The light within the darkness (17 June 2015)

What. A. Week. 

Everyone here thinks Jesus is black. That's always a fun one to deal with. I won't say any more about this one :)

I'm having a hard time writing these emails now, because most of the things we are experiencing here we cannot write about. So, I am trying to find some things that are good and uplifting. So here it goes. 

We were visiting the family who has a daughter who's 14 and pregnant. They are crazy! But we went over and were teaching them and talking with them, and then we gave the boyfriend (14-year-old) the chance to say the prayer. Up to this point he didn't seem really interested and it felt as if he didn't really want us to be there. As he said the prayer, my whole feeling about him changed. He said, "Thank you for sending me these two brothers who have shown more love to me than my own family. More love than I knew existed." That right there made it all worth it. His life is not easy and there's some choices that he has made that's made his life extremely difficult right now. He's a thug. Haha, but it was wild to see how love broke down everything and pierced him to the heart. 

Victor Ramos - So we found this guy who just moved here with his family from    La República. Turns out he used to be a professional pianist in the D.R. We told him we both played piano and he got all excited and brought us into this room where he had a piano. He started jamming out and then we played songs as well, and after that, it was as if we'd known each other forever. It was so awesome to see how that broke down every barrier. Very fun experience. It became spiritual. 

Humidity - the humidity here has been insane! This is a foreign mission for sure. Every day you are soaked from head to toe in sweat and water from the humidity. Then you go into these hot tiny apartments which are even hotter inside and you sweat even more. It feels like you are in a rainforest. 

Random rainstorm - Yesterday it started to rain for 30 minutes suddenly super hard. The streets were starting to flood and we decided to go outside during this time, of course. Well we got soaked from head to toe. We tried to go and continue on with working for the rest of the day, but it was super uncomfortable so we eventually changed. 

Indians - there are tons of people here from India! The other Sunday they blocked off the street and had an Indian festival. It was the craziest thing. Our area is like the Dominican Republic and India mixed into one. Then you have the few Albanians.  Nobody here really even speaks English (except the kids).

Contacting and tracting - we have been contacting people in the streets and tracting apartment buildings for most of our days. It's long and tiring, but we have seen results! 

Detonation cleanse - So, Elder Richards loves to eat healthy. We decided to go on a detox cleanse and completely stop eating bad things. We told all the members, and we have been on this cleanse for a week and a half now. It's a two week cleanse. We can only eat vegetables and certain fruits and some grains. We can only drink when we eat and we have to drink four glasses of water every meal, and we can't eat past five. It's been so extremely difficult, but it's been good. I have definitely felt a lot different and have lost some weight:) We finish the cleanse this Sunday. 

Army - we have this less active family that we visit every week. One of the guy’s girlfriend finally was able to meet with us. The guy’s name is Roger. Well, Roger’s girlfriend’s brother just got back to NY from serving in the Army in Germany, Korea, Italy, and Afghanistan. We met him earlier last week, but yesterday we talked to him outside for about an hour about his experiences in Afghanistan. He's 21 but enlisted in the army at 17. He shared some of the experiences he had, and some of them were experiences that we as normal human beings, living in a normal society, can't even dream of. He was a helicopter sniper in Afghanistan. We talked a lot about post-traumatic stress and how real it is for those soldiers who experience dark things in war and then come home and are haunted by those experiences. 

It was very interesting because we were outside when we were talking to him. He constantly was scanning the whole environment, checking out every detail about everyone who walked by. He then started telling us about every single person who walked by within that hour (what they were doing as they walked by, what size they were, race, what they were wearing down to a T, etc...). He said that is what you are paid for in the military. It is engraved in him to be completely 100% aware of his surroundings. He's even cautious of children walking by because he said in Afghanistan, many of the children have bombs strapped to them so he even is aware of them.

I had just watched this video that the church put out last week of these two men who fought in the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and it talked a lot about their post-traumatic stress. But I didn't know why I needed to watch it. As we were talking to this guy, I then came to know why. We were able to show him the video, and he opened up a lot more about the things now he's going through with the stress. We were able to testify and tell him that we have no idea the things he's been through in war and nobody does or really ever will, except Jesus Christ. Christ stooped below everything anyone would feel, and took on exactly what he (the guy we were talking to) was feeling so he (the guy) doesn't have to. The dark gloomy pain he feels every day causes him to wake up in the night screaming because of the memories coming back to life, haunting him from war. But we were able to talk to him about how the knowledge of Christ frees you. He's always there. Christ felt exactly what you feel like nobody even knows about. He knows us better than we know our own selves. It's amazing to see how Christ can cover everything from the littlest mistake to the darkest, suppressing experiences we can't even imagine going through on this earth. His hand is always open. Why not take the perfect help? 

