The Still Small Voice

Well if it isn't my absolutely most favorite people in the whole entire world!!

As far as the work... not a whole lot of movement. We had quite a few families this past week receive answers and have miracles happen... yet they won't go to church still. We literally have so much potential here in Ubirajara, but no one wants to make and keep the promises. It is a sad deal! Like there are people who are hiding when we knock on the door, lying to us face to face, and even worse... moving away!  I just hope and pray they will accept it someday. A famous quote the week was this... `I was born Catholic and I am going to die Catholic.` Miracles aren't ceasing here in Ubirajara... they are just going unnoticed. I am grateful to be able to help these people realize the miracles that are happening in their lives and help them understand the truth. I just wish that I could force them to join the church, but that is one thing that is all on their own. They have the free agency and they have the opportunity to freely choose the truth or not. Something that is hard for me, but I have learned to deal with. Love these people!! Seriously some pretty amazing people!

Yesterday was neat. I was sitting in Sacrament and I felt overwhelmed by the Spirit to look for a scripture about Eternal Families and the Plan of Salvation. I pulled out my scriptures and searched and searched. Unfortunately... I didn't get much. The problem was.. I didn't know when I was going to need it. Church finished and I was so confused. I still had that gut feeling that I need that scripture about the Plan and the love of our Heavenly Father. There I was just thinking and thinking, but nothing was coming. As we went to lunch at a members house I was then informed that a close family friend passed away. I got the chills as I now had the answer of why I needed that scripture. I felt sick to my stomach though because I was going to share a message with them after lunch but didn't have a scripture or anything to say. I said a little prayer in my head and just asked for the Spirit to reveal something to me. As I sat down to eat... I felt like I needed to share the two experiences that I had in the São Paulo Temple... along with Doctrine and Covenants 100. It was so powerful and they were so grateful. They went on to tell me that the lady that sets up the lunches texted them last night and told them that they needed to switch lunch from this Wednesday to Sunday (yesterday). She didn't understand why, but she accepted it. Come to find out that someone passed away that very night.. and it was just what they needed and the Spirit really touched their hearts on the perfect Plan of our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful for this opportunity that I have. Let me tell you the truth... I am seriously nothing here in Brazil. I can't say it enough. It is because of the Spirit that I am able to help these people here. Without the Spirit.. I am just a 19 year old kid, with a small testimony and faith. With the Spirit... I am an instrument in the Hands of the Lord, with a personal testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel that has the potential to touch hearts. It is moments like these that I cherish. It is moments like these that I gain a stronger and more firm testimony. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father who is perfect. He knows us perfectly and knows of our needs and our wants. I know that the Spirit is real. It is not something crazy that takes over your body and makes you do weird things.. but it is a small voice that touches the heart and gives us the opportunity to act. The acting is the hardest part. It is where it really tests our faith. There are so many blessings waiting for us as we act on the promptings of the Spirit. Every time we act on the promptings of the Spirit.. not only does our faith grow, but Heavenly Father also gains more trust in us. I am grateful to be here in Brazil... even though I want so badly to be hanging with you guys. I am grateful for your love and support and the amazing things that you do for me. I hope that you know how much I love you! In fact.. I miss you more than I miss putting honey on Dad´s toilet seat the night before April Fools, and also waking up with my toes painted hahaha. Good times! But I hope that you all have a wonderful Easter, and amazing April Fools, and an awesome General Conference. I love you so much!! Have an amazing week! (:

Love your humbled.. happy, healthy, and trying to act a little more Elder.. Elder Abel.. Sky! 

Surrounded by Miracles!

Well hello there!! I am blessed with such amazing people in my life! I love you guys so much!!

Someone told me this past week that God is invisible. That was defs a first!! It is so crazy to hear what people are thinking these days. You can share scripture upon scripture... but it will never make sense to them.

