Hello my family!! How is everyone doing this week?
I hope all is good! :) This week has been one of the most craziest, odd, and
hardest weeks of my life. Even though it's been hard, there has been many
tender mercies and many blessings that have come from it!
One of my good friends and fellow Elders went home
this week. His name is Elder Wilson and he's the guy I actually met before the
mission (the one who lifts weights). He was serving in the Bronx, and turns out
he had depression. He lost 20 pounds being here and he didn't know why he was
depressed. It was sad for us to hear about him going home and it kind of put a
damper on the week. I couldn't believe it when I heard it. Pray for him. He
needs it. He said that he would call President Morgan every night and talk to
him about what he was feeling, and then he had a meeting with him. In the
meeting he was crying and didn't know what to do, and President Morgan
suggested that he should go home. Elder Wilson was disappointed that he
couldn't say he served an honorable mission, and president got angry with this.
He went and grabbed Elder Wilson's face, got up in his face and said
"don't you EVER let anyone say you didn't serve an honorable mission. You
cleaned your life up to get here, you wanted to serve with all your might, but
because your body wouldn't let you anymore, is why you need to go home. Don't
let anyone ever tell you this...ever." He then gave Elder Wilson a
blessing and he flew home the next day. President Morgan has the perfect
balance of being understanding and lovable, and tough in times where that is
required. We will miss you Elder Wilson.
Last week I told you all I was sick and had to stay
in bed most of last week. On the mission, being sick is very emotionally
aggravating because you have sacrificed so much to be on a mission and then you
are stuck at home because you get sick. You feel so frustrated and guilty which
isn't good and just makes you more sick! Haha. So I couldn't take being inside
anymore so I decided to go out with my companion and start to work again while
being sick. That wasn't the smartest idea. It only got worse and worse and all
the Elders in my zone kept telling me to call Sister Morgan (President Morgan's
wife) and ask her what to do, but I didn't listen because I thought I would
just get better. It was weird because I had a fever for two weeks straight, and
body aches, my lymph nodes have been really swollen especially on the side of
my neck (I look like Frankenstein or the hulk haha...my neck is super swollen
right now) and I have had a really bad sore throat that keeps getting worse.
I've had headaches and have felt restless. I checked my weight yesterday and
within a week, I have lost 13 pounds. Not good at all. Yesterday we went on
splits (so I went to Scarsdale and one of the Scarsdale elders came here to
Yonkers) and I got to sleep in a nice bed. Their apartment was so nice! In all
honesty it wasn't that nice, but compared to where we live in Yonkers, it was
heaven. Anyways I went to sleep and I woke up in the night choking on my saliva
because my throat was so sore, I couldn't swallow. So I spent the rest of the
night in the bathroom spitting out my saliva so I didn't have to swallow it. It
was a rough night! There is an elder named Elder Burton in my zone who also lives
in the Scarsdale apartment and he saw me shaking yesterday from my fever, and
he got up in my face about not calling sister Morgan or the doctor. It was
needed and I thank him for doing so. I called Sister Morgan and she said I
needed to call the doctor. I then called the doctor and after he looked at all
the symptoms he said I had strep throat and an infection running through my
body. He gave me a prescription for some medicine. I'm on that now, so we will
see how it works. I haven't been this sick in a long time, and I think some of
it was stress related.
When I get super stressed, I usually hold it in and
don't tell anybody so my body then gets sick. It hit me this week. I had given
up on myself here. I was eating ramen at every meal. I couldn't sleep because I
was depressed. I stopped exercising, I would never drink water, and I
completely just stopped caring about myself. In a bad way. I realized that if
I'm going to be able to help anyone, I first needed to make sure I was healthy
mentally, physically and spiritually. I had given up because most everyone else
in this place has given up on their lives and it was infectious. By infectious
I mean this. All the apartments/ houses here in Yonkers look like the houses
were made out of sticks and slapped together in a day, then the telephone lines
look like someone blind put them up, there is trash everywhere, everyone
dresses like they are homeless (except at church haha) and everyone sits
outside on their steps doing drugs. It's one of the most dirtiest places I've
seen. It looks like a ghost town with people still living here. My companion
calls them animals. Haha he says we have been placed in a concrete jungle of
animals and it's our jobs to find the people still left here. Anyways, because
of all this this, I really didn't like it here, and slowly started giving up on
me. I had lost all hope. There was nothing I could find to get excited about.
But I've been praying really hard this week for God to change this and let me
see some hope, to feel some joy for something...anything. And slowly I started
to feel hopeful, but I didn't even know what for. Being super sick, I realized
I had to eat better, so I'm going to stop buying ramen and get some good
healthy food. We are hitting up trader joes and whole foods today!