Here is the video we shared with him. These two guys would jump from planes and start shooting at anyone they saw. The guy we talked to yesterday said these guys are nobody to mess with. He said they are really high up in the army and are as crazy as it gets. Watch how even their wounds....their deep, dark and unwavering wounds were able to be healed when they turned to Christ and gave Him their burdens. If even they can be healed, imagine how much we can be changed through Him?

http://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/his-grace/life-after-war-and-overcoming-post-traumatic-stress

Many people ask why God doesn't reveal himself in such a dark world. I myself have asked that question many times. The reason is simple. It is because He loves us. He is holding back, so we can choose to find him, discover him, and choose with all our souls to follow him. When Jesus does come again, it will be too late to choose which side you are on. As C.S. Lewis basically put it: "It is no good saying you choose to lay down, when it has become impossible to stand up." The time is now. Now is the time to change. It will be too late then if we procrastinate our own progression. He is giving us this time to change and take up our cross and follow Him, but time is fleeting. Let us plant the tree we should have planted twenty years ago, today. I love you all so much. Let's work together to be truly happy. 

As the scriptures put it: "I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never-ending happiness."

Just keep swimming!

Elder Austin Celaya 

10 June 2015

My new companion, Elder Richards

At church

Teaching

Good to see Elder Hausenfluk again

Elder Hausenfluk came back to NY to show his mom the mission.

Third World Country (27 May 2015)

Hello my family and friends!

This week has been absolutely CRAZY in SO many ways! It has been the most crazy, interesting, and fun week of my mission by far! It has completely been an adventure that I could not get anywhere else! I can honestly say I’d rather not be anywhere else in the world! This is just absolutely great! For our P-Day today we are going to go ride bikes through Central Park. Then go to Whole Foods. Haha. It's nice. We get in a train and it takes us out of our third world country and an hour later we are in one of the most beautiful and most expensive places to live in the world (Manhattan). Sometimes I have to pinch myself. Haha. 

This letter will be long, but it's because there were so many funny and spiritual things that happened this week. 

This week I have realized that The Bronx is basically a third world country. The main language is Spanish and the only real place to buy groceries is in little bodegas or side shops or mini-marts. People here treat the value of human life differently.  Everyone is packed in to these very old rundown apartments and there are drugs everywhere! And there were two more shootings this week. 

-THE BRONX in the summer. So it's really interesting because when the summer hits here, everyone is outside and they set up chairs on the sidewalk, bring out BBQ's and dominos boards and everyone has these little street parties. The whole street in the afternoon is covered with all these street parties. So, since nobody is inside their houses anymore, we have been street contacting people like crazy (basically just talking to people that are on the street). It has been super fun. Elder Richards is great and loves to do it, and I do too, so it works out perfectly! 

-Elder Richards is such a great guy! We have a lot of fun and he really is such an introspective person. He is so positive and kind and never judges anyone. You can completely be yourself around him and yet feel inspired to become better. I love serving with him.

-We met this guy over the last week and I can't say a whole lot about the situation, but I can say that he ended up loving what we do as missionaries. He was in the Special Forces so he knows his tactics. He told us if anyone were to ever mess with us he would be the first to hunt them down and end their life. Haha....He told us this so many times this week. That's kind of scary. But hey, I'm glad he's on our side. We know where to go if anyone is trying to hurt us ;) haha.

-Drunk lady. Elder Richards and I were walking back home one night, and as we were walking we saw this young woman (20's) with her friend and a few other people hanging out outside of a bodega and she looked like she was really drunk. Well, we wanted to see what would happen (because something always does seem to happen...I mean two white guys...in the Bronx...it's a little strange).  She saw us coming and starting screaming "WHAT'S YOUR NAMES??" Her friend was sober and told us "just please keep walking, for your sake. She's crazy right now." Well, Elder Richards told her his name as we continued to walk by as her friend was holding her back from us. As we were walking away -- until we finally got to the end of the street -- she was yelling in a very dramatic voice, "RICHARDS, CONFIRM ME CONFIRM ME!" It was downright hilarious. 

