Miraculous Last Week of the Mission

Hi!

I first and foremost would like to tell you a little bit about our miraculous week. It was incredible! I definitely saw the Lord´s hand in His work. This past week we set some high goals and I remember telling Elder Aliaga that there was no option this week.. we were going to hit our goals period. Great planning.. definitely set us up for a great week! Well long story short about the goals, we reached all but 1 that were in our reach. We had most of them finished by the end of Friday.. it was so great to see the Lord put His children in our way. I learned that if we truly want to hit our goals then the Lord will help us, of course, when we work hard and labor diligently. Well we worked hard and labored diligently and God made things grow. (sounds better in Spanish.. Dios dio el crecimiento). There is an amazing story about this past Thursday but why tell you it in email if I can tell you in a week (:

Secondly, I would just like to take a moment and say to the good ole parents.. see you tomorrow! I finally have my parents again.. not an orphan (;

Thirdly, Me gustaría tell you guys that I love you. I really do love you. You guys have made these 2 years truly "the best two years" and I know that it isn´t over.. the mission was the MTC for my life. These past 2 years have set me up for the next 2 years.. to make them even better and then the next 2 and then the next 2. This experience has completely changed my life and I couldn´t have done it without you. Obviously I could take more time and go into more depth but this is so lame in email.. let´s have a night out each of us.. just you and just me.. and then we will chat! Much more personal (: Who is down? 

Elder Aliaga and I chilling with our yummy onion, pepper and bacon pizza!

After eating more than I have in my whole life.. 2 lunches was not a good idea! Well it was good till I felt so sick that night.. yikes. I had to lie down and breathe deeply.. I thought I was dying but I lived so that is cool. #lessonlearned

Me with my buddies.. some good guys in the ward!

 I love you and we will see each other in such a short time! ♥

Elder Taylor "animado" Abel

Dios da el crecimiento!

How are you?!

Can I just begin by telling you how great God is and how much He loves His children? Yesterday we saw a miracle in church. Looking back to last week we had a very small showing of 59 people and yesterday the chapel was full, we had 91 people. You just walked into the room and you felt different as so many more of our brothers and sisters made it to church to renew their baptismal covenants. I was talking with Elder Aliaga about it and I was just thinking about how much the Lord really does in His work. I look back to last week and we didn't invite all the people who showed up yesterday but for some reason they showed up.  All I really know is that Dios da el crecimiento. It was amazing and brought me such joy to see people there who haven't attended the whole time I have been in the area.

Things have been going good this past week.  We found a new investigator that looks like she could really progress.  Right now she says that she is atheist but I can feel that she feels God´s presence in the charlas. Yesterday we had another charla with her and I felt so strongly to promise her that if she would pray to God.. have faith in Him that she would feel of His presence. We also talked about the Book of Mormon and told her what President Smith has told us.. that it is written for atheists and she promised to begin reading little by little. Missionary work is too good.. one full week left, got to give it my all!

It is so weird to think that next time I write you I will be 2 days away from being with the parents. How nuts is that. You can't beat the constant reminders from the members and the missionaries in the zone. There are 2 hermanas in the zone that told me that they are going to call every night to remind me how little time I have.  Then you got the classic, "How much time do you have left" question.. uh.. 9 days.. Pretty much the weirdest feeling ever. 

Well my wonderful family, I sure do love you sooo much! You all make me the happiest missionary alive. Cheers to another week of ministry in Uruguay! Enjoy your week and we will talk and see you soon (:

Elder Taylor "not trunky" Abel Ü

This is a happy Elder!  #ninedays

Elder's Quorum Activity - yummy pasta!

Dolores Service Selfie

What the BUSECA!!!

How are you guys?!

It is pretty much blowing my mind how fast time is going.. however.. in the week it goes by just as slow as a turtle crosses the road when a fast car is coming. #horribleanology but you get the point.. anyway.. we are down to 2 weeks. Next Pday.. just one week.. WHAT?! #trunkylife

This past week was great! It was full of some awesome experiences. One of these comes from my divisions in Dolores with Elder Mamani. We went to a house of some people who received help from the church during the tornado mess and now they are receiving the missionaries. While we were there, it was pretty hard to get a good religious conversation going. It seemed like they wanted to talk about anything else other than what we wanted to talk about. After some time and some tortas fritas a friend of theirs arrived and sat down to join the conversation. We finally made it a religious topic.. the word of wisdom as they had some questions and we took that and ran with it.. saying a prayer and inviting the Spirit by calling the attention. They were super hard in the beginning, we would ask questions and the 3 at one time would all give their answer. It was complete chaos. We then felt to share a little bit about faith and the importance of acting on that faith. By the end of the charla, we were only talking to the friend that arrived (the other 2 found other things to do) and this friend had completely calmed down. At the end of the charla she said that we brought a peace that she really enjoyed and that she would be willing to listen to us more. It was truly a miracle that this friend arrived at the perfect time for us to help her come to the knowledge of the truth, even though the others decided to reject us. The Lord sometimes works one by one. You know I have really gained a testimony on that principle.. one by one.. I know that it is true. I felt it as Elder Bednar told us and I have experimented with it and I know that nothing happens by coincidence. 

