Saturday, May 10, 2014
.JPG)
2nd week in Sao Filipe
May 5, 2014
This week was tough. With all the partying, a lot of our appointments were falling through and we couldn't find anybody at home to teach and we don't really do a lot of street contacting because it's not as effective as referrals from members so we were going around asking all the members for referrals after giving them lessons and trying to get to know them better. But none of the members were giving us referrals either. Frustrating!
I was alright, kind of just trekking along, a little bit discouraged but still trying to be positive and hopeful and happy. Then on the last official night of the party we ran into this young man on our way home. We stopped to wish him a belated happy birthday because he had just turned 17. But then he started telling us he was leaving the church, giving up on it. We were like what?? When I met this guy he was bearing his testimony to me and telling me he couldn't wait to be able to serve a mission (side note: so many young men and women here are preparing to serve missions. A lot of them even have their calls and things and they are just waiting for their visas to Brazil or for their call dates to arrive and stuff. So great!). But anyways we stopped and talked to him for like 20 minutes (luckily it wasn't 9:30 yet). He told us he was too weak, that he had broken the word of wisdom and law of chastity at parties the last two nights. And he was on his way to the party again. So we tried really hard to convince him to turn around and go home. I showed him Ether 12:27 and told him that we are all weak but the Lord strengthens us. I also showed him Alma 41 where it says that wickedness never was happiness and told him that the party wasn't going to bring him happiness, but keeping the commandments would. I even started crying and bore my testimony but nothing worked. So it was a pretty sad night. I felt like God gave me a glimpse of the sorrow He feels when we blatantly disobey Him and break His commandments. But we can't force anyone to do what is right, just show them the way and hope they feel the Spirit.
Yeah it was a rough week and an especially difficult experience but I'm grateful to have had it because it just strengthens my testimony that this is God's work! And I am working on having faith and hope in God and in the people I am working with and in myself! We had a great district meeting on Saturday and a training about being happy so that was helpful. I'm so happy here. I love working hard and being tired each night because I know I'm giving my all. I love the feeling of having progressing investigators, even if we don't have as many as we'd like. We have one progressing family and they are absolutely the greatest. We taught them about the word of wisdom this week and they are so willing to give up coffee! It's so incredible. They know it's right. And they have the faith to do it. I am SO excited to see them get married and baptized!
Another great feeling was on Sunday when we had 137 people in church. That's right. The week before we only had 70. We almost doubled it! And it wasn't thanks to us at all, it was because of the members. A bunch of the youth went out on Saturday to do what they called a "mini MTC." They really just split into pairs dressed like missionaries and went out visiting less actives and finding new investigators or old investigators to invite to church. And then on Sunday morning they followed up and brought people to church with them. Oh man it was so helpful. I love helping the members feel the joy of missionary work because it really is such a joy and we missionaries really can't do it all on our own. So for those of you who are not on full time missions right now, help the missionaries! Give them referrals. Invite them to teach in your homes. It will bring blessings for everyone ;)
Okay so some random highlights were when I got to see a monkey! I also saw some really cute baby goats who were following me around haha. We said good afternoon to this one lady who crossed herself afterwards it was hilarious. And some people shut their windows and doors and hid inside their house when they saw us approach. We weren't going over to talk to them anyways though. And last but not least we were fasting but then we had been invited to a member and his less active wife's home that night and little did we know they made dinner for us! We felt so bad because they got all sad when we said we couldn't eat with them so we just ended our fast and re started it haha. We thought it was going to be super hard but it actually wasn't AND that night we went to this birthday party (which we weren’t even invited to haha) they loaded us up with pizza and snacks and cake to take home so we rushed home, broke our fast, and feasted while we planned the next day. Yummy!
I love you guys. I am going to try to send pictures now. Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Corbett
1st week in my 1st area
April 28, 2014
What up from Djhar Fogo! That's what they call this island of Fogo in Creole. Not sure why. So speaking of Creole I've been able to pick up a few words here because on this island they speak slower. Bo is you, Nhus is you all, Arriba is up. Cheu is a lot or very. Everything else is still a mystery.
So I've started my mission hitting the ground running. (Does that expression even make sense? I speak English a lot here because my companion and roommate are American but we speak a combination of English and Portuguese so I'm forgetting some things I feel like). Anyways we are working hard. Start the day off at 6:30 am running up and down the hills. Then study study study, make lunch, and then go out in the afternoon/evening and walk up and down the hills trying to find people that are home.
