Don’t Be a "New Yorker" (22 June 2016)

What a crazy week it's been. I've been pretty sick, my roommate went home on an emergency, and every time we walk out the door someone always seems to have something to say -- the "New York way!"

One night we were walking home. We just get off the subway, and we ran into the sister missionaries. We said hi and walked in front of them. As we were walking, there were these two guys holding hands walking in the opposite direction. One of them looks at me and says, "Heyyyy cute thanngg!!!"  And then his partner looks at him and smacks him and yells, "HEYYYYYY, don't you look at him!!" (now this was all said in a very voice-fluctuating type of tone). The sisters behind us just start cracking up and so did we. Very funny experience that I've never had - a guy flirting with me while he already had a partner. It was an experience I had once and thought that would be the end, but we actually have been getting a lot of these kinds of occasions recently.

We had a lesbian couple walk by (same place actually), they started laughing at us and said we were a cute couple. Haha. They thought they were so ironically funny. Right before that, we came out off an elevator and there was this "vote for Adam Clayton Powell" add on the floor (a congressman here who has a street and statue in Harlem). Well, the guy is still living, but the statue makes him out to seem like he's some hero from the founding fathers’ time. My companion was telling me about this, and this lady looks up at us and was like "Yeah, well there's no black statues in Utah" (in a very sarcastic ignorant tone). My companion didn't like that one.

- We had this member call us from New Jersey who happened to be in the same congregation of the man who runs the administration of the hospital here in the area (we had met with him on previous occasions). He called us up and asked us if we could accompany him to a lung transplant seminar. He worked in the subway tunnels here for 14 years and it destroyed his lungs. He was, in fact, telling us a few crazy stories. One time some guy tried to sneak through the turnstiles and this man tried to chase him down and yelled at him, "I hope you get hit by a train and die!" and the guy got scared, jumped into the tracks trying to cross, the train came, and BOOM, he was hit. Our friend said he ran back up to his position real quick haha. He told us, too, how the homeless people live down in the subways and how a man touched something electrical and fried black and our friend had to scrape him off the tracks. He has crazy stories! Anyways, his lungs are destroyed from working down there for 14 years. He needs a lung transplant (both lungs) and called the mission home to get it approved that we go with him. So we went to a 2-hour seminar with about 50 people hooked up to oxygen tubes, having to carry oxygen tanks around with them everywhere they go. The seminar was given by one of the top lung surgeons in the world and was so interesting. I honestly learned a lot about missionary work. It relates to everything -- especially human nature and human patterns.

We are having a baptism the weekend before I leave. We are working with Justin to get him there. His mom and sister were baptized a year ago, and his dad is now getting interested. We are going to work on getting them to the temple to be sealed. That's the goal.

There is a lady we have been visiting in the hospital who is from Philadelphia (4 hours away) who happens to be a member. She fell and now her intestines turned black and partly died, so they had to cut a large part of them out. She has been in pain for about a month now. She doesn't have anybody here who’s family except her sister who works at the hospital as a cancer researcher. Sunday night we needed to sync our area book and therefore needed wifi. We decided to go to the hospital. As we were sitting down a very strong prompting came to mind. "Go visit Diane."  So we walked in her room and she was sleeping. Whenever she is sleeping, we usually just come back.  But something said to wake her up. So we woke her up, and she began to express to us that she wanted to give up, that she wanted to die, and die tonight. We didn't really know what to do or say. We waited for a minute and the words finally came. We were able to tell her that clearly God had not given up on her yet, and that was the reason she was living...there was a purpose, she just had to find it. We spent 45 minutes helping her see the bigger picture. By the end of the night she told us she would fight to the end. It's been amazing to see how God puts you in people's path that you either need or they need you. Look for them. They are always there. I've found the more I'm looking to find those that I can help, the more people come into my life that can help me.

Love you all,

- Elder Celaya

Do You Know Reality? (8 June 2016)

- Spanish, Spanish, Spanish. Gospel, gospel, gospel -- two best things in the world. Two things I'm addicted to. Good things to be addicted to, too :)

- We talk in Spanish all day. I'm so happy that California is basically a second Mexico or I don't know what I'd do without Spanish on the daily!

- Elder Bennet from the first quorum of the 70 is here all week. We have an 8-hour training with him tomorrow and then another 5-hour one the following day. It's going to be intense!

 - Justin. 17. His mom and sister just joined the church a year ago and we found him in the hospital. He had a series of surgeries and we would visit him each day between surgeries. Now we are teaching him. He has a baptism date for the 25th of June. Such an awesome kid. It's fun to find those that aren't really tainted by the crazy environment here. I have no idea how they stay that way living here. It blows my mind.

- How can we understand, comprehend, appreciate, and value eternity, or something eternal, when nothing in our lives has ever been temporary? Let's say you grow up with your family, they are still here, and you have your school and your job with friends and family. What in that life seems temporary? It's only when something becomes temporary like a death in the family or when you fight death daily with a terminal disease, etc...That is when we see reality, really as it is, and we understand more than we know anything else that death is real. More real than any of us seem to want to believe. Death is the ending of this life. As you meet the end that will also end everything else in your life, this is when you realize what really matters - not much more than that really does. All we can really control, and not even fully is the life we have here. We are still subjected to injustices and bad decisions of others, illness, etc...but at least we try to control it. But then we realize that by ourselves alone we cannot control anything of what follows this life. We don't know how, or even can by ourselves. That's where Christ comes in -- the only one who knows the "how," and He has given us the tools to make death only a passing phase rather than an end. It can only get better. It will be unimaginably better in the next life if we would only let Him change us and make it that way here. I've realized you can teach people this all you want. They may know it's true all they want. But to really find Him personally, on a personal level, it takes lots and lots of searching and work. But oh, is it worth it. He will take you out of this world and bring you to one better. You'll have one foot in heaven.

