Week 21: I guess I really just like kicking people out!

2/2114

Hola Familia y Amigas,

So as in the subject we had an emergencia cambio 2 days ago.  It was really sad to send Hermana Taylor away.  Now between the 4 that were in the house 3 weeks ago, I am the only one left. Well anyways my new Comp. is Hermana Najera. She is from Mexico and has one year in the mission.  She is super great!!  but since she is Latina, I have been only speaking Spanish for the past 3 days. It has been hard sometimes, but we can communicate pretty well.  It has definitely been hard without Hermana Taylor, with me having to lead the sector and all, but it is sure helping me to learn a lot fast!!

Raquel moved out of the member’s house she was living in back into her own house which is barely in a different ward.  But she is still going to church every week and the Elders and members in that ward are taking really good care of her!  So that is great! But I do miss her!!! 

We have a new investigator Leonardo that is awesome and has made some pretty bad decisions in his life, but I really know that he wants to start clean and just be a new person and he has so much faith. He is so great!  He also went to Church and this past week all the youth went to efy so they all went up and bore their testimonies about efy and the gospel.  It made Leo cry and I just love the youth so much and that have such strong spirits and testimonies. More than we give them credit for.  Love the youth in this ward.

Love you all

Have a great week!!

Con amor,

Hermana Corbett

Week 20: And I am 20!!

2-10-14

Hola Familia y Amigas,

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes!!

It was such a great day.  Hermana Taylor kept telling me that it kinda stinks because it is just a normal working missionary day, but she said she would try to make it the best. And she and you did and the ward did. It was just so fun!!! 

So first I woke up and got ready and then Hermana Taylor set up all my presents and a sign and I opened all of them in the morning. It was so fun.  I will be adding tons of pictures this week from last week as well!!

So thanks for the clothes and the candy and especially the necklace. I don´t know if you did this on purpose, you probably did, but you put 3 things about me in the necklace;  An infinity sign, which shows my love for math and the fact that I will be able to live with my family forever,  The starfish because the beach is my favorite place on earth, Then my purple birthstone. I also put in a one peso from Chile, because I just love my mission so much and the one pesos are so tiny!! Well thanks so much!

Then at church the elders told everyone that came into church that it was my birthday and the news spread like wildfire and I was sung to in Relief Society (The relief society pres. said, ¨You are really far from your family today, but today we are all your Moms¨ I almost broke down because they really do just love us and are so caring. I love this ward.) and then I had to go around to everyone in the room and salud them and give them a cheek kiss.  That was a little to many kisses for my taste, but it was fun.  

Then for lunch we ate at the Coronado house.  Their daughter Vicki, who is 23, is like my favorite person in Chile!! I love her so much! She added Mariah and me on facebook. So Mariah you need to accept her and accept her on my facebook. Please!!! Also the rest of you can add her and also see the videos and pictures from yesterday. She said she posted them!! I don´t know if here name on facebook is Vicky, Vicki, or Victoria. Well anyways we got to their house and we call Alo and then they didn´t answer for a long time and but we hear all this noise inside. Then the mom shows up in the window and is like wait one minute. They finally opened the door and there were a string of balloons and they have cake and they start singing when I come in.  And they are recording the whole thing!! They are the best.  If I ever come back or if you mom and dad come pick me up, this family is who I would stay with. They are the best.

Then we had a normal working day and then we finished planning really fast at night so that Hermana Taylor and I could have a fiesta. It was so fun and I have tons of videos, but you guys don´t get to see them for another year or so because the videos are always to many megabites for the email or something. But you will get to see them one day.

And then President and Hermana Arrington called and all of the elders in my zone called throughout the day and sang to me!! It was really fun!! Then today we met up with Hermana Ayuso and went to eat with here! It has only been two weeks but I missed her so much.  She is thinking about coming to study at BYU after the mission and I am continuing to convince her that she should!! 

