Well this week was awesome! First of all, we had changes last week and my new companion is Hermana Miranda from Chile! She came to my area here in Tacna. She is so awesome, we work really well together and we're really excited to see the work we can accomplish together. We had a miracle baptism this last Friday!! Our ward was having 3 baptisms of 3 kids who were 8 years old..(8 year olds dont count for us or for the mission since we dont have to teach them) 5 minutes before the baptism started we find out that it was one of the kids birthdays and he turned 9! Which automatically means he counts as a baptisms for us and for the mission! He had his baptismal interview super last minute but was able to be baptized! The best part was after his baptism he shared his testimony and began to cry and share with us how happy he was to finally be able to be baptized and how great it felt to make this promise and covenant with the Lord.

I know miracles exist thanks to our loving Father in heaven. I know that he allows miracles to take place in our lives according to our obedience. Even though I don't have much time left in the mission, I'm going to make it my best. I'm so excited to see what these next 2 months have in store for me.

Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

Hi friends! Can I just tell you all how awesome it is being a missionary? Seriously I've had the BEST experiences of my life in these last 15 months. We had a great week! We had the baptism of Maryori this last Saturday and it was beautiful and the Spirit was so strong. Speaking of baptisms, my baptismal anniversary is this Thursday! I'll have 3 years as a member of the church this thursday the 23. The time has passed by SO fast but it also feels like I've been a member my whole life. I had completely forgotten about it and this morning I was resting on my best and had my eyes closed, my companion fired a giant firecracker thing filled with confetti! She scared me SO bad it was the best haha then she screamed "Felices 3 años!!!" (happy 3 years) and told me she didnt want to wait to do it until thursday. It gave us a good laugh haha I'm grateful to have a companion like her! She also told me she has more surprises for me this week so I'm actually a little scared but I'll let you all know next week what happens. It's so great to make friendships on the mission like this. With every companion I've had I've learned something from them, something that's made me a better person. I'm super grateful for the friendships I've made out here and for the things that my companions have taught me, I'm forever grateful for meeting them.

This week we are getting ALL the missionaries in the mission together in Arequipa for a conference! It's going to be awesome! In all my time in the mission we've never gotten all the missionaries together in one place so this will be super special! All of us out here in Tacna are the farthest away, so we're going to travel in the middle of the night the 7 hours to Arequipa. We are going to hear from Elder Godoy. He is the area president out here. I am assuming that he will be speaking to us about the temple that they are going to start building in Arequipa! The temple was announced in October of 2012 and they are going to start the construction Saturday March 4th. We have been waiting a while for this!

Temples are different than the chapels that we meet in every Sunday. Temples are houses of the Lord. It's where special covenants and ordinances are done that allow us to recieve blessings here on earth, but also in heaven. The authority and power found in the temple is eternal; it's the same power that exists in the eternities. So everything that is done in the temple is also put into effect in the heavens. The temples are where the powers of heaven and earth meet, and you can feel it being inside one of them. Temples are where families are sealed for time and all eternity. And I am so grateful that I have a knowledge of the beautiful restored gospel of Jesus Christ that allows blessings like this to be poured out onto all the people who follow Him.

Have an amazing week my friends.

Hermana Celardo

Hi friends! I hope you're all having a great week. My companion and I are having a lot of success in our area so we're pretty happy about that. The members in our ward are AMAZING and always give us references of people who are interested in our message. That's been keeping us super busy! So there's a member in our ward who is leaving for his mission tomorrow, his name is James. He's going to the Bolivia Cochabamba mission! We were with him in the morning helping him with some last minute shopping. It brought back a lot of memories of when I was preparing to leave! Pray for him and his success in the mission please! This last week my companion and I went to Ilo again! It was super great to be back in my first area again. I was able to see some of my converts and members in that area that have made an impact on me, so I definitely felt strengthened this week from this trip! 

