August 24, 2015

Hey momma, 

I don't have much time left but, this week I prayed constantly for the poor little dude. Then in the street the other day I found the kids mom and she came to me crying saying that her son escaped. I don't think I responded the way she wanted haha. I accidentally let out a little laugh and smile and was like what? how? She said that somehow he found a stone and broke the chain and ran away. Then the next day he came back and told her that he loved her and he was going to be a good kid and look for work.

It's kind of crazy and hard to believe that he really found a stone and did it the week after we found him... crazy! 

But, he is free now and yesterday he came to church with us!!!! :)

Hey dad;

The temple trip was awesome and I could understand everything said. It's all in vosotros so I cant speak it very well, but my understanding is great. It was a neat experience. I'm glad to hear that all is going good with your job and with the ladies. That's awesome Hayden is coming home:) And hey, you can't let the high run out yet you still got 9 years left! Our Bishop here is a convert of like 12 years, and has been Bishop for the lat 10 years.  Talk about perserevar hasta el fin... (endure to the end).. sadly he is one of the only members out of our 700 that is faithful and comes to church every week and has a strong testimony. The ward here is almost completely fallen. It's being held together by the Bishop, us, and the other missionaries in our ward. It's so hard because we never have anyone to help us and we aren't aloud to enter houses without a guy of 18 years or older. On top of that, all the men are always gone working. 

This week I received my new companion. He is a 26 year old from Columbia, Elder Vigil. He's a cool guy and we get along really well, but he also is super racist. He has an American flag hanging upside down with a huge x on it. I guess Columbia hates us and only likes to sell us cocaine.. also he served in the army there and is super serious. Luckily, he likes me and told me that I'm his favorite American. :) I like him too because he doesn't mind working hard. We have been able to get a ton done this last week. I was suffering with my last companion because he just didn't want to work and gave up on the area. 

I'm getting to the point where I don't want to do anything but work hard. I have found that the harder I work the faster the days seam to slip by, also at the end of the day I feel good to know that I did all I could. 

I love you guys, 

Elder dabel

August 17, 2015

Hey Papa,

Don't worry, I write in my journal just about every day. I've already competed one and am half way through another haha.. I love being able to go back and read about the last 6 months when I start to get a little baggy of the mission. Before I just wanted to go home, but now I miss my old area, companion and converts haha. 

I also love the feeling I get every time I take the sacrament. I've found that I only get that feeling if I'm worthy to take the sacrament. Before the mission I could never feel the spirit that strong because I never really was 100 percent worthy of it.  I didn't do it with full intention, and I didn't even know what was I missing out on. I look forward to taking it every week now :) 

This week I also got to the temple :) I don't think I've ever had a more spiritual experience there. It's hard to explain the feeling you get there, but it's perfect. It makes you want to be perfect. I can see why we are encouraged to go to the temple as much as we can. It gives us the support and encouragement we need :) 

I love Alma 37 about the example of the liahona, and how it relates it to the words of Christ. If we give heed and diligence to it, then it will bring us to a lot better place. When Lehi and his family got lazy and stopped giving attention to the liahona they weren't on a straight course and they suffered all manner of afflictions. 

Endure to the end doesn't mean make it up the first few steps and then you're safe and can rest like the rabbit. You have to be diligent like the turtle, and take it a step at a time, but not stop or rest. 

The reason a testimony fails is because of laziness, lack of diligence, and pride. 

Hi Momma :)

Hahaha that's good that Uncle Josh took care of Weston for me, someone had to. I'm glad to hear that life is good up there:) I'll be praying for emma on the SAT test :) Why is Kayla going to crater? 

So this week has been full of stories. First off, we have a new investigator, Mario, that is 22 and chained to a pole in his house. His mom is a crazy freak and chained him to the wall post because she's afraid he's going to leave and do drugs, or get into a fight. He tells us every time that he just wants to leave and go find work, and he will never do drugs again and he's sorry. I feel for the pobresito (poor thing). He has to poop in a bucket and only gets fed sometimes. He has been chained to the wall since November without being able to leave more than 3 feet. I told his mom that if she didn't let her son go after 4 lessons then she would be condemned for taking away her sons agency. We have really been focusing on lesson 2, The Plan of Salvation.

Also, my companion has changes tomorrow so I'll be getting my new comp :P

Love and miss you guys!

