Hey there!

I hope everyone had a great week! I sure did. It is SO HOT here. Especially walking around all day. It makes the cold shower at the end of the day feel absolutely amazing! So my companion and I are moving tomorrow! We are very excited because we are living in a garage of a members house right now. Our new room has a view of the ocean and warm water to shower in!

This last week we had interviews with our mission president. He came to Ilo and each one of us was interviewed by him. It was a great experience to get to know him and his wife more! We will be getting a new mission president in July. All I know is that him and his wife are from Salt Lake!

So this last Saturday we had another baptism in our ward! His name is Davis and he´s about 25 years old. The baptism was awesome! Myself, my companion, and the two other Elders serving in our ward sang a song at the baptism too..lets just say we don´t have the best voices in the world haha but it wasn´t terrible either! There´s a husband and wife in our ward, The Rodriguezs, and they speak English! And they are amazing. They´ve helped me become more accustomed to my mission and just getting used to missionary life. Hermano Rodriguez is awesome at the guitar and is an amazing singer. He served his mission in Paraguay! Hermana Rodriguez is the sweetest lady I know! She is so kind and truly cares about us as missionaries! I kind of love them a lot haha. They are both great examples to me!

I´m going to be teaching English classes with the other American speaking missionaries! Every Thursday night. It should be interesting considering my Spanish is still limited haha.

I´ll be going to Arequipa on Wednesday! Me and another American Hermana that came out with me need to do some citizenship information at the mission home, which is in Arequipa. Should be an eventful day!

Our mission is really trying to focus on family history work! I am familiar with this because my ward at home was big on family history work before I left for my mission. We have little books that members can fill out and include information and stories and traditions of their families. I have started filling one out as well! 

I´m so grateful for the gospel in my life. I know that this truly is the Lord´s work and that this church is true! I know that where I am right now is exactly where I need to be. This work is hard, but Christ gave his whole life for me. If he can give his life for me, I can give him my all for 18 months.

¡Cuidense!

Hermana Celardo

PS:  TOTALLY FORGOT TO INCLUDE THIS!

today for Pday we went to Moquegua, which is another area in our zone about an hour from Ilo! We went hiking to this waterfall! We´re not allowed to swim as missionaries but we all walked under the waterfall in our clothes haha it was amazing! And it felt great because it was so hot! 

Hey there! Sorry I was unable to write a letter last week! Time on the computer always goes by fast here haha. This last week was a good one.

So a typical day as a missionary goes like this:

Wake up at 6:30. My companion and I usually do some workouts right when we wake up, and then we get ready for the day. Breakfast is at 7:30. Then from 8 until 9 we have personal study. During personal study we read scriptures or study Preach My Gospel. Afterwards we have companionship study. During this time we practice teaching and also read our missionary handbook. The missionary handbook just is a general rule book for all missionaries! After that we have our language study. This is the time I get to study Spanish! And my companion studies English. After that we go to our pensionistas house again for lunch. Lunch is usually the biggest meal of the day here. Some of my favorite meals here are arroz chaufa (fried rice) and lomo saltado (I don't know the translation for that haha). And there's also this purple drink here called Chicha Morada. It's made from purple corn and it's delicious. I have no idea if there's purple corn in the States, so if you happen to see some let me know! After lunch we go out for the day. We visit investigators, members, and contact people on the street. We walk everywhere we go, but if we're late for an appointment we can always take a taxi. There's taxis everywhere and they're only about 1 or 2 soles. 3 soles here is equivalent to about $1! The conversion rate is great haha. Also there's these vans that are kind of like buses, they're called cambis, that are only 60 cents. It's pretty easy to travel around here. Also something strange about Ilo, there's a main street called John F Kennedy. Why? I have no idea haha. At 8 we have dinner with our pensionista. Dinner is usually something small like yogurt and fruit or bread with jam. After that, we go back to our room. We have to be in our room by 9 every day, Unless we are teaching a lesson we can be back by 9:30. Then we plan for the next day and get ready for bed. We are busy every day, so it's easy to get lost in the work!

Last week I had the opportunity to go on divisions. Divisions are where you switch companions for a day. I went to another area, Moquegua and I was with Hermana Marshall for the day. And she's from the States! So we got to speak English haha. It was a really great experience and she boosted my confidence a lot in my Spanish!

My first baptism! Ramon was baptized last Saturday! It was truly incredible! After the baptism, he shared his testimony with everyone that was there. You can bet I cried haha. It's amazing to see how a person can change and come closer to our Savior. His testimony was in Spanish, and I understood most of it but the Spirit was most definitely there and everyone in the room could feel that.