-DJ'n in the BRONX. So, there is this house we always pass by. There are always about 5 African American people just sitting out on the porch and one of them is always DJing. He has his whole mixing board out there and has these massive speakers and is just blasting the music so incredibly loud amongst all the apartment buildings. It is super funny because whenever we walk by, he is just so into it, and nobody is even there to listen. Well, after an appointment on Saturday, we walked past him and he was playing "Play That Funky Music.”  As we walked by, I was nodding my head and gave him a thumbs up, and he got super happy and turned the music up even louder. Everyone on the street that saw me do that got angry.  One lady was like "NOOOOO!!! Don't encourage him! He's been doing this everyday all day long! We are all just waiting for him to stop!!!" It was pretty funny. So now, I'm loved and hated on that street! :) 

-Dominican Woman (Crazy).  So, on Monday, one of our appointments canceled and we were just walking around trying to street contact people. As we were walking, we saw one of our members. We sat down with him in the park and talked to him for a while and we made a goal to contact everyone sitting down on all the benches. Well, right next to us on the following bench were four Dominican women. They were crazy just from what we saw. They kept looking at us the whole time we were talking to the guy from our church, and saying all sorts of things. Then all of a sudden they started smoking hookah and as we stood up, they were saying "Ven Pa Qa" which in actual Spanish is "Venga para aquí," which means "Come here!" We stood up and I looked at Elder Richards and was like "alright shall we go talk to them?" He said "no way, they are smoking and are crazy!" But, we went anyways and we walked up and said "¿Que Lo que?¿Dímelo?" --which means what's up or what's happening but in a very Dominican way. We started talking and we already knew where they were from, but of course they said the La República.  Something we say when we meet people from the DR (Dominican Republic) is "Hasta la Tambora" which means "to the beat of my drum," which is a complete dominant phrase that basically means you are "cool" with the Dominican culture. It doesn't matter how rude people are when you talk to them. If you say that, their complete attitude changes and they crack a smile and start laughing and then will talk to you.

Anyways, so we said the phrase to the girls and they busted up laughing. It was so great. They offered us hookah and then one of the girls said "come on don't you know they don't do that or drink any of that stuff?! Respect their religion!" Haha it was pretty funny but pretty cool to see them stick up for us. My companion was still in shock so he didn't say much and finally one of them asked him if he knew how to speak. Then another one of them was like "ohhhh boy, I know he already knows how to speak! I see him talking to people all day, knocking all crazy on my door, waking up all the neighbors....don't you fall for his lies. He's a silent liar! Haha." It was just great. We asked them after some time if they were ever religious and they said yes. But one said she doesn't feel right going to church anymore while she's been drinking or smoking so she has stopped. We talked a little bit about why she feels that way, and then we gave her something that talks about the point of life. It was a really cool, unexpected experience. We have been trying to talk to everyone we see on the streets and it's so much fun!  So now we are cool with all the street Dominican people in our area. It's nice. :)

-Two Irish ladies in the park.  We found these really aged women in the park. We decided to go up and talk to them. They were both from Ireland (not a surprise here). Every white person here is either from Ireland, Russia or Albania. We tracked into someone from Bulgaria the other day and that was pretty awesome. Anyways, we were talking to them, and it was obvious that their lives were coming to a close. We asked them if they have ever thought about what happens to us right after we die, and they said they have, especially now in their lives. We talked with them and were able to talk about where we go after this life and what happens. We really had a great discussion about how you really never know when God is going to take us home and retake back the breath he's given us. It could be at any moment and we know that now is the time to change, to become better people, to do the absolute best we can do, and to prepare to meet God.  I think what we testified to them really comforted them. At least when they do go, they won't be surprised about what actually will happen. It was a fun conversation. 

-Home attendant.  One of the families we visit has a home attendant for one of their kids. Well, come to find out, sometimes people take the message the wrong way when we missionaries try to talk to everyone and are interested in their lives. Haha. So one day I decided to talk a little bit to the home attendant. She is 21, straight from the DR and lives in the Bronx. Apparently after that day, she told the family she was attracted to me and I guess they had a whole conversation about it. Somehow it slipped and they told me. I asked what happened to her, and the mother told us. It was a little uncomfortable as a missionary. She could tell as well and finally she said, "to be honest, if I could, I'd freeze you and keep you for my daughter when she grew up!" Ahhh wow, was that awkward!!! Haha. But it's all good. We both played it off and forgot it, but it was something we definitely laughed about after. 

