Excercising your faith

You may have heard about gunshots, but you have no need to worry about them! I don't think they were gunshots. I think my companion was just trying to make the story good. I am being safe! You don't have to worry about me. I have made friends that have my back here in Jackson haha.

But I am doing good. This past week has been crazy busy. So Wednesday we had district meeting and then a few appointments that we went to. We also had to prepare for a mission leadership conference. We were supposed to discuss what we can do as the leaders of the mission to help us begin to baptize more people. You wouldn't believe what some of were saying... It was pretty dumb. They said that we need to have less rules for p day, which is not the problem. Luckily a missionary rebuked everyone and said that we were being selfish and that we need to do the work because we love Christ. Then after that we went straight to work and the cool thing is that we were able to teach 2 lessons and find 2 new investigators that we set with a baptism date. We hope that we can help them reach it as they extend there faith.

Then on Friday we stopped at the library to look some stuff up for a lesson. As we were there, this guy who we later found out is from South Africa, approached us and just praised the Mormon faith for how well we keep the commandments. He wanted to know how we do so much better than the rest of the world. It was a miracle we were there then! So we gave him our number and he texted us the next day. We met up and taught him the restoration and he loved it! It was really nice! We gave him a book of Mormon and he took our challenge to read it so seriously it was great!

Later Friday we did some service at the Mississippi Sport Hall of Fame. It is so cool to be around all of the history of Mississippi Sports!

Then Saturday night we had an appointment with a man who has some deep concerns about the Mormon faith. It was pretty funny we would shut his concern down with some scripture, but somehow he would always find a way to twist the scripture. So being good missionaries we told him the only way he can resolve this concern is if he extended his faith and asked God if the Book of Mormon is true. He told us no. So we asked him how he knew the Bible was true, and his answer shocked me. He told us that he knew the Bible was true because you can see the manuscripts that they were written on and that the it has 40 different authors that write about the same gospel. We realized that he has no faith and that we need to help him exercise his faith. It is crazy to think that the Mormon faith is about extending so much faith. Putting your hope in God and asking him for yourself if what we teach is true, and if you find out what we teach is true through the Spirit then we ask you to act upon that answer. To me that makes so much sense.

Then Sunday it rained all day. But we planned to knock doors, so we did that and no one really answered - but it showed the Lord that we are willing to work! That is it for me. I hope that you have a good week!

Love Elder Corbett

1) MLC pic

2) A hoodie from my Boi Elder Horsely:)

3) Elder Maughan and I

4) Elder Topham and I One of my best mission buddies

5) Me running up to him

The blessings of working hard

This week has been crazy. On Thursday I got Elder Lakis as a new companion and he is a really good guy! He was in the MTC with Cade Perrish. It was pretty cool to hear some stories about Cade in the MTC.

We have been really busy so far this transfer. The mission as a whole have been struggling with baptizing and we have been asked to come up with some ideas on why we haven't baptizing like we should be. So for our zone we came up with a little theme using D&C 6:3-6. Then we challenged our missionaries to work hard and in every prayer to ask God to help them to have a baptism this transfer. We have applied it and we have been doing all that we can do to reach this goal. So we haven't been wasting any time.

On Saturday we were tracting for about 2-and-half-hours, and we had no success. But it was raining and we had a few minutes before an appointment, so we said lets knock a few more doors and that is when we were blessed. We found some really cool people and I feel like the Lord is blessing us because he see's how hard we are working.

Then on Sunday the members were giving us names of less actives and part member families that they want us to go see. It was great. We have been seeing the blessings of working hard. Then yesterday we saw a lot of people because it was President's Day! That is pretty much all that happened in the past few days. I'll have a lot more to write about next week because it'll be a longer week.

I hope that you have a good week.

Elder Corbett

D&C 6: 3-6

3 Behold, the field is white already to harvest; therefore, whoso desireth to reap, let him thrust in his sickle with his might, and reap while the day lasts, that he may treasure up for his soul everlasting salvation in the kingdom of God.

