Thanksgiving in New York (2 December 2015)

Hello everyone,

Thanksgiving was awesome, wasn't it? It was very different on the mission, but different in a good way! We went to someone's house who didn't have a family, bought him a pie, ate it with him, and spent some time with him. It was great. Then we went to Felipe's and he cooked us a 20 pound turkey and a 15 pound ham...we made mashed potatoes and stuffing (with almond milk), and we spent some time with him. I love that guy. I don't think there is anyone I'm closer to on the mission. And he is a genius! He is a member here from Spain who speaks better English than I do and it's his second language...SUPER SMART. Smartest guy intellectually I have ever talked with. He works for the UN.

We are having a large Christmas concert here in Manhattan in Lincoln Square. Well, what's awesome about that is that a lot of the ward members go to Julliard as performers. So, this Saturday we are going to have an amazing concert. It is the best way to contact people. 

Yesterday, we were not feeling too good. It was very rainy, the people are nuts, and we just needed something to get us going! So, we went out and ended up knocking doors in this one older building. We got to talk to everyone except one door in that building. The entire building was Spanish speaking too, which was a miracle. 

It's getting cold here. The crazies are leaving the streets and going down into the subways. When people ask us for money (which happens about 20 times per day), we now act like we are deaf and start signing to each other, or start speaking in Spanish, and they just move on. If you deny them, they get very angry and start cursing at you. Sometimes though we give them some change.

I have been doing a lot of exercising lately. It feels so good to get back in shape. Exercising mornings and nights.

I have been seeing that life really is all about your mind. If you can believe it, you can achieve it, with whatever it is in life. People who really want to change, do. They put in the effort and will do whatever it takes. And by them just showing up, putting in the effort, they already win the big battle. Heavenly Father made us. We have divine potential. As we are (as humans), we are limited in power, but when we involve God and ask for His help, there is nothing we can't do. When we truly come to know what we are and who we are made to become, we start seeing life a whole lot differently - the way God intended us to. 

Love you all,

- Elder Celaya

Felipe with Pres. and Sis. Smith

with Elder Wadsworth

Central Manhattan Zone - "Central Man"

Only in New York (11 November 2015)

Hello Everyone!

- Dwight Howard Yelling at Catholic Priest - So the other night, we went down to China Town because we had a lesson there. We were walking and this huge guy stops us and starts talking to us about Jesus. He was very enthusiastic, about 7 feet tall, and looked exactly like Dwight Howard (basketball player). Well, we were standing right in front of a Catholic church having a mass, and the doors were open. One of the priests came outside the door and kindly asked the guy if we could go talk somewhere else. The big guy looked at him and said, "Look bruh, if you was inside worried about what was actually goin on, ya wouldnt be worried about whats going on outside. So, shut up and get back inside and do ya mass." Then he looked at my companion and me and said, "You can tell that man don't read the bible. That guy ain't never read the bible in his life". Haha. It was a funny moment because he completely cursed out this Catholic priest. Only in New York.

Not much else interesting this week.

I have been thinking about the motives behind God and Satan. Satan promises us happiness now in this life, and tells us to forget about the next life, even making us feel like there isn't one. God says, happiness will come, even in this life, but the amount is uncomprehendible to the human brain. So, you have to trust me and just do these few little things to get there. Which one will you choose? Which one currently are you choosing -- maybe not so much by saying which one you choose, but by the way you are living? Think about that if I may invite you do to so.

Love you guys,

Elder Celaya

Going to the ER (28 October 2015)

It's been a long time since I have written.  My apologies are given!

- Transfers were today and I will be staying in Harlem with Elder Wadsworth yet again! This will be our third 6-week cycle together.  I'm excited to stay! Harlem is fantastic.

- Helped a member move his house and we met this guy named SAX who is a drug dealer on the street. We joked with him that we were from the mafia and that we were from the Italian family, the Fibonacci’s. We convinced him to work for us. He offered us drinks and a smoke. He didn't know we were missionaries because we were in regular clothes, but we told him later. He knows everyone on that street, so now we are "homies" with all the thugs on that street. Everyone loves us now on that street.  It is pretty funny.  We know where to go if we ever have any trouble :) All these guys care about is literally, in their words, "drinking and running the streets." Some of these "street thugs" are really great people, it's just nobody gives them a chance.

