There is nothing scarier than forever

Sister Manuma and I on exchanges in Albany

Hey yall! Sorry there is not a lot of time for a group email today. My companion, Sister Hyer, and I are staying a 3rd transfer here in Zachary! I am excited to be able to continue working with the lovely people here. We had some neat experiences this week and had a nice turn out at church. The Lord is taking care of us for sure. I am grateful to be on the Lord's errand right now. I never want it to end! Y'all stay blessed.

Love always,

Sister Cornia

Saw this and of course as a missionary, thought it was hilarious!

Sisters in the zone

The trunk or treat activity with Ella. I was dressed up as a Lamanite!

Carved a ghost emoji pumpkin with Sydney

Companity

Danny Prayed!

Entertainment for missionaries

Hey yall. This week went by crazy fast!! We were able to keep up with Katrina and she is still solid, I love her! 

The highlight of my week was about Danny! Every time we go over I ask him to pray and he says no. And then I ask if he will one day, then he says "okay". So this time he pauses and asked if we wanted a short one or a long one. It was so neat!!! He is playing hard to get, but he's definitely making progress. I can tell he is changing. Turns out he didn't even really know how to pray, so we taught him! It was definitely a huge step for him. I know that Heavenly Father was very happy to hear from him though. 

We also stopped by to check on Keoshia. She ordered a bible a while back so we were just following up with her and asking if she was interested. We talked to her a bit about the Book of Mormon and that was pretty cool. She seemed pretty open and had never heard of it! We are going to go back this week and check up on her. I feel like she has a lot of potential. 

Our meeting yesterday went super well! I loved the spirit we felt in Sacrament! I am so grateful for the knowledge that we have of the restored gospel and the peace that comes from it. I had to lead the music (which was a lot more intimidating in our ward of 200 compared to the branch of 15 in Chalmette Hah). But as I was leading music in the intermediate him, we were singing 249 Called to Serve. It was so cool to hear everyone's voices and feel so strongly that this is the Lord's work. Moments like that make all the discouraging moments worth it. 

I love y'all. I also love my Savior. Without him we could not find complete joy. Have a blessed week.

Sister Cornia

Nottoway Plantation House (biggest one in Louisiana)

Mississippi river on Nottoway's balcony 

Mana is the cutest puppy alive!!

Recognize the Hand of God in Your Life

Katrina's baptism day

Good morning y'all! This week was definitely full of many blessings and lessons. Heavenly Father definitely has a sense of humor....the one month I decide to study the Christlike attribute of Knowledge, He makes sure to give me many learning experiences. I am grateful for that though:) He is so aware of us and our progression!

 On Saturday Katrina was able to be baptized! It was the most powerful baptismal service. We planned it in 12 hours and everything just fell into place. It was definitely divine intervention. Plenty of ward members came to support her, and some of Katrina's cousins (that are in our ward) came as well! She felt everyone's love and support. I sang Nearer my God to thee right before her baptism and could barely get through it without crying. The spirit was so strong. When Katrina came up out of the water she was glowing. She was so excited and couldn't stop smiling! She was telling us that her baptism at this other church felt good...but that this one felt ten times better!! She felt the spirit so strongly. The opposition didn't quit though. The adversary has been continually testing her, but now that she has the Holy Ghost she is invincible! She was talking to us this morning about all that she learned on Faith and the strength it was able to give her. I know Heavenly Father has amazing plans for her in this Gospel. She is so very strong. 

 We were also able to see Danny and Shirley this week and they are making good progress. Each week I feel that Danny is coming closer and closer to our Savior. That brings me the most happiness there ever was. I love the people here! 

 This week has taught me that there is no need to fear or doubt when life starts to spin. Heavenly Father is always aware of us, His love never ceases. Even when we turn away, or even when we question Him...He is still there. I love this gospel with my whole heart and couldn't imagine my life without it. Being able to serve a mission has been the best decision of my life. There were times that I felt stressed this week and times I felt completely alone...but then I learned that the Savior has been by my side through it all. We need to always turn to Him. I read this scripture in 2 Nephi this morning and it really stood out to me.

