Is true change even possible? (27 April 2016)

- Wow. Dominican Heights! Our area is literally a mini Dominican Republic. It's crazy. It's filled with Dominicans on the streets. What's even greater is when they see a couple tall white guys speaking Dominican Spanish. They love it. Speak Dominican Spanish around English people (which, in fact, I do...all the time, because I love Spanish that much :), and you'll see the most confused faces on earth.

- We speak Spanish here all day now.....well honestly it's more like Spanglish. EVERYONE here speaks Spanglish. They will literally have full-on conversations in two languages. For example, one person will speak in Spanish, the other in English in the conversation, and on other occasions one person will speak one sentence or paragraph in Spanish, the other in English. For example, "yo trabajo en ese ‘building,’ pero tengo que salir porque tengo una ‘appointment’ a las cinco." Which, besides the two words you already know, translates to "I work in this building, but I have to leave because I have an appointment at 5." Haha – awe, good old Spanglish.

- We give service every Tuesday and Friday now helping serve food, and we are also going to give piano lessons to the folks more mature in age. This is going to be interesting.

- I have been contemplating what solidifies true change. Almost everyone we talk to and work with is willing to change, but then once they start to do that, they fall back with where they were and fall into complacency. Change is extremely hard to solidify. But I've realized that change isn't so much an event. But a process. It takes time and major effort. There's nothing better than to see someone change their very lives so they can come closer to God. Those people have a light about them. They have a happiness to them that the rest of the world seems to truly want. There's this lady whose name is Brenda. She operates the elevators here in the subway station. We've become great friends with her. Para que sepa (just so you know), Brenda is this bigger African American woman in her 40's from, I believe, the Bronx. Haha. Enough said, no? Well we talk every time we see her and she is the most outgoing lady in the world. The other day the elevator was packed full of people (about 30). Brenda starts telling the entire group of people in the elevator the following: "Oh my gosh, would you look how handsome these fellows are?! Always so clean cut and nice and wow, I just can't believe how nice they always are and always happy. They are always bright and have a light to em'. I don't understand how they can always be so happy! I want that in my life! If y'all want to be happy, just talk to these fine young gentleman because every time they talk to me, my entire day be flipping around." What a great lady. It's amazing to see how people want the light and deep, eternal-based happiness we have been so blessed with that so many people don't enjoy in this life. To see someone stuck searching for something more and then see them discover the "more" and how their entire being changes when they begin to do the same....wow. There is nothing better. I love this work. My heart is filled with love for these people. Oftentimes I feel as if I love them more than they do themselves. That's when I realize it's not my love I'm feeling, but a tiny little bit of how God feels for them.

- Missions are the greatest thing you could ever be a part of. They are extremely hard, but so worth every difficulty. It makes the joy that much more sweet.

- Serving in these types of areas is very eye opening at times. It's sad to see so many people living the types of lives they live here. Most people here are not happy and they will let you know, too. It's a tough group of people, but ironically they make it that way on themselves. By their desires and their choices. Many people think that our reality is controlled by outside forces (family, religion, government, school, friends, etc.), but truly our reality is controlled by our own choices. Choices in this life are so critical. Every choice we make either changes us for the better (to become more like Christ), or it changes us for the worse. As we solidify CHOOSING the right, we will solidify the change within us for good. We teach this guy who was going to be so successful in life. He is 6 foot 8 inches. He was the #4 basketball player in the nation as a high schooler. He had a full ride to Syracuse University to play ball. He got into heavy drugs, started running on the streets, got a girl pregnant and has fallen into a few other things. He lost his scholarship and now dives into the pain of his current reality in drugs. We have been teaching him and trying to help him change his life. We have been trying to get him to come to church, but turns out his girlfriend stabbed him on Sunday so he couldn't come. It's so sad to see someone who really does have potential choose to throw it away. Choices truly matter. Every little one matters. What is amazing to see that even though he's so far gone down the wrong road, the atonement of Christ can heal it all, IF HE LETS HIM, not by mere grace alone, but by repentance.

- The Atonement heals all, but only IF WE LET IT.

Si yo hubiese sabido de que lo que elegimos determine nuestro éxito en la vida, hubiera cambiado todo más temprano en mi vida. Yo amo a la misión y todo de lo que se aprende. No quiero estar in ningún otro lugar en todo el mundo. No hay un otro lugar mejor esto -- el servicio del Señor. (:

- Elder Celaya

Inwood District

NYC Car Show and Bunkbeds (13 Apr 2016)

- First off, I've never been happier in my life. I love how close I feel to God and how much of His joy I feel daily. Nothing in this world compares to it. Once you experience it, you'll never want anything else and you'll do whatever you can to have it.

