March 12, 2012

Last week was great. On Tuesday night we went to a farewell dinner for 6 missionaries who were headed home to Utah and Hawaii. We listened to their wonderful testimonies and heard of their growth and their gratitude for having served here in Madagascar. One of the missionaries,  Elder Touli from Hawaii has become a favorite to us because we have worked with him in the office. He liked to tease Sister Cornelius and was always smiling. We will miss him, but he has promised to come to see us in Utah when he visits his companions. On Wed. we drove to Antsirabe and Ambostra, 245 Kilometers north of Tana to visit apartments and inspect them. We took Elder Steele with us, because it's transfer week, and we brought Elder Robinson back with us. We stayed in a small cottage over looking Ambostra. The drive was beautiful with water pouring out of the mountain sides. Bruce commented on how blessed these people are. They have rich red volcanic soil, plenty of rain, and a mild climate for growing the food they need to survive. It was like going back to the 17th Century. The people live in sandstone, brick adobe houses with no windows, no electricity, or indoor plumbing. They wash their clothes in the river or streams and plow with a one person hand plow. The rice fields are all tarraced with water running down from the top of the mountain or hill, from one rice patty to another. They couldn't use tractors for plowing because of the tarracing. The mountains and valleys reminded us of Utah in the spring time, green and beautiful. On Saturday we attended a Zone Leader conference with Elder Hartman, who serves as the South Africa Mental Health counselor. He wrote a book called The Color Code, he is from Sandy, Utah. He was a fun guy who had the missionaries find out what color they were, and he did some fun activities with them to help them learn leadership skills. In the afternoon the missionaries had to complete several tasks to earn money so they could build a hot air balloon to be launched at the end of the day. Bruce and President Donnelly were the people who paid them for their tasks, such as singing the National Anthem to a group of people, swallowing a raw egg, eating a raw onion, doing 50 push-ups, singing a song to Sister Cornelius, etc. I was the store keeper and after they earned their money they had to buy all their materials from me to make the hot air balloon, to design t-shirts, make invitations, and plan a launching party. I had a lot of fun doing this and would close at inappropriate times. At 6:00 we went outside, the elders had chairs set up with cold drinks and refreshments for the couples. We then heard a funny speech by Elder Cusick, a beautiful song composed and sang by Elder Loose, and a final motivational speech from Elder Hartman. Then the ballon was filled with hot air and with some help from the elders it was launched up into the sky, over the fence and down to some excited children who retrieved it. We then had a barbeque, and visited with the zone leaders. I met and visited with Elder Robert Lee who is related to us and Sister Lee that we served with in the Temple. He's a great kid and he lived down the street from us in Stadium Way while he attended SUU, last year. It was an eventful week. I just wanted to end with this thought I had this morning. Christ suffered for us on the cross and in the garden, he was mocked, ridiculed, and treated like a thief, or worse. What have we done to repay him for his sacrifice? Are we living our lives in a manner that would show him our gratitude for all he did for us? What can we do each day to show him our gratitude? Just something to think about. Love all of you and we send our love and prayers. Elder & Sister Cornelius