I sure love you guys! Thank you for being great and for the love and support you have always been! I hope you have a great week and can see miracles in your life during this week! Until next week (:

Love, Elder Taylor "ready to dance" Abel

Get ready for some music and moves in a few weeks.. find a song to dance to on the 10th (;

With Elder Aliaga

Elder Mamani and Elder Montenegro.. we had some yummy chicken to finish the night!

oh yeah.. I read my subject and almost forgot to tell you guys what was for lunch today! We went to a members house and ate buseca..now you are probably wondering what in the world is buseca. In this moment stop reading my email and look it up.. would you eat it? If you have not seen the picture and you are reading this.. repent and look it up. If you are feeling rebellious and still reading this without seeing what is buseca.. stop now! Okay.. so buseca is cow stomach, beans and on today’s menu and on my plate.. pig leg. yup.. I ate that. The things I studied in animal science are now inside of me and I put them in my mouth. 

Happy Mother's Day Skype!

Hola!

First off, I would like to say HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to t'he greatest mom ever! As we were saying a prayer before leaving the familia Curbellos house, it hit me that I forgot to say it in my call. Mil disculpas! I hope that you had a good mother’s day, I know that you guys sure made my day yesterday! Thank you all.  It was so good to see you all! I was so happy no one cried Ü haha! Only 3 weeks, why would anyone cry?  Unless Skylar cried .. understood. I honestly am so grateful for you guys! You mean the world to me.  I love love love you! Hope you all have a great week!

Love, Elder Taylor (coming home) Abel

Mother's Day Breakfast

Hair Probs

Shavingislife.. right jord?

One by One

Family, How I love and miss you.

This week was really awesome, it was full of great experiences!

I will be honest, I have had a lot on my mind this last little bit with the mission finishing up and with all the things that I have to prepare for following the mission. I was feeling pretty overwhelmed and really didn't have desires to talk to anyone about it. I am to the point where I can't wait to be with you all again but leaving Uruguay just breaks my heart, completely bittersweet. I decided to take it to the Lord in prayer. I prayed and prayed that I would be able to focus for the last month of my mission and I can truly say that I have felt God´s help as we have started a new week. I also think that the new key indicators (received in the leadership meeting) have really helped me stay focused as we set some more specific goals to hit all of our weekly goals. Like I said, I didn't really want to talk about it with anyone and just the other day Elder Aliaga asked if we could have a comp inventory and I was able to tell him how I was feeling and ask him for help. I am very grateful for him and for the support that he is, truly a great guy and I am grateful for this time that I have with him. He is definitely helping me be the best I can be. I know that my companions are inspired. Just gotta keep working hard so that this change can be one of the best!

This past week we were going to have the stake council and we even went to the church at 7:30 for it. We were the first ones there and I was thinking "This is a stake meeting.. there is no way they all are late!" We waited around for a little bit and youth started coming to the church.. there was seminary. As we waited, Elder Aliaga wanted to enter in the seminary class and I was a little against it. I was thinking that there were plenty of other things that we could be doing instead of sitting in seminary. We decided to enter after Elder Aliaga told me he had never been to seminary. As we sat and learned about patriarchal blessings there was a new youth there.. a friend of an 17 year old. This young man’s name is Alejandro and he had such inspired questions as he took in a whole lot of information. He said that he had been looking for the truth for 7 years. We took the time to explain to him our message and why we are here. It was a very spiritual experience for me. It was exactly what Elder Bednar said on the way that we work.. One by One. We would have never been in the church if it hadn't been for the canceled stake council and that was only Alejandro´s 3rd time in the church. What a miracle that we were able to find each other in that seminary class to help him to the truth. God truly is a God of miracles, I know it without a doubt.

I hope that you all have a wonderful week! I sure do love you guys! Keep smiling and keep living the gospel (:

Love, Elder Taylor Abel.. a re-focused missionary!

All of my comps that attended the leadership meeting (: (except Elder Saldivar)

Elder Saldivar and Elder Emrich at the leadership meeting.. rocking the new suit!

The crew having a blast bowling...Elder Cline, Elder Correa, Elder Huamali, Elder Bogarin and Elder Vasquez.  

A Beyond Grateful Elder

How are you doing? This week was really good, I am really missing Elder Saldivar. I think that I had the most fun with him, he was a great companion and even though we had our struggles with the zone. 

