Week 60: Unexpected cambio...I am leaving Penco!!!!

11-17-14

Hola familia y amigos!!!!

So first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HEIDI!!!!   I hope it was a fun one and you were not too sick or moody. haha  I want to hear all about it!

So today has been a whirlwind!! We were up late helping Hermana Baturitè pack!! And then early to get her to the office.   And it was not only hard to say goodbye to her, but the hardest thing is that I am leaving Penco to go to Collao which is in Concepcion central.  I am excited to go to a Collao I have heard it is an amazing sector and I will still be a sister leader so that will be fun!!  The only thing is that I am going to miss Penco and the people here so much!! SO MUCH!! I have been pretty much bawling my eyes so much and still I little in shock that I am leaving.  I have loved my time here and I have learned so much from the members!  So much!!  But I guess I have served my time here even though it was really short.   I have fulfilled my purpose in Penco.  

I am still in the process of  learning this, but I just want to testify that the Lord has a plan in all things.  IN ALL THINGS!  If we listen and ask for his guidance he will give it ¡ to us and we will not be lead astray.  Trust in him and his timing!! 

I love you all so much and thanks for writing me this week!! I really needed it!!!  Almost all of my siblings wrote me, and both my parents, so I have had plenty to read and have really felt your guys love!!!! Thanks so much for the letters.  I will try and respond to as many as I can. I love you all!!  

Oh and just so you know we now only have 1 hour to write instead of 1 hour and half, so my letters are going to start to be shorter.  And we only have 40 minutes to skype at Chirstmas now.  So hope that is okay!!  A little more than a month and then Chirstmas.  

Love you,

Hermana Corbett

Week 59: Pilates, Piano, and Penco's Hills!

11-10-14

Hola familia y amigos,

So I don't remember if I have told you guys already, but I have been teaching a Pilates exercise class for the women in the ward and for their friends.  It has been pretty fun, we started out with just one of the hermanas coming, but now we normally have 5-6 coming and almost always there is a non member there.  This past week our investigator Daniela, who is 18 years old, came and it was really fun. So just something fun we do to try and find new investigators. 

  More about Daniela, she lives alone because her mom works in Santiago and only comes to visit every three weeks.  She has her Baptism date for the 22 of November.  But it is still not set and stone yet, because she says she has not received her answer yet.  She has felt things during her prayers, so I think she has received her answer but just has not recognized it yet. So we are going to work on that with here.  So if you could pray for her and that she can recognize her answer and have the faith and strength to follow the answer!! 

Also these last few weeks I have been playing the prelude in Sacrament Meeting in church, because we have sacrament meeting last and so everyone always comes in really loud and not reverent, and so they asked that I play some hymns for like 10 minutes before church starts.  It has been fun to learn a few more hymns and practice my right hand sight reading. I wish I had more time to practice so that I could start playing during the songs in the meeting, but the only time I have to practice is the 10 minutes before sacrament meeting starts. haha

Also the hills here in Penco have been treating me well and I my legs are invincible.  They had muscles before, but now they are all muscle and I am climbing the hills with ease now. 

Okay just ran into one of the hermanas from my old Zone and going to go so I can talk to her!!!

Love you all talk to you next week!! Write me!  I got nothing today!!! 

-Hermana Corbett

Week 58: I can`t think of a title! haha

11-3-14

Hola familia y amigos,

So first HAPPY CUMPLEAÑOS!! ¡¡¡¡FELIZ BIRTHDAY AUSTIN!!!!

Oh my gosh you are so old!!!!  And in your pictures you and Luke are huge and have leg hair and it is just weird!!!  NO!!!!!!  And I am pretty sure you are taller than me as well!  well chuta?

So we can a big service activity this week for the entire stake and we did three different projects at the same time.  The men and elders went and cleaned a lake that has a lot of swans.  I guess they were pulling sofas and chairs and tables and a whole bunch of trash out of there.  no wonder a lot of swans have been dying near there.  Another group picked up trash on the beach and in another local that I cant remember.  And then my group all the hermanas and boy scouts ( I have no clue why we were put together hahah). We painted over graffiti on the beach.  It was fun!!  There were like 70 of us painting the entire wall of the board walk.  It was great and nice way break away from the norm for a little bit.

Also today we had leaders counsel, where all the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders meet with President for the morning and discuss the status of the mission and what we are going to do better and ways we can change to help raise the mission to the next level.

Today we focused on Family History and Temple Work with Missionary work.  It was based on the talk by David A. Bednar in last months issue of the Ensign!  it is on page 7 or something!  READ IT!!!