Also one of the best parts was that it was warm and I am tan!!! That has never happened before on my birthday. I am already promising myself a birthday present in the future to come back to Chile on my birthday in like 5 or 10 years and go to the beach on my birthday!! I have never been able to do that before!!

Anyways it was so good!! And thanks for all of your letters and the package. I am glad I waited to open half of it for my birthday. 

Anyways for the rest of the week.  It was interesting. I have been kind of sick since the first week I have gotten here, just problems with the food and my stomach. I have kind of just gotten use to the pain and tried a few different pills and some help but not a lot, but this past week got pretty bad to the point that we had to come home early, so we called Hna. Balden the nurse and Hna. Taylor has been feeling the same way the past week, so Hna. Balden suggested we take ¨The Bomb¨ which I guess wipes out everything in your stomach and is a three day process and everything is just suppose to come out on the third day.  Gross I know right!!  Probably too much info. but I was really nervous for it this week, but I got super lucky because it worked and has made me feel better, but also I didn´t have to go through the whole third day.  It just felt better. I am still not one hundred percent but way better than I was and so is Hermana Taylor.  Well that was an interesting few days haha.

The other bummer or the week was that yesterday none of our investigators came to church and they all promised the day before that they would. That stunk. It is hard when that happens to not think that it is my fault and that I didn´t work hard enough. I know I can always be better, but others have their agency as well.  Although the really good news was that we had 3 less active families in church yesterday. That was awesome. One family we had visited for the first time on Saturday, because a member had told us about them and went with us to their house.  They had not been to church in like at least a year.  They went to all the classes and participated. It was really cool to see that, I know it strengthen the member that came with us and her testimony that she can make a difference and help others.

Also funny story. I woke on Saturday Morning and realized I still had my plaque on.  Went to sleep with it still on!!! YEAH 24 hour missionary.  And I have started having dreams where I am teaching lessons in my dreams...it is super weird! haha

Lastly, Happy Birthday Today Sister Goodfellow!!!  Love you!

Anyways this letter was a long one this week, so didn´t get to write any of you back, sorry!! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

Week 19: Chile and their water

2-3-14

Hola Familia y Amigos,
So we did not go into Concé today, so we are a crappy cyber internet place here in Hualpen and so it is not letting me upload photos, but don´t worry I will send all the ones from today next week. 

So the two main photos I was going to send...

The first was from this morning when we went to the park to do our morning studies and it was the best!!!

So nice to just lay out in the sun.

The second picture was of his guy in a really construction looking outfit.  You will have to just wait and see, but it is a really weird outfit. And the first time I ever saw a guy in this outfit, I though they must have a really cool job.  Well I have realized that the job that this guy has and all the others you have to wear this dorky but kinda cool outfit is water the plants...seriously...just water the plants is all they do all day and they have to wear these really crazy full body protector yellow neon jumpsuits.  It bewilders me. I just don’t get it. I thought maybe they trim the trees and pull weeds and stuff like that too, but no they just water the plants.  Also Chile wastes so much water they seriously water everything till it is drowning in water. They even water just the dirt. I think it is because the whole country lives right along the Andes Mountains, so they have continual water runoff all year, so their water is really cheap.  All I know is that if the world ends up in a water shortage I am coming to Chile!! haha

Well not much to write this week.

Only that with the other Hermanas gone in our house, it is a lot quieter and we have been able to focus so much better.  So we have worked our bums off so hard this week and we have been lucky to get to be 30 mins early a few nights because we are just so exhausted. But we have seen the fruits of our labors and have found a family to teach this week and another man, Leonardo, who started to cry when we invited him to be baptized because he really does just want to be completely clean and change his life around and follow Christ. It was such an awesome experience.

