the Abel family we have the opportunity to be the Roger Banisters and push the limits to show the rest of the world that it is possible. I know if we do it that the people who look up to us will be able to as well. I know that God is there to help us and that we just have to do our best and have faith that He is there and that él nos da el crecimiento. We got this with the Lord´s help. I shared that story.. with some variation to the District Leaders and with the Bishop.. but it works for just about anything. Be the Roger Banister. (The same happened with Chris Solinksy and the sub 27 minute 10K for Americans.. thought that it was impossible for an American to do it and he did it and many more have done it too. There is a video of this one.. ask Sky to see it.)  
The bishop here is sure excited with the plan that the area has put out.. we dove into this weekend. It started with ward council and then on Sunday he made things very clear that this is the plan we are doing this year. He also said something that I loved.. He said that if we say we don´t need to change we are wrong, we can always change and we need to. Great guy with a lot of energy to do good!

This past week we weren't able to have another charlas with the youth.. they are hard to get a hold of (; I only see maybe 1 or 2 of them actually listening to us but we shall see what happens! Miguel and Antonela told us that they have lost interest in the church..which really sucks but that is what Satan does when you don't live the commandments. Matias had baptismal date for the 23rd but didn't go to church so his baptism will have to be next week. There are more people for us to find here.. we just gotta find them haha! Onward and upward from here.

I hope that all is well with you guys! I also hope that you have a wonderful week and that you can continue to smile and find joy in the crazy life we live. I love you guys so much! Until next week. ☼

Elder Taylor Bradley Abel.. an Elder ready to push the limits.

You will never guess who I ran into this week. We were walking in the street and out of nowhere comes running Emili and gives me a hug. I then walked with her to the house she was at and talked to Macarena too. Sweeties.


Divisions with Elder Jhon from Peru.
 We had the opportunity to paint the rest of his house while on divisions.. super fun!


Monday, January 11, 2016

I Never Doubted it's TRUTH!

Family!

How are you doing?! It was super good to hear from you all. Thank you for your love and your support, you guys are always there for me and I will be forever grateful!

I will be honest, this past week was pretty hard, probably one of the hardest of the mission.. Concilio (Leadership meeting in Mtvd with President) was great and that was probably the highlight of the week however (well actually we got an email from President Smith telling us that Elder David A. Bednar will be coming to the mission in February!), the rest of the week was challenging. We had our Zone Training and it was going really good and we got to the part to challenge the zone to doubling the baptisms and we failed in our purpose. 

On the upside, I finished El Libro de Mormón for the first time in Spanish and it was so accomplishing. I dove into it at the end of October and on Saturday I was able to finish it up. It wasn't easy but I must say that it helped me to understand just how important and how worldwide the gospel really is. It was humbling to read it in Spanish and understand a few things from a different perspective. I can honestly say that it has brought my life such happiness and peace and I am so grateful for the hands that wrote it and translated it. What a blessing it is in our lives. I know that if we bind ourselves to The Book of Mormon and ultimately to the will of the Lord that we will be blessed. Everyone in the last day will know that The Book of Mormon is true and us as Latter day Saints may say now that we know it to be true. I know it is true. How blessed are we to already have the knowledge of The Book of Mormon and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Elder Orihuela said that other day, "I will never know how it feels to be a convert and sometimes I wish I did so that I could help more people convert to the Gospel." I was thinking.. yeah it would be cool to be a convert but I think that it is even better to say that I have always been taught about Christ. What a blessing it is to have mom and dad who live the gospel and make it easy for us to follow their steps.  As we follow their steps we only follow after our Savior. Family.. you are great!

Pretty neat experience.. We were told in concilio that we need to baptize more youth in the mission. We went out looking for a youth that the bishop gave us to contact and when we got to the house there was no one there but there were 5 young men sitting in a circle talking. We decided that we would go ask them if they knew who the young man was. Turns out that one of them was the brother and the rest were his buddies. We were able to teach them about the Plan of Salvation and now we have another charla with them tonight, we are going to teach the Restoration and see where it goes. We also found another one while we were teaching an older man, his grandson showed up and we asked him if he would like to join us.. we again taught a little about the Plan of Salvation. God is great. We were able to find 6 youth this week between the ages 16 to 21. The Lord truly does bless us as we put our faith in him and look for more youth to baptize. 

I hope you all know that I am doing good.. I just have been having a rough time.  There are only 2 weeks left and hopefully I am free! Ü I hope you guys all have a lovely week! I sure do love you to the moon and back and then back to the moon and then back to the earth.. yeah.. a lot! Keep smiling and I will too!

Love, Elder Taylor Abel .... a missionary learning patience at its finest.

Right after finishing The Book of Mormon and praying about it. 
Never doubted it´s truth.



The destruction of the flooded river. It killed all of the leaves on the trees and left a good line where the water was. Pretty crazy.


Selfie! Last one with all the new ties.. gotta love it Ü

Monday, January 4, 2016

Happy 2016!

Monday, January 4, 2016

¡Buenos días a todos!

Things this week went really good. My new years was kind of boring.. we had a normal schedule so we had to hit the hay at 11 and I figured that the fireworks would wake me up so I didn't worry about setting an alarm or anything before 12.. and without a doubt the fireworks woke me up.. it was like a war zone outside our widow. The problem was that I was so tired that I checked the clock thought to myself if I wanted to get up and watch them and my tiredness got the best of me and I just fell right back to sleep without any problems.. but hey Happy New Year! 2016 ♣♦♠♥

Sooooo... I will be honest, the first 2 weeks with Elder Orihuela were tough. This past week we were able to have a very good companionship inventory. Probably one of the best ones that I have had in my mission and it really helped us to get on the same page. I feel like we lack unity in our companionship and we were able to talk about it. Sometimes I feel like missionaries forget that it is never I .. it is always WE. We just have a lot of different ideas so we hit heads a little but he is a good kid and has a love for the work which is awesome and things have been going better lately. Just hoping for the best (: The zone has been working really hard.

We had our zone activity today and we talked about our new theme for the zone and we had a cook-off (everyone brought food from their countries and then we all tried them and voted) .. went super good! Our zone theme is..¡El año de Salto! (leap year).. The zone loved it luckily! I have found out that with the more responsibility you have the more you get criticized.. so many ungrateful missionaries! Pretty sad but on a happier note.. 4 more fast Sundays (;

This past week with the investigators we were able to talk to Matias again and find out what happened and it turns out that he just wasn't ready for baptism and didn't want to rush it. We have a charla with him and his mom tomorrow to talk about the baptism and the covenant that Matias will be making. A few days ago we had super powerful charla with Miguel and Antonela (on divisions with Elder Frame).. we taught Marriage using Alma 32 starting with verse 28 and every time it said the word "seed" we put the word "marriage" in. Check it out.. and while you are checking it out don't forget to read or start The Book of Mormon this week! I should finish up El Libro de Mormón this week which will be amazing! Get reading

Well my cute family. I hope that you all have a great week! I sure do love you all soo much and I am so grateful for each one of you.. you are allways in my prayers! Keep smiling and helping others to come unto our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ!

Love, Elder Taylor Abel.. a ready for winter missionary (;

I'm bringing sexy back.  Can`t beat the buzz 
#haircuttingprobs and the pink finger nails! #zoneactivity 



Crazy bridge flooding.  Now we get to help the people clean their houses
and put their stuff back. Lots of service coming our way!



Is this water sanitary? Looks questionable to me.