Any who... We had a lot of success with our investigators and a lot of little miracles. The first miracle of our investigators was with our new investigator Renata (mom with a bunch of kids and a lot of faith). We shared with her the message of the restoration and it was really cool. As always.. we left the invite to pray and she accepted. When we went back to check up on her prayer... she prayed and had an amazing experience!! She said it was the most amazing experience that she has had in her life. Her answer was soo direct. She compared it to a weird shocking feeling haha. She said that it like really touched her heart in like a shocking sensation. She was so happy and it was so cool to just see how excited and happy she was to continue following the things that Heavenly Father wants of her.

The other miracle was with another new investigator Tamires. She has been struggling with some physical problems. When we met with her we shared the Restoration and it was really neat. We explained how the authority of God is here on the earth again to perform miracles as Jesus did.. but it all depends on our faith. She has a lot of faith and we gave her a blessing of comfort and then left. When we returned... she started to cry and told us just how grateful she was for us. She had been praying early that morning (when we first visited her and gave her a blessing) for help, and she told us that we are `the two angels` that were sent to help her. She regained her health and strength OVERNIGHT and her depression literally decreased in one day. It was so cool to see her change in such a short amount of time. Prayer is real and the power of the priesthood is real. Truly soo neat!! The problem with these miracles, is that they had there downfalls as well. We had 8 people commit to go to church yesterday and nobody went. It is sad to see Heavenly Father work miracles in people's lives and watch them forget so easily or lose the importance of the situation.

I would like to share an experience I had myself that was a miracle. Yesterday we went to the Mission Office to do a video for the `select missionaries`. My comp sings... so I was invited too. haha. I was hanging with my American friends.. when the secretaries told us to go make popcorn for everyone in their house. We were having a good time and laughing.. speaking English and just loving life. We hopped into the tiny elevator to go up to their house. ALL 7 of us. We piled into the elevator and started our journey to floor 10. We all knew it wasn't a good idea, but what an achievement for this elevator if it works right..?! (Side note... the elevator said 8 people can fit. So we were not breaking rules... just testing the limits.) Well here we are on our journey... floor 1... floor 2... floor 3.... and CLUNK!!! We are stuck!! All seven of us crammed in the smallest elevator I have seen in my life...stuck in between floors three and four. There was no AC and we were doomed to certain death. Seriously... within 5 seconds the mirrors were fogged up and we were all sweating as if we were in a sauna. An elder told me that this happened with three of them in another elevator and they were stuck for TWO HOURS. With little room to work with we were all dying of laughter for how dumb we were, when an Elder showed his true side... his claustrophobic side. He was flippin' out, trying to decide who he was going to kill first. One of the Elders called the front office and told him the problem and he just laughed at us. `There are seven of you in there? You can only fit 5... how did you do that?` As he argues, I'm thinking to myself... it doesn't matter if there is two of us or fifteen in here... we are stuck and we are going to die unless you do something haha. He told us to hold on for a bit ...as if there was any other option Ü. While waiting, we said a prayer. The last thing that I saw before the prayer was that we were on level 3. After we closed the prayer... there was a sudden knock on the door telling us to open it up. We climbed out of the little gap that there was made for us and as we hopped out and we were on floor 1. I'm telling you....we did not move floors. We all saw that we were stuck on floor 3. This story may seem silly... but it really was a miracle. I have no doubt that Heavenly Father sent his angels to work this mighty miracle. Although He may have been laughing and wondering how seven missionaries could be so stupid, He still showed us a miracle. I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who cares about us. I am so grateful for this experience last night. I am grateful to see that the Lord's hand is really in everything. I am so grateful for the many blessings that this mission brings and the opportunity that I have to learn day in and day out. I sure do love you and miss you all! Have an amazing week!!!

Love, your happy... and grateful missionary... Elder Abel

It's good to be Elmer

Well hello there my absolutely favorite people in the whole entire world!! Oh how much I love you all. 

So.. not a whole lot happened this past week. It seemed like this week was one of the longer weeks of the mission.