We went to visit a family named the Feliz family
and the husband does calisthenics (street workouts) and he was in extremely
good shape. He taught me his workouts which are very clever and creative. He
was at a point in his life where he was doing 5,000-10,000 push-ups a day. And
I believe it because he's in very good shape. Like crazy shape. This got me
fired up to start working out again when I get better. We've been trying to
teach this family the entire time I've been here, but every appointment has
fallen through, and I know it was meant to be that we met with them this week,
because this man gave me some hope again right when I felt like I couldn't go
on anymore. I can't wait to get better so I can flip things around again.
There's that saying, "Either I'm going to change the world, or the world is
going to change me." I was letting the world change me...in a sense
destroy me physically and mentally, and the only place I've been able to go for
help is the Lord. But perhaps he means it to be this way. I will talk about
this more later. Mr. Feliz is a really great guy. He's this big buff looking
tough guy but he has a heart. He is looking for another job right now so he can
quit his job now and come to church because he works on Sunday's. He lives in a
crazy place so he scoped out the area outside for us before we left and was
like a bodyguard as he walked us to our car. Cool guy! Can't wait to teach his
family again.
We had an event this week where all the
missionaries from our zone came to Yonkers and we went to a place called south
Broadway and Getty square and we sang as missionaries. Both these areas are
terrible areas to be in, but that's where they assigned the event. It was
honestly pretty scary at first. Here's a group of 6-10 white missionaries, both
Elders and Sisters amongst black, Dominican, and Hispanic people, happily
singing in a courtyard filled with homeless people and druggies. It was
interesting. Even though our surroundings were not the best, it was amazing the
peace and joy I felt when we all sang those hymns together. The fact that you
could feel the spirit so strong in such terrible surroundings was amazing to
me. And that same spirit attracted some people to us, and one of them was a 19
year old guy who happened to be the boyfriend of one of the girls in our
church. We talked to him for a while and he really wants to be baptized, and
get sealed to his future wife and family for time and all eternity in the
temple. Looking back, that whole event was meant to find him. The sisters in
our Ward were having a baptism the following day in our church and we invited
him to come. We told him we would make sure his girlfriend was there. She didn't
end up showing up, and even though she didn't, he did, and he sat there and
watched as this 11 year old girl got baptized by our bishop who holds the
authority from God to do so, and he said after the baptism that he has never
felt such a peace and such a heavenly feeling before. We told him that that was
the Holy Spirit or the spirit of God and it testifies of truth, we told him the
reason he was feeling this was because what he watched was truly of God. He
told us he wants this feeling in his life and is willing to do whatever to have
it. He told us he wants to start "hanging out" with us more, so we
are going to start and help him out and teach him about the restored gospel of
Jesus Christ. It's amazing to see someone carry himself the way he does with
good standards and good dreams in a city of the opposite when he's had nobody
but himself to teach him of these good morals and ways of living that bring
happiness. The Lord truly does prepare people to receive the teachings of God.
We are going to start teaching him.
There is a special spirit there at baptisms. It
feels like a peace of heaven opened up to you while you're still in this world,
and you don't just now see with an eternal perspective, but you feel it. You
can feel there's more. You can feel that it's right. You can feel that it's of
God. There's no way anyone can experience that feeling of great joy and say it
is of this world. There's is nothing I've ever felt that has made me this
happy, except this feeling...the feeling of the spirit – God’s way of
communicating to us, what is true eternally.
I had the chance to play the piano while Sister Smith and the girl
getting baptized sang a duet. It was great. There was this family who was at
the baptism...We had dinner with this family before and I got to know them
pretty well and bond with their kids. I taught one of the kids how to spin a basketball
on his finger and he loves it. This family was there and they came up to me
(they have about 6 kids) and they told me that they all were praying for me to
get better every day multiple times a day. All the kids and the husband and
wife. It's so awesome to be able make these bonds with these people. It's definitely
very humbling.
We had
dinner again at Judy and shasha's house and it was great. They were both really
sick but they still made us dinner. These two are some of my favorite people here.
Even though I won't miss much else here in Yonkers, I will miss them. Judy even
called us last night because she felt impressed to call us and see if
everything was alright. It was right when we were picking up medicine and she
just wanted to check up and see if we were still ok. She told us anything we
need, she will help us with. It was quite an odd call, but Elder Paiz and I
both told her she has no idea how comforting it would be to both of our mothers
to know there is someone like her watching out for us like we are her own. She
is a very Christlike woman. Mom you
would love her.
