Things are starting to look brighter.

On the tour he went on when he saw the ocean

His area that he is in right now

The Lima Temple

At a baptisim - he looks tall

Dear Family and friends, 2/21/11

After a long struggling tough week I think today my body will start feeling better. I can do mission work and I love it to death but I can`t do it sick. I have had the hardest time this week with my sickness but I figured out why I was sick! First listen to all the rules your pres. gives you, I was bad and didn`t listen. I ate some food off the street called salcipapa`s (no se exactemente) pero they are french fries and hot dogs with ketchup and this awesome sauce here called ahi and they are so good. And I tried them for the first time 1 1/2 weeks ago and then it was a couple days later I got sick. So I didn`t think it was those and then I started feeling better around wed. but then thurs. we had an interview in another ward. After, the American Elder loves salcipapas and so he bought us some , and then again a couple days later felt sick and then me and my companion ate them again sat. night because I was feeling better. Yesterday was the worst day of my mission! oh I felt so sick!!! We had stake conference and I just wanted to die. It was such a good meeting and pres. Dorius gave a talk and it was so funny and good. Then I also helped out the choir and played piano for them that went well! After I asked for a blessing and learned another Elder was super sick as well and so we switched companions for the day and me and the other elder slept all day, because I wouldn`t have been able to do 8 citas yesterday. I am feeling a lot better now but through the struggle of it all it has just been a hard week. This week is looking up though.

We have 3 baptisms this sat and have been working hard on all 3. One older woman E. Iquic taught a while ago and taught her everything and didn`t really care. Then just like a month ago after a while of not visiting her, we visited her and she was just super excited about it and has been asisting church and is very excited now. Sometimes people just need time for the Lord to work on them, just don`t forget about them. And we have a 9 year old girl whose father is an inactive member, and then a mom from a part member family whose all her kids are members. So we hope they all go through this week.

It’s crazy I’ve been out for 3 months now and I want to say it went by so fast but I really have just no sense of time. I feel like I’ve been on my mission forever and also feels like I just started, but it’s nice to know I`m making progress and truly learning. It’s crazy how much you teach on your mission lol, my companion has now been out for 11 months and he teaches in his sleep, I woke up twice now to him teaching some of our investigadors and he says there name and everything, it’s so funny! Oh and we lost power for a couple hours one night, I heard like a gunshot sound and I looked out the window and saw a big flash of light and heard a explosion and then all the power went out in our little town. a hermano went and got us candles and it was really cool. That was Tuesday night I think, and then Friday night I woke to a small earthquake, I`ve never felt an earthquake before and it was a little crazy. Like my bed just started shaking and I guess that is pretty common here and people said there were a couple in the CCM but I never felt them.

Besides that this week has been pretty normal I`ll stop eating off the street and I received a package from Emily and a letter from Brandon Howard but I have no idea how it got here with just one forever stamp, that’s fine with me as long as I have it. I`m trying to work hard and bring this light into the lives of the people here in perù!

Amor Siempre,

Elder Corbett

Good attitude, good progress in the work, Bad health

Dear family and friends, 2-14-11

Everything with missionary work is improving. My Spanish is getting better my attitude about everything is getting better and we got 7 investigators to church and are really trying to get a baptismal date with one family that is really amazing. There name is fam. Ortega and we tried to commit them to baptism Sat and the father is already baptized. We hit them hard this visit with knowing the first vision is true because if it’s true then his baptism is invalid and he really thinking hard about it. They are a great family.

Ummm I got to play Volleyball Wed at the stake center while my companion had 3 interviews and that was fun. My health is not doing so hot these past couple days. I don`t know if it’s the food or what but Friday it was really bad and I felt so much better yesterday but today I woke up and my stomach feels so messed up right now. I’m trying my best.

I`m getting along a lot better with my companion, it’s not like we weren`t getting along before but I’m really enjoying the time with him now and it just makes the time go by so much faster. Two years is such a long time I feel like but it’s crazy to think I`ve been out for almost 3 months now. This is my analogy, at first when you start your mission it is like your riding a bus, its comfortable you can talk to a lot of people and you just cruse and learn like crazy but when the time comes to jump off the bus and the bus doesn`t stop to let you off and you jump and fall flat on your face. I don`t know if that’s how it is for people that go to a place they know the language but for those learning a new language that’s how I think it feels and you fall hard. It’s not easy to get up and keep going, you want to just give up but as you get up and start walking you start getting courage and strength and realize you can start running and slowly you get faster and faster. I’m still in the walking stage and I sometimes feel like I`ll never be able to leave this place. But I always have to go back to remember why I`m on a mission and what I`m doing and I feel a lot better. I`m trying my best, I read the book of Mormon in its entirety in the MTC and now I`m reading in the Doctrine and Convantents and its just crazy how many sections in the beginning are mission calls and how many people right after the church was organized were sent on missions. The lord needs missionaries.

