Some Pictures from this weekend. #413 and 414 are of my scriptures that I had redone in croc skin. 

Picture 415 is Sister Cornelius and I in front of the Robert's Chocolate Factory. We purchased a number of pieces that will look good on us.

 #418 is us at a hotel Cafe Called Jinger Chicks we got some great Fried Chicken. The first that we have eaten in six months or more. 

This trip was in an area called tobacco or (Slums). I do not even want to try to explain how bad that place is. There are hundreds of thousands of people living in this area. I am sure this is the poorest area in the country. Very sad. The mission and the Humanitarian people do a ton of work in this area. Elder Seifert said he loved this area more than any of his mission because the people are so humble. We did not take any pictures down there though. We love you all so very much. 

First of all we would like to wish a Happy Father's Day to all you fathers, hope you have a great day. This week has been busy at the Mission Office with emails, helping missionaries, and recording Baptism records for Sister Cornelius. Elder Cornelius has been busy with apartments, paying bills and answering questions. The weather is getting cooler with highs in the mid 60's and lows in the lower 50's. We are in the dry season now with not much rain and a lot of pollution. Today we had our office meeting with the President, couples, A.P's and Office Elders there. We all share what is happening in the mission as far as our areas are concerned. The scripture for today was found in D&C 64, "When ye are on the Lord's errand he requires a willing heart and mind." Madagascar is third in our area for baptisms so far this year and we are on track to meet the President's goal of 2012 baptisms. We average about 100 per month. The work is going forth and the people here have set a goal for a Temple to be built here someday. We will get our new mission President, President Adams, here on June 30. We will be sorry to see President & Sister Donnelly leave. They have become good friends to us. They have lifted our spirits and shared many wonderful experiences with us that we wouldn't have had otherwise. They will return to live in South Africa and he will be working for the church in Public Relations for all of South Africa. We wouldn't be surprised to see him become a Seventy in the future. He is a spiritual giant, who is so close to our Savior in many aspects. Our final thought to you is this quote from a General Conference talk given by Elder Koelliker, "The feeling of love from our Heavenly Father is like a gravitational pull from heaven. As we remove the distractions that pull us toward the world and exercise our agency to seek Him, we open our hearts to a celestial force which draws us toward Him." We send our love and prayers to all of you and we want you to know of our great love for our Savior. Love,
Elder & Sister Cornelius
Picture 066 is of a market where you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables.

Picture 067 is a bread truck full of french bread that he will take to a market. Notice they don't use boxes they just load the bread in the back.

Picture 259 is The Fareea's, Marcellin, us and Sister Donnelly at the beach in Fort Dauphin.

The last picture is some of the cute Malagasy children

Trip to Fort Dauphin

Last week Elder Cornelius left on Monday for a trip to Fort Dauphin, which is at the south west end of the island. They went in four wheel drives as the roads are dirt, rock and sometimes there is no road. They had to cross 10 large rivers on barges, and about 60 smaller rivers. On one particular crossing the mud filled one of the vehicles. They met many wonderful people who were surprised to see 4 Americans, 1 Englishman, and two Tahitians traveling near their villages.

They were also surprised as they spoke Malagasy and French to them. They slept in grass huts with no electricity or water.

They cleaned themselves by pouring cold water over their heads. I didn't go because I was told of the possible conditions but Sister Fareea from Tahiti did. Sister Donnelly and I flew down on Thursday morning. We were the smart ones, I think. On Saturday we attended an open house at the Branch, a baptism, a Zone Conference, and a Fireside to honor the Donnnellys. At the fireside they did traditional dancing, gave Bruce a hat & scarf, and they gave me a lamba, which is colorful material that
you wrap around your body to made a dress or skirt.

We danced and sang with them and took pictures. It was a wonderful, but busy day. On Sunday we went to Branch Conference for 2 hours, with wonderful talks and they sang I Need Thee Every Hour in English for us. We cried when we heard them sing, it was beautiful. Bruce then taught the Elders Quorum lesson on Priesthood ordinances, and I taught the Relief Society lesson on Martha & Mary and the lessons Jesus taught us through their story. That evening we drove to a beach and collected shells and more pictures.

Then we went to the Branch Presidents home for dinner and shared favorite scriptures and bore
testimony.