Everyone go read Alma 26 because it is so good and probably my favorite Chapter right now.  Also we are expected to contact 140 people a week and everyone has been slacking the past few weeks, but this week Hermana Taylor and I got 202; which was probably the highest in the mission for this week!! So yeah, take that Satan.  haha

And by contacting was how we found Leonardo. He was waiting for a bus at a bus stop. Almost didn’t talk to him, but then I knew when it is the hardest and scariest to talk to someone, that is when I most need to do it.

Anyways love you all and got to go!! 

Choa,

Hermana Corbett

Cambios cannot split up the Dynamic Duo!!!

1-29-14

So cambios are tomorrow and we found out today what is going to happen and me and Hermana Taylor are still together, which will be our 3rd cambio which is pretty long in this mission!!! So crazy!! 

This cambio is going to be so much easier in some ways and so much hard in others.  It is going to be harder, because the six missionaries in our ward we have all gotten so so close, but one elder went home and the other hermanas were taken out of our ward, so it is just me and Hermana Taylor in the house and only hermanas in our zone, so if I ever need a break and talk to another hermana or ever another person I won´t be able to. We are really good friends, but still 24/7 can be really hard to be with anyone really.  I guess just preparing me for marriage.  The easy part is that Hermana Ayuso and Hermana Snyder had quite a few problems with health that we always had to help them with.  Hermana Snyder actually went home last Wednesday and that was really hard for all of us.  All four of us had gotten so close and I have realized looking back now that this past cambio has really been about helping Hermana Snyder.  So it will be easier to just focus on the work now!!  I am excited for this next cambio!

Well anyways, Hermana Raquel is still doing as great as ever and literally is the greatest!  Her visiting teachers are already visiting her, we are working on getting her a calling, and we keep visiting her and she just keeps suprising me ever week.  

Also Brooke asked me what a normal week is like. So I will try my best to explain. 

So almost every day is the same so here is a normal day!

7:30 wake up and exercise

8 get ready for the day

9 personal study (study PMG, conference talks, and the scriptures)

10 companion study (call members, and investigators, read the handbook, and then practice for our investigator lessons) Practices are so helpful but I hate doing them so much! This subject can be a whole other email.  "The pros and cons to practices"

11 Training Study ( done with this so now I do language study here)  I am a real missionary now!!!!

12-Work for an hour 

1- head towards lunch

1:30 Lunch

2:30 Head home form lunch

3- Language Study

3:30-10- On the street working!

10- Daily Planning

10:45 get ready for bed and eat dinner

11:30 lights out!!!

This is almost everyday accept P-day we had 2 hours of study in the morning and then have the whole day in Concepcion central and then work from 6:30 to 10

and then Tuesdays we have district class from 11 am until Lunch.  And then Sundays we have Church from 11:30 until 3ish and then lunch until 4 and then have weekly planning for 2 hours. And then go work until 10. So always working everyday!! But lots of other stuff that we do as well! 

Well I am out of time and I will end with a few pictures!! 

Love you all!!

Chao,

Hermana Corbett

Week 17: Raquel was baptized!!!!

Hola Familia y Amigas,                                                  1-20-14

So our investigator Raquel was baptized on Saturday and it was so awesome.  A few things went wrong, but we figured them out in the end.  Things always go wrong on baptism day, because Satan is going to try his hardest to make it not happen, but when they are truly prepared and ready it will happen and it did. Satan did not win or as Hermana Taylor says, "Take that Satan"  It has been so awesome to be a part of this experience to see someone change their life around and really want to do God's will and then get to see the happiness that comes into their life as a result. The gospel is true, and it really works!! Our convert Raquel is so awesome and she already has such a strong testimony. I know she was chosen. One thing that I have learned about those that are chosen is that we need to help them and teach them like every other investigator, but for the most part they are super easy and willing because they are ready to accept the gospel and change their lives.  

We have not found another apt. yet, but we are working on it.  We have been lucky this week because they have only come over like twice for a little bit.  So it was easier. 

