Letter #19 You Never Know How Far An Invite Can Go

Wow I cant believe I talked to you guys already a week ago! christmas has already come and gone.. sorry it was crazy i gave you the wrong time for you im 6 hours ahead instead of 5. and right before we called it was crazy trying to figure out how to call bc i left my planner at home with the number and sister dias didnt get to talk to her family they didnt answer so we were all stressed out ha but it was good. I will send you a list of things i need at the end of this email. I am so happy for you Windi!!!! congratulations! i wish i could be there to celebrate but you know i love you. Para bens Auslinn too!! tudo mundo there wont be any weddings for me to attend when i get home hah keep me updated. o good news my ipod didnt break i was a stress case for three days! all is well. i was so excited to talk to you guys i forgot to ask what you guys did for x mas after breakfast and stuff.. how long did amber and taylor stay? they dont celebrate x mas here the same way we do. its just another day, they just say feliz natal ha but it was great, ate at a members house and taught a lot of people.I got TRANSFERRED! Sister Dias is leaving today for home she was really nervous and sister Hunsaker is a senior and training a brasiliera.. as for me I am with sister Rueckert she is from west jordan utah, has 9 months in the mission and she just turned senior. we are in Pampulha about 20 min from venda nova. I am excited but also a little bit sad. of course as soon as sister d and h and i start working together, finding people and figuring things out.. its over. We have 5 baptisms! on sunday with people we have been teaching.. im super sad to leave them but i know the elders will take care of them. Cladeu and his three kids and artur who we found in the church by himself. his friend from the north east who is amember told him to visit the church and after we got his address taught him and he accepted. you never know how far an invite can go... well Pampulha is more rich then VN so its harder to find people(humble) to accept. So we got to get to work and find the elects. im excited for this transfer its a new area, new companion, new people. Wierd story this week was with a man named henrique. we found him after our district meeting looking around in the church. we got his address and began teaching him. He was great, had tons of questions and seemed like he knew alot about the church already. he accepted a date for batismo but on sunday someone recognized him and said he is already a member... after much confusion we called the escritorio and they said he was baptized 8 years ago. we confronted him and he said he was in an accident a while back and has problems with his memory. it was really wierd, not sure what his motives were but hey he is a member and i dont know if i believe the accident story but the sisters got transferred so the elders will take care of him.. we have many random stories like this all the time.well this week i studied matthew 26. i recommend reading it its about the savior and the atonement and peter and judas denying him...i felt the spirit so strong studying these last chapters of mathew... also matthew 25:34 is good too. I love you all! Happy new year! I cant believe its already going to be 2011 what.. fique firme
sister corbin

Aubree's Christmas Call 2010

Hi Everyone-

We have a family tradition on Christmas Eve and that is to have a family testimony meeting followed by hot chocolate. We had a special treat, Aubree sent her tesitmony via digital recorder for us to listen to during our meeting. It was great to hear her voice and of course, shed a tear or two.

On Christmas, we received a call from her at 10:10am from Brazil. Our time was limited to 40 minutes but we used every second of that! Other than on-going mosquito bites she's in pretty good spirits. It was a regular day for them, but not too many people to teach. All of us got to talk to her and to feel of her love. She loves Brazil, the people, her calling, and the gospel. Other than missing us during this time her thoughts are focused on serving the Lord.

She loves to learn about the scriptures and study them. It was great to talk to her. I know that the angels tend to her daily. After getting a few minutes each with her we said our good-byes until Mother's Day! WE are so proud of her and feel so blessed as a family for the example she sets for us.

The Savior is good to us and we have so many blessings to be grateful for. I love the spirit of Christmas and hope you can feel it through Aubree's letters. Thanks for all your love and support. She is so grateful for each of you. She wishes all of you a wonderful Christmas and great New Year!

Feliz Natal from Aubree!!!

Letter #18 Feliz Natal - Lizards a Leaping?

Merry Christmas!!! or Feliz Natal!