-Ismael. He is a young man (18) who we found tracting about 2 cycles ago. We have met with him 3 times and have been trying to meet with him ever since. We knocked on his door one day this week and his uncle answered. We started talking to his uncle and he eventually let us in. We were able to teach him a lesson and that went really well. So, we decided to try Ismael the next day. We went back and he was there. We talked with him about the Plan of Salvation, and it was amazing because he soaks it all in and truly is prepared -- he doesn't let his opinion get in the way of what he learns in the future to be true. Half way through the lesson, I received an idea to sing the hymn "I Am a Child of God." So, at the end of the lesson, Elder Richards and I both sang the hymn together and asked him to focus on the words of the song (because it talks about our purpose here on earth), and at the end, he was in tears. Now I know that wasn't our singing, but rather the spirit testifying of the words and the message. We asked him what he was feeling and he said it was a joy he's never experienced before and he started thanking us for bringing that to him. He said he feels something different around us that makes him so happy. We were able to testify to him that that feeling was not from us but from the spirit. It was God communicating to him the path he should take that would lead him to be his happiest self. It was such an amazing thing to see the spirit change him, and also to see him accept it and not be afraid to follow after what he knew to be true. There's nothing like seeing people change to God. The spirit was piercingly strong and I am so thankful for that moment in my mission. 

Well, basically that was only half of what I wanted to share with you all this week, but part two will come next week. Follow truth. Don't run from it. 

I love you all so extremely much!

- Elder Austin Celaya

Selfie with cookie (my favorite dog here) haha.

Contacting at a Hip-Hop Concert (20 May 2015)

Wow, what adventures I’ve had these past weeks! I have been so extremely busy, that is the reason I did not write last week. Where do I start? 

Well, I guess I will talk about transfers. My companion Elder Hausenfluck finished his mission last week and went home. I am so happy to have been able to serve with him. He taught me so much and I will use that knowledge the rest of my mission and even my life. 

I now have a new companion named Elder Richards. He is just awesome! We have a great time together. He is from Utah and has only been out for five months, but he is a stud! He's not afraid to talk to anyone and he's so good at doing it. He's very patient and loving and virtuous and is always looking for ways to show how much he cares. It's amazing how much you learn from your companions. 

- Elder Cook from the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came and visited our mission. That was just unbelievable. I got to sing before he talked and it was such a good and crazy experience. It was incredible how much love he had for us. You could really feel it and I have never felt it like I did then.

- We have been trying to talk to everyone in the streets here that we can. Elder Richards is so willing to talk with anyone and so we have been coming up with good ways to contact people. Sometimes it can be scary, but then after you do it, it's no big deal! I think I enjoy it a little more than tracting, but tracting is great too!

- Contacting at a hip-hop concert in the park.

So there are these crossroads that we always walk across every day. We were walking to a family’s house that we usually teach, and all of a sudden we saw tons of people and heard this loud music. As we got closer we saw they closed off all the roads, set up tons of pop-up tents, and they had a huge stage in the middle of the road. It was absolutely wild! We went to the family’s house and after we had the appointment with them, we had planned to go look up a person before our next appointment. Well, we then asked ourselves, "How often in our area are there thousands of people all gathered together at one spot?" Really it's not that often. So we decided to go contact people and try to talk to them. We spotted this family on a bench and we went up to them and asked them if they knew who was performing. They told us, and they started talking and it was great. The man had been in an accident and the bone in his leg broke sideways, so they cut out the bone and put in a metal rod. He then started talking about how real God was to him in that moment. He is from Brooklyn and turns out he is a music producer. Since I love to do the same thing, we connected well on that level. He told us how he's seen everything worldly in his life, and has realized that family is what he really wants. So, we were able to talk about the plan that God has for us on the earth and they really loved it! We took their information down and we will keep in contact with them. This is just one of the amazing experiences we have had this week by talking to people on the street. It is amazing what happens when you simply open your mouth. 

- I have learned this week a little bit more about how God works with us. We must first do our part (to show Him our desire and our faith), and then He will do the rest. For example, the hardest part about contacting people is convincing yourself to go talk to that person, but after you do that, you feel the spirit speaking through you to them, and it becomes a beautiful thing. It really is true how they say faith always precedes the miracle. 

