A JOYFUL Missionary!

How are you? This past week was pretty awesome, it included divisions with Elder Huamali and a beautiful Sunday of great things. 

We shall start with the divisions with Elder Huamali. Great divisions, Elder Huamali is a great guy and has a good heart. We taught really well together and brought back good times when we were together in Obelisco. It was a good experience to be with him again. He always says to me.. "Abel, I was your favorite Peruvian right?!" It doesn’t take too long to think about that and I always reassure him that he was.. haha, he is a funny kid!
This Sunday.. what a great day! The weather was cloudy and it felt wonderful. We went over to pick up Lauro and we honestly weren’t sure if he was going to be ready. We were thinking that he was going to be asleep and that we were going to be the alarm clock outside the house clapping. We showed up and some of his kids were outside and they told us that he was coming. As I continued to look at the kids I realized that they were dressed the best that they had and that they were ready to go to church. Moments later Lauro came to the door and was just about ready too, he was just shirtless.. we gave him the shirt and the tie that he wanted and he went to get fully ready. I wish I had my camera because it was so cute to see all the kids ready and excited to go to church. We left the house and began the short walk to church. It was awesome to walk with them and take up the whole street.. us two, Lauro and Natalia.. and 6 of their 7 kids. Juan (11), Mikaela (9) Juliana (8), Diana (6), Sofia (5), and Kevin (4). They look to us like superheroes.. and every time they look at me I just can’t help but smile. We got to church and it only got better from there. My joy was full when I saw all the kids come out of Primary with their pictures of Christ and their drawings. Lauro seemed to really enjoy too, I think we could have just started something that has the potential to become a habit. We are definitely all smiles here. We did a lot of hard work on Sunday to make sure people got there.. we made it to 90 people in church again.. with 4 investigators there! Lauro, Juan, Mikaela and Mikel. Mikel is a 13 year old that is a stud and he is progressing really well.. he will be baptized on the 27th Ü

This week we have interviews with President Smith and we will have the baptismal interview for Mikel. Then next week we are with Elder Bednar on the 26th.. should be a great week! Whenever we have a lot of things going on the time always goes by so much faster.. like we are already half way through this change. I don’t know if that is good or bad (; We will call it bittersweet. Lots of good things to come though.. we are excited! 

I will definitely be keeping that cute grammy Abel in my prayers. She is such a strong women I know that she is a fighter and she will be on my mind and in my heart. I sure do love her and I love all of you. I hope that you have a great week! Until we write again next week.. lots of love coming from Uruguay ♥ Keep safe and remember that God is there for us.  

Love,  Elder Taylor Abel...a JOYFUL missionary 

Elder Huamali.....Elder Abel's favorite Peruvian Comp

Jumping for JOY in the rain!

Beautiful Sunset

Good times in Ceibal

The whole fam damily!

Now this is a story all about how my life got flipped turn upside down and I'd like to take a minute just sit right there & I`ll tell ya how I because the fresh prince of Ceibal (Say-Ball).. And..Here we go...

Things here in Ceibal have been going really well. We had some really good experiences this last week and we were able to see the Lord`s hand as we worked in His vineyard. The experience that I would like to share with you comes from Friday night and we had set up a charla with an investigator and his less active wife.. (we have been finding a lot of people like them.. where one is a member and the other is interested in our message) anyways.. they weren't there. We thought for a second on where we could go. We both decided on Lauro and Natalia (Natalia is the member here and I met here in Obelisco because her parents all served us over there.. now she lives in Ceibal.. coincidence.. I think not Ü  Because we missed the charla with them on Wednesday due to a youth activity.. (another crazy story for another time!) The charla was awesome and it went so well with what we learned about in concilio (The meeting with President Smith and the other zone leaders). We got talking about prayer and we began to talk about why it is important to pray and Elder Emrich can in with a sweet message and the doctrine of why we pray.. 2 Nephi 32:8-9. We then talked about it and committed him to pray and as he said yes.. I had the biggest impression to invite them to be baptized. I wasn't sure if he would say yes because he is one of those guys who told us that we just wants to take it slow.. step by step. However, I couldn't deny the impression and so we invited him to be baptized. He said yes! and then we talked about their relationship status.. they aren't married however Lauro would like to be married because he has 7 kids (other marriage) and needs a wife to help him so we invited Natalia to pray about what the Lord would like her to do and she said she would. It was such a Spirit guided lesson and helped us realize that the most important thing in the charla is that we follow and listen to the Spirit. 

Okay.. so you may be wondering why I bolded the word why.. Read the talk below. It is by Elder Bednar and he talks about Doctrines, Principles and Applications. The question why is answered by the doctrine. The question what is answered by principles and the question how is answered by the applications. Check it out.. super good talk. We have been studying it because Elder Bednar comes the 26th of February! So stoked.. really though study it!

