Week 28 & 29

 have like no time this week to write, but I love you all and miss ya!! Hope you have a great week!! So that blessing I gave last week!  Guess what!! the baby doesn't need a liver transplant now!!  He is healthy!!!! Ohhh whaaaaaat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How crazy is that!!! Faith!!! that is sooo cool!!! It's kinda like Ryan's experience with the blind man but the baby is healed!!  I love God! haha Have a great week! 

Elder Cornejo

Week 29

Ok so this week was sooo crazy good!!!  Alright lemme tell you, Miracles out the wazzoo!!  So I'll start with the coolest thing, so Quieten L Cook...sorry for butchering his name, came to our mission!!!!  I shook his hand nbd!!  We all drove to Annapolis stake center last saturday morning and when he walked in his head was literally glowing!!  He gave us some sweet advice!  And he left a special apostolic blessing upon our mission.  He told us that even though it is hard to serve sometimes that we need to be assured that when we are serving here that our family and friends back at home will be blessed more than we can imagine for the service that we are doing right now.  I can't help to think and just feel that by me being here, there is gotta be someone at home that will be blessed and it encourages me to work harder and harder each day!!! After the spiritual outpouring, we raced back home and picked up an investigator and less active all the way in Frederick and then got in the car and drove back down 45 min to Ellicot City to watch a baptism in a river!!  Our investigator then said he wanted to be baptized!! He dressed down for church but then something came up and he couldn't make it... So then yesterday we went to a Porque yo creo in Columbia and I found out someone that Elder Leavit and I were teaching is getting baptized next Saturday!!  So they said that the familia Soriano requested that we come down to watch it soo we gotta find someone to come and be baptized!    So yesterday I felt kinda sick. I had a fever but went to church and felt pretty terrible.  I love hispanics!! they see that I'm not feeling good so they just show up with random pills... I couldn't help but think of Shelby's ghetto experience in Peru where you tell them your symoptoms and they just give you medicine... that's exactly what they did.. so I took it!! and I felt so much better... don't know if it was bad or not but feel better now!  Probably was some drug.. I felt wired... idk if that's a good thing or not!  Sorry I've been so bad at writing, We never have time!!  Thank you Becky for writing me!  I hope everything turns out for their car.  Glad to hear no one was hurt... So I'm learning a lot, we have a ton of good times!  It's all good.  I hope all of you have a great day  Tell Quinn good luck!!  He's gotta lemme know how he is feeling!!  When is Chloe coming to the Baltimore mission??  That is soo nuts!!  Hope you all  have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo

Week 27

Waz up!  How is everyone doing?

So this week was super good.  We taught 23 lessons this week!!  That's soo crazy especially for spanish work in the states!!  I'm literally praying so hard for 1 on our 11 investigators to come to church!  We had so many that said oh yes I will be there and not one of them showed! :(  I was like are you kidding me!!  Why do ppl have agency! haha but its so good!  But then we had this guy named carlos and he told us he couldnt make it and then we hit the 3rd hour which is sacrament and he comes!! He left work early all the way in Virginia just to make it!! I was sooo happy!! He is such a boss!!  And after we had this money lesson with Gregorio, the one that lives in Damascus MD and he was just saying I want to go so bad but my wife just doesn't want to go.  I had to of course tell him that whenever I went dirt biking, unless I loaded the trailer, packed all the dirt bike bags and then went to my dad and said ok everything is packed all you have to do is drive, that is when we went riding!!  He liked that idea and said that next week he was going to load up everything and say ok Esposa all you have to do is come and sit in the car!  We have another lesson with him on tuesday and that is a miracle cuz he didn't even want to meet with us last night,  I think it was cuz he felt guilty for not answering out texts.   We didn't care!!  So I took an elder with me on exchanges this week and he is still in his first 2 transfers and it was one of the funnest exchanges ever!!  He couldn't believe we could knock a hispanic door at 8:55 at night!  Or ask for a bottle of water and they would just go inside and get us one no matter who it is, even if we just met them!!  The culture is just soo humble it is soo awesome!!  So I have a miracle to tell about this blessing we gave this week and wow it is soo cool but I'm like out of time to write!!  So we get this call at 9:30 am this week from our branch president and he is like hey I need you at my house there is a lady there that needs a blessing.  So we go and it turns out that it is this family that is not members of the church and they are there with their little baby and he has this feeding tube hooked to him and he needs a liver transplant or something I didn't understand the spanish word they used but anyway this baby looks so sick and the mom is just in tears and the dad is looking so sad it's almost like that story of how the man is desperatly bringing his kid to be heald by Jesus.  Now I'm not comparing anything we did to Jesus but we anointed and gave this baby a blessing and I'm not kidding you everything starts going crazy as we bless this baby!! Phones start ringing, tv's are on,. the baby is crying the other kids starty screaming all while I'm trying to hear the words of the Lord in spanish!! One of the most ridiculously distracting blessings I've ever given but after, color returns to the baby's face and he looks healthy!! The parents were like what the heck!!  It was sooo nuts!! They were so thankful!!  It was something I def wanna remember.  Missions are crazy cool!  I love em!!  I love you all  I have to go but I hope everyone has a great week!  Take care of the gym for me!  And ya see ya!!  Love

