Lost in Frontera

Lost in Frontera...So as a I mentioned last week, my dad Elder Cruz is the new zone leader here in Monclova and Elder Carreon joined me in Frontera. So this week I got the opportunity to see how well I know my way around this area. Suprisingly, I didn’t get lost lol and I only had to use the map once haha!

My new Companion Elder Carreon/“Mom” (first trainer is your dad, second trainer is your mom) is chill and I’m excited to continue to work with him for the next couple of weeks! He likes to work hard ha, so we get along!!! Whenever we teach a lesson, he has me teach every part and then he adds stuff and what not when I mess up and what not ha. It’s helped my Spanish a bunch, hopefully I’m fluent by the end of this change haha! 

This week we had stake conference! All of the talks and testimonies were great! We had the privilege to hear from an Area Seventy, President Cahoon (Mexico Saltillo Mission President), and Sister Cahoon! All of the talks were great, however, Sister Cahoon’s was definitely my favorite because it was in English! (Elder Wells translated it to Spanish for everyone else in the congregation if you were wondering ha).

When Elder Cruz moved out this last week, he left like ten or fifteen ties in the house that he didn’t want. So this week the surgeon started slimming all of those ties ha!! Hopefully he doesn’t want all of them back now that they’re slim…hah. 

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!! 

- Much love - Elder Ceb

Elder Carreon and I after we helped Hermana Raffela decorate for Christmas!

Parade last week in Monclova for the Revolution!

Chilling with Elder Pedro

They asked to see my green card after this picture

Cambios are coming in Frontera!

!Cambios! (changes) 

Dang time is going by way to fast...lol it feels like it was just yesterday when Elder Cruz and I arrived in Frontera. This morning we found out what changes will happen tomorrow, and it looks like I’m going to have to say goodbye to my dad (Elder Cruz) tonight. It´s all good though because he´s not going very far. Elder Cruz is our new zone leader along with Elder Wells. My new companion is Elder Carreon from Veracruz Mexico haha, that’s about all I know about him at the moment but I’m excited to work with him here in Frontera! 

Everything is going really good with our investigators, hopefully I can figure out how to get to all of their houses without Elder Cruz lol. I usually just follow him around, however, for the most part I think I know my way around this area. If not, we´ll find out tomorrow haha. Elder Cruz and I have two baptisms scheduled for the first week of December. They are both younger kids from less active families. Both families came to church yesterday and both kids Joxan and Genesis are excited for their baptism! We have a couple of other investigators that have been progressing and coming to church. We just need to work out a couple of things with a divorce and a marriage and then we should have another baptism or two for December! I truly appreciate all your prayers on behalf of myself and our investigators here in Frontera. I have seen immense changes within my own testimony and the testimonies of our investigators! 

This week The Surgeon slimmed one of Elder Wells ties to pay him back for the invite to his birthday "Carne Asada" this past week! It turned out really good and I’d like to humbly say that I’m pretty much professional lol. I have like two or three more ties that I’m going to do in the next week or two and then eventually I’ll start working on my next project!

I think like two weeks ago I mentioned the Book of Gainz that I put together before the mission. Haha anyways, apparently a bunch of other missionaries and missionary moms have been asking my mom for copies so I’m basically famous lol! Since I’m already talking about gainz quick shout out to my mom for sending the package with more protein bars! On the real though, gainz are great and all but spiritual gainz are way more important!!! 

Much love, Elder Ceb

karsten.cebollero@myldsmail.net

Monclova Mexico Zone

The Surgeon performed surgery on Elder Wells tie for his birthday!

 Shout-out to my mom for restocking my protein bars

A lot of Elders have these mission books with pictures and letters from different Elders and what not. Haha and all of the Elders cut out pictures from the older Liahonas (church magazines) that we have in the apartments... Anyways, I’m pretty proud of my creation in Elder Leon´s mission book!

You already know my famous pose is going international

Elder Leon

   

Elder Cebollero's first "Carne Asada" fiesta!

