Find the little things to be happy for!

Well hello there!  How are we doing? Ü  I hope everyone is doing good!   I have a request from good ole' Mazzy to share what has prepared me for my mission.  So buckle up everyone and keep your hands, arms, feet and legs inside at all times!

Things that helped me serve:

 

The example of Daddy and Jordy:  It would have been hard to leave if I didn´t have examples like them in our home, who set the path for me.

 

Mommy and Daddy:  Your righteous way of living your life. Your love and support from the beginning, the good influence with every family night, scripture read and just the times we spent all together.  Also, your confidence in me.  Without this confidence, everyday would be a struggle.  I am so grateful for your help through the preparation and now while I am in the field.

 

Family:  I honestly have the best family with a firm foundation in Christ and in the only true church.  Without your examples of keeping the commandments and leading by example... I would be a lost little/older brother.

 

Friends:  Their influence, support, example, and the way they live their lives.  I really do have some of the greatest friends that helped me along this path to serve.

 

My Leaders:  Seminary teachers - for sharing their knowledge.  Young Men leaders and their support and their teachings.  Bishop and his support and patience with me.  Mission Prep every Sunday and the things I learned there.  Coach Holt and Coach Roberts and their support for me.... they really helped me by their example.  Sister Matthews and her cute spirit in our Sunday School class, always asking what was new in our lives and really caring for us.  She made me want to be a better person.

 

Washington Fields 1st Ward:  Leaders, families, couples, home teachers.... everyone and their love and support for me as I prepared. 

 

XC/Track:  Determination, pain, passion, concentration. good friendships, positivity.

 

My knowledge/testimony:  Book of Mormon and reading a chapter a day.

 

Scouting:  Taught me how to keep with something even through the bad times. 

 

My desire:  To help people and bring people to the joy of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Prophet:  His counsel on missionary service.

 

Heavenly Father:  He hears and answers my prayers.

 

Christ:  His Atonement for me. 

 

All in all.... there really isn´t anything big that helped me serve my mission.  It was just the little things that got me out here in Uruguay to serve the Lord and help others come unto Christ.

I owe it to all of you.  For everything you've done and continue to do for me!  You all helped me as I prepared myself to serve.

 

This week I had the coolest contact in my mission thus far.  I was with Denis, a corto plazo (mini missionary), for the day while Elder Cepeda and Elder Vargas were down in Montevideo for a sealing.  We had just finished our studies and were out to find a less active that the relief society president referred us to.  We walked up into a part of our area that I have never been to and we knocked on the door. The lady there was asleep.... gotta love that siesta at 4:00!  Anyways, so I was curious about this part of the area so we continued up the road to the very top street of the area and we were walking back to the main road when I saw a house with the door cracked.  For me, when I see a door cracked or open, I am totally up to contact it because at least we know someone is home. We walked half way past it as I thought to myself whether we should contact it or not.  I decided we should, so we gave it a good clap.  Out walked this lady that I knew.... but I didn´t know from where. I then told her who we were and what we are doing here in Uruguay and asked if she had some time to hear our message.  She said YES.  So I swung off my back pack and grabbed the pamphlet of the Restoration.  I then began to explain it like it was normal but really this was my first contact alone without a comp there to really help me through it.  We taught the whole lesson while standing in her front yard.  As we finished up I asked her if there was another day that we could pass by.  We took her name, address and number.  It was truly an amazing experience.  I know without a doubt that the Spirit does truly guide us.  It was really neat.  A good confidence builder and now I look forward to making contacts. I love being a missionary!  It's so great!  ps.... her name is Paula!
 

I hope that you have a wonderful week and find the little things to be happy for.  Without the little things.. I wouldn´t be here serving!  Always smile and remember that we have a loving Heavenly Father who hears and answers our prayers, as well as our older brother who suffered and died for us and our sins so we don´t have to.  Keep that in mind throughout this week!  I certainly love you all sooo much! 

 

Elder Taylor Bradley Abel.. your happy and grateful missionary!

