Two baptisms, zone conference and Elder Smith (from Musquiez) getting deported for visa issues, oh my!

Que tranza! This week was so crazy hahah we had a ton of stuff going on between two baptisms, zone conference and Elder Smith (from Musquiez) getting deported for visa issues.... It's all good though, he will be back on Wednesday hahah but meanwhile he is out there chilling in my boy Elder Murray’s mission!!!! 

 

So, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we worked way hard to find our 16 new investigators in Palau because early Friday morning we headed off to Rosita for our zone conference and we decided it would be better to stay and work in Rosita because our area is out in the middle of nowhere hahah! (I love Palau though don’t get me wrong!)

 

Anyways, on Friday we played volleyball, soccer and a bunch of other games with the whole zone while we switched off interviewing with President Cahoon! It was way fun! We previously weren’t allowed to play soccer so everyone was really hyped that we got to play around for a bit!

 

Then President took us out to lunch while the other Elders went back and ate in their areas... After we ate, Elder Villarauz and I went with Elder Mason (Elder Reed’s son) to an appointment and then to go find a couple of new investigators.  After we finished up, we hustled over to the church so I could help teach the English class since Elder Reed had an appointment. After I finished the class President Cahoon came over to the church to do my interview because we ran out of time in the morning. It was great to talk with President for a while.  He is a really great mission President! I would definitely think of him as one of the boys! 

 

On Saturday we had our Zone Conference in the morning and then we ate some lunch in Rosita with Elder Smith and Elder Sabey. After we ate, we sent Elder Villarauz and Elder Sabey to Palau so that Sabey could interview Celeste and Melisa for their baptisms and then Elder Smith and I hitch hiked with President to Sabinas so that we could get some baptism clothing. President dropped us of at a church in Sabinas and then he headed off to Monclova. We had their branch president come and open the church for us and then headed off on our two-hour journey back to Palau hahha. We grabbed a bus to Rosita and then another one to Palau and we eventually made it! However, when we got there they were still doing the interviews so they hadn’t had time to fill up the font. Elder Smith and I ran over to the church just to find out the water didn’t work hahah! So, we called a member and he came and fixed the water problem... We ended up getting it filled up around 8 o'clock haha just in time to baptize Melisa and Celeste! They are both so coool, it has been so cool to see them progress! They both want to serve missions when they finish college, and it will also be great to have them help us share the gospel with their families.

 

The baptismal services went really good. Elder Villarauz baptized Celeste and I baptized Melisa. Then on Sunday we both confirmed the girl that we baptized! The Spirit was so strong as I confirmed Melisa. It was definitely a way cool experience. Then after the confirmations we both gave talks again ahhah! My talk went really good though, definitely the best one I’ve given yet! 

 

After church we headed off to Musquiez to work with Elder Sabey since Elder Smith had to head off to Texas to work out his visa problems. We had a successful day and then we stayed the night there so that we could go get some waffles at a member’s restaurant in Musquiez! 

 

Oh and Elder Sabey and I were contacting on Sunday night and this guy that works in the U.S. told us our Spanish was better than the border patrols!!

 

For p-day we played some volleyball, lifted some weights for a bit, and finished off with some way gooooood tacos! 

 

Much love,

 

Elder Ceb

1. Hype! 

2. Melisa and Celeste with some of their family before the baptism!

3. Classic pic haha! 

4. Breiseda and Linda from Barroteron

5. Gotta love free haircuts! 

Running around making good stuff happen!

Que onda? Esta iluminado otra vez en Palau!

We had a really good week here in Palau! We found a really solid group of 16 new investigators and we have 5 fechas (dates) at the moment! This week we also had 6 people come to church! All the people that came to church have a lot of potential so we are excited to continue working with them. Sundays are honestly so crazy haha! 

This Sunday we had to run and open the church up early because we had an investigator from Esperanzas coming early.  Then we had to run (in full suits) to go pick up Melisa to come to church so that we could be back in time to wait for our other investigators that we had coming haha and we had to help bring a lady from Barroteron up the stairs because our church is two stories high and she is in a wheel chair. Plus, to make Sundays even more crazy, the whole time as we were running around, I was calling people to make sure they were coming to church haha! It's all good though once Sacrament meeting starts haha! 

This week we had two people come to church for the first time! One of them was this guy named Ramond haha…me and him are so tight. I always tell him he is my best friend when we see him in the street haha!  I have been inviting him to church for the last couple of weeks so it was way cool when he walked into sacrament meeting and gave me a hug haha! 

The Christian lady that always gives us food (Maragrita) also came to church see how our services are! I am almost 100% sure she will be baptized one of these days! 

The family we have on date from Barrtoeron didn’t make it to church this past week so we are going to work with them again this week to give them their last chance and then we will most likely have to drop them if they don’t come. They are really stoked about their baptisms though so hopefully we can get them here this next Sunday! At the moment, we have Breisda, Linda, and Alberto on date for baptism and this week we are going to work with their mom! 