We had a training conference this past week with
President Morgan, his assistants and with all us new missionaries and our
trainers. I want to share a few things that he talked about.
He was called as a bishop at age 32, and there was
a couple in his Ward...an older couple who had served a total of 15 missions
together. 15! They were truly consecrated to the Lord. They gave everything
they had to Him. 15 missions are many years and years, serving others. He loved his wife with all his might as did
she love him with everything she had. One day, Betty (his wife) had a stroke
and went into a coma. Her husband rushed her to the hospital and checked her in
in the middle of the night. Well President Morgan got word of this (bishop at
the time), woke up and rushed over to comfort him and his family at the
hospital. Every day friends and family would come in and sing her songs of joy
and life, hoping that she would wake up out of the coma. Her husband didn't
sleep much at all during that time as he sat next to Betty in the hospital bed
grasping her hand as she was stuck in the coma. A week went by and she was
still in the coma, and then on a Saturday night, poor Betty passed away.
Betty's husband was now left here on the earth without her. Betty and her
husband every week would create these beautiful flower bouquets and they would
come and decorate the chapel every Sunday. They built a greenhouse and planted
the flowers specifically for this purpose. As Bishop Morgan walked out of the
hospital that night with Betty's husband right after she passed away, Betty's
husband looked him in the eyes and told him to not worry, he would make sure
the flowers are there tomorrow Sunday morning at church. Bishop Morgan told him
not to worry about it and that should be the last thing on his mind. He
insisted he must bring them and he told him not to worry about it many times.
Betty's husband then grabbed Bishop Morgan’s hands, looked him in the eyes, and
said "Bishop Morgan, I really love Betty, but I love God more." He
then brought the flowers just as he said he would to church, decorated the
room, only hours after his wife had passed away whom he loved so dearly. He put
off what he was feeling, so he could turn outward, and serve others. When in
his darkest hours,he looked outward to serve the people of the ward, and
ultimately to serve God. This man was amazing.
I have come to know, that even though God is so
grand and has created creations beyond number, we matter to him. You matter to
him. He knows more about what will make you happy in the long run than you
could ever know yourself. He knows all of us by name. He knows everything we
are going through, and he knows all our thoughts. He knows us better than we
know ourselves, and I want to share a talk (at the bottom of this email) that
has helped me come to understand that. So after this, grab a cup of herbal tea
and go sit outside and get reading away :)
I had an interview with President Morgan, and I can
truly say that he is a man of God, called by God. I don't think I've met anyone
(besides Elder Nelson of the quorum of the 12 Apostles) who is closer to God
than him. I could see him being called to be prophet eventually. He is more in
tune with God than anyone I've seen. The first thing he ever told me was the
biggest thing this mission is supposed to do is the following. He said it will
be the by far the hardest time of my life ever, but it's because He wants me to
get to know Him (as he points to a picture of Jesus). He told me this and it sticks
with me through the hard times when I feel like giving up. He truly is a man of
God and words cannot describe it (it's beyond any language - the feeling you
get when you are around this man), but I have faith and know he is in
communication with what God wants so if he assigns me here it's for a reason.
He's amazing. Just know I'm in good hands.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK: Like this man, be different.
Help someone this week in need, when nobody else dares to. A depiction of the
Savior's parable of the Good Samaritan, in which a man is robbed and beaten by
thieves, and a Samaritan shows mercy on him.
https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/parable-of-the-good-samaritan?lang=eng
https://www.lds.org/bible-videos/videos/parable-of-the-good-samaritan?lang=eng
With much love,
- Elder Celaya
P.S. It's time to flip things around here in Yonkers!!!!
You Matter to Him (by Dieter F.
Uchtdorf)
The Lord uses a scale very different from the
world’s to weigh the worth of a soul.
Moses, one of the greatest prophets the world
has ever known, was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter and spent the first 40 years
of his life in the royal halls of Egypt. He knew firsthand the glory and
grandeur of that ancient kingdom.
Years later, on the top of a distant mountain, far
removed from the splendor and magnificence of mighty Egypt, Moses stood in the
presence of God and spoke to Him face to face as a man speaks with his friend.1
During the course of that visitation, God showed Moses the workmanship of His
hands, granting him a glimpse of His work and glory. When the vision ended,
Moses fell to the earth for the space of many hours. When his strength finally
returned, he realized something that, in all his years in Pharaoh’s court, had
never occurred to him before.
“I know,” he said, “that man is nothing.”
We Are Less
Than We Suppose
The more we learn about the universe, the more we
understand--at least in a small part--what Moses knew. The universe is so
large, mysterious, and glorious that it is incomprehensible to the human mind.
