21 Months and Over

Hey everyone!

You might be surprised to see an email for me. I guess I want to do one last closing email. My last week in Peru was really sad and really busy. We got to stay in our mission President's house for our last 4 days there as they wanted to spend the last few moments with us. During those last 4 days we planned out what we needed to do to prepare the mission for when all of the north americans were gone and the travel plans to get us home. Whenever there was a little free time, we always liked to go to our mission President's basement where we would play ping pong and foosball.

It was a fun week until the goodbyes began. First I had to say goodbye to my pension Hermana Patty and her husband Hermano David. They were the best and always helped us to feel at home. Both of them are returned missionaries so they know what it is like to be one and with that experience were able to help us out a lot. It was hard to say goodbye to them as they had been my pension for the past 6 months. Then Saturday night after the general conference we had a testimony meeting. It was the president's family with 5 of us north americans and one other elder. It was really spiritual but also really sad.

Then the next morning at 7 we headed off to the airport for a quick 30 min flight to Lima. Only 20 of the 57 north american missionaries flew out with us because the rest of them werent able to get the travel permissions necessary to travel to the airport. When we arrived in Lima we were taken to a US Emabssy bunker and waited there until our next flight arrived to go from Lima to Los Angeles. We flew home with two other missions: Trujillo North and Trujillo South. The majority of the airplane was missionaries. Luckily I got to sit by 4 missionaries from my mission. It made me grateful for the mission I went to and for the friends I got to know.

After a 9 hour flight to Los Angeles (which felt more like 47 hours), we waited in the airport for another 2 hours or so before getting shuttled off to our hotel. It felt so weird when we got back into the U.S. The Los Angeles skyline at night was a site to see. There were so many lights and so much more order. It made me grateful to have been born in the U.S. That night we got about 4 hours of sleep and had to be up and leave back for the airport at around 5:45. Then our flight got delayed and we eventually left around 9:30 for Salt Lake. It was a quick 2 hour or so flight and I fell asleep after take off and woke up over Utah Valley.

When I arrived in the parking garage of the airport, I quickly spotted my van with my family waiting. When I got closer I was greeted by Spencer with a big hug. It was the first time we had seen each other in 4 years as I left mid July 2018 for my mission and he got home from his about a week later. After seeing my family, we headed off for an In and Out burger for a good American burger. Then on the way home my ward surprised me by waiting on the street corner of my house with signs to welcome me home. I definitely wasnt expecting it but it was perfect. I feel pretty lucky with the ward and family God has blessed me with. It was probably the most emotional weekend of my life, leaving Peru, ending my mission, and getting to see my family and friends after a long 21 months.

I would like to personally thank all of you for having joined me on this wild journey. I hope these emails were not too long or too boring. Its been a good 21 months and I hope to one day see all of you again after this coronavirus situation calms down.

Love,

Elder Corbett

Photos:

1. Hasta Ver Patty y David!

2. 4 Years in the Making

3. The bois are back and 6 feet apart

Coronavirus has Arrived, 1 Month to Conference!

Hey everyone!

Sorry this email is going to be a little rushed. But also not a lot happened this week.

On Tuesday I went on divisions with our zone leader Elder Hintze from Davis. He is actually from the same ward as my cousins. It was fun to get away from the office and have a normal missionary day. After that these past few days we haven't had a ton of time to proselyte. After talking with our mission president it sounds like this will be my last transfer here in the office and then I will have my last two transfers be in the field. So the 30 of March I should have transfers! I haven't hated my time here. I am super grateful for the opportunities I have had to learn and grow. It's just a lot of stress. But i guess that never really ends in life.

Coronavirus has (unofficially) arrived to Huancayo with 4 or so people in the hospital who are sick after returning from Italy.

I am super excited for the upcoming conference. It is always good to have a two day weekend of listening to God's prophet and apostles. This conference is supposed to be like none other. So it's crazy to see how hard the devil is trying to distract us and stop this conference. Coronavirus, the month before conference, just happens to be spreading around the world and shutting off all public transportation and many public meetings due to containment efforts. I would just encourage you to focus on how God speaks to you personally and really focus on strengthening your ability to pray to God. If we're good with God, conference will be good with us. That i promise.

Also a quick shoutout to the Foothill 2nd Ward! I just got a Christmas letter from the ward and it was the best! There is no better ward on earth.

Sorry no photos, (yes I'm lame) but here is a cool photo of Christ and another one of Nephi praying

Submit to ALL things

Hey everyone!

Like the past few emails there isn't a whole lot to update on. Just trying to learn and grow everyday.

This past week our mission president got a little mad at us because we didn't have a space to study in our house. Every room we have has beds in it (we probably have about 25-mattresses in total). So this week we spent some time and cleared all the beds out of one of the rooms and made a study room. We cleaned it, put desks in and now it is probably the best study room in the mission. Our desks face giant windows that have a lot of natural light to help us not get sleepy and I bought a little febreeze thing that plugs into the wall. Gamechanger for sure. Haha now we have a clean open room that smells good to do our studies. And boy have I felt the difference. The spirit has been so much stronger in our studies and we have been feeling a lot better because of it. Wherever I live when i grow up I will make sure it has a cool study room with a big bookshelf full of books and a big spacious desk. Oh of course I cant forget to put a febreeze thingy in the wall to make it smell good as well haha.

