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)

Letter #22 Take No Thought For Tomorrow

todo mundo!wow this week has been full of blessings i dont even know where to start. I want to talk about three of our investigators right now. on friday we met elbert. his story is really sad but you would never know it about him because he is so positive. we actually met him through his friend its funny how the lord works, you start teaching someone to actual find someone else. elbert is 20 years old, he lives on the street and has no family. only a couple days old his mother left him in a shoe box with his birth certificate on the side of the road in venda nova where i was serving a month ago. he grew up in an orphanage and now has no where to go. but he is really smart he speaks in analogys and knows more about the scrips then the average person everytime we teach him i learn something from him. we first started teaching him bc we gave him food with a little sticker on it that said vinde a mim follow me and he wanted to learn more. we invited him to church and when we taught him about joseph smith he said he wanted to do that to find out if the book of mormon was true such an elect. Then on saturday we finally got ahold of this family that we are teaching. The fathers name is emerson he lived in the US for four years and speaks really good english. the first time we just taught him the first lesson and finally got hold of him and his family this past saturay. we showed them the restoration video and after he said hmmm.. his expression on his face never changed. we started talking about the bom and he said normally i wouldnt believe this but i want to share an experience i had this week when i prayed about your guys message. he said on thursday he prayed and decided to read the bible to get his answer and he just opened it up randomly and it fell in daniel 10 and he read verse 10 that says ; daniel understand the words that i speak unto thee: he thought hmm ill read the whole chapter and he shared with us verse 1 that says the thing was true and he understood the thing and in verse 21 it says i will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth. he started to explain that his answer was clear and that he always gets his answers through the scriptures... well me being so ready to explain i didnt fully listen to his story and didnt understand all the words in daniel in portugues so i started talking about the famiine in amos and how there needs to be a restoration before i could go any further sister rueckert stepped in and said im glad you know its true.. with a confused face i looked at sister r and she started to smile. i was so ready to hear the answer no that i wasnt ready to hear a blessing of the answer yes i know its true. later after the lesson we started laughing about it. the next day was sunday and only emerson came to church kind of sad but next week the whole family will come to church... as we were sitting in church we looked back and saw elbert! he came! we were so happy. monday was more miracles. we had our first interviews at 1230 witht the president so we need to find elbert somewhere in the park so we could mark with him for that night. we went early and he was no where right as we were about to give up i saw his backpack walking towards us we marked with and taught him that night. we taught him the book of mormon and all he did was ask questions to learn more. he is so great, he says it all makes sense. i told him i liked to read the bible and the bom together and he said how show me i want to know. such an elect. then that night we found another man named ronald. he is 50 years old and is chain smoker. we taught him the first lesson and without question said com certeza(for sure). the next lesson with ronald we started talking about the book of mormon at the end i asked him if he would read and pray about the book of mormon and ask god if it was true he looked me dead and the eye and said no... in shock i didnt know what to do with a smirk on his face he said look i dont pray to god to see if the bible is true i already know he said im not gonna pray to god to know if this book is true bc i already know it is as we started talking and laughing bc i said ive never gotten that response before he said i cant deny it its the spirit we looked down and he had goosebumps on his arms on a hot day. this week has been full of blessings. right now we are truly teaching people that want to learn and want to change thier lives. last night was a little test of our faith we couldnt find elbert anywhere so we got up early this morning and even studied in the park so we could maybe run into him. right as were about to give up (always seems to be right before we want to give up) the lord throws a person in front of us that wants to know about the bom we give them a quick first lesson and right as were done we look up and elbert is waving at us.. we ran over to him and he said he was sorry about the other night but that someone gave him a place to stay.. its hard teaching someone with no address or no cell phone. he could easily leave but he always comes back. what a blessing... the lord keeps blessing us and today we had to run to the center really fast to get a package and we were starving and didnt have time to run home and eat and one of our friends that works at a sandwich place told us to come eat for free this week i studied alot in D and C 84 especially79-88. 81 says take no thought for the morrow,for what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink for your father knoweth you have need of these things let the morrow take thought for itself... so true oh and the other day when we were out of money to take a bus home with all our packages in our hand a random man came up to us and gave us a five so we could go home dont know who this man was or where he came from but this scripture kept coming into my head. i know that angels are all around us everyday and that heavenly father loves all of his children. this week has been full of miracles and i cant wait to see what happens next! the church is true. i love you all- sister corbin

ps random things that happened this week: did i already mention that brazil doesnt believe in shirts.. a member handed me sunscreen when i asked for something for my bug bite ha oh and blake i understand why you dont like spagetthi anymore i dont think i will anymore either... i had it 4 out of the 5 lunches this week and i might throw up the next time some one makes me noodles. o and creepy this man on a motor cycle stopped infront of us and asked if i had a boyfriend we started walking faster he went away and ten min later he came back and asked if i would marry him good thing we were close to where we were going... got to watch out here o and blake they hiss here too ha its kind of funny. o and got to ride in a cop car this week dont worry it was only a ride but i wonder what people thought when they saw two american girl missionaries get out of a cop car. love you all - fun facts from brasil

