So you know how I was pregnant last week? well turns out I had quadruplets... (2/9/2015)

So quick updates!

 

My companion is Elder Arrieta. He is 21 years old and is from the phillipines. He is learning english and is amazing! Super humble and just so funny. This is going to be a great transfer :D

unfortunately the area we were placed in was an area that was going to close. Then President was just like "Let's put elder C in with a greenie and see what happens" haha oh boy. I love it though. It's an amazing opportunity for e. arrieta to experience every aspect of the work in trying to revive the area. PLUS i'm back in the geezy which is just the best. haha

 

So you know how I was pregnant last week? well turns out I had quadruplets and i'm a relief society president haha I have all sisters in my district and the 3 sets are training. So i got a son and was surprised with 3 daughters :D haha We have S. Garatti from Italy, S. Lopez from Mexico, and S. Iongi from Tonga. It was the best district meeting. They're super fun.

 

So this week we met with the WML and bishops to get updated area maps and we hit the streets and knocked some doors. We found 3 new which include a brother and a sister (Andrew and mikayla) and a young man named Nick. We put the siblings on date the first lesson for the 7th of march and talked through some things but they are excited. We hope to get back in with Nick this week and talk about his goals. We will be visiting all the less actives in the area and trying to get fellowship for the part member families.

The work is amazing. This gospel is so true. It's the only source of happiness that will last. I love my mission. I'm grateful to know my identity as a ason of God and the potential each and every one of us has as we embrace our calling. I love and miss you all!

 

View the recent pictures here under the transfer folder

http://1drv.ms/1zPDHPc

I'm Pregnant! (2/2/2015)

K...so don't take the subject line too far. Butttttt it's transfer week :D

Ready for it...?

 

(drumroll)

Elder Castellanos will be serving as a District Leader in Santa Clara Heights, training a missionary and teaching him the english language.

 

Ahhhhh! How exciting, huh? :D I'm going to have a foreign son :)) AND i'll be back in St. Geezy.

#St.GeorgeBound

#Couldn'tKeepMeAway

#hashtag

 

I'm Excited but sad :( :) I've been bipolar the last 2 weeks cuz I had dreamt I was leaving. Weird huh? So many amazing people here!! Another crazy thing - Elder Stickler got ET'd with the Elder Joens that was in Price for some reason. So i've spent the last week with Elder Joens! Awesome!! We always said we'd serve together - who knew it'd be for a week. Haha. But he will replace me as the District Leader in Richfield and have Elder Stickler.

 

So updates on the work. We had Bailey's baptism on Saturday. What a spirit!! What a light she will be for her family and friends. It's been ana amazing experience seeing her and her family progress and invite the light of the gospel into their life. They're definitely the family i'll miss the most! Gage's baptism is the 21st and i'll try to be up for that :D

 

Larry keeps doing well! He is getting interviewed for the priesthood and will receive a calling pretty soon. Chynna is trying her best to get back in and she's doing awesome! Trent is working on some things but he's made a lot of progress too ! :D

 

Lateishia and Aubrey are still doing great :D They got up and bore their testimony yesterday and it was a great experience. I'm grateful to have been part of their journey. Theya re both amazing young women who have infinite possibilities to look forward to. I'm excited to hear what great things they accomplish as they adhere to the gospel.

 

The Olvera's will be sad to leave behind as well. They've been getting reactivated and been doing so well. I'll be cooking chicken parmesan for em tonight :) Hopefully they don't get sick ;)

 

Little Hagen will get baptized this Saturday and i'm super sad I won't be able to perform it :( He's such a smart kid with a bright future.

 

I know Heavenly Father had me in Richfield these past 7 months for a reason. All these families were my reasons. My prayer is that you ponder who Heavenly Father will have you reach out to that you may make a difference in their lives. I love this work. I love the gospel. I love my mission. I love my Savior and my God. With them we cannot fall. If God be with us who be against us. The adversary has no chance. I love and miss you all. Fortify your strongholds. Consecrate your lifestyle. Choose the Right.

 

Love and Miss you!

-Elder Castellanos

Check out this week's pictures later - forgot my camera.

http://1drv.ms/16aBZgx

"You don't realize how strong you are until being strong is all you have left" (1/26/2015)

So 'tis the end of the uber long 7 week transfer. Well...not too long but that extra week deals me in. haha a lot of exciting things are coming about.