It's as C.S. Lewis said, "The men who did most for this world were the ones whose minds were caught up in the next."

I love this mission. I'm going to miss it dearly. I've never had to leave anything that's so close to my heart as this.

¡Haz lo que pueda a medida que le falte tiempo todavía! 

- Elder Austin Celaya

My last transfer. Saying goodbye to Elder Richards.

My new companion, Elder Price. He's from Redlands, CA. It's great - basically our whole zone is from California. Love it!

Cool mall in Columbia Circle

Cali (18 May 2016)

New York Subway

We visit this man named Fransisco, and his building is basically a drug haven. Every time we walk in people are dealing drugs, and the walls are covered in graffiti and other things not appropriate to mention haha. So we walked in yesterday. We usually go in and just to up to where we need to go and avoid the guys doing or dealing drugs. Usually they think we are the Feds and there always is a little tension when we enter. Well, yesterday we walked passed a group of them in the stairwell and they were smoking weed. As we walked up they were like, "Ah guys, so sorry for the smell. Like really, we are sorry." We looked back, kind of annoyed, and then all of a sudden words slipped out of my mouth that maybe shouldn't have and I was like "Guys...no worries. I'm from Cali, I understand completely." They all started busting up yelling "OHHHHHHH" haha and laughing. They loved it. My companion didn't quite understand the reference, but now we are best friends with those guys. Every area I'm in we seem to always become friends with the sketches of the sketch. Hahah. I busted up laughing too because I didn't expect them to react so happily.

The last seven weeks of the mission are the best. It's like the last two minutes of the fourth quarter. You’re tired but you know you can go all out till the end because it's just two minutes. I'm loving it here and everything I'm learning. My mind is blank but my heart is full.

Just know that the gospel in the end is the easy way. You may not see that now. I love the realization I've been having out here.

Love you all. Never settle to be average.

- Elder Celaya

Zone Conference May 2016

"If you do that again, ya gunna get SHOT!!" (11 May 2016)

- Don't mind the title. Just something that happened when I was talking about the drugs we could smell in the project building. All of a sudden, around the corner pops out the guy who was thus "using" and didn't like how we were talking about his drugs or how we just busted into one of our good member’s apartment. Haha. Had to be there.

- It was fantastic to be able to talk to my family on skype. You guys are so amazing!

- Something I’ve been thinking about … Many people think that the way you were raised, where you grew up, your financial situation, and family situation defines you. But YOU control your reality. The second you don't think you do, you are right. Believe and let it move you to change your life and make the world a better place. It's sad to see how many people don't believe they can do it. They stay trapped in the life they hate just because they believe they can't get out. The ones that believe they can, do.

- We planned to go visit a non-member man I mentioned about in my previous letter. His wife (who happens to be a less-active) had lost her 16-year-old son 6 months ago from a sudden accident. She has no friends or family here in the states, and she expressed her deep pain of waking up in the night and feeling like his death was a dream and then she would remember he was no longer here, and the pain would then flood her heart. The part that was a miracle was that the conversation started from her focusing on her loss to us making goals with her to one day go to the temple to be sealed to her husband and son. She says she is going to go to church and talk with the bishop to work with him to be able to change her life. I'm learning more and more that Christ is the only one that can pull us out of anything in life, if we choose to allow Him to.

- I'm in love with Spanish. I'm so thankful there are lots of people who speak Spanish in California so I can speak it when I get back home.

- Time is short here, but there is still lots to do. Have a great week and try something this week you don't think you can do. Believing is amazing. Like Benjamin Mee said (in the movie We Bought A Zoo), "All you need is 20 seconds of insane courage and I promise you something great will come of it."

-- Elder Celaya

A couple of selfies with my friend Kalyn in Primary:

LET HIM carry you! (4 May 2016)

- Walked down a back ally to enter into this basement apartment. The apartment was filled with random people. Out walks this guy we were going to teach, says he'll be right back. On drugs heavily. We sit and wait in this dark basement apartment. Finally, after 20 minutes we walk out and see him coming back but in rags, beaten and bloody. The rest of the crew followed him back into the house. We decided to schedule another appointment a little later at a better time. Hahaha.

- I love sharing the gospel. If you never have tried, and you want to be happy. Just try it. It's a happiness that comes from God – nothing we could create ourselves.

- We have been working with this less-active older couple. They live together, but are not married. They lost their son a year ago who was in his 20's. The mother has never been willing to come back to church. We went into the lesson planning to share Alma 34, but the Spirit took it another way. We ended up showing Elder Nelson’s talk that he gave in the priesthood session where he talks about reuniting the family of the 2 girls he operated on, but was unable to save. The wife opened up and finally said that she knew that it was up to her at this point to do what she needs to do to come back to church, get active, get married to her old husband whom she lives with, to eventually be able to go to the temple and be sealed with her family for eternity. I hope dearly that she continues with this vision.

- Solidifying true change is something all of us want but rarely carry out. Yet, it's so important for true happiness. We all want to do it, but always seem to slip up after a while. Having a change of heart isn't as hard as you think. Especially when it's God you’re giving your heart to. Give him your heart, and trade your temporal life, for He will give you an eternal one. I know that more than anything. I love this work. What a privilege it is to be in God’s work.

Give Him your heart. It will be the BEST thing you EVER do,

- Elder Celaya

Missionary Leadership Council

Walking in the door . . .

Sitting in the back . . .

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