I'm grateful for the Spirit. To those of you who have never heard of the Spirit, it's almost impossible to describe and put into words. But when you've felt it, you know exactly what it is. And I know every single one of you reading this email have felt the Spirit before in your life. The Spirit, or the Holy Ghost, testifies of the truth. 2 Nephi 2:4 says The Spirit is the same yesterday, today, and forever. En Español, 2 Nefi 2:4 dice El Espiritu is el mismo ayer, hoy, y para siempre. Yo se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias es la iglesia verdadera en la tierra hoy. Esta iglesia es la iglesia de Jesucristo. Se que El Libro de Mormon es la palabra de Dios y contiene la plentitud del evangelio eterno. ¡Estoy muy agradecido ser una missionera!

Cuidense mucho,

Hermana Celardo

It was another great week here in Peru! It's been super hot here the last couple weeks. I have some pretty gnarly tan lines on my feet already. We walk probably about 5-7 miles every day. It's good exercise! The sunsets here are incredible. The sun sets over the ocean, so it reminds me of home! Ilo is beautiful, I love it here!

Okay so the food. Rice rice rice and more rice. For every meal haha and they also put Ketchup and Mayo on their rice. And i'm not going to lie, it's actually really good! You should try it if you ever get the chance! There's little food carts everywhere that sell all different kinds of foods. It smells SO good all the time, but we're not allowed to eat it because we might get sick.. They also have little markets at almost every corner on every street. So if I ever need something I can just walk across the street and buy it! I'm grateful for that!

Ramon is getting baptized this Saturday! I'm so excited! It's super great that he's getting baptized, but I think it's even better to see the change in his heart. When we first started teaching him, he was very quiet. But we had a lesson with him yesterday and he was talking so much more and he told us he has been reading his scriptures and he was just telling us how happy he is. The gospel is so true! It's awesome!!

The language is coming..slowly but surely. I still feel like I don't know a lot but when I think about where I was two weeks ago when I first got to Ilo, I've learned a lot! The biggest struggle for me right now is not being able to communicate. But I know with time and patience and more importantly, faith, it will get better!

My companion and I get along really well! She is SO patient with me. I'm so grateful for her! I don't know what I would do without her haha. She's also a convert to the church. She joined the church a little over 2 years ago and she has been on her mission for 7 months. She's awesome!

The people here are very open to hearing our message. They, for the most part, are very religious and love going to church. We've met a lot of people who are Catholic, but not practicing. Even if they're not very interested in our church, they are kind and talk with us for a while. I am very appreciative of that!

I have seen miracles every day being out here. And I know with my whole soul that those miracles are not coincidences. I know that with faith anything is possible! I'm grateful to be here serving the Lord!

Until next time,

Hermana Celardo

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas and a happy new year! I spent Christmas in the CCM and they made it so special! At midnight there were TONS of fireworks everywhere! It wasn't just the little ones we usually have at home but the massive ones we have for 4th of July! In the morning our district opened up presents that we had from family members. They made a big lunch for everyone and gave all the missionaries stockings with our names on them. They were filled with candy! It really was a great Christmas and I'm grateful I was able to spend it with my district in the CCM.

That next Tuesday, the 29th, I left for Arequipa! Me and a couple other missionaries took a plane from Lima to Arequipa. Our mission president and a couple other missionaries picked us up from the airport. My mission presidents name is President Zobrist. Him and his wife, Hermana Zobrist, are amazing! I love them! We went straight to the Arequipa temple site after the airport. The church hasn't started building yet because of legal problems..but they will have the groundbreaking soon enough! After that we all went to the main plaza in Arequipa. It's absolutely gorgeous! After that we all went to the mission home and we got our companions!

My trainers name is Hermana Alvarez. She's from Bolivia and she's a convert just like me! She also doesn't speak any English haha so that's been interesting. It's better for me this way because I'll learn the language quicker! My first area is Ilo. It's a small town right on the beach! It kind of reminds me of Ventura. Hermana Alvarez and I took a bus from Arequipa to Ilo. It took about 5 hours. A couple Elders were at the bus stop in Ilo to take us to our room. One of them is from Idaho, his name is Elder Dennis. He's been super helpful! I'm grateful that I have someone to speak English to at the end of the day haha. The room Hermana Alvarez and I stay in is part of a members home. It's pretty small and we shower in cold water, but I'm just grateful we have beds to sleep in and the water is clean enough to use! The area my companion and I cover is new in the mission, so we are basically starting from scratch. We do a lot of street contacting everyday. As far as talking goes, my companion does most of that haha. I can understand more Spanish than I can speak. And even then, it's not that much haha. I know that it will come eventually! I just need to be patient with myself. I consider myself lucky because my companion is very patient with me! For that I am grateful!