Elder Cornejo

Week 26

So this week was sooo sweet!!  Man I am soo crammed for time all the time!   It's so great! Makes the days and the weeks go by super fast.  Tomorrow I hit my 6 month mark... it does not feel like I have been here 6 months then again it feels like a year haha but I'm doing awesome!  How is everything back home?  Getting ready for school.  The walmart is absolutly packed here in the back to school section.  It's so weird seeing everyone get ready for school.  I feel like I should be in high school.  So we went to dinner at this peruvian family's house this week and their son who is 25 he's just left wednesday for BYU provo.  He's about to get married and he's soo sweet.  He made us like a 6 course meal.  It was nuts!!  The first thing he came out with was this guacamole stuff but he put pomagrante seeds in it! Pretty good, then this corn that was boiled, then grilled, then had all this other stuff on it,  pretty bomb, then this octopus that was grilled with this black bean sauce.  Then this carne asada with these fancy potatoes and I think there was one other thing and then they finished it all off by giving us home made flan... sooo good.  Nothing like resturant flan./  I seriously have never had food like I have here- it is sooo good!! Then we have been teaching, seeing less actives, bringing less actives to investigator lessons... wouldn't recommend doing that again... haha then just this last sunday was such a miracle!!   So the Spanish branch is doing absolutely amazing!  Everyone here knows about our 2 baptism goal before the end of September.  Yesterday, we had a branch council meeting that was amazing and focused on the missionary efforts.  After, with the branch presidents permission, we got the entire branch together, except the children, which were in primary, we showed the restoration video, just the first vision part.  After that the spirit was so strong that we passed out family plans to each family in the branch.  We watched about 4 hastening the work videos and they wrote down ideas of who and how they could help missionary efforts.  They passed their papers back to us, we made copies and gave them back theirs and we kept a copy.  Now we have names of who these people want to work with!  Now all we have to do is edit the plans with them when we go over and follow up.  The branch president then stood up in support of us and said that the way we are going to be able to get these names is through prayer and the spirit.  So we have really been praying for each one of these people by name because when we do that there is just a different feel!!  It was so amazing.  And then that night we had a fireside where 3 past missionaries came and spoke at the stake center.  Mostly everyone that is active from our branch was there.  I have faith that we can get these 2 baptisms!  Miracles all around. And another miracle happened that night.. It was like 8:50 and I was close to our apartment, and I was like I have to do key indicators tonight and call a bunch of people I should just go home, but I was like no, not yet, I really want an 8:59 miracle...so I tell my companion, we are going to get an 8:59 miracle tonight... so we have been trying to find this guy named Leonelle forever!!  The sisters gave him to us a little bit ago and his cousin just got shot in Vegas, The only thing that I knew from him is his name and that he wants us to pay for his cousins funeral... So last night we are walking and I see 4 hispanic guys and it's like 8:55 so we talk to them and I am not even kidding you at 8:59, some random guy drives up and says Elder Cornejo, Elder Brewer, how's it going?  And we are just like what the heck who is this guy?  He says I'm Leonele!  So we start talking to him and he parks the car and we get a return for tomorrow!!  And he said he'd really like to come back to church!!!  Ohhh Whaaaaat??  That was so sick!!  And he knows my trainer Elder Riddle so it was sooo sweet!!  He's gonna be baptized haha.  Talk about finding... we walk down the street and our investigator just finds us!! It was sooooooo sick!!!!!  I was pumped!!!  It reminds me, we are fishers of men, just need to be in the right place at the right time.  I love it!!  Hope you all have a great week!.

Elder Cornejo

Familia Riggins from Columbia!  They were the ones that bought us cheesecake factory!!