I had a day this week where I was senior companion because my comp. is district leader and so he goes on splits with other missionaries and I was so nervous but the day actually went very well and my Spanish on my own is a lot better then I thought. Learning another language is so different then I thought, it’s like everyday it just becomes a little less foreign. I don`t know how to explain it but it’s weird and cool. You just like know what people are talking about but have no idea what words they just used but you know exactly what they are talking about. it’s weird but cool too.

Oh and right now I am in central Lima and we are going to the Zoo today! yay maybe I will finally see those llamas that Peru is famous for. I`ll let you know how it goes. Last week when we went to the playa I actually got to play Frisbee but not Ulitimate. A different zone showed up and this one elder could actually play and throw so we throw it around for a while and that was a lot of fun. Well until next week thanks everyone for everything and I pray for you all as well, take care and love you all,

Elder Corbett

Bible bashing, water balloons and breastfeeding( I add this)

I had another chance to get wet this week but it wasn`t in a font. No baptism this week but while we were on a bus going down the highway I was standing in the aisle because it was super packed but I saw someone on the side of the road. As we passed I saw them throw something and before I could realize what happened a water balloon comes fling in the open window and just soaks everyone in the area. It was quite funny and my companion got a bigger blow then me but I thought it was just hilarious. And also I learned yesterday my companion likes Bible bashing. lol we were at a house, we were done and about to leave when he always likes to ask if they have any questions about anything. This girl that looked about 16 but was really 20 started asking questions about the bible and so my companion starts just simply answering the questions using the bible but it started getting a little back and forth about the bible, no testimony. I had to put a stop to it. I explained that the only reason we are here and know a lot of these answers is because of a prophet and bore my testimony on the restoration and prophets and I wanted to leave it at that but I could tell my companion wanted to keep going as well. My companion is a great teacher but he also teaches in a lot of depth so everything is perfectly clear which is good but a visit can take like 1 ½ hours. I don`t have a lot to say right now but I`m trying my best to work with him. My Spanish has improved sufficiently this week. I`m teaching a lot more and I understand more of what people say too. I can also do a lot more with contacts but still struggle at times when someone talks to me about something not related to religion but I`m slowly picking it up.

And of course I`m super grateful for my penchanista and I try to talk to her as much as I can to learn foods and different talk then just religion but it’s still hard. I can`t wait till it just flows and don`t have to think so much about the language and can teach by feeling more, if you know what I mean.

I ran into some weird situations this week with mothers just breastfeeding their baby in public, its weird and I don`t like it; once someone just started breast feeding their baby in the middle of our lesson. It startled me a lot. lol I`m just thinking please do that when we leave! (I am ROFL, I guess I did not expose him enough to this sort of thing, I thought I had, because we are not a real private reserve type of family. To hear his discomfort around breastfeeding makes me giggle every time I imagine his reaction lol)

We are making some progress with some investigators though and found a couple good investigators this week. Fam. Ortega is just loving the lessons and asking a lot of questions and also Jaime. They both weren`t able to assist the church this week but hopefully next week when they said they would. It’s hard to get people to assist church because everyone works at the beach on Sundays. And we found a new investigator whose father died when she was 15 and has been always a little curious and confused about what happens after death and so we are going to teach lesson 2 really well and that will be real good. This week hasn`t really been easier but it’s been good. Its defiantly hard and sometimes I get frustrated with my companion but I`m trying my best, and it’s a good thing I can actually talk to him a little but I`m defiantly trying my best. I taught one principle to my companion in English and it was so easy and instead of thinking about the words I could think about the principle and it was so different and sometimes I feel like I just went stateside and it would be easier but this is where I was called. (We can do hard things)

So I`ve also gained about 15 pounds sense being on my mission mas o menos. But you don`t have to worry it’s not fat, I`ve been working out every morning doing my abb work out and then a ton of push-ups after and just been filling out a lot more. I have a pretty sweet six pack, i aint going to lie. lol and I can now do 50 push-ups in a row right now. My goal is to do 100 by the end of my mission and I started at only 30 so we will see how it goes and how long my determination lasts but for the past 6 weeks I have been doing the abb work out each day and that only takes like 10 mins. Maybe one transfer I’ll just give up and start getting fat but not yet. Today we are going to the beach to play some soccer and ultimate Frisbee. I’m excited. I’ll get some pictures.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Kate! Enjoy being 17 it was the funnest (most fun)and best age, I think 17 and 18 are the best years. I`m sending a letter home and the memory card tomorrow when we go to puenta piedra because they don`t have anywhere to send things here in ancon. But I hope you have a great birthday and know I’m thinking of you. It’s in my planner! After Kate’s birthday we have a birth next or my birthday, CRAZY!!!