The weeks are coming to a close. I can't believe I am going to be coming home soon. I am just trying to finish strong. I have never, ever in any sport event or anything like it worked this hard or felt this tired. Even President Smith was saying that he used to wake up at 3 in the morning, take a 2-hour flight to his iron man race, then bike 120 miles, swim around 2 miles, run a marathon, and then fly back home...and he would be able to wait until he got home to fall asleep. But he said that now, here, doing 5 hours of interviews with the missionaries, he goes home and just crashes completely. Working in the Spirit is so hard and difficult. It literally takes everything out of you. But it's good. I know if I am able to do this, I can do anything in life.

- Wow, was General Conference AMAZING OR WHAT? It was cool because we knew beforehand what Elder Holland was going to talk about and that he was going to speak at the end. I guess that's some of the perks for having him here in person (which was surreal)....such a crazy thing. Let's just say I've seen the most growth from me during this last week on my mission. I have had “ah-ha” moments (yes mom, I remember those still, haha). It was the best conference I have ever been a part of…I felt a lot.

Here are some of my thoughts from my notes and what I've been studying:

Do you ever carry around a lot of pain, guilt or regret? "Certainly those who are less spiritually mature may indeed make serious mistakes--yet none of us should be defined only by the worst thing we have ever done. God is the perfect judge. He sees beneath the surface" (from Conference).

Has there been someone who has seriously hurt you in your life? It is the same for you as it was promised to Jacob (Nephi's brother) in the Book of Mormon that God “will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your destruction” (Jacob 3:1). Come close to God and with Him who can be against you? With the power of God, no one can harm you in the end.

I love this too: "One key to forgiving others is to try to see them as God sees them. At times, God may part the curtain and bless us with the gift to see into the heart, soul, and spirit of another person who has offended us. This insight may even lead to an overwhelming love for that person."

I think there will be a lot of surprises at judgment day because people judge others by their actions, we judge ourselves by our intentions, and God judges us by our circumstances mixed with the amount of potential we have chosen to develop with the knowledge we have been given.

I love this as well: Forgiveness is the very reason God sent His Son, so let us rejoice in His offering to heal us all. The Savior’s Atonement is not just for those who need to repent; it is also for those who need to forgive. If you are having trouble forgiving another person or even yourself, ask God to help you. Forgiveness is a glorious, healing principle. We do not need to be a victim twice. We can forgive.

- So on more of a funny/awkward note, Dominicans don't believe in neutering there dogs (at least not the ones I know). So they are always very aggressive and excited. Well, they love the missionaries. In fact, this week I've gotten forced upon by 6 dogs in the middle of appointments, right in the middle of teaching how to have eternal families. Haha. I will never see dogs the same way again.

- We had a fun Pday (preparation day). We got to walk around the New York International Auto Show. It was the CRAZIEST THING I'VE EVER SEEN. Dad, you would die. Even you mom would die. We need to come back next year during this time so dad can see this. 

- So we were in an elevator with our two other roommate elders yesterday moving someone from an apartment. We took apart the bunk beds and put them in the elevator. Up comes this lady on the stairs and she just starts looking at us weird and watching what we are doing. We ask her if we can help her—she says she was just trying to get to the elevator so she could make it to the basement (there are no stairs here to the basement). We tell her to come on in. So in this tiny elevator are the beds, her, and us four elders. She asks us if we are from Utah. So we knew right there that she had heard of Mormons before. We explained where we were from and then she told us, "Yeah, my ex-girlfriend was actually Mormon." We said, "Really!?" Haha, and she said, "Yes, and it was quite interesting and a little bit awkward." Then one of the missionaries who didn't understand what she was saying asked her in a very enthusiastic voice, "Wait, really?! Why is that!?" And then she said, "Well, for very obvious reasons I would say" hahaha and we all (including her) just started busting up laughing and he was very embarrassed. It was a good laugh. She was awesome. Very funny highlight of the day. I've never had that happen before on my mission.

- I've come to feel the happiness that the gospel brings. My soul daily is filled with the spirit and joy. There's nothing in the world that compares to it. Whatever we have to do to have that spirit more in our life, it's infinitely worth it. I love how there is no end to feeling closer to God. The more we choose to act in faith and follow Him, the more we are happy! It never ends. It just keeps getting better and better.