Eating here is kind of sketchy, so to stay healthy all the missionaries here have whats called a pensionista. She cooks breakfast, lunch, and dinner for us everyday! The food here is super great. Lots of rice and chicken!

My companion and I slept through New Years haha but we heard lots of fireworks go off at midnight. I can't believe it's 2016! I still feel like i'm in 2012.. Time just goes by so fast. Especially out here serving a mission. Our days are packed. We are so busy that we never have time to think about anything else except missionary work.

On Thursday, my companion and I had a lesson with Ramon. His family are all members except him. This is my first real lesson I have taught! Me and my companion taught the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My Spanish was so bad that the people we were teaching laughed at me haha it was pretty funny. But I was still able to get my point across so that's all that matters! I shared a scripture in the Book of Mormon with him. It's 2 Nephi 31: 13. It's about the importance of baptism and how we all need to follow the example of the Savior and be baptized. At the end of the lesson, we asked if Ramon would be baptized..He said yes!! We were so excited! His bapstimal date is January 16th. There's no greater happiness than bringing people the the true gospel of Jesus Christ.

I have learned a lot so far in my 2 months of being a missionary! I'm excited to see what Hermana Alvarez and I have in store here in Ilo! This work is hard, but I love it. It's the hardest thing I've ever loved to do.

Until next time,

Hermana Celardo

Hola mis amigos! Guess what, I’m fluent! Just kidding. Totally
kidding. I’m nowhere near fluent, but I’ll get there eventually haha.
This is officially my last week in Lima in the CCM! Next Monday I’m
off to Arequipa. I never thought 6 weeks could go by so fast. I’ve
made so many great friends here, I will be sad to leave them all!
Luckily we all get to spend Christmas here before we leave. I’m not
sure exactly what’s happening on Christmas, the CCM president won’t
tell us what’s happening because it’s a surprise! I know they will
make it really special. I can’t wait! It doesn’t feel like Christmas
at all. It’s sunny and 80 degrees every day. Then again, it’s not much
different than a Southern California Christmas haha.
Me and my companion are pretty confident in teaching most of the
lessons in Spanish now. When it comes to the gospel, I know Spanish
pretty well. But conversational Spanish is definitely harder for me. I
know being out in the field constantly speaking Spanish will help with
that though! I’m super excited to finally go to Arequipa. I’ve heard
nothing but great things about Arequipa from all the Latinas here!
Sundays here are always really great. We have the regular 3 hours of
sacrament meeting, Sunday school, and relief society. Sacrament
meeting is where everyone gathers in one room and we sing hymns and
certain people from the congregation will give talks, but more
importantly sacrament meeting is for us to take the sacrament, or the
bread and the water. In the Church of Jesus Christ, the bread
represents the body of Christ and the water represents the blood of
Christ. When we take the sacrament, we promise to try our best to keep
the covenants and promises we made with God when we were baptized.
Sunday school is just like a scripture study class we have with our
district. Relief Society is where all the sisters meet in one room and
have a lesson. After this, we usually have some personal study time.
Right before dinner, we always watch a devotional. This Sunday we
watched a devotional by Elder Holland. If you don’t know who Elder
Holland is, I suggest you get on youtube right now and just search
“Elder Holland conference talk” and prepare to be edified. After
dinner, we watched a movie about the life of President Thomas S
Monson. President Monson is the prophet on the earth today. The movie
is called “On the Lords Errand” and it was truly incredible. I suggest
watching it if you haven’t already! Every Sunday night me and my
district have a testimony meeting. A testimony meeting is where we all
share something special to us, or share something that we have felt
the Holy Ghost testify to us is true. To end this email, I will share
my testimony with you all (:
I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the
true church on the earth today. I know that it is a restored church,
not a reformed church. It is the same church that Christ intended to
establish when he was here 2000 years ago. Throughout time, there have
been prophets on the Earth. We can read about them in the Old
Testament (Adam, Moses, Noah, etc). Each of these prophets had what’s
called the priesthood, or the authority to act in the name of God.
After Christ and his apostles died, there was a grand apostasy. This
apostasy was a time where there were no prophets on the earth, which
means the priesthood was not on the earth anymore. A restoration was
necessary. In 1820, a young boy only 14 years old named Joseph Smith
was very confused about what church was true. His parents were of two
different denominations, and there were many pastors of different
denominations claiming their church to be true. He was being persuaded
all sorts of ways, when finally he decided to pray about it. He went
into a grove a trees near his home in New York, fell upon his knees,
and started to pray. These are the words he used to describe his
experience.. “I saw a pillar of light exactly over my head, above the
brightness of the sun, which descended gradually until it fell upon
me…When the light rested upon me I saw two Personages, whose
brightness and glory defy all description, standing above me in the
air. One of them spake unto me, calling me by name and said, pointing
to the other—’This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!’” This was the
beginning of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Joseph
Smith was the first modern day prophet. The priesthood was restored to
Joseph Smith by the Lords apostles, Peter, James, and John. More
scripture was revealed to Joseph. He translated it, and this book of
scripture is known as the Book of Mormon. I know all of these things
are true. I have read the book of Mormon and I know that it is the
word of God. I challenge you all to read it and ask God if it is not
true. I promise you will get an answer.
I love you all, until next time,
Hermana Celardo