My Spanish is coming and coming every day.  This past week, I think on like Tuesday, something just clicked a little more and I can talk pretty fast without even translating it.  Also knowing conjugation and tenses is coming faster too.  It just comes little by little. It don't get much time to study it because lunch always goes late, but I have realized the fastest way to learn a language is just by speaking it as much as possible.   

Yep I have almost 4 months, and sometimes it feels like I have been gone almost my whole life, but most of the time it feels like I have only been out like 2 months.  Time really just doesn't exist on the mission.  

And what is this whole thing with this Grant kid.  Mariah is always getting all the boys.  Mariah stop being so beautiful and awesome!!  haha just kidding...but really...

Also Mariah that is awesome that you get your license soon.  Practice driving on the freeway a lot and learn to parallel park like and pro like your older sister. They quiz you on that!

Raleigh sounds fun!!  I miss my niece and nephew, not that I have ever met Amelia or anything but I miss them and just being with kids in general!

Also is it still freezing up there, I heard that Niagara Falls froze is that true, because that doesn`t sound believable.  Anyways I hope you are staying warm while it is perfect weather down here in Chile.

Lastly I would just like to tell a little more about Raquel.  First off she is 53 and she already is a great grandma.  She was married at 14 and had her first daughter at 15. Crazy right?  She her husband left her when she was younger.  She has two daughters and then a son that passed away about 10 years ago.  She has smoked her whole life, but it got really bad when her son died. She has tried to quit smoking a few time over the past few years but it was never successful.  But through God she has been able to quit.  She also a big big jokester...so without further ado, here is the funny story of the week.  On Wednesday. Raquel had her interview for her baptism with our district leader Elder Jensen. They were in the interview for about 20 minutes and as she was coming out and down the hallway I asked how it went.  We had already gone over the questions with her and we didn't see any problems, but still this was really nerve racking. Well anyways she says Bad really bad.  And my heart just drops and I was like what! okay okay. It is okay. Then Elder Jensen just casually was like yeah she didn’t pass. There is just one small problem and it can be fixed easily and we will have another interview in a week.  Me and Hermana Taylor look at each other and we are like okay. awkward.  Then Raquel screams I passed and like falls over in here chair and almost falls out and I like almost screamed because it scared me. But it was so funny!! I guess Raquel said to elder Jensen right as they were leaving the room.  "Tell them I didn’t pass" And he went right along with it.  It was really good. I totally believed them!! We were all laughing for a while!!  Well anyways. Elder Jensen also baptized here and when he did her feet slipped out from under her. And she came up choking on water a little. But she was fine. It was pretty funny though.  The funniest part is that Elder Jensen is a really tall BYU football player and she is just a short little thing that I thought he would have been able to help her not slip, but I guess not. Maybe the height difference was the problem in the first place.  

And then we heart attacked her door because she was feeling really sick the night before and we wanted to give her some love and not let Satan win. 

Love you all so much and I love all the pictures!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

p.s. I need all of your addresses, so I can send you letters for real!!!

Week 16:Nightmare en Chile!

Jan 13, 2014
Hola Familia y Amigas,

   So this week has been crazy crazy crazy.  For the first half of the week we hardly got to leave the house because our landlord is going all crazy and wants everything in our house to be fixed all at once.  Our house is really really gross and has so many problems, but I don´t know why he all of the sudden wants to fix everything.  Well anyways since we have like 4 different men coming over at random times throughout the week, we cant leave them in our house alone, and we can´t just have two of us hermanas there with him/them alone, so all four of us have to stay home.  We get members to come over for a couple hours at a time to stay with one of us while the other companionship goes and works, but it is hard enough to have members come out with us for a lesson for just an hour, imagine trying to get them to come over for a couple hours.  But we have been lucky in at least getting a member to come for our planned lessons with our investigators.  Also I think our landlord is doing this because he wants to kick us out after it is all done and rent it to someone else that will pay more.  So we are in the process of finding a new house.  