I cannot believe x mas is already here its crazy! o mom i got your two packages! OMG they were great! well I only opened one because I want to wait for xmas morning to open the other one but yessss oreos how did you know and ranch packet yesssss i will make it next transfer, the shirt was so cute! i needed earings and pens it was perfect thank you thank you! it said it was stamped on nov 9 so I should have gotten them during the christmas conference but they didnt bring them for me. I am so excited to talk to you guys! I only have 40 min not much time at all but i wrote another email explaining everything. o i got our christmas card too.
Well this week has been different.last friday we got a call from the president and he told us to come into the office. we were all so nervous because he didnt tell us why.. We got there and he just helped us out. we spent about 3 hours with him talking, learning figuring out ways to improve. I didnt think it would this hard in a trio. but i am grateful for this learning experience it has truly been a blessing for me. we talked alot about power and authority that we have... I forget this sometimes as a missionary we have authority to preach the gospel we have the power to teach through the spirit and only through the spirit will we find his elect.we can teach all day long but if someone doesnt open their heart it results to nothing. this meeting was something we all needed. i love our president, he is truly inspired and called of our heavenly father to do his work. i love my companions were teaching different and started to work together in different ways and we only have one more week together of course. im excited to find out about transfers but a little nervous too. were getting two new sisters one american one brasiliera.
o my birthday was great.. well it was just another day ha as a missionary but dont worry i bought some ice cream of course i found a kind that looks like and tastes like cookie dough so good! sister hunsaker made me a cake that we ate that night. i recorded it dont worry ha.
funny story for the week. i was saying my prayers about to go to bed i look up in my net and there is a LIZARD in my net looking directly down at me! when i get nervous or scared i talk in english i said o my gosh o my gosh sister dias didnt know what was going on. sister hunsaker came over laughing trying to help me get it out and then it jumped on her haha we all started screaming and running to catch it to throw it outside it was hilarious... how it got into my net idk but it was funny and sister dias thought it was just normal and she wanted to kill it ha. oh we got our shower fixed today i think. no more showers in the bucket yay!
the work is slow right now but were working hard and being obedient. im personally trying to do everything i can to become a better missionary everyday. im loving just observing everything. as a trio i get to have two companions to learn from. i love this scripture in 2 nefi 28:30... i will give unto the children of men line upon line precept upon precept for they shall learn wisdom and those that recieveth i shall give more. i love this promise if we do our part he will do his. and in 32 it says that his arm is stretched out all the day long just waiting for us.. waiting for us to accept so he can bless us. in this time of christmas i cant help but feel the saviors love everywhere i go especially being a missionary. i am his representative.. what a priviledge. i want everyone to know that i have a personal testimony that our savior lives he bled and died for us, for everyone, so that we can one day accept him take his arm and walk with him. i love our heavenly father who sent his beloved son. his plan for us is so simple i love in second nephi, nephi says i write in plainness because my soul delighteth in plainness. well the gospel is simple too in 2 nephi 31: 20-21 its written plain and clear just the way it should be.. press forward with steadfastness in christ having a perfect brightness of hope and a love of god and all men, press forward feasting upon the words of christ and endure to the end. for there is no other way to enter into the kingdom. thats what we all want. THE KINGDOM.. right dad? i love you all with all my heart. i love the work, i love our savior i love this time we have to celebrate his birth and what he has done for us.
keep strong and have a merry christmas for me!
sister aubree lyn corbin


ps i cant wait to talk to you all yay! 40 min is not long enough

(this picture is of an Elder from the Sao Paulo CTM, noticed the matching tie?)

Letter #17 All About Faith - HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUBREE GIRL!!!

THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!! For the Birthday wishes.... wierd that it is my birthday already! All your letters really mean so much to me. thank you.
Im not sure exactly why I never can see pics well sometimes i can. I think the computers here are old and they dont always function. i just barely had to switch computers cause one broke down while i was writing ha.
good news.... our shower broke and i have been showering with water i boil on the stove ha o and our little machine that swishes our clothes around broke too hha so now ill have to wash everything by hand.. yay. ha
Well im glad to hear everything is okay.. i was worried all week that something happened. i told my comps my mom has never missed a week ha. still i have only gotten one package with the watermelon sour patches and the belt one. my elders are going to the mission office this week so ill see if i got anything else. it just takes forever to get anything cause you have to wait for elders to go and get them for you.
Wow this week, well was really hard. a big trial of faith for me and my companions. being in a three sum is a blessing but also can be really hard to teach. so this week we taught a ton of lessons but werent finding anyone. a lot of ups and downs. remember maira the 15 year old jehovahs witness well she accepted on wed. she was so excited and said she never felt the spirit quite like this in her church and i want to have this feeling all the time. we marked a date with her and then went back the next and day and was a completly different person. she wouldnt talk to us and was really rude. she said i respect you guys but dont want to go to church on sunday and i dont want to be baptized. we were all crushed and so confused! someone must of talked to her bc she wasnt acting like herself and the saddest part of all is that she recognized the spirit she wanted to change and then bam satan entered her life. super frusturated this means that her little 8 year sister who wants to get baptized cant bc there is no one old enough to take her to church. the marriage rule here is super annoything everyone lives with each other not married bc you have to wait 3-4 months to get married here so when we teach someone who isnt married and they want to get baptized you have to wait that long to get it approved.
so we started off the week kind of on a low bc of maira but we still taught and tried everything we could. during our planning we worked on how we could be more obedient, what we said in our lessons..tudo. so we can change something. 2 nephi 25:29. we worked on sincere prayer. we werent able to get anyone to church on sunday everyone fell through. our trial of faith was starting to look endless.
then yesterday the lord led us to this street. we taught this women named jonni she said i have been thinking about this church, my friend is a member and i wanted to learn more. i am inbtwn churches right now and im super confused...golden! we taught her and she accepted! we taught a few more lessons on that street and of course it was around 630 and i was starving as usual and i said i need to eat something so we started to walk out of the street and i felt the spirit really strong not to leave and at that exact moment we heard a voice say oi are you missionaries? we said yes and this women told us to teach her.... uh what yes. we walked in and she said do you remember me and i said no i dont think so? she said i saw you on the bus a few weeks ago. i felt bad cause we ride the bus everyday i didnt remember her. she said i wanted to talk to you the spirit was touching my heart but i was embarrased bc of the people on the bus. and she said i saw you on the street right here and i had the same feeling so i yelled to you guys. we taught her the first lesson and i told her that the lord put us in your path two times he wants you to know the truth. she started tearing up and she said i dont have fear of anything i want to follow the lord if this really is his church. the lord really is preparing people to hear this message. as we left i felt humbled that heavenly father led us to this wonderful street and right before we turned the corner a man yelled to us.. are you the missionaries of the church of jesus christ? we said yes and he said i already met with the missionaries... we marked with him and were meeting with him tomorrow.
alma 32; 27 experiment upon my words and excersice a particle of faith, 2 nephi 27;23 i work not among the children of men save it be according to thier faith, 2 nephi 26:13this week for me was all about faith. the lord will put you through trials until you cant handle them anymore and right before your about to give up he blesses you. its the lord time not yours. his way is not always the easiest but its the best for us whethere we like it or not. we just have to trust and have true hope that he will do his part if we do our first. thats how it works thats how the gospel works.
im so grateful to be here. the church is true.
i love you all
sister corbin

