God bless america

WELL this week was good.

President changed the standard of excellence from 2 new investigators a week to 4 new investigators a week and our district leader challenged us as well to those find 4 new investigators! We had gone the whole week and only found one. And it was 8:00 Sunday night and we needed to find 3 more. I was about ready to give up but then our sister training leaders sent us a text and challenged us to see how many book of Mormons we could hand out that for that last hour before the week was over.

So we ended up going to try and contact this Bible Referral we got. Her name is Kenisha and she was so sweet! Her and her son Machai became new investigators! We also ended up giving out 4 book of Mormons last night. 

Then we had about 20 min left in the day and the YSA elders called and I was like "we don't have time for this, we have to go find a new investigator!" But the lord blessed me with patience and I am so glad he did becuase they had been down in our area the day before and told us about a new investigator they found named Drew! So that means we got 4 new investigators!!!!!!!!!

I am so grateful for such good leaders who motivate me to get out and work and follow the spirit to know what I need!

Other things that happened this week was...

1. The Navas family had us over for dinner and Brother Navas had us do his pepper challenge again. These peppers were HOT. Brother Navas was laughing so hard at me but then he tried the pepper and he understood! He even cried! And brother navas never cries! I took a picture to document it.

2. Sister foster held a chicken! I love her.

3. This house didnt exist when I first got here and now someone is moving in. So that tells you how long I've been in Bourbonnais...

4&5. I was looking through my freeport pictures and I found these and felt they needed to be shared. I miss freeport so much.

I Believe in CHRIST

So our mission is having a focus on Jesus Christ to lead up to a zone conference next month that is all on Jesus Christ. And really all of our teaching focuses and is centered on Jesus Christ but this past little while especially because we are studying the topical guide for and marking the references on Jesus Christ and also studying the living Christ to prepare and it has been a super good experience.Yesterday we taught gospel principles on the life of Christ. And I just felt the spirit so strong! It has been good to just focus on Christ and who he is and my relationship with him.

 I know that Christ LIVES and that this is his church. He our creator, our exemplar, and our redeemer and our BEST FRIEND. He loves us and everyone around us. I know that he knows exactly how we feel becuae he's been there.

Yesterday in gospel principles there was a question "in what ways can we show Christ that we love him?" and JIM said how we can be baptized! And it was super appropriate because Jim is getting baptized on Saturday. He has been the one of the elder's investigators for almost 2 years! As he said that I could just see how excited he was to get baptized and I could feel the love he had for his savior. And most of all jim just looked super happy.

"Having “good cheer” because of Christ’s atoning victory over death and hell—over temptation, tribulation, sin, suffering, sorrow, weaknesses, inadequacies, and all the effects of the Fall—is faith-inspired confidence in the future. Like knowing the end from the beginning, we can rest assured that God and goodness will ultimately prevail. That “good cheer” evokes “things will all work out” optimism." Brent L. Top

On my mission I've been happier than I've ever been! Even when it's hard and people are rude and maybe my companion is being grumpy that day or maybe someone dropped us but I am just super duper happy. And its because of JESUS CHRIST. I know that this message is one that makes us happy. 

Luke 2

10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great JOY, which shall be to all people.

11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord.

It doesnt matter if I'm teaching someone who has been super successful and has life all figured out or if I'm teaching someone who is homeless or doesn't have a bed to sleep on. The happiest people are those who follow Jesus Christ!

Its true!

TWENTY

*This email got a little lost in Melanie's inbox so it's a bit late getting posted here but still good :)

This week has been goooood. We have tried to be better at asking everyone for referrals and so this is some of the experiences that came from that...

It started out with exchanges. I was with sister BROWN. I love her. We had so much fun. We got completely BAMBOOZLED by this man in naperville. He was not very interested but told us that we should go talk to his neighbors accross the street. He said they were very religious and may be interested in talking with us. He was laughing a but as he sent us over there but we just took the chance and went and knocked on their door too. Sister Brown and I ended up getting bible bashed for no joke a whole HOUR. He told us some not very nice things but we can just leave it at that it was the most intense bible bashing that sister brown and I had ever had. 

