This has been a wonderful and very busy week here in Madagascar. We had one missionary leave on Wednesday and nine arrive. Brother Cornelius had the privilege of taking the departing Elder and another Elder that will leave in October to the Lemur Park and Crocodile Park. He also stopped to look at some houses where they will have church in Moramanga. They have grown out of their present meeting place. Sister Cornelius stayed at the office and helped Sister Adams shop and cook food for the Welcoming dinner on Wednesday. We also had a luncheon on Thursday for the new missionaries and their trainers. Lots of cooking to do in a mission. We fed the 9 missionaries breakfast on Thursday morning. Judy Grant's recipe for Creme Brulee French Toast is a big hit here with the missionaries.

President Adams shared with us a story of a man who walks about 35 miles every Saturday to get home so he can go to church on Sunday. His job is in another town. The Church was doing a special clean up project called Helping Hands on a Saturday morning and he told the Branch President he wouldn't be able to come help due to his job and needing the money to support his family. When Saturday morning came the first person to show up to help was this man. He had left Friday morning and didn't work so he could come and help. He felt that it was his responsibility to help out if everyone else was going to help. He had hoped someone would share their food with him as he didn't have money for food because he didn't work that day. The people here only make enough money each day to buy food for that day with very little left over. This man is an example to all of us of being dedicated to serving the Lord and faithfully coming to church each week. He walks back on Sunday after church, so he can work on Monday morning. That's true dedication to the gospel.

The Callahans from St. George were here last week to visit the hospitals and clinics here in Madagascar. He is the area doctor for South Africa. This is a picture with them that we took outside the office with the Adams', Grays' and us.

The next picture is a missionary that we have been working with to prepare him for his mission, his name is Justino Hermann and he is wearing a suit that belonged to Elder Cornelius that he had cut down to fit him.

His parents came here for his setting apart and thanked us for helping their son. They brought us some carrots to thank us and told us many times how much they appreciated our support of their son. He is a great young man that won us over with his smile and personality, He will make a great missionary in Cape Town, Africa. We love all of you and hope you are all doing well. Love, Elder & sister Cornelius

This week has been full of things to do with missionaries and getting ready for 9 new missionaries coming in next week. We had a new sister come into our mission on Wednesday. We have been working with the missionary department trying to get her here for months. She got her call last December. The problems were with Visas. It was a relief when she finally made it. She is from Cape Verde. We also had a missionary spend the evening with us who had his tonsils out. He had just got out of the hospital that morning and was staying with the Office Elders. They needed to go teach some families so he came to our apartment. He slept most of the three hours he was there. I would like to share a conversion story that President Adams shared with us this week. This took place in Reunion and they heard about it when they were in this ladies home having dinner. Her husband is the Branch President. She lived at the edge of town, at the end of the street, on the fifth floor, in the last apartment, opposite the stairs. She rarely had visitors, not even friends. She had a knock at her door and was surprised as she wasn't expecting anyone. When she opened the door two young men in white shirts and ties were standing there. She normally wouldn't let in a stranger, as her husband was at work. The next thing she remembered was sitting on the couch listening to these two young men. She was amazed at the message they were teaching her and felt as if her prayers and questions about God had been answered. Her husband came home for lunch and he also sat on the couch and visited with the young men. When it was time for him to go back to work the missionaries made an appointment for that evening and left. When the door shut the lady had this overwhelming fear come over her. Her fear was that these two young missionaries wouldn't come back. They did come back that evening and visited with the family most of the evening. They came back for the next several nights and invited the family to come to church on Sunday. On Sunday as the family was preparing to go to Church there was another knock at their door. It was the ladies father whom she hadn't seen for 15 years. So they visited with him and didn't make it to church. The missionaries visited with them again and they said they would be to church the following Sunday. When Sunday morning came their son was very ill, so they had to stay home again. It seems Satan was working on keeping this family away. On the next Sunday their son was ill again, but they decided that they would go to church anyway. When they got to church the son started feeling better and hasn't been very sick since. The family was baptized and have been faithful members since. Now for the rest of the story. The two missionaries that taught this family were both fairly new in the mission and weren't having any success in their teaching, or in learning the French language very well.They had committed to fast and pray every Tuesday. On this particular Tuesday it was about lunch time and they were about to head home to end their fast. As they were walking down a street at the edge of town, they looked down the street at an apartment building in the distance. One missionary looked at his watch and said, "We have about a half an hour before we end our fast, lets go down there and knock on a few doors." So they went to that apartment complex and knocked on some doors, no one let them in and they were about to head home when the spirit directed them to go to the fifth floor, up the stairs, to the end of the hall, where they were allowed to come in and teach the gospel of Jesus Christ. President Adams has asked the lady to write her story so that it can be shared with others. There was more to the story but I tried to summerize it. We hope this finds all of you doing well and hope you are enjoying your summer rains. We could use some here to clean the air. We were reading that you have had some flooding. We send our love to all of you. Elder & Sister Cornelius

Pictures: the first picture is our church and mission home.

 The next picture is of a turtle at the Crocodile Park. We were told that the way to tell the difference between the male and female is on the under side of the shell. If it is concaved it's a male. If it's flat it is a female. This one is a male.

August 2, 2012

This has been a very busy week in Madagascar. We had a senior sister fly in on Saturday afternoon. We went with the President and his wife to greet her and then she stayed with us Sat. and Sunday night. Her companion came on Monday morning. Sister Scoville is from Virginia and will be over PEF. Her companion Sister  Floreen is from Madagascar. Both of them are in their seventies and they live four apartments down from us. We have been trying to help them adjust to their new living conditions. Sister Cornelius has also been helping Sister Adams prepare two meals for the missionaries this week On Monday we had a dinner for the two new sisters. On Tuesday we had a dinner for the Zone Leaders training. On Wednesday a former missionary who is trying to attend BYU Hawaii came in to get help with her application. She told me of her conversion story. When she was 17 she got very sick and had to stay at home for many months and couldn't go to school. she couldn't think straight or remember things. She had a friend who was a member of our Church who told her she needed to have a Priesthood blessing. She had a priesthood blessing and started to get better and it healed her. She was able to think straight again and learn, which she couldn't do while she was sick. She was baptised. She is now married and a mother of two children. She wants to become an art teacher so she can provide a better life for her family and herself. Sister Cornelius also helped Sister Adams clean out the missionary
supply room. It took two afternoons and was a lot of work. Today there is a Church choir concert that we have been invited to. So the A.P's are taking Sister Cornelius, Sister Scoville, and Sister Floreen to that. Elder Cornelius chose to stay home.
We want to leave you with this thought from D & C 84: 88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall  be in your hearts and mine angels round about you to bear you up." We testify that this is true for we have felt his spirit and felt his angels round about us bearing us up as we face each new challenge. We love
all of you and hope that you are all well and enjoying your summer.
Elder & Sister Cornelius

Here are a few pictures from our trip to the Lemur Park last week. The reason we were on this trip was to take the Elders that were leaving, having completed their two years to the park. It has been a mission tradition to do this. President Adams was unable to be there on this day so we were asked to take them to the park. A very tuff assignment. Ha Ha.

A large Crock we saw on our Crock park visit.

Us at the park

Sister Cornelius on the swinging bridge.

Sister C on a much smaller swinging bridge. (Yes there are Crocks in the water below)

Elder C with a Ringtail Lemur

Sister C with her new friend

Oh Dear!