Same family!

Will Lopez.  My favorite fam alive!! From Annapolis!!!  Literally chilled with them the whole o's game.  

Week 25

How's it going? 

So this week was crazy!!  After last week, I had a great time with Elder Fisher for the next two days and we literally ate soooo much food!!  He was leaving so everyone was feeding us!!!  IT was soooo awesome!!  In one night we had all you can eat Golden Corall! then cheesecake at another lady's house, then we went and said bye to this family from Bolivia and they had prepared this carne and rice and platanos and oh man it was soooo good. But I didn't sleep much that night at all cuz I was worried about training and being district leader and not understanding all the spanish!!  But it's sooo weird!  I can understand now! the Lord must want us to understand!!! So last week I translated better in sacrament!! and I can understand all the lessons!!  IT's sooo cool!  I can understand spanish!!! After that Wednesday came,  I had to get TB tested and it came back negative, so no worries.. then training my new comp. He actually lived in mexico for 2 years, 6 years ago so he knows a lot of spanish!! but it is still pretty foreign.  I feel like I just got here but then he reminds me of all the things I felt when I arrived here.  It's cool.  We definately have some good times!!  Friday was leadership meeting from 8-4:30,  then on Saturday we taught an english class,  Sunday we had church until 4:30, Monday we had zone conference from 8-4:30.  I feel like I never have time to be an actual missionary.  And now today preparation day until 6!! Everything has just been flying by!!  We found a new person to teach last week and she is sweet!!  We invited her to be baptized and she said yes!! but she needs to learn more first haha.  She's just looking to make her life better!  My new comp is definitely good luck!!  I am so excited to get out and work!  Sorry I've been so bad in writing!  and with pictures.  I'm grateful for all of you and your examples in getting me here to this point.  I hope you all have a great week!  Next week I'll have a funny story!  Say hi to Janelle for me!  I can't believe she is home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Cornejo

Week 24

I don't have a ton of time so I'll be brief.  This day was kind of weird with transfers coming and a new mission president.  He hasn't got everything figured out yet so a lot of ppl don't know where they are going yet... but to be brief, so everything is changing!!!  I'm really sad... I'm gonna be a trainer so I'm pretty stoked about that but I'm also gonna be district leader over 3 sets of elders and a set of sisters... kill me! haha  and the worst part is, before this we had 4 missionaries in our branch, 2 sisters and 2 elders and all 3 of them are leaving!!  No sisters are coming in to replace them!!  So our branch covers the entire stake!! which is huge and I have to do all the missionary work.  We were seeing sooo many miracles and the sisters were helping.  This area used to have 6 missionaries so now i have 3 area books to deal with!!  Thats 14 investigators!!  And im training someone who cant speak spanish!!  How is this gonna be possible?  And that means I have to translate church from spanish to english for 3 hours every sunday!!!  And sing at this noche de hoger!! just me and my comp and the mission pres.  We were supposed to have the sisters help but now they aren't cuz none are coming in!  It's gonna be intense... I'm stoked for the challenge but also pretty sad... We saw sooo many miracles this week with both elders and sisters working with the branch and the branch was getting reallly involved... I hope we can keep up the excitement... pray for us... we really really need it...  when our branch presidency found out they all started crying... idk.. It's gonna be nuts  but I know the Lord will help us!!  He is so great!!  I love you all!! your the best!!  I wish i had time to write more but next week I'll let you know.  I love you all!!  Say hi to everyone for me!!

Elder Cornejo

Our branch pres and his wife.  They are crazy.   That is one of the cutest kids ive seen.  His name is Mosi!

Emillio's 4th birthday party fiesta!!  It was sooo funny to watch all the kids!!  There is even this spanish pinata song that they all kept singing it was so funny.  Look it up!

all watching the pinata.  Greg is the guy in the blue.. He is the one we are teaching!

Exchanges with elder young!!!  HE is so sick!! but he finishes his mission on wednesday so hes going home!

me elder young and the branch President's Son Omar!

My companion elder fisher for now..  Im getting a trainee Wednesday!!  We had some good times!!

