6 months as a missionary!

This past week I hit my 6 month mark. It is hard to belive I have already been out on my mission for 6 months. It has by far been the best experience of my entire life! I am so grateful I get this opportunity to serve. Realizing it was my 6 month mark and looking back on my mission I felt a little disappointed in myself. I see things I wish I would have done differently and times I wish I had worked harder or done something different. This time is so precious that we have here to do this work and I don't want to waste any of it. 

Yesterday as we were reading the book of Mormon with a recent convert we were reading mosiah chapter 4. I dont know exactly what kind benjamin was saying as he wrote this, but as i read the spirit taught me that even though I don't have all the qualities I see in other missionaries and desire. I need to be satisfied with the qualities and talents and gifts that the Lord has blessed me with. To say that I don't have anything to offer these people would be wrong because the Lord has blessed me in so many ways and I can and will be successful. I shouldn't covet even the different qualities and attributes of others but use what the Lord has blessed me with specifically because that is what these people need right now. They don't need anyone else but I have been called to this area of all people and the Lord will qualify me for this work. 

I love the book of Mormon. And so does this recent convert. Everytime we read it with her tears run down her face and the spirit fills the room. I love being a missionary!

ALSO Sister Jagielski and I get to stay companions for another 6 weeks here in Bourbonnais! We are so happy! I love sister Jagielski! she has taught me so much and we have so much fun together and we work so hard. What more could you ask for? Life is good!

-Sister Corbett 

Daylight savings - it's a killer.

So on Wednesday Juan didn't show up to our lesson and my heart almost broke. And then on Friday we were going to have an English class and almost 20 minutes passed and he wasn't showing up. We stopped by his house and it seemed like maybe he was avoiding us and then my heart actually broke. 

But the he showed up. And we had an amazing English class and had a lot of fun!

And that pretty much describes my week. Life as a missionary is so up and down and you never know what's going to happen next. On sunday a member told us that someone had called the church and asked for information  from Joseph Smith saying that they hadn't been acquainted with the church for a long time but they were a member. So all we had was a name and an address and when we get there we realize we are at a mental hospital. But we find this woman  and we got to talk with her some. She gave us one of the poems she wrote and she told us about her baptism. She said she saw jesus in the water when she got baptised. But it turns out our investigator Sheila who just got baptised works here and we saw her and it was so sweet to see her interact with these people because she loves them so much. Sheila is so Christlike. 

You just never know what's going to happen! But when  you Follow the spirit it is AMAZING to see how God places you exactly where you need to be. I know that this little town of Bourbonnais Illinois is EXACTLY where I need to be right here with Sister Summer Jagielski and president Griffin as my amazing mission president. I love it here. I know that God doesn't do anything just for no reason. He puts people in our lives for a reason so we have the opportunities we need to have learn and grow and come to know our savior. 

I know God answers our prayers. Jesus Christ died for you and his arms are reaching out for you. Joseph Smith saw him and God the Father and he restored the gospel of jesus christ. I know it! 

-Sister Hannah Corbett  

☆ Our apartment building is 801. We had to take a picture because we are back in the 801!

☆We are 100% made in America! Soy es muy gringo. No hablo español. 

☆my reaction  to the 2 inches of snow we got this morning....

every juan needs the gospel

We taught Juan again he actually showed up early to our appointment. And through God's ultimate wisdom and timing there was an elder who had littlerally just gotten home from Peru right as we were about to teach juan. He was able to join us in the lesson and help us teach. The spirit was so strong. It was an amazing experience because I wasn't focused on what was being said or how anything was going because I couldn't. But I could feel the spirit and it was so strong.

(“There is one language … that is common to each missionary—the language of the Spirit. It is not learned from textbooks written by men of letters, nor is it acquired through reading and memorization. The language of the Spirit comes to him who seeks with all his heart to know God and keep His divine commandments. Proficiency in this language permits one to breach barriers, overcome obstacles, and touch the human heart” - President Monson) <- this is so real

We got a text from the member who returned home the next day. He told us Juan read the book of Mormon and prayed about it and he knows it is true!!! I couldn't believe it. You would think reading and praying about the book of Mormon would be the simplest thing but never on my whole mission have I had the opportunity to teach someone so humble that they so eagerly took Moroni's challenge.

He came to church on sunday! We had a translator there and the  we had our own gospel principles class in spanish. He stayed for all 3 hours and then and hour afterwards for the linger longer!

It has been amazing to see the Lord put us and this return missionary and everyone in the ward exactly where they need to be when they need to be there to help juan. 

So sister Jagielski and I are trying our best to learn Spanish so we can somehow communicate with Juan. 

Being a missionary is just the best thing I've ever done ever. I'm so blessed to be here in Illinois and have this opportunity. The church is true!

Pictures

☆ We ended up having to stay the night in our bishop's basement because of the tornado. It didnt touch in bourbonnais but there were some oretty crazy storms. Pray for the people in Ottawa!

☆We volunteer at this assisted living home and they were decluttering and asked if we could take a bunch of stuff to goodwill or salvation army or something and one of the things they were donating was this old painting that looked half finished so sister Jagielski and I found some paint and finished it off! Watch out dad. It looks pretty good.

☆I LOVE ICECREAM 

Hola!

