Week 64 Dangriga, Belize-October 10, 2016

Obedience is the key

Hey! This past week was busy and great! On Monday we took a last second trip to the Mayan ruins nearby called Mayflower. Due to time purposes we were only able to go see the waterfalls that are up there but it was still really awesome. We want to go back another day in the morning to see more and also to be able to see toucans and monkeys! Then we made a bonfire on the beach for family home evening, a tradition we are hoping to continue starting tonight. After, on Tuesday, we had our Multizone in Belize City where President Adams focused mainly on the importance of obedience, especially as missionaries. I learned a lot in the meeting and it helped me to really reflect on everything i am doing and how in changing even the small things to be more obedient i can really bless my area. in the mission there are a lot of rules. many of which appear trivial. however, outside of the mission, where the "rules" arent as strict how often are we pushing the limits because we think it really does no harm? on thursday we also had interviews with President. In my interview he mentioned something that I really enjoyed while we were talking about what we learned in the multizone. He told me that while we can have a lot of success in the mission, and in life in general in this case, disobedience doesnt cause us to receive cursings, condemnation, or punishments from God. Always. But, in most instances, disobedience rather causes God to withhold blessings from us that He wants to give us. That really struck me. How many more blessings could I have received in my life if i only were a little more obedient? How much more can i do for the Lord by His blessings in my mission if I strive to be just a little more obedient? Sometimes we see those who are very obedient and "strict" about the Lord's commandments as those who are hard-natured and stern, without real sense of enjoying life. But then we look to the prophets or even to Jesus Christ Himself. How obedient are they? How happy and blessed must they be? It is without question that Jesus is perfectly obedient and therefore perfectly happy. Im not the most obedient. I am not perfect. But i do wish to be happy and blessed. So let us all be just a little bit better and a little more obedient. I know that that can be a key to our happiness in this life. I love you all! I love Belize! I love this gospel. I hope you have a great week!

Elder Abilez

Week 63 Dangriga, Belize-October 3, 2016

conference and baptism!

This past weekend couldnt have been better! The week was great too of course. But i hope you all enjoyed conference as much as i did. and if you missed it then youll be glad to know that there were several talks on repentance you can enjoy as you go back and watch it. Haha okay but for real I really really enjoyed especially the talk by President Nelson. His way of expressing joy was just perfect. And how true is that? We are that we might have joy. That is something that has always been hard for me because always bad things are happening or trials come our way. But it is so true that we can decide to have joy. We can choose to focus on Christ and always find joy in our lives. If you havent watched that talk i suggest watching it. If you have, i believe it would be nice to watch it again. I want to watch it again as well. After sunday morning conference we had a baptism! There is one thing that i forgot to mention when i came in to dangriga. This area is the only area in the entire mission that can baptize in the ocean! Thats right, beach baptism! I was the witness of the baptism of the other missionaries and for our baptism for Jeyson. He is a young kid who has been coming to church for more than a year. A good part of his family has already been baptized and we are still working on helping out his aunt get baptized soon. It was a great experience and nearly all the members came. this coming week we will have interviews with president and a multizone. and i think i need to take the 3 hour bus trip to belize city again for more immigration business. its going to be a good, busy week. i love you all so much and hope you all find more reasons to have joy this next week!

elder abilez

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 :)