Nov. 13, 2017

Wow! Time really doesn’t exist in the mission field! lol Next week I hit my three-month mark and finish my first transfer in the field. Everything has been going really good in Frontera, my Spanish has improved immensely, I’m not fluent by any means but, I definitely see improvement each and every day.

This week it was one of our Zone Leaders Elder Wells birthday and we got invited to a "Carne Asada" with some members to celebrate! Everyone talks about these "Carne Asadas" all the time so I had high expectations when I arrived, however, those expectations were definitely exceeded when they pulled out like fifty steaks ha especially because there was only like ten people there. Anyways, we ate tons of carne asada and a bunch of other food! Then they pulled out the Tres Leches cake! Which was probably one of the best cakes I’ve every had! So in conclusion, my first "Carne Asada" was a success lol hopefully there’s many more to come over the next two years! 

Since I’m about to finish up this transfer this week I figured it would be a good time to share a couple of stories from my first transfer in the mission field! 

So, the first story was approximately two or three weeks ago. Elder Cruz and I were talking with a non-active member and as we were leaving she asked if I was from the United States. Then she said, "Trump is a demon."  However, I didn’t hear/understand her say Trump so I thought she just said "ahh United States you’re a demon."  I was kind of confused so I was like what? Then she thought I didn’t understand the word demon in Spanish so she said "Trump is bad."  However, once again I didn’t really hear/understand  when she said Trump so I thought she said "ahh United States you’re bad". Anyways, after we left I was kind of confused haha and I was talking with Elder Cruz and he said that she was talking about Trump lol but because of how she said his name I didn’t catch it lol. Honestly, it's easier to understand people’s Spanish than their English ha!

The next story was when I was talking with a big group of kids. Elder Cruz and I were just walking down a street and these kids surrounded me and they were like "he's from the United States and he speaks Spanish and English".... Then they proceeded to start asking me how to say different things in English. At first it was just simple things from around our surroundings like house, car, bike and what not. However, then one of the kids asked me how to say this word. I wasn’t really familiar with this word so as I was trying to think if I knew what it was in English I said hmm what is "______" like once or twice. After I said that I didn’t know the word the other kids started saying this word in English. Let’s just say it was a really bad word ha so hopefully I don’t accidently say it again.

Another story happened like two weeks ago. Elder Cruz was getting a haircut and after he finished up we proceeded to walk out of the barber shop... Elder Cruz walked out first.  I said "adios" to the barber and as I turned around and walked out the door, I ran into this guy that was walking into the barber shop. He was really short, so I didn’t really see him... Anyways, I was like "oh sorry man" and I continued to walk down the street. Then he came out of the barber shop and was like "aye missionary" so I walked back over to him and then he started acting kind of tuff as he was standing on his tippy toes. At this point I noticed he had three tear drop tattoos on his face, and then he started saying that he wanted to fight me... (He said a couple of words that I didn’t know and I think one of them was the word from the story above) So I was just like "I’m sorry man please forgive me" Then Elder Cruz tapped my arm and we walked away, we haven’t had any problems since so hopefully I don’t run into him again. 

The last story happened this past week. Elder Cruz and I were just contacting as usual. Then as we got to the next house it was my turn to initiate contact. So I knocked on the door and then this head pops out the window, and then he popped his head out the window on the other side, and then this guy opened the door. I started talking with him and he was giving me the weirdest look... but we don’t judge so I just kept talking with him as usual. I was kind of distracted because of how he was looking at me so honestly it was some of my worst Spanish. However. despite my Spanish he invited us in to hear our message. As we walked in I was still kind of getting a weird vibe, then when we sat down, he shut the door. When it shut it made a loud click and there was just like this little box thing so I was kind of thinking we were locked in. Anyways, we started talking with him just about like the usual stuff about religion in his life and various things about his life. At this point he started asking me tons of questions. It was almost like he was obsessed with me he kept asking my full name and then he had me write it down and he kept repeating it like "ahh Karsten William". Then he said that he has noticed me around town a couple of times, but he hadn’t really seen my companion. Anyways, after we talked for a bit Elder Cruz and I proceeded to teach a short lesson. After we finished up he said he knew someone who was a member of our church in Monclova. Elder Cruz served in Monclova for three weeks before this transfer so he happened to know this member... Since Elder Cruz knew his friend he wanted a picture of us so then we stood up and he took a picture of Elder Cruz and I. Then he was like just Elder Cebollero and he took like six pictures and I was like good and he kept saying no one more... and then he took one picture of Elder Cruz and then he said he wanted pictures with us. After we took pictures we talked for a bit and then it was time to leave because it was time for lunch. As we said goodbye and started to walk out the door he grabbed my arm and said "ahhh guapo (handsome). So um yah It was kind of a different lesson.