Other than that, we have been trying to find more people in our area. With everything that goes on it is definitely hard to find success but we just need to keep going at it. There's no other option.

One testimony I grew this week is the power the scriptures have to help specifically with the problems we have. Normally every week I send our President a weekly report of all the missionaries who write their weekly letter to him and include the excuses of the ones who didn't write him. Well last week, with all of the movement for transfers, people going home, people entering and the leadership council, I didn't do it. Our president kind of got on me for not doing it and I told him that I didn't have time last week to do something as minuscule as that. He told me, "Well I expect you to make time for it." That kind of got to me and I was pretty frustrated. Well that same day I read Mosiah 3:19 which says:

"For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

That scripture hit me hard. I think God wanted me to read that scripture. I realized I need to be willing to do whatever God or my mission president sees fit to have me do. Maybe this week we can all work on this, on being more willing to submit to whatever trial, problem or errand God sees fit to give us. By doing so the atonement will be able to change us for the better and help us put off the natural man.

Love y'all have another good week!

Photos:

1. Investigators from Villa Rica showed up for a surprise visit! With Elder Cutler and Elder Nielsen from Logan

2. Hey dog how's the air tasting?

3. Morning pancakes for the boys

Put your trust in God and move forward with faith

Hey everyone!

I'm glad this week is over. It wasn't bad or anything, just lots of work and lots and lots of stress. But all is well. I love the quote by Gordon B. Hinkley that says, "It isn't as bad as you think it is. It all works out. Don't worry... If you do your best, it will all work out. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith."

This past week was transfers so you know what that means. I organize everything for the people going home, and also for the people arriving to the mission. Then on top of that were all of the transfers to call and organize the movement, and we also had a leadership council for all of the district leaders the day after transfers. Thursday was our first "normal" day back and it felt so good.

During all of the craziness I really felt God's help. I felt his hand on my back helping me to keep going. I don't know how it all worked out okay, but this is God's work and he isn't going to let us fail.

Then right as I thought it was all done, there have been a lot of emergency transfers in these last few days and some more flights home to keep things spicy.

This past week I have been reflecting on the atonement a lot. Tad Callister in his book the Infinite Atonement mentions how the atonement is the most fundamental doctrine we need to know but sadly it is the most misunderstood. Also Joseph Smith says that the atonement is the base of or church and all other teachings are just appendages unto it. I invite all of you to study more about the atonement and how we can apply it in our lives. A really good talk I just read was Believing Christ: A Practical Approach to the Atonement by Stephen E. Robinson. https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/stephen-e-robinson/believing-christ-practical-approach-atonement/. Anyways sorry got to go, but I love y'all and will talk to you next week!

Photos:

1. If you take my camera you get sent on the weekly ;) @Elder Orr and Elder Poll

2. How to survive calling transfers (phone calls from 4:30 until 11 at night)

3. sWeG

4. Rocoto Relleno. Round one went to Elder Corbett. Round two was revenged by the rocoto. Put your trust in God and move forward with faith.

Every Child's Prayer

Hey everyone happy Valentines Day ;)

I hope y'all had a good week. This past week went by so fast I don't even know what to tell you.

This week was lots of appointments falling through which gave us lots of contacting time. The hard part about our area is that it used to be in the ward boundaries of a different ward and the church building we go to is really far away. We had high hopes to finally get an investigator to come to church this week and even passed by one of their houses. No luck. But this week we are walking a family to church so hopefully we can break this bad streak.

There was a lot of office work this week. That helped the days go by quick. Two different days a missionary went home for different reasons. That meant President calling me and saying hey make sure everything is ready for this missionary to go home. The first day I got that call and had about two hours to get the transportation and migrations stuff figured out. The other call I had about a day so it was a lot calmer. Also a group of missionaries went to Lima to get their migrations renewed which meant more stress.

Prayer is so powerful. You may think prayer is some basic primary answer but it is one of the most powerful tools God has given us. That day when people were going to Lima and I had only a couple hours to get everything figured out for the missionary to leave the country, I felt overwhelmed. Not knowing anything else to do to help me calm and focus, I went to a private room and just got on my knees and prayed. It wasn't a formal boring prayer. I really just got on my knees and poured out all my feelings to my Heavenly Father. Immediately i felt his love and in so many ways I saw my prayer answered. GOD is REAL. If you want to know that and feel that get on your knees and pray. But really pray. Pour out the feelings of your heart so that there is room for God to pour out his love into your heart. I promise you will feel his love. Why? Because he really loves us. He cares for us. He didn't send us to this earth to feel lost and alone. He sent us here to learn to trust in Him. This week pray like Enos and not like you are blessing your Pop-Tart as you are late for school.

Anyway, have a good week Love you!

Photos:

1. Time to interpret my chalk art

2. Historic old park next to our house

3. More baile de los negritos

Not so weekly Weekly

Hey everyone!

