thanks

This week was thanksgiving. So I have been thinking a lot about gratitude and being thankful. I honestly believe that being thankful is and grateful for what you DO have can change your life. Here are a few things that I was thankful for this week.

NUMERO 1

On tuesday we had a lesson with a less active man and these members came with us and gave us cookies afterward. THESE COOKIES. They were so good. I didn't know how good they would be but I took a bite and just got so happy. They tasted just like Mel's homemade chocolate chip cookies. I bet she used the exact. same. recipe. 

#2 

God just loves me so much and even though I wasn't home for thanksgiving and didn't have the usual food that mom makes he still blessed me with some super delicious food. Sister Madsen got a package and it was super random but her mom sent her sausage and cheese. This may have even been better than the cookies. And we ate it on thanksgiving and I literally cried. It was weird. But God is showing you his love in the smallest simplest ways everyday and I just felt his love for me. We just need to slow down and be thankful.

#3

On a little bit of a more spiritual note I am thankful for the Book of Mormon. There is so much power in this book. It changes lives because it brings the spirit so strongly and will tell you exactly what your next step should be. I love the book of mormon so much. On Saturday we went and read the book of mormon with our investigators Steve and Megan (yes they got back together...). But as we were reading 2Nephi 31 Megan just started to cry. We asked her what was up and she just said it was very touching. It was the coolest thing because she didn't even understand what was being said or what she was reading but she could feel the spirit. Read the book of mormon. just do it. I promise the time you spend reading will make such a huge difference in your attitude and your outlook on life. 

#4

I am grateful to be in such a good ward. Megan and Steve and their autistic daughter came to church yesterday. EVERYONE was so welcoming. This ward truly is a ward FAMILY. Everyone is SO different and a little bit crazy in their own way but they are united through the gospel and welcome anyone into this crazy family that wants to come. It's a small ward and probably half the active members are over 60. But I love them. They should seriously make a movie about the Freeport ward. Everyone is hilarious. (ex:next week we eat with the Jefferey's but not on Sunday because they eat jell-o and popcorn every Sundaybecause they're 80 and they gotta live their life while their young)

#5

I am greatful for the stars. We got out of the car and spent like 5 min just staring and the sky. there is SO MUCH sky here. you can see the horizon everywhere you turn. It was so beautiful though and there were so many stars and shooting stars and the sky was so black. God loves us and we just gotta take time to look around and see all the beautiful things he made for us. Illinois is so beautiful.

So this letter was really long but its to make up for last week. God loves us though. so much. and when you take time to be thankful you feel how much he loves you. So take the time. stop for 5 minutes to think and be thankful. read the book of mormon. Its going to be awesome. i promise. 

-Sister Hannah Corbett

(no subject)

So Megan and Steve didn't come to church again so they both fell off date. We also had to drop Steve because he and Megan broke up and we had absolutely no way in getting in contact with him. Megan is doing good though. She had a crazy week and when we would talk to her she would just say how since she started meeting with us her life has just gotten so much better. And I just think about how her life could get even more amazing and it just makes me super excited. 

I am grateful for Sister Madsen who listens to me and helps me. I love her. 

I am so grateful for the gospel. It truly changes lives! I am grateful for the atonement and repentance and the sacrament because that is how it changes our lives. 

I hope you all have a wonderful thanksgiving! sorry it was so short this week. But I am also grateful for all of you. I love you all!

-Sister Corbett

Charity Never Faileth

Well this past week was our Do or Die week. We had a lot of investigators but none of them were progressing. We ended up dropping Tarrone and Duane. We were never able to set up appointments and they kept on telling us they would do things but then never followed through. It was sad but hopefully one day they will be ready to make and keep commitments!

We did a lot of work this week with Megan and Steve. We brought one of the members from the primary presidency to both of our lessons with them and she has just been so amazing. She has gone completely out of her way to do everything she can to make sure they all have a good experience despite baby Megan's disabilities. She bought toys and games and books she would like, Made a good lesson for her, and she littlerally went so above and beyond.They were so set on coming to church and all of the members were so excited to meet them! We found someone to even pick them up and drive them to church. After all this they accidently slept in and missed church. It was really disappointing but we are just going to have to be patient.