Sunset driving home.  Its pretty beautiful here1

Week 23

So this week was another week of workin super hard non stop!!  We have so much fun!! but it is hard work too!!  You never stay in one place more than an hour and once you do it feels like youve been there forever!!  LAst week we had to pass 2 of those investigators that we found to the sisters and drop one but we gained 4 more!! its kinda like tithing ;) haha its been sweet!!  We are meeting such cool ppl and now we are going to start playing soccer because everyone wants to play!!  I'm pretty pumped!  Last night was crazy as far as the lesson,  We go to this recent converts house with his wife, then our branch pres shows up with his entire family so we all eat the most fantastic authentic mexican style dinner and it is sooo good i cannot eat any other type of mexican food now and then we are going to share a lesson when Alex goes hey lemme go and get my friend for a lesson.  So he runs accross the street and we wind up having 10 people in this room as we all teach his friend the spirit.  I feel like he felt a little intimitated but everything turned out great.  We mainly just sat quiet as everyone in the room testified to him how they have felt the spirit of god.  It was sweet!!  Then we sprinted to this other guys house.  He is Peruvian so we talked about Qui!  I wanna try it so bad!!  Maybe one day! haha  But had the most amazing message about the restauration and they felt the spirit so strong.  That message has to be my favorite and it is good in any occation!!  But last week we went on exchanges and it was hard cuz i literally have to teach everything because the guy that came doesnt speak spanish.

  Well we had to move this lady this week and oh my gosh, she had some of the heaviest furniture in the world!!  Each piece was like 300 pounds and we had to squeeze it out of this little tiny door frame... It was all solid oak!!  but we got it all in.  She only broke one lamp!  So that was awesome... literally just pushes it off the table... and it shatteres... we all watched her and were like did that just happen?  Cuz she almost starts crying after... idk...but ya we got to go to the temple this week.  That was sweet.  The member that took us fell asleep and the guy inside was freaking out.  So let me describe to you just how humid it was, we walk outside the temple and my camera wont even take a picture because the air is so humid.  IT fogged up my lense within seconds... so thats the reason why i have no pictures this week :( sorry!  What else  i really need to write down these cool experiences because by today i forget them all!! and I definitely need to write in my journal, its just we are sooo busy i never have time!!  I am gonna work on that this week, Follow up with me next week to see how I do! Enjoy your vacations if you see guys with white shirts give em water!!  ITs so hot! haha

Week 22

So this week was sooo hard but sooo sweet!!!  We went hard! haha  We found 5 new investigators!!  Literally everything possible happened to us this week!!  So Monday we met a sweet latino family Hernandez.  His mother in law goes to our branch but he goes to the english ward with his family.  He is nuts but its funny.  He calls all the hispanics laminitas or laminites and says they are always late for everything!! So we set up a party for couples last friday night and while he was waiting for them to arrive he got his disco ball out and blasted Turn Down for What and the sub was sooo beautiful!! haha He just started blasting all this solja boy and wobble and all these songs and starts dancing and has us film him so he can send it to an ex missionary. hahaha he is hilarious pretty crazy tho.  I wish my words could better describe what went down but no amount of words can have you fully capture the image of his dance moves that will forever be engraven in my memory... not a good thing... haha... then we also had some drunk guys we delt with.  I talked to a homelss guy for 5 min a guy that had been living in the church for 5 weeks and then one day the bishop comes and says there is someone here that shouldnt be and they find him!!!  i cant believe he dodged the members for 5 weeks straight!  But now he just chills outside and the members wanna put him in jail... youd think theyd wanna help him?? but idk thats the english work haha  As far as our missionary work it was so sick!! the members here are awesome!!!  We are becoming pretty good friends with them.  We helped set up a wedding but couldnt go to it but that was last friday and then we are litterally contacting like crazy to try and meet new ppl.  We have met a ton of pregnant teens.  One 14 year old we gave a blessing to last week and then another one we talked to in the street... so weird.  Sundays are the best in the mornings cuz this family makes these Giant and i mean Giant pancakes for us to eat with strawberries, peaches, blueberries, platanos, whipped cream, dulce de leche and of course maple syrup.  When i get older i definately wanna get a tradition going for the missionaries to come over at least once a week.  This family is famous around the mission for these pankakes cuz they are literally so huge!!!  And missionaries rarely ever eat breakfast so it'll be cool!  Oh this week we get to go to the Washing DC temple, last week we did babtisms with the branch so that was sweet but this week we get to go thru a session.  We werent allowed to do the baptisms and i forgot my temple reccomend... so pres wasnt too happy with that haha but i won't forget it again!!!  Man there are so many cool things that went down but ya its hard, it's sooo tiring but it is sooo fun!! and rewarding!!  Work hard and love one another that is our goal for this week!!  Hope you all have a great week!!

Elder Cornejo