This week was a lot of finding. After Sheila got baptized our Areabook was empty and people were dropping us left and right. So we started the week with a clean slate and we're ready to go Find some new people to teach.Both sister Jagielski and I fasted that we could have the faith to find and we would be able to have someone to teach, and we ended up finding 3 new investigators.

We saw a lot of miracles this week but I wanted to write about one in particular. So we were tracting around this apartment complex and we see a man getting out of his car so we go over to talk with him and he says. "Hablo Español?" And we say no but try our best to communicate with him putting our high school Spanish classes to the test. We were able to communicate with him enough to know when we could come back and teach him a lesson and we left him a pamphlet in spanish.

So on Wednesday we bring our friend Yesina (who is so cute and is probably one of the bravest people I know. She is my age and she moved up here from texas with one of her friends who is going to college here and didn't know any one doesn't have a car and she just shows up to church one day all by her self. She said how she used to be less-active but now she is committed to come to church every week. I love her.) And yesina translates for us!

It was such a powerful lesson! We had to teach really simply so she could catch what we were saying and translate it. But we shared the book of Mormon with Juan and we ask "how did you feel as you were reading?" He smiled and said "bien!" The spirit was so strong in this lesson! After the lesson we talked with yesina and she is so excited and now she wants to go on a mission!

She was talking about how this experience was a transformative experience for her and you can tell! Last week at church she was having a hard time and was pretty home sick and such but this week she was talking to everyone and she just had this light about her!

I am so excited to meet with Juan again! The church is so true and it truly does transform us! Missionary work is the best.

So now we just have to figure out how to speak Spanish so we can communicate with our investigator.

-Hermana Corbett

(no subject)

Hello friends and family!

This week was pretty fantastic! We got a new investigator, Shelia got baptized. And we have been blessed with some amazing weather. All good things!

We also got to have a lesson with Madi! It was really great because we texted her asking if we could come and I guess for the whole time sister Jagielski has been here she has never really responded but this week we texted her and she invited us over for dinner! She even told us that she wants to start having us over about once a week. It was great and it was clear that we were in the right place and the right time last week so we could reach out to her.

Sheila's baptism was beautiful. It is so cool to see the light the gospel has brought into her life. She was so HAPPY after the baptism. None of her family was able to make it but as she was leaving she was telling us about her plans to "work on" her daughter. When she was first found she was telling the sisters how lonely she felt. But now she not only has an amazing ward family but she is on her way to be with her family for eternity. My testimony on the importance of eternal families has grown a lot this week.

We also had dinner with the Navas family this week. Brother Navas is From Guatemala and he made us all try a Serrano pepper. I almost died it was so spicy. I have no idea how brother Navas ate at least 5 during dinner.

Our ward had thier primary program this week and one of the kids we are teaching who is part of this part-member family gave a talk on how he is preparing to be baptised. It was such a sweet talk. I went over to tell him a good job afterwards and he was talking to me about how he wanted to include the scripture we shared with him in our lesson but he forgot his book of mormon. Haha so sweet. We are going to ask them to be baptized on March 11th! (happy birthday dad!)

Well I hope you've all had a great week. I sure did. I've never been happier than I've been since I've been on my mission. I love my mission! I've gained a few pounds but it's worth it. Haha!

Pictures!
-we saw the cutest water tower. And don't miss the man pulling his family in his lawn mower down the street. Gotta love Illinois ❤
-We found Dwight...
-Us and one of Madi's babies! She's pretty adorable.

First week in BEARbonais!

I already love Bourbonnais so much! And Sister Jagielski! This week has just been great with her here. Something cool about Bourbonnais is that it's the summer home of the Chicago Bears! It is a lot more developed here than Freeport and there is a lot less poverty. There is about the same amount of people that come to church every week and I am still in a ward. There is so much potential here though. I am so excited. There are about 2-3 hundred less actives in this area.

I am also blessed because they had been teaching this woman named Shiela and I get to slide in and be here for her baptism this Saturday! We are excited!

Something crazy happened this week though. We were out trying to catch this less-active named Madi. She is only 19 (like us) but she has two babies! We really feel we can help her but she feels judged because we are the same age but living two very different lives. But we really felt we should stop by and see her. So we knocked on her door and she wasn't home. We decided to just knock the whole complex and it was actually really cool because we gave away like 5 Book of Mormons and got some solid return appointments too! We walked down to the first floor when we were done and heard some one over by Madi's door. We walked over there and there was a man just there knocking on her door. We talked with him  and he seemed pretty shady, we'll just leave it at that. Walking away from that I knew that we had just stopped him from breaking into her appartment. Later that night however we got a call from a member saying that Madi's appartment still got broken into and we had to give a police report and such.

So prayers of safety and prayers that we can stay in Bourbonnais together would be great. I LOVE this area and I LOVE sister Jagielski. The blessing from all of this is that we were able to talk to Madi and we had just a really good conversation with her and by the end it was just like talking to a friend. She needs help and we just needed her to know that we are here for her no matter what! Because that's what missionaries do! we are here to do work for the savior to lift the brokenhearted and comfort those who stand in need of comfort.

We will see what miracles this transfer will bring! We have already seen so many this week.

I love you all!
-Sister Corbett

PICTURES
-Judy, Daya, Malichi, and Roshae. I miss them all so much already!
-Amber and I 💕