Letter #16 The Greatest Work

Familia!
oi! This week was great!It's super hot here right now and rains whenever it wants to ha its wierd its even super hot in the rain. Brazil is great, the fruit here is ridiculously good! i love mangos! i never used to love mangos until now ha they are great and they eat them for dessert. It is wierd for them to eat fruit with your meal.
well this week was great. I want to talk a little bit about this family we are teaching right now. Elismar is the mother, she isnt married and has 6 kids, four live at home and one is in prison for drugs. Maira is her daughter,15 then charli,11, then moira 8, jovanna 4. We have been teaching them off and on for about two weeks because maira is a jehova witness and is really hard to teach sometimes. but she always has the best questions and we know she wants to know more. so last friday we went over there and she wanted to know what this life was about so read alma 34:32 with her. she ´speaks a little bit of english and she asked me to speak in english. when we ask her to go to church with us she always says no. so i said what do you not understand? this is life is not a life of procrastination, we need to prepare now, go to church now... something took over me i wanted to help her so bad but there is a point where you can only do so much until the person has to help themselves. after my companions were happy i was super strict with her because she needs to act or she wont get an answer.
this sunday they all came to church except maira. they all loved it. it was testimony meeting and carlos bore his testimony!!! I was so happy, he is completely changing his life. He still doesnt have a place to live so we cant go visit him but he is truly changing, he even stayed after church to get a bishops interview. after church we went to elismars house and moira(8 years old) wants to get baptized and bore her testimony to us about how much she liked church and about her readings in the book of mormon. i wanted to film it it was so cute.
funny story this week: after pday last week we were knocking doors and this cute grandma answered and he couldnt hear very well so we decided we would just sing her a song. but i didnt think it was a good idea bc she litterally couldnt hear. we basically had to scream the song and sister dias was the only one that could talk to her without laughing. for some reason i got the giggles and couldnt stop laughing. this poor cute little gma we wanted to sing to but she couldnt hear and we couldnt talk to her with out yelling in her ear. it was the first time i couldnt control my laughter in a lesson, we had to leave ha but we gave her a pamphelt and invite anyways.
yesterday we went over to visit maira and help her get answer to her question. she is really confused right now about what church to go to and what is right. she is just really stubborn. more then half way through the lesson i started to bear my testimony about answers to prayers she asked me to talk in english again and it was so much harder then i thought i couldnt speak english. i told her that heavenly father wouldnt answer her prayer unless she has an open heart, he loves you that much he wont tell you unless your willing to act and change your life. i started to tear up a little bit because the spirit was really strong. sister hunsaker helped me and said this is the spirit this is the answer you want. she never felt anything like it and was confused. I think i started to cry because when I speak in english its sincere im not looking for words or how to say something i am speaking from my heart.. i thought this crying thing would go away ha. but i guess thats how i feel the spirit. were still helping her and want her to just open her heart. The sad part is is that moira cant get baptized alone so either the Elismar the mom has to get married or maira has to get baptized with her. we dont want to tell moria it will break her heart but we have to tell her tonight.
scripture for the week last week i talked a little about children matthew 18:1-5. We have to become like little children in order to enter into the kingdom. i have been watching moira only 8 years old want to learn more about this gospel at such a young age. children are so innocent and pure, she actually teaches me more then we teach her when we go to her house. and i love this scrip in 2 nephi 16:8 isiah is talking with the lord and the lord says who shall i send and isiah says send me... i am ready and isiah says for how long shall i go and the lord says in 11 until the work is complete... this work is just beginning, there is so much to do. I am happy here in brazil doing my little part of the greatest work we can be a part of..
até proximo semana
love
Sister Corbin

(This picture is of Aubree's Branch President and downtown Sao Paulo)

Letter #15 She Found Me

Familia!

