March 17, 2013

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you. This week has been rather uneventful with not a lot of things going on, just the normal routine. The weather has been warm and pleasant, with a few evening rain showers.We had  a Zone conference for the other half of our Tana missionaries on Tuesday. There was a recent convert couple who shared with us their conversion story and told us what convinced them to join the church. They said it was the Book of Mormon and the way they felt when the missionaries were teaching them.The missionaries who were converted to the church shared their conversion stories and then they did a role play where they practiced contacting someone on the street. They then evaluated how they did and gave positive suggestion on ways to improve. It is always enjoyable to be with the missionaries and feel of their great spirits. We have been trying to create and update manuals for our replacement couple. The Finance office didn't have one so Elder Cornelius is working on creating one so that future Finance secretaries will have something to refer to when they have questions. Elder Cornelius didn't have that privileged when he got here, so he had to learn the hard way by trial and errors. Sister Cornelius had a manual is is just updating it. We hope to have these done before we leave. We'd like to end with a story we heard in Zone Conference about the importance of following the spirit. A missionary shared this story with us. He and his companion were walking down the street and they had three houses in front of them. They were going to go to the one on the left first, but the spirit told them to go to the one in the middle. There was a man standing by his house and when he saw the missionaries he greeted them warmly and told them that he had been taught by other missionaries years before but hadn't joined their church. He looked at the bigger missionary and said, "You remind me of the missionary who taught me. Please come in, I want to hear more about your church." Sometimes people aren't ready to hear the truths of the gospel until something changes in their lives, this opens their hearts and minds so that they are ready to learn more. They become teachable. We should never give up on our family, friends and neighbors but keep loving them and setting an example for them.
We are looking forward to a visit from our former mission president next week. He is here for meetings and is coming for dinner Wednesday night. We send our love to all of you. Continue to pray for the missionaries, they need your prayers.
Elder & Sister Cornelius