Flying kites and listening to the Spirit

Hola Familia!

This week Elder Navarro and I have been finding a lot of new investigators which has been great! Of the many we found, Isabel is super positive. She works in a little shop selling shoes. We contacted her and she happily accpeted us. We have been working hard teaching her and we have invited her to be baptized on the 18th of November. Now the real work comes in with the members, as we invite them to invite her to church and activities at her house. If the members will help us, it will for sure be a baptism! She is really nice and I even bought shoes from her. She's getting them handmade for me because they don't make a size big enough! haha!

The weeks go by so fast, I can't even remember them! It's starting to turn into winter here in Guatemala, and so all of the kids have their kites out because of the wind! It's a big thing here. They even make kites that are 2 stories tall! So today for p-day, our zone had a kite flying competition! We went up to this peak on a mountain to where there is a lot of wind and flew kites and enjoyed the view. It was a good p-day.

Other than that, the one thing that I've been focusing on lately is listening and then acting to the promptings of the Spirit. Because if a missionary can do that, wow, he is going to have a lot of success. Plus San Juan is a huge area, and we can't just go up and talk to everyone right?! So when we contact by the Spirit, we contact the people that the Lord has prepared for us. I've noticed the more that I follow the promptings of the Spirit through thoughts that I receive, the more the Lord blesses me with the Spirit! It's great, and we find people who are willing to listen to us! The Church Is True!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1475

Working on a bus

Elder Corbett and Elder Navarro making tacos

Elder Navarro flying his kite

Elder Navarro and Serving Others

Hola Familia!

This week I dropped off Elder Reinhold, and picked up my new companion, named Elder Navarro. He is from Peru and has 19 months in the mission. I have the privilege to train him as a new zone leader! It's cool though, because we already know each other. We both started out in the same area, Las Roas in Huehue! So that's pretty awesome.

We have been working very hard to edify the branch, which means to me, to help everyone develop a love for Christ. Instead of just looking for baptisms, we have also been looking for people who need the gospel, which could be anyone from inactive members to active members.

I would definitely have to call this week a success. We brought two families to church, who have been inactive and having many problems in thier lives. To me that is just as important as baptizing, and I know that the Lord looks at it as the same. And really all that those people needed, was service and someone to remind them of the love that Christ has for each and everyone of us. I always think of the scripture in Mosiah 2:17 "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."

Serving other people, is like hitting 2 birds with 1 stone: First we are helping other people, and second we are helping God. I think we can all apply this in our lives! How easy is it to help a neighbor, or someone in need with something, or even just saying "hi" to them can help a lot!

I know that if we live by this standard, that the people around us will look up to us as examples, and we will be able to bring so many people back to the truth!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total:1453

Elder Corbett and his new companion, Elder Navarro

Sitting in the driver's seat of a chicken bus

Visiting Eden and Saying Goodbye to Elder Reinhold

Hola Familia!

Wow ..... Honestly I can't even remember what we did last week! The weeks just fly by! We spent a lot of time the last few days saying goodbye to a lot of people because Elder Reinhold leaves to go home tomorrow.

All that I do remember this week is that we went with a companionship to a village in our area, called Eden. It's about a 45 minute drive all up hill! We went to a really cool little house, with flowers and animals. The man living there said that he never needs to leave because he has everything! The bad side to it, was that his dad was a pastor of a church and the other elders wanted to baptize his son, who lived in their area. He had a lot of questions, and hard ones, but we just followed the spirit and he was actually really impressed with us. NOT only did he give his son permission to be baptized, but he also wants his son to serve a mission to be able to preach the gospel. It was a really neat experience, and that's what it means when it says this in D & C 68:4 "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation." This is definitely one of my favorite scriptures. We have the promise and blessing that if we are obedient, the Lord will help us share the gospel! It's so simple!

Among the people living in this village, we ran into an Amish colony. It was really neat to see other gringos. They even have a bakery and they sell amazing cookies and donuts. I keep seeing them, so I always try to talk to them. Maybe one day they will invite me to their farm, and teach me how to make their cookies!!!

Other than that, I go tomorrow to Xela to pick up my new companion! Wish me luck! Love you guys!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1437

A party for Elder Reinhold

Saying goodbye to Elder Reinhold

Eden

Laguna Chikabal and general conference

Hola Familila!

Today for p-day we got to go to the Laguna Chikabal, which is a lake that is located at the very top of a volcano. We took the whole zone with us. It was super fun and beautiful. Other than that, we were very busy this week inviting everyone to general conference.

This was the third session of general conference on my mission! Every time it gets better and better. Saturday we went down to Xela to watch all the sessions in english. This meant we got to go to Burger King for breakfast, McDonlads for lunch,(add one to the big mac count) and then a nice restauraunt for dinner. But wow, the talks were so powerful! I decided to take notes this time and it made the sessions fly by!

Sunday was the day to try and take everyone from the branch in San Juan to a branch in San Mateo to watch general conference. The president got us a bus, but we were in charge of getting everyone on the bus. To help encourage them to stay for both sessions, Elder Reinhold and I made sack lunches, which included a sandwich, juice box, bannana, and some cookies. It definitely helped the branch stay, and as we started the second session we had more people than the other branch!

