Letter # 23 Meet Me In The Celestial Kingdom

Familia!

This week was another great week! ill start on thursday, i had my first real dream in portugues! i woke up so confused ha. We taught Elbert the commandments and the plan of salvation(investagator we have been teaching-has no family, lives on the street). he is amazing. he doesnt have any money and he spent an extra 2 dollars to get chocolate milk instead of coffee. He really is doing everything he can to change his life. after we taught this guy named christiano he has gone to church a few times bc of his girlfriend he likes to talk in english to us so we also taught him the plan of salvation in english and wow did i turn into dad. i got so excited about everything. i said isnt the plan perfect??!! he started to laugh and he said your only talking like this cause your speaking in english and i said ya maybe but i still have the same desire for you to meet me in the celestial kingdom i want everyone to go there and i started talking in portugues again with out shame and told everyone around us that i wanted them to get baptized so they could live with us there too so that he would believe me ha. when i speak in english i get more excited about sharing the gospel bc im not translating in my head. then on friday elbert had an interiveiw with the elder and after he needed to speak to the president... after the president said he could get baptized!!! we were all so excited. on saturday we marked with elbert but he wasnt there at the time we marked we started to get a little worried bc his baptism is on sunday. we didnt let it get to us and went to work. sister rueckert and i decided that we would use the contact of saying can we use the bathroom to get into peoples houses and then just start teaching haah it worked a few times but other times it was hilarious, one women held the door open the whole time waiting for sis rueckert to finish she wasnt ready to hear the best message of her life. after we left the next door neighbors door was wet and sis r didnt see it she tripped and ran right into it hahaha hilarious she got paint all on her arms and clothes we ran around looking for a house that would really let us use the bathroom.
on sunday we decided to fast that we could find elbert. he wasnt at the park so we couldnt waste anymore time and ran to our other investigators ronald and roberto. they were suprisingly dressed and ready to go. we got to church and were frantically looking for elbert. right before church started he came in with the bishop turns out he came early and the bishop wanted to talk to him. we ran up to him and he was so excited he said today is my second birthday! im starting a new life. i sat down with him and he said sister can i share a scripture with you. he said i read in genesis 12 that god will show us, bless us and make our name great in the sight of god. we started talking about obedience to the lord and he will always bless us and show us the way. he even told me he payed tithing! i dont know how but he was so excited to keep the commandments. i cant even imagine the life he has had wit no family and no support growing up..ps he always asks me about you, mom and says how is your mom like? and i always get a little teary eyed and say she is one of my best friends and he says do you miss her and i say everyday.. but i know im here for a better purpose right now and that is to help you. church was great all the talks were on obedience and elbert loved it. elberts baptism was perfect! even all our investigators stayed including ronald he was especailly beeming. after the baptism elbert came with us to lunch and then we went and taught ronald. i want to talk a little bit about ronald right now. he is seriously another elect the lord handed us. normally you have to remind people when there baptism is or remember joseph smith, elbert nor ronald is like that. they know everything and just want to learn. ronalds problem is that he is a chain smoker easily three packs a day he is down to only 8 cigs on monday and yesterday was only 3 cigs. i was a little firm with him the other day bc i want him to be prepared for his baptism on sunday. yesterday he said i had a huge desire to smoke and i remembered the words you said ; read the book of mormon and you will forget everything; he said it worked! i read didnt understand but i forgot what i was doing and didnt smoke three hours later i realized what happened. he really is exercisng more faith then any other investigator ihave had. he is so excited for his baptism he already invitied everyone. on our way to an acitivy last night his friend came up to us and without saying anything else he went straight into what are you doing this sunday you want to come to my baptism. this church is great ive visited so many in my life and this one is true. so simple and easy he already has a testimony. he said after his baptism he wants to become a missionary i didnt know what to tell him but will work on that when we get there. im so excited for him. the lord is really blessing us and showing us that there really are people out there waiting to hear this message even with the hardships of his cig addiction he is pushing through. If everything goes according to plan ronalds baptism will be this sunday. i couldnt be more excited, the work is moving forward down here in brazil. i leave you with this scripture in enos verse 27. work hard and the lord will bless you with his mansions above... love you all

Sister Corbin (Picture of Sao Paulo)