26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?

 27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

 28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.

 29 Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.

 30 Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

 There is no need to doubt or become overcome with afflictions. Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us. In the end everything will be okay. I know that the Savior lives and He is very aware of us in our situations. The church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is the true and living church on the earth today. I am so grateful for that!!

 Have an amazing week yall! Be sure to recognize the hand of God in your life this week. He blesses us more than we realize.

LOVE ALWAYS

SISTER AMANDA CORNIA

Saturday Night Fever

SUP YALL.

Hey! This week was insanely busy and stressful, but the Lord provides. We were blessed to have Katrina AND Danny come to church! It was the best thing ever. We had multiple appointments with Katrina through out the week because Satan is working very hard on her. She knows and feels the peace when she studies and yet he still finds a way to sneak in and ruin everything, ugh. But God is good and he has been giving her and us the strength to carry on. This must be the true church of Jesus Christ because Satan works so very hard to destroy everything, he is the worst. Literally. 

We did a little bit of painting this week and cleaned out the gym at the church, so now we actually have a gym that isn't full of donations (for the flood). It was actually the first time I saw our gym looking normal and not all disoriented.

Our ward mission leader told us about something called "Saturday Night Fever" in his mission. On Saturday, the day before church, him and his comps would go around doing creative things to try and get people to come to church for Sunday. So sometimes they took pictures next to a swing set saying "we will save you a seat" or he said one time they made up a rap song for someone. This completely inspired me! So what did we do? We wrote a song on my uke:) Here were the lyrics (the tune to you are my sunshine)

Tomorrow's Sunday, yes it's Sunday

We'd love to spend the day with you 

To learn of Jesus and His commandments

If you're not there then we will feel blue

The Sabbath Day is a delight

It teaches us wrong from right

So please just come and learn His teachings

It will make our Sunday more bright

So there you have it:) I am convinced that the song we sang was the only reason Danny came! Hah, but it was great. Saturday night fever was a success! And you bet we are doing it every single week. 

In our ZTM on Friday, they talked about hope and it really stood out to me. Hope is something that leads us to act on faith. We can begin to have hope when we exercise faith. That is an incredible principle that should never be forgotten. Discouragement is not from God, but hope is:) So never lose hope!!

Sorry for the lack of stories, I would rather speak them then type them...but y'all are the best and I really appreciate all the letters! They help a lot! Have a blessed week:) 

LOVE,

SISTER AMANDA CORNIA

Selfie Sunday

Max is so cute

Katrina, Conference, and LSU Football

HOWDY.

Hello! I hope all is well in the beautiful mountains. It is cooling down a little bit which is really good because we were about to die of heat. Humidity and I have a love-hate relationship. Anyways..life in Louisiana is glorious. We had a beautiful week with Katrina, Conference, and an LSU football game! I am so grateful to be here. There is no place that I would rather be. 

The people here are incredible (like I say every week) but I mean it! Every person we run into is super friendly and aside from all the tragedy of the flood, their hopes are high. Me and Sister Hyer are so lucky to be here. ON THE REAL. 

We were able to put Katrina on date to be baptized on October 15. She is so strong and amazing! Unfortunately, Satan knows it. He has been working incredibly hard to discourage her and bring her down. She's been sharing multiple pamphlets with all of her friends and co-workers! It amazes me. She does run into a lot of negative feelings about the church, but she can usually shake it off. I pray that she can continue to grow and progress! Katrina is truly elect. I love her so much! She calls me bubbly because, as yall know, I am very bubbly. So it is a funny nickname she has for me. We were able to visit her multiple times and she came to Sister Collins house to watch the Sunday morning session of Conference!! It went super well and the spirit was strong. I love the spirit. No matter how distraught or doubtful Katrina gets, she can always be reeled in from the spirit. It's miraculous. Our work would be completely pointless without it. 

