A river baptism and an amazing zone conference and an invitation!

This week was so crazy, I don’t even know where to start.... haha rip! 

So last Sunday, Julia Santos from Esperanzas came to church with us! She had been praying about baptism, however, she still hadn´t felt her answer. She asked me to give her a blessing, and then we went into Sacrament Meeting! During the meeting, all of the talks were about baptism and she really enjoyed all of them. However, she still didn’t have her answer. So we challenged her to continue praying when she got home!

On Tuesday, I called her to follow up, and she said that she had received her answer and was ready to be baptized in the RIVER on Thursday afternoon! So Elder Sabey and I headed out to Esperanzas on Wednesday afternoon so that he could do her baptism interview. We talked with her for a little bit and then Elder Sabey proceeded to do her interview. 

After the Interview, Elder Sabey told me to ask Julia how she felt during the prayer she said to finish up the interview. As I proceeded to ask her the SPIRT was so STORNG and I could honestly feel it rush through my whole body! It was soooo coool! Like on the real though, the hairs on my arms were like standing straight up and I had goosebumps, and the cool thing was that Julia and Elder Sabey had the same feeling! 

On Thursday, I had the privilege to baptize Julia IN A RIVER which was so cool! She was very specific about how she wanted her baptism haha. She said she wanted to be baptized in a river, with no pictures, and only with us missionaries, her sister, and another witness! We planned a really simple service with her and it turned out great, the Spirt was so strong!!! 

Friday morning, we headed off to Pideras for a quick Zone Conference with Elder Pino from the Seventy! It was way cool, he talked a lot about the importance of our calling as misisonaries! He stated that we need to focus on the things stated in our mission calls after it says where we are going and when we leave and all that good stuff. Each mission call is directly from our Heavenly Father, so I would just like to challenge all of my friends that have just gotten their calls to read their assignment again and ponder the words! 

The Zone Conference was held with the other zones in Piedras Negras and Acuna, so that was dope! I got to see my mom and my dad... Elder Cruz and Elder Carreon my first two companions/trainers. I also saw my previous comp and best friend, Elder Villarauz, along with one of the Day One Saltillo boys, Elder Porter! 

Saturday we had a soccer tournament at the church and it turned out way good! We had over 20 people come and play with us so that was chill! 

The surgeon was crazy busy over these past two weeks. I sent a package back home on Friday since I was close to the border, so I slimmed like 15 ties really quick to send some back to some of my family and friends! I almost lost my package though when I was on the bus. The military came and checked our bus and they wanted to check my package and I may or may not have had some counterfeit stuff in there hahah It´s all good though! I gave him 500 pesos and he let it slide haha! 

Oh and btw the Gainz are still good! 

Much love,

Elder Ceb

1. Chilling in the river after I baptized Julia Santos!

2. Some of the ties I slimmed for some family members and friends #theSurgeon

3. My boy Elder Fetia who also loves Arnold and is going to hit up Golds with me after the mish

4. Day one Saltillo boys

5. My boy Elder Porter from Sacramento Cali #ElderGove

Palau wahooo

What’s goood fam?

We still out here grinding in Palau! President Cahoon even came out to Palau and visited us this past Wednesday! This Friday we are going to have a huge Zone Conference in Piedras Negras with all of the Zones in the northern part of the mission! So, this past week President went through the whole mission to do some interviews... and since Musquiz and Palau are way far away from the other areas on our Zone he drove out to Palau to save us some time! He also had to check out a couple of things with our church because its two stories high and we are trying to get it approved to throw an elevator in there because the Hermanas from the branch struggle to make it up the stairs for sacrament meeting plus we have a lady in a wheel chair.

Anyways, I’m way excited for this upcoming week, The Area President is going to talk at our Zone conference and a select few will get to be interviewed so it will be way cool! 

Elder Leon and I have found a bunch of cool people over these past two weeks! We have some really cool people progressing at the moment and we are really excited. We are going to baptize the daughter of a less active family in June and it´s a way cool story because Elder Leon’s uncle baptized the girls dad while he was serving a mission! We are also working with the lady that wants to be baptized in the river, she came to church yesterday and everything went great, if everything works out she should be baptized this week or the next! 

On Friday night I’m pretty sure I got like food poising or something so I felt way sick all day on Saturday and I started to feel a little bit better on Sunday! It´s all good though because I felt great today and we were able to play a little bit of soccer as a district, and then ate our classic lunch together here in Palau! 

