Dear mi Familia y Amigas, 10-8-13
Everyone says my time
here will fly by, but it has only been 2 weeks and I feel like I have be here
for a whole 2 months already. I like it more and more here, and
I miss you guys all the same but I at least I am getting less homesick and more
focused on why I am here! I am slowly starting to get more and more
tired, because as you all know, I love my sleep! But today is P-day and so I
will get to take a nap this afternoon! Score! Well the week has been as
busy as ever, everyone was looking forward to General Conf. all last
week! It seriously was like a holiday weekend here at the CCM. We
watched conf. and all the time in between we got additional study time, so that
gave me a little extra time to study the scriptures for myself and write a hand
written letter home to include in detail all the things I have missed. If
my English starts to get worse on here, I apologize, because I am already forgetting
how to spell in English. So as my Spanish gets better, my English will probably
get worse. I have heard that it takes some people a week or two to
remember English again when they get off their missions. Crazy! haha
So
general Conference was amazing and I am going to write down a few of my
favorite quotes/talks. I love how Hales said right at the beginning ''Oh
how we need Conference." I love that because that is one of the main
differences between other churches and ours, is that first off we have a
prophet and second that we get to hear him speak to us semi annually. Then I
like Dube's talk when he said "Faith is always pointing to the
future." That was the main message I got out of conference this year, especially
since it is something that I have really been learning and pondering in the
MTC. Faith is always something we must show and act on, otherwise they are just
words. And we must show our faith first to gain a testimony of a principle and receive
the blessings afterwards. I have also learned in the MTC from Alma 58:40,
that we need to have exact obedience which shows our faith even
more. Then I loved Uchtdorfs talk the absolute best and also loved
Monson's and Eyrings's. I don't really have time to get into my favorite parts
but I know the quote, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith"
will be being said forever. And the scripture that I heard the most often said
that I love is "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Wish I had
three hours to write just on Conference, but I don't so I shall move on.
So
things I missed saying from last week: Sundays are the best here. Everyone
always tells you here on your first week, just make it to Sunday and you will
be great. We have church in the morning and then a devotional in the afternoon
and then a church movie in the evening. We watch the stonecutter and faith in
Christ videos last week and this week we watched The Testaments. I normally cry
at the end, but this week I was pretty much crying throughout the whole thing,
because I could completely feel how much love Jesus Christ had for the people
in Jerusalem that healed, the people in the Americas at the time, the people on
the earth now that had never heard the gospel, and the love he has for me
specifically and how a some point during the atonement, he was thinking only of
me and suffering only for me and how I owe him everything. I love him so much
and I want to share my thoughts with the people of Chile and my friends and
family back home. I love this gospel and I know it is the only thing that
brings true happiness. Second last week at the temple I forgot to mention the chandelier
in the Celestial Room. It literally was the prettiest chandelier I have ever
seen. Most kinds have a lot of dangles parts put this one had all its part
completely connected and in the shape of an upside-down star tiered cake and
just the most gorgeous gold. It was the best!
Well
anyways for this week, we are not new!! It was awesome last Wednesday to see
all the new people showing up and me and my roommates had a little celebration
by eating peanut butter and chocolate. I will attach pictures.