On Saturday we went to the LSU football game! It was the most magical thing ever. Poor Sister Hyer had no idea what was going on...but my heart was going to explode from happiness! Haha! I miss football. The Tates had extra tickets, so we got permission to take out our pday afternoon to go see the game! We had to leave at half time, but it was so worth it! It definitely has Utah beat for football fans haha. There were thousands of people there, and tailgating is definitely taken seriously. And they won so that is good news too!:) 

We are now helping to prepare homes for painting, so I will get my practice in for that haha. I am very glad to be moving on from the flood, it is finally getting to the point where only half the people talk about it! 

We also saw Danny this week and he watched the restoration video twice! We are going to stop by and see him today. He is my favorite. We are hoping he makes it to church on Sunday.

Well I love yall and I love the Savior. We can all come to know Him on a personal level, and I know he is there for each of us in our trials. Let us all seek for this love, I know it's accessible to all. The Savior can provide us with the greatest joy imaginable, we just need to follow. I love this gospel and am grateful for it. 

LOVE ALWAYS,

SISTER AMANDA CORNIA

Progression In Zachary

MIRACLES NEVER CEASE.

Heyy. So this week truly was amazing. Our investigators are continuing to progress and I am discovering a greater love for this area each week. It's amazing. 

I am really bad at weekly emails because I have to go back and remember all that happened this week and that is nearly impossible! Here are just some highlights. Sister Jensen came teaching with us and she is an amazing person, I admire her so much. Her father just passed away last weekend and still she was willing to come teaching with us and give of herself. She is so Christlike! I hope to be like that when I am older. We took her to Shirley's and then to Danny's. SHIRLEY READ THE BOOK OF MORMON. We were smiling from ear to ear. It was the best news ever. And she also ended up coming to the women's conference! She is getting more and more ready each day. She agreed to get baptized if she found the Book of Mormon to be true. I know she will. 

Then we saw Danny! He gave us pulled pork and buns to take home, he is so sweet! We testified of our love for the Book of Mormon. He didn't read so we were way bummed. We told him that he could have greater happiness and true joy from this. We asked if he felt peaceful and good from us after we leave, he said yes. He has totally been feeling the spirit. So we call him on Saturday and turns out he read!!! AND he watched an hour and a half video on the Book of Mormon! Me and Sister Hyer were ecstatic. I am so grateful for these amazing opportunities we have with these people.

We saw William this week and he read! But then we saw him again and he didn't. We actually saw him with the elders because we felt inspired to have them start teaching him. As we were there he was off the wall acting crazy. Turns out he was totally buzzed. Classic. But he still has a lot of potential:)

On Sunday Katrina came to church!!! Sister Collins picked her up and it was so great. She really enjoyed all three hours and understood a lot of what we taught. She is still trying to decide if baptism is the right thing to do, but as her testimony grows of the restoration she will want to. I am so excited to see her more this week. She is the cutest, I feel a special connection with her. 

I am so grateful to be here serving the Lord and I am grateful to be meeting these people. Remember to watch Conference this weekend, it can answer prayers:)

I love yall. I know this is the restored gospel of Jesus Christ on the earth today. This is His church, and what a blessing that is. 

LOVE

SISTER AMANDA CORNIA

How it goes? (that's the way Louisianan's would phrase it).

TRANSFER #11

Good Morning y'all. How it goes? (that's the way Louisianan's would phrase it).

This week was one of my favorite. Actually this past 6 weeks has just been unreal. Zachary has been a place of hope and I am so grateful to be here. Teaching the gospel in the south can be really hard because everyone is stubborn and close minded, but we have been able to meet amazing people here and they are actually progressing. I appreciate all the trials the mission has brought as well, and perhaps they prepared me for this time. 

We saw Danny and he read 2 Nephi 32!!! He is my favorite, he is like an adopted grandpa. We talked about the happiness that the gospel brings and BOOM. Me and Sister Hyer followed the spirit and we were quite bold with him. He seemed to respect how much it meant to us and our testimonies. I really feel like it stirred up something in his heart! I am so excited to see him to continue to progress, he is moving forward. YAY. 