Letter #21 I Know I'm Planting Seeds

Oi!!!nossa another week already... I feel like this transfer is going by really fast. im still waiting for everyones packages and stuff. im going to the mission office either this week or next week so ill keep everyone posted!! wow where do I begin. This week has been different. i dont know how to put it but a change in my mission. these past two months have been really hard. we havent had a baptism in a while and our hopes were a little down this week. last week i hit this point where i didnt know if heavenly father was going to bless us.. for about a min i doubted that all this hard work was for nothing. the mission is hard because you put in all this love and effort for people you hardly know because you want what is best for them and then nothing happens. i sat wondering if what i was doing was even helping... only having a couple months out on the mission im still learning everyday and sister rueckert only has 9 months and is really nervous to be senior. I have had to step it up these past couple weeks and help out. it doesnt help that sister r gets lost everywhere ha so i help with directions alot. i started questioning everything. as a missionary i have alot of goals maybe too many goals, i want to do everything i can to be a good missionary and as i thought about these things i looked down at my planner and sister hunsaker (my last comp) wrote a quote for me` as disciples of our savior, we are not merely striving to know more, rather we need to consistantly do more of what we know is right and become better´. i thought, im missing the most important step.. applying the gospel in my life as a missionary and becoming better. Being here your on your own its your faith its your testimony, no one knows your past your life or your family. Its you and the lord along with your companion. how could i be so selfish.. i chose to be here and i know im planting seeds. at that very moment i chose to have faith. more faith then i have ever had. i chose to be happy no matter what. the last couple transfers i feared to have faith that the lord would just bless us but thats the beauty of the gospel he will bless us if we do our part. its so simple its so much easier to have faith than to not. these past couple days i have been teaching different, looking at everyone as a child of god and truly trying to have faith and knowing that the lord will bless us. i have no doubt he will. i hope this all makes sense. but i am so happy to be serving the lord and doing his work. i think i had to doubt for one minute to realize that there is no room for doubt when you have faith. i read d and c 6 this week that was amazing especially the end. 33-37. fear not to do good for if ye are built upon my rock they cannot prevail. look unto me in every thought doubt not fear not be FAITHFUL and keep my commandments and ye will inherit the kingdom. i love the part built upon my rock... if you choose to have a firm foundation nothing can tear you down not a door in your face or a lost investigator your testimony is your own... also doubt cannot be with faith so i chose to have faith bc the promise of the kingdom is what i want and i know the people of brazil want it too. i love it so simple.. its the kingdom! i love you all! Have faith, never doubt and let the lord bless..love,sister corbin

Letter #20 Take A Hold Of This New Year and Run With It...

Can you believe its 2011? Im excited for this year. This time next year I will be in my last transfer It is wierd to think about. So i want to `kill it´ as blake would say this year... and YES we drink tons of guarana ha ha. They always give it to you for lunch for special occasions and when the missionaries are over its always special but all i really want is juice ha. Yay im excited for the next package! and excited for windis wedding coming up i saw their picture so cute! Oh and I made a dvd of all the pics of these two transfers so im sending you my chip today so you can erase it all when you send it back. Well, im loving pampulha, even though its only 15 min from venda nova its so different. They actually have a super market! and a subway with a mcdonalds icecream place dont worry already had an ice cream from there today ha ha. Being a little more rich its harder to get into peoples houses. This sister before with sister rueckert, sister ward, when she first saw me she said good luck. Lately pampulha hasnt had many baptisms and the work has been slow. But i promised myself that i would never listen to anyone when they say an area is bad or slow because its all about the work. The first day together with sister rueckert, i started clapping at a door and she said wait how are we going to teach? and i said with the spirit ha. and thats how its been this past week. I love being with her, we feed off one another and she loves it when im bold with people. only problem is that were both american so some people comment on our accent and decide not to listen. but we know that the elects will listen.I love the ward, the members are great and are excited to help. we want to use them in anyway that we can. we started working this week in an area more poor. we found teresina there, during the lesson she touched her arm and was like ´nossa´ what is that... we told her it was the spirit. she was way happy and couldnt wait for us to come back. right after it started to down pour. we were in this little dirt road and it turned into a flood. we were walking in water up to our knees almost fell a few times ha but we made it out. its been super rainy this week it wont stop but its a good break from the sun! speaking of rivers funny story for the week. we were teaching a lady that has already been with the elders a few years ago. she excepted to be baptized but only in a river bc jesus was baptized in a river so we said if we find you a river will you be baptized she thought about it for a while then said no.. ha people will say anything else rather then just say no. they are too nice here they dont know what to do when you ask them to be baptized ha. Im loving it here in brazil im really excited for this transfer its going to be a good one, new year, new companion, more baptisms. I have been reading in jacob and in 4:13 it says that the spirit will testify of all things for the salvation of our souls and in 6-7 we have to be able to rely on the lord through our weaknesses so we can grow. I love you all, have faith, never waver from the gospel for it is the only path to take us back. take ahold of this new year and run with it.até mais

sister corbin

(In the picture above, this is all the sisters heading out into all parts of Brasil in the Sao Paulo CTM. Aubree's saying goodbye to everyone, hence the tears. A farewell photo...)

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?)