August 10, 2015

So this week has been full good and bad. To start off with the good :) First we had a baptism!! Her name is Ana Pinto, right now we are also preparing her daughter to get baptized and her husband is trying to overcome an addiction to alcohol. Two weeks ago we received a reference to a lady and we went to go find her. Before we could find her, her daughter found us!! A little girl ran up to me when I was walking down the street and asked "Are you the ones we have been waiting for?" I said, "Ummm I don't think so, why?" She just said, "Oh okay... thank you", and ran off... Later that night I knocked on the door of our reference and the same little girl opened the door and yelled at her mom and said, "Mom! Mom!! They're here mom!" I was like what the heck... After talking to the mom we found out that she was about to commit suicide in the east mission when two missionaries found her and talked her out of it. They said that they could help her, and that they were going to send missionaries to her house. She said that she knew God had sent them to find her, and she knows that we are servants of Him. She was going to commit suicide because she is single and has two daughters and a granddaughter that she has to support. She only earns 20 quets a day making tortillas and was going to be kicked out of her house this month and loose her job. We shared Mormon 9 about miracles and asked her if she believed in miracles. She said yes, and we told her that if she did all the things we were going to invite her to do then the Lord would take care of her. She has done every single thing we have invited her to do. She sacrificed the last two weeks of work so she could be at church. This week she received notice from the owner of her little sheet metal house that she could have another month to live there and could make up the payments. Also, her tortilla boss said that she could continue working there also. Little miracles, but still miracles. I know she is going to receive more through her faith and diligence. 

July 27, 2015

Thanks Momma! 

Make sure to give Levi a big hug and tell him I’m so proud of him!!! And that I wish him the best of luck! 

This week has been awesome! Once again the Lord has completed with his end of the covenants that we made with Him. As a zone we all committed to get at least 20 lessons this week. In the last few weeks I’ve been here, and even before that, this area hasn't been able to get the 20. But with faith and hard work we got it this week! We went over and got 23 lessons this week! :) We have been seeing miracle after miracle here in Guajitos and our dats should only be going up because our inventory of investigators is too. 

My faith in making covenants with the Lord has grown so much in the last 3 weeks here. Not once has the Lord left us hanging. Something that I’ve learned about making the covenants with the Lord is that we should focus on one thing at a time. Every week we chose one thing to focus on, and then within the week, we make more covenants to make the goal within our covenants we have made for the week. Sometimes we have doubts in our head that are extremely hard to overcome. I’ve learned that that doesn't matter.  As long as I am working my hardest with the hope that he will fulfill his end, then my part of faith is complete. We should all be making covenants with the Lord and try to better ourselves every day, every week, and every month. Binding the Lord in a promise will bring miracles that will build your foundation of faith better than anything else. Don't neglect your seed of faith if you wish to eat the fruit most valuable and sweet. 

I was reading in Ether yesterday that we should always ask the the Lord if our desires are worthy. If it is a worthy desire then the Spirit will burn within us and we will know it is good. Then when we make the covenants and fulfill our part with faith the Lord will complete his end without fail.

Thank you  so much for the support mom, and don't worry I’m not getting discouraged! Our Mission President received revelation that we can baptize 2 every month and get 20 lessons every week. I don't believe that is an average that the Lord just gave us to TRY to complete, that is a number that he knows every area in the mission can get if we work and we are going to get it! :) 

I love you guys tons and tons and I’m sending tons of prayers your way several times a day. Give everyone lots of hugs for me! :))

Sincerely, Elder Dabel

July 20, 2015

Thanks dad! 

I’m glad to hear how much effort you put into the work. I wish that all the leaders down here were that committed ha.. 

So this week wasn't horrible, but it hurts to see the dats at the end of the week. I feel like we are working our little buts off, and we just aren't having the success that I know that we can have. I pray every day that the Lord can help us find our errors and correct them, and that we can find a way to work this area in which we will see more success. My comp has been a little discouraged from the area and I can kind of see why after four and a half months of no success and tons of rejection. But, we aren't giving up, at least I’m not in Europe, because I hear that missionary work is rough over there!! My district leader gave me some good advice last night about trying everything we do in a new way until we find something that works. Also reading the beginning of PME and going back to the basics. The miracle of this week was the Lord fulfilling his end of our covenant. We made a covenant as a zone that we were going to do 7 listas (we visit families and do an activity to get references) this week. By Saturday we only had 2 listas, but by Sunday night we got the other 5 in. That felt really good:)

Thanks for all the letters every week and thank you for your prayers and support :)))

Tomorrow I hit 6 months who whooo!  :)