On Monday we had a great family home evening with a bunch of great young men who all bore their testimonies even though a lot of them are inactive. We teach investigators obviously but we also do a lot of teaching to inactives. It seems like everyone we meet and try to contact is like "Oh yeah I'm a baptized member of your church" and they are just inactive. Haha. So we have to save them.
I invited one of our new investigators to be baptized and he said yes so that was a great feeling but the problem is he sells grogo which is a type of alcohol and he doesn't have another job so we had an intense lesson with him and another investigator who also sells grogo and it was a little hard to know what to say but after some silence i just felt inspired to bear my testimony that baptism is the only way to eternal life and that the Lord provides a way to keep His commandments. It was a little better testimony than that but I'm short on time right now because the computer wasn’t working for like 20 minutes and that was the gist of it. The Spirit was strong though. We'll see what they decide to do.
The real highlight of the week though was when I invited one of our investigators to get married and she said yes. Her name is Ineida and she has been together her husband Fausto for like ten years and have 5 kids together but she was totally opposed to getting married to him so they couldn't get baptized. But we taught the gospel and I was persistent in inviting her and bearing my testimony and she changed her mind finally and said yes! I'm so excited. The date is set for May 23rd and May 24th (wedding and baptism, respectively).
In other news we saw a real life Cabo Verdean wedding procession and they were all honking their horns and waving. It was super cute. We ate at two member's houses which is a rarity because we usually cook ourselves.
This week is the Festa de Sao Filipe which is apparently the biggest party in all of Cabo Verde and its right here in my area! There is just all kinds of iniquity going on. Tons of drunk tourists speaking to us in English. I am lulled to sleep by the sweet sounds of club music and gently awakened by the sweet sounds of club music. Literally constant partying. So it's been hard but we'll get through it!
Oh also I have to play piano in sacrament meeting... yikes.
You all take care, have a great week, and keep writing me. …
Sis Corbett
Bem Vindo a Cabo Verde! (First E-mail from mission field)
Cape Verde is more wonderful and more beautiful than you can ever imagine! Only thing is, no one here speaks Portuguese... I am just as lost as I would be if I was in Hong Kong (if not more, because at least there I would have studied Chinese in the MTC and would expect to be hearing it). I definitely didn't learn any Creole in the MTC. Everyone keeps telling me it's super easy and I'll pick it up but so far, nada.
I arrived in Praia on Thursday night, just before midnight Cape Verdean time. My companions and I thought we would have to sleep in the airport because missionaries have to go to bed at 10:30 haha. But sure enough the AP's (assistants to the president) were there waiting for us. They were super nice and took us to our temporary house where five other sisters live, a duo and a trio. It was a little crowded but it was just for that night. The next day we met President and Sister Oliveira and they fed us meatloaf and we had interviews and orientation. It was a good time. One of the Elders here I found out went to SVU at the same time as me... small world. Elder Reid, he got reassigned here after being called to Brasil Florianopolis and serving in California Fresno.
Anyways my first area (where I'm "born" on the mission) is Sao Felipe 1 on the island of Fogo! Everyone has told me this is the best area in the whole mission. I'm so excited to serve here. Also my mom on the mission is Sister Biggs, who was my neighbor at SVU, and who I emailed when I got my call to ask her a bunch of stuff! She's the best, we're going to have so much fun. I only got here this morning because that was the first flight we could get here. This is the same island the volcano is on, and I think I can see it from outside my apartment. Unless that's just a big mountain but I'm pretty sure it's the volcano. And it's active! But the last time it erupted was the year I was born. Maybe this year I'll get lucky and it will erupt again.
So yeah, life here in Cape Verde is so real. It's hot and we sweat all day. But sometimes the water isn't running so we have to take bucket showers. Sometimes the power is out too, like now. We also have to cook all of our own meals for sanitation reasons. I'm about to come out of here a master chef, ma! The best part is all the hills we have to climb here in Sao Felipe. But I absolutely love it. In Praia there was a ton of wind and dirt roads so I would have to walk around with my eyes half-closed but here most of the streets are cobble stone. Que fixe (how cool)!
I love teaching the Gospel here. Everyone is so willing to listen to us we just need to motivate them to keep their commitments so they can find out the truth for themselves. People understand me with my Brazilian accent because they love to watch Globo Recor, Brazilian game shows and tv shows. The other day I was teaching the Restoration and was reciting the first vision in Portuguese for the first time and I messed up so I just told my companion to do it... but then we taught it again and I got it right that time. So that was good.
