Week 27 Layco District, El Salvador--January 25, 2016

This week was super good! No clever title here!

okay so this week (like i said last week) we had the broadcast for all the missionaries on wednesday and elder cook came on saturday! dang those two meetings were awesome! in the broadcast we heard from elder andersen, elder oaks, elder bednar, and many other general authorities. on saturday we also got to hear from elder christensen from the presidency of the seventy, elder ochoa from the area seventy, and all of their wives. it was such an incredible meeting. of course meeting all of them personally and hearing from elder oaks was the highlight. the message from elder oaks was fantastic. what really struck me however was his testimony at the end. i know that he is an inspired apostle of the Lord who has been called personally by Him. We are so blessed in our day to have inspired leaders who communicate directly with the Lord to guide us in this day. That is part of the hope that we have as members of the restored church of Jesus Christ. We literally have the direction of our Heavenly Father so that we can be truly happy for all eternity. No other church can provide that. No other way of life can provide that. I am so grateful for the blessings that we receive in this church. Yesterday we committed Fabiola (the best friend of Gerson) to baptism for the 6th of February (best birthday ever!). It will be great to see how she can begin to receive all of these blessings of this restored church as well. pray that all will go well in these coming weeks to get ready for her baptism. i love all of you so much! have a great week!

elder abilez

pupusa count: 29

we painted a garage!

bacon pancakes, makin bacon pancakes (except theyre banana pancakes)

elder goodman! friend from the ccm (also ft. elder maxwell) we saw many missionaries from the ccm at the conference with elder cook

Week 26 Layco District, El Salvador--January 18, 2016

What`s Cook-ing?

Elder Cook is coming! And we getta watch a broadcast of President Monson! This week will be sweet. This last week was great too though. We had our district leader training meeting so great consejos there. after we had interviews with president and hermana hintze. and then we had a lesson with our investigator fabiola with gerson (she is the best friend of gerson). that was a great lesson. she has felt really great in the church but just has some fears to get over. we had gerson share his testimony and he shared with us how much he has changed in his life, and sometimes forgets the person that he was before. when i really thought about it, i have forgotten a lot of the really dumb mistakes that i had made in my life as well. and when i really really thought about it it was hard to imagine that i was ever that kind of person. I am really starting to understanding how the Atonement can fully change and heal us in all things. I am in many ways not the same person i was just 6 months ago. I can feel the refiner`s fire in my life as the Lord shapes me into the person that he wants me to be. The power of the Atonement is that we can look back on who we were and know that we wont ever be that person again thanks to what Christ has done for us and the chance we have to move forward in Him. Im greatful for the time that I have had here in the mission. I am at the point where i still get a lot more time to be here but the time is still ever shorter. I know and have experienced the true blessings of this gospel and hope that  all of you may come to know them as well. They are real. They exist. And sometimes we have received them without realizing. Reflect on the person you were 6 months ago, 2 years ago, 10 years ago, and know that your life has changed dramatically because of the blessings that you have received and the direction that you have taken. I love you all so much! i hope you all have a great week!

Elder Abilez

Pupusa Count: 23

 

3 generations! so elder ruiz (our last zone leader who finished last change) is actually mi abuelo. hes the trainer of elder palacios! so here is abuelo con nieto y bisnieto

Week 25 Layco District, El Salvador--January 11, 2016

I Love LA(yco)!

Hey so im still in Layco! Im actually super happy to still be here because right before the end of this last cambio we started making and seeing great progress in our area so I really wanted to see it through a little more. after being here for so long its great to be able to see how much the area has changed since i first got here. the work can still be slow here at times but its just interesting to see how our focus has completely shifted and the people we work with are completely new. so yesterday we were extremely blessed and happy to see Gerson receive the Aaronic Priesthood in church! we are now teaching both his sister and his mother and his best friend. they have all seen huge changes in Gerson and know that it is because of what we have shared with him. they are all positive and we have hope to be able to progress them to baptism in these coming weeks. we are still on the house hunt but yesterday we had a breakthrough with a house that some members are moving out of. i will let you know how that goes this week. not too much to say about this last week. crazy to think that already we have finished a whole week of this cambio. all good things here though! i love you all so much and apologize for not having too much time today. (technical difficulties and such). have a great week!

Elder Abilez

Pupusa Count: last cambio total 63, grand total (since last cambio) 254, this cambio 10

Week 24 Layco District, El Salvador--January 4, 2016

I'm a sister missionary!

so officially today i go home in 18 months. so im a sister missionary! and we all know that the sister missions are crazy fast so im scared haha. but on the real lots of stuff is goin around here. we are official house hunters! we had to move houses so we spent almost an entire day last week searching for a house until we found one close to where we live now. we hope to be able to move in tonight but the owner is a bit of a pill...more its just the legal stuff that is complicated right now since we are just playing messager. so both of our zone leaders are ending their missions this week. 10 other zone leaders are also leaving and there are about 7 missionaries going to belize. as such, a whole lot of changes are happening around here. one of the craziest, is that elder gardiner (from distrito pedro in the ccm) is now our zone leader here in layco! so i guess that means that we are officially old enough in the mission to start getting serious callings like that. we get the transfers information tonight or tomorrow so we will see if i get to stay here in layco or not. being trainer and district leader its more likely that i stay (i hope). so this past week we have visited a lot with gerson to continue teaching him about the church and to get him ready for receiving the priesthood and working towards the goal of the temple. in our visits he always thanks us for what we have done and tells us that he knows that this is the true church. he is also, little by little, sharing the gospel with us to his friend and his mother and sister. its great to see. i had the chance to watch the movie "on the lord´s errand" which is a small documentary on president thomas s monson. in it, he states that he was an ordinary man who lived a rather ordinary life, but was given an extraordinary calling. i know that i, too, am an ordinary man but i, through the Lord, have accomplished extraordinary things such as helping Gerson to accept the everlasting gospel of Christ. It is amazing to me as a missionary that the Lord is so loving and trusting that He is willing to bring to pass His marvelous work through means of such ordinary, imperfect people. That too is testimony to me of the divinity of this church because really it must be directed by our Savior to continue to function and grow despite of the follies of man. and so, remember that though we may all be ordinary people that the Lord has specifically chosen us to accomplish extraordinary things in this life for Him. Trust in yourselves and trust in the Lord and He will guide you in all things. Hope you all had a great New Year! love you all!

Pupusa Count: 63