The Surgeon is currently working on a huge project and I have slimmed about 10 ties during this past week and I still need to slim a couple more. I am going to ship some of these ties to the U.S. next week, however, it´s a surprise so that’s all I can say at the moment. 

Hope everything is going good! Thanks for all the love and support, I appreciate all of your emails! 

Much love, 

Elder Ceb

1. We went and picked out floral shirts for my grandma Pat so we figured we could try them on! 

2. Playing soccer with the boys!

3. Classic lunch

4. Day one Saltillo boys

5. Day one boyz

Loving life! Mother's Day Week 2018

Yesterday was definitely a day to remember! It was so good to talk with the fam for a bit, oh and it was way chill to talk to the boys too! Shout out to AK and $ki, with a special shout out to my mom because she taught me everything I know, just like the mothers of the Two Thousand Stripling Warriors! #shoutouttothebookofmormon 

This past week was super dope.  My companion Elder Leon and I had a ton of success so that was way chill! We found 29 new investigators and we have a way serious baptism date coming up, along with another 6 people in church! It´s always good to see a little hard work pay off! 

This past Wednesday during our district meeting we set a bunch of goals to complete as a district each and every day and it made this week a blast! On Wednesday the goal we had was to challenge someone to a quick pick up game, so Elder Leon and I went and played some baseball with some kids! Then after we played some baseball, we went over to Melisa’s (our convert) house because there are a bunch of kids that always play soccer out there! When I got there, I told them that if we won they all get to come to church with us on Sunday, and since I’m just some random white dude that looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger, they didn’t think I could play... However, they didn’t know that we have the Lord on our side, like honestly, because I was a beast!! I scored like 3 or 4 goals and we beat them 6 to 0! It was crazy I was out there playing like Messi but like 10 times better haha! 

Then on Thursday night we were passing by Melisa’s house and there was a soccer game on between Los Santos and America, all of the kids were huge Santos fans but my team is America (from Mexico City). They are basically the Mex soccer bandwagon version of the warriors lol lol! Haha but anyways, since my team lost all the kids got to pour water on Melisa and I so that was fun haha, definitely the closest I’m getting to a swimming pool for the next two years! 

Thursday was Mother’s Day here in Mexico! It was way cool, definitely a huge party hahah. I had cake 4 different times so it was definitely bad for the gainz but it was Tres Leches so it’s tight!

On Friday we had a little branch movie night in the church with my projector! It was cool we had 7 investigators there, including 5 of the kids we destroyed in the soccer game on Wednesday haha! The kids loved the movie and were excited to come to church on Sunday, however, they weren’t able to come so we'll have to help them wake up on time next week....

Saturday, we invited over thirty people to church so that kept us crazy busy! Then on Sunday I got to talk with the fam for a bit! I even called my Grandma Pat from Florida from my phone and it was so cool to surprise her with a phone call, definitely something I will remember forever, hopefully she didn’t notice I cried a little bit when I heard her voice haha! My skype was also a way cool experience, it’s crazy I have been here in Mexico for 9 months but I have never felt closer to my family and loved ones!

Today for p-day I got a quick chest and back work out #coryG! 

Loving life right now…thanks for all the love and support! Hope you all have a great week.

Much Love,

Elder Ceb

1. Talking with the fam!

2. Talking with my boys!

3. Cake with Elder Leon

4. Tarantula #RIP

5. Solid papanachos for dinner! 

Que tranza morros!

Que tranza morros! 

These past 3 months in Palau have gone by way too fast! We have changes tomorrow and my companion Elder Villarauz is getting transferred to Piedras Negras! I’m definitely going to miss my boy Villarauz!  He is definitely going to be one of my friends for life, and potentially my brother in law if you know what I mean..... McKall or Aubri....!!!

My new comp Elder Leon will get here tomorrow and we are going to keep on grinding out here in Palau! Everything is looking pretty good, we have some great people progressing and we are going to work with Melisa's family and Celeste's family over the next couple of weeks too! They are way cool, and they actually invited us to dinner last night and said they might have a carne asada this Thursday too! 

Today for P-day we went and took some pics by the river! Going out there was definitely some good motivation to continue preparing Juila for her baptism... because that’s the only way we can get in the water haha! 

Don’t have much time today, so I have to keep this email pretty short. Hope everyone is doing good back home in the 801! 

Much Love,

Elder Ceb

1. We are always out here chilling with Melissa and her crew on the railroad tracks

2. Chillin at the river

3. Elder Villarauz's farewell dinner

4. #dayonesaltilloboys