One last goodbye before Dakota left on the shuttle -- off to Singapore

Down Turn At MTC (Week 3) (Aug 13, 2014)

Hi everyone!  Another week down here at the MTC! I've now past the half way mark and I leave here in less than three weeks! Whoo hoo!!!

The food here is so bad. At least I have food though! I never thought I would say this, but I am so sick of salads. I know that's a shock because most people know I eat "rabbit food" a lot. Haha. One thing that I have learned is that the only way to truly understand what a mission is like is by going on one! So me and an Elder in my district both play basketball, & word has been getting out that we play, so we had a group of Elders come up to us and challenge us to a game. Whoever looses the game, that team has to go clean the other teams apartment (6 guys to an apartment) for an entire week, and take care of their dishes every meal for a week. I basically told our team we are picking our prize =) We play this game tomorrow. Hopefully we win!

Every time we go to Main Campus or to the Temple, we ride on city buses so they are playing Top 40 songs. It's funny because every time the Elder's and Sisters ride on the buss, they all jam out to the music since we don't really get to hear any music other than hymns! But I love hymns, they are amazing! Haha today they were playing some Ed Sheeran and we all started singing.

Crazy story: So yesterday, me and my companion were both teaching our investigator named Alan. He is from Brooklyn NY and he is studying here at BYU but has no idea what The Gospel is. We were teaching him yesterday and we asked him how he was doing and he said he was doing horrible because Robin Williams died!!! What? Is that true? Everyone here has been down because of that! What a horrible way to start off a lesson! My district are all wearing black tomorrow because we all love him and want to pay our dues.

Companions can be very hard. Me and my companion get along pretty well, but sometimes not so much. We have the complete opposite type's of personalities. He's the type of guy who wants to sit inside all day, eat ice cream and watch cartoons and read all the star wars series. He doesn't like working when it comes to class or gym time. I'm the kind of person who has to be outside, have fun, and I tend to get pretty competitive at times. He really is a good kid, It's just been interesting figuring out how to make this work. I was telling him last night how I think it's interesting how God put us both with the opposite of who we are as people. He agreed. Haha. He's great though. He talks forever too. He talks me to sleep every night. One thing he doesn't know though is that every time I get in bed, I put earplugs in so I can't hear him so I can fall asleep. Haha. It's alright though. He like's to draw so I've found some things for him to draw to show people in the lessons. All is well. I just think it's quite interesting how God gives us things we need to work on so we can improve as people.

On Saturday I was studying next to a room that has a piano in it, and an Elder came up and said hello to me and asked me if I could play a piano song. I looked at it and it looked really hard so I told him I would need some time to learn it. About 5 minutes later, I heard a voice of an angel, and I looked up and realized it was the same guy. Turns out he is an opera singer (the best I've ever heard in my life), and he sang me the Lord's Prayer. It was UNREAL. Elder Pierce and I played our duets for him and he sang for us, and we are great friends now! We are defiantly going to work together on music when we get back. He has a whole list of scholarship offers for his voice. He's amazing. Such power music can bring. I LOVE music so much!

So this Hermana (sister in spanish) in my district, was able to trace her family history all the way back to Adam and Eve. I wouldn't have believed it unless I saw it myself. Crazy! It took us a long time but we were able to do it! Whoever did her family history work is a genius! 

I was made district leader this week and it's pretty cool because two Elders in our district our now the Zone leaders and a sister in our district is in charge of the sisters here. It's nice because our district is in charge of a lot of people here so we all plan the days according to our liking! Haha.

I want to share with you a scripture of the day (Alma 37:36-37).  "Yea, and cry unto God for all they support; yea, let all they doings be unto the Lord, and whithersoever thou goest let it be in the Lord; yea, let all thy thoughts be directed unto the Lord; yea, let the affections of thy heart be placed upon the Lord forever.  Counsel with the Lord in all they doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day." 

Being cut off from the world has truly made me realize what is important in life, and has made me more in tune with God. I can feel clearly, think clearly, and nothing is distracting me other than myself. That's one thing I love about the mission and it's something I will take with me forever. I've realized after I applied this scripture in my life, I started to see miracles happening every day! But It wasn't until I applied it and tried it out until I started to see those miracles - something to keep in mind when you read it. 

I watched these two video's this week and they truly inspired me. One is about a woman who lost her husband in Iraq, and the other is about an Olympic athlete who has less than 10% of his vision who has 4 gold metals. Truly after seeing these two people achieve such greatness, temporally, physically and spiritually, It's made me realize that we can truly do ANYTHING if we want it bad enough. What are we willing to give up to gain what it is we want? That's the question I have been asking myself this week. Ask yourself the same and ponder on it. Check them out.

1) http://www.mormonchannel.org/Im-a-mormon?v=3458291938001

2) http://www.mormonchannel.org/Im-a-mormon?v=2652190644001

I love you all. Have a fantastic WEEK!!! 