Also this week our investigator Raquel quit smoking!!!! Also she is getting baptized this Saturday.  So pray for her because she needs it and the strength to continue to not smoke and especially because this is the week right before their baptisms that Satan pulls out all the tricks.  She is really great though and I can see a light that is coming into her eyes as she changing things in here life to be more in line with the teachings of Christ. 

   Oh and by the way Move Along by All American Rejects is playing right now in the cyber.  It is so hard to not sing along.

   The Hermana that you said knows the Elder in your ward is Hermana Dunn and is coming to the mission next week. She is in the MTC right now.  I met her on facebook before I left. She is so great!

Mariah made a really good point this week that I would like to share a little bit about. The purpose of a missionary is to invite others to come unto Christ. The main word in that is "Others" it does not say non members, but others, which means that when we are friendshipping less actives and strengthening and teaching other members and serving our family, even in just the smallest ways, we are doing missionary work.  That is a big focus in my mission especially because here in Chile only 10 percent of the members are active, so we have a long long list of people that are baptized but that have not come to church for years.  We run into them on the street all the time. It is quite funny actually.  We will be contacting them and after like 2 minutes they will be like oh I am actually a member. And I am like why didnt you tell us that in the first place.  So here we focus on finding new people to help them to make the covenant of baptism, but helping to reactivate someone is just as important, because everyone’s salvation is equally important. And there is no point in only focusing on new members because then we are just creating more less active members.

  Oh gosh Kelly Clarkson "My life would suck without you" is on. Ahhh this place is killing me!!!

  Oh and by the way I vote for moving to St. George!!  If it were my way you would move to St. George but you would wait until I get home, because I want to go home to VA.  But we all know that my way or your way is never the best. God´s way is always better.

Logan: I always love random thoughts, so keep them coming. My letters are always just a bunch of random thoughts.

Mariah: I want to help out Connie at here ranch when I get back too. It would be so fun!

Austin: Parcour Hardcore

Well I love you guys a lot and thanks for all of your love!!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

p.s. Mom can you send me the bishops and stake presidents emails and send me all of the emails of all the missionaries in our ward that are out right now!! thanks!  

Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

1-6-14

Hola Familia y Amigas,

Thanks to all my family that did not write me this week. And thanks to my best friend who did!! Love ya Brooke!!  Although I am surprised that I am not as sad as I thought I would be when this day would come that no one in my family wrote me.  Maybe I just expected it at some point and I know how it is at home.  

Well anyways a few pieces of business.

Mariah please please turn my facebook on completely private please.  

Second I got my birthday package, and I am so excited, but I dont think I am going to be able to wait a month to open it.  I might have to open it a little early and have my comp wrap a few things and then I will have something to open on my birthday!!!  I can’t believe it is already ´January.  It was like just August and we were all at the beach!!  Maybe it only feels like we were at the beach so soon ago because I went to the beach today!!!!! We had a zone activity on this little hidden beach!! It was so much fun!!!

It ended up being a lot like the Christmas activity.  My playing sports with the elders while the Hermanas sit on the side lines and cheer. I had fun though and that is what counts.  Today we played football and I did a diving blitz once that was really cool and I also almost caught a touchdown twice, almost. But what I was best at was defending, especially my district leader Elder Jensen who actually plays football for BYU. He is really good, but all I would have to is stand in his way and since he couldn´t touch me, he could never get around me! It was the best!! It was a really fun activity.

Other things of the week -  We had our mini missionary Eliza who is almost 16 come out with us again she is great!! She pretty much just laughs at us the whole time because we are hilarious and my Spanish is awful.  It actually is not that bad but I just really like to talk in Spanish all the time and since it is not perfect I get laughed at a lot!! It is really funny. Funny quote of that night by me was. "Estoy mucho consada, y mucho loco ahora" Which directly translates to I am a lot tired and a lot cray cray. I meant to say muy instead of mucho which means very. They got a good laugh.  