So as a mission our goal and vision has been on the temple.  Not just on baptisms but to get people to the temple through baptisms.  And one way we are going to do that is through family history work.  On of the things we have to do before next month is fill out the pamphlet called "MY FAMILY"  So I have had mine filled out with names, but I don´t have any pictures so I would love some pictures of grandparents and great grandparents. Thanks mom and dad!! Also I was searching our family history a few weeks ago when we were helping one of our recent converts with his and we know our ancestors of the Corbett name back to the year 1089.  Seriously that is so long ago. That is crazy!!!! I love family history work!!!  I can`t wait to work even more on it when I am home.  

Also during the consejo we had a learning activity and made chocolate chip cookies in the process.  They were so good!!!

Also I was talking with Hermana Baturitè the other day and she has only been to the temple twice in her entire life!!  Twice I tell you!!  She lives 12 hours from the temple in Brazil and so only got to go once before her mission to do baptisms and then the other time was in the MTC when she received her endowment.  Crazy right?!?  I just want to say that I am thankful that we live 1 hour away from the temple and even in bad traffic it is only 3 hours(haha).  Which is a lot less than 12 or even 6 here in Concepcion.  And they pay a huge bus fee to get there.  A lot of sacrifice but I feel like they value the temple more than I did because of the sacrifice they put into it.    Also we have heard news that the Concepcion temple will start construction and be finished in the year 2015!!! It was announced 6 years ago so hopefully this time it will all work out!!!!   

Love you all!!!  

-Hermana Corbett

STAY CALM AND GO TO THE TEMPLE!!!!

Oh and we had papa Johns for lunch today!!!  With GARLIC SAUCE!!!! Good old times!!!

Week 57: TRIO!!!!!

10-27-14

Hola Familia y Amigos,

So I have now had a full week in a trio!! It is a little harder to balance things and to know who is going to talk when in lessons and to balance all the plans and people of Hermana Montañez'ssector with all the people in our sector.  But honestly I love it!!!

Reasons I love it:

-We talk with everyone.  We have a goal in the mission for each missionary to talk to 10 people about the gospel every day.  That is 30 people everyday my friends.  It is so fun.  We are talking to people in the bus a lot more now too.  We get on and are like invade the bus with the gospel.

-We have three phones.  Normally each sector gets one phone but since H.B. and I are leaders we each get one and Hermana Montañez has one for her sector.  We are always calling someone.  

-We are not competing for members to leave with us because now we are one group.

-It is a lot easier to go on mini divisions because when we have one of the members with us we can divide and conquer more.  

So all in all it has been a good week.

It sounds like the Tough Mudder was really fun and hard.  I want to do one someday too!!  I want pictures.  

It has gotten so hot here this past week!! So hot!!  But we are right on the beach so there is always a good cold breeze.  Oh and funny story I have been carrying a frozen water bottle around with me and I put one of my sock on it to keep it frozen longer.   And oh my gosh all the members have been making fun of me. haha It is so funny.  They would look at my backpack and start to laugh and ask.  "Is that a sock?"  They also wonder if that is an American thing and I just tell them nope, it is a Corbett thing.  The still laugh and then I tell then I will make millions on it one day.  haha

So spiritual thought:

BE OBEDIENT!!  100% not 99%.  I have found that we are being obedient to all of God´s commandments, but to a degree.  We are reading our scriptures, but not every day.  We are praying but not listening for the answer. We obey the Word of Wisdom, but overeat on meat and junk food.  Often times we think we are exactly obedient to a commandment because we are not 'disobedient'.  But we are losing blessings when we do not fully follow the commandments.  I have learned about obedience compared to exact obedience in the mission a lot!!!  One of my favorite quotes is "Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles."  Something I have also learned is that we are not perfect and we should not look at all our imperfections all the time. We cannot overcome everything at once.  I have tried...it doesn´t work!! haha  So pick one commandment this week and study it and share what you learn with a someone and then make goals of how you can follow that commandment more exactly.  I promise that you will see a difference in your week and see more blessings rain down upon you and the family!

Love you all!!

-Hermana Corbett

fotos:

Huge slugs we are finding in the house.  

We went to Chillan today so that Hermana Baturité could get all her souvenirs for her family and I met up with Hermana Richards for lunch!! It was great to see her!!  All your souvenirs have been bought!!!  Yeah!!!! 

Hermana Montañez completed a year in the mission!!!! We bought her pizza!!

Week 56: Benjamin- Our future missionary!

10-20-14

Hola Familia y Amigos,

So I have now had a full week in a trio!! It is a little harder to balance things and to know who is going to talk when in lessons and to balance all the plans and people of Hermana Montañez'ssector with all the people in our sector.  But honestly I love it!!!

Reasons I love it:

-We talk with everyone.  We have a goal in the mission for each missionary to talk to 10 people about the gospel everyday.  That is 30 people everyday my friends.  It is so fun.  We are talking to people in the bus a lot more now too.  We get on and are like invade the bus with the gospel.