This week I want to dedicate this letter to my dearest parents (: Mom and Dad, I don't know if there's anything I could do to repay you for everything that you've done for me. Your support for me here in the mission means more to me than you know. Even though you are not members of the church and the idea of a mission was foreign to you, you let me go. As I've come to understand more about the love that our Heavenly Father has for us I've also come to understand the love that you have for me as earthly parents. It's pure and unconditional. I am eternally grateful for this gospel, for the opportunity that we have to live with our families forever. Thank you mom and dad for all that you've done for me. Thank you for raising me with morals that have led me to become the person I am today. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be, but through all my faults and weaknesses I have always been grateful to have you two as my parents. I love you so much, thank you for being my parents (:

I hope you all have a great week. Recognize the blessings that our Heavenly Father gives you each and every day. And always remember that his love is unconditional.

 

Cuidense (:

 

Hermana Celardo

Hope you all had a super awesome week! This week was great for us. We were able to find more people to teach that are willing to listen to us which is always great! Last Saturday there was a big parade here in our area. They shut down one of the main streets in our area and different groups of people were just dancing down the street! It was awesome! There's so many different types of dances here in Peru and every single one of them has a story and a place of origin. As a dancer, I really appreciated it! They were all dressed up in super Peruvian clothes too! The Peruvian culture is seriously so beautiful! 

We had a worldwide missionary broadcast this last Wednesday. They announced some changes that are pretty big for us missionaries! The information we report to the mission every week is different now, before there were 9 indicators that we reported. Now there's only 4! Which is pretty big difference, all you people reading who have served a mission understand haha. Also they schedule changed. We have a lot more freedom in the time that we do our studies. We also have the option to go to bed an hour earlier which I am so excited about because I am so tired at the end of every day!! I really think these changes are going to help us and allow us to work more effectively with the time we have to proselyte.

Something I've been thinking a lot about this week is patience. It's definitely something I have developed on the mission and something I am still working on haha. Patience is the ability to endure affliction without retaliation or complaint. Our Savior was perfect example of patient. He was rejected by so many but never complained, he never opened his mouth. He knew it was the will of the Father and he had to complete it with perfect patience. One of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon is Mosiah 14. It relates to some of the things that the prophet Isaiah said in the Bible. It talks about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Personally, I think it's one of the most beautifully written chapters in all the scriptures. The next time you are feeling frustrated or impatient, remember all the rejection our Savior experienced. Remember his Atonement, and find strength in him.

 3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

 4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

 5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

 6 All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

 7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.

 8 He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken.

 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no evil, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Mosiah 14

Que tengan una bonita semana (: los quiero mucho, chau chau!

Hermana Celardo

Well this last week was probably the craziest but most miraculous week of my mission! We had 5 BAPTISMS!! Ahh! Biggest miracle I have seen in my work here in Peru! So my companion and I had been working with a family of 5, a dad and 4 daughters. The mom had left them about 4 years ago. This family has had so many trials. The dad used to be a pastor for the iglesia adventista..(I honestly cannot remember for the life of me how to say the adventista church in English haha but I'm sure you all understand) and he was pretty set in his ways when we met him a month and a half ago. Well he had so many spiritual experiences and was not able to deny the truthfullness of the Book of Mormon. He gave his daughters permission to get baptized, but at first it was looking like we would have to baptize his daughters first and he would have to get baptized later. Because of some things that happened in the past it was up in the air whether or not he could get baptized with his kids. We planned out his daughters' baptisms and everything but a couple days before the baptism we found out that everything was clear and he was good to get baptized with his family! It is honestly the BIGGEST miracle considering everything that has happened in his life. Him with 3 of his daughters were baptized this last Friday (: His youngest daughter is only 6 years old so she has to wait until she's 8! At their baptism, the daughters were baptized first and the dad was last. In the moment he came up out of the water, he had the biggest smile on his face and began to cry. It made me and my companion cry haha it was the greatest feeling of happiness I think we've felt in the mission. I will never forget that moment. This gospel changes lives, but only if we let it change us. I will always look to this man as an example. He completely relied on the Lord and followed the Spirit despite all the other things that were happening in his life. God is SO good (:

We had another baptism last Saturday too, her name is Nayeli! She's 13 and her aunt is the only other member in her family. She had been going to church for years but never got baptized! She was so prepared before we even met her! I know there's people like her out there that are waiting to find the true and everlasting gospel that is found in the Church of Jesus Christ.