We were also able to see Shirley twice this week. She didn't do her reading assignment from last time and that absolutely broke my heart! She noticed it was a let down and apologized for it, we just told her the blessings that come from reading are so incredible. I really believe she will read this time:) She is amazing and she can always feel the spirit and the truth, now she just needs to recognize it. We are planning to get her a more comfortable chair so that she can come to church without being in pain (she was in a car accident that damaged her back). Hopefully all goes well and that she can make it to the Women's Broadcast on Saturday. She is amazing. 

We had a Bible and Book of Mormon referral from the media center so we went to go give her the books. Her name is Katrina and holy cow she is super prepared for the restored gospel. She told us that she had been looking into our religion for about a year and finally decided to order some books! She said that she always wanted to talk to the missionaries but never had the chance. Wow it was seriously the best blessing to meet her. We taught her the restoration and she even asked if she could keep the restoration pamphlet!! What? No one has ever asked that...haha. She is going to be baptized in October and we are planning to bring members over there to meet her:) I just loved her so much! She had the best personality and was very nice. I have never met anyone so genuine. That was such an amazing experience, me and Sister Hyer didn't even know what to do with ourselves because she was so ready! We aren't here to make plans, we are here to understand the Lord's plan.

So those were my favorite stories of the week. Deborah didn't make it to church but we talked about her preparing for the temple! So hopefully that can help encourage her. Satan works really hard on keeping people from church...here is some advice. DON'T GIVE INTO HIM AND JUST DO IT.

We helped with a pentacostal church this weekend and a couple homes. The water has been sitting in these houses longer so that means more mold and more cockroaches. EW. It is making me a lot braver though...but I still scream. Baby steps:)

I love the mission and to be hear teaching the gospel. Thank you for yalls amazing support. Stay blessed.

LOVE,

SISTER AMANDA CORNIA🛠

WHATS COOKING, GOOD LOOKING

Hey y'all. Wow this week has been pretty much the same as last. We have been gutting out homes that were flooded and helping people build their faith back up. Each experience has been life changing, I am so blessed to be serving in this area to help out at this time. 

We have been able to meet many people in this area and it has softened a lot of hearts towards the restored gospel. Heavenly Father is truly preparing his southern folk for the light of the gospel! It is a very humbling and rich thing to experience. We were able to meet some new people that the sisters taught before we came here, so that has been good. It's less overwhelming to be in an area when you at least know the people that are being taught! 

Zachary is seriously the best place ever. Everyone here is so nice and friendly, even to the mormon missionaries. Whhhatt? It's awesome. This town is the epitome of Louisiana hospitality! It also has shown me that Heavenly Father can grant us with the gift of Christlike love if we ask for it in prayer. What a testimony builder that has been!

Wow okay sorry for the useless rambling. Everything is functioning pretty well in Zachary, but some businesses and shops are closed down because their buildings got flooded. It is way worse in the Denham Springs and Baton Rouge areas though. 

We worked on the Tate's home the other day, surprisingly it was their ceiling and roof that got damaged from the water! So I got to stand on a ladder and use a hammer to punch the ceilings. It was fun:) Brother Tate was like "What does your dad do again?" I told him he works on computers, then he was like "I don't think he learned that fixing computers". Moral of the story he was impressed for my handy home improvement skills, shout out to my Dad who is amazing and knows how to work hard! Their insulation was the lose kind so it was falling on us like snow....it was not as beautiful as Utah's snow...and it was itchy. Haha but that was an adventure. We helped with a woman named Mary. After our team helped her she had tears fill her eyes and she told us the love that she truly felt from us aka THE SPIRIT. It was really cool to have that experience with her. She said she will skip her church one day to come to ours! What? BLESSINGS.

The last person I wanted to talk about was Paul. His trailer got hit pretty hard. The place was a mess and full of bugs. I hate bugs. It was really hard and the circumstances were so very sad. He looked very depressed and overwhelmed. We later found out, after we had gutted the whole house, that it was going to be bulldozed anyways. It was very sad and some people on our team were frustrated because our work was pretty much useless. But then Brother Sherman said something I will never forget. He said "We are here to fix hearts, not homes". When he said that it gave me goosebumps! True, our 6 hour job wasn't necessary but the look on Paul's face when we left was priceless. He felt the love and care that we had for him, even though we had never met him before. By the time we left and prayed with him, it looked like a weight was lifted from his shoulders. He plans on coming to church. 