Also we had the Año Nuevo which was fun with a family.  I think Vicky Cordonado posted pictures to my facebook or sent them to Mariah or something. Anyways I will send more pictures next week when I get more emails. Love you all anyways!  Thanks for the love!!

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

Week 14: Christmas Craziness

12-30-14

Hola Familia y Amigas,

So to start off, the keyboard I am using right now is awful.  It is really frustrating because I keep spelling things wrong and my fingers are staring to hurt from pressing so hard. So just bear with me.  I probably won’t have time to go back and fix all of my errors.  It is mainly the a, s, and I keys that are not working.

Well anyway I talked to you guys on Christmas and it was awesome to see all of you! You all looked great and I missed hanging out with you! After we got off we went in to Conce and had our activity.  We get there and most of the elders had changed into street clothes and were playing soccer, but not a single hermana was doing anything.  At first I was like, are the hermanas allowed to play with the elders. One of the APs was like YES, it is just that all the hermanas so far are being boring. Well anyways I ended that hermanas are boring statement real fast "yeah I turned around real fast" haha  Well we went and changed and I got a few other hermanas to change with me and we played as a team that would switch in, but eventually they all abandoned me and it was just me and elders playing. Whatever, it was so fun!  And the best part is that if I sucked, I could just laugh and be like I am a girl, but when I would make a good move, they would all be like woah she is awesome. It is the best being a girl!  Also the Elders can’t go hard on me or they would feel bad and I can go as hard as I want, I won’t feel bad so that is great to. I knocked one of the stronger taller Chilean Elders right on his stomach.  He was really good, so I was pretty proud that I got the ball passed him and got him on the ground. haha.  Don´t worry he was fine!!  It really was a great activity though, to just release some stress!  I miss soccer!

Also I am done with singing in a Choir for ever.  We have sung n so many choirs it is insane! I don’t know why everyone thinks missionaries’ are such good singers. I know I am not. Well anyways moving on.

This whole week has just been really hard because so many people are out of town or have visitors.  They will not let you in if they have any kind of visitor over. it is so frustrating.  But it has still been a good week with the Christmas spirit and all!  And it has been pretty hot here recently.  Although today is surprisingly cooler, starting to look pretty tan though.  I don’t know if I have told you all this before, but most of the Chileans are very very light skinned and they don’t really tan.  It is because they are of recent European decent.  I am darker than most Chileans. It is weird.

So our main investigator right now, Raquel, is definitely going to get baptized and she is so great and is really trying to change. Right now her biggest challenges is coming to church because she has to watch over her mom who is sick and she is trying to stop smoking.  So we are really just trying to help her understand the importance of these commandments and she is already seeing the blessing in her life from the gospel.  She is amazing.  I love seen the light growing in her eyes from following God.

So another funny thing I have forgotten to tell you all, that one of my random goals for my mission is to be able to do the Splits. ( on the mission you have to have other random goals, because you can work as hard as you can, and make really good goals, but still if you make those goals also depends on the agency of others and is out of my control, so I make goals that I’m in control of.)  so during exercises in the morning, I hold the splits for a minute.  I have already increased my leg span by a foot and a half.  Pictures to come in the future!

Well that is all for this week I think!!  Love you all!

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

p.s. I want more pictures of the wedding!!! Lots more!! Thanks for the ones that you did send though!

Week 13(I think) :Christmas in July!!

12-23-14

Hola Familia y amigas,

So I got my package earlier this week, which means it came in less than 3 weeks which in my opinion is really really fast!!! I know that it is really expensive and I appreciate all the love and care and time and money that you put into them mom.  So I have that ready to open on Christmas!! I wanted to open over google plus but I also don’t want to waste any time, so I think my roommates and I will open our stuff in the morning and so then we have to full hour and a half on google plus.  I think google plus will work, but if not we might have to resort to skype.  Also I am going to get on from  2:30-4,. which is 2 hours ahead of the east coast and 4 hours ahead of Utah. I think.  You guys can figure that out too. But I am pretty positive that is when I will be on.

