Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Letter #49 Spirit was Strong


wow i dont know what to say.... tears started rolling down my face as soon as i read she was in a car accident the last thing as a missionary far away from home wants to hear is a loved one hurt....i cannot believe she rolled four lanes across the freeway! can you say miracle. im so glad that everything is okay i dont know what i would do if it was any worse... but i know the lord knows all things and is always protecting and guiding us. i sit here in tears of gratitude that it wasnt any worse then it was im glad she is okay and she will just have physical therapy. right before this letter i was filled with tears bc i read a letter about jenna having to go into an emergency surgery to take her gall blader out and i read this letter knowing that my sister was in a serious car accident.. you never know what live will throw at you but as we are steadfast in the gospel we know that we can make it through all. wow what a blessing.
im a little bit thrown right now so i dont know where to begin but the blessings are still rolling here in brasil. the lord never stops blessing us. last wed i got your package and ashleys package... it was great! i love packages and thank you mom for the medicine...ironically i got sick thursday and used everything you gave me... it got so bad that i could speak friday or saturday in any of the lessons but i got a priesthood blessings from a member that lives close to us and im doing better.
i just want to share a few experiences that i think all of you will enjoy a blessing of witnessing the lords hand in our lives. so mom the pics that you gave me in the package i cut them up and made special pics of the savior to give to each one of our investigators to be baptized this sunday. we were preparing junio, leo and marisa... but the story is with marisa. thursday i let her pick which picture she wanted of christ, i told her she needed to ´put it in a place that she will always see it perhaps in the bathroom mirror or where she sleeps so when she wakes up she can remember the decision she made to follow christ.. but when she told us that she still wasnt sure about baptism we told her she had to pray... friday we came back and we asked her how her prayer went she all the sudden said im ready i want to get baptized stunned we noticed a change in her but didn tknow wht it was.. she didnt tell details bc we had a member with us that lesson. so saturday she was interviewed and got the chance to talk to her more about her prayer and her sudden change. she said friday morning "i was at the sink and i remembered that i didnt pray so i stopped everything and prayed to heavenly father right then. i asked if this was the right path and that you two were really showing me the right way for not only me but for my family" after her prayer she said she was still just waiting and thinking about what she would do and all the sudden her little two year old son came in with the pic of christ that i gave her and said " mom keep this" in that moment she knew that was her answer because the pic was hidden and her son didnt know where it was. she was grateful for her answer and decided to follow the savior. i was moved to tears knowing that i was able to give her the picture that my mom was inspired to send and it helped her on the right path of our heavenly father.. (thanks mommy).
sunday was a wonderful day although sick i was able to get out of bed early and get all of our investigators to church minus marisa... sacrament passed and we were really worried as to why marrisa hadnt showed up to church. we left the meeting to call her and as we looked out the window we saw her daughter walk up, "sister she came!" we ran down the stairs to help her. she said sorry were later but we made it right... all three were baptized this sunday and was a baptism never to forget the spirit was strong and all of them felt the happiness that comes from remission of our sins...later that night junoio also expressed his gratitude to us for all that we did to help him on the right path. he shared an experience with us that brought comfort knowing we were helping him make the right choices he said,"we just have to have faith and believe we can follow the savior and he will do the rest" he is amazing and always wants to talk about missionary work he has 23 years and is thinking about going on a mission although he has a lot of time before he leaves he wants to prepare.
the lord is blessing us more then i can tell in stories or emails. i cant express the joy i am feeling knowing that i am representative of christ and im on his errand every min and every sec off the day. many missionaries think its a sacrifice to leave for a mission leaving all behind, family, friends, school...marriage... to serve the lord but when your out here you realize you receive many more blessings then if you were to stay at home..
i finished the book of mormon today in portugues.. it was a good feeling to finally finish. the last couple chapters in the book of mormon are all about faith and invites to follow our savior. im learning more and more about faith that god literally cant do anything for you until you have faith. you have to believe that he will bless you and have faith that everything will work out... whether it does or not that is up to the lord but our part is to BELEIVE. believe him and come unto him. the savior taught us how to live, he taught us how to die and he is our savior to our salvation. all he asks is to come unto him a simple invite that all the prophets since adam proclaimed until today. its simple.
im working on my faith everyday... you think it would be easier to have faith but its something we strive to gain as an attribute of chirst little by little everyday..
i love our savior. i know he lives. i know that our heavenly father watches over us and protects us in all moments. we never know when it is our time to leave this earth so we have to act like everyday is our last. im grateful that mandy is okay and that she has this great experience to build her faith and testimony that she is daughter of god worth more then rubies..
i love you all stay strong... with faith
com amor]
sister aubree lyn corbin

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Letter #48 Little Did I Know