So it was a little bit of a frustrating week where we worked hard but no one was following through. Thankfully we got to stop by and see Sister Alberts. This woman is the happiest person I've ever met. She is so beautiful and made us smile and laugh when we were feeling a little down. We took pictures with her. She is so full of charity. 

I am really learning how beautiful and important charity is. Christ loves us even when we don't keep the commitments we make with him, so we need to be patient with others too and just keep on loving them. Ultimately that's all we can do as missionaries. No matter how hard we tried we couldn't force Megan and Steve to come to church but we can always love them and charity never faileth!

P.S. Transfers came and Sister Madsen and I are BOTH staying in freeport!!!!!!!! #HALLELUJAH

Go Cubs Go

This week has been great. Every week I get more and more glad I am here and more and more glad to be in Illinois and more and more glad to be in Freeport. 

Some of my Favorite things that happened this week:

1. Went to Zone Conference. President Griffin is so inspired and I was so strengthed and just learned so much at this. It was so great!

2. Had some real good companion studies.

3. Gave a Book of Mormon to this man named Robert. His daughter Jayla was outside too and she said she wanted a book too so we gave her a pamphlet and she looked at us and said. "I LOVE this." with the most straight and serious face. It was so adorable. 

4. Ran into our investigator Tarrone at the store today. We didn't get to meet with him this week so it was real good to see him. 

5. Talking with the members after Stake Conference yesterday. They are hilarious. 

6. Finally getting in contact with this less active man named George. We went to go see him and we didn't even really say anything he just started talking and eventually came to the conclusion himself that he needed to come to church. He then committed himself to come to church either this week or next week. (he didn't come yesterday,so hopefully next Sunday) But I guess 5 people in the last week had told him he needed to start coming back to church. He hadn't been to the LDS church since he was a kid and lived in Utah. But Sister Madsen and I were just praying to find those who were prepared and then we see George and he basically tells us himself that he thinks he is being prepared. I hope and pray he follows through and starts coming. He is so cool. 

7. Sister Madsen! the Coolest trainer ever. I am learning a lot from her. she is so great. 

I love and pray for you all! 

-Sister Corbett

Happy Halloween!!!!!!

I love halloween.

and in the spirit of Halloween........... Freeport is actually haunted. I guess there was a big accident with a passenger train that crashed here and now everyone tells us how their house is haunted. Its supposed to be one of the most haunted places in the country. We ate dinner yesterday with the Reids and I guess our ward mission leaders grandma haunts their house. But Sister Reid goes around and tells local ghost stories. She writes too! I guess she is pretty well known and so If you ever see a ghost story by Terri Reid its probably Amazing. I love the Reids. Our ward building is haunted too though. Some sisters that used to serve her told some pretty freaky stories. 

We had a pretty good week! We had a lot of meetings this week. New Missionary Training and District Meeting in addition to Exchanges on Thursday so it was a little different, but good. I went On Exchanges with sister Diaz who is from Kearns. She is so cool. I learned so much from her!! She serves in Elgin though so it was a little strange to be back in the city.

The highlight of my week was our lesson with Megan and Steve. They are the couple with the autistic girl who I met tracting my first week here. We taught them the plan of Salvation and then Committed them to baptism. They Committed to work to be baptized on December 3rd!! I am super excited and I know they have been prepared and that this gospel will bless their lives. They have a lot of progress to make before December but All things are possible through Christ!!!