Melisa came to church with us again, and she also went to an activity in Rosita on Saturday! Her Cousin Celeste, who we are also working with, went to church in Saltillo! She really enjoyed it and is planning on coming back to Palau this weekend to be baptized. We have their baptisms planned this Saturday and they are both very excited! Melisa was actually telling us that her and Celeste really want to be baptized together, however, Melisa said that she can’t wait any longer so if Celeste can't make it this week we will still baptize Melisa! 

About a week and a half ago we received a phone call from an old investigator in Esperanzas, she was waiting for us in front of the church on Tuesday afternoon. We went and talked to her and made a really good connection and then she stated that she previously wanted to be baptized! We continued to talk with her and invited her to church! She came yesterday and she was really excited to be coming to church again! She wants to be baptized in a river so that would be so cool! However, she also said she doesn’t want any pics... so you guys will just have to believe me! 

We had another pretty solid p-day! We woke up and did some laundry and got a quick workout in... and then as I finished the laundry the Surgeon slimmed a tie! then we went and hit the gym so I could get a quick chest and back workout before we played some volleyball! then we finished it all off with some hamburgers! 

Hope everything is going good back home,

Thanks for all the love and support

Much love,

Elder Ceb

1. Tres Leches cake for Luptia’s birthday!

2. Their son was in the CCM with us!

3. More food! 

4. The surgeon getting back to work! 

5. Hamburgers with watermelon water! 

Hundreds waiting for the gospel!

Que onda!? What’s gooood!?

Quick shout out to the boys back home for getting their mission calls! My boy Mali is going to Orlando Florida speaking English, Truman is going to Belgium/Netherlands speaking Spanish and Dutch, AK is going to Chile speaking Spanish, and my boy Ski going to Lisbon Portugal speaking Portuguese!! 

This week went really good, we had tons of success and saw a bunch of more miracles!  We are really starting to see everything come together here in Palau; there is no doubt in my mind that there are hundreds of people here just waiting to accept the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and be baptized.

This week we set 2 more baptism dates, so we have 4 baptism dates at the moment, and we are planning on setting more dates this week! Right now, we have Celeste and Melisa set on date for this Saturday and we have Breseida and Alberto (from Barroteron) on date for the upcoming Saturday the 28th. 

Melisa and Celeste are super ready to be baptized; it has been amazing to watch them both progress. It has been so cool to see the love that they have developed for the Book of Mormon over these past two weeks! They are both 20-year-old college students, and they have both been bringing all of their pamphlets and Books of Mormon to school each day to share with all of their friends! 

The family we have been teaching in Barroteron has been doing really well. We set a baptism date with Breseida (a 20-year-old college student) and her brother Alberto (a 15-year-old boy). They both have been really excited about all of the lessons and we are excited to teach them again this week. We are also planning on setting a date with their sister Linda (who is 18) and also their Mom! 

The members in Barroteron have been helping a lot, we received a couple of references this past week and one sister told us that she has "lots of friends that want to be baptized and she is going to set up a appointments for us". There is honestly nothing more efficient then working with members! One of the references we got was a young mother that recently lost her baby. We went and talked with her and she really opened up and told us everything as she cried... It was amazing to see the light in her eyes as we explained part of the plan of salvation as we bore our testimonies! 

We had this lady call us on Tuesday and she said she was waiting for us by the church. We went and talked to her and it turns out she was an old investigator that lives in Esperanzas which is like 30 min north of Palau.  She stated that her boyfriend gave her a diamond ring but they broke up and she wanted to donate it to the church.  We aren't allowed to take stuff like that hahah so we told her she could come on Sunday and give it to the Branch President! Then as we continued talking with her…she said that she wanted to be baptized last December in the river, however, the missionaries said the water was too cold and they were also giving her a hard time because she said she doesn’t want to take a picture when she gets baptized. So, I explained to her that we could have a small baptism for her in the river just with us and the Branch President, oh and I said we wouldn’t take any pictures! So, if everything goes good we should be able to baptize her within the next week or two! She is a really great lady, she had been having trouble sleeping in her house so she asked me to come bless her house. So, Wednesday morning on the way to Barroteron we stopped by and visited her and then blessed her house! 

Today was a pretty chill p-day we just kind of hung out with Elders Sabey and Smith and then ate some wayyy good chicken #protein. 

Hope everyone is doing good back home! 

Much love,

Elder Ceb

1. Love being with my boy Elder Vaquero again

2. We helped Moraima organize some of her students' work because she is a teacher.. and then we ate some tacos!

3. Yes! Getting so dark!

4. I'm pretty sure this pic is a tradition now here in Palau! 

Couldn't be more happy!

Que onda? What’s goood! We had another successful week out her in Palau and I really couldn’t be more happy with the mish at the moment! I never really write much about the people we work with so I figured I would finally throw in some more details haha. 