- Hospital - So my companion and I have been having a few medical issues. We went to urgent care (this time for my companion), and they told us to get an ambulance and get there ASAP. We turned down the ambulance and the nurses were all freaking out. We took the train and buses to the hospital and went into the ER. They brought down the emergency ER surgeon and then 4 other doctors. The Dr. said, "Listen, you probably are wondering why there is all this commotion around you. Listen son, you could walk out of here today with one less body part, so we need to treat this asap!"  (It was a bad infection.)  So, I left the room, they did what they had to do, and luckily, it wasn't bad enough that they had to do the surgery, so they sent us off on our day--without any missing body parts! What a stressful day that was.

- Rise Up October - There has been a lot of protesting here for stopping what they call "police terror and murder." They have blocked off streets to protest, and there have been riots, etc.  Mainly it's a race thing. They are fighting against all the cops who have "murdered." They had a riot and march planned for Oct 22-24. Well, on Oct 20 a cop was shot in the forehead at a project right down the road in our area. We go to that project a lot and luckily we weren't there that day, but we thought that was going to really spark the riots. So we were prepared to see the city go nuts—we thought Harlem was going to burn. We found a card advertising the riots with a phone number. We called the phone number, and turns out all they were doing was "sitting on the grass in a park" and then they were going to march from one street to another. It was such a letdown.

- Columbia University - We went to Columbia University because we are trying to find service opportunities to help out with colleges and universities. Wow, was this campus amazing. It was filled with antique buildings and old English style structures. It was beautiful and very weird to walk from Harlem, filled with crazies, into a beautiful utopian little society. That’s how this place is. One street is Beverly Hills and the next is Watts.

- Daniel - Daniel is a member we just absolutely love. He lives alone here in NY.  He is not all the way there and is very lonely, so we go and visit him twice a week.  We are trying to help him shape his life a little bit. We have been helping him change his diet (he is pre-diabetic), and to fix his loneliness we are trying to get him a dog. We went into the shelter the other day with him and looked at the dogs.  There was this cute puppy that was so calm and perfect for Daniel. Well, he decided not to get the dog because he had to go pick up his pants. This dog was a $600 dog for only $50. He kept saying he wanted a Border Collie, a Pug, or a German Shepherd, which will NEVER be in those shelters. Ahh, good old Danny! The interesting part about the shelter is that it's filled with pit bulls because everyone here wants to be tough. They think by walking with a pit bull, you’re the tough guy. Everyone here has them. We are still working with Daniel.

- Abel - We are working with a guy named Abel. He used to be in the church, then came back. His story is so sad. He is here alone in NY trying to earn money for his family back in the Dominican Republic. His daughter, who is 5, is deathly ill. We have been praying and fasting for her. He called us last night and said she is not in good condition. The medical device that he needs to get her is too expensive for him to buy, and he doesn't know if she is going to live. He called us last night, and I have never heard a grown man of the age of 50 so scared in his life. It really made me grateful for my life and situation. Most of these people don't want to be here. The life here is so hard - a lot harder than it was for them back in their countries. It breaks my heart.

- Elder Reid – wow, what an example. I've known Elder Reid my entire mission. He was the first person I met out here. He went home today and that was such a sweet moment. He was the first person I felt that loved me when I came here, and when I was very, very sick in my first area, he was the one who kept me out here. I love his example. I will miss him.