Well love you all and thanks for all your support and know you’re in my prayers and I’m trying my best.

-Elder Corbett

He is doing Well!!

Didn`t take me long to pull out the baptismal clothes. 1-31-11

(Beware I didn't do much editing on this letter and it is fairly long.)

So this week went great but could have gone better in my mind. So we worked hard and I didn`t know how a mission would truly be so I`m just following my companion and I’m slowly learning, along with that I`m noticing things we could do better. It`s hard for me to correct him when I can`t make it better myself because I don`t know Spanish, lol. I`m trying sometimes I just feel so sad because I feel like a crutch not being able to really understand people or answer questions or do contacts. I did a couple contacts by myself and they went horrible because I try my very best but either they don`t understand me or other times they say something back and I don`t know what they said but I`m trying. If you want you could send the gift of tongues in that package of yours, ;-) I`d like that. In reality I have come a long way, and super lucky to be able to adjust while in the CCM down here and I know basic Spanish and I think now I can really start to progress faster it’s just been really hard this week with the Spanish but I haven`t felt like a deer in the headlights because I went through that in the CCM. I can communicate with my companion pretty well and sometimes I`ll get frustrated with myself because you know me I want to understand people and be able to express myself fully. That’s my hardest trial right now, I can`t express myself like I can in English. I hope it will come soon.

Well in good news we had 3 baptisms this Sat. and it was really special, at first we only had 2; a brother and a son to a part member and they all lived together. The two and then the members wife would also listen to the missionaries. I got to teach them a lot about the commandments and it was really cool because they were excited, but originally the wife wasn`t going to get baptized but Thursday when the brother was going to the interview she came too with him and told us she was going to be baptized. The son needed to learn a little more and so his interview was the next day and the wife wanted to be a surprise to her son so Sat. when we had the baptism the son, Josè didn`t know his mom was going to get baptized. It was so cool I got to baptize Josè and his mom. It’s a good thing that last week in the CCM I learned the baptismal prayer in Spanish and then the next thing was just trying to say their names. Names and addresses are so hard for me. Anyway all three got baptized and the member was so excited and it was awesome and they also have one other son that is a member of about 1 1/2 years and so now they are a full member family!

In other news my companion`s name is Elder Iquic and he`s from Guatemala and he`s been out for 10 weeks and we are working hard! Just had to move apartments today which was a pain, I liked our old apartment more, whatever. And I never have to worry about cooking or laundry and stuff I HAVE A PENCHANISTA! So take that mom and dad, never have to cook or do my laundry. And we aren`t allowed to eat with the members anymore, lol I think it’s because too many Norte Americano were getting sick. so hahaha. Ok so am real close to the ocean there is always a breeze here which I love, I think I would die without it. It’s hot here but not as hot as I thought it would be but it is only the beginning of the summer so we will see. My companion is always complaining though and since I worked all summer in the sun and in pants, I think that was hotter because it is a lot more humid in VA. I have seen the ocean only a couple times though and our area doesn't go all the way to the beach, everything is dusty here and hilly. To get anywhere we take a bus and it’s either a sol or half a sol and 3 sols make a dollar. So it’s cheap I don`t know how mail or anything else work yet especially the addresses so if you could somehow find a map of Peru that would be helpful I don`t know areas very well. I`m right near Ancon so you can put a dot on the map, I think that’s still a part of Lima, but I`m not sure. lol Well I`ll keep trying to keep my head high and just send snacks! I want American food and snacks. I ate all the nutella it was good! lol I think I get money from the mission tomorrow for the month for travel and stuff so I`m not pulling it out of my pocket. Ummm for clothes and stuff like that you don`t need to send anything I can get all of that stuff here, if there is something to do with clothing you can do it here.

Well I love you all and thanks for all your encouraging words some days are real hard and its only been a week but I`m trying. I just wish I could express myself more, but that will give me a desire to learn faster and learn as fast as I can. I was going state side English speaking I would be so ready and pumped but it’s a lot harder in Spanish and not being able to understand people. Love you all though and there really isn`t anything I need right now but a package with whatever would be awesome. I also think pouch mail is the way to go, I guess I only get mail once a week anyway and its cheaper for you and gets here safer so I would look in my packet and give people that for letters but It can only be nothing in the envelopes. Oh and tell the Blodgett’s thanks for the Christmas card it got here safe while I was in the CCM. And always Dear Elder`s get here so that’s always an option as well.

Love you all and glad even though the storms are crazy there you’re enjoying your time together and having fun!

Love,

Elder Corbett