This past Sunday we had one of our investigators Teresa come to church again, so this week we are going to put a fecha for this next Saturday the 21st after we talk with her parents. She has been progressing really well and she has been enjoying all three hours of church! Her parents haven't come to church with us; however, they are really glad that she has been coming with us to church.

This week we also had the privilege to teach a really cool family in Barroteran. We were walking down the street in Barroteran about two weeks ago looking for the address of a less active family when a lady told us to come and talk to her. As we started talking with her she stated that her mom was baptized into our church before she died. Her mom’s death was really hard on her and her daughters, and she also stated that the sister missionaries had been teaching them and she wanted us to come by and visit. We went and visited them and their whole family even her husband and son joined us to watch a quick video about the plan of salvation, after the video we made sure they clearly understood everything and then we bore our testimonies and the Spirit filled the room. This family definitely has a lot of potential so we are excited to continue working with them. 

About a week or two ago we were walking by the train tracks on the way to visit a family when an older gentleman invited us over to talk to him. We talked with him for a bit and set an apt. Later the next week, we went and taught him L1, and as we were teaching the Book of Mormon, his 20-year-old daughter Celeste came out side and was really intrigued by the Book of Mormon so I continued to explain what it was and then I gave her a Book of Mormon. We went back to visit her this past Tuesday and she had read her L1 pamphlet and had been reading the Book of Mormon, as we started to teach the lesson, her cousin Melisa walked over to ask her mom a question and she was also really intrigued at what we were teaching so we invited her to come and listen. We went back to visit them on Thursday and they were both really excited and had been reading the pamphlet from L3 and the Book of Mormon, and they both had lots of good questions. Honestly both of them were super ready to be baptized already! so at the end of the lesson I set a baptism date with both of them for the 8th this past Sunday and they both took it really well! However, we later realized that her bus to Saltillo actually left Saturday night and not Sunday night as she previously thought. So, we ended up changing the date to the 21st when she gets back from Saltillo! They are both really animated and we are really excited to continue preparing the both of them to be baptized! 

Yesterday we had a member offer to take us to Barroteron to visit some less active families, and when we got there we worked with another member from Barroteron too and he helped us find a couple of good families with family members who aren’t baptized (PF's).  We can’t spent much time in Barroteron due to how far it is from Palau, however, as we continue to work with the members there, we should be able to see a lot of success! 

Today for P-day we went for a good 5 hour hike up some mountains with Elder Sabey and Elder Smith! It was a good time haha. I’m glad I started doing leg day a couple of months ago to prepare me lol. 

Thanks for all the love and support, hope everything is going good back home!

Much love,

Elder Ceb

1. Convinced all the boys to buy some sandals! #trendsetter

2. Some good food after our FHE

3. Gotta love some tortillas de Harina. 

4. Gotta love a good 20 mile hike

5. FIT

6. On top of the world 

7. Hiking with the boys 

General Conference and powerful FHE's!

This week went really good! Gotta love General Conference weekend in the Mish, especially in Spanish! 

On the real though it was way cool to watch General Conference in Spanish! Especially because I understood all of it. So, I guess that means I’m fluent? It was also way cool to finally have the Layton UT temple announced. haha I almost jumped out of my seat as I yelled "esta es mi cuidad" haha it was funny because all of the members were like chill Utah has like 20 temples... but then when I explained that I actually live in Layton UT they all got hype! Oh, and btw gotta give Layton another quick shout out because Friday when I walked out of my house I saw my boy Bibi who owns our house wearing a Layton High shirt hahah so chilll. (His brother that lives in Utah sent it to him.)

We had the privilege to have a couple of really powerful FHE's this past week thanks to the projector that my mom sent last week! On Tuesday night our FHE fell through so we ended up stopping by the house of a different less active family. They had a little bit of a weird look on their face at first as they opened their door at 8 o'clock at night; however, as we were watching the Mormon message with their kids they had a huge smile on their faces and were eager to know when we could stop by again to share another short message. After we left that house we were passing by the house of another member who was outside talking with some of his workers so we projected a quick video of Christ on the side of a building and they all gathered around to watch and along with a couple other people who were passing by! We also had a really spiritual FHE this past Friday. We had a huge family all united together and by the end of the Mormon message half of the family was in tears because the videos made them think of some things they were going through. I’m really excited to keep on having short FHE's. There is honestly nothing more powerful then projecting Prophets and Apostles directly into these houses.

I also went on divisions with Elder Sabey on Friday and we went to the center of the city and just threw a bunch of different Mormon messages up on the wall so that was way hype hahah! 

Today we played some more volleyball and I hit a solid Chest and Back Workout in the Gym too, so quick shout out to Arnold and Cory G! 

Thanks for all the love and support,

Much love,

Elder Ceb

1. Carne asada!

2. Carne Asada crew

3. Hype

4. The projector my mom sent me!

5. Layton, Utah on the way up!

6.  FHE!

7. Papa nachos with the Day One Saltillo Boy Elder Sabey!

8. LIT

9. Lit planner for a lit new transfer

10. Some p-day volleyball.