Helloooo

Holaaaa

Welll...I am in AMATITLAN!!! It is like ciudad y costa!

wooooo. I left the mountains and boy, I am in a whole new world!!! 

Puessss. My new companion is Hermana Ziga. She is from Mexico and she is just the sweetest thing ever! We are already having so much fun. She also speaks english!!! She was sealed in the San Diego temple with her family as a child! Small world. 

Well my area is just lovely! The people are so kind and I am having so much fun. The memebers just come out with us whenever and they are so willing to serve. I love it!!!!!

We have an investigator Juana who is going to get baptized! She has been coming to church a few weeks now and she just wants to clear up some doubts that she has had with the catholic doctrine and ours, but she is suppperrrr pilas and we love her! We are seeing miracles,ya!!!!!!!

We went to walmart yesterday. It was a spiritual experience. I could feel the Spirit and teared up a little. It was HEAVENLY. Oh the wonders of Walmart. For the first time in FOREVER I saw some real food! WOO! The little stores here just dont have what we have in the states. Lond story short, we splurged and bought eggo waffles and we are feeling like the luckiest people in the world. Tender mercies. 

I am learning so much. I am grateful for our Savior. I know He lives. I am grateful for the moments that have brought me to my knees to pled for help and added strength. I know that the Lord is carrying me through this mission and that He loves each one of us. I feel his mercy and love for us. I hope you can feel that Love too. 

I love you more than you know.

xoxox

hermana cornelison 

Mi amiga y yo! 

That is a house behind us! 

We are blessed.

Make Your Heart Happy

Wow! This week was incredible. Miracle of the week... Of the many...

We taught the mom of our convert, Gary. She wants to get baptized and LOoooooVESS talking. She is the cutest thing ever. We went to visit her for the first time and she told us that she was feeling really sick and sad and that we were there to help in her critical moment. We sang to her and read with her and felt the Spirit with her. God helped her feel better. She has a baptismal date and now she will have an eternal family with Gary!!!! Really God is a God of miracles. He truly loves us. 

SOoooooooo....

Saying goodbye to all of my friends here in San Pedro! We have changes tomorrow! Who knows what will happen.. but I am leaving.  I am gonna have some withdrawls from a few members here in this branch but I am excited to see what comes next. We just keep moving forward with faith and love!!!! 

The rain has started! We walk around with our rain boots ALWAYS because we are walking through rivers, teaching in rivers, contacting in rivers. Looking like wet animals. hahahaha The best is when you are all wet and you go to contact a bus and as you pass down the aisle you just get everyone wet and they just think you are crazy. But they see our smiles and want to know more. That is our message. 

Happy that God loves us and that He has a plan.

love you. sorry I have been MIA!

xoxoxox

hermana cornelison 

Trees

hola!!!!

Wow! This week was incredible. 

We found a family that we have been teaching and this sunday their children came to church! They were super reverent and they said that they loved it! They made some friends and loved going to the classes. They also want to get baptized and their parents are on board. The parents could not come to church with them, but they said that they will the next week! That was for sure such a miracle this week.  My companion and I gave talks in church about missionary work and we got the branch all ready to share the gospel! We love San Pedro. 

Fun stuff this week.

Pday.. we hiked a huge Guatemalan mountain-forest-jungle!!!! It was the most beautiful thing ever! It was a lot harder than we had all anticipated, so our jeans and backpacks ended up getting super muddy, but it was for sure my favorite actividad as a zone. When we got to the top we could see basically all of Guatemala!!!! hahaha. And coming back was just as good. Slipping all over the mud and loving life. Guatemala is my favorite. =)

There were a ton of really huge trees where we were hiking and I thought of the talk by Elder Christensen in the October General Conference... I know these things for my self.

