This past week has flown by because of a lot of activities in our mission. On Tuesday we had a going away dinner for four missionaries going home. This is always a choice evening as the missionaries bear testimony of the work that they have preformed. One missionary who served in a Branch Presidency had 100 baptisms on his mission. He bore a spiritual testimony of the love God has for all his children and how much he will miss the people he has served. Another missionary told of the trials he had, his parents told him they were getting a divorce in the M.T.C, he just about went home after that. then when he got here he found out that his mom had cancer and later that his brother was having some difficulties. He really was tested and had a difficult time, but he said that he finally realized that he needed to be here doing what he was doing and that everything would work out. He couldn't change what  his parents had chosen to do and he could best help his mother by serving the Lord and praying for her. He has had great success on his mission and his family is doing better, his mom is doing well. President Adams bore testimony that each of these missionaries were going to be great assets to their wards and families. That they aren't the same now as they were when they entered the mission field. They need to stay strong and use the things they have learned here to strengthen their future wives and family. One of the apostles said that the most important convert that you will make on your mission is yourself.
On Wednesday we welcomed 6 new missionaries to our mission, we had a dinner that night and two stayed at our apartment. Thursday morning we fed all of them breakfast, We went through 34 eggs in two days, those growing missionaries can eat. Sister Cornelius made rolls for the luncheon we had after their training and finding out who their companion would be. It is fun to be apart of the excitement as they open their letter to tell them where they will serve and with whom. Sister Cornelius then sent an email to the parents to let them know of their sons arrival and assignment. We also had transfers on Thursday and there were missionaries coming and going all day, 805 of our missionaries were transferred, so it was very hectic. One missionary who has been serving in Tulear came in before we left our office and told us about the devastation from the Cyclone that hit there a week ago last Monday. A whole village was destroyed and thousands of people are either homeless or out of work because the boats are damaged. This is a seaport town that is just above sea level. Our church Humanitarian is working with the Catholic Relief Agency and the government to help in that area. 
In closing I would like to share one scripture found in 2 Nephi 2:8 "Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being first that should rise."
We hope each of you have a great week and we appreciate you support and love.
Love, Elder & Sister Cornelius

This is Elder Horman by a large tree that fell during the cyclone in Tulear.

 

 The next picture is of Tulear where the cyclone hit two weeks ago. A missionary who was serving there gave me some pictures. The pictures shows the flood water and broken trees.

February 17, 2013

We have had a wonderful week in Madagascar with rain every day and lots of things to keep us busy. We love it when the missionaries come into the office to visit and get supplies. They lift our spirits and we enjoy the time we can spend with them. Yesterday the A.P.'s were trying to connect one of the Zones for a Zone leaders Conference through Web X. They had on their head sets and were talking like they were airplane pilots. We had a good laugh. We love our wonderful A.P.'s, they are lots of fun.
 Everyday is a different adventure here. On Thursday, Valentine's Day we went with another couple to a restaurant called Carnivore. They had a huge flower heart in the entrance and the whole place was decorated with red, pink, and white, picture attached. We had a variety of meat, lamb, beef, chicken, pork, crocodile, and crab & shrimp appetizers. The dessert was a three chocolate mousse and caramelized pineapple with ice cream. It was a new experience, One we didn't think we would have here.

When it rains the ladies wear shower caps to keep their hair dry and they carry umbrellas with them to keep the sun off of them in the heat of the day. They are always prepared this time of year for what ever the weather might be.
In Sunday School today we talked about the Atonement and it's importance. This one point stood out to us. "How Jesus loves us to suffer such spiritual and physical agony for our sake! How great the love of Heavenly Father that He would send His Only Begotten Son to suffer and die for the rest of His children. "For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." When we truly think of what Christ had to suffer for us on the cross and in Gethsemane it should make us all try even harder to not sin and cause him even more suffering in our behave.
We send our love and gratitude to each of you for your support and look forward to being with each of you again soon. 

Love Elder & Sister Cornelius

Picture 1193 is the Senior Primary of our ward. They are cute children of God, with wonderful spirits.