It was a wonderful weekend with many spiritual experiences. We feel blessed that President and Sister Donnelly have included us in these experiences. It has given us some different
missionary experiences that we wouldn't get here at the office. We will miss them when they leave on July 2, they have become good friends and we would never have had these wonderful experiences, or
met such wonderful humble people, if we hadn't chosen to serve a mission. We have been very blessed. We love all of you and appreciate your emails and prayers. May God bless all of you.
Elder & Sister Cornelius

Our Humanitarian Trip

On Saturday morning we went with the Humanitarian couple, Elder & Sister Gray to see a water project turnover. We drove for 2 1/2 hours to a remote village north of Antananarivo. The roads were muddy, bumpy, rocky, and not in very good shape. When we arrived at the village we were greeted by the Mayor, his counselors and the people of the village. The first picture is of the Latrine/bathroom with a shower and two enclosed bathrooms, no toilets, for squatting only, or standing.

On the other side is a urinal for men and a water spout for getting fresh water. The second picture is some of the children who were staring at us strange Americans. They had never seen an American before.

There was a ceremony with the Mayor and his counselor talking, as well as some of the people who were involved with the building project. The great thing that the church does in these projects is to have the people of the village do most of the labor under the guidance of the contractor. That way it is their water wells and latrine and they take better care of them. After the speeches they had Elder & Sister Gray speak and they thanked all the people who made this project possible. We then went to several locations throughout the village to see the water station, 15 in all, that the people could use to get fresh water for cooking, cleaning, and bathing. We visited the hospital and school in the village where water stations were placed.

This picture is of the gift they gave to the Grays, two geese, male and female. these geese were making noise during the speeches and walking around. 

The children flocked around us and wanted their pictures taken. They giggled and pushed to see their pictures on the cameras. This was the first time for them to see a photo of themselves. Picture(057) is one of the many pictures we took of them.

They loved it when Elder Cornelius would give them a knuckle greeting, this is were you put your knuckles up to theirs instead of shaking their hands. The picture below is of the children playing on a teeter totter in the school yard. There were 8-10 of them having a good time.

The love and respect these people showed to us as members of the church, for giving them this gift of fresh water, was inspiring. They treated us like royalty. Can you imagine not being able to get fresh water out of your tap, or taking a shower in the convenience of your own home. These people do not have these luxuries. They have one shower for 150 people and 15 water stations to use. But they feel so blessed to have this precious gift given to them. We were also treated to see some traditional dancing by some young people of the village.

 Afterward we were given a lunch of red rice (vary) chicken and pork cooked with the fat, bones and all parts of the chicken. It is a treat to be able to get the chicken head to eat, we passed on that treat. We are so spoiled. They also had Coke and Fanta for the drinks.

After lunch we drove up to see the water tank, and two ponds for watering animals and to raise fish for eating. This is the Mayor of the village near one of the ponds

Sister Gray gave the children there some candy and they were so excited to get a small piece. It was a wonderful day, we felt the love of these people for us and our Savior's love as well for these humble people. We don't have any missionaries there because of how far away it is from a church, but some day these people will hear and accept the Gospel. The last picture (059) is of a cute girl carrying her sibling on her back. We see a lot of these young children carrying their younger brothers and sister on their backs, caring for them while their mothers are working in the rice fields or in the small stores trying to earn money or get food.

I would like to challenge all of you to find someone you can help this week, Because we have been given much we to must give to others, or to make a donation to the Humanitarian effort so more people throughout the world can be blessed as these people were through the efforts of our Church. We love all of you and hope you have an enjoyable week.
Love, Elder & Sister Cornelius

Recent Experience

I want to share something that happened to me this week. I went visiting teaching with the Relief Society President's daughter. We left and visited her sister at a hospital first, she had a baby the day before. Then we got on a crowded Taxi bus and rode to a VT appointment. I got to experience what types of home these people live in, they're small and surprisingly clean. We walked past many people and I thought I would be attacked or have my purse stolen, but nothing happened, only stares and talk. We visited two homes of recent converts, and you could feel the spirit in both homes. It was a truly humbling experience for me to see how these people live, yet they have hope and want Christ in their lives. One little boy who is 7 reminds his family to say their prayers and he was trying to read the Book of Mormon while we were there. He started crying when I told the mom that an Elder that he had grown close to had been transfered. His mom had just shown me a picture of the two of them that the elder had given him. That just shows how attached a family gets to the Elders that teach them. Missionary work is amazing and I'm very glad we got to experience it. Love all of you and have a great week. Sister Cornelius