From heaven,

- Elder Celaya

PICTURES - WEEK 3 (Aug 13, 2014)

So for those who know me, I think this picture of my companion shows exactly how we are opposite. Haha.

This Is Sister White. She is one of our teachers here. She is AWESOME! 

Here is a picture with the Ferris Bueler look-a-like. He acts exactly like him too. It's hilarious. 

This is me and Dakota's companion Elder Lu.  (Switched name tags.)

I found Joe here too! (He is one of my good friends from England that I met at EFY 2 years ago!)

The amazing Opera Singer and Elder Pierce

​Look who we found! We found Allie Benson (or Sister Benson) here! 

Elder  Pierce got to host me coming into the MTC and 

me and my companion were able to ship them off

 as they left the MTC! Great growing time for all of us.

This picture is a drawing of a discussion ​me and my companion had for companionship study.

We really get into some deep material. It's great!

PS. An email wouldn't be a good picture email without a PDay (Preparation Day) Selfie.

Week #2 in the MTC!! (Aug 6, 2014)

Week two in the MTC! This week was great! I think I am finally getting the hang of it here. One thing I have realized is positive change can seem very hard and counter-productive at times, but one thing I have also come to understand is that change is always difficult no matter how good it is. It's only with time that we can learn to adjust. It keeps life fresh and new. One thing a very smart man told me (you know who you are) was that this mission teaches how to invite change into one's life. Life is full of changes and you can't possibly keep it the same no matter how hard you try. This mission teaches you how to embrace situations you wouldn't dare to embrace anywhere else in Life. It's like a book I read about Lance Armstrong before I came on my mission. He said the reason he could go through so much pain, experience so much, be so consistent and seven years in a row, win The Tour De France, was because he knew that no matter how much pain he would have to go through on the bike, it would never match the pain he felt while he was battling cancer. Some of you may say it was the drugs, but no matter how many drugs you're on, it takes a will of a champion to win 7 Tour De France's in a row. The same is like the mission in a less dramatic sense. It puts you in stressful, and quite honestly, fun situations where you have to adapt quickly, but after you learn, every other situation seems to be easy. 

For devotional this week, we had two people come. 1st the President of BYU came and spoke and then John Groberg and Jane Groberg from the movie "The Other Side Of Heaven" (The story about the missionary who goes to Tonga who leaves his girlfriend behind (now wife) to serve the people). It was quite an amazing experience hearing about the stories in the movie, but in person from the man himself. It was humbling to see their perspectives now that they are wise and in their old age. For those who haven't seen that movie, or even if you have, maybe go watch it! It's a great movie and it really shows what missionary work is all about (loving the people). 

We have a sister in our district (my district has 6 Elders and 3 Sisters - 5 going to Mexico, one going to Texas, and 2 going to NY) who is from Quebec in Canada and speaks fluent French. It's funny walking around with her because a lot of the words that are considered "bad" here aren't in Canada, so she walks around saying the most offensive things, but she doesn't even know that they are offensive. It goes two ways though because a lot of the things I say are considered offensive where she lives, so we are teaching each other how to be polite in both countries. Well, anyway, we were walking around the Main Campus here, and I saw her staring at this Elder, and I said to her "Hermana stop staring at that Elder! You're going to get struck by lightning if you stare at him that long as a missionary!". And what she said to me was hilarious. She stopped, looked me in the eyes and was like "my heart is locked but I can still appreciate the beauty of life". I thought it was very hilarious. It's very funny watching someone try to adapt to the American way of life.

Another fun story. Yesterday before our Tuesday devotional, I found Dakota and Lu again, and we went into a big room, got two pianos back to back right against each other and we played duels. We played our duets in a duel form. It was fun. People love music here so much because we don't listen to any music so when someone is playing music, people automatically flock. An Elder in my district sings really well so him and I are going to sing a duet together. It's going to be awesome. 

Anyways, everyone here is so happy. You can see it in their eyes. Everyone just seems to have a light in their eyes and it doesn't come from them. It comes from something bigger than them. I want you to all ask yourselves (as I have done the same this week), and ponder on this: What ideally would make you the happiest the longest? Ponder about this simple question, and once you get your answer, go after it, and achieve it. Change your ways, no matter how hard it will be to change. In the end, if you are truly happy eternally, then you will never regret the change of life.

I love you all. Keep working hard in life. Remain humble. Be humble enough to change. That's one thing I have learned one must do in order to progress in life - to see the changes they need to make to better themselves. Missionary work isn't about teaching people lessons. It's about growing to love people - the same way Christ loves us. He accepts us for our mistakes but he expects nothing but our best. Love is the answer to everything. That's why I love missionary work. You love people and grow to care for them in a way you can't understand anywhere else. 

I forgot one more thing! This week, at church, they called me up to give a prayer and bare a testimony all in Spanish! It was quite stressful but it was awesome! 

That's all.

Have a great week!!!! :]

From Heaven,

- Elder Celaya 

Elder Lu, Elder Pierce, Elder Celaya, Elder Lyons