Another cool thing that happened this week actually just happened today!! We stopped at this super cute farmers market to buy some produce and we started talking to this man named Joe who runs the place. We talked about how we were from Utah and we were here because we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and such and he said how there were a lot of Mormons in Utah and asked if we ever ran into any and we told him we actually were Mormons and that shocked him a little I think. It was a good conversation but we just walked away and left. Before we got in the car I was like "we should have at least left him a card" so we were going to turn back and give him one but then we are the worst so we still didn't......... we got in the car and started to drive away but then he came and stopped us and asked us if we had any reading material for him. I felt so dumb. Whenever you have a chance to share the gospel JUST DO IT. You won't regret it. It may be a little awkward but that is not what you should be worried about. There is someone that we almost didn't get to contact because we were too afraid it would be weird and it really wouldn't of even been weird at all. Don't let ANYTHING make you think you can't do it. 

But anyway Joe is awesome and we gave him a Book Of Mormon and the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation Pamphlets and he was said "this is great! I will read this tonight! I love reading about Jesus!" It was awesome. He will be out of town for a couple weeks but we will start teaching him soon! Listen to the spirit and never be afraid to open your mouth. This church is true and will bring these people more happiness than you know! They need to hear about it!!

I love this church and i love being a missionary a lot more than I thought I would actually. It's not always easy. Actually most the time it's not easy at all. But it is also so worth it. 

Also Alma 5 is amazing and possibly my favorite chapter in the entire Book of Mormon. If you want something good to study that would be it. I cant even begin to write about all the big amazing things in that chapter.

I love you all and I miss you. I challenge you all to share the gospel with someone who needs it! MEMBERS ARE ESSENTIAL IN MISSIONARY WORK. We can't do it with out you guys.

Love,

Sister Corbett

God Bless

ALMA 26:11-12
11 I do not boast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my joy is full, yea, my heart is brim with joy, and I will rejoice in my God.
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever. 

This scripture is SO TRUE. And really describes my week

We had a super busy week with a ton of teaching appointments!!

We taught it to Tony and his friends and they all said they would get baptized if they came to know it was true except for his roommate Ericia who Said she was already baptized when she lived in Michigan about 20 years ago but we are still trying to find her records. They didn't come to church on Sunday like they said they would though, so we will see what was up with that in our lesson this week.

We also got to teach This couple who we found tracting on my second or third day. They said they were looking for a church to go to because the one they were going to before told them not to come back because their daughter who has autism was disruptive sometimes. But we told them they were more than welcome to come! They seem super prepared and I am really exited to go back!

Some of my favorite lessons we had were with some less active members. They already know that it is true!! We just have to help them remember what they are missing out on!!

We had a really busy week though and had a lot of really good lessons. We were blessed. Another good thing that happened was I got to meet our investigator Teriona! She wants to be baptized she just has to get her mom's approval. She and her cousin Sarquasha who is already a member are the sweetest. Unfortunately the only contact we get with Teriona is through one of the members who she stays with sometimes so we don't get to see much of her but she definitely will be baptized one day! Overall we are seeing a lot of success here in Freeport!

I still have no idea how I got so lucky to get called here. And basically I feel really humbled this week because I know that the success we are seeing has almost nothing to do with me. I have been super tired because I've had a cold the past few days. So there were times were I had literally had no energy and my head was hurting so sometimes its just hard to function and I did things like loose the phone. And then when I was looking for the phone I lost the keys. (dont worry after we found the keys we eventually found the phone lying in the street...) And  then I completely lost my voice so I didn't even know if I started talking the people we talked to would even hear me. It took me a while to realize this but the lesson I learned this week is that God will make you an instrument in his hands if you have faith. Its like that story of the old violin where they were auctioning it off and no one wanted to buy it until and old man went up and played beautiful music with it. I really did feel like that old violin this week. But when I had faith and trusted that if I opened my mouth God would help the people hear what they needed to they would things worked out! But with out his help I'm just an old violin that  cant do much. Even though I felt so weak this week, I truly did feel strengthened and we just got to keep on having faith and God can help us do great things!

ALMA 29:9
I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy.

Super grateful for an amazing trainer who helps me laugh even when I'm sick and tired and make a lot of mistakes. 

