This week has been a
great week here. Our stake president has sent us on a little mission, along
with every other missionary that is serving in our zone. He is calling it the
"Search & Rescue," which is where we are supposed to go out and
find all the less-active young adults that have ever been on the church records
in our area, and find their status (have they moved, if so, what is their new
address, if they haven't moved, are they still interested in the church, and
then update the list, and give it back to the stake president). It has been
quite an interesting experience, but I enjoy it. It is fun because we go all
over Yonkers, and we knock on all these different doors and you never know what
you are going to get behind each door - I love that feeling now. It used to
scare me (knocking on random people’s doors), but now I enjoy it. That is one
thing I didn't know we did to the extent we do it (tracting) on the mission. We
tract a lot and do a lot of lookups. We were trying to find one person from the
search and rescue list and I knocked on the door, and this guy behind the door
said "quien es?" which means "who is it?" in Spanish. We told
him we were the missionaries and he went and got a lady to come talk to us. We
talked for little over a minute and then she asked who we were, and then all of
a sudden there was a pause...then she said to me "Um I'm sorry but
nobody....is here to talk to you....right now." I looked at Elder Segura
and he started busting up laughing and I had to remember at that moment that
that lady was a daughter of God, because my natural man within was telling me
to talk back. Haha so I stood there for 10 seconds trying to regain my composure and said, "Alright, well you have a wonderful night!" and then we
walked away and Elder Segura was laughing at me because right before this
occasion, we went to go look up another less active. So on all of these
apartments, there are two doors. You walk into the first door and then on the
wall there usually is a call box, and you have to get buzzed in to get into the
second door. So, Elder Segura pressed the person’s number, and a lady answered,
and we told her who we were looking for. We gave her the first name, and she
said she had no idea who that was, and then we told her the last name, and she
randomly decided to tell us that it was her son. So we asked if he was home,
and she said yes, and said she was going to go get him so we could talk to him.
So Elder Segura asked if it was him, and he said "yeah that is me,"
and then once he asked who we were, and we told him we were the missionaries,
he said that the guy we were looking for didn't live there, and he starting
saying that he has no idea who we were talking about, and then hung up on us.
The whole time Elder Segura was trying to keep it cool, but after he hung up on
him, he started yelling at the call box in his heavy Spanish European accent.
He was very angry and I made fun of him for it. Haha. So of course I got that
out right back in my face the next door we knocked. This is why this is
fun, because you never know what you are going to get. You have to have a light
heart about it or else you will take everything offensive. That is one thing
that truly is amazing about a mission, is that you learn how to not take
offense to things when you are rejected in any way. You just keep on moving and
try to figure out a better way to do the work. Perhaps that will be a good
business skill one day and in relationships.
Christmas Eve: For
Christmas Eve, we went to South Manhattan and spent the day in the city. It was
pretty packed, but unfortunately it was raining a lot. We took the subways down
(that is always an experience in itself), and then went to wall street, and
walked all the way up, seeing different things and touring the city. It was a
really fun day. I will attach some photos. We then went to one of my favorite
families (the Osorio’s) homes for dinner. We had a big Christmas Eve Dominican
dinner which was fun. I am still not too keen on Dominican food. But hey, it's
a lot better than what I was eating the first month of my mission (only Raman
noodles). Haha.
Christmas: Christmas
was actually really fun. It was one of the most fun days in my mission. We went
to the church and played basketball with our entire district. We played for a
long time and we would take breaks when people needed to Skype their family.
Speaking of skyping, it was awesome to see my family again. One thing that was
extremely weird is that I feel like my entire world has changed SO much within
the last 6 months, and because of that, I have changed as well. I am not the same
person I was when I left for my mission. It felt so weird skyping my family
because it felt like home - it felt like I just walked back in my house and I
was only gone for a day. It was just like normal, but I feel like a different
person - an enhanced version of myself. It feels like I have left earth, and I
just got to go back to earth for an hour and everything was still the same. It
really was a comforting feeling. It was so fun talking with you guys and seeing
your faces.
Brandon: Veronica
ended up breaking up with Brandon because she is leaving on her mission this
month. We have not been able to meet with Brandon, and we don't know if it’s
just because he has been busy, or if he relates it to Veronica and therefore
wants nothing to do with her right now, so he doesn't want to meet with us. I
know he wasn't just meeting with us for her, because I personally saw and felt
how he was changing. I saw the spirit working in him and in his life. I saw his
countenance change. That is something that is very interesting to see as a
missionary. You can literally see a new light come into the person when they
start to change their life. It is like they completely turn into a new person.