“Worlds without number have I created,” God said to Moses. The wonders of the
night sky are a beautiful testimony of that truth.
There are few things that have filled me with such
breathless awe as flying in the black of night across oceans and continents and
looking out my cockpit window upon the infinite glory of millions of stars.
Astronomers have attempted to count the number of
stars in the universe. One group of scientists estimates that the number of
stars within range of our telescopes is 10 times greater than all the grains of
sand on the world’s beaches and deserts.
This conclusion has a striking similarity to the
declaration of the ancient prophet Enoch: “Were it possible that man could
number the particles of the earth, yea, millions of earths like this, it would
not be a beginning to the number of thy creations.”
Given the vastness of God’s creations, it’s no
wonder the great King Benjamin counseled his people to “always retain in
remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness.”
We Are
Greater Than We Suppose
But even though man is nothing, it fills me with
wonder and awe to think that “the worth of souls is great in the sight of God.”
And
while we may look at the vast expanse of the universe and say, “What is man in
comparison to the glory of creation?” God Himself said we are the reason He
created the universe! His work and glory--the purpose for this magnificent
universe--is to save and exalt mankind.8 In other words, the vast expanse of
eternity, the glories and mysteries of infinite space and time are all built for
the benefit of ordinary mortals like you and me. Our Heavenly Father created
the universe that we might reach our potential as His sons and daughters.
This is a paradox of man: compared to God, man is
nothing; yet we are everything to God. While against the backdrop of infinite
creation we may appear to be nothing, we have a spark of eternal fire burning
within our breast. We have the incomprehensible promise of exaltation--worlds
without end--within our grasp. And it is God’s great desire to help us reach
it.
The Folly of
Pride
The great deceiver knows that one of his most
effective tools in leading the children of God astray is to appeal to the
extremes of the paradox of man. To some, he appeals to their prideful
tendencies, puffing them up and encouraging them to believe in the fantasy of
their own self-importance and invincibility. He tells them they have
transcended the ordinary and that because of ability, birthright, or social
status, they are set apart from the common measure of all that surrounds them.
He leads them to conclude that they are therefore not subject to anyone else’s
rules and not to be bothered by anyone else’s problems.
Abraham Lincoln is said to have loved a poem that
reads:
Oh why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-flitting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
Man passeth from life to his rest in the grave.
Disciples of Jesus Christ understand that compared
to eternity, our existence in this mortal sphere is only “a small moment” in
space and time.10 They know that a person’s true value has little to do with
what the world holds in high esteem. They know you could pile up the
accumulated currency of the entire world and it could not buy a loaf of bread
in the economy of heaven.
Those who will “inherit the kingdom of God”11 are
those who become “as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of
love.”12 “For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted.”13 Such disciples understand also “that when
ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your
God.”14
We Are Not
Forgotten
Another way Satan deceives is through
discouragement. He attempts to focus our sight on our own insignificance until
we begin to doubt that we have much worth. He tells us that we are too small
for anyone to take notice, that we are forgotten--especially by God.
Let me share with you a personal experience that
may be of some help to those who feel insignificant, forgotten, or alone.
Many years ago I attended pilot training in the
United States Air Force. I was far away from my home, a young West German
soldier, born in Czechoslovakia, who had grown up in East Germany and spoke
English only with great difficulty. I clearly remember my journey to our
training base in Texas. I was on a plane, sitting next to a passenger who spoke
with a heavy Southern accent. I could scarcely understand a word he said. I
actually wondered if I had been taught the wrong language all along. I was
terrified by the thought that I had to compete for the coveted top spots in
pilot training against students who were native English speakers.
When I arrived on the air base in the small town of
Big Spring, Texas, I looked for and found the Latter-day Saint branch, which
consisted of a handful of wonderful members who were meeting in rented rooms on
the air base itself. The members were in the process of building a small
meetinghouse that would serve as a permanent place for the Church. Back in
those days members provided much of the labor on new buildings.
Day after day I attended my pilot training and
studied as hard as I could and then spent most of my spare time working on the
new meetinghouse. There I learned that a two-by-four is not a dance step but a
piece of wood. I also learned the important survival skill of missing my thumb
when pounding a nail.
I spent so much time working on the meetinghouse
that the branch president--who also happened to be one of our flight
instructors--expressed concern that I perhaps should spend more time studying.
