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

Week 58 Layco District, El Salvador (Zone Leader)-August 29, 2016

Like Little Children

Hello everybody! I hope you all had a great week! This past week was a good one for us. Nothing too crazy happened but we were able to get a lot of work done. Ourselves and the rest of the missionaries in the zone. As a result, we are hoping to see a number of baptisms in the zone this next weekend so that will be super cool! Jacklin and Jose Roberto came to church again so they are on track to being baptized soon! Way excited for them. On Saturday we were invited to help out with a Primary activity in Layco. The stake was holding a Mini CCM to teach the little kids about the mission and getting them ready for it. It was a fun activity and we were in charge of teaching a small district of kids. They were all so cute and happy to be learning about the mission and even had little "Futuro Misionero" nametags! Haha unfortunately didnt get any pictures but it was great to see how awesome the Primary aged kids are in the church. If we all could be as excited about missionary work like these little kids the whole world would be coming unto Christ by tomorrow. This next week we will be busy busy busy. Yesterday after church we were already realizing how full our agendas were for the whole rest of the week. But we are super excited for it! I hope you all have a great week as well and are able to enjoy it regardless of how busy you are! Love you all so much!
Elder Abilez

Pupusa Count: 27

Week 57 Layco District, El Salvador (Zone Leader)-August 22, 2016

We're exhausted...

So this last week was a bit wild. As Zone Leaders Elder Simiskey and I have the duty to go out on interchanges with the missionaries for instruction and to see how the work is going. At the beginning of the change we had set the goal to visit all of the areas before the first 3 weeks of the change ended to be able to establish a lot of good work in the zone. Unfortunately, the first two weeks were pretty busy and we were only able to visit two areas. and so, to meet our goal and address a few concerns in the zone, this past week we had three interchanges in a row. quiere decir that elder simiskey and i didnt even work together for 3 whole days of this past week. doing one interchange is exhausting enough. and we did 3 in a row. and in the middle of those interchanges i also had to go to immigration to renew my residence in el salvador. so yes, we are exhausted. but it was a great week and we learned a lot from working in other areas and with the missionaries. our minds unfortunately werent 100% focused into our actual area for a little while and the results show. but for that reason we are buckling down to focus 110% into our area this week because we just have too many people to help. lots of plans for this next week and we are excited for what is coming. i hope you all also have busy weeks and get satisfaction out of reaching some goals! love you all so much bye!
elder abilez

pupusa count: 23

Week 56 Layco District, El Salvador (Zone Leader)-August 15, 2016

He is a God of Miracles

Hey! How is everyone? This past week was excellent. It was a really humbling week that showed me especially that despite our weakness (and especially mine) the Lord will still bless us. So we had a good week and met a lot of really great people. We had a leadership meeting with President Adams where he shared an example where he compared missionary work to a train. Without getting into too many complicated details, the basis was that we need the help and direction of the ward council as missionaries. And so, Elder Simiskey and I started building up the express train in our area and it worked miracles. As we began to be more attentive to our investigators and more preoccupied with them and their spiritual needs, the work began flying. We found a lady this week named Melisa who has a great desire to learn and even came to church AND institute after only one visit. The best part is that before institute we decided to teach her in the church building and like 12 members came in to share their testimonies with her. The members love her and her three little, adorable children. She is very quiet and kind of timid but she has loved the church so far. Pray for her! Then, our ward mission leader and his wife have been working double time to bring in new investigators and a family member came to church with them this week! His name is Jose Roberto and he is awesome! Already got plans to keep teaching him as well. And then, Jacklin, an investigator that Elder Gallardo and I had found through a reference more than a month ago, finally came to church this week after not seeing her for almost a month! Our old bishop was the one who even went out to pick her up and bring her to church and back. We are almost dumbfounded with how much the members have stepped up to bless us with this work. There isnt more for me to say than that it was a set of great miracles. For us those were big miracles, but every day we can find and enjoy even little miracles. Everyday I see miracles. Most are things that would be so easy to ignore or not recognize but I know that our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles. The world is a more beautiful place when we can see the blessings that He so openly gives us. Trials always mar and darken our days but the miracles always give us a pinnacle of light to keep us moving forward. I love you all and miss you all lots and hope that you all too can find miracles this next week in your lives. I know that they are there.

Elder Abilez

Pupusa Count: 15