You can also see, when someone has then decided to not want to change any
longer and follow the gospel, you can see the light in them leave, and you can
see they are trying to ignore what they deep down in their hearts know to be
true. It is a very sad thing, but it is so easy to see in people. I just wish
they could see it in themselves. Anyways, we aren't sure what will end up
happening with Brandon. We love him and he is an amazing guy, so hopefully he
can value the change he has seen in his life so much so that he will want to meet
with us again.
Roy: We feel as if Roy
is holding onto his past, and because of that, he cannot see the hope of his
future, and because of that, it is holding him back from progressing. We have
had a couple of lessons with him, teaching him about eternal families, temples,
and what priesthood is, and they were great lessons, but we feel as if half of
his heart is still stuck in the past. We are going to meet with him Friday and
teach about disconnecting himself from the past, and aligning himself with the
gospel so he can continue to progress.
Dominican Family: We
went on a split the other week with our zone leaders, and during this time,
Elder Segura and Elder Gore (our awesome zone leader) tracked into this
Dominican family. They are awesome! The dad is super interested and his wife
only has three months here in America. Somehow he lost his eye in the DR, but
he is an amazing guy. I was on a split with Elder Palmer (my district leader),
and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. Elder Palmer is such an amazing
teacher, and he truly has inspired me to buckle down and learn Spanish. One
thing I have noticed the longer I have been on my mission and the more Spanish
I learn, the more I realize I don't know. I still have trouble teaching in
Spanish, but I am forcing myself to learn, day by day. We are going to go back Saturday to
teach them. They are awesome.
Julian: Julian is a
guy that the sisters found. He is currently going to medical school and is
working three jobs to pay for school. We had a pass off lesson with them and
the sisters, and he is by far the most amazing guy I have been able to be
blessed to teach. He is such a nice, deep thinking, and genuine person. He has
such a strong and positive desire to know more about truth. He is not from Yonkers
(he is from upstate), but he is here for medical school. I have never met
someone so ready for the gospel. He is one of the most positive, easy to get along
with, people I have met. We taught him the Restoration with the sisters,
and there was such an amazing spirit there. I have yet to feel the spirit so
strong teaching someone in a lesson. It's during those times when you say to
yourself, there is absolutely no way this can't be true, because I have never
felt anything this peaceful and exciting in my life. It's during those times I
feel as if we get a little peek of what Heaven will be like. I am super excited
to see what happens with him, because he has been prepared.
We had President come
into our zone meeting this week, and he surprised us and talked about a
principle that has really affected and inspired me. He talked about becoming
ONE with Christ and his gospel. He talked about John 15 in the bible. Read it
slowly. It will change your life. In John 15, Jesus gives a parable of a vineyard.
Jesus is the vine, we are the branches, and God is the caretaker. He talked
about how it's not good enough to be in proximity to the vine - that does
nothing. You can't obtain nutrients when you are just around the vine - you
have to be connected. He talked about how once a branch has borne fruit, we
then have to let God purge the dead branches, because they are not allowing new
vines to grow so they can bear fruit. It is not enough for us to be in
proximity to the vine, we cannot be close to the vine, we have to be connected
to the vine. Don't look back on the past, what
could have been. Only look forward to what the Lord has in store for you. If
we look back, once we have changed not just our behavior, but rather our
nature, we are saying something like this: I
want all I had in the past, more than I have hope for in the future. Don't LOOK
BACK.
The gospel is change. It's eternal
change. Eternity is now. Don't wait. Become one with the Savior and your life
will change beyond your current comprehension - that is something I have seen
in myself. But I was not able to see it until I took the leap of faith. I can
only see it now, after I have in a sense jumped. During this new year, don't
just change your behavior, change your heart. Align yourself with God, and
change who you are.
I love you all so very much, and I
am so thankful for the many things I am blessed to learn on the mission.
With love,
- Elder Celaya
P.S. Transfers are on Wednesday
next week, and I am most likely going to be going out of Yonkers, so the next
time you hear from me, I will be in my new area. I find out Saturday where
I will be going. It is a bitter sweet feeling leaving an area.
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