Weeks like this last one make all the hardships worth it. As missionaries we face a lot of opposition. But when we see the fruits of our labors, when we see people come unto Christ and enter the waters of baptism, when we see people truly converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ, it makes everything SO worth it. I will be forever grateful for the time I have had here in Peru. It has changed me. I'm also super grateful I still have 4 more months to work in this labor of love among God's children in the Peru Arequipa mission.

BE HAPPY this week because this life that our God has given us is so, so beautiful (:

Job 37:14

"...stand still, and consider the wondrous works of God."

¡Que se cuiden y tengan una bonita semana!

Hermana Celardo

Transfers came this week and I'm staying in my area in Tacna! My companion is also staying and we're pretty excited about it (: We have a lot of good work going on in our area and neither of us wanted to leave! We have a baptism planned this Saturday, her name is Nayeli. She's 13 and she has some aunts and uncles who are members and has been going to church for a while but never had permission from her mom to get baptized, until now! It was awesome to see how excited she was when her mom told her she could get baptized. She said it feels like she's been waiting forever to get baptized! We're very excited for her, so Saturday should be a really special day!

This week my companion and I will be going to Arequipa for a leadership conference with all the other zone leaders and sister leaders. The leadership conferences are always the best because we get to learn how our mission president and his wife want the Lord's work to progress in this part of the world. It's always super spiritual and the food is good too (:

So this last week my companion and I were in a taxi and we started talking to the taxi driver. We told him we were missionaries form the Church of Jesus Christ and started to share part of our message with him. I asked him if he goes to church, he told us he is Catholic. He then went on to say that he doesn't believe in an after life, that this life as we know it is everything and then we die and then nothing. Just nothing. We went on to explain a little bit more of our beliefs of the "the after life" so to speak, and it made me think. It is so hard for me to fathom that there wouldn't be a life after this one. There are so many manifestations in this world of a Supreme Creator, of a high power, of a Heavenly Father. I know that God exists. I know that He has prepared a plan for us, a plan of salvation, that allows us to return to His presence after this life. This life on earth is but a trial of our faith. It is but a speck of time on the scheme of eternity. Our potential is divine because we come from an all-powerful God who loves us and wants us to become like Him.

Moses 1:39 (found in the Pearl of Great Price)

For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Take care my dear friends (:

Hermana Celardo

Happy new year everyone! 2017! Still can't believe it haha time is flying. We had a baptism this last week so of course it was a great week! Our investigator Carlos got baptized. He's awesome, he was SO prepared to recieve the message of the restored gospel and he's so converted. It's incredible how the gospel can change our lives. All we have to do is live it and the blessings just come!

Ok so something pretty funny that happened last week.. we were going to do divisions with the hermanas that are in Ilo. So I get on the bus and 2 and a half hours later I'm in Ilo where elders are waiting for me to tell me that the hermanas had emergency changes haha. So I just went to Ilo and back for a day.. I spent about an hour there with other sister missionaries! We had lunch and then I went back to Tacna. But it was great to be in Ilo again (:

So new years here is pretty much the same as Christmas. Everyone eats dinner at midnight and lights off fireworks. New years day there was no one home haha it was super hard for us to teach because everyone was at the beach or sleeping.

I don't have much time today, but I hope you all have a wonderful week! Always remember how blessed you are to live in this beautiful world that our God has given us.

Therefore, I would that ye should be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in good works, that Christ, the Lord God Omnipotent, may seal you his, that you may be brought to heaven, that ye may have everlasting salvation and eternal life, through the wisdom, and power, and justice, and mercy of him who created all things, in heaven and in earth, who is God above all. Amen.

Mosiah 5:15

¡Cuídense!

Hermana Celardo