He said... "In most cases our testimonies will grow the same way a tree grows... Gradually, almost imperceptibly, as a result of our constant care and diligent efforts.... 'But if ye will nourish the word,' Alma promised, 'yea nourish the tree as it beginneth to grow, by your faith with great diligence, and with patience, looking forward to the fruit thereof, it shall take root; and behold it shall be a tree springing up unto everlasting life.'" Alma 32:41

I know that our testimonies can grow as we live the gospel consistently and with exact obedience. God loves us and His divine aid is always extended to those who want it. I know He loves you. I know you are important and I love you so much. 

xoxox

hermana rachey cornelison 

con mi amiga, la hermana maria elena! Ella es tan buena! Le amo!

the service actividad the other week! 

Buckets and Showers of Love

We had A MIRACLE the other day. We had an appointment with a family that we had contacted in the street. When we went by for them the wife was the only one home and she told us to come back in 30 minutes. So we decided to seize the moment and explore a little place we had never gone before. We found about 5 doors and we decided to knock them. The first two we knocked, people came out and we started to testify and share with them, but they were cabras. Not like the..slam the door in your face...kind of cabra but the Spirit told me no. So we just invited them to church and continued. We started back for the family, with no success. We passed by a tin door and I asked my companion if we had knocked it yet. We could not remember so we decided that it would be best to try one more time. When we knocked a young woman came out really fast. She accepted us in her house and as we began to talk, we knew that were were in the right place at the right time. She had told us that moments before we knocked she was reading her Bible and all of a sudden got up to go to the door and didn't remember why. When she was there, we were too. She told us that we were an answer to her prayers. She told us that in that very day, a very good family friend had died in another part of Guatemala and she couldn't be there with them or her family. She needed help and was looking for direction from God!! We followed the Spirit and taught the most sacred lesson of the Plan of Salvacion. We cried, she cried, and there was no denying that the Spirit of God was in that room to testify to her that this message of God is true. I have never felt the Spirit so strong in my life! I know that on that day, God was answering both of our prayers and that He loves us. We made a baptism date with her right then and there.

fUN STORY....

one of our investigadores has pollos and she is a cute little old lady. Her chickens escaped and we had a lesson set up with her so we had to catch them before we started. It was HILARIOUS. We were chasing around chickens for 20 minutes. It was our service for the week!!! But we dominated that pollito and caught it! WOOO! Success. 

IT'S RAINING!!! Here, when it rains, it RAINS. POURS. It also makes me so happy and makes me laugh SO HARD. Basically everyone has tin roofs and so when it rains and pours we cannot hear anthing because the rain with the tin just doesn't work too well. So we are teaching a lesson and all of a sudden we are SCREAMING trying to help them hear us. It is so funny and I love it. When It rains I feel like God is just pouring out buckets and showers of love on us! He loves us and I know it. 

I love you, too. 

xoxoxox

hermana cornelison 

May 12th

My new companera! Hermana Ruiz. She is new to the mission and I am training her! She is doing great. This photo is from a service project! Here is my new companion to the left, and my old hija on the right with her new companion! 

love you guys!!!!!!! 

April 28th

Pictures of the week

Fuertes y Valientes

This week was great! We went to the market with Hermana Maria Elena yesterday! We saw some meat. Haha. She is great. She always tells us that we are fuerte y valiente. I love her! She is so willing to serve and never asks for anything in return. She is of the household of faith. 

President told us that we need to take the mirrors our of our lives and put in windows. Because with mirrors, we just see ourselves and our selfish needs...but with windows, we look out and we go out and we serve. I loved that.

Last night we had Noche de Hogar with a family in our branch. We watched y talked about the video...gracias a que el vive. I love that video! Have you seen it? It is really powerful. I know that Jesus lives and that he is here for us in the good, bad, in between moments. He loves us and we can find Him in every moment. 

Sorry that this is short. We are happy and loving the mission. Hermana Alvarado is wonderful. Thank you for your love and prayers. 

xoxoxox hermana cornelison 

Guess what I got???

LICE. I got lice. 

I am about to shave my head you guys. This is a beautiful picture of my comb and my esfuerzo...my struggle. ahahahahaha it is so funny. Not sharing this with everyone. Just you three. Its a shame really. 

let me know if you have advice. 

Love you!!!!!!

Conference!

Hola!!!

We had general conference this week! We got to go to Antigua to watch it and it was so great.  We got to see so many people we love and I was bubbling with joy. Gary, our convert, went and he absolutely loved it. He has a lot of questions about whether he should go on a mission or not and he is growing in the gospel so quickly. It is so crazy to think about how much his life has changed just in the month of march till now and we are so happy for him. We want to work with his mom also to help her come unto Christ. She is a single mom and loves us but we want her to love the gospel, too! We know she will. 

 I loved all the talks but one of my favorites was Elder Pearson. I loved how he talked about how we need to hold tight to the iron rod and stay by the tree of life! He also talked directly to missionaries. We need to go home from the mission, different, and not have the same old habits. We need to say goodbye to babylon forever and not just dive right back in. I loved that. 

Hermana Alvarado and I are really doing great. She is so happy and it always makes me happier. I love how much faith she has, and how she is always willing to change and accept new challenges. We are working on diligence.Not just in walking fast to random houses, but we are trying to walk fast to houses that we have felt are prepared to hear the gospel. We have Plan A and Plan B in our agenda and we want the spirit to trust us as we follow those plans, and we know He will put people in our path.

We love you. We pray for you!! Thank you for your love and help.

Hermana cornelison 

pictures... red banano!!!! 

and my favorite guatemalan woman in the world!!!!

Birthdays, Baptisms, Catholics

Wow. This week was full of absolute miracles. So we have wrote you about Gary and all of his progress. How he was ready to get baptized the 22 of march. We also wrote you about how Gary was having some difficulties and how he told us that he didnt want to get baptized anymore. Hermana Alvarado and I were devastated because we knew that he was ready and that Satan was attacking him, so that he wouldnt be baptized. So we prayed and prayed and had all the faith that somehow God would touch his heart and help him remember why he wanted to get baptized in the first place. 

Our prayers were answered!! We went back a day later and he was SO happy and apologized and told us how much he wanted to get baptized. We had his baptismal interview on my birthday and he passed with flying colors. Best birthday ever!!! Sunday came and he came to church, but not alone. He passed by for three of our investagators and they all came to church with him! It was so overwhelming and we were all SO happy!  But that isnt all! The baptism was at 4 30 pm in Antigua. This week the Catholics had a HUGE prossesion in Antigua so none of the buses were running.

 We were going to have the baptism whether there were buses or not.

 So we walked. From San Pedro, to Antigua. Through processiones. With Gary and an AMAZING woman who is in a wheelchair. And a cake. It was literally a miracle. We were laughing so hard cause it was more crowded than Disneyland and with catholics who are all celebrating semana santa...or holy week.   We walked about 2 hours and we made it to the baptism and it was beautiful. And we walked back smiling so big.

I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father for helping us see this miracle. Gary is happier than ever and Hermana Alvarado and I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to teach someone SO ready to hear the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

I know that we were supposed to be in San Pedro for a reason and I am so greatful for all I am learning.

Elder Anderson

So this week has been CRAzY! We had changes and my companion and I are still together and we are opening the area of the other sisters! They both left and went to Patzicia and we are now the missionaries in this rama. We are sad the other sisters left us but also SO happy because we are together and still in this AMAZING branch. I love it. 

Gary is still doing great. He has been facing some trials, to no suprise, because his baptism is this Sunday! It is crazy how much Satan doesnt want us to succeed, and how he works to make people miserable. We just have to remember that God will never put doubts in our minds. Never! Just clarity. My companion and I have the faith that he will overcome these things and that he will be a pioneer for his family! The first member! We cannot wait for his baptism. 

This week we got to see an Apostle! What a blessing!!! We shook hands with Elder Anderson and we got to learn more about our Savior and The Atonement from him. It was such a special experience. He taught us that we need to preach the gospel with boldness and with love. I learned so much from him. 

Oh and my companion has never made cookies so we made cookies with a Canadian Family that lives in a really nice area!! It was the best ever.