-We have three phones.  Normally each sector gets one phone but since H.B. and I are leaders we each get one and Hermana Montañez has one for her sector.  We are always calling someone.  

-We are not competing for members to leave with us because now we are one group.

-It is a lot easier to go on mini divisions because when we have one of the members with us we can divide and conquer more.  

So all in all it has been a good week.

It sounds like the Tough Mudder was really fun and hard.  I want to do one someday too!!  I want pictures.  

It has gotten so hot here this past week!! So hot!!  But we are right on the beach so there is always a good cold breeze.  Oh and funny story I have been carrying a frozen water bottle around with me and I put one of my sock on it to keep it frozen longer.   And oh my gosh all the members have been making fun of me. haha It is so funny.  They would look at my backpack and start to laugh and ask.  "Is that a sock?"  They also wonder if that is an American thing and I just tell them nope, it is a Corbett thing.  The still laugh and then I tell then I will make millions on it one day.  haha

So spiritual thought:

BE OBEDIENT!!  100% not 99%.  I have found that we are being obedient to all of God´s commandments, but to a degree.  We are reading our scriptures, but not everyday.  WE are praying but not listening for the answer. We obey the Word of Wisdom, but overeat on meat and junk food.  Often times we think we are exactly obedient to a commandment because we are not 'disobediente'.  But we are losing blessings when we do not fully follow the commandments.  I have learned about obedience compared to exact obedience in the mission a lot!!!  One of my favorite quotes is "Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles."  Something I have also learned is that we are not perfect and we should not look at all our imperfections all the time. We cannot overcome everything at once.  I have tried...it doesn´t work!! haha  So pick one commandment this week and study it and share what you learn with a someone and then make goals of how you can follow that commandment more exactly.  I promise that you will see a difference in your week and see more blessings rain down upon you and the family!

Love you all!!

-Hermana Corbett

fotos:

Huge slugs we are finding in the house.  

We went to Chillan today so that Hermana Baturité could get all her souvenirs for her family and I met up with Hermana Richards for lunch!! It was great to see her!!  All your souvenirs have been bought!!!  Yeah!!!! 

Hermana Montañez completed a year in the mission!!!! We bought her pizza!!

Week 55: Benjamin is getting baptized!!!

10/13/14

Hey everyone,

I am as old as Dad now:55!!!

So our investigator Benja is getting baptized on Saturday and please pray for him and his dad.  His dad is not very interested in all of this, but I know it would mean the world to Benja if his dad was there too.  He is so great!!

Here are a few pictures too!!!

The last picture was for an activity for the youth.  Our ward had to represent The United States.  I thought they dressed like Americans pretty well. The youth did a dance to the Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley.  It was really fun!!

Love you all and have a great week!!!

-Hermana Corbett

Oh and LEISHA HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOMORROW!!!!!

Week 54: General Conference in Spanish!

Week 54: General Conference in Spanish!

10/6/14

Hola familia y amigos,

¿Como están?

So much has happened in the past week.  Such a great week!!

So we have cambios tomorrow and Hermana Baturité and I are still together.  This is her last cambio so I will 'kill' her.  We are having a really hard time finding people to teach, but the good news is that this last week was the first week we had an investigator in church with a baptismal date.  Yeah it was a good pay off after a whole cambio.  His name is Benjamin and he is 10.  His mom is a member and we have been working with her as well and she has been reactivating herself.  We actually meet them in church like 4 weeks ago and only just this past week have we been able to actually start teaching them.  He is so amazing and loved Conference.  He reads everything we give him and he answers the questions we ask in the lessons better than any adult I have ever taught!! He is set to get baptized on the 18th of October, so keep him and him mom Karen, in your prayers.

Also with him he has been wanting to learn violin for a while, but they had never found a teacher, so they never bought a violin to start.  Well that was until they met me.  Yep as of friday I am a legit orchestra teacher.  It is hard enough to teach an insturment, but also in Spanish with all these wierd words and in Latin America, the musical notes are not ABCDEFG they are Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do.  Yeah wierd right? haha So the class was a lot of fun is all I can say.

Okay mom so you asked about what a Sister Training Leader does.   Afew of the things we do are: 

-Call the hermanas in our group at least once a week.

-Have a mini cambio(One of us goes to there sector and one comes to our sector)  with them at least once a cambio. 

-We report to Presidente every week about there progress in an email.

- And we have studies which is like district class but only hermanas.

-We have an activity with just the hermanas as well.  Like cook food or watch a mission approved movie.

-Do anything that we think would help our hermanas.

Yep it is extra work but it is so worth it.  Just like anything that takes extra effort.