I love you all! Hope you had a happy Easter and a great week. . . .
Love,
Sister Corbett
Monday, March 31, 2014
Farewell Talk
 |
| Grandma Corbett came hear me speak |
So I invited a lot of people to my farewell talk on Sunday, March 23rd. It was a pretty good turnout, despite the fact that it was at 8:30 a.m. church. But a lot of you did miss it so here's the general gist of it for anyone who cares:
Good morning Brothers and Sisters. I’d like to thank you all so much for being here today and for listening to me speak, even though I’m so young and don’t know very much about anything. I’ve spent most of my life here in Kensington, I’ve grown up here, and I’ve learned a lot from so many of you, so I’m very thankful for this opportunity to now stand here and share with you a little piece of myself just before I embark on this journey that will keep me away for the longest time I’ve ever been away from home. Although I’m grateful to be speaking here, I also feel like the bar has been set pretty high here as far as missionary farewell talks are concerned. Many tears have been shed, laughs have been shared, and even Tupac has been quoted. I decided against quoting Tupac or any other rapper today but hopefully the Spirit will be with me as I speak so you can all feel its warmth and gentle confirmation of the truth of my words.
On the morning of October 6th, 2012, I sat in the lobby of my college dorm with a bunch of my friends, wearing pjs and sharing snacks as we watched the first session of the 182nd General Conference. I remember trying to focus on Thomas S. Monson’s words as I had a million other trivial things going on in my mind, but I quickly tuned in as he mentioned a new temple dedicated in Brazil, my mother’s native country, and then began to speak on missionary work. Words cannot describe the rush of emotion I experienced as The Lord’s prophet announced the missionary age change from nineteen to eighteen for all worthy young men and from twenty-one to nineteen for all worthy young women. Now I’ve been known to tear up watching tons of movies, even kids’ movies like The Fox and the Hound or more recently, Frozen, but usually I can manage to cry fairly noiselessly. Not this time. Just for you to have an idea, as I was preparing this talk I re-watched the address and even then I couldn’t help but let a few tears escape. I can only imagine what all the guys in the room were thinking as all of us girls bawled and hugged each other. This was a big deal for us. I’m talking life-altering. For the next two hours I could hardly pay any attention to the other speakers as my mind drifted to what this announcement could mean for me. As soon as the last prayer was said, I stepped out into the hall to call my parents. I was beyond excited to talk about the news, but my mom was at work and my dad’s response was to ask, “You want to serve a mission?” Was that really so incredulous? Apparently it was, because he remained perplexed. He was also slightly worried about the unanticipated cost—understandably, as $7,000 is no joke. Later, he called back and appeared to be a little more enthusiastic about the idea, but he wanted to know one thing—why? Why did I want to serve a mission? A few months ago, my sweet grandma who is here today caught me off guard when she asked me the same question. Well, I guess I gave my dad a good-enough answer because he’s willing to help pay for my mission, and I don’t really remember exactly what I told my grandma, but I’m sure it was subpar. (At least it wasn’t an answer that took fifteen minutes to give, as this talk is about to be.) To really get to the bottom of it I need to interrupt my story with another story.
Over 2,000 years ago, a young man sat down with his friends to enjoy a meal with them. They ate and talked and afterwards he washed each of their feet. As night fell, one in the company left and the rest the man took on a little evening walk to an orchard. He left all of his friends except three at the entrance and then continued in where he found a spot to kneel down in humble prayer. His friends fell asleep as he prayed and he awoke them but they fell asleep again and again so finally he let them sleep. Later that night, the man was betrayed by one of his friends and arrested. The very next day he was tried, beat, mocked and hung on a cross where he died.
You might all recognize this as the story of the Atonement and crucifixion of Christ. Some of you probably could tell the story in much greater detail, while others might not be very familiar with it at all. So why is this story—the story of the Atonement—relevant to us? What does the word “Atonement” even mean?
To answer the latter I went to the Bible Dictionary, which states, “The word describes the setting ‘at one’ of those who have been estranged, and denotes the reconciliation of man to God. Sin is the cause of the estrangement, and therefore the purpose of atonement is to correct or overcome the consequences of sin.” So the Atonement of Christ restores harmony between us and Our Heavenly Father.
