No Place I'd Rather Be!

What’s goood! 

Everything is dope out here in Palau! We had a great week full of lots of cake and parties and of course lots of hard work! 

We have been having a lot of success here in this branch. It has been so cool to see how much the branch is improving! This branch could become a ward here soon, strong priesthood holders will definitely make all of the difference here in Palau. It is definitely possible, we only have about 6 or so at the moment, however, Palau has met the number of active priesthood holder necessary various times before.

We are actually even teaching a part member family at the moment and the father is really interested. We set a baptism date with him this past week for this upcoming Saturday! He has come to church 5 times over the last couple months, however, he just got married 2 weeks ago and his in-laws wanted us to wait to teach him. Anyways, he has been really animated and he will be a future priesthood leader here in Palau! He is a way cool guy, haha me and him are way tight! 

This past Tuesday was my comp’s birthday, and Melisa and Celeste, two of my converts, invited us over for some tamales and birthday cake with them and some of the kids we always play soccer with! It was way chill; my comp and I were really surprised when we walked in and saw everything they prepared for my comp’s birthday! 

Friday, Margarita invited us over for some cake to celebrate her birthday and my comp’s birthday so that was goood, gotta love some tres leches cake! 

Saturday, we invited a bunch of people to church in between appointments and then played some soccer at the church with a bunch of people! 

Sunday went great, except for the part when I knelt down to bless the sacrament and my pants ripped hahah rip! It was definitely way noticeable as I gave my talk haha but no one said anything... It’s all good though because the surgeon can fix it! 

Later Sunday night after I changed my pants we went to some appointments and we even brought a young deacon with us and it was cool to have him help us with the lessons! He is way cool haha, and he is actually the older brother of Shelsea the girl we baptized a couple of weeks ago! 

This week we are going to have our zone conference so it should be a good time! 

Hope everyone is doing goood, I’m loving the mission out here in Mexico, definitely no place I would rather be!  

Much love, 

Elder Ceb

1. Gotta love those carbs haha rip! 

2. Fiesta with Melisa, Celeste and the fam!

5. Cake at Margarita's House #tresleches

6. Teaching with "elder" Arias haha

A new plan for another transfer in Palau!

Que tranza!? Espero que toda esta bien con ustedes! 

Another change out here in Palau! Haha I’m pretty sure I have knocked every door in this small town at least like 10 times by now.... It's all good though because I love this area and the people here too! Plus, one time when President Monson was a mission President one of his missionaries complained that he had been in one area for way too long and had contacted every house. President Monson replied telling him that he has done a great job contacting every house and that now he needed to baptize the people in every house! So that’s the plan here in Palau, this change we are going to baptize all of the twenty people that live here ha-ha! 

I don’t have much time to write this week, however, everything is going really good in our area! We have some really cool people progressing and it has been so cool to watch lives changed through the light of Christ! 

This Sunday while we were in church, one of my converts, Maria (the lady we baptized a couple of months ago with her niece) came to church and she brought her dad! He was like 80 years old and had been baptized when he was a teenager, which I didn’t know, anyways I gave her a picture of her baptism and she showed her dad and they both had the biggest smile on their face! It definitely made my week! 

I basically finished up the tie I have been working on! I’m just missing like one little part so I’ll sent a pick of me (the surgeon) wearing the tie next week!

Thanks for all the love and support, I love hearing from all of you,

Happy Father’s Day to myself  #dad!

Much love, 

Elder Ceb

1. My boy Elder Smith made us chocolate chip pancakes for district meeting! 

2. #theSURGEON

3. Huge FHE in Barroteron. So dope!

A baptism for Shelsea and Elder Ceb's workout routine

Que onda!? What a good week! 

On Tuesday we BAPTIZED Shelsea so that was way cool! Then we confirmed her on Sunday at church! She is honestly like the smartest 9-year-old I have ever met haha. My comp and I went and taught the Primary kids for a bit on Sunday and she straight up knew the answer to every question! #bestconvert 

This Sunday at church we were talking with two of my recent converts Melisa and Celeste (the two college students that are cousins), when a less active member (who recently reactivated two weeks ago) saw them and called them by name with the biggest smile on his face as he explained that they were his nieces! There is no better place than the Lord’s chapel for a family to reunite! It was honestly so cool to see his face. I’m way excited to continue teaching his siblings (Celeste’s dad and Melisa’s mom). 

Saturday night we went and played some more soccer at the church and we had another good turn out with a bunch of young adults! This is definitely one of my favorite forms of missionary work! Especially because this is how my dad was converted as he balled with some missionaries in Florida! 

Today for p-day I hit a way solid work out for like 6 hours and then played soccer for 2 hours in the 120-degree sun haha…it was chill though! I hit 15 sets of 15 with a super set of wide grip pushups and ab wheels! Then I hit a 10-set tri set of 20 arrows 20 T´s and 20 shrugs superseded with 40 weighted crunches for 10 sets. Then I hit a super set for some arms with a 1-1 2-2 .... 5-5 rep method of bicep curls with hammer curls and tricep kickbacks with a tricep extensions. Then for the burn out I hit some triangle pushups and bodyweight skulls followed with a few other things! All together I got a really solid pump! Makes me miss golds gym with my boys Murray and Brant! It’s all good though, in a year from now we will reunite at Golds to continue our bodybuilding careers! 

Hope everyone has a great week, thanks for all the love and support, 

Much love,

Elder Ceb

1. Shelsea's baptism

2. More baptism pics.

3. Treated my boy Yiyo out to dinner jaja

4. New whip

7. Playing soccer with the boys

Getting creative with activities in Palau

Que onda vatos? Que dicen?

What's gooood! This week was way chill! I´m having a blast out here in the middle of nowhere (Palau) lol. Like on the real, there is like one store out here, rip! 

We found a great group of investigators and have some really cool people progressing. The miracles haven´t stopped! Week in and week out, our Heavenly Father has been preparing the people here in Palau! 

This week we are going to BAPTIZE Shelsea Arias! She is way cool!!She is only nine years old; however, she is way bright, so it has been way fun teaching her! She has a really cool family, and it has been great to help reactivate them!

We have also been working with another cool investigator from Barroteron that is currently living in Palau. He came to church last week on his own and stayed for all three hours. We later talked to him and set an appointment. We met with him during the week and he was super ready to receive the Lord’s message. He came to church again yesterday, and really enjoyed himself. We are looking forward to meeting with him again this week.

We have been teaching some family members of some of our recent converts here in Palau, and we are seeing lots of potential!

We have been working really hard to have lots of activities in the church. Friday night we put a movie up in the church with my projector, and we had 7 good investigators come! Then on Saturday, we held a little soccer tournament and had over 20 kids and young adults playing at the church! 

We had a really chill p-day. My comp and I have been working on making our own ties from scratch! So today we borrowed a sewing machine from an investigator so that we could sew the ties together from the inside, and now the surgeon just needs to stich the ties up and we are gooood!  

Thanks for all the love and support! 

Much love, 

Elder Ceb

1. My boy Elder Mason (Elder Reed's son) btw.. he has permission to marry my older sister Aubri lol

2. Chilling after our soccer tourney 

3. Post soccer tourney 

4. The tie the surgeon is working on 

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!