Our Island Trip

On Thursday evening,  May 3, we flew from Tana to Mauritius, an island east of Madagascar for a couples conference. We went with President Donnelly, his wife and the Fareea's from Tahita. We stayed at Tamarin Bay near the Indian Ocean at a resort. On Friday morning we had breakfast with the three missionaries serving there and a local sister who is companion to the only sister still serving there. After breakfast we had a introduction & testimony meeting under a Gazebo, with tropical birds chirping around us and the ocean sounds and smells filling our senses with delight.. After the missionaries left we changed into P-day clothes and went on a boat ride out into the bay to see the mushroom island. The ocean was a beautiful blue green, white sand beaches and palm trees and tropical flowers lining the beach. We then had lunch, checked out of our rooms and sat near the ocean until our rented bus came to pick us up. We then drove to a port and boarded a Ocean freighter, and watched the sun go down as we left port headed for La Reunion, another island in the Indian Ocean.   We had dinner on the boat, stayed in first class, and crossed the ocean, which was rough at times throughout the night. We arrived in Reunion at sunrise, had breakfast and prepared to disembark. The A.P. elders were there to pick us up, with a van and their car. Then we drove along the ocean on a modern freeway to the President's apartment in St. Denis that has ten switch-backs up a mountain. Their living room window overlooks the ocean and the airport. As planes come in to land it looks like they will land in the ocean, and the water gets ripples and whirlwinds as the big planes land. After settling into our room, we drove downtown to a large shopping mall, bought a few souvenirs, and some food. We had lunch there at the
mall, and ate a delicious fruit tart that reminded me of fruit pizza. That evening we went to an outdoor market that is only held once a month. We got to try Creole food. The people that live in Reunion ( the
gathering place) are French or Creole, a mixture of Jamaican and French. There's not a lot of English spoken there. We also had a wonderful Carmel ice cream cone. Ice cream in Mada isn't very creamy,
more like sorbet. Sunday morning we went to church in a branch in St. Pierre about two hours away. We met with the sisters and had an ocean-side picnic listening to the waves and watching wind surfers. We then went back to the apartment and relaxed, had naps and enjoyed the day, except Sister Cornelius who wasn't feeling well. On Monday we did more sight seeing, walked along the beach, rested and had a FHE & fireside with all the missionaries. One of the sister missionaries, Sister Neves, is related to Fred Adams. Her uncle is married to Glennis Adams. We had dinner with them and listened to their sweet testimonies. Tuesday, our last day in Reunion we drove up the canyon to Hellborg, and saw beautiful waterfalls everywhere.  It was so lush and green and spectacular. It reminded us of Hawaii. It was a wonderful conference, feeling the spirit, and getting to strengthen our testimonies. We will always treasure our time there and feel blessed that we were able to do this. If we hadn't served a mission we wouldn't have seen the things we have seen, met the wonderful people we have met, nor felt the spirit that we have felt here serving with the missionaries. We truly have been blessed to be here and made wonderful friends and memories. Love all
of you and thanks for your friendship and prayers. Happy Mother's Day to all you mother's.
Love, Elder & Sister Cornelius

Mushroom Island

Unusual Mountain

The Rainbow from our apartment

Sister Missionaries

The walk at the Hotel in Mauritius

Oceanside Picnic

Sunset

Me in
front of a Bauo bab tree

The Beach

Tropical Flowers

The little village we stopped at called Hellborg.

Island Trip Update!

I thought I would get a quick note off to you all before we take off for our Island trip. We are well and doing great. Both of us are healthy and happy. This trip should be quite a time and we will share it with you when we get back. Mauricius Island is like a 2nd world country and will be a wonderful step up from here. Then Reunion is a first world country and that is where we will spend most of our time. We will do a small cruise between islands in a Ocean going freighter tomorrow night and then spend the rest of the time on Renunion. It should be a lot of fun with President Donnelly as he was once a sailor in the British Navy. He called me last night and told me to brush up on my "eye- eye's" as in "eye- eye capatain" Just think on Saturday I will be able to sink my teeth into a Big Mack and Fries. American Food Hummmmmm. We will give you a full rundown a week from Sunday.