Hello my people!
It twas another great week here in Peru. Tomorrow marks 1 month since
I’ve been out! Crazy! Time really does go by so fast when you’re a
missionary. So every two weeks new missionaries come to the MTC.
Latinos only stay for two weeks, North Americans stay for 6. We stay
longer since we have to learn a new language. Your first two weeks
here you’re considered beginners, the next two weeks you’re
intermediates, and the last two weeks you’re advanced. Since these are
my last two weeks here, I’m considered advanced. Two Elders in my
district, Elder Hart and Elder Chapman, were asked to be zone leaders
over all the North Americans. Me and my companion, Hermana King, were
asked to be the Hermana Leaders over all the North Americans. As
Hermana Leaders we interview other sister missionaries, plan out
Sundays, and go to leadership meetings. We’re excited for this
leadership opportunity!
I was really close with a couple of the Latinas that were here these
last two weeks! Me and my companion sat with them every day at
breakfast lunch and dinner. They didn’t know English, so all our
communication was Spanish. I taught one of them a Christmas song in
English and she taught me Feliz Navidad! I love them! I will really
miss them.
This last Saturday I was able to leave the CCM and go proselyting! My
Spanish definitely needs some work haha. I had a great time though! I
was able to talk to a couple people and give away a Book of Mormon. I
also shared my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon
with a man named Marco and a lady named Sandra. We also taught someone
about the Restoration, which was when Joseph Smith restored Christ’s
church on the Earth. Peruvians are so kind to everyone. I could truly
feel that they were interested in what we were sharing with them. We
were able to go to this little town called Churrillos, it’s in the
Lima South mission. We were up in houses along the mountain side. The
mountains here are all loose sand and dirt, very different than back
home. The houses are made out of concrete or just whatever they could
find, with tin roofs and most of them just have dirt floors. Overall
it was an incredible and humbling experience and I can’t wait to go
out to Arequipa!
On the bus ride back from proselyting we saw a car accident! It was
pretty scary. I’m actually surprised we haven’t seen more than this
because the drivers here are so crazy. This guy driving a truck ran
directly into one of those guard rails on the freeway. Crazy!
I’m excited to spend Christmas here! I’ve become really close with my
district here, they’re like family to me. I’m really glad I get to
spend it with them! The president of the CCM is planning something
special for Christmas day, it’s going to be a surprise! Also, since
the CCM doesn’t have many missionaries we get to Skype home Christmas
day. I can’t wait for that!
So one of the teachers for our districts name is Hermana Altamirano.
She is a convert to the church like me! She shared her story with us
and it made me cry because it’s very similar to mine. Her and her
brothers and sisters are members of the church but her parents are
not. A lot of the Latinos out here are converts as well. They’re
usually surprised to find out that I’m a convert!
Some fun facts about my district: So in my district, I’m the oldest.
I’m actually the oldest out of all the North Americans here. So my
district has decided to give me the nickname of Grandma haha. I’ve
also taught everyone in my district how to do that Indian whistle
thing with your hands. My companion, Hermana King, can jump rope on
her butt. Elder Olsen has this crazy cough that he gets every year for
a month. Elder Olsen and Elder Lish are the only two red heads in the
entire CCM and they’re companions. We calls them the peli rojos. Elder
Hart got a 36 on the ACT. Elder Chapman is from South Carolina and he
says yall and all yall all the time and it’s rubbing off on all of us
to the point where we say it all the time too. Elder Lish can
impersonate Chewbacca and Hermana Gallagher can do the R2D2 noise.
Hermana Rushton is the most AMAZING singer you’ve ever heard and her
dad is #1 in the Iron man challenge in the US. They’re all so awesome
and I love them!
I wanted to share some scriptures with you all this week! They’re all
from the Bible. Each scripture testifies of doctrine of The Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Malachi 4:5-6 The sealing power is restored to the Earth, Ezekiel
37:16-19 The stick of Judah (the Bible) and the stick of Joseph (the
Book of Mormon) are one in the hands of God, 1 Corinthians 15:40-41
the kingdoms of Heaven are described, Matthew 16:19 eternal marriage,
Acts 20:28-30 The church will be perverted after Christ passes away,
John 10:16 the other sheep talked about in this scripture is referring
to the people Christ visited in the Americas. You can read about
Christ coming to the Americas in the Book of Mormon 3 Nephi 11. 1
Corinthians 15:29 Baptisms for those who have already passed away. I
know that this church is true! I have read the Book of Mormon and it
has changed my life. I know that if you read it and pray about it with
real intent, it can change your life too.
Well, that’s all for this week. Love you all! I’m so grateful for your support.
Until next time,
Hermana Celardo