Last adventure of the week was taking out floor insulation! Wow that was fun. I got to go under a house and cut out the insulation above, it was very dirty but an experience for sure! Everyone was laughing because I wasn't worried about getting messy but the second I saw a bug I flipped. Haha. He weren't able to meet the people in that home for the day, but it was still fun to serve them. 

I love this area. I love my Savior. This gospel is true and the power that our church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, is remarkable. We are the only organization able to put together a huge volunteer effort and truly be united. This is all made possible through the rock and leader of our church Jesus Christ. I am so grateful to be having these experiences. A natural disaster is the worst/best thing I have ever experienced. Blessings of the Lord never ceases. 

LOVE YALL

SISTER CORNIA

Week of May 23, 2016: One year older, and wiser

 Hellllloooo :)

 

Well I am officially emailing y'all as a 20 year old! Wow, it's crazy how fast time goes. My Birthday was on Wednesday and it went super well. We did service at the food pantry for the First Baptist Church. I have really grown to love all the people there! They are all sweethearts and after we were done helping they pulled out a cake for me! Now I can officially say that I have celebrated my birthday with a group of Baptists at a Food Pantry :)

There is no greater feeling than serving others, we serve all the time but it is cool to help out there because we can actually see the difference we are making! Also, a shout out to all the birthday messages. Thank you so much! It makes a huge difference to get messages from y'all, I really appreciate it. Apart from my Birthday...we actually had a pretty rough week! For some reason everyone saw us and ran in the opposite direction. We got dropped by most of our investigators, but I know that something good will start happening here. The Lord has wisdom in all things. Which actually reminds me of my favorite scripture:

 "Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid; for the Lord Jehovah

 is my strength and my song; he also has become my salvation." (2 Nephi 22:2).

Even though it was really hard this week I am still trying to remember to trust and not be afraid.

We planned to have an awesome lesson with the Mcshans and Ferrells, but Sister Ferrell got sick so we are going to reschedule for a different time. We were still able to meet with Shannon. We talked to her about being a good example with Chris and including him in her scripture study. He wasn't there for our lesson unfortunately, but I know that there is a plan for everything to work out. It just takes so much patience!
     

We spent a couple dinners with Sister Diehl this week, and holy cow she is my favorite person! She is an inspiration to me. She was a convert that hadn't been to church for a while but in the past year as been completely active and working on going to the temple! She knows what it means to act on faith. It's also really funny because her daughter is terrified of balloons! Whenever we pull a balloon she freaks out! It's really sad, but hilarious at the same time :).

Thursday night there was a really bad Thunder and Lightning storm! On the radar it looked like a mini hurricane! We were under Tornado Warning!!! Our Zone Leaders texted everyone at 11pm and told us that President wanted us to take cover. We had to go in a room without windows, and put our bike helmets on!!

And of course the only room like that in our apartment was the bathroom! So here me and Sister Meador are in the bath tub at 11pm with our bike helmets on! It was so scary. Finally the storm passed and we were able to return to our beds. Even though it was scary it also made for a funny moment this week!

Last night we went over to Jamie and Julie's and it was nice because we talked to Shelby more about the gospel! Shelby is Julie's daughter who is 10. She is the cutest girl I have ever met! Me and Sister Meador are planning on teaching the restoration to her next time :) I love going over there too, they are all firecrackers! 

 

The south is a glorious place. This week I want to invite yall to think of someone that you can serve and do something for them. Serving has really opened my eyes and has helped me understand Charity better. I love y'all! Have a beautiful week.

 

Love,

🍍Sister Amanda Cornia🍍

Week of April 4, 2016: I'm being transferred!

No post for this week.  


Amanda was transferred to Chalmette, LA, which is just outside of New Orleans.  It is an area that was hit very hard by Hurricane Katrina and decreased in population by nearly 40% from 2000 to 2010 due to the storm and its aftermath. 