SO as for my title.  It has been pretty hot this week and by pretty hot I mean in the 80s with a breeze.  You can look for yourself and tell me exactly what it has been here in Hualpen/TAlcahuano, but that is my guess and all the Chileans have been dying and I think it is just hilarious because it feels perfect to me!! Plus there is like no humidity so I am in heaven.  But you know me I like the heat!  Also my companion has been dying because even though she has been on the mission for like 9 months, she has not had a summer since for over a year, since august 2012. Crazy because she left on her mission in march 2013 and had just endured a Utah winter and then she comes down here in April where winter is just starting. Yeah I feel kind of bad for her, also her and the other comp. in our house has never had to wear garments in the summer yet so they are all dying.  It is pretty funny!!  But I am trying to feel sympathy for them, but it is hard when VA was like 10 times worse. haha I love them!  Although the one hard part is that they don’t have AC or heating down here, so whatever it is outside is about what it is in our house!  So I have been a little lucky to not be super homesick about Christmas because it is so hot here!  Also it helps that you guys are not having a normal tradition filled Christmas, so I don´t feel left out as much.  Although every day this past week except last night I have had dreams where I have been on random family vacations, once we went to the beach, once we were in Mexico by the CCM and once we were camping.  They are what have made me a little homesick, but last night I didn´t dream about home, but my dream was with one of our other investigators Raquel. It was cool to preach the gospel in my sleep, my Spanish was perfect!!!  Well anyways I can´t wait to talk to you guys!! 2 days!!!

So we had a pretty crazy week this past week as well. My zone and another zone went and sang at a little community of gov. houses for families who lost their houses in the earthquake.  It was a very poor area and is what I expected all of Chile to look like and I guess most of Chile does, but my area that I am in right now is one of the richest areas and that is why it looks so much like America to me. We just sang Christmas Hymns.  It was really great!  Although it was a little far away, so it took up most of our day, which kind of stunk., We had a lot of good plans that night, and the rest of the night was taken up by another singing practice for the Christmas Devo the following day.  Hna. Taylor was in a trio so that is why we had to go.  Then we had the Christmas Devo on Thursday and it was awesome.  It was half of the mission and it was really spiritual but also super super fun!!!  President and Hermana Arrington are hilarious and pretty chill about everything, but at the same time make me want to strive to be a better missionary everyday! Love them!!

1. When I was having a bad day! We went and bought some Ice Cream and some Toddys(like Chips ahoy but better and are like the love of my life)!  Ice Creams made that day all better!! haha

2. Me with our investigator Isabel, and her two daughters Melanie,3, and Anastasia, 3 months old tomorrow.  She is so great and will be getting baptized soon, except the really sad thing this week is that she moved back up to Viña del Mar with her parents which is like 10 hours north of here.  Like I said in my last email she was living with a less active member who has been having a horrible influence on her and he is the only reason she has not been able to get baptized before and so we have been trying to find a place for her to live in our area, but it just has not worked out and she finally had her last straw in living with him, so she told us on Friday and she was gone on Saturday. We were all crying. It was really hard to see her leave but I know it is what is best for her. Plus now she can be baptized and she said she is going to send us pictures!  I just keep thinking what the faces will look like of the missionaries in her new ward when she shows up to church next Sunday with her registro and says she is all ready to be baptized! haha What a miracle for them.

Thanks for the pictures everyone!!

Be thinking of questions! 

Con Amor,

Hermana Corbett

p.s. See Ya in 2!!

Cambios! aka Transfers

12-16-13

Hola Familia y Amigas!!