I have been thinking about really how simple life can be if we allow it to be. We are all here on this earth. As far as we know, we sometimes feel as if we have no direction. It really is simple. There was a man who came to the earth and lived a perfect life, and showed us the way to happiness here in this life, and eternal bliss in the world to come. That man is the Son of God, Jesus Christ. Sometimes I ask myself why we don't just give our full hearts to Him and follow His example when we know it will lead us to happiness that in our human state we aren't able to comprehend. Do we not want happiness? Haha, at least that's the question I ask myself when I don't fully give my heart to Him and trust Him. I sometimes ask myself why I don't fully do that. But it's rather simple. God's given us the way to happiness in every area we could possibly think of, want, or envision and far beyond that. All we have to do is give our hearts to Him and exercise our free agency and choose to follow Him, because that's the one thing he doesn't have - our hearts. How can we simply give Him our hearts, and start ourselves on the path to infinite eternal bliss? I guess a good question to ask is what would we change if we knew we were to meet God today? I have been thinking a lot about that. And the answer that comes into my mind is I would give him my full heart. What would you change?

I love you all!

- Elder Celaya

This Place - Straight Crazy (6 May 2015)

Welcome to New York! Haha. This week has been so extremely busy, but so awesome!

To start off, there is this guy here who walks around everywhere on the streets who makes really loud bird calls. He dresses like a bird and I honestly believe he's so crazy and messed up in the head that he thinks he's really a bird. Usually every time he sees us missionaries walking around he starts yelling all the cities in Utah (everyone here thinks we are from Utah...or they call Utah "the factory"....because they pump out missionaries… Haha) and then he starts yelling his bird calls (which sound extremely accurate and quite honestly it scares me how real they sound. Anyways, last week we saw him and walked right past him. He has a bunch of bird feathers in his hair, and had long peacock feathered earrings hanging from his ears. I was in a lighter mood that day and I had heard a lot about him before (I believe I wrote about him before in one of my previous letters), so as I walked past him, I stopped and flapped my arms (like a bird) and said "BIRD MAN, MAKE ME FLY!!!" haha. He got a little too excited and started making all kinds of bird sounds that I've never heard before. There was this guy in front of us who saw the whole thing and was like (and this is extremely edited by the way...haha), "Maaaaan, all this guy has got to do is run up a tree and he's practically a bird." It was extremely funny and it gave us a great laugh for the day. This story explains this place - straight crazy. Haha.

Yankees game - So last Wednesday for preparation day we got to go to the Yankees game. One thing that's interesting is that the stadium is in the middle of the Bronx that's filled with projects and apartments. You would never imagine it to be in a place like this. Anyways, the Yankees lost, but it was pretty fun to go and see! 

We have a special stake conference coming up within the next month and they assigned me to play all the music and a member of the 70 is going to be coming! I'm excited because it will be very interesting.

Piano Lessons - A lot of people here have been hearing me play in sacrament meeting and are now asking me to give them or their kids piano lessons. So now what we are starting to do is instead of maybe having a lesson with them at their house, they come to the church, we have a little piano time, and then we finish with a lesson about gospel related principals. It's been very fun and interesting. Just imagine a super hot and spicy Dominican type of personality acting like they have the piano down and then getting super angry when they mess up. It's been interesting to say the least! Haha. 

Elder Quinten L. Cook - On this upcoming Saturday, Quinten L. Cook, who is a member of the Twelve Apostles is coming to speak to our whole mission in Manhattan at the temple, and president asked me to sing a special number! Ahhh! I'm pretty nervous to be honest! I never thought I would get the opportunity to sing for an apostle! Haha but I'm very excited as well to feel the love he has as he speaks about whatever it is he will speak about. I feel it will be a very spiritually uplifting day.  Wish me luck and pray that I can do all right! 