WE STAYED!!!!!
shocker we didnt get transfered.... when president didnt call monday i didnt believe it was true so i decided that because he didnt call we would get a call tues that we would train two new sisters and move from our areas so we were waiting all day tues and nothing happened tues nigh, it was oficial we were so excited!!"! we concluded that no new sisters arrived so we got to stay together and finish our work here in venda nova... we have tons of work to do and are so so excited for this sunday! leondardo will finally get baptized... he was supposed to get baptized this past sunday but another thing got inthe way.. we even considered having his baptism 7 in the morning. but everything will work out this time got to have faith... we also have three potentials that are looking firm.. one is junior a 23 year old that is an elect to the max. he stopped coffee before we asked and accepted every commandment with ease. we have another named adriano his story was interesting, really shows how the lord works. so we recieved a few references from a card that the members give out. we went to this persons house and she doesnt remember anything about the reference.. because you have to actually go on the internet and ask for a pamphlet then the missionaries go to your house and teach you, basically. well she didnt accept, so decided to help a less active member that happened to be her nieghbor we were talking with him and his friend adriano passed by i said you want to hear a message about christ he said actually yes... little did i know he was praying and fasting for guideness all week to find the truth... he went to church this last sunday and accepted baptism for this sunday it was truly the work of the lord for us to go to this house to get rejected to find the this less active to invite adriano to hear the message... this is how heavenly father works i love it. we can never be hesitant to open our mouths and invite becasue we never know who is ready to hear. the other potential for this sunday is marisa she is a 26 year old mom with 3 kids no husband and her parents abandoned her... talk about a hard life. i want to cry every time we teach her beacuse she has gone through so much and just wants a happy family that she can trust. the gospel in every case is the only way to go. its the answer to everything. i am so excited to stay here and finish out our work here. it was funny we had a fhe with some members last night and they said you can say that your home is california and venda nova i will pass more then a 1/3 of my mission here and they were all excited too i love this ward and the members i feel like home..
this week i finished the conference talks and few quotes stuck in my mind all week
one is from christofferson that says," though it is difficult to endure, truly we ought to rejoice that god considers us worth the time and trouble to correct"
why do we get offended when someone corrects us its just a chance to become better...
another by nelson, "we live to die and we die to live again, each is born with challenges to overcome and faith to be developed... mortalitly is a period of probation, a time of trial and testing to see if we will do whatever the lord commands us to do".
every time a challenge comes up or a trial it shows us that god is ready to try our faith again only the firm and faithful will make it to the end. we got to prove ourselves, the key to eternal life is not just baptism but is in the perserverence.
and my fav is ballard " the gospel is simple no matter how much we try to make it complicated"
love you all!!! THANK YOU FOR THE EMAILS!!!! i will write because i cant email back.
i am so happy here in brasil i love helping others help themselves the greatest joy is watching the change happen... clediane and the family started personal progress in the young womens program already and are excited to prepare to go to the temple! love it. now we gota go find another family to baptize ha
love,
sister corbin