If anyone chooses to write to her via paper and stamps, (she really appreciates hard copies of letters that she can review during the week), she can be written at the following address:

Sister Amanda Cornia
3301 Golden Dr apt. B 
Chalmette, LA 70043

Week of March 21st: Trio is down to two



June Bug!

Hey Yall

Hopefully everyone was able to have a lucky week! Now it is just me and Sister Truchard. Sister Ostergar went back to Opelousas with her new comp! Now are trio is down to two...did anyone get my reference? :)

 

First of all I got to see Sister Blaylock! She visited from Idaho :) It was super great to see her again! These past two weeks we had a couple of neat experiences. We have met new investigators, they are all pretty awesome people. We are continuing to meet with Marie. She has been praying a lot, which is good! She may not be as ready as we thought, but we are continuing to work with her at her pace :) She is so sweet. 

 

Something really funny that happened! We were dropping off a Bible to Jennifer, because she ordered it online. We asked to say a prayer before we left and then her husband joins us. 

He asked "Where are yall from?"

We told him. Then he says "Oh I know about da Mormones!"

Then we asked if we could say the prayer, he said: "I will lead dis prayer! I am a deacon!"

He continued to pray for us to find the light. It was really funny, me and my comp tried so hard to hold back our laughing. It was a very interesting experience haha. 

 



We also had some stellar experiences this week with referrals. We met a woman named Ashley! She was referred to us by Sister Freebarin (member). She was so darling and it really seems like she is ready to receive the gospel in her life. We shared the Easter video with her and talked about starting a new life through Christ. On Sunday we met Tessey, who ordered a Bible online. She was very interested in the Church's teachings on love and family. She had two adorable children. We shared the restoration with her. It is always a cool experience when the Lord presents His elect to us. 

 

There have also been really bad storms lately! We were at the Bozeman's house and needed to run out to our car and get the phone. The wind was blowing so hard that the umbrella broke! There is nothing that can come close to Louisiana storms, that is for sure. 

 

I am very grateful for prayer. This week was a hard one and the only thing that got me through it was the conversations I had with my Heavenly Father. He is there and will never forsake us. I know that this is Christ's true church. He is here to carry us through our pain and suffering.

He has been there. I invite yall to watch the Easter video and share it.

followhim.mormon.org   #Hallelujiah

Think of Christ this week, he loves us more than we will ever know.

 

I love yall and hope that you have a beautiful Easter season!

 



St Patty's Day!

Easter baskets at the Bozemans!
With Sister Amezcua,
Sister Ostergar,
Sister Truchard, and me

Week of March 7th: photos from Louisiana

Beautiful Louisiana!

Crawfish!

 

 

Snake!

Me and Sister Ostergar with Sister Swanson!
She's my favorite ❤

 

Week of March 7th: Tabasco County Store

The District at the Tabasco Factory

 

Transfers at the levie

Hey yall! Sorry for the lack of emails. This week was pretty good! We were able to see Marie again and give her a Vietnamese Book of Mormon :) She is the sweetest lady ever. She grew up with different knowledge aside from Christianity so it will be interesting to teach her the basic concepts of Jesus Christ. 

We went to the Tabasco factory on Avery Island on P day! It was a lot of fun but it smelt super bad. We weren't able to see Cheryl or the Porters this week because they were dealing with life struggles. I have noticed that a lot of people don't want to make time for the gospel and it makes me sad because I know it will just make them happier. We also went on exchanges this week with our Sister Training Leaders in Baton Rouge. It was cool to meet some of the investigators they have there. Something remarkable about the gospel is that, it's the same no matter where you are in the world! That brings huge comfort to my heart. 

Sorry that we are short on time today but I just wanted to share that this is Christ's true church on the earth. This gospel is pure and it was restored through a living prophet, Joseph Smith. The only way to know that it is true is to kneel down and pray. Why do we need the gospel in our lives? When we follow in the footsteps of our Savior, then our life is magnified. Through Jesus Christ we can live. 

I love yall very much. I love this work and I love my Savior. Let Him In.

Love,

Sister Amanda Cornia

Hangin with my peeps