February 9, 2013

Another week has passed and we are happy for the weekend to get caught up on shopping, laundry, and house cleaning. That's always something to look forward to right? We had another busy week at the office. There is always things to do to fill the day. After entering the 2012 baptism records we ended up with 1,019 baptisms for the year. We think that puts us over 10,000 members. One problem we have here is retention, many of the members don't accept new converts and aren't very friendly with them. We have an investigator in our ward that was offended by some sisters in Relief Society, so she won't attend. She leaves after Sunday School. It just reminds us that we need to be careful of what we say and try hard to fellowship investigators and make them feel welcome. In another Branch the Branch President's wife told a lady that she wasn't welcome in their church and not to come back. Needless to say her husband was released. Because most of these people are new in the gospel they have many things to learn. Elder Cornelius answers a lot of questions in Elders Quorum meetings each Sunday that the members have. He is teaching a lot of gospel principles that they don't quite understand.
We heard that you had 8 small earthquakes on Thursday. We hope there was no damage there.
We are having a lot of rain here in the evenings and the mornings are very pleasant. The clouds build up in the afternoon and dump on us in the evenings. We have had a lot of rain this month,over 7 inches so far.
In a talk given by Jeffrey R. Holland to the missionaries in the M.T.C. in January 2013 he gave this formula by which we can know if we are measuring up to the Lord's expectations: "Seek to be personally converted, obey the rules of the mission (or commandments), strive to have the Spirit of the Lord in your life, and work hard. These are things every (member) & missionary can do." I have added the words in parenthesis  to make it apply to us. "If you do those things, I promise you in the name of the Lord and with the authority of my office, you are a success in His eyes."
We send our love and testimony to each of you that the gospel of Jesus Christ will continue to go forth throughout the world, and that as more people embrace his gospel lives will be changed for the better and it will be a better world to live in. We do love and appreciate all of you for your support and prayers for us. May each of you feel of his love for you. Elder & Sister Cornelius

Picture 1137 is of our neighbors below the office drying their laundry on the lawn, they don't have electric dryers so they dry the laundry on rocks, lawns, or wherever they can. 

Picture 1170 is a unique contrast in worlds with oxen, or Zebu here, pulling a cart and a modern sign selling toothpaste. 

Picture 1175 is an open market meat stand. You can buy fresh meat here and enjoy it along with the flies and dirt. We don't buy it here, but the Malagasy people do. 

The last picture 1190 is of a turtle that our neighbors have in their yard. We see it when we walk around our apartment complex.

Dear Family & Friends,
This week just flew by and it's February already! We have been very busy this week with a variety of things. We welcomed the Todd's from Provo this week to our mission. They are serving as a Member Leadership Support couple in Antsirabe. He was a professor at BYU, (GO Cougars) and taught Mechanical Engineering. He and his wife have traveled with BYU students to many places in Europe and Singapore to learn about International Trade. He has served as a Stake President in Provo. They will be a great addition to our mission. Sister Cornelius has been entering baptism records, answering many emails, and getting supplies for missionaries, ordering supplies, and answering questions. Elder Cornelius fills his day with financial matters, apartments, and vehicles. Never a boring moment in a Mission Office.
This week we had a cyclone off the south east coast of Madagascar. We have been tracking it as it moved toward us. Luckily it stayed in the ocean and didn't do a lot of damage inland. We got some heavy rains and winds yesterday. Reunion had roads closed and heavy rains there. They have a highway that runs along the ocean and the waves were coming onto the highway so they closed it down for several days. This is the time of year for cyclones to happen so we keep track of them in the office. We had missionaries in one town on the southeast in lock down for one day until the cyclone passed and kept close contact with them. They are all fine and said that it wasn't that bad.
Last Saturday we went shopping and took some interesting pictures along the way. T

This is a man selling hats, there had to be at least 50 to 100 hats on his head.

We will send more pictures later. Hope all of you have a great week, love Elder & Sister Cornelius

A local market

A hand cart

Hubcap store

January 28, 2013

Dear Family & Friends,
This past week we were busy with welcoming in a new couple the Richards from West Jordan. They are the Humanitarian couple and Elder Richards worked for the U.S. government and they have traveled all over the world to places like the Congo, England, Europe, and many other places. They have a son currently serving his mission in Leeds, England. We have our last couple coming on Monday, the Todds. They are a Member Leadership support couple and will be serving in Antsirabe two and a half hours from Tana. We have been getting wind and rain this week and it is nice because it cools things down.
I want to share a story from one of our missionaries that he shared with me. He and his companion were invited to go to an orphanage to teach English. When they got there it was a compound that used to be a milk farm for cows. There were 610 kids at the school for orphans. When the missionaries went to teach the orphans they had about 400 kids, all standing, fixed into ranks by age like little soldiers. All 400 of the children sang to the missionaries and he said they were the cutest kids he's ever seen. When the missionaries started to talk to them in English the students smiled and giggled. They want to learn English because they are told it will help them and they love America. The missionary taught them Simon Says and Head, Shoulders, Knees, & Toes.The kids loved it and had a lot of fun. The missionaries loved this experiences and will be going back every Friday to the orphanage to teach them. I will ask the elder if he can give me a picture of the kids, he said he took some pictures.
We had Zone Leaders Counsel on Thursday with 7 elders. The mission is working on in-actives, family baptisms, father led families, and centers of strength. Centers of strength is building the kingdom around churches so that the recent converts can attend church near their homes and not have to travel great distances. We loose too many converts if they aren't close to a church, because they have to walk too far or ride buses to get to church.
We have had a great week and we will close with this scripture from D & C 72: 3-4, "And verily in this thing ye have done wisely, for it is required of the Lord, at the hand of every steward, to render an account of his stewardship, both in time and in eternity. For he who is faithful and wise in time is accounted worthy to inherit the mansions prepared for him of my Father." We hope that as we a winding down our mission here in Madagascar that we have been wise servants and that when we render an account of our stewardship that the Lord will be pleased with our service. For it is our desire to inherit one of those mansions prepared by our Father for us and our family.
Love, Elder & Sister Cornelius

Picture 1043 is Sister Florine and Sister Scoville our P.E.F. sisters. 