Later this week we also stopped by a former in BONFIELD. Which is in the middle of nowhere. But she wasn't very interested either but told us we should ask her Nieghbor that lives on the corner. We did and after trying to figure out what was the front door and what was the back door we ended up getting chased away but the scariest dog. This dog looked so sad and not very well taken care of. But it was not friendly and did not want us there. On our way back to civilization we saw a vulture. It was crazy.

So that pretty much sums up the week. Lots of finding lots of uninterested people. But that's okay becuase I am so interested in this message. My testimony grows stronger every day. I know my savior loves me and everyone in the beautiful land of illinois. I love my mission. I love sister gray. And I love Illinois. SO MUCH. 

Thanks for all your birthday wishes! There is no better way I could think to spend a birthday than being right here in Bourbonnais! Love you all!

-Sister Hannah Corbett 

I'm a believer!

Well I have realized that as my mission has gone on my emails have gotten shorter and a lot more boring. And I'm really sorry and I'm going to try and do better today. But honestly the only one who still reading these emails is probably mom. So mom, this is how my week went....

Monday was crazy. The member that was going to help us teach Jose and his family set up an appointment for us but then wasn't able to join us... so we had no other option but to go over there by our self and try our best to communicate with what Spanish we do know. It surprisingly went pretty well! We just prayed and read scriptures and did our best. THE GIFT OF TOUNGES IS REAL. it was crazy. And VICTOR who sisters in the past said seemed a little anti sat in for the lesson and was super nice and said he wanted to read the book of Mormon some more. It was great. 

Also on Monday while we were waiting for our food for lunch at 5 STAR WINGS a man named Quincey came up and started talking with us he talked to us for a long time. He wanted us to say a prayer with him so we did -of course- and one the employees when we were done said "amen! Don't think I wasn't in on that prayer too!" I love Kankakee. And we were able to teach Quincey later in the week and show him around the church building! Honestly the people you meet at 5 star wings are even better than the wings.

We also taught Talha and Tina again. We have good lessons with them but they still didn't come to church. yesterday we had a long phone call with Tal. He expressed some of his concerns. We are going to keep teaching him FOR SURE but they are no longer on date. 

We also ran into a former and had a good conversation with him! We were originally talking to a man named Chris but he ran inside and never came back out half way through the conversation......................so as we are waiting for Chris and about leave his neighbor comes out. So we ask him what his name is and he says "im gangsta willie!" Haha but as we get talking some more i realize i had just seen him in our area book and he was SUPER SOLID and came to church a lot and was on date and everything. We ended up talking to him for a long time and were able to identify some of his concerns and set up another appointment to come back!

Missionary work is AWESOME. and the more you are out the better it gets. Sheila had a SUPER GOOD WEEK THIS WEEK. We finally got her in to do family history work and she LOVED IT. She ended up staying twice as long as she said she was going to. And she came to church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Sheila so much! She found so many names to enter into family search. The spirit of Elijah was IN THAT ROOM. it was so strong. I am excited for her to go to the temple and do the work for these names. 

So those were some of the miracles we saw this week. There were a lot more but that would take all day and I know you have a pretty busy schedule mom. 

1. Tal! And the tiny bible he bought on Amazon.

2. LISA. I LOVE HER SO MUCH. We tried our best to get a decent picture... this was as good as it was going to get.

9 MONTHS

A lot happened this week. And we have another good week planned this week. Im excited!!!!!

We put talha and tina on date. When we invited them to be baptized on july 15th all talha said was "what time?". It was great! They are so sweet and we are so blessed to teach them. They were not able to attend church again yesterday unfortunately. Hopefully they continue to move forward and progress towards that date.

