God loves everyone of His children

Hola Familia!

Well here in Guatemala while I am currently under the Lord's time, the weeks feel like days, and the changes (6 week period of time) feel like weeks! My second change in San Juan Ostuncalco and my first change with Elder Navarro has now came to an end. But I will be here in San Juan and with Elder Navarro for another change, which means that I will be in San Juan for Christmas, woooow!!!

Well can I just say that being a missionary is the best! I don't have to worry about myself at all! It's such a great experience to have the opportunity to only worry and care about other people!

My companion and I have been putting all our work and effort into the Branch San Juan Ostuncalco, and we are seeing a lot of success! We have activated the family Castillo, which is one of the greatest and nicest families that I know. The Castillo family is Amanda, the mom, and her 2 kids Luis and Lucas. Missionaries have tried to get in the house for years, but finally the Lord prepared away for us to meet them.

Luis is 17 years old and is now on the right pathway to getting ready to serve a mission. He even took us to a stake priesthood conference yesterday! We weren't planning on going, but he called us and said, "Hey I want to go to the priesthood session, will you guys come with me?" So we ended up going!

We had a powerful lesson with them last week. We watched the video "Because of Him", which you can find on lds.org. This video shows the love that Jesus Christ has for every one of us. After the video my companion started talking about the video, but a question came into my head from the Spirit and it wouldn't go away. So I asked them, "You can see the love that Jesus Christ has for each one of you, and I know that all of you love Jesus Christ with all of your heart, but what is one thing that you are going to do this week to show your love for Him?" Amanda, the mom, started crying and said this Sunday I'm taking my family to church again! And she showed up! It was so powerful!

Also the Lord gave my companion and I an opportunity to share the gospel in front of a crowd of around 200 people. One of our friends who is a member, had a graduation dinner and invited us to share a little bit about the gospel with all of his guests. It was a very neat experience and a lot of the people were really interested!

Well all I can say, after I have seen all of these miracles and lived and experienced what the prophets in the Book of Mormon experienced sharing the gospel to the Lamanites, is that this church is so true. God loves everyone of His children and especially his brown skin children. I hope that you guys can think of one thing you can do this week to show the love that you have for our Savior, Jesus Christ!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total 1566

Elder Navarro and Elder Corbett

Elder Corbett and Elder Navarro in their soccer gear

Preaching the gospel at the graduation party

Cooking tamales

Elder Corbett with a man from San Martin

A week of protests

hola familia! que tal el nieve?!

This week for the most part we were stuck in our house during the protests. Because of that we got a lot of studying, cooking, and piano playing down. The protesting started on Tuesday and ended on Thursday! They wont be protesting again until next year because the congress is now on vacation. :)

The sister missionaries from our closest area called us and told us that they were walking down the highway to go visit someone. They were walking in the middle of the highway because there wasn't any traffic due to the protesting. But as they were walking, they saw all these Guatemalans running for their lives. Behind the mob were over a hundred policemen with their shields and in trucks, throwing bombs into the crowd. The sisters didn't know what to do so they started running with the protesters to get away!

When they told me this, I was freaking out! I asked them if they went back to their apartment where it was safe and they said they hid and then went to their appointment! They were diligent but crazy! To make sure that they would be safe, I told them that they had to stay in their apartment for the rest of the day! When the protesting finally ended, we went up and got some work done! We are getting more and more people to teach and those that aren't ready yet to accept the gospel, we stop working with them and continue with those that have been prepared! facil!

We are working with one hermana named Blanca. She told us that she had a dream in which an angel lead her to a tree and wanted to show her something important, but then some lady pulled her away. She thinks it's an answer from God that she needs to come unto Him and learn more about Him. We promised her that is was an aswer from God and that we have been called by God to help her learn about Jesus Christ. It was a very spiritual lesson!

Well that's about all that happened this week, other than on Sunday, when a member called us and told us that there was a drunk guy locked in the church! We called the 1st counseler and met at the church. As we looked through the church we found the back doors were open! We talked to some people that were nearby and they said he got locked in and climbed the fence to get out! So many times drunk people walk into the church(who knows why?), but this time President Ordonez was in his office and didn't notice him, so he locked him in the church. That was super funny! Well the church is true! And this is the only true church that has a living prophet on this earth who God speaks to and who guides us! soy Mormon y soy feliz!

Elder Corbett Tortilla Total 1546

Hanging out on the chicken bus

Zone leader conference

Time is going by way too fast

Hola familia!

This week has been a great week. I just feel like time is going by way too fast! I feel like I wake up and then it's already night time and then I'm in bed again! My companion and I have been working really hard this week, and not only by ourselves, but with the members of the branch presidency! We have been making plans to go and find all the inactive members, and plans for working with our investigators, which have been very successful!

This week we brought two new investigators to church, Gildardo and Alvaro. They are both super amazing and really enjoyed their time at church. We also brought two inactive members to church, one named Luis who is 17 years old and awesome and the other named Herman who is in his thirties. They had both been inactive for over 2 years!!! So when the members saw them, they all got excited and there was a different spirit in the church yesterday. It really helped us gain trust with the members and now they all want us to come visit with them so they can also bring more people to church.

We had an attendence at church of 56 which is pretty good for San Juan! Elder Navarro and I have experienced so many miracles! With the zone this month we have been focusing on faith and miracles, and it's so cool to hear all the amazing miracles that the missionaries in the zone have seen too! It just goes to show that this is the Lord's work, and as we become more like Him and as we learn more about Him, He will always help us! That is the secret to missionary work! The church is true!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total 1521

Husking corn

A picture with the quetzales

Lizard

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a church of miracles!

Hola familia!

This week has been a great week for the branch. I think a lot of the members are trying a lot harder and are more excited to help the branch! Also, this week was my last Day of the Dead in Guatemala!

Yesterday we had our first branch counsel meeting. It went really well, we assigned 5 families for the branch presidencies to visit and 10 families for the 2 companionships of missionaries in San Juan to visit. These families are less active or inactive. The members were super excited to go visit them!

On Saturday, the first counselor and the branch president called us and we went out and visited a lot of less active families. It was super helpful! We not only found part member families and families where their kids haven't been baptized yet, but we also got to know the branch president and gain his trust.

Speaking of trust. This week I have been trying super hard to earn the Lord's trust. And this week especially, I have felt the Lord working through me. Like this week we went to contact and reference, and this lady was very rude and didn't want anything. We felt kind of bad and didn't know where to go. Then this picture of a guy in a green sweatshirt in a street that was familiar to me wouldn't leave me head. Knowing which street it was, I decided to go find this guy. As we got walking down this street sure enough we found a guy in a green sweat shirt in a tienda, reading the bible. He was very nice to us and let us teach him, and he wants us to come back!

Also, as we were snacking on some tortas and visiting the less actives who make them on a street side, a huge semi-truck came driving by very slow. There was a pretty good size rock in the road, and a voice came into my head, get out of your chair, get out of your chair. Recognizing that it was the spirit, I followed it. As I got out of my chair the semi-truck's tire drove over the rock and using the weight of the truck as pressure, shot the rock like a cannon into the chair I had been sitting in. The chair completely shattered to pieces! I wasn't even surprised when I saw that happen. After we searched for the rock, and it weighed about 10 pounds!

I'm grateful to belong to the one true church that blesses us with the gift of the Holy Ghost. It helps us find God's elect and it protects us from danger! The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is a church of miracles!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total 1501

Branch Counsel

Elder Corbett with Walter

Wearing Hats with the investigators

Headed up to a village

Flying kites with the zone

Eating at Pizza Hut with Elder Navarro

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