 ¡Hola mis amigos! I hope everyone’s having a great day! This week in
Perú was awesome. It consisted of a lot of studying and teaching! My
Spanish is getting better day by day. Me and Hermana King can teach
our lessons in Spanish without any notes for the most part. Also, when
someone is speaking Spanish I can understand most of what they’re
saying . The hard part now is putting words together to actually
respond to them haha. Naturally I’ve kind of just been speaking half
English and half Spanish. It’s pretty cool! I’ll be saying something
in English and then I just switch over to Spanish without even
realizing it. I have faith that the language will come eventually! I’m
studying really hard every day, so I’m not too worried.
The food here is amazing as usual. We get soft serve ice cream every 3
days or so and the ice cream here is sooo good. You would think I
would get sick of chicken and rice by now but I still love it!
Sometimes the cooks here at the CCM make American meals which is nice.
On Thanksgiving they made turkey and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie
which was so comforting. At least once a week we have hamburgers.
They’re definitely not in n out burgers but they’re close enough (:
The best thing here is the churros though. I’m not sure if I’ve talked
about the churros before, but they’re better than Disneyland churros!
If I could send some home to you all, I would!
So on Monday we had a CCM Navidad devotional. A devotional is kind of
like a giant meeting where someone important comes to speak and
they’re always super spiritual. All the missionaries at the CCM were
there along with a couple mission presidents in the area as well as
some senior couple missionaries. The choir my companion and I joined
that I talked about last week performed at the devotional! It went
really well. We sang Noche de Luz (Silent night) and it was beautiful!
The devotional itself was amazing as well. The speaker, whose name
escapes me, is the president of the area 70. He gave a very
motivational talk on missionary work and it filled me with comfort and
reassurance that I truly am here for a reason. After the speech, we
all went outside to the main courtyard and it was decorated with a ton
of Christmas lights and there was sandwiches and snacks and treats! We
mingled and took lots of pictures and had a great time. It was a fun
break from the usual schedule!
This weekend is going to be amazing because we get to go proselyting
on Saturday! Me and the rest of my district are going to go to the
main part of Lima and we get a new companion for the day. My new
companion will be a missionary who has already been out on her mission
for a while, most likely will be Latina, and we get to go teach actual
lessons and actually talk to people about the church! I’m so excited!!
I’m not sure how well I’ll be able to communicate with my little
Spanish..but luckily the people out here are so nice and are usually
patient with people like me that don’t know Spanish yet haha.
Every Wednesday morning we get to go to the temple here in Lima. For
those of you who don’t know what temples are, they are houses of the
Lord. There are about 140 temples all around the world! They are big,
beautiful buildings. If you’ve ever driven along Santa Monica Blvd,
you’ve probably seen the Los Angeles Temple! They aren’t necessarily
meeting houses, by that I mean members of the church don’t have Sunday
services here. Temples are special because they are the closest place
we have on earth to Heaven. Inside temples, we perform ordinances and
make covenants with God that are necessary to return to live with Him
again. We do this work for ourselves as well as for those who have
already passed away. We know that every soul is great in the eyes of
God, and therefore everyone will have the chance to receive the
restored gospel of Jesus Christ whether it’s in this life or the next.
Temples make this possible. Because of temples, our families can be
together forever. And for that, I am so grateful!
Well, in exactly 3 weeks I’ll be in Arequipa! I’m already half way
done here in the CCM. Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. I
know that phrase only makes sense if you’ve ever been a missionary
haha. I absolutely love it here and I love the other missionaries here
at the CCM and I love the people of Perú! My faith and knowledge of
the gospel is growing every single day. I love you all! Thanks for
reading!
Until next week,
Hermana Natalie Celardo