Week 62 Dangriga, Belize-September 26, 2016

Like little children

Hey guys this last week was super good and super fast! Wednesday was really boring because we didnt work for the holiday festivities. staying in house all day as a missionary is the worst. im convinced that staying in the house all day in general is just the worst. hopefully i wont do that ever again in my life. but this past week made me think a little bit. throughout all of my mission i have had a lot of really great learning experiences through my interactions with children. in all my areas that i have been in there are always little kids. always. this area is no different. and im sure you all have already noticed just as i have, how great little kids are. how sweet and innocent they are. maybe im biased because the little kids just naturally love the missionaries (whether they are good missionaries or not). but really we have a lot to learn from kids about love and innocence and meekness. i have also been excited about the coming general conference. its hard to believe that another 6 months have already passed and we are going to be able to listen to the living prophets once again. and then i connected these two ideas. how can i get the most out of this next conference? i need to be humble and submissive like these little children. it is no wonder that the scriptures admonish us to do just that. children really do submit more to the will of their parents and have a natural desire to do what they are told to be right. and we have this blessing to literally hear the words of our Father through the mouths of the prophet and the apostles. and so, if i want to get a lot out of this conference i should really humble myself and submit to the will of my Father so that these messages can change and help me. I hope that in some way you can all do the same. Learn from your children. Learn from you Father. We all have something more to learn and do. I have a lot more to learn and do thats for sure. I hope you all enjoy conference and are able to receive blessings from it as well. Love you all so much! Have a great week!

Elder Abilez

Week 61 Dangriga, Belize-September 19, 2016

how do you say book of mormon in kriol?

Guys Belize is awesome! Okay so last Tuesday we flew out (with slight complications as always) and then got right to the changes meeting and right to work. We flew in to Belize City and then had to take a 3 hour bus ride to our area. I am serving in Dangriga. This place is way cool. Its a beach town. But lemme say that again...BEACH town! I finally got to see the beach again after 14 months! On my second day here we went to it for a sec just for therapy purposes. Haha and dont worry, in this mission its allowed to go to the beach, just cant swim. My companion is Elder Arriaza. He is from Guatemala and is super cool. He wants to work super hard because this will be his third transfer in Dangriga and wants to get a lot done still. Unfortunately he has been sick lately with parasites so he hasnt been able to work. We live with two other missionaries though, Elder Contreras, who was in the group that left for Belize with me, and Elder Burris, who was in Layco Zone for a change with me as well. Mostly I have been working with Elder Burris but overall we have been working super hard and got a lot of work done. This next week we wont be working as much because it is Independence Day on Wednesday (and Kiana's bday if you wanna send her well wishes) and people apparently get crazy here. so that will be interesting. Overall I have seen a few strange animals (like this weird raccoon, shrew, monkey thing) and eaten some gooooood food. We can eat just about anything in belize so i have already eaten fish, lettuce, cabbage, and bacon. Its awesome. I was pretty sad to leave El Salvador because of all of the people there and all the time I had to spend there. With the time I have left it is possible that I end my mission here in Belize but I am still hoping I will be able to go back to El Salvador at least for my last transfer or something. Kriol is hard. It is like broken Jamaican English but also not even the same language. They speak it a lot here. Dangriga and Belize City are the two areas where Kriol is spoken most so i will probably be catching on. There are a lot of spanish speakers here too so i wont be losing spanish as bad as i had feared. and they speak garifana so who knows how many languages i will learn on the mission haha. We have seen a lot of miracles already here in our area and are confident that the Lord has prepared a lot of great things for us to accomplish in Dangriga. Its a new mission and a new adventure so I am super excited about it. I hope you all have a great week and that you enjoy fried chicken as much as I do here. Love you all so much!
Elder Abilez
Final Pupusa Count: 492 (i couldnt push it to 500 sorry...)

i got rained on hard but members lent me this coat

we had to clean the font before baptism (simiskey couldn't hang)

simiskey gettin the deep cleaning done

saying goodbye to michelle and golem

jose roberto got baptized!

one last "woohoo"

hermano gudhino

surprise javier pic

with gabriel

photo bombing with daniel

with daniel

ft. obispo torres (and baby)

more with gabriel

with fernando

with amaya and martinez family

hermano acosta!

with the familia gomez

with the familia cortez

with angelito y hermana jimenez

with hermano jimenez y karen

with ismael looking at the camera

the long office wait

made this snowman whilst waiting...

elder burrell and i about to take off!

the beach ft. me!

the beach!

caught a krabby at night*

*reference to PokemonGO, which his sister has told him about and he can't wait to play when he gets back :)

Week 60 Transfers to Belize! September 12, 2016

Adios Pupusas, Hello Belize!

Hey so i have 3 minutes to write so I´m goin to Belize! I know nothing about where I am goin or who I will be with but i will let you know when i get there and when i get to write for real! maybe next week...but i love you guys! i have lots of pictures to send! have a great week!

Week 59 Layco District, El Salvador (Zone Leader)-September 5, 2016

Float like a butterfly, stung by a bee

We worked hard this week. But also like physically. On Friday we had a ward FHE where we invited President and Sister Adams. President spoke to the ward and investigators about the Plan of Salvation and how important all of us are in the eyes of God. Great talk for all of us. Then we played a couple games and Elder Simiskey had to do the chicken dance! It was a really good time and the members loved it. On Saturday we woke up at 4:40 to get to Santa Ana with the stake to do service at a place called Los Naranjos. The church has a large property there to hold stake camps, EFY, and other camping type things. It´s super cool up there. Literally and figuratively. We spent almost the entire day digging out trees to prep a part of the land for construction and camping. That was exhausting but it was super good to be able to do some physical work. I also got stung by a bee for the first time on Friday. Hurt super bad. Good news: not allergic to bees haha. This next week is the last week of the change so we are going to be working really hard to get some last minute things done. And hopefully a baptism or two. Who knows what will happen when the changes come but it always makes me a little anxious haha. Well I love you all a whole lot and hope you have a great week as well!
Elder Abilez

Pupusa Count: 27

stake camp

tired

in da forest

in da forest selfie ft. hermano jimenez

elder simiskey ft. forest mountain