Not a whole lot of movement with the investigators. Only 2 investigators showed up to church yesterday out of the 8 we gave dates of baptism to. I am hoping that they realize the importance of church or receive an answer here soon to boost their faith. It is such a blessing to be able to work with these people. Really!! It is hard and all, but I just feel like it is such a privilege to help Gods children re-find their way. I say 're-find' because we truly had it all planned out. We CHOSE this plan and that is why we are here. It is kind of neat to think that we really are on God's team.... no matter how evil the world is. We chose His plan and are just here to be tested if we have faith sufficient to continue His plan and obtain the gifts that He will give hereafter. Just gotta stay focused on the important things in life and let the other 'stuff' just fill in the gaps.. not the other way around. Something that I really thought about this week. Kinda neat if ya think about it! 

The highlight of the week was the Favelas. We entered this house and the Spirit was just not present. I have never felt so awful in my life. It just seemed to be tearing us down and the lesson was not going well. I asked if I could say a prayer at the end to bless the house and the family and it was so neat. You could just feel the Spirit lift and brighten the room as I finished the prayer in the name of the Savior. It was so powerful and really helped my testimony of prayer. Prayer is truly such a gift of God. It shows our faith. He already knows our thoughts, needs, and wants... so why do we pray? We pray because it shows our faith. It shows that we are full of weaknesses and that we are humbling ourselves to Heavenly Father and recognizing the Savior as we close in His name. It is through our faith in prayer that Heavenly Father blesses us. So neat!!

So.. to close I just wanna share a few things that I was thinking of this past week and hopefully will explain the subject of this email. I will be honest with you... I felt pretty inadequate this past week. I felt like I just didn't fit in, that my Portuguese was weak, and kind of was just struggling as to what I am doing. I then was reminded of one of my favorite childhood books. Don't ask me why.. but it just randomly popped into my head. Elmer the Elephant. It made me think about how I really do relate to Elmer. Don't judge me if I tell the story wrong.. but this is what I remember. Elmer is an Elephant that was born all sorts of colors. He was a little bit different and didn't fit in with all of the other gray elephants. He was kind of embarrassed as an animal and really just wanted to fit in. So what did he do. He found berries the same color of the other elephants. He thought of a brilliant idea to roll around in these berries so he can fit in. He cover his body with these berries and it WORKED.. he fit in. Everyone accepted him because he now wasn't different from the rest. Unfortunately... the rain came and washed away the berries that we covering his body and his true colors showed. Everyone laughed and laughed and laughed at him, but still accepted him as he was. In fact... they made a day where they would paint there skin all sorts of random colors and would be Elmer.. as Elmer would cover himself in berries and act like a normal elephant. They accepted him for who he was and everyone was happy. I am sure you are all wondering where I am going with this.. and so am I. Just kidding!! But WE are all a kind of Elmer. 

I am Elmer. I don't fit in here. In fact... I am a tall blonde kid with an American accent, who dresses in a suit and shares the Gospel. I am different. I am odd. I stand out here in Brazil. Sometimes I ask myself where I can find those berries.. where or what I can do to fit in more. But no matter how many times I roll around in the berries.. the rain will always come and will always show my 'true colors.' As member of the church of Jesus Christ we are different, we stand out, we are odd. But I have come to realize as I have spent some time here in Brazil is that we shouldn't want to blend in... We shouldn't want to be just another person and quite frankly we cant be another person. Our greatest example of Elmer was Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ was an Elmer in His Earthly Ministry. He stuck out because He is the Son of God. He is our Savior, He is our Redeemer, and no matter how many times he was spit at, made fun of, and mocked. He never decided to blend in.. he stuck out and it was because of His unique character and love for us that we have the opportunity to obtain the highest glory of God. As members of the Church we stick out and really are different. We have the true Gospel. We smile at our trials and we have a weird light that we carry with us everywhere we go. People can see it in our countenance. We are different, we are odd, and we don't blend in. No matter how crazy this world is or will get.. we will always stick out as we stand for the truth, stand for the right, and walk as a representative of Christ.  I am just so grateful to be an ´Elmer` here in Brazil. 