We also taught jose luis again. His whole family was there and so we got 3 new investigators that we dont know how to speak to. I really need to learn spanish. Or president  needs to put hermanas in bourbonnais. 

Elder Gavarrett also came and toured our mission. We got to hear him speak and it was really good!

Besides that its been super hot and humid! Weve had some pretty big thunder storms that scared sister gray. 

6 months in the BOURB

Transfer calls came and sister Gray and I are both staying here in bourbonnais for another 6 weeks. This means I get to spend 6 months or 1/3 of my mission in bourbonnais. Which is the promise land. President said so himself. I'm pretty excited. I love bourbonnais!!!!!

This week we got to teach Talha! Talha and his wife Tina are literally the sweetest and the most humble seekers of truth. I love teaching and being a missionary. He definitely understands the commitment that it takes to be a Mormon so he wants to really come to know before he commits to anything. But YESTERDAY. He sent us the best text about how he's on his way to becoming a believer of the book of Mormon. Wow. 

Other things that happened this week was SISTERS CONFERENCE. So I got to see lots of my favorite people on this EARTH. I am so grateful for all the friends I've made on my mission. 

Aaaannnnd lots of other things happened. But basically to sum it all up life is so good. 

1. Look at all the baby corns

2. This church right here. This church is TRUE. 

Okay here's some more pictures because I just got them.

Special tribute to these two women. SISTER MADSEN & SISTER JAGIELSKIS

ALSO Amber came to sisters conference! It was so to see all of them again. I cried. Just a little.

WOW

This week had its ups and it's downs. But the best part was our lesson with Jose Luis. We taught him the restoration and Brother Navas came to help translate even though it took in an hour there and back he still wanted to be here for this lesson. I love brother navas. But we taught him the restoration and when we got to the first vision, we had Jose read the Joseph smith's account of the first vision. All he could say was wow! He said how he liked to hear his testimony and he could feel that it was true! Teaching him reminds me a lot of teaching juan. I love how it doesn't matter what language your speaking. The spirit is the same! The church is so true. JOSE SMITH IS A TRUE PROPHET.

it's true.

The hardest part of this week was when Kim dropped us. This was so hard for me. The hardest part of being a missionary is seeing people lose interest or not keep their commitments. I don't know if I've ever loved an investigator As much as I lived kim. A few weeks ago we saw her on preparation day when we were at the store and we just talked not like a missionary talks to an investigator but just as a friend talks to a friend. We don't know exactly what changed Kim's mind. But I know she will come around eventually! She will get baptized, I knew it the first time I met her! But Bishop Freedlund was talking to us about this and he told me to not worry- to continue being her friend and reaching out to her and Serve her. We're still friends even if she doesn't get baptized. I love her. I just wish more of the ward members got to know her. We got a referral for a man named Talha and I was telling Brother Jackson who is going to come with us to our first lesson about him about doing how prepared he is and he said "wow. Do not go over there with out a member." And it's true! Us as missionaries are rotated around and can't stay in our area to fellowship and be there as a constant friend for those we teach. We can not do this work with out the members help.  

But that's why I love Bourbonnais. It's not the strongest ward. With over 300 less active members and on average 30-50 that come to church every week there is a lot of work that needs to be done. But the members that are here are the strongest members. Each active member has on average 7 families they home/visit teach for. Like take sister Horchem for example she has her 7 and her husband has 7 too that she goes to see with him and then she's in the Relief Society presidency now and also feeds the missionaries at least once a month and comes out to help us with lessons too. She's retired so now the church is her job. 

And she loves it! Becuase the CHURCH IS TRUE.

I know it.

Also there are no coincidences. We saw Kim at the store 3 weeks ago. we saw Sheila last week and this week we saw Eden. God is just is letting me run into all my favorite people at the store just becuase he loves me. 

1. All our friends at the Bickford home. Aren't they beautiful?

2. Kankakee makes the BEST WINGS. no joke. 5 STAR WINGS. ☆☆☆☆☆

3. sister gray agrees.

4. ;)