Directed by the spirit

Hola Familia!

This has been a great week of hot work and sweat! On Tuesday morning during the district meeting, the secretaries called. They told me that my companion, Elder Abreu, needed to be in Xela that same day, to make the bus that goes to Guate to the capital to go and sign his visa. So all Tuesday and Wednesday, I was in Xela working with Elder Sanchez and Elder Dotty! I even saw a member from San Juan while I was there, so It was worth it.

Wednesday night we made it back to Huehue. But this week was a great week. Including Elder Dalton and his companion, we brought 15 investigators to church. The bishop got up and announced that we had already met the yearly goal to have the attendance at 150 people. We also have 19 people with baptism dates just in our area. So we are super excited and happy with the work and the trust that the Lord has in us.

On Sunday we saw a little miracle. We have been teaching this young family, Hermano Jorge, his wife Maria and their baby. They are always busy working, but on Sundays they have time for us to teach them. We have been teaching them for the past couple weeks. This Sunday we got to their house and knocked on the door and no one answered. Right before we left, I felt prompted to stick a little card that has a picture of Jesus Christ coming to the Americas under the door. After we left I remembered that we had their phone number so we decided to call them. Jorge answered and told us that they are very busy and that they would no longer have time to listen to us. We were pretty sad, but we continued working. About two hours later we got another call from Jorge telling us that he wanted us to come to his house right away. As we got to the house he told us that when they saw the picture that we had left, that they felt like they had rejected Jesus. We then had a very spiritual lesson with them and invited them to be baptized. They told us that if they received an answer, that they would for sure be baptized. They also told us that they would come to church this Sunday with us. They told us that they want to meet with us more often, and that they could make time for us to visit them on Saturday and Sunday. My companion and I are so grateful for the opportunity we have to be able to be directed by the spirit. I know that this is the Lord's work and that if we are obedient and doing all we can to preach his gospel, He will bring forth these miracles.

Other than that, I will be spending my last week with Elder Dalton. Next Tuesday he will be headed back to Utah. Then after that, It will be my turn.......even though I have mix feelings about that! haha Love you guys!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 2039

Eating Schucos

Bautismo

Hola Familia!

This week has been a great week! We spent most of the week helping Claudia get ready for her baptism. She is very smart and knows the doctrine better than any convert I know, so it wasn't too hard to prepare her.

On Friday we had her baptism, so her husband who lives in the United States could see it before he had to go back. I think that he really likes the church, as he gave us his address so that the missionaries in the states can go teach him. But this baptism was one of the most spiritual baptisms that I have ever been to. There was so much support from people that love Claudia, that they filled the room. At the end, the bishop got up and bore his testimony. He said that he normally doesn't do that, but the spirit was so strong that he had to do it.

Later on Sunday, Claudia was confirmed a member of the church. One of her sons (who reminds me of Spencer) and her nephew came to church. They are the only ones left in the family who aren't members. But now that their mom got baptized they have been really interested, so we are hoping that we can help them to be baptized in May!

Also Elder Abreau and I have been working really hard to find families. It's hard to find complete families here because the husbands always leave their families behind. But this week we found a lot of single moms with 3 or 4 kids that could be baptized. These kind of families always need a little bit of help, but we hope to provide that help so they can be happy and find purpose in this life

Other than that, I only have 2 months left on my mission, which is hard to believe. That just means I need to keep on working harder and harder!! I love being a missionary!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 2013!!!!!!! Wow! I met my goal!!

Bautismo

Elder Corbett and Elder Young #missionary selfie

Elder Dalton and Elder Corbett

Sitting up in the sky

The best things in the world - the gospel and lacrosse

The temperature keeps on getting hotter and hotter

Hola Familia!

The weeks keep getting faster and faster and here in Guatemala the temperature keeps on getting hotter and hotter.

Speaking of the heat, I had the chance this week to do splits with the elders that live in Santa Ana Las Huistas. It's a little town about 15 minutes from Mexico and it's about three-and-half hours from Huehue! Now I can say that I have been on the northern border of Mexico and the southern border haha! But wow, it was so hot! And not just hot, but very humid. We were all sweating the whole day non-stop! Luckily that night they had 5 fans in their house, but it didn't do too much to help. I even took 3 cold showers which has never felt so good before.

We also had the chance to meet Claudia's husband. Claudia told us that she wanted to wait for her husband to go back to the states before she got baptized. But after we invited her husband to go to church with us, he told Claudia that he wanted to see her get baptized before he leaves! We were super excited to hear that because we had been praying to be able to have a baptism this month. I think the Lord heard our prayers! So we have planned the baptism for this Friday at 7:00 p.m.!

Other than that, Elder Abreau and I have been working really hard! We hope to have more baptisms in the coming month! And I have learned that the harder I work at the end of my mission the less trunky I am! I'm so grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary. I've learned so much and am thankful for the opportunity to help others find happiness in this life, and salvation in the life to come!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1996 - almost 2000!!!!

Personal study and the importance of baptism

Hola Familia!

Wow, the weeks keep getting faster and faster and the time I have left gets shorter and shorter!

We really did have a great week this week and it all started when we went and met Claudia. She has been listening to the missionaries for almost a year. Right when she opened the door, she let us in and told us how happy she was that we came to visit her. Before we had the chance to tell her our names, she said you guys are going to be the elders that baptize me! I was like well in that case, I'm Elder Corbett, nice to meet you haha!