So as for the conference i definitely loved the afternoon sessions the best and I got the answers I needed for these next 6 months. I was the only gringo in my zone that watched the whole thing in Spanish.  All the rest of them went to the english room.  I was proud of myself.  I didn´t understand everything but it was great and it really helped my spanish!!  Also that was so cool to listen to those who speak directly in Spanish! We didn´t have to listen to the translation.  It was really cool!

It made all the members really happy and feel more apart of it and important as well.

Yep also I went and traded 15 American Dollars for other currency of what ever they had and I got Euros, Brazilan Reales, Argentinian Pesos, Chinas bills, and an Australian bill.  It was so cool!!  I felt like I was robbing a bank because I got so much for just a few dollars.  They are so cool!!  

Well that is about it for the week!  I am going to try and hurry out of here to get a nap in hopefully before pday is up.  

Love you all!

Have a great week!!

-Hermana Corbett

Week 53: ¿¿UN AÑO YA??

9-29-14

Hola familia y amigos,

so I have no time, as always, so just a few bullet points!!

-Thanks for all the letters this week.  I really enjoyed them!! Good to hear everyone is good!

-I have been studying a part in Preach my gospel this week about how to work better with the members. To help them be animated with missionary work and with their callings.  do you have any experiences or ideas that you have seen with the missionaries that have helped you be excited to work with them.  I need the view point of members.  Also I invite you to study Preach my Gospel!!  And also the conference talk follow up by Ballard

-Also I AM SO EXCITED FOR CONFERENCE!!!  SO EXCITED!!  I am getting my questions ready!!  I invite you all to do the same!!  Prepare questions so that you can get the extra guidance you need in your life and the most out of conference!!!

-I have one year as a missionary now!!  funny story: at the end of the night, we were out of time and it was time for bed and so I just took a quick selfie with my one and that was my celebration.  Well my roommates and comp. love me and lot and surprised me and bought me pizza and made me a card and notes and such.  They are so great! haha A lot better than my dumb quick celebration.

-Also we had an activity with all of the leaders of the mission and we played volleyball in the chapel in Villa Acero, my first sector.  It was so weird to be back there but also fun to remember all the good memories.  And Hermana Ayuso was there too!!

yep that is all!!! I love you and have a great week!!  Also I will write you next week mom about what I do as a Sister Training Leader.

Con amor,

Hermana Corbett

Week 52: ¡¡¡¡¡¡18 de Septiembre!!!!!!

9-22-14

Hola Familia y Amigas,

So this week was the biggest Chilean Holiday!!  It has been crazy all week!! It is like the fourth of July but for like a whole week, actually like the whole month of September.  And without fireworks, but a lot more barbeques and meat!!!  AND EMPANADAS!!

So I have no time so here is just a bunch of pictures for the festivites!!

HAPPY FIRST BIRTHDAY MI SOBRINA AMELIA!!!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

The last picture is the Chilean Triplet of Amber and Katelyn.  She talks and acts like Amber. It freaks me out so much!!

Week 51: People dying left and right!!

9/15/14

Hola Familia y Amigos,

So this week has been crazy fun and just plain crazy.  So this past weekend we have heard of like 10 deaths in Penco.  It has just been a little weird.  5 of them were members of the church or family members of the members of the church.  And then the other 5 were just when we were contacting in the street and people were telling us they were heading to a funeral or coming back from one.  One couple told us they had just left one and were on their way to another.   A little bit weird of a weekend. haha  And then also on Saturday it was the Day of Service for the Church in South America.  So half of the mission went to a HUGE cemetery here in Concè.  We mainly cleaned out all of the dead flowers and threw them away.  It was a little weird but cool to see a little bit of the culture of Chileans in how they treat their deceased.  They have like a three day program when someone dies. The first day is the viewing, the second is where they have a time to talk about all the memories, and then the third is the actual funeral and when they go to the cemetery to bury them.  It is kind of cool but long. 

Also we dressed up two little cousins in our ward with our scarfs and missionary badges.  Are they not so cute?  haha

Also we went to the beach (two blocks away) today for a zone activity.  We played volleyball and made hamburgers. The elders brought the oven from their house to the beach.  Yeah a little extreme in my opinion, but it all worked out great!!  haha And I collected some shells and sand for you mom and dad!!! 

So yeah that is all that I can think of for this week!!  It sounds like everything is going great!!  Loved all the pictures mom!! 

I would love to hear from all my long lost older siblings though!

  

LOVE YOU ALL!!

-Hermana Corbett

p.s. Oh and this week on the 18th is the "Independence Day"  of Chile!! AND IT IS HUGE!!!  I will send a million pictures next week!!  It is going to be so fun!! I already have had a cueca dress made for me and we have been practicing the cueca (the national dance.)  So fun and elegant!  And I am going to get so fat this week because they just feed us Empanadas left and right on 18 de Septiembre. yeah!!!!  Viva Chile!!