Wow, was it just me, or were the talks amazing! I liked all of them, but especially Elder David Bednar's talk to the non-members. I think I might just print out a copy of his talks and hand them out to our new investigators and say, "If you guys accept us to come and teach you, this is what you should be expecting haha!" Conference always reminds me of one of my favorite scriptures in the the book of Amos which says, "Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth His secret unto his servants the prophets." One of the best ways to receive revelation and help from the Lord is through His prophets. There were many talks that even explained the importance of the prophets and their roles. They have the keys to guide the church and receive revelation for the church as a whole. So when we listen to them, really we are listening to Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. I know that the prophets are true servants of God, and that they have all the keys that have been given in this dispensation, and if we listen to them and apply their teachings we will find peace and happiness from all the problems that exist in the world today.

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1413

A trip to the lake

Laguna Chicabal

Elder Corbett at Laguna Chicabal

Tadpoles

The missionaries from San Juan and San Mateo

A picnic between conference sessions

Elder Corbett with a future missionary

This work is the most important thing we can be doing!

Hola Familia!

This week has gone by super fast, probably because there wasn't any protesting! This week we had a muli-zone meeting with the zones in Xela. Even the old Xela Central zone was there so it was great getting to see all of them! The talks in the multi-zone meeting helped to express a lot about President Smith's vision, which I think will really help the mission. President Smith has a vision of taking our converts to the temple and not just baptizing them, so he has prepared plans to help us complete his vision.

One of San Juan's members passed away this week. Solidad was her name. We went and gave her a blessing and we could feel that she was just days from passing away. It was definitely hard on the ward but happy for her because she was suffering. We were actually in charge of a lot of the funeral, so it filled up much of our week. It was very interesting to experience the culture of a funeral here. First they have the casket at the house and everyone meets there. Then they walk with the casket to the church and have a little meeting. After that, they walk the casket to the cemetary and put it in the tomb. Then they have a little lunch.

It was definitely a great chance to share the gospel with the friends and families of Hermana Solidad. We actually took 2 packages of the plan of salvation pamphlets. At first they weren't really interested, but one person took one and showed the rest, and then all of them came and asked us for them and we ran out!!!

We also met a man named Alvero who is 35 and has spent almost his whole life in the United States. He was at the funeral because his parents told him that she was his great aunt. He didn't even know her. We got talking to him, and found out that he has been prepared by the Lord to hear the gospel! First of all he has seen the mormon movie Charlie and other missionary movies haha! Second, he has friends from the states who are members. Third, he has a ton of questions! We have an appointment with him and his family this week! :)

Other than that, we confirmed an investigator that was baptized like 2 months ago, so that was good! All I can say is that when we are focused on this work the time flies! Really this work is the most important thing we can be doing! And there is no one or no power that can stop this work! #GODSARMY

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total 1391

Elder Corbett and Elder Corbett!!

Elder Etcheto and Elder Corbett

Family picture

Protests and Potatoes

Hola Familia!

This week has actually been pretty interesting! It all started with a country wide protest that hit especially hard in San Juan. All the people here are farmers and are very angry that the government wants to change their corn seed. I just told them that they live in the promise land, and that you can grow everything here. But the people don't have the kind of faith to believe me haha!

The protesters made our trip to the multi-zone conference impossible, by blocking all of the major highways with flaming tires! Hmmmm........interesting! They protested Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday and told all of the stores to close or they would burn them. So the spirit definitely told us not to go out during those days. (Which was good because we heard some pretty crazy stories that I probably shouldn't share haha!)

So after being bored in the house all day and studying, until we couldn't even think anymore, we got to go out and work! But not by preaching the gospel, but by working on a potato farm.

Now you can see by the pictures, that the people farm up in the mountains, so the fields are on hills!!! The only tools they used are hoes and machetes. We had to kill all of the weeds that were overtaking the soil and turn over the soil! Wow, I wish I had a tiller to do the work! It was fun though, they even told us if we went to help them that they would have time to come to church on Sunday so it was sooooo worth it!

Other than that, we walked around in corn fields to try and find references that the members gave us! Apparently, the protesters didn't get an answer from the government, so they are going to start protesting again tomorrow! Yeah.... NOT! But we went and got a ton of food to pig out on so we will be fine! :)

The Church is True... Always!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1375

The potato field

Working hard in the potato field

Finishing up

Huipil

Hats

Flowers

Zone Conference

Hola Familia!

This week has been a crazy fast week! It all started with Tuesday when we had a leader counsel meeting with the president and other leaders from Xela. We learned a lot of things to help our zones.

Then on Thursday we got to go to the temple!! It is always a great highlight and spiritual experience. After that, we went to a nearby chapel and ate lunch with the president and his wife. Then we had a zone conference! I gave a talk about setting goals and making plans to achieve these goals. We all know that we want to baptize and find new investigators, but if we dont have plans to do it, it will never get done. We have a lot of new missionaries in the zone so we need to teach more simple things like that, but I think it really helps them! Then my companion gave a talk about following the spirit and serving the Lord, and our mission president gave a cool talk about the temple. It went well!

On Saturday and Sunday we had to stay in the house because of all the partying for their independence day which is on the 15th of September (today). Just walking around San Juan today, we have seen so many drunk people. I couldn't even judge if there were more dogs sleeping on the side of the streets or drunk people!

Sunday was my first time going to church with the branch. There were 42 people that showed up! We taught sunday school and priesthood haha! It was fun. There is a lot of work to be done in the branch, but I can see so much potential there! We plan on making a calender of activities and even doctrine classes, or how to be a member of the church classes to help activate and excite the members! We think that the branch needs to have more unity to be more successful! I'm super excited for the chance I have to help the Lord with this little branch! I love San Juan!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total 1364

Elder Corbett and Elder Taque

Getting together with part of the zone