- Oh, I almost forgot. Elder Richards and I were asked to do a musical number for the mission leadership council meeting and so we decided to write (in 2 days) a rendition of God Be with You Till We Meet Again. We did it and it turned out beautiful. We are going to play the duet in the Spanish and English ward, and I'm a little scared because the English ward is full of musical geniuses...especially opera singers. All the big opera singers in NYC who are Mormon and come from all over the world live in the Inwood Ward...so there's a lot of pressure. :)  Every time we walk into the church there's opera going on.

Mission Leadership Council (MLC)

Family, thanks for being my eternal family!  I love you guys.

Ya tú sabes que la vida está buena cuando tienes Dios en ella :)

(You already know that life is good when you have God in it)

Elder Celaya

Stoned in Manhattan (23 March 2016)

- Yeah so......you are probably wondering about the title of this email ... you will have to wait :) Sorry mother.

- Knocked into this lady named Rosa. We taught her and gave her a baptism date. Then the other day in companionship study we looked in the church records and there was a lady with the same name who lived in the same building who was already a member. We called her and asked if she was, and she said no and that she never was baptized in our church. So we continued to teach her and then she came to church. Well, after the first bit she darted out and left without saying anything. We asked one of the ladies who talked to her what she had said. She said that this lady was a member of the church but is just less active. So we are stuck not knowing what to do because she lied to us about being a member. This whole time we were really teaching a member and she had been acting like all this stuff was new. We thought she was great, but clearly it was just too good to be true. Haha, bit of a heartbreak for sure.

- Ok, so now to the "stoning" hahah. We were walking down the street (a side street), and there was a big group of delinquent type people. They started saying all these things and then started throwing stones at as. We took the rocks and continued to walk away, holding back the anger. It shocked me though. I did not expect to get all these rocks thrown at us. None of them hit our heads :) God deflected them or something :) so Mom, we are all still intact.

- This week we needed Wifi to watch a video about how to work with members, but we did not know where to go. We realize that working with them brings consistent success. We also were really wanting to figure out how to do volunteer work at this major hospital in our area, but had no idea where to get started. But to find Wifi, we went to the library. Something just did not feel right. So we thought about where we could go, and the first place that came to mind was the hospital. We went to the hospital and were wondering how we could find someone to help us figure out how to volunteer, but the chances looked slim because of the process to get verified legally. In that moment of decision, the thought came into mind (I have not thought about this my entire mission) that for every person that you meet, there is a purpose for you meeting them. There is something you need that they have, or there is something they have that you need. It was a random thought, or so we thought. So we sat down in the hospital and started watching the video. This man walked up and sat down next to us, and we saw him watching the video, too. About five minutes later he introduced himself as a member of the church who finished his mission five years ago. He lives in New Jersey and works at the hospital. Turns out he married a woman whose father is the administrator of the entire hospital. "Turns out" as well that he happens to be a member of the church. Oh, and his secretary is also. We told him that we were looking to give service, and right there he called his father-in-law and the father-in-law said he would put us to work. Yesterday we had a meeting with him and a few other hospital administrators on how we could go about giving service, not just in the hospital but in the entire community of upper Manhattan. God is aware of what we need. It is a miracle to see what happens when we search for things. When we constantly are knocking, He constantly opens. We just need to keep our vision on the door. God knows us and He knows what we need—I saw that personally this week many times.

Love your enemies. It frees you from hatred.

- Elder Celaya

This is the lady who has been like my mother on my mission, Sis. Taveras. Elder Richards and I went and visited her on P-day (she lives in our old area when we served together in the Bronx).

New York City Library in the genealogy section

Seeing Happiness When You Literally Can't (16 March 2016)

Most productive week of my mission hands down!

- We were able to see so many miracles this week.

- Prayed with 100 people on the street this week in the first contact with people we have never talked to. We knelt with a lot of people on the street to pray as well. It's amazing to see how it turns a crazy, more hectic and dark environment into a very time-paused, peace-filled bubble where the presence of God can be felt. It's amazing to see how a flat-out "no" turns into "wow, tell me more" after they have the chance to feel what comes from the prayer. 28 of those people turned into people who set return appointments, who want to learn more. They are 28 new people we have to help, talk with, and teach.

- Elder Richards and I are completely exhausted though. We have been talking with everyone in sight and it has taken a toll.