I hope everyone enjoyed those stories. I’m sure I’ll have a bunch more over the next two years. Thanks for all of your emails- I love hearing from each and every one of you. 

As always, 

Much love, Elder Ceb

Chillin with Don

Outside our apartment

Elder Cruz and I

Every "Juan" wants to hear the gospel!

Hola! Hola!

Between Halloween and the Day of the Dead, this last week was crazy out here in Mexico ha! It's way cool to have this opportunity to experience a different culture first hand. This week, Elder Cruz and I were talking with an older gentlemen and he invited us into his house to show us his collection of Bibles and pamphlets he has collected over the years from Mormon missionaries, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and a couple of other religions. As he was showing us his collection, I noticed that his house didn’t really have much of a roof, and the floors were dirt, but this man was still so happy. I’ve had a couple of other experiences like this over the last couple of weeks, and it has truly been so humbling.

Last week, I was planning on giving a little update on some of our investigators. However, I didn’t have very much time, and to be honest, it's kind of confusing because we are teaching at least ten different Juans and one Juanita!! lol Anyway, all of the Juans are doing good. One of our investigators that is not named Juan, Izabella, has been progressing so much as we have taught her over the past two or three weeks. She is about fifty or so, and the first time we met with her we taught her how to pray. Every time we meet with her, she says the closing prayer, and she gets more and more comfortable addressing our Heavenly Father every time. It has been a great experience to be able to watch her progress over these last couple of weeks. She really wants to come to church. However, she works on Sundays. She has been trying to get her schedule switched around, so hopefully she´ll be able to come to church soon so she can continue to progress!

On Friday, Elder Cruz and I went with the zone leaders, Elder Wells (from Orem, Utah) and Elder Pedro (from Cali) to go help the Elders in San Buena. In this area, there is only a small branch and it has been struggling, so Elder Ramirez (from Colombia) set up a contacting activity with the members in a park in the center of town. We set up some tables in the middle of the park with tons of pamphlets and Books of Mormon, and we had a projector playing “Meet the Mormons”. Then we all split up around the park and worked with the members. After we talked with people, we brought them to the center of the park over to Elder Ramirez where he gave them a pamphlet and wrote down their information so he could come and visit them. It was a really cool activity; hopefully we were able to help out this branch. The members were so grateful that we came and helped them out. One of the members I worked with had served a mission in Argentina, and I was talking to him about it, and we are pretty sure he served with Elder Tyler Wall (one of my good friend’s older brothers)! 

This morning, I pulled out the missionary book of Gainz... Between all of my bands and dumbbells and pull-up bar, I was able to do one of Cory G’s “Get Stacked” workouts! So I’m basically back at Gold’s gym haha. If you don’t know who Cory G is, then you should definitely look him up if you want some Gainz! Because he is the man! and he’s tight with Arnold.

The surgeon (me) hasn’t really done much the last two weeks, but the word has gotten out within the mission. So I have a bunch of Elders that want me to work on their ties. Besides the usual tie-slimming though, I have a new project or "surgery" coming up in the next couple of months lol, so stay tuned!

As always,

 Much love - Elder Ceb

Karsten.cebollero@myldsmail.net

(From Karsten’s mom…in my email he said he was feeling a lot better. He got on an antibiotic and it cleared up whatever he had. Thanks everyone that was praying for him.)

The activity in San Buena

Missionary Book of Gainz

Halloween

Sams Club!