I
love my companion Hermana Weller, as I said before she is 28 and from Portland
Oregon, Go Ducks as she would say(There are 2nd in the nation in college
football) She has grown up in the church, although when she was 17 she left the
church and did not come back for at least 6 years. She says that she left
because she wanted to do what she wanted and she didn't really have any friends
in the church. After about 5 years she finally realized that what she was doing
was not actually bringing her happiness. But it took her Dads invitation to
have her come be there for when he was set apart as the Sunday School President
that got her back to church just the once, and then shortly after she decided
she wanted to take the missionary discussions again and through the sister
missionaries she came back to church and now has been truly converted for
herself. So lessons I have learned from her: 1. As a youth you have to learn to
gain your own testimony and become truly converted for yourself, because when
the true trials come, you will need your own testimony and relationship with Christ
to lean on. 2. Dad this is for you. She said the members of the ward would come
by every so often when she was inactive and she would never answer the door
because she felt so guilty. She only opened it once when it was her loving
bishop who she used to be pretty close to, and even then she still didn't come
back to church right away. She said she needed to feel wanted and loved in the
church, but if it wasn't by someone she was super close to, it didn't
matter. You can only bring those back to the church if you already have a
good relationship with them and they are willing. They have their
agency as well. And if you don't have a relationship with them
and you truly want them to come back, you have to be very genuine and
gain their trust without the church involved first. Invite them over for
dinner, maybe without the missionaries for the first time. Hermana Weller said
that before she had come out on the mission, she got really close with the
sister missionaries in her ward, and they would invite all the inactive
members/investigators/friends to come play volleyball with them on Thursday
nights with the missionaries present. She said it really worked, because
then those people were more likely to come to a non commitment/ non salvation
oriented activity first and they would get to know the missionaries on a
friendship level. 3. As I kind of mentioned before and as General
conference addressed. Everyone still has there agency to choose and some
people have already completely made up their mind about their lives. But
dad I know all the work that you are doing in the ward is helping and most
people have not made up their minds about their lives and you and the entire
ward can help them make the right decision and come to know their Elder brother
Jesus Christ, who loves them just as much as you and me, so much more.
Hermanas experience has helped me to change my perspective on missionary work
and I thank her for that.
The thing I have really learned this week: Prayer. We
need to be really specific in our prayers. We pray at least 20 times a day here
at the CCM and it is great and I have found that when I pray for general
things, I get general answers, but when I pray for a very very specific thing I
get a very specific answer Heavenly Father can answer my prayers with exactly
what I needed. So pray often and pray with specific things you are grateful for
and specific people you want to bless and bless them with and pray for specific
answers in your life.
Funnies of the week:
1. One of the elders in my district was teaching our
investigator who is still our investigator, but also our teacher now, which is
a cooler experience than you will ever know. (If I have time I will tell you
more about that.) Well this elder was asking him what his goals were in Spanish
and the investigator was not understanding his Spanish. well he pauses for a
few seconds, and then raises his arms and yells GOOOAAAL like at a football
game. The investigator got it after that. We all got a good laugh!
2. My companion and I have been practicing our lesson all
week and She kept pronouncing amoroso (means loving) as al muerso (means
lunch). So she would say God is our lunch compared to God is our loving Heavenly
Father. So I made her keep saying it the right way to practice so she would not
say it wrong in the lesson and even wrote a pronunciations guide of the word on
our notes. And guess what she still said Lunch in the lesson. Our
investigator/teacher chuckled for a second and then when she realized she said
it wrong... again... she starts dying laughing and then I start dying and then
he starts dying and we are all leaning over with our heads down literally dying
of laughter. Then when we finally pull it together and take deep breathes it
starts all over again as you know how it goes. Well we did get to end our
lesson though finally. It was awesome. Oh and he fell asleep on us again!! He
likes to give us a challenge when we teach him. Well he is right it is a
challenge trying to teach with the spirit to someone sleeping. Well hopefully
by the end of this MTC experience I will be prepared for all! Probably not!
3. Appearently I am funny here...or at least my roommates
think so. I could be because I was somehow given a funny gift in my
setting apart, or my roommates have a dumb sense of humor like, or we have
nothing to entertain us and so anything I say is funny. i think it is the
latter becasue we as missionaries laugh at everything, seriously everything!
Well yep I am funny now...who knew!
Oh and for those of you that want to write me hand
written letters, I think dear elder works for here, but if you don't write them
within the next week and a half just send them to my chile mission address
which is on my facebook, becasue it takes letters 2 weeks or more for letters
to get here. I love letters just to remind you all!
Sorry if I forget to put things in my emails, or you are
confused or I repeat myself. I just have so much to say in so little time. So I
have probably forgotten a bunch of stuff. Love you all...again!!
Thanks again for all your emails I love hearing from you
all! P-day is awesome.
Love,
Hermana Corbett