 

 

 

 

 

Walk In Truth

I am still learning a lot from Elder Varas and his love for the people.  He truly does care about the people of Uruguay.  Sometimes a little too much when we don't teach a thing and just talk for about an hour with them.  I don't mind talking after a charla, but let's teach something! Ü  I will now be speaking Spanish in every moment.  Elder Huntsman and Elder Caires Franca moved out of the house to live with some other missionaries.  I'm gonna miss good ole' Huntsy.  I guess we will see him on p-days and district meeting days.

Yesterday after lunch with Bishop Rebollo and his family, Shrek was on behind us in the room, so we turned our heads and may have watched for about 5 minutes.  Elder Vargas knows the whole movie in Spanish. It was hilarious.  He wasn't even watching for a minute and was still quoting it word for word.  We were all just laughing at it.  With Vargas, we are making some good friendships that were lost.  It has been fun to chat with some of the people that I never had a chance to talk with before.  Lots of great people in Obelisco!

Investigators!  Estefani came to church yesterday and really liked it.  We met a man of gold.  His name is Artigas.  We taught him about the Restoration and a little bit about the Book of Mormon.  He is a very intelligent man.  He has been a catholic all of his life and is very open to hear about others religions.  After sharing with him our message, he began to explain parts of the faith that he believes everyone needs to hear and when he was telling us this he was talking about how there are two ways in life. There is the narrow path and the wide path.  As he continued he talked about how the straight path may have rocks and may be harder to walk but it is worth it.  It was like he was truly prepared to have us stop by.  In fact, he even said that in his prayer to finish the charla.  He told us that he feels we were sent to his house.  It was a very humbling and neat experience. We have a charla with him today and I am very excited to see how his experience was with his prayers. Gotta love moments like that right? 

Studies!  My study that I would like to share with you is about 3 John 1:4. I turned to this scripture in my little quote book and I liked it so much that I wanted to study it.  If we read it, it says, ¨I have no greater JOY than to hear my children walk in truth.¨ I studied it a bit deeper with my Spanish scriptures.  JOY in the Guide for the Study for the Scriptures... or GEE in Spanish, says, ¨Condition of great happiness that is the result of living in RIGHTEOUSNESS... the plain joy is received only through Jesus Christ.¨  Now that we understand JOY a little better let´s take a look at the world ¨Children¨ In the footnotes is says, ¨Family, Children, Responsibilities Toward,¨ and ¨Family, Love Within." I decided to take the word FAMILY and go deeper.  For me, the scripture says, ¨I have no greater JOY than to hear my FAMILY walk in truth.¨  To finish the study off, I was wondering what it mean to ¨walk in truth¨ It means,¨Walk with God¨ or ¨Presence of God¨ or ¨Divine Guidance¨ or ¨Path".  For me it says now, ¨I have no greater JOY than to hear my FAMILY walk in (the path of) truth (that goes to eternal life). I took a littler deeper look at walking with God in Spanish in the GEE.... ¨To be in harmony with the teachings of God and to live like God would desire us to live; to be receptive and obedient to the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.¨  I don't know about you guys but I want to walk with God!  I hope you guys feel the same way!

 

I love you sooo much and miss you like crazy.  Have a wonderful week and keep finding reasons to SMILE and to walk in truth this week!  I LOVE YOU!

Love, Elder Taylor Abel.. one happy guy!

Elder Vargas, Elder Aliaga and I in Argentina! Good day!

 

 

#throwbackmtc Elder Pederson and Elder Abel at the CCM.

Elder Pedersen served his mission in St. George.

 

Elder Vargas and I with Argentina in the background!

 

Service Project with the Argain brothers, doing some cement work.

It was a fun service....a nice and early morning out of the sun!

Elder Abel's daily running path.

 

 

 

 

The Lord Has a Plan For Us!

Oh man, another long week but what a great week!

 

We had a Zone Conference this week with President Smith and the AP´s. What a great experience. I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to be a part of it.  I'm so excited for 2015 and all the things that we will be doing as a mission. I look forward to helping people recognize and know about the gathering of Israel.  Yes, we will now be teaching in every moment the gathering of Israel! Crazy huh?