My friends and fellow student pilots engaged
themselves in free-time activities as well, although I think it’s safe to say
that some of those activities would not have been in alignment with today’s For
the Strength of Youth pamphlet. For my part, I enjoyed being an active part of
this tiny west Texas branch, practicing my newly acquired carpentry skills, and
improving my English as I fulfilled my callings to teach in the elders quorum
and in Sunday School.
At the time, Big Spring, despite its name, was a
small, insignificant, and unknown place. And I often felt exactly the same way
about myself--insignificant, unknown, and quite alone. Even so, I never once
wondered if the Lord had forgotten me or if He would ever be able to find me
there. I knew that it didn’t matter to Heavenly Father where I was, where I ranked
with others in my pilot training class, or what my calling in the Church was.
What mattered to Him was that I was doing the best I could, that my heart was
inclined toward Him, and that I was willing to help those around me. I knew if
I did the best I could, all would be well.
And all was well.15
The Last
Shall Be First
The Lord doesn’t care at all if we spend our days
working in marble halls or stable stalls. He knows where we are, no matter how
humble our circumstances. He will use--in His own way and for His holy
purposes--those who incline their hearts to Him.
God knows that some of the greatest souls who have
ever lived are those who will never appear in the chronicles of history. They
are the blessed, humble souls who emulate the Savior’s example and spend the
days of their lives doing good.16
One such couple, parents of a friend of mine,
exemplify this principle for me. The husband worked at a steel mill in Utah. At
lunch he would pull out his scriptures or a Church magazine and read. When the
other workers saw this, they ridiculed him and challenged his beliefs. Whenever
they did, he spoke to them with kindness and confidence. He did not allow their
disrespect to make him angry or upset.
Years later one of the more vocal mockers became
very ill. Before he died, he requested that this humble man speak at his
funeral--which he did.
This faithful member of the Church never had much
in the way of social status or wealth, but his influence extended deeply to all
who knew him. He died in an industrial accident while stopping to help another
worker who was stranded in the snow.
Within a year his widow had to undergo brain
surgery, which has left her unable to walk. But people love coming to spend
time with her because she listens. She remembers. She cares. Unable to write,
she memorizes her children’s and grandchildren’s telephone numbers. She
lovingly remembers birthdays and anniversaries.
Those who visit her come away feeling better about
life and about themselves. They feel her love. They know she cares. She never
complains but spends her days blessing the lives of others. One of her friends
said this woman was one of the few people she had ever known who truly
exemplifies the love and life of Jesus Christ.
This couple would have been the first to say they
were not of much importance in this world. But the Lord uses a scale very
different from the world’s to weigh the worth of a soul. He knows this faithful
couple; He loves them. Their actions are a living witness of their strong faith
in Him.
You Matter to Him
My dear brothers and sisters, it may be true that
man is nothing in comparison to the greatness of the universe. At times we may
even feel insignificant, invisible, alone, or forgotten. But always
remember--you matter to Him! If you ever doubt that, consider these four divine
principles:
First, God loves the humble and meek, for they are
“greatest in the kingdom of heaven.”17
Second, the Lord entrusts “the fulness of [His]
gospel [to] be proclaimed by the weak and the simple unto the ends of the
world.”18 He has chosen “the weak things of the world [to] come forth and break
down the mighty and strong ones”19 and to put to shame “the things which are
mighty.”20
Third, no matter where you live, no matter how
humble your circumstances, how meager your employment, how limited your
abilities, how ordinary your appearance, or how little your calling in the
Church may appear to you, you are not invisible to your Heavenly Father. He
loves you. He knows your humble heart and your acts of love and kindness.
Together, they form a lasting testimony of your fidelity and faith.
Fourth and finally, please understand that what you
see and experience now is not what forever will be. You will not feel
loneliness, sorrow, pain, or discouragement forever. We have the faithful
promise of God that He will neither forget nor forsake those who incline their
hearts to Him.21 Have hope and faith in that promise. Learn to love your
Heavenly Father and become His disciple in word and in deed.
Be assured that if you but hold on, believe in Him,
and remain faithful in keeping the commandments, one day you will experience
for yourselves the promises revealed to the Apostle Paul: “Eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God
hath prepared for them that love him.”22
Brothers and sisters, the most powerful Being in
the universe is the Father of your spirit. He knows you. He loves you with a
perfect love.
God sees you not only as a mortal being on a small
planet who lives for a brief season--He sees you as His child. He sees you as
the being you are capable and designed to become. He wants you to know that you
matter to Him.
May we ever believe, trust, and align our lives so
that we will understand our true eternal worth and potential. May we be worthy
of the precious blessings our Heavenly Father has in store for us is my prayer
in the name of His Son, even Jesus Christ, amen.
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