Last week there wasn't a lot of exciting things going on here in Madagascar, just the normal office things. Sister Cornelius had an intestinal flu bug and was down for a few days. We have had a rash of
hospital visits with our missionaries this past few weeks. One missionary was hospitalized with pneumonia, one with appendix and another went in with possible appendix, but didn't have to stay. They are still trying to figure out what his problem is. The air is so bad here right now that most of us have lung congestion, and coughs. This week will be an exciting and busy week with  4 missionaries coming in on Wednesday, Zone Leaders Council Thursday, and Elder Cook & Sister Cook arriving Friday. He is a Seventy and serves in the South Africa Presidency. He is here for a mission tour and we will have a Zone Conference on Saturday with all the Tana missionaries as well as some from some of the other areas in Madagascar, 56 in all. What this means for Sister Adams and Sister Cornelius is 3 meals to prepare, from scratch, plus shopping for the food.

Yesterday we listened to the 2008 Saturday morning Conference. We really enjoyed a talk by Elder Uctdorf on Hope and I would encourage you to reread it. He talked about how we can overcome our trails, our disappointments, our fears through the hope in Christ's Atonement. He also said that Faith, Hope, & Charity are like a three legged stool, if one leg is removed the stool cannot stand, you have to have all three. We likewise must have all three to support us in difficult times in our lives and to help us stay faithful in the gospel. We hope that you are enjoying your last summer holiday of the year. We don't get Labor Day off here, in fact our only holiday off is Christmas and maybe Thanksgiving. We were thinking that we sure would have enjoyed a good steak, corn on the cob, scone dinner
with all the High Priests last Friday night. We miss all of our good friends in the ward. We hope you are all doing well and we send our love to each of you. Elder & Sister Cornelius