So it has been probably the hardest week in the field so far.  Yep it has been!  I don´t want to be one of those missionaries who writes home that everything is perfect as a missionary and the mission is the best thing ever and I am happy all the time.  The mission is awesome and I love it, and it is probably the best thing that I have ever done that will help me for the rest of my life, but I would be lying if I said it was great all the time.  They tell us we are not allowed to write about every little detail and all of the sad and bad things that happen here, because we don´t want to make our families worry, which is true.   But I don’t want to overdo it either.  I want to be real when I write home and this week has been hard.

So before I came on the mission I thought that missionary work was going to be hard because it is a hard schedule, you are with a random person not of your choosing who you have to be with and talk with and teach with all day, you find out a lot of things about yourself and have to change them, you are learning a new language, and lastly because you are trying to help people and they are not accepting the greatest message of help that there is.  Well these things all make a mission hard, but at the same time this week I have been thrown some curve balls that I didn´t knew existed and I don´t need to get in to it, but they have tested my faith and but in the end of this week I have come out a stronger person and closer to my Heavenly Father.  I love this gospel so much and I know that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and he only gives us trials so that we can be tested to see that in the end will we chose to rely on him to get through our trial or will we blame it on him.  

So that is it for my sob story, but I want you to all be able to understand a little bit of the weeks that I really go through down here.  And don´t think that there are not so many great times that beat out the bad!

So our investigator Isabel is so ready for baptism, she just needs to find a small apt. to move in to, so that she is not living with her ex boyfriend anymore.  He used to be a member but was excommunicated a long time ago and is coming back to church now, but still she does not feel like he has changed to become a better person is the strides that she has.  She is amazing and such an example to me of truly changing your life around for the Lord.  I think of all those people that really change a lot fo things about themselves to be baptized and join the church which is such a hard thing to do.  Just think if we could all do that as well and continue to make big changes in our lives to make our lives more like the Saviors.  We would all be much better off.  Oh and since I am staying here for another 6 weeks in Talcahuano/Hualpen I will probably get to see her get baptized.   I will get on it pronto to take a picture with her.

So this week also the companionship that we live with had a problem this week, so we got to go to presidents house to help them out. It is the top story of a really nice apt. building that will over look the temple once the temple is built and it is all right next to a large river.  His house is awesome and I am so thankful for President Arrington and his wife Hermana Arrington. They are the best and they just got called in July, so they will be here my whole mission!!!  He also is making Christmas really nice for us.  Oh and as for Christmas, I will probably get to google plus home at around 2:30 my time but that is a really really rough estimate which I think is 12:30eastern time and 10:30 Western time.  But that is my estimate! 

Well the funny story for the week is actually a combination of 2 stories over the past two weeks. (Brooke you are going to enjoy this the most )It is about when I embarrassed myself twice in lunch. (Oh I don’t know if I have told you guys this but we eat a huge lunch here in Chile and then we dont have dinner. Nothing nope nada! we just have a snack usually after we get home and plan at like 11 pm. Oh and our schedule in this mission is 7:30-11:30 it is the best!! Something about 6:30 has always made me more tired!)  Well anyways we were having lunch and all of the 3 sets of missionaries in our ward were at lunch together at a members house and we were almost done and I kind of had zoned, one because we were eating ice cream and two because they were talking in Spanish and I had lost track of the conversation and then all of the sudden I hear the Dad say "Paul Walker"(Brookes favorite actor) in a Chilean accent and I am like "What?""Que?"  All eyes turn to me and I am trying to say something in Spanish to understand if I heard him correctly and I just can’t get anything out and finally they repeat it and tell me that one of my favorites actors ever has died.  I make a sad surprised face and none of the other missionaries had heard of him, so they all just laughed at me that I kind of freaked out over this.  (Okay this sounds stupider in an email than it actually was.  haha) Well anyways at another lunch Ben Affleck came up in the conversation, (Brookes second favorite actor) and the same kind of situation happened except Ben didn’t die.  It was pretty funny and made me really think of you Brooke!

9 days!!!!

Con amor,

Hermana Corbett

Thanks for all your prayers and love and emails.