 

I was able to feel Heavenly Father's love this weekend a lot! We had a baptism for Jodi and Bailey will be baptized this weekend. Jodi asked me to perform the baptism and I felt really honored. She's such a strong woman and has changed her life around completely. We are also teaching a LA YSA named Latisha. She's going through a lot and I felt I could really relate to her. She definitely needs everything she can get to feel the spirit. Every lesson we have with her is super strong. It is helping me be more grateful for the atonement and what it can do in the lives of those that have fallen so low. Miracle of the week! We were on finding mode for the last week of the month. We had one to go and we prayed and prayed and Heavenly Father gave him to us Sunday at church :D 10 year old Hagan went to church with his LA dad that is trying to get back into the church. The bishop helped us out on the lesson and we are seeing him again tonight. He is super smart!! He's never been to church but he knows who he is to Heavenly Father and who Jesus Christ is and his life. He'll be baptized by the end of the month as we meet with him 3 times a week. We are doing a lot of recovery efforts for his dad and a lot of people in our stake. We met with Aldo again in Loa and found 2 boys, Matt and Joe, who have been assisting scouts. They said they'd like to go to church so we will be back to teach later this week. We will try to set up skype lessons though since it's uber far. We saw the Welch family and gave Ashley, Range, and Dailynn a date for March. They are uber prepared just been a little spotty with their church attendance. We pushed the Delgado's back to the 21st of February because they've been up north the past weeks and not been at church. The Bagays are still going for the 14th of Feb but it's getting a little tough to meet with them. Silva family is slowly progressing but still working with Elder Deyhli for S. Silva's divorce. Gage, Bayley's little brother is on date for the 21st of Feb and is super solid! Going to all 3 meetings and doing his reading. He actually helped with our priesthood lesson yesterday which was awesome!

Quotes for the week!

"Forgiveness doesn't excuse their behavior - forgiveness prevents their behavior from destroying their heart"

 

"You don't realize how strong you are until being strong is all you have left"

1 Nephi 18:20

"And there was nothing save it were the power of God, which threatened them with destruction, could soften their hearts"

Heavenly Father is in all things - Afflictions are blessings - tribulations are lessons. Sometimes it takes the divine intervention of a threat to place us back on the path He needs us on.

 

I love and miss you all!

Met Elder Holland (1/20/2015)

Hello hello! So not much time but some quick updates!

 

*Went to the manti temple today. Beautiful!!!! I'll be back after the mish.

*Met Elder Holland. Said i'd be a great priesthood leader one day. Almost melted.

*Bailey and Jodi being baptized this Saturday. Pics next week!

*It's almost Februrary!

 

Kay not that much going on. But i love and miss you!

here's some quotes to ponder!

"Our happiness may be great based on how many prayers you say - but true happiness will come from the many prayers you answer" -Uchtdorf

"You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed"

 

"Reducing the morality of God to the convenience of man is apostacy"

"The time draws near. The church will be presented to the Savior - Will He recognize it? Will He recognize us as it's members? As His disciples? Will He recognize YOU?

-Elder Holland

 

Look at manti and week pictures here!

 

https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=509ABE58007F3E53!2286&authkey=!AJAUbRYqq8-Uh2I&ithint=folder%2cJPG

" It's an exciting time in Richfield! " (1/12/2015)

So I'm a year down "officially" - although i still haven't burned my shirt :P 

This past week was insane!! So we put our brothers and sisters on date for baptism - we got to meet John Bytheway - Elder Holland will be at our stake conference this week - Elder Bednar will be at the Manti stake conference next week - ANDDDDDDD I'm a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It can't get any better :D

so here's the update!

We had a baptism Saturday for Larry Kennin, and have 2 scheduled for the 24th. Jodi Shannon is a single mom who was friendshipped my a widow in the Sigurd ward. She went to church and loved the spirit, and we met with her after sacrament and taught the Restoration. After praying for her date, we extended the invitation to be baptized and she accepted after we answered some questions. We feel really great about her. Second is Bailey Chestnut. She started going to church a little over 2 months ago off and on because she had to get rides with her uncle but attends mutual on Tuesdays every week. We started meeting with her mum and brother with the lessons and now they too feel a desire to learn more. We extended the invitation for her to be baptized on the 24th and her mum agreed it would be a good date and late February for her brother. We have an hispanic family of 5, last name Delagado, on date for the 31st. We are really pushing for meeting 3 times a week to solidify their testimony. They hold the Book of Mormon to be true but the dad feels he needs to learn everything first. We are using the progress record so he can track his own progress as suggested in PMG. Then we have Damian and Miriam Bagay on date for the 14th of February. Miriam had a bap date but then felt she wanted to wait for her husband so we have been working on his steadiness in spiritual CPR. It's an exciting time to be in Richfield! 