But now why must there even be a reconciliation of man to God? In my personal quest for truth and answers to the basic questions of life and my purpose in this life, what I have come to understand is this: Before the earth was created, we all existed as Spirits and lived with God. In Jeremiah 1:5 the Lord tells us, “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee,” and in Abraham 3:22-25 we read:
“22 Now the Lord had shown unto me, Abraham, the intelligences that were organized before the world was; and among all these there were many of the noble and great ones;
23 And God saw these souls that they were good, and he stood in the midst of them, and he said: These I will make my rulers; for he stood among those that were spirits, and he saw that they were good; and he said unto me: Abraham, thou art one of them; thou wast chosen before thou wast born.
24 And there stood one among them that was like unto God, and he said unto those who were with him: We will go down, for there is space there, and we will take of these materials, and we will make an earth whereon these may dwell;
25 And we will prove them herewith, to see if they will do all things whatsoever the Lord their God shall command them;
Though we have no memory of it, we lived with Our Father in Heaven before this life. Jesus had a plan to create an earth for us to live on, where we could gain a body and be tried and tested so that we could gain experience and learn and choose for ourselves to follow God. A great war ensued because Satan had a different plan that didn’t grant us the same agency but would guarantee that we all return, and he was angry with God for choosing Christ’s plan over his. He and a third of the spirits rebelled against God and Christ’s plan and as a result were not given a body. The fact that each of us are here on the earth with a body means that we already chose God’s plan once before.
So this is where it gets really interesting, but also a little complicated, so bear with me. Adam and Eve were the first of God’s children to come to the earth, placed in the Garden of Eden where they were still in the presence of God. They were completely innocent, and could have lived there forever, because God gave them everything they needed. But he also gave them their agency, along with two commandments: first, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 1:28), and second, “Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17). During their time spent in the garden, they could not progress by experiencing opposition in mortality. They also could not know joy because they did not have sorrow and pain to compare it with. Satan tempted them to eat the forbidden fruit and they chose to do so. But this was all a part of God’s plan. This is where Christ’s Atonement comes in.
1 Nephi 15:34 teaches us that “ there cannot any unclean thing enter into the kingdom of God.” But God is a merciful God, and He would not send us here to the earth knowing that we would sin and become unclean and therefore unfit to be admitted into his presence. However, He is also a just God, so He could not simply forgive us and make us clean without someone paying the price for our sins. Christ was that someone. “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed” (Isaiah 53:4-5).
So now back to my story. I was born and raised attending this church and learning the teachings of the gospel. As a child I feel like I was in a state very similar to that of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden—everything I needed was provided for me by my parents and I accepted all the things I was taught, no questions asked. I did suffer pain, but only the pain of a scraped knee or some other small thing. I did know joy, but only the simple joys of having a chocolate bar all to myself or finding pretend notes from fairies in the roots of trees. When I became a teenager, I started choosing to disobey my parents and go against what I had been taught, kind of like eating the forbidden fruit. At first it tasted good and I was thankful for the freedom I felt I had. But gradually, each choice I made led me further and further away from my earthly parents and from my Heavenly Father, and eventually I was totally lost and confused about what I was doing, who I was, and where I was going. My sins had separated me from my Heavenly Father and from His plan for me. But because Christ served as a mediator and paid the price for my sins, all I had to do was repent of my sins and forsake them, in order to get back onto the right path. This isn’t to say that the repentance process was easy, or painless. Far from it. It hasn’t been easy, it hasn’t been painless, and it’s not over. I’m still human, and so I still succumb to the enticings of the natural man. Repentance is a lifelong process, and I find myself needing to repent every single night before I go to sleep. But repentance is not a terrible thing, it is a gift from God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ. Repentance is the opportunity to have a change of heart and become more like my true self, the person my Father in Heaven knows I can be. And now I know real joy, because I know real sorrow.
Like I said before, I don’t know a lot of things, but I do know a few things that get me through the hardships of life. I know that I am a daughter of God. I know that My Father in Heaven loves me and He sent me here to this earth so that I could learn and grow and be happy and eventually become like Him. I know that He has a plan for me. I know that Jesus Christ atoned for my sins as a part of that plan. I know that Christ suffered and died for me because He loves me, and I know that the only way I can repay Him for his sacrifice is by giving Him everything I have to give.
So, there’s your answer, Dad, Grandma, and everyone else here today. I want to serve a mission because Christ gave His life for me, so the least I can give Him is eighteen months of mine. I say these things, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)