- Danny The Beggar - We had been contacted to participate in an event for fighting against domestic violence at a hospital here in Harlem. We went and it turned out they already had too many missionaries. So, we were looking at our plans and we had planned to go do some look-ups. We were looking through our records and for some reason, a street number came to my head. I looked and saw if we had any look-ups on that street, and we had quite a few. So, we went down to that street. We came up out of the subway and guess who we ran into? Our man SAX! He was super happy to see us, and we talked to him for a while. As women walk by, he always yells at them and says, "Hey honey girl, I could see our baby in your stomach already." Then he laughs it off and starts talking to us again. These guys are hilarious. Meanwhile, there is this man behind us, watching us, who is standing in defeat begging for money. He waited until we were done talking to SAX and then he came up to us and asked if we could pray for him. We asked him what was up, and he told us he broke up with his girlfriend and now he doesn't have a home. He expressed how he didn't want to beg, but he had no choice, and how he felt like nobody loved him. He felt his potential was gone. It was amazing to stand there and show him that God knew who he was and that He loves him dearly.  As we did this, tears started flowing from his eyes. The feeling of the Spirit was so strong. The love, the humility, the peace—it was amazing. He then looked up at us and said, “I know God cares now because ten minutes before you guys came I prayed to God to send me his angels. Then minutes later you walked up and I knew you were his angels. He sent me you. I prayed for his angels, and those angels are you guys. He knows me. He loves me.” We sat there, all three of us, with tears in our eyes and we felt this overwhelming love for this man who had thrown his life away yet still had enough to come back. We told him we could help him change his life and he agreed. We are going to meet up with him in Central Park and start teaching him. We were meant to go there—God knew we needed to be there because He knew Danny was praying for help. This is something I will never forget. It was such a sweet and warming experience that will always help me remember that God knows all of us, and no matter what we have done or who we have become, through the grace of Christ, we do not have to be who we once were. He is change. He is forgiveness.

All things are possible through Him.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-08-001-step-1-honesty-davids-story-about-sex-addiction-recovery?category=12-steps-to-change&lang=eng

Sincerely,

Elder Celaya

When the Red Rooster Crows (23 September 2015)

Hello Everyone!

One night we went to the church and found a guy in the church who was begging for some food. The bishop asked us to go take him and get him some food. So we did. Turns out the guy was pretty wrecked. He was living from day-to-day and had HIV, which caused a lot of problems in his body. So, we got him food, sat him down outside and told him to listen...that it was God who bought him this meal this night. We said that we weren't even planning on going to the church that night but then something fell through, so we went for five minutes to print something off. To our surprise, there was this guy. God knew we needed to meet him. We talked about how no matter how lost and lonely he feels in life, no matter how much of a failure he may have felt he was, God sees hope in him. It was so amazing to put both our arms around the guy, someone who has been forsaken by everyone, and tell him that God loves him and to talk about the divine potential he has, and that he has the ability to turn his life around. It was very powerful for him. He ended up showing up to church and we talked to him again and taught him about who God is, the kind of being He is. It was a little miracle to meet him. 

- Old man Argentina. Yesterday we were walking by the Harlem wings, and we saw this older gentleman who looked very classy. He had a nice striped bottom-up shirt on with a nice hat with a feather in it. We found him on a busy street, and we started just talking to him about what he was doing outside. He told us he was from Argentina, so we started speaking Spanish to him. We showed him our tags (how they are in Spanish), and then he got super excited when he saw "Jesucristo" written on the tag. He started saying "JESUCRISTO! JESUCRISTO!" He then pulled out a necklace with Jesus Christ on it. We asked him if we could show him a video about Jesus Christ. He was sitting in his little walker chair and so I kneeled down and turned on the video and started reading it for him, and he would copy everything I would say. Everyone walked by us looking at us very weirdly as we were reading this video out loud enthusiastically, but I felt the joy and love of God's spirit so strongly. The man got so excited, and after we told him we would come back, he stood up out of his walker and gave us each this big hug, and kissed our collar. Poor guy, right? I just wonder if anyone ever talks to him. It will be fun because we will be going back over to his house soon. 

- There are so many high class French people here in the upper east side...I really like that culture. I'm going to try and learn some French so we can communicate with them.