Attached are some pictures of the week :)

Love and miss you!

"Our Savior lives...He is very aware of all of us - personally. May we use His atonement daily. His yoke is easy, and His burden light.

Believe it or not it's a new year! Woot! (cue fireworks)

Kay well it's not too exciting...as a matter of fact, not much is done to celebrate it around these here parts of utah. Quiet evening with a movie at a member's home with pizza. It was neat!

So i've really come to despise the holidays as a missionary - ain't nobody home to visit! haha see my utahan come out there? and when they are home, too busy with family that came in for the holidays! Grrrrr -_-" #DaStruggleIzReal

Although this past week picked up a bit more...we planned to see people better and were able to hit standards. Really neat! So we started teaching these peruvians and they are so golden! They return to Peru the 8th of this month to be baptized with their families :) how neat, huh?

Also, yesterday we met sister Jodi. Her friend has been inviting her out to church forever! so she finally came and we had a lesson with her after sacrament meeting. Said she felt the spirit and she knows it's true. We gave her a baptismal date at the end of this month and she accepted.

Miracles are happening :D I know it's because of the consecration and devotion we gave all this transfer. As I reflected on 2014, I really had gratitude in my heart. Blessings galore! Heavenly Father takes such great care for us. I felt I never really thanked him enough. I committed myself to saying a gratitude prayer every day. Probably did this before but i'm doing it again. I invite each of you to kneel every day, and just Thank Heavenly Father for the things he gave you that day. I miss and Love you all. 

Our Savior lives...He is very aware of all of us - personally. May we use His atonement daily. His yoke is easy, and His burden light.

"what can I learn from this that I can use to help others" We are the Lord's instruments...we are His hands " (12/15/2014)

So a quick update cuz we are running out of time, so i'll just tell a quick story!!

So in the year before I left on my mish, my car's starter failed me :( I know my family remembers this because it drove me nuts. Anywho, at the time I really questioned the typical "why me?" Why if I was doing all the right things did it need to happen to me. Arrogant, right? Like, chill. haha Anywho, me trying to save money, I didn't jump quickly to take it to a mechanic - so I told my pops that we can work on replacing it ourselves with my brother in law Ernie. As we began the journey, we all got a  little frustrated. It was either remove the manifold through the top, or drop the exhaust catback from below to get the new starter in. After heavy research and countless hours of labor, we were not able to get it done -_- haha so even more frustrated, we push-started it and I took it to the local autozone to get it replaced. (there's a funny side story including billy about this too which i'll tell later) Annoyed at last I was able to get it all fixed. What I didn't understand however, is what that experience would do for me in the time to come - or should I say, what it would do for those I would serve in the future. About 8 pm last night we visited RC family Elias. As we shared a message and some time, they shared concern about how their vehicle had suddenly died and they were stumped on what to do. In this economy, we aren't too quick to take it to the shop and spend all this time figuring out how much it would cost. The moment brother Elias spoke the situation, this moment in my life flashed back into my head, and without hesitation I said I could fix it. We woke up and went to bro. elias' this morning at 6. We went out, and began running tests. Everything had power but it wouldn't turn over. Clanking noise in the coils of the starter menat it was bad or it wasn't receiving enough power. Gave it a push start and disconnected the battery to test the alternator and it passed so we went with the starter. I removed the manifold and took it to autozone to test. FAILED. Told bro. elias the part, and we brought it back and put it back on. Replaced the manifold packing, sealed it up and VROOM! What an amazing experience! My exhausting and irritating moment in life was just preparation for me to help one of my brothers in  afuture time. What a blessing and a testimony. Let's change our attitude in terms of how we take tribulations and afflictions. Instead of "why me" - let's ask "what can I learn from this that I can use to help others" We are the Lord's instruments...we are His hands. I love and miss you!

btw, I'm getting transferred to Richfield! Woot!