Pedro Reyes - Yesterday, a man we were teaching named Pedro got baptized! He was absolutely so prepared. His situation could not have gotten any better because he lived with a family that was in our ward. So, every time we were privileged to teach him, his sister-in-law was able to sit in the lessons and help us out explaining everything. He moved from Mexico and he is divorced. He has a 15-year-old son who lives in Mexico with his ex-wife, so he feels very alone in life because he doesn't really have any friends and the only family he has over here in the United States is his brother and his family. He works all the time and then comes home to rest. So the only people he really sees are the people he works with, and his family. He really was at a point where everything else has failed him in life, and he was able to realize, while taking the lessons, that this was the only way to true, deep, heavenly, lasting happiness. You could see the change in him as we got to teach him. It's a very amazing thing to watch in someone - when you first meet with them and you can see the deep sorrow and hopelessness in their eyes. Then as you start to meet with them, the spirit starts to change them and their countenance. This change only happens AFTER they start to live in harmony with the things we teach them. What they need in order to even start that change is faith and a desire to have that faith. Well, Pedro truly had that. 

Yesterday was his baptism and the whole service went well, until we got into the font. Someone had undone the plug so the water was almost all gone! Everyone was in the room waiting for us to go down into the water, but water is exactly what we lacked! Haha. Anyways, we all got buckets and started pouring water into the font. Well after a while, we decided we had to do the baptism now because the English ward had a baptism as well at the same time. So Pedro walks into the font, and the water was very low. So, I knew right then, getting him down that low was going to be a challenge. So I said the prayer, and then he went down. And as I saw how low the water really was, I realized that I would have to give it some power, so I did and he came up, we were both soaking! I gave it way too much force. Someone in the back even said "¡El sentió eso!", which means, "He felt that!!" Besides that, the experience was absolutely great. He even told us that he felt a change happening in him after his baptism. 

As I was sitting there I was just thinking about how, right now, these people are my family. I love them and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to come to know them. Some of these people I have met on my mission I feel as if I have known them forever, and I just had to come out here to find them again. Some of these people I will be best friends with the rest of my life. It's really interesting what happens when you forget about worrying about yourself and get involved with others, and see their problems and try to help them. I've seen so many different people with so many different problems, small and extremely large, and it's amazing to sit there and show them how the gospel of Jesus Christ can fix their problem completely. I've seen time after time how that simply is the answer to every problem we have. It doesn't suspend the problem by only treating the pain felt, it completely heals any problem we have no matter how big or small it is. I'm so grateful that I've been able to see how to apply it in so many situations in life because I've seen how infinite the atonement is as well as the gospel and now I can apply that for the rest of my life. This is great! I love this time I have to serve. Do something today to forget yourself and help another. You never know how much it can help.

Happy Mother's Day as well! I am excited to skype my family on Sunday and I'm so grateful for them in my life :)

Be happy. Smile more. 

- Elder Austin Celaya

Pedro Reyes' Baptism

Selfie with Pres. Morgan

Yankee Stadium from my seat!

Crazy shop in Manhattan

Kids I love

Hiiiii (22 April 2015)

Hiiiii All!

This week has been filled with miracles and has been such a great learning experience.  Here's a picture with me and an elder that was in my district named Elder Cordon at the Manhattan Temple.

All is well. Thank you, Mom, for the package and the cookies! Elder Lyons says you have mastered the formula mom! Haha. He and I went on a split today and so we decided to take the subway to Wall Street and walk up Manhattan, and anywhere we wanted to go, we went! It was very fun just exploring NYC! It's a crazy place! 

- Still having the opportunity to go to the gym which has been super nice. With all the food we eat you have to try and stay fit! Haha. Yesterday we had five meal appointments in a row and absolutely had to eat all the food! If you don't eat at least two plates, then they get offended and think you don't like the food. Eating until you are sick is something I will never miss off of the mission. Haha. 

- Subway story. There are always people who come on the subways and try to sell things or perform or have stories about how they just got out of jail and are here trying to work instead of doing bad things. Usually they are all garbage, but this week we had a guy who was just plain "real." Haha. He walks onto the subway and he yells "Ladies and gentlemen, THIS IS REAL. I am homeless, I have no home, I have no food, I will steal your food before I take your money, I will steal your woman before I take your money, I will do anything to get food. If y’all have food, I will eat it no matter what it is." Nobody wanted to give him food and he saw a mother giving her kid food and he asked the mom for the food and she said no...and he got super mad and was like "okay, you don't want to feed me? Well I hope the educational system doesn't feed your kids so they end up like me and are homeless with nothing to eat! I hope they DIIIIIIIE of thirst. I hope they DIIIIIE of hunger, and you'll look back on this day and remember me." Then he just walked out of the subway and that was it. Haha. It sounds very unrealistic, but it happened. Stuff like this happens all the time, it's quite entertaining. 