This Saturday we had a training from the area presidency for the ward council and the missionaries to talk about the plan for 2016 here in South America South. An Elder Johnson before we started asked if he could talk to me afterwards. The meeting finished up and it was awesome.. we then went and told Elder Johnson that it would be a good time to talk now if he would like. I was thinking that he was going to ask for advice or something.. no, he had some things he wanted to tell us.. well me more than anything. He told me that he was feeling really stressed out and that we were only living by the letter of the law and not by the Spirit of the law. At first I was kind of bugged because he has no idea how it is to be a zone leader.. when I got to Salto again there was very little obedience and so we began to help the zone by making sure that they were where they were supposed to be when they were supposed to be there. We have only been together as a zone once and so I was just thinking that he was just judging off that one experience. However, as he kept telling us what was going on I think that Spirit was trying to tell me that I needed to change. When I was with Orihuela I felt a lot of pressure because he was always trying to push power and authority on me and I had to be a little tougher or he would call me out on it. We went and had a little charla after the meeting with Elder Johnson, and I was just so mad. I wasn't mad at him.. I wasn't made at Orihuela.. I wasn't mad at anyone but myself. We got home and said our prayer to end the day and I went right to the shower. I just stood there in the shower with the coldest water I could have pouring down on me. I didn't know what do to and I felt that I needed to change. I needed to be the old Elder Abel.. the one before I was with Orihuela. I turned off the water and just stood there thinking. I put some clothes on and went right to the paper where it talks about the responsibilities as zone leader.. that led me to another spot and as I was there all I could think of was how I needed to be more like Christ. 3 Nephi 27:27 came to mind.. "Even as I am." That is when the change of heart came in.. I took an hour searching on how to be more like Christ. I decided that for the next little bit I am going to study the Christ like attributes and try to develop them more. I could definitely feel the guidance of the Spirit as I was in the process. Maybe it was a little soon for Elder Johnson to jump the gun on me .. however, that doesn't matter anymore. He gave me the chance to change and I will thank him for that on Tuesday when I see him. Change is good.. repentance is a miracle and I thank our Heavenly Father daily for sending His Only begotten son to atone for us. I invite you all to take a step back.. take a look in the mirror and see where you can change and how you can be better. It can be hard at times.. but I know that change is needed to be more like our Savior and Redeemer.

Well family, I would just like you all to know how much I love you! You guys are my favorite. I thank my lucky stars every day for you all. I am such a blessed missionary and I am so grateful for the blessings that God has given us as a family! God is great! I hope that you all have a wonderful week! Until next.. just keep on smiling!

Elder Taylor Abel.. a changing missionary

This is what happens when you say "Fútbol" in Uruguay 

Chillin' with Elder Emrich

A VERY Happy Elder! ♥

Oh my wonderful family, what a blessing it is to have such great technology that links us together!

The past week has been awesome. I have really enjoyed my time with Elder Emrich, it has been really great to talk to him and see how his mission has been and the things that he has learned since we were last in the same zone. He was actually in my district for a change in Cerro. He is a great guy and we worked hard the few days we had this past week. We have had some great experiences already and I know that there are many more to come. We saw the fruits of our work as well with having 18 more people in the church this past week, things here in Ceibal are moving in the right direction and I am glad that I am here to see it.

I have been thinking lately and as I was writing to Pres, I felt like I should share something with you guys. A little less than 2 weeks ago we had a Worldwide Missionary Conference where they talked about teaching repentance and baptizing converts.. in fact, that is was the conference was called.. "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts" and we were assigned from Pres to ask 3 questions after enjoying the conference.."What did you learn from the leaders?" "What did you learn that wasn`t said?" and "What are you going to do to apply it?" I thought that it would be good to share that with you guys so that you can think in those 3 questions as you are in your meetings.. I know that if we think in these 3 questions that we will truly leave edified and ready to do more and talk less. I have seen it happen here.. there was such a strong spirit as we talked about things that were not said.. Each shared their spiritual impressions and like it says in D&C 50:22.. "Wherefore, he that preacheth and he that receiveth, understand one another, and both are edified and rejoice together." I invite you all to think about that in church this next week when we listen to the sweet testimonies that will be shared.. you will find the meeting means more I promise.

This last week I was able to feel the Spirit more abundantly in my life.. It was the day of changes I was in another house with 3 other missionaries and we had our personal study. As I wasn`t in the comfort of my own house.. I had planned to read a conference talk. I was planning on reading one that I had loved from conference.. one that touched my heart but as I began my study I felt that I should study one from the women’s session. I began to look through the talks and one called my attention. "A Summer with Great Aunt Rose" by President Dieter F. Uchtdorf. As I read I was touched by the story that he shares.. his whole talk is a story about a little Eva and a great-aunt Rose. As I continued to follow along in the story my eyes began to water.. the Spirit overwhelmed me and I could no longer read. I just sat there feeling this remarkable feeling of God`s love. When I was able to continue I did and yet the same thing happened.. I finished the talk and It was exactly what I needed to learn. I won`t say more.. I will leave it up to you to read.  https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/10/a-summer-with-great-aunt-rose?lang=eng

What a wonderful week it has been and it brings me such joy to see that all is well with you! I hope that you all have an amazing week and can smile lots! Think of me tomorrow (; #4months #imnottrunky Until next week Ü I LOVE YOU!

Elder Taylor Bradley Abel.. A very happy Elder!

T

Throwback to the graffiti of Cerro 8. All we need is love ♥

Last picture with Elder Orihuela before he boarded his bus

#greatestsmileaward

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!

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!

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

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.