 

Last night I was saying my prayer right before bed and I was asking to know how to be a better missionary. Right after my prayer I went to my scriptures and just opened up to a random place. The scripture was Doctrine and Covenants 81:5-6. It talks about being faithful and helping people in verse 5. I couldn't wait to study it a little bit more this morning.  After reading, "God has a Plan for us!" By Elder Carlos A. Godoy, (awesome talk) I went to verse five and I decided that I would just jump into the footnotes.  I found a lot of cool things as I went through the footnotes, but there was one that really caught my eye.  It was Doctrine and Covenants 31:8 and it says,

 

"And you shall strengthen them and prepare them against the time when they shall be gathered."

 

That really caught my attention when I read that because I know now with a surety that we are supposed to be sharing about the gathering of Israel in every moment.  I am so grateful that I took the time to study the scripture this morning and I am going to study the gathering of Israel more so that I am able to teach it.  I am so grateful for the things that I learned in the Conference and for the opportunity to know who my new companion is.

 

The moment you are all waiting for.... can I get a one, a two, a one, two, three, four.. Vivaaa Las Vegas, Vivaaa Las Vegas.. Vivaaa.. Vivaaa Las.. Vargas?! I am very excited to have Elder Vargas coming to Obelisco.  He is from Chile!  He is already in Salto, but was serving in another ward here.  He is moving in with us tomorrow. I am super excited to have a Latino comp finally!  It will be awesome.  I look forward to just jumping right into Spanish.

 

Elder Studebaker is headed to Gualeguaychú, Argentina to open up a Zone there and in Concepción del Uruguay. He will be a great ZL and I am very grateful for the time that I had with him. 

 

Other things that I learned at the Zone Conference that I would love to share.... take a look at Doctrine and Covenants 101:52.  President Smith dropped this verse on us reminding us of the relationship between Elders and Hermanas.  He said.. We are not friends, we are servants! Then he later said, ¨Hay que dedicarnos¨ Pretty strong with his words, but it´s good that way because now we know he isn´t messing around.  haha. One thing that I love that he said was that when he was called as AP in his mission, he didn't feel qualified because he only had 11 months in the mission. His Mission President said, "I don't call those who are qualified, I qualify those that I call." I loved that.  All in all, it was a very great conference. I learned a lot.

BAPTISM! It was a very good service. I loved it. It was good to see the pure joy of Angel's mom as Angel entered the font and the waters of baptism with Bishop Rebollo.  It was a neat experience to watch the ordinance with Stude at my side. I really believe that he will be a faithful member of the church with his mom. Great family! I am grateful to have taught him and to watch him be baptized. Such a blessing! 

 

This week was honestly full of blessings! I would now like to end this letter with a challenge for you guys! I would like you to read the talk from Elder Richard G. Scott, entitled, "Make the Exercise of Faith your First Priority."  Sky, I want you to read the talk from Elder Carlos A. Godoy, entitled, "The Lord Has a Plan for Us!"  When you are reading Sky, I want ya to think about it in terms of your life for sure but also for running. When I read it today, I applied it to running and it worked. 

 

I hope that you all have an awesome week and find JOY in the little things! I miss you guys like crazy, and I love you even more!!

 

Love,

 

A very happy and excited missionary,

 

Elder Taylor Abel

 

Elder Devashrayee, Elder Studebaker, Elder Vargas

All of his companions together!

 

 

The District

 

Count Your Blessings

Hello!

It honestly seems like it has been a year since we chatted... if you know what I mean?  This next week is my last week with Elder Studebaker and I am hoping to get a Latino comp. I guess we shall see.   

So how is big 2015 for you guys? It has been pretty good for us here in Obelisco. We have another baptism this Saturday. His name is Angel Cardozo and he is 10 years old. We had to get permission to baptize him from President because of his age.  His mom is reactivating and really wants to live with her son for all eternity. She cries at the end of each lesson. Angel is a smart little cookie for his age, and his mom is super sweet and teaching her son well. He will be a stud. We will be having this on the 10th! We are hoping the Bishop will baptize him. We actually realized that we have a lot of people to teach.... like we have a big teaching pool. 