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Letter #47 Shake Things Off


wow this week was full of blessings litterally.. its weird on the mission i think in sundays.. sundays are game days and all our hard work through out the week is shown on who shows up to church or not. last pday we had the baptism of adilson and president parrella came it was great! we had a lot of people from the ward show up and held a little party for him afterward but his son was baptized too on this day i thought he was going to wait until sunday but he wanted to be baptized with his dad. we didnt stay for the party instead we ran to teach another progressing family. unfortunately they wernt able to come to church this sunday bc the daughter got sick but im excited for them and can see them getting baptized in two weeks..
thursday our shower litterally burned all of the sudden i heard sister dunlop scream sister sister!!! i ran over to see and the shower was on fire and lite a mark on the bathroom wall welp i didnt take a shwoer that morning ha dont worry we got it fixed but im not sure how long it will last until the next fire.
friday we had fhe with cleidiane and her family with the family of adilson it was a blessing to see the progress of all of them. somehow we got on the topic of miralces and the mom said this entire week i havent had any desire to drink.. before we arrived she drank everyday and fought with her husband every night the moment we started teaching she stopped.. the dad needs to stop with cigs and they need to get married but thier kids are amazing. they all participated in fhe and were excited for sunday to get baptized.
saturday there was a party at the church during all our interviews for our baptisms its called festa do junina its where everyone dresses up like a cowboy and square dances its like a ho down i asked pres if we could participate to get references and of course he said no but we were in the church whle the party was outside so we got a good glimpse and participated in the food the members brought to us.
sunday was scheduled to have 4 baptisms three =the brother and sisters of cleidiane and leonardo. i was a little bit more relaxed about these baptisms then i should have been because they seemed so for sure... well satan doesnt have breaks he never stops working against you. i learned this this week that you can never let your gurad down never think anything is solid bc the enemy knows what to do to destroy the kingdom. we showed up with one investigators all our others fell and then we heard that leo couldnt come to church to get baptized bc his boss didnt let him and the mom and dad of cleidiane got in a fight and almost didnt come to church...but fortunately they all came except the dad and all three were baptized and we had 3 confirmations in sacrament meeting. i loved watching the reaction on the kids faces right before they entered the water they were so excited. no wonder children are the kingdom of heaven we need to humble ourselves and become like them. this family is unique and im so happy i met them. graciene who is 15 years old yesterday wrote us a note that said thank you for helping her family know the truth and helping her choose the right to get baptized. i can see them all one day enter the temple and get sealed in the temple for all eternity.. adilson who got baptized wed is already planning on going through the temple a year from now!
right now were trying to help the g ma of cleidiane to get baptized too we switched out her coffee for barley and she didnt notice haha so this is the first step.. the work continues]
so im reading in the conference magazine right now that finally arrived in english and i loved the talk of elder kent f richards on the atonement covers all pain
he said, " our great personal challenge in mortality is to become a saint through the atonement of christ. no pain that we suffer is wasted. it ministers to our education to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, and humility...chirst chose to experience pains and afflictions in order to understand us perhaps we also neet to experience the depths of mortality in order to understand him and our eternal purposes"
i love this quote it all makes sense. he went through everything certainly we have to go through a little bit to know him as well. we are all not immuned to temptation and problems in this life, we all came here to go through trials and to see how we handle them.. im learning more and more everyday to shake things off and keep my head high im far from being near perfect but when trials come i try to think before i act and always be prepared for the enemy to do something unexpected. when were ready for him he cant knock down our sure foundation but we can carry on strong as we try to become saints in these later days.
i cant believe that we will know if were staying or leaving venda nova monday transfers already came and i have no idea what to expect
i love you all
stay strong, stay firm, stay well, legit in the gospel of christ, i know its true bc we need a profit in these later days if its not pres thomas s monson where is he? i love our prophet and the perfect church of our savior]
love
sister aubree corbin

(Aubree loves to say everything is "LEGIT" hence the sign, funny!)

Thursday, July 7, 2011

Letter #46 Blessings Always Come



Happppppy 4th! welp it was a normal day fourth of july except its sister dunlops fav holiday so she wore a red shirt and a blue skirt to celebrate, we bought marshmellows that were sooo expensive, chocolate and cookies to make smores, wow i didnt know i missed a smore until i made one... "now you take the graham and the mallow and then you eat it smalls" ahah i miss sand lot. wow so much to say in this email where to begin... okay i dont really remember what i said in the last email but cleidiane was the girl that went to church last last sundayy with a member we invited her to be baptized and she accpeted the date of july 3. we were working with her this whole week and she is amazing on friday we taught her entire family.. the prob is that her parents are not married bc her mom recieves a fund from her ex husband that died to support her and her kids. we showed them the restoration video and after the video the dad said, Wow i hope one day my whole family can be a part of this church" um hello perfect answer.. we said they can and you all can be together for the eternities.. on saturday cleidiane was interviewed for her baptism and started another fast hoping the blessings would come... but the lunch before fast was horrible. the sister grabbed my plate and started to put food on it but she got distracted and didnt stop sister dunlop started to laugh bc she knew i would have to eat all that was there i started toget a stomach ache just looking at it..most of the time here i dont know what i eat.. and i dont ask bc when i do i cant eat. yesterday i ate liver and didnt know it. they have this dish here called feijão.. its beans with every type of meat you can think of. they love it! i had it about a week ago and i wondered why the meat looked differnt asked sister dunlop after we ate she said it was pigs foot with straight fat with skin off the bone of the pig, it was pink and everything still i almost threw up after she said it ha anyways back to my story oh sunday was a blessing the best sunday ever well this sunday will be the best sunday ever but we woke up early to bring people to church alot of our people fell but had hopes that cliedianes family would come and watch her baptism and another fam we met saturday night. we got to church and we had 15 people there! we still were missing about 8! i was so happy... everyone stayed for cleidianes baptism and her whole family supported her. after lunch we visited her and the fam and the dad said that in his 48 years he never liked any church until now and wanted all his children to be apart of it... we then invited all the kids to be baptized this coming sunday and the youngest girl is so cute she is 12 and said i cant wait to be baptized when can i and can it be soon? she is so cute. sister dunlop and i were so happy that we found this family! they are progressing so much they already want to go to seminary and read the doutrina e convenios.. yesterday cleidiane said she has been thinking alot and said she already decided she wanted to go on a mission! she is only 17! she is legit. this week has been a blessing beyond blessings. tonight we have the baptism of adilson who has been waiting for a year and half to get baptized i invited him also to recieve the aaronic preisthood this sunday so he can baptize his 8 year old son and the three siblings of cleidiane... i love the gospel and how the atonement works. two weeks ago he was waiting for his letter and now he is getting baptized will recieve the holy ghost and the priesthood to baptize not only his son but his friends that have accepted the gospel! they are already planning on getting sealed this time next year in the temple! i want to be there so bad. im so happy i am part of this wonderful change in thier lives. we also have leonardo a twenty year old that is also getting baptized this sunday... i cant wait for this week! i cant tell time anymore the days are flying and im loosing myself in the work. two sundays ago i wondered where the blessings were why we werent having any success after long days of teaching and struggling but i have to remember that the blessings always come but in the time of the lord. the blessings are here and i cant count them all. our purpose in this life is to become like our father and his son and help others along the way... the invite in 3 néfi 27:27 they ask what manner of men ought ye be and he says even as i am... striaght is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life but there be few that find it. im so happy that i am part of this wonderful gospel and that my entire family is sealed togehter for eternity there is no greater gift or joy in this life to know that we have hope and life after this one... fique firme no evangelho, os bençoas vão cair quando nos merecemos mas até eles vem nos precisamos perserverar.. até mais Sister Aubree Lyn Corbin