Sorry I've been slacking a lot on the emails. There just isn't a whole lot to tell you about. Every morning we are in the office. After lunch we have studies and then get about 3-4 hours to proselyte.

The missionary work is starting to pick up slowly but surely. Our area recently got new boundaries and it used to be a part of a different ward so all of the members in our area still go to that ward and also the cool investigators are being taught by the other missionaries and going to the other ward. So we get lots of time to knock doors and try to find people. But we have met a couple really cool Venezuelan people who walked to Peru from Venezuela. They are both about 30 and their families still live there. They work here and send them back money. Most of our investigators we have are from Venezuela and are super humble but cool people. Racism here against Venezuelans is crazy. In my area there is a giant sign that hangs over the road that says, "Any Venezuelan caught stealing will be lynched and burned alive" which is so sad because 99% of them are good people just trying to rebuild their lives. They all went from normal jobs with college degrees to now selling candy in the street or getting underpaid to do crazy physical work.

Last week I got pretty sick with food poisoning, which is always fun. Also one night President called me with 10 emergency transfers I had to organize and then the next day he gave me a couple more changes and changed some of the ones he gave me. So it was a crazy couple days with lots of phone calls. By the way phone calls are literally my least favorite thing in the world haha whenever my phone goes off I want to either throw my phone at the wall or just not answer it.

This week I bought my own plane ticket home. I'll arrive in Salt Lake on the 24th of June at 12:46 pm if you were curious ;) But it was really weird to do. I've read a couple talks this week which have helped me keep my focus on the mission. If you were wondering, they were "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" by Tad Callister and "Be the 4th Missionary" by Lawrence E. Corbridge. They are super good talks that help you realize the kind of missionary you should be.

A couple weeks ago I read a talk called "Why Mountains" by Michael A. Dunn. It is probably the best talk I've heard so far. Here is the link https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/michael-a-dunn/why-mountains/ . It is a super good talk that teaches us why we have hard things in our life, why we need to overcome our fears, and how mountains are here for our benefit. He shares his story of when he climbed to the top of the Teton mountains. He was afraid of heights but did it because his wife wanted to. He had to overcome his fears but after was able to accomplish something great. Anyway hearing this makes me really want to go hike a mountain when i get back. So if anyways if anyone is interested, just shoot me an email 👍

I have really thought about how powerful our minds are. I always thought that was a cheesy statement but it is so true. Our bodies can adapt to almost anything. The only thing that keeps us from achieving our goals and being great is our mind. Our mind decides if we practice every day or not. Our mind decides what talents we develop and what we do with our mind. If we win the battle with our mind we can do almost anything we want to.

Photos:

1) Little slot canyons made of mud we explored

2) Sometimes you just gotta squat next to the neighbor pig

3) Beautiful sunset after a rainy day 😍

His Grace is Sufficient

Hey everyone!

Sorry I've slacked off a lot lately with the emails. But life is going good! Busy and fast but good.

So this last week was transfer week and it was crazy just like the last time. Monday through Friday we woke up every morning at 4:30 🤗 and one night we went to bed at 1 in the morning... Haha but I have a quote on my whiteboard by Post Malone that says, "You can't get tired in the studio. It's really tough. But you just gotta keep on going."

Of those who went home this week, one of them was my old companions, Elder Canquilla. Now 8 of my companions are at home. It was hard to say goodbye to him.

Sorry I can't think of anything interesting to write about. This week I learned a little more about grace. First off we had the best companionship study ever. The three of us watched His Grace is Sufficient by Brad Wilcox. It is a really good talk. But every time he said the word grace in his talk we had to take a shot of Fanta. The talk is 30 minutes long and we got something like 32 or 33 shots. We all felt terrible afterwards haha.

Then I learned grace by first hand experience. This week a group of 13 missionaries were scheduled to go to Lima for migrations. Their flights were bought and the hotel was booked. Everything was ready to go. But wait... The day before I was checking to make sure everything was good to go. When I saw there were no appointments scheduled at the migrations building... My heart dropped to the floor. Their flight is the next day to go to Lima and they don't have appointments at the migrations building. After everything that happened this week with transfers, missionaries leaving, missionaries arriving, I totally spaced booking their appointments. Super nervous I hurried to the web page to see if any more spaces were available for the next day. 12 pm full. 1pm full. 2pm full. 3pm full. Doubts start creeping in. 4pm full. 5pm full. Highest stress levels ever reached. 6pm 2 spots free. One hour to go. 7pm 8 spots free. whew

Luckily 10 of the 13 were able to get appointments scheduled. But I still had to figure out what to do with the other three. We resolved to send them the day after. But that meant last second changing the flights. In the end about 300 dollars of church money was lost because of that one brain fart. I felt terrible the rest of the day and couldn't stop thinking about it. But Christ descended below it all. and "HIS GRACE is sufficient" -Brad Wilcox. Any mistake or sin we commit can be overcome with the help of God. His hand is always out waiting to lift us up. We just have to do our part and grab his hand. This week try to think of ways that y'all can reach out and grab his hand. Love you all and have a good week!

photos:

1. So long mi amigo

2. Squad pic

3. Lunch with the news. (6 sisters and 0 elders arrived)

4. Companionship study goals