 

This next week should be a great week full of a lot of work. This past week was full of divisions. First, on Tuesday I did divisions with Elder Huntsman because both of our comps were down in Montevideo with President and all the ZLs. I won´t lie... I was pretty nervous with the both of us being newer missionaries in the big ole' Salto with lots of Spanish, but it turned out to be an awesome day!  Next is where my picture came in to play.... I had divisions with Elder D-RAY in his area. It was awesome!  It took me back to the glory days of training, although this time I could actually speak Spanish and understand stuff. It was actually really fun to speak Spanish all day with him in the street. We then stayed up chatting about the mission and everything that we have learned and all the fun times we've shared. He is such a good example to me.  He only has 6 months left.... crazy!

Next, I had a 2.5 block with Elder Villar in his area where we just go contacting.  It was a great experience.  Elder Villar is Argentinian but lived in Chile.  He is hilarious. I would love a comp like him. It was a super good week. We hope for another solid week and for a great turnout at the baptism!  The divisions were great! 

 

My quote from the Skype call....¨The secret of happiness is to count your blessings while others are adding up their problems.¨ -Anonymous. I have been studying all the conference talks.... one talk every personal study. They are so good. My challenge for your 2015 is to read all the conference talks over. I am on Elder Russell M. Nelson's now.  I only have a few to go. I am excited to read them all.  What do you say....will you read all the conference talks?  #didijustreallygiveyouacommitment?  That was a long hashtag. Sorry if it takes you a minute to read it, it took me a little bit to figure out if commitment had two t's or only one. Spanish is messing me up. Ü

 

New Years......I didn´t get any crazy dates like Sky.....but we did have tons of fireworks and they were awesome! I can't believe we are in 2015 already.

 

I certainly love you all so much and hope you have a great week! I miss you and look forward to Tuesday to hear from ya'll again!  I love you!

 

Love, Your smiling Elder Taylor Abel 

Christmas in Uruguay!

Merry Christmas!

I will start with the sweet experience of being with President and Sister Smith. They are truly amazing. After the Temple experience, we had a yummy lunch and then it was off to the Mission Home.  What a blessing that was! We played a little Christmas game and sang Christmas songs around their piano. Then last but not least, we all had a stocking underneath their tree. Cute huh? They really helped me feel the spirit of Christmas more as I am so far from home. 

Going to the temple on Friday was definitely an experience to remember.... it was so incredible. Let´s just say we have a 13th Great Grandpa that is a lot happier on the other side now as his work is done. I wonder if our cute Grammy is hugging Henry Green and welcoming him into the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, as she is on the other side helping those people who didn't have the privilege to hear the Gospel.

I love my Grandparents.  You are so amazing, and I truly think the world of each of you.  Thanks for the sacrifices you've made to raise such great kids....that I can call my parents!  I love you all so much!

 

A sweet reminder of Grammy Taylor #karenstaylor ♥

Meet Elder Huntsman, Elder Studebaker, Elder Caires Franca.  

They are really cool guys! 

Click the link to enjoy a little hip-hop rap from our Christmas Skype session

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEcMc82ahiQ&feature=youtu.be

I am excited for the New Year!  I hope the New Year brings joy and blessings to you all.  May we all find a smile this week!  I miss you guys lots, but I love you even more!!  Keep looking up and never look back (:

Love, 

Yours Truly

     Elder Taylor Abel

A Happy Elder Abel!

How are you wonderful people doing?  To start, I am so grateful for you all and your example to me.  You all just make me the happiest little Elder alive! 

I am doing so good!  I am loving your e-mails and your pictures.  So I will be Skyping from a members house. The Llona Family.  I am so excited to see you all, you have no idea!  This week has been good, I have decided that Elder Caires Franca and I get along real well and that Elder Huntsman and I had a nice little heart to heart last night since we are both the same age. I really like all the things that are going on with the change. Elder Caires Franca is from Belo, Horizonte, Mina Gerais. I have no idea where that is at but I do know that he is from Brasil.  We be a house full of studs Ü   I just cut my hair so I will be looking all fresh for the Temple, President interview and you guys!  