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Letter #45 Continue in Faith


wow where to begin this week was even crazier then the last... definietly was a hard week but the weeks seem to fly.. so last week we were preparing vinicius to be baptized i told him thurs friday and sat that satan doesnt want him to get baptized will do everything in his power to keep him from going to church sunday.. our other candidates for baptism was herom and leonardo.. herom is a cute grandpa that unfortunately has a huge addiction to alcohol and needs to get treated before he can get baptized but he is still going to church and leonardo decided he wants to get baptized july 10. we got a call from our lider da obra and he said that an area seventy was coming to our ward and the stake pres so we were trying our hardest to get as many peopl to church we had about 14 people to take to church.. welp everything went wrong. went to vinicius house he said he had to help his aunt with some stuff early but he promised he would be at the church at 10 he couldnt say no to his aunt bc he lives there for free and has to do everything she asks.. we went to all the houses and every person left or decided they didnt want to go. we were able to bring one person out of 14 to church.. after the second hour of church passed i started to get nervous bc vinicius didnt show up 11 oclock 12 oclock nothing. i held back the tears as i accpted he asnt coming..after church we had lunch and found a new investigator her name is cleidiane she is 17 and is great! she went to church with angelica and accepted to be baptized this sunday this gave me more hope so we went back to venda nova and went straight to vinicius house he wasnt there so we went to the soccer field wasnt there went to his friends house wasnt there after three hours of hope in having a baptism in the church that night we said a prayer to give us comfort and discernment.. we did our part there was notthing more we could do. monday turned everything around..mom i dont know if you remember but when i was here in venda nova with sister clement and dias, hunsaker we were always teaching a man named adilson.. he killed a man as a security guard ten years ago and had to get permission from the first presidecny to get baptized. him and his wife angelica got married so she could baptized but he has been waiting since march of last year.. i got a call from president parrella that he got authorized to get baptized and that i would be able to be the missionary to do the baptism.. i almost dropped the phone O MY GOSH i said in english to him on the phone. i was so happy we visted this family non stop giving messages of comfort and faith and the day has finally arrived and i get to be apart of it. monday we were near thier house so we decided to go there and wait till adilson got home to tell angelica it was such an exciting moment for them and they cant wait to be sealed in the temple in one year. his baptism is scheduled for next wed so pres parrella can come and participate too...its so funny how in one day you can be so low and the next be so happy.. im so excited to be here in venda nova right now the lord is blessing us non stop. we found another family that needs to get married and get baptized and a few other promising investigators but when the tribulations come you just have to ask what our heavenly father wants us to learn and with vinicius he told me i need to be humble. not everything will work out the way we want it to.. this is fact its life we have to take the bumps as they come and smile im working on this attribute because when you do everything you can and the blessing didnt come you question yourself was there something else i could have done but sometimes the lord gives us challenges just to test us. in acts 14:22 it says continue in faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of god. i love this it says MUCH TRIBULATION eternal life comes with a price, not everyone will make it there bc the weak will give up i want to be counted amongst the elects... im also reading in 3 nefi right now sooo good read 3 nefi 11-14 it just talks about how simple the gospel is if we let it be apart of our lives. the path is there, satan will put his blocks where he may but we know the way to the end.
the gospel is true.the end.
sister
aubree lyn corbin

ps i used the perdometer this week and the most steps we walked was 30,000...how many miles is this? how many steps are in a mile?

pss dont worry that i cant feel my legs because we run everywhere and i fell the other day ahahhahahaha it was hillarious i didnt feel a thing bc my legs get numb but sister dunlop said it was graceful ha thought i would share this with you, you can just imagine how it went...