I am grateful people look at me weird and wonder what I am doing in their country. I am grateful that I get called names and that people don't like me here. haha! Because it is through all of the rough times that really makes the times where we can help one soul know and understand the truth so sweet! This mission has and is blessing my life. I am grateful for all that I am going through and I am grateful for the opportunity that I have to find my purpose as I help others do the same. I am grateful for a perfect example of Jesus Christ and I am grateful to stand as a representative of Him. It truly is a humbling experience. I love you guys so much! I am so grateful for the love and support that you offer and the many things that you do for me. Thank you for being you and for being such great examples to me in all that you do. I love you all so much and I miss you like crazy!! In fact... I miss you more than I miss a cold Costco Triple Chocolate Cake.. and that my friends is heaven... and is a lot of miss!! But I hope that you all have a wonderful week and that you know that I love you so much! Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you!! I love you so much!! (:

Love, your favorite Elmer... I mean Elder... Elder Abel!... Sky! (:

I LOVE to see the Temple!

Goodness gracious and holy flippity flapper!! How in the world are you all doing? Thank you for your e-mails, love, thoughts, prayers, and EXAMPLES!! You are all such a blessing in my life and I am so grateful for each and every one of you!

This week was a long week. It always seems like it is a long week when we are anxiously awaiting the new transfers. I will stay here in Ubirajara with Elder Guilherme. We are in a district full of new missionaries. Yep... new missionaries training new missionaries. As well as a new missionary being District Leader. This should be fun!

So not a whole lot happened this week. Jacks baptism fell through due to his wife becoming super sick. We will work with him as he is searching for an answer. We hope to baptize him this week. Alexandre also fell through! We had a pretty neat experience with him yesterday, the spirit was so incredibly strong. I shared with him my last lesson.. which I decided to be the Restoration of the Gospel. It was seriously so powerful.

I would just like to close with my testimony on the temple. This past week we had the opportunity to go to the temple and to partake of the Spirit that resides there. Of course I was beyond excited because I LOVE THE TEMPLE!!! But it was incredible. I had a few questions and doubts that I took with me to ponder in the celestial room.. and it was amazing!! As I found a seat and said a prayer.. I really felt prompted to open up the scriptures. I grabbed the closest book to me and opened it up.. it was Doctrine and Covenants 100 and the first thing that I read (in Portuguese of course) was... `Your families are well; they are in my hands, and I will do with them as seemeth me good, for in me there is all power. Therefore, follow me, and listen to the counsel I shall give unto you.´ It was soo direct. I worry about you all. I worry about your health, strength, peace, comfort, safety, joy, and everything. But this answer was so simple and so straight forward. `Elder Abel.. Your families are well: They are in my hands.` What a blessing that is. There is no other person that I would trust than God himself. But knowing that He truly is watching over you guys and protecting you guys.. it makes this mission so much easier and gives me so much peace and comfort. As I was studying this this past week after this experience in the temple.. It goes on to talk about the missionary work that I need to do and really gave me another answer of to why I am here and what purpose that I have here in Brazil. I had two other experiences pretty neat in the temple that I will have to share with you guys another time. But I just want you to know that I know that God lives. He really is aware of each and everyone of His children. He cares about us and He truly does hear and answer each and everyone of our prayers. Sometimes it is a simple scripture to remind of His love and his promises that He has made with us, and other times He offers peace to our soul, strength to our testimony, or power to our faith. Each prayer that we give with our whole heart, having faith in Him, I know He gives for our faith. He offers many blessings into our life, that often times we don't see or probably never will. Although we owe all credit to Heavenly Father above. Often times we may think that He is not there or is not listening.. but I think often times we are just not really noticing the things He is giving. He truly is real and His love for us is everlasting. He knows of our struggles, our trials, difficulties, and everything.. and more than anything... He does not leave us alone and He never will.. or He would cease to be the loving Father in Heaven that He is. I am so grateful for my mission. For the opportunity that I get to help others feel of His love and find or notice the blessings that He offers. I love you all so much!! Have an amazing week and smile.. life is wonderful!! Let me know if there is anything that I can do for you guys.. I love you!

Love, your favorite Elder.. who is enjoying every up and down... Elder Abel! (: