July 26, 2012

Last night we had the opportunity to have dinner and a testimony meeting with three departing elders who are going home today. We also got to go with them to the Lemur Park and Crocodile Park in Andesibe on Tuesday. We had a fun time getting to know each of them as we traveled and toured the parks. We got to go across suspending bridges that were scarry, but the missionaries had fun taking pictures as they crossed. We saw many different sizes of crocodiles. We will send pictures later. During the testimony meeting each missionary shared their feelings about serving a mission and how it had strengthened them and helped them gain a stronger testimony. They talked of their appreciation for those who had trained them and helped them through difficult trials. One missionary compared his mission to a Roller Coaster ride with its ups and downs, twists and turns, and when you get to the end of the ride you look back and say that was an awesome ride. I'd like to do it all over again. They shared the love for the humble people of Madagascar and how serving these people has helped them learn to love them. One missionary said that he would tell his investigators that I wouldn't be here today if I didn't know that this church is true. I wouldn't be here if I didn't know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. I am here because I know that Joseph Smith was a Prophet of God, I wouldn't be here if I didn't know these things were true. It was a wonderful evening and you could really feel the spirit there. Today a young women came in to the office and wanted to speak English. She has been learning English for 6 months. I spoke to her for a while and asked her if she would like to come to the english
class that is taught by the elders every Friday here at the church. I also gave her some English books to read, the Ensign and Our Search for Happiness. I introduced her to the missionaries as she is not a
member, but is interested in learning about our church. So, we will see what happens there. We hope all of you have a great weekend.
Love you, Elder & Sister Cornelius

July 20, 2012

This week we entertained an Elder in the evening for a few days as he is recovering from surgery and couldn't go out tracting with his companion. He had dinner with us Wed. & Thursday night. Thursday night we fed his companion and one other elder who is going home next week. They watched A Work & A Glory # 3 with us and we talked until it was time for them to go home. On Tuesday we ate at a Mexican-Malagasy outdoor diner and had onion rings, french fries, chicken burritos (kind of) and fried greasy tortillas that you dipped in a white sauce. It was very good, and we went with the A.P.'s.

On 24 July we get to take five Elders to the Lemur Park. President Adams is in Reunion so he asked us to take the departing elders there for their farewell trip. We will leave at 7:00 a.m. and come back that evening. It is a 2 1/2 hour drive there. It should be a fun day. We will be going in Hank the Tank, the big white van that looks like a taxi bus. I will take a picture of it and send it to you. We have been busy taking care of things here in the office, never a boring minute here. We have a large tree outside our office that is called Amontana, or Royal tree. You can't find them in other countries. We took our pictures by it when we first got here. We enjoy sitting under it as it provides a lot of shade. It was under this tree on Oct. 30 1999, that Elder richard G. Scott gave the prayer of dedication for the missionary work in Madagascar. We walk under it almost every day to get a little exercise as we walk around the office building.

We send our love and prayers for all of you and hope you are enjoying your summer.

Love Elder & Sister Cornelius

July 14th, 2012

This week we visited all the missionary apartments in Antananarivo with Sister Adams. She wanted to see where they lived and what we did when we inspected them. She is inspecting three in Toamasina this weekend while they are there doing interviews and meeting the church leaders there. Sister Adams and Sister Cornelius also bought curtains for one apartment on Monday and went shopping for chairs for the office. We had a missionary that had his appendix out on Monday night. He is doing better and came home Friday.  We ate at an Italian Restaurant last night. It was good for a change, especially the dessert. We have been praying for Southern Utah to get some rain to put out the fires, and our children said that the wards have been fasting and praying as well. We hope you get some soon.

We have noticed how we are adjusting better to our situation here as time goes by. Our roles have gone from working under strong confident leaders who have served for many years to helping a new couple learn their roles. Sister Cornelius has switched from not doing much to help the mission president's wife, to helping her a lot as she adjusts to her new environment. She depends on me to show her around and to teach her what her responsibilities are. We have become good friends and find that we have many things in common.

 

I have missed being a visiting teacher here, as the language barrier causes a problem and we can't communicate that well . Also, I need to be with my companion and not go out alone without him. I always enjoyed visiting the sisters in the ward and getting to know them better. I look forward to doing that again when we get home. I wish the sisters here could catch the purpose and spirit that comes from doing their visiting teaching. They only get about 4% per month on visiting teaching. The church however is still young here with it only being recognized in 1993 in this country.

This is my new dishwasher, notice how efficient he is.

As we were reading the lesson in the Teachings of the Prophets on Sunday we were both touched by this thought from George A. Smith, "It is not an easy task; it is not a pleasant thing, perhaps, to be called out into the world, to leave our dear ones, but I say to you it will purchase for those who are faithful, for those who discharge that obligation as they may be required, peace and happiness beyond all understanding, and will prepare then that, in due time, when life's labor is complete, they will stand in the presence of their Maker, accepted of Him because of what they have done." What a wonderful messages, this gives us hope and courage to go forth and try our best to be faithful and to carry out what we are called to do. We send our love and blessings to all of you. Elder & Sister Cornelius

 

 Dear Family & Friends,
It's hard to know where to begin, yesterday was a very special fast & testimony meeting. Our new mission President & Sister Adams bore their testimonies as well as President & Sister Donnelly. Then there was a
continual line of people who wanted to share their testimonies. One man who has only been baptised two months blessed the sacrament for the first time and bore his testimony. He is going to be a great strength to the ward and the community. He talked about how the adversary was working on their family since they had been baptised and how prayer had helped them. After Church we hosted lunch for President & Sister Adams, the Donnelly's & Grays. We enjoyed getting to know this new couple. He is an oral surgeon from Fresno California. We had a fireside later that evening and he shared with us how they got their calling and how they knew that this is where they were supposed to be. He told us of his week with the apostles being trained and how they had gone to Church last Sunday with President Monson presiding. They both have wonderful spirits and will be a real assest to this area. We look forward to getting to know them better. After the fireside they couples came to our house and we played Chicken Foot, which is a fun game using dominoes, and we had a wonderful time. President & Sister Donnelly leave today and we are going to miss them a lot. They have promised to come to Cedar to visit us and we hope to see them at October Conference in 2013, when we will have a reunion. I want to share a story from one of our wonderful missionaries Elder Loose. He shared this story of a 6 year old boy who fell off the roof of his house on his head on a Friday night. The missionaries were called to go to the hospital and give him a blessing. When they arrived his head was super swollen and his arm was bandaged up. They gave him a blessing right before he was sent to another hospital. The next day they got a text from the father that said, "The doctor witnessed a miracle, Mamoun, the son, is fine and his head is no longer swollen at all. He will be coming home on Monday." The doctor found no fractures or anything wrong with him. The missionary said,
"This was truly a miracle from God. I truly know that the Priesthood is real and that God lives" This is just one of many stories that we have heard here. We will end with this great thought that our granddaughter Morgan sent to us.
 
Mis-sion-ar-y, (Noun) Someone who leaves their family for 18 months
to two years so that others can be with their family for Eternity.We
love all of you, Elder & Sister Cornelius

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