Marcia's baptism was so great last week!  It was such a neat experience.  

The highlight of this week was the primary program yesterday.  All the primary kids along with their families sang "Love is Spoken Here."  It was so powerful.  It literally almost brought me to tears.  That song just has a very special place in my heart. You are all just so great and I just wanted to be singing it with my family.  Shout out to Mommy... I love you.  You are such a strength to me.  Shout out to Daddy... I love you. You are such a great example to me. Shout out to Aimee... I love you.  Your family makes my heart melt, you guys are cuties.  Shout out to Cherise... I love you.  Your family is darling and you know how to make me smile.  Shout out to Jordan... I love you.  You are the best big brother that I could ask for.  Shout out to Skylar... I love you.  I look up to you so much.  Family.... you guys are my strength when I am weak.  I LOVE YOU! 

I have been having some really good studies this last little while, I have been deeply studying John 21:15-17.  Check it out and let me know what you think. I am so grateful for you and for all that you do.  I hope you have a wonderful week!  Keep being amazing and smiling in every moment.  I love you and miss you like crazy.  I hope you can feel my love as I hit 6 months.... crazy!  So many blessings and opportunities and I look forward to many many more!  I love my calling as a missionary!

I love love love love love love love love love love you!

Your excited and fresher than ever.... Elder Taylor Abel

We love our tree that hangs from the ceiling! 

#Pun4theday... I can BEAR-ly wait to see you next week!  I love you!

A loving and joyful Elder

My Sweet Grammy Taylor

Oh my sweet grandma Taylor, how I love her to the moon and back.

Man I sure will miss her.. those hugs, that smile and her yummy movie snack.

The love that she showed to all, is something that she will never lack.

As she is on the other side, she is happy.. I know that for a fact.

My heart is so full as I serve many thousands of miles away,

I know that while she is gone from this life, her cute spirit will stay.

I feel her love, and I know that you all do too.

She was a true example of a women with a heart bigger than she knew.

She will be very missed for all that she is and will be,

I love you Grandma and I can feel your love for me.

How are you all doing and who is ready for Christmas? I will be calling via.. can I get a S.. can I get a K.. can I get a Y.. can I get a P.. can I get an E.. what does that spell.. SKYPE, SKYPE, SKYPE! 

Speaking of Christmas though, have you guys seen the new video produced by the church.. HE IS THE GIFT. It is supposed to be huge world-wide like youtube front page huge, and Times Square huge. You will have to let me know. We got an assignment as missionaries. We need to contact everyone with "ÉL ES LA DÄDIVA" and keep track how many investigators we get through the project and how many we get through just the regular Restoration message. It should be a very busy month. 

For starters.... we have a baptism this week!!! It was supposed to be the 13th but all the ward will be traveling to the temple so we gave Marcia the option to either be baptized the 20th or the 6th. We feel like she is ready and has really changed her life around. 

We usually have over 100 people in church but this last Sunday we only had 32 people due to the rain and an election.. she was one of the people to come to church and to walk in the rain at that. She is a champ. Our week will be busy with preparing her for the baptism but it will be worth it! Then on the 18th and 19th we are headed down to Montevideo as a Zone to have interviews with President Smith and to go to the temple with our names to do all the ordinances! Super excited! Oh yeah.. guess who is coming to be Zone Leader here in Salto..... my boy D-RAY baby!! So excited! He will be with Elder Johnson. They will be a pretty fun duo for ZL´s. 

Today we went to the Salto Zoo.. there will be pictures coming with some puns of course.....because I'm #totespunny.

Well my wonderful family, I hope that you all eat some birthday cake for me. I love you all so much and hope that you all have a wonderful week.

P.S. take a peak at these mormon messages.... they are awesome! "Forgiveness: My burden was made light" and "My new life." They really put life and the atonement into prospective. I love you all! Keep being amazing!

Love, 

Your loving and joyful Elder Abel

Such a softy for this cute Pup!

Cain & Abel....Hermana Caina with Elder Abel

Thanksgiving treat with Elder Studebaker