"If you labor all your days and bring one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy" D&C 18:15

Monday, August 26, 2013

Huehuetenango

Hola familia!!! This past week has been crazy!!! Tuesday we left the ccm at 6 in the morning to get to Xela! The drive was awesome. We got this huge bus slash motor home with huge windows and we saw a ton of volcanoes on the way! But, the farther we got away from Guatemala City the more and more ghetto it got and it started to scare me haha!

After 4 hours we finally made it to Quetzaltenango! The mission home is in the middle of the city, but it is really nice! President and Sister Bautista are even nicer! We got there and they gave us each our own box of pizza from Pizza Hut, that was great! Then we had interviews to see where we were going! After that our new companions came! My companion is Elder Zambrano, he is from Equador and is the district leader! He is cool. Elder Dickson and Elder Godderidge are with norte companions! The city I'm in is Huehuetenango and the area is called Las Rosas.

After that, we took a nice chicken bus through a canyon for 2 and a half hours and that kind of sucked! But I am starting to get used to them since we take them a lot. It reminds me a lot of the Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland with all the crazy bumps and quick turns! . . . and I take back what I said about drivers in Guatemala City being crazy, the drivers here are terrible! It's hard to walk because there aren't side walks and you have to walk in the street and dodge cars, haha . . . . oh well. Anyways, we got to our house and it is big for a house around here, it has 2 bedrooms, a main room, and a kitchen. It's really dirty so I'm going to have to take your advice and clean it! There is another house behind us and they are the people who we are renting from and they are way nice!

Huehuetenango is crazy, and it's crazy because I'm the only white person here and the rest are Guatemalans. So everyone just stares at me! All the girls call me guapo so I'm fine with that haha, jk! There are mountains and hills everywhere! The houses are so small here. It's so humbling to see how the people live here. Most of the houses have 1 room full of beds and a kitchen and a bathroom! These houses are usually made out of concrete, but some are made out of wood and other stuff. In our house to take a shower, they have this heating stick and you go and put it in a bucket of water for a while and thats how we shower! It's bad! If you want to flush the toilet you have to put a bucket of water in it!!!

One of our investigators lives on top of the mountain in a little shack with her kids. Her name is Oralli. They were the first people I taught and we even helped them take out trees and plant them by their home. I love doing service here. She already wants to be baptized which is great! Our other investigator is named Jose Luis. He is awesome and he wants to be baptized too. His wife is in Mexico, and he wants to wait for her and be baptized together!

The food here is sooooo good! For lunch one of the members always feeds us! It's usually rice and beans with tortillas, which I love! So, I'm fine with that. One of the members even has a tortillaria and we went there, they just kept feeding us tortillas! They even tried teaching me how to make them and it was hard. Lots of missionaries like to keep track of something while they are on their mission. My companion is keeping track of the steps he takes, well I'm going to keep track of how many tortillas I eat! After the first week, I'm at 23! Haha, I know I'm awesome!

Yesterday was my first Sunday and there are 135 people in the ward and only 85 who came, so we have a lot of work to do! They made me get up and talk for 5 minutes and it wasn't bad either!

The animals here are crazy! There are dogs everywhere, and they are awesome. Some people, I swear even have wolves for pets and they just chill on top of their house! One time we were walking through this field and I saw this huge orange snake that had the same body as a rattler, and you know me I wanted to check it out. I started following it, and my companion started running and yelling muerte! muerte! So, I am guessing it is probably a poisonus snake or something. But anyways, it stopped and we stared at each other for a minute and then we each departed on our way. It was awesome! There are also a lot of horses and cows that just walk the street. It's great! I want to buy dog treats and give them to all the dogs I pass! Maybe I will do that!

The only thing that is bad here, besides all the trash everywhere, is that no one but me can speak english and the rest of the people, including my companion, only speak spanish. It's really difficult for me, because I want to understand and speak it, but I just need to be patient and wait and realize that this is only my first week. But other than that I love it here! It was definitely a huge change switching from the ccm to here in a third world country, but it's great, and the best part is that I know I am serving the Lord. I just need to work hard and devote all my time to the Lord!!! And everything will be ok!!! Well I love you guys! It looks like everyone is doing well. It sounds like my rams are scoring more than just a field goal so that's good! Also, I can't wait to here about my Aggies!!! Adios!!!

Elder Corbett

The Elders at the CCM - August 7, 2013

The Hermanas at the CCM - August 7, 2013

The District

Elder Corbett and Elder Dickson

Huehuetenango

Elder Corbett and Elder Zambrano

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Double Big Macs!

hola mi familia!!!

Today is the last day that I will be writing in the ccm! The next time it will be out in Quetzaltenango! I'm not sure if I get to email next week or not, so if you don't hear anything next week that's probably a good thing!

Well last Tuesday, we got to leave the ccm again and that was great! First we went to this way cool chapel and played games, but then after that we went to Walmart and let me just tell you that it was ghetto!!! In the store there weren't any lights, there were just holes in the roof, so when a cloud rolled on over the store was dark haha! But when I was there, I got everything I needed plus more... of course haha me and Elder Dickson even got these pajama pants to make man-pris and I have to say that they are sick!