- Allen Russ. Well, guess who came and visited us in Harlem?! Good old Allen Russ! Wow, was that such a treat. It felt very weird seeing him again. It felt fake like a dream to some degree. I don't even feel like the life I had existed at all, and to have him come visit felt like I went back to earth! It was great to catch up and talk. He took us to the "Red Rooster," a down south famous restaurant in Harlem. It was amazing to feel my heart be so full of joy to see him again. I have really learned on some level the beginning of love. I felt like that was just a little bit like what it will be like when we are reunited with our loved ones on the other side and we see that they made it! I will attach pictures of his visit. Thanks again Allen! That was SUCH a treat to spend time with you. I never realized how lucky I was to have such role models for me to follow back home. I feel ashamed that I didn't take advantage of it more before, but hey, at least I'm seeing that now rather than later. Great visit!

Well, that seems to be about it. It's been super fun to talk to a lot of these crazies all over the good old Harlem streets. We will continue to do just that this week. 

- Change is possible. No matter how far deep down we may be, God can save us if we let Him. He made us to become like Him and for no other purpose. Just see this young man’s example:

 https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2015-08-004-step-4-truth-austins-story-about-addiction-recovery?category=12-steps-to-change&lang=eng

- Elder Celaya

Harlem Days - "Jimmy, we got a world to save our there!"

Transfer Meeting (17 Sept 2015)

Saying goodbye to my trainer, Elder Paize!

Horse Drawn Cabs Only - Tip-Toe’n’ Wit Ma Bronx Cart (9 September 2015)

Hello All!
- We have been running through Central Park still as much as we can. It's wild—you’re surrounded by African Americans, then you enter Central Park and it's all Caucasians. It's wild how you’re surrounded by a massive city and then you enter into a forest. 

- We walked out of our apartment yesterday and there was this random cat. He ran in and we couldn't find it. We spent an hour looking for it and then gave it back to the neighbors. 

- Found something very scary this week in a project elevator that we can talk about when I get home. Harlem never ceases to surprise me. 

- Luis. So we decided to go on a split and bring Elder Rivera, who is from Honduras, over to Luis' house (the man who loves his Bible). It ended up going really well, and after two hours of intense discussion, he was finally touched by the spirit. This guy is very difficult, but there is just something that keeps telling us to go back. 

- My companion and I have been sick this week, so there hasn't been much that has been going on. 

- Miracle moment - We were at a member’s house. She asked for a blessing, but what was interesting is how she asked. She accidentally said, "Elder, can you give me a patriarchal blessing? Oh no not that, I meant a blessing of healing." (Patriarchal blessings give us some understanding of our callings on earth. They are the word of the Lord personally to us.) We said yes and gave her a blessing. Elder Wadsworth did the anointing and I did the blessing. As I put my hands on her head, I waited, and as I waited I began to really feel the spirit strong. We gave her the blessing, and when we finished, she was crying heavily. We didn't know why, and then she began to tell us that the words that were said were exactly, word for word, what the first half of her patriarchal blessing had said. She had never mentioned anything ever to us about her patriarchal blessing, but yet the Spirit somehow spoke those very words to her. It was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen. Clearly Heavenly Father wanted her to be reminded of her patriarchal blessing. It was an incredible miracle and incredible feeling that I will never forget. What was even more amazing was she lives in a project building, and as we walk up, there are cops guarding the ground, people smoking and doings drugs—we walk in and it's extremely loud from people yelling at each other. It is just a very dark feeling. And then from that dark feeling, to be able to feel the spirit so strong in that little project apartment was just so amazing. Elder Wadsworth walked out and said, "Why would anyone ever trade what we felt tonight for anything in the world?" I cannot agree more. It was a very personal, piercing and strong feeling that struck me straight to the core, that God knows us better than we know ourselves, that He is there, and that His love and mercy are infinite. No words can describe what we felt that night. 

Isaiah 49:16—“Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

You are the best,

- Elder Celaya

 Central Park

 with Elder Rivera

with my companion, Elder Wadsorth

ABC's in the Subway (Part I):

:

Don't you just love these subway performers?!  All of them are so good!  This looks like so much fun. 

ABC's in the Subway (Part II):