God is good! we have hard weeks but recognize tender mercies and you will realize how much God loves you and it will make things muy bien!!!  A great tender mercy for me this week was the sunsets. Illinois skies are gorgeous. especially out here in the country.

Love you All,
Sister Hannah Corbett

Killin' It

Sorry. I didn't think I'd be the missionary who wrote long emails. But this one's good.

Well we were super excited to teach this referral we got from a member that I told you about last week, but an hour before we were supposed to come over she cancelled on us because she found some anti literature. It was sad and really hard on the member that gave us the referral. But she is amazing and we just have to keep on trying.

We had been trying to contact this media referral we got for a really long time but he was NEVER home and we called and he didn't answer. And so we emailed him and he didn't reply. So we called again! and he didn't answer. So we called Again! and he finally answered!!!! We dropped of his Bible that he requested the next night. AND craziness happened......

So we start talking to Tony and he says that he's looking for a new church to go to! So that already made us super happy. Then his roommate comes over and joins the conversation and starts talking to us about whatever but eventually we bring it back to the church and the Book of Mormon. And she starts talking about what the Book of Mormon says and starts talking about the spirit world and in my head I'm thinking she's going to start Bible bashing us right there, but instead she says "And the other churches we've been goin to don't teach this! and they need to learn it!" My mouth dropped. We asked her if she wanted a Book of Mormon and she said yes! like she actually truly wanted one! She had met with Missionaries about 20 years ago and already read half of the book and had all the missionary pamphlets! WE WERE SO GLAD WE DIDN'T DROP TONY.
Seriously so happy. 

And Freeport is rubbing off on us because we wrote a rap:

As we stood there at her door
She was eager to say shore
Cuz she met with elders before
All the way back in ninty-four.

We asked them if they wanted to come to church on Sunday and they said THEY DID. They just needed a ride. So we got them one!

BUT THEN

Tony texted us and told us they found their own ride and that they were going to bring two of their friends with them! AND THEY DID. So we had four investigators at church! It was so cool to see how excited all the members were to have them there. Everyone wanted to meet them and get to know them. After Church Amber (that amazing Ward Missionary I told you about last week who feeds us every week)she keeps texting us and asking us a bunch of questions about Tony's friend That he brought named Tim. We were a little confused why she kept texting us. But we found out that Tim is Amber's UNCLE. Apparently she doesn't have much contact with her dad or her dad's side of the family but she is so excited that he came to church and is going to be an amazing fellowshiper. She is the only member in her family besides her husband and her grandson. But she is so strong and always stands up for what she believes in around her family. We are pretty sure he really liked church too because he was crying. So he either really liked it or he really didn't and I can't wait to find out which one. Haha

But yeah. This week has been really great. We've had a couple doors slammed in our faces but It was worth it because when you do get through to people and get to help them with anything but especially help them come closer to Christ, It's the greatest. Plus someone's got to plant those seeds.  

Another cool thing about Freeport is that it's where the Lincoln-Douglas Debate took place so there are a ton of Paintings and Sculptures of Abraham Lincoln which makes me feel right at home. 

ALSO, I have seen 24 deer in the past 2 weeks.

We were driving home from eating dinner at a members house and there's this deer........and it runs into the road. We honestly thought the car going the other direction was going to hit it! It didn't.

....but we did.
-caution this is nasty-
It all happened so fast and Sister Madsen was freaking out and we hit it and went over it and then she swerved and we didn't know what happened or where it was or anything so I was going to get out and see where it was. It was for sure dead though so Sister Madsen wouldn't let me! But if it was still under the car I was worried we would hear something nasty. So we compromised like a good companionship would and We just turned up the music really loud so we couldn't hear anything. SO with Josh Groban singing Ave Maria playing almost as loud as it will go Sister Madsen puts both hands on the wheel, her foot on the gas, and we were eventually back on the road. It was crazy and we cried a little. But good thing we know about the plan of salvation. And that we have a red car. 

Well Mission life is great and I love this Church and I love Freeport.

Love,
Sister Corbett