Things are looking up here in Mercedes.. there are some great missionaries that arrived last week. I am very excited to see what we can do this change as a zone. I know that Elder Bushman, Elder Alvarado, Hermana Evans and Hermana Bojorquez are all here on very inspired changes and I am so glad that they are here. What a blessing it is to see the missionaries come and go. Talk about a long day but a very good one. I was seriously running off 4 hours of sleep and then we woke up early again to go back to Fray Bentos from Mercedes, but I made a big decision and got a new suit. (Pictures to come this next week because we got the leadership meeting on Wednesday with Pres, the other zls and the assistants. The suit will make its debut there!) 

Elder Aliaga has been good to have around, it is weird that he knows the area already due to his 3 changes here not too long ago but it has been nice because I haven't had to show him around.. he more takes me around to the people that Elder Saldivar and I never made it to. It will be a different change, but different is good. We are going to go to the Stake Council tomorrow, so that will be good to see the direction of the stake and gain the confidence and relationship of Presidente Patrone our stake president.

This last Saturday we had the chance to go to Dolores as a zone and it was so humbling. We went to familia Rodriguez.  They aren’t members but they have a son in Chile serving a mission. It was neat to see how they have completely softened their hearts. As we served them I just began to love them. It is amazing how service does that. I also had a very tender experience.. we went to put a tarp over a roofless house and so we all left.. us 8 strong elders ready to go. As we got there we got the tarp up.... there was a lot of standing around waiting for some wire. As I was looking around observing I saw Hermana Leyva and Hermana Evans off in the distance.. and then out of nowhere there were a group of 7 to 10 kids running full speed to them. the Hermana's were giving out toys and that is all these kids wanted.... just a new toy because they were left with nothing. It truly touched me.  We are so quick to take advantage of what we have and there are kids who don't even have a toy. I just wanted to run over to them and hug them. It was a great experience for the zone.

The time is going so quick.. it is weird to think that every time we talk there are 7 days less. (good math right?.. Am I scared for math class.. yes!) We are so close .... blows my mind but just gotta stick to it and endure to the end of each day right?! I sure do love you guys. You all make me the happiest missionary alive. I hope you have a great week!

Elder Taylor Abel.. a beyond grateful elder.

The Plaza in Dolores

Asado style bbq

The One Where He Realizes ALL of His Blessings ♥

We are done to less than 20 days before mothers day.....How are you guys?

I am doing really good. I am a little weirded out with this upcoming change being my last, but I am excited and ready to work hard until the very end. I will be receiving a new companion. Ü   I look forward to being with him and working with him here in Fray Bentos. In my study today after my prayer I opened up the Book of Mormon and I landed in Doctrine and Covenants 104 and as I was reading a little bit I read around 8 times.. the faithful will be blessed. As I studied more, I felt the Spirit testify that really through our faithfulness we will be blessed. That the Lord will really multiply His blessings over our heads. This past week I have realized how blessed I am. I was watching a Mormon channel series called Two Brothers Two (check it out.  It made me think a lot of my great brothers) and I realized how blessed we are as missionaries with all the love and service that the people give us here.... especially here in Fray Bentos.  So many great people!  You just gotta love the mission!

I especially realized my blessings as we took a trip over to the part of the zone that got wrecked by the tornado. When we got a call from the Elders there in Dolores and they told us that there was a tornado, we were thinking yeah.. sure there was, we were sure it was a big wind and all the Uruguayans were calling a tornado but we were so wrong. We have 4 missionaries over there. The Elders were in the house when it came by and are doing good. Their house was a little damaged and their front door was destroyed. The Hermanas were away from the major damage but if they would have left their lunch 20 minutes later, they would have been outside when the tornado hit and where it hit hard. We are talking that this tornado threw cars and uprooted huge trees. It was a number 3 out of 5 tornado and it hit the little town of Dolores.. only 19,000 people. We went over there and I was amazed by all the different people from other parts of Uruguay ready to help. We went looking for the church and we asked like 5 different people and they all told us that they didn´t live there. We found the church and there was so many things that people had sent.. we too also came with a truck full of clothes, food and water. It left many people homeless.. they say out of the 19,000 people that live there.. 10,000 were affected. It tore up the center of town. The worse part was when they told us that people were robbing the houses that were destroyed. What a world we live in.. it was definitely a time to think about all that I have in my life.. sooo grateful.

I should probably tell you about the new comp! I called President the other day to talk to him about the progress in Dolores with all that happened.  As we were finishing the call, he thanked me for all that I have done here in Mercedes with the zone and told me that I will be receiving a new comp. He said that is was a last minute decision but thinks that my comp will benefit from it.  He is Elder Aliaga from Bolivia.  He will be my last comp. He already knows the area because he was the one that left when I got here.. so he was only out of Fray Bentos for one change and now he returns. I am excited. He was in Elder Huntsman's zone this past change and Elder Huntsman told me how great of a guy he was. If Elder Huntsman says so I believe it because Elder Huntsman is pretty straight forward.  I am ready to work hard! We are both old missionaries so it should be great!

Thank you for all you do! You guys rock my work. I love you all!