Picture 1065 is Elder Barclay & Steele our A.P.'s that we work with a lot. They are Great missionaries.

Dancers

January 19th

Dear Family & friends,
It's a beautiful summer morning, with a slight breeze blowing and we got a nice rain last night. It's supposed to be in the 80's today. We just thought we would make you envious of us here. We welcomed the Caron couple from Canada this week. They live in Montreal and she was an Art History lecturer and he was a professor in electromechanics. They will be serving in a coastal town called Tomatave as Member Leadership Support. We had a welcome dinner for them on Thursday and they left Friday morning. Today we have a couple coming from West Jordan, the Richards. They will serve here as the Humanitarian couple.
We have a brown Gecko that is living in our bedroom. It startled both of us as it ran across the floor. We like them because they eat the bugs. We have several living around our house that are green and brown. The tomato plants that we planted in our yard had to be pulled up because they were all rotting. So that was a disappointment. We do have corn and cucumbers growing however. The pineapples are in season and are so sweet and delicious that you can't get enough.
President Adams shared a talk with us on Wednesday morning called "True Believers in Christ" by Elder Neal A. Maxwell. This is just a few of the points that he shared with us. :Two virtues of the meek are that they are not easily offended and they do not resist counsel. Nor are these lowly in heart inclined to see themselves as being "above" all the seemingly routine duties of discipleship. duties are not to be rejected on the basis of "I've done all that before," as if God were required to supply us with new thrills. Mortality has been described by the Lord as being like working in a vineyard--never as an afternoon at a carnival. Besides, how could we pretend to be true believers in Christ, if we shunned the chores of the kingdom!" "Furthermore, we will find that when we have personal spiritual experiences, which keep us close to the Lord, these will almost always occur in the course of carrying out the specific duties named earlier, since it is not enought for us to have once been close to the Savior. Alma said, if we have once "felt to sing the song of redeeming love," can we "feel so now?"
We send our love to all of you and hope you are having a great week. Love Elder & Sister Cornelius

The road we drive every day.

On New Years Day we ate lunch at the Adams' house. I made Chicken Pot Pie but forgot to put the chicken in. I must be getting old. After lunch we drove up to the Queen's castle and took a tour with two tour guides who spoke English, sort of. We learned a lot about the history of the place and took lots of pictures.                                     Us in front of the queens castle.

 The first king Andrainamananina had twelve wives. He built this castle for his first wife and build smaller Castles on eleven other hills around Antananarivo and had royal trees planted on each hill. Our hill in Andrainarivo has one of those trees and that is where Richard G. Scott dedicated this land for proclaiming the gospel. His first wife had thousands of Malagasy people killed who became Christians when English missionaries came into Madagascar. She is called the wicked queen. She killed the Christians because they put Jesus Christ above her in their worshiping.

                                                A view of Antananarivo from where we were.

There were Malagasy people everywhere staring at the Fahsas, or white people. They go there because they think the ground in sacred. There is a Protestant church still used there for worshiping. The little kids followed us and listened to the English. We took a few pictures of them. There were globe spiders in most of the trees and all over the old buildings.  There are no poisonous spiders or snakes in Madagascar the guide told us and the children play with and eat the spiders. They use their silken webs for many things because they are so strong.

We had a wonderful time and afterward went back to the President's home and played Chicken Foot   and talked until 8:00. It was a fun day.

We are still teaching our English class on Saturdays and enjoy working with students who want to learn and improve themselves. Today I taught them "The best gift that you can give yourself is self improvement." I really believe that to be true and I told them that what they are doing in trying to learn English is going to benefit them in the long run. We are enjoying our association with the Malagasy people. They are very good people and are very polite and respectful.
Today at our church they are having a baptism for the daughter of a doctor. They have a large spread of food in the culture hall and they had the choir that we heard singing on Christmas Eve preforming. There is a lot of people that attended the baptism. We are missing our grandson Landon's baptism this weekend and wish we could be there for him.
We hope all of you have a wonderful year and are blessed with good health.
Love, Elder & Sister Cornelius

In addition,  This a baby cameleon that was in our kitchen. We had them born in our garden.

This is a picture of the hotel which is close to the mission office, it's called the Panarama, we will be staying there the last week of our mission. 

This is inside the origional kings home, this is where they prepared food and ate on the rock.

This is a statue of one of the queens that was near a bathing/swimming pool. This little girl was hugging her.