Apparently Hermana Claudia has wanted to get baptized for over 6 months, but couldn't pass the baptism interview because she wasn't married to her husband and her husband was in the United States working. So that was a really hard situation for her. But it turns out, that she had been praying and fasting that some how she could be baptized. This week her husband came down to Guatemala just to get married to her, and then he returned back to the states! What a miracle! We are planning her baptism for the 2nd of May!

Also we did splits this week with the elders in Zaculeu and I got the chance to go back and work in Zaculeu! It was awesome. I even went and showed the elders some of my old investigators and they still remembered me. I also got to see some of the members! The cool part was in my personal study in the morning, before we did splits, I read 3 Nephi 7:24 which says, "Now I would have you to remember also, that there were none who were brought unto repentance who were not baptized with water." At that time I didn't know why it grabbed my attention so much, but as we got to an appointment with one of the elder's investigators, he told us about his desire to repent but that he didn't want to get baptized. I then felt prompted to share this scripture with him and he stood there staring at the scripture, reading it over and over again. He then said, you guys are right I need to be baptized. It was a super neat experience! I was very grateful that the Lord trusted in me to help this hermano realize the importance of baptism. We made a date with him for the 25th of this month!

On Sunday we brought two new investigators to church, Mayra and Raquel. We found them contacting our very first day and they have progressed so fast! We have talked a little bit about baptism with them but we plan to make dates with them as well this week! Wish us luck!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1978

Our companionship of four

This has been a great week in Zion

Hola Familia!

This has been a great week in Zion(the name of my new area)! On Tuesday, Elder Mendoza dropped me off at changes and I found out that Elder Dalton was going to be my new companion! We both started the mission in the same zone! That day we hung out in Xela until 2:00 and then we went and picked up our new missionaries. My new companion is Elder Abreu he is from the Domincan Republic!

We have been working hard opening the area Zion and looking for new people to teach. In the past 3 days that we worked, we contacted 61 people! I don't think I've ever contacted that much in 2 weeks haha! It was cool. One day we were contacting and we weren't having any success for about 2 hours, so we decided to pray. I felt a prompting to go contact this house. We knocked on the door and a family opened the door and let us in. They were from Todos Santos but had just moved to Huehue. They told us that over 15 years ago they accepted the missionaries but they let us in and we taught them the restoration. It was really neat to see the Lord answer our prayers.

The highlight of the week was general conference. R.M. does not mean Retired Missionary! I also loved President Erying's first talk on the law of the fast. I think I will now always make sure to pay my fast offerings. Well I hope you all have a great week! I love you guys!

Elder Corbett

My companion Elder Dalton and our kids, Elder Abreu on the left and Elder Sanchez on the right!

Saying goodbye to San Juan

Hola Familia!

Well all has came to an end, as I finished my last week in San Juan. It's always hard to say goodbye to the members and investigators, especially after being in the area for seven-and-a-half months!

On Thursday the assistants called me and told me that I will be training for the last 2 changes of my mission. The dream of every missionary that goes home! I think it will be funny that my "son" will be the one to "kill" me in the mission haha.

Friday we had a trainers meeting in Xela with President Smith. He told us that being a trainer is the most important calling in the mission and that if he could go back and be a missionary again that he would pick to train. I'm really excited to train again. The first time I trained was right after my own training, so I think Elder Perry and I learned together. But now that I actually have some time in the mission, I'm excited to teach a new missionary everything that I know to help him have success on his mission.

Saturday night, one of the counselors from the branch presidency called and told me that I would be giving a talk my last Sunday in San Juan. He said that I could choose the topic. For me that was the hardest part because there were so many things that I wanted to talk about with the branch.

So on Sunday, I gave my talk and I talked about sharing with others the thing that is most important to us, the gospel of Jesus Christ. I based it on the talk that David A. Bednar gave last October. I shared the story of his kids who were playing outside. One got hurt so his brother took him inside and cleaned his cut and put band-aids on his arm. He felt so much better after his brother fixed his arm, that he took the band-aids outside with him and put them on all of the other little kids. Because really if the gospel is something we cherish in our lives, and if it makes us feel good, it should be the first thing we share with those who need our help.

Today a family from Xela invited our whole zone to a country club that is in one of the areas in our zone. It was actually really cool! I got to play ping pong, something that I haven't played for almost 2 years. After that, we played tennis.....wow that was fun! Well tonight I have plans to say goodbye to a couple more special families in San Juan and tomorrow I'm off!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total 1947

Saying goodbye to Hermana Yojana and her family

p Playing ping pong

Tennis on P-Day

A trip to the temple and stake conference

Hola Familia!

Wow, this last week has been a great week! The highlight was definitely going to the temple! I've learned a lot about the temple as I have been studying the Old Testament, and have been reading about the tabernacle that Moses built. I just love so much, the spirit that can be felt inside the temple!

Also, we had stake conference which was super great! It was so neat to see the church full of faithful saints. We had the blessing of bringing 3 of our investigators to the conference that was held in Xela! They all said they had a great time and asked us why the chapel in Xela was bigger than the chapel in San Juan. I told them that if they become members of the church, and if they help their families also become members, that some day they just might see a chapel the same size in San Juan haha!

As you can see by the pictures, we did eat pretty well this week. It felt good to fuel up on some food from the states.

We also went with the youth from the branch to a cool view up on a mountain. We then cooked steak and ended by playing some soccer!

Well I don't have too much time to write! I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder Corbett

Tortilla Total: 1930

Elder Corbett and Elder Mendoza

A trip to the temple with the zone

Eating at Subway

Burger King

Cooking over a fire

A trip up the mountain with the youth from our branch

Tire swing

A view of my area