Week 40 Izalco District, El Salvador-April 25, 2016

I don't understand how it's already almost May...

so yeah this week is the last week of april already! and thats crazy! april is the hottest month of the year here so we are actually looking forward to may a little bit. also to get started in the rainy season hopefully. anyway, this last week was a busy one. on saturday we baptized carmen (carmencita)! well actually her grandpa the branch president baptized her but we were there! she unfortunately got sick and wasnt able to come to church yesterday to be confirmed but she will be there next sunday. we arent worried since her parents are members and all. other bad news...javier and catherine were not married or baptized this weekend. its super hard but we are still continuing to work a lot with them. and we are going to be seeing them more and using the members so that they can really be successful. javier is really the one with the problems to overcome so our plan is to follow through with the wedding this week and have catherine baptized for sure. and, if he is ready, javier will also be baptized at the end of this week. so please please please pray for them. we are already in the last couple of weeks here in this change so we are really focused on working super hard so we can have a ton of success in this change in the Lords work. Anyway, love you all so much, thank you for your prayers always. have a great week!

elder abilez

pupusa count: 19

the road to los lagartos

with the whole fam at the baptism

bautismo de carmencita 

selfie ft. carmencita

Week 39 Izalco District, El Salvador-April 18, 2016

as for my general audience...I don't have much to say...

so this week we had a district leaders meeting, interviews with president and hermana hintze, interchanges with the zone leaders, and district meeting of course. we have learned a lot this week and have been doing a lot of work. this next weekend we are looking to baptize catherine and javier and also carmencita (though we needa get an interview done) and also have a wedding for javier and catherine. unfortunately, last night javier had some struggles again and we need to meet with them tonight to decide on our plans. they are just soooo good so it really just breaks my heart when they struggle because i know the gospel will help them so much. but they still have a lot of hope. we are pretty exhausted in about every way here but we honestly couldnt be more excited to be doing this work in san julián. please just continue praying for them and i hope to be sending some pictures to you all of the wedding and baptism. love you all so much and thank you for all the prayers you always send our way
elder abilez
pupusa count: 13

happy kitty, sleepy kitty, purr purr purr

we found a millipede this time

Week 38 Izalco District, El Salvador-April 11, 2016

ALL PHOTOS THIS WEEK!

overlooking our kingdom

another shot of volcan izalco

i cleanse in the river...

river ft. caballo

companionship river unity!

the tarzan bridge

Still not sure what kind of juice that was...

caught another scorpion

on da bridge

below da bridge

zona izalco!

zona izalco in drawing form!

palm tree

with all of the people that came to english class...

my trust steed

volcano izalco before the hike

we're gonna form a boy bamd

foliage

rigby kaufusi crew

you are now entering jurassic park... (i think that's what it says in spanish)

little ranch in the mountains

in da jungle, da mighty jungle

volcan izalco from closer to the top

comp volcano selfie

comp volcano selfie ft crater

crater

ft our new brazilian friend

excuse the fact this pic didn't come out well (blame the photographer) but we met a whole lot of people from all over on this trip! new friends from germany, LA, england, scotland, and switzerland! super cool experience

Week 37 Izalco District, El Salvador--April 4, 2016

California Knows How to Party!

Heyyyyyyyyy! So this week a whole lot happened and it was great! First things first this last week marked the end of the cambio and, surprisingly, we got cambios! I stayed here in San Julián but elder ramos left for Lourdes (another zone). But now, my new comp is elder kaufusi! We both couldnt believe it! Back in layco we would always joke about when we would one day be companions but now its real. in case i never mentioned it in an earlier email, he is also from LA (Rancho Cucamonga) so we have great times being from the same city (more or less). we went the first couple days just repeating "man i cant believe we´re comps right now". its been fun. so we have been working super hard to get to know our huge area better. we have already found a new investigator to be baptized this month and are continuing to work with Javier and Katerin to help them get married and baptized in the next couple of weeks. Also, of course we had the huge blessing of watching conference this weekend as well. It was so good! I hope all of you guys were able to watch conference and if there is anything that you missed, go back and watch it! On Saturday we had the APs come and lend us a computer and a projector to watch conference here in San Julián and then on sunday we went to sonzacate with the branch. it was a great experience the two days. I think the general theme of this conference was on the family with an emphasis on the temple. I loved that. There were a lot of great things that i learned about the family that i know will help me a lot in the future. lots of great things to do like family prayers and types of family counsels just so we can have a strong, loving family. bless my dear mother who for years tried to implement family prayers and scripture study with us malcriado niños. now i understand the importance. There were so many talks that I loved but I especially loved the talk from Elder Snow on saturday. his talk was about humility. i loved how he talked that how we in our lives need the Lord much more than we are willing to admit sometimes. But if we humble ourselves and rely on Him, we will be even more blessed when the iminent trials of humility come our way. I love all of you so much and am grateful to hear from you often. Have a great week!
Elder Abilez

Pupusa Count Total (as of the change): 360
Pupusa Count (this change so far): 2

Elder Kaufusi and I!!!!!!!!!!!

On "the bridge"

with all the members that showed up early to conference

the famous kaufusi bar

sugar cane fields forever

road to san julián ft. milton

Sunday conference! (in english!)