4 Yea, whosoever will thrust in his sickle and reap, the same is called of God.

5 Therefore, if you will ask of me you shall receive; if you will knock it shall be opened unto you.

6 Now, as you have asked, behold, I say unto you, keep my commandments, and seek to bring forth and establish the cause of Zion;

Elder Dugmore is leaving

What's up everyone? Sorry I don't have a lot of time today, because we have transfers. I am really sad because Elder Dougmore and I are getting split up. He and I had a great run while it lasted. But he has a pretty cool assignment to go to and he is going to kill it out there.

I am going to be getting a new companion tomorrow and hopefully we can resolve a few issues that we have in the branch right now. These next few weeks we are going to try and build their trust because without the support of the branch we won't be able to do anything! Anyways that is about it for a short email! I hope all is well I'll email next Tuesday and fill you in on more!

Love Elder Corbett

The Blessings of Ball

Good Morning from Jackson Mississippi!!!

Well this week has flown by! We have been incredibly busy, so that's been super nice! On Monday after I got off we went and played basketball with our investigators, Silas, Chris and Darion. It was so funny. They were talking so much crap to us on how they were going to beat us... We took them up on the challenge. My companion is really good at basketball and we picked up a decent member and we whooped them. They were on the floor out of breath before the game was over. The funny thing is that after we played them they told us that they were never going to smoke again. It was funny because we thought they were just saying it, but one stopped cold turkey and the other has only smoked like 2 all of last week! So that was a blessing, but after we beat them everyone at the gym saw that 3 white boys beat some black guys. People started challenging us and started to cheat when we were beating them... haha it was funny.

Then on Tuesday we went and did exchanges with the assistants and that was a lot of fun. I went with Elder Ostergar. He took me out with a member and you wouldn't believe who it was. It was a kid from my football team from Logan who is living with his Aunt and Uncle! His name is Tyler Gabriel and it was so cool to see him and to talk with him. All of our appointments fell through but we got to talk with him and I loved it! We dropped him off and then went tracting and had a few good contacts and found a new investigator which was fun.

Then on Wednesday we went to a District meeting in Florence, and it went well. But after we had to drive to a town called Brookhaven which is forever away from Jackson, and give a baptism interview. It went really well! Elder Dugmore gave it and said she was the most prepared lady he has ever interviewed which was cool.

Then Thursday was finally our first full day back in our area, which was a killer but we still worked hard. We tried all of our investigators.

Then Friday was a lot of fun. We went to see a part member family but they weren't there so we went and saw a youth in the area. We got talking with him and asked about the neighborhood kids that balled. He told us that they were pretty good and we asked if he would come with us to challenge them. So we went down and asked if we could play and they blew us off and thought we were white kids who couldn't ball haha. The youth eventually got us on the court and it was the Mormons against 3 of them. To make this long story short, we balled the crap out of them! We beat them 24-16. hahaha It was funny because it was pretty much me and Elder Dugmore because the youth wasn't good and didn't really try... it was getting frustrating but hey we still won! It seemed like the whole neighborhood was watching us! After we got done everyone had to come up and shake our hands. We felt like we gained the whole neighborhood's respect. The best part was that we were back with the youth and he told us that we just played the 3 best ballers in the neighborhood. It was really cool.

Then on Sunday, we had a good day. Church went really well, and we even said no to a dinner appointment because Elder Dugmore and I knew that everyone was going to be home to watch the Superbowl, so instead of watching with a member we were going to take 20-30 minutes with people that would let us in and establish a relationship so that when we came back we can teach them! It was pretty cool we met some awesome people!

That's about it for me! I have been loving being a missionary! It's crazy how fast time flies by. But when you enjoy something, time flies by! I hope everyone is doing well:) I miss each and everyone of you!

Love Elder Corbett

1 Tyler and I

2&3 Silas, Chris, and Darion and us after playing ball