Oi! Can you believe it is already december!!??? my bday is in less then three weeks! yes mom I got some packages! yay. I got the one with the belts and the bigger package of course i didnt wait until my bday or christmas hah it was great thanks! i will write you another email with details.. Im happy you guys had a good thanksgiving I bought some ice cream for dia das gracas aka thanksgiving. thank you for the recipes too..
well i would like to share some facts about brazil in every email. todays fact is that brazilians no matter where they are or what they are doing love to sing! its hiliarious it doesnt matter if your bad or good they sing anyway . they are also really blunt so it doesnt matter if your fat your fat or if your a bad singer welp you cant sing aha. also i would like to personally thank the sound ordenances in america. our nieghbor had a party the other night until like 6 in the morning. i felt like i was in the room it was so loud. be grateful for this law ha.
So this week was great, lots of random stuff i want to share. soo i love the juice here until the other day when this family forced me to drink this sour punch that was really old it was the first time i wanted to really throw up so far.. o and a saying here that everyone says is gracas a deus= thank g**. and i thought it was like a normal saying because even members say it al the time and i said it one time and i guess its bad and my comps laughed forever so im learning everyday ha what to say and what not to say. later that day we taught this family. it started to get dark and they didnt have a light to see so we taugh tthe whole lesson in the dark. its humbling to see how people live here i just want to help people all the time. the next day i was giving the first vision and this lady said ^oh i know this scripture its in bah blah .. i was so caught of guard i had to start over ha it was funny casue she thought i was quoting this random scrip in the bible. good thing i have two comps to help when we get stuck in awkward situations because once i start laughing i cant stop. were still working with gustavo idk if you remember him he was the one that we randomly went to his house and he was prayig for someone to come help him with his friend, well he is already in the end of alma he is great.
This past sunday was a miracle. we had prob 20 people that said they were going to church so we had to do a division with a member. i went with sister dias and we sprinted all over to get everyone and not one new person came it was really frusturating and we felt a little down. and on top of that we talked to carlos mom this week and she told us he has moved and totally gone down hill and he doesnt have a cell phone for us to get a hold of him so we couldnt bring him to church to get confirmed but we did manage to get nelio to church(a guy we baptized a few weeks ago). so were siting in church and they told nelio to get up and get confirmed and all the sudden i look over carlos touches my shoulder and gives me a thumbs up and walks up to the front to be confirmed! i was sooo happy. he came to church by himself! i dont know what his problems are but he knows where he needs to be. then after sacrament a lady named lu was in church! sister clement and i taught her about two weeks ago. she has been inactive for a long time about a year or longer and she said she wouldnt go to church for another two years bc she doesnt like the bishop.. we tried to help her understand that church is for you not the other people that go. and she came! she found me and gave me the biggest hug ever and said you dont know how much you helped me.. i almost started crying on the spot. she is great!
then we had x mas conference! yay.. i was really nervous but it went great! the lord blessed me so much. i could understand almost everything that was going on. the practices were a little hard with three of us but we managed. sometimes i dont know my place in the trio bc i only have about a month out into the field and my experience is less then everyone elses so i usually bear my testimony in default. and the elder that we were with helped me and said it doesnt matter what you say its the spirit you brought and he said when i bore my testimony it made me want to act and thats your purpose as a missionary so i felt better.and after we all had to stand up and talk about our baptisms of the month of november i was so nervous sister dias said that i spoke perfect and that i didnt have an accent! im trying to work on the language as much as i can. ive realized that when your speaking a second language you basically have to learn humility ha big time... you have to become like a child 3 nephi 11 37-38. you have to have some faith. matthew 13, only the faith of a mustard seed. i litterally take it hour by hour. im finding joy in learning everday something knew i used to get frusturated that i didnt already know a word or didnt know a phrase but now i seek for stuff i dont know.. i have been reading in mathew and related this to the parables that jesus taught. he taught in parables because those that had ears to hear and eyes that are open would see the meaning behind the parables.. those that wanted to know those that humbled themselves like unto children were the true followers of christ. im trying to become like a child and humble myself and follow the perfect example of christ.
well i love you all! brazil is great. the church is true.

sister corbin