Mouse in class - so a couple weeks ago in the middle of the third hour of church, a mouse came running out from behind the piano and everyone started screaming.  One of the members kicked it and it flew in the air, and then amongst all these Spanish people yelling, someone just starts stomping on the mouse and finished its life. It was a very weird experience. We had one of the people we were teaching there and he thought it was pretty funny. At least that was good. 

Hermana Vega and Julio. This is a family that I have really come to love. I talked a little about them before. Hermana Vega’s husband had three strokes and used to be the man who pretty much ran the church. The strokes really changed him and so Hermana Vega has really had to take charge. He doesn't work anymore, --they have an autistic son (Julio) and they have a daughter named Melissa. Hermana Vega has to run everything now in that family and it's hard because Julio takes all her energy and her time. They are living off of very little, but they still find it necessary to stuff us every time we go over there. We have been trying to teach Julio about baptism very simply because his attention span is tiny and it's been very interesting and honestly fun teaching someone the gospel who is autistic. You have to teach it in a more creative way so he can understand it and so he can pay attention. We then asked Hermana Vega about Julio and what happened to him. He's had six surgeries thus far because he was born with a disease that makes it so some of his intestines don't work. So, he never could eat when he was young because his intestines wouldn't move food through. All the drugs and the surgeries Hermana Vega believes is what caused the autism. Mom, I told her about Janna and she asked if maybe you could send me her email to give to her so they could talk. Please ask Janna. I absolutely love this family! It's a very humbling experience to see how your heart changes and how God opens your heart up to feel for people more than you ever have before. 

- Pedro. His brother is a member in the ward. We go every week to teach their family and we go twice a week to teach Pedro. We have been teaching him for a while now and his desire to find truth is so tuned and strong. He is honestly seeking after what's true. He accepted a baptismal date for May 9th last week and he is super excited about it. We went back yesterday to teach him about The Word of Wisdom. He is such an example to me because he said "I have decided to leave these substances behind completely because it's far more important to be good with God. Because no matter what I do, I will go back to him and I want him to be pleased with my efforts." What great strength for strongly going after that which is good! He met with us yesterday and even asked to have his baptism moved up! So now it's May 5th so his brother can make it. The more I've been opening my mouth and in the moment not knowing really what to say, but relying on the Lord to deliver the inspiration that the people we are teaching need to hear, I've realized this work has nothing to do with us as teachers. It's the Lord’s work and He's the one who changes the hearts. What allows us to have the spirit with us is if we are examples of what we teach. Love goes a long way. When we love others, they want to give it back. It's infectious and the more I've chosen to live the gospel and pray to see people the way God does, the more I feel my heart feeling a small portion of the way God feels about these people. 

Temple - This week we were able to go to the temple and it was such a lovely experience. It is such a spiritual time. There was a young lady getting her endowment and she was there with her family. It was a very special experience for her. The veil to the other side is very thin in the temple and it's truly a place where you can feel the reality of what really matters. It was a very special experience as always!

Tears Of Joy - So I've been blessed with the opportunity of playing piano and the organ for church. A different ward meets in our building right before our church. So, I always play the piano and organ as the old ward leaves and the new one comes in. I decided to switch it up and play the song "Tears of Joy" in-between wards and as I was playing it, this man came up who was visiting from the stake and he thanked me for playing. He told me every time he heard piano that it reminds him of when his mom would play piano to him when he was a boy. He started to tear up as I was playing. I myself felt very humbled by the experience. My companion teared up too and it was very cool. I felt blessed to be able to share some of myself. Thanks mom and Chieko for helping me with music :)

This week I've really been focusing on making my prayers more personal. I knelt down this week with a Book of Mormon in my hand. I prayed with all the sincerity of heart to know if this book was truly God's way. As I asked, a certain and very specific chapter came into my mind. As I read it, it answered my question perfectly as I feel complete joy that can't be described. I felt it with my whole heart. I'm so grateful for the knowledge that we have of it and the more I'm learning about different people, the more I'm seeing this just isn't a church, it's life...it's reality...it's how it eternally is, and we can know how to be successful in every area if we only give our hearts to God. I'm very happy! 

Thank you all so very much :)

Have a splendid week!

- Elder Celaya