- We found this man on the street. We decided to go and talk to him. As we did, we prayed with him right there and eventually went into teaching the restoration. He got everything. But what was amazing was that at the end when we were explaining the feelings of the Holy Ghost, we told him that he would feel those feelings as he read, pondered and prayed about the book. He looked at us and said, "Wait, but can't you both feel that feeling right now? Because I know I sure can and I already know this is from God." I knew I was feeling it, I knew Elder Richards was feeling it, and that is what moved us to share with him the feelings of the spirit so he could identify them. He pointed out right there how strong the spirit was and he had not even read the book yet. We gave him a Book of Mormon and are hoping to meet with him soon. It's amazing to see how easy it is to teach people the gospel who are ready. It feels like we are not even teaching. The spirit is very present in those teaching situations and it's like we (the missionaries) are not even there.

- One day we ended up talking to four people who we "randomly" decided to talk to, who used to invite the missionaries over in the Dominican Republic and were taking the missionary lessons. That was guided. You could feel it before you even started talking to them. I have realized there are little simple miracles throughout every day. We just have to look for them.

- Got caught in the middle of a big drug deal. It was about 8:30 at night. We walked down this rundown street to find an old investigator. Here in these apartment buildings, there are always two doors. First, the main one (you have to get buzzed in to get into both), and then the second door which leads you to the stairs. As we were walking up, we saw this big black SUV pull up. Everyone looked frantic. We opened the door to the building. This lady had gotten out of the SUV, and a group of people in the back of the SUV pulled out big, big bags (they looked very heavy) filled with powder-like substance. She grabbed them and ran into the building. We were right behind her. We got into the first door because the people opened it. So we were stuck in between the first and second door with this lady who had pounds upon pounds of drugs. A little boy came in after her (we found out he was all a part of this, too -- he had drugs on him as well.) The doorbell was not working, and the lady was stressing out because she could not get in quick enough. The people on the outside, who were watching to make sure nobody comes in and interrupts the deal, got worried and came into the first door where we were. They were heavily drugged (just think of your toughest looking street thugs, and that is them). The room we were in was tiny, and the problem we had was that they thought we were the police. The tension in the air was very serious. Apparently, in this building they do a lot of drug deals, so the people upstairs who take in the drugs rigged the door. So while these thugs and this lady and kid, and Elder Richards and I, were in the tiny little entrance, they locked both the first door and the second, so there was no way to get out either way. We tried but could not. We knew this was going to get ugly very fast because here are these big bags of drugs with the people who are delivering them next to us who they think are cops. So out of desperation, we pulled out cards of Jesus Christ and start frantically telling them all about Jesus Christ and how God has a plan for each of them and how this life is not the end or the beginning. Haha, it is very funny now, but scary in the moment for sure. They eventually got the picture that we were not cops, but it was very close to having something go down, so we got lucky. Jesus Christ can save us in any situation. Even His picture can ;) Then about 10 people came down and manually opened the second door to make sure there were no cops, and they all freaked out because they thought we were cops. The lady told them we were "Jesus people" and they all rushed the drugs upstairs. It was a crazy situation -- we were for sure in the wrong place at the wrong time.

- Things I learned from William. I have been reminiscing on a member back in New Paltz whose name is William Krom. He lives in the woods and is blind, but has taught himself how to play the piano beautifully. He writes his own music and can play just about any song you tell him to. We would visit him once a week, read scriptures with him, and then he would always bless us with the entire Sound of Music soundtrack on the piano, all without seeing a key. We would close our eyes to teach him so that we could, in a way, enter his world. For us, that made it a lot more personal. These are the lessons I learned from Mr. Krom:

He was the happiest man I have ever met. When the sun shined he would say, "Can you feel the goodness of God coming down? I just know that is his way of showing that He loves us and wants us happy." Although he could not see and could not do anything on his own, that did not stop him from being happy or giving service to others. He would go (with the help of a friend) to senior centers every day and play piano for whom he claimed were the people who did not have joy, so he could serve them and make THEM happy. He likes to help other people when, in reality, he was the one who needed help the most, but he didn't see that because he was too busy helping others and making them happy. I learned from him that when life seems like it's all caving in to a never-ending black hole, you will be able to find happiness and hope by finding those who need to be uplifted and lifting them up, despite you being crushed on the floor. It's amazing how when you help someone else, they just don't benefit from it, but rather the two of you are elevated. And who can elevate us anymore than Jesus Christ and God? There is nobody higher. But the only way that we can let them do so is if we lift others, and then we ascend together with Christ lifting us way past the height we could lift ourselves. In order to know Christ, we have to be in a sense like Him, and in order to be like Him, we have to trust Him enough to know that by doing what He asks, He will lift us to eternal joy. There is only one way to find out.

“Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fullness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” Psalms 16:11

No matter where we are, or how bad or good we are, He can give us new life.

With sincerity,

Elder Austin Celaya