After the ultimate Walmart experience, we went to the mall and the mall was the nicest place I have ever been to. There were 3 stories and it was seriously better than any other mall I have ever been to. Also since everyone kept telling me that I was gonna get mugged with the watch I brought, I was keeping my eye out for another watch. I came up to this sketchy watch booth and that is where I found my beauty. I got this rose gold Michael Kors watch which the hermanas said is a brand from Paris, and that watch shouldn't have cost only 15 dollars hahaha. It was either stolen or fake, either way it is sick! People now tell me that this watch is going to get stolen too. I am sorry that I have good taste in watches! I might just send it home!

At the mall we went to McDonalds because our teacher said that McDonalds is the best in Guatemala. So we get there, and we ordered double big macs... yes they have double big macs and they were seriously the best thing that I have ever tasted. It was great!

Also I gotta say that my district is awesome! I mean we have our district tie and everything! For the past week the water has been out at the ccm so I've just been thinking that the Lord is preparing me for Quetzaltenango. But anyway, since my district is awesome, we took those huge 5 gallon purified waters that they use for drinking water and took showers with them. One person would stand in the shower next to the person and pour the water on them. Not going to lie, it will definitley be the cleanest shower we will ever take here in Guatemala. Also when the water is working, all my district joins in for singing in the shower. We really yell out those primary songs. Also, we even gave each other district hair cuts and I have to say, I'm pretty good at giving hair cuts. I guess it just runs in the family! When I think of our district, I think of a fraternity haha. Oh well, we only have one week left, right?

Well, It sounds like you guys are doing good! Good luck to dad in the bishopric, good luck to the boys in football, and good luck to you mom with all the boys! haha I love you guys! adios!

Elder Corbett

Elder Corbett with his district in front of the Guatemala City temple

The Elders at the CCM - July 24, 2013

The Hermanas at the CCM - July 24, 2013

Monday, August 5, 2013

This is going to fly by!

Hola familia!!!

I'm so excited because I only have 2 weeks left in the CCM! It's crazy all of my way good friends, who I have now known for a month are leaving! But that is good, because next time it's me leaving! I also can't wait to be the oldest here! Nothing really happened this week and these past 2 weeks have flown by. I honestly can't even remember the past 2 weeks! This week will make my one month mark! It has gone by sooooo fast! It's crazy to think that I have finished up one month and there are only 23 months left! This is going to fly by!

All I have to say is the weather is so unpredictable here... It can go from sunshine to rain to sunshine in like 15 minutes and the clouds fly by as fast as airplanes! Everytime we go anywhere outside of the ccm it rains on us. And I don't even have an umbrella, so ya I've gotten good at running in the rain and dodging huge puddles as I race to get back to the ccm. Good thing I'm going to walmart tomorrow. I actually have a list of things I need like an umbrella! Haha its all good! Also I can't wait....tomorrow we get to go to this huge stake center and play basketball and soccer for a couple of hours. Then they take us to Walmart, but they only let us have a half hour to shop... I'll have to hustle! Then they take us to this huge mall with a food court and I just cant wait for a big burger with an ice cold coke! Also at Walmart I'll probably have to buy at least 20 dollars of candy to last me 2 years sorry... haha!

It was pretty cool yesterday was my first and only fast sunday at the ccm. It was definitely the best day ever, besides p day. We fasted for breakfast and lunch, but that was fine. We woke up and watched 2 movies, not gonna lie, I was out during the 2nd one and then we had free time until 12:30 and that's when church started! It was crazy at the capilla! We got there and they started the testimony meeting and every single hispano raced up to the stand! There were more people on the stand then in the congregation! It was crazy! So I didn't even get the chance to bear my testimony.. oh well! Also, we didn't have to give a lesson in renuion de districto either so you already know it was a good day! After church we had cena and it was a huge piece of chicken with rice....soooo goood!! It didn't fill me up though, good thing you stalked me up on candy! After that we had another movie and then a devotional from the mtc during April of 2012, and it was my guy Elder Ballard giving the devotional! He taught us about using the spirit to teach the investigators, it was really good. The only thing that ruined it was that David Archuletta was there and they made him sing... so annoying all the girls here at the ccm were screaming, yes literally screaming, while he was singing. I made a joke by saying, "Boy I sure hope David waits for me," All the girls turned around and glared at me and all the elders couldn't stop laughing Haha. It was awesome!

I forgot to tell you guys, last week I got a haircut! it was so cool, one of the workers gave them and to clean everything up he used one of those old fashioned straight razors. I thought It was so cool, but it felt so weird! I was pretty nervous that he was just going to cut my head off. And also you guys need to look up the testimony of the Book of Mormon by Elder Holland! It is so good and it definitley brings the spirit with a bang! Well until next week! Sorry that nothing happened this week! te amo ustedes!!! adios!!!

Elder Corbett with his district