President Raymon D. Foote, president of the Madagascar Mission, and Sister Cindy Foote, his wife, recently welcomed the first missionaries returning to Madagascar. Missionaries are coming back and working after an absence of nearly 3 months.
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In October of 2017 an outbreak of the plague required an urgent reassignment of all missionaries serving in Madagascar. The directive to move the missionaries gave President Foote 4 days to have the missionaries out of the country. A worldwide coordination with Church Headquarters in Salt Lake City and missions around the world began. With tremendous effort, cooperation from mission presidents around the world, and the Lord's blessing, all missionaries were out of the country within the four days.
President Foote said there was some concern about the disruption of missionary service causing problems with development of teaching skills, leadership opportunities and opportunities to nurture people into the gospel family. However, President Foote indicates the missionaries are returning having had the blessings of teaching, bringing people into the church and having been leaders during their reassignments. He says, "They are stronger missionaries now, full of enthusiasm and gratitude to be back." President Foote tells his missionaries, "Think of how happy you are to be back and how happy your investigators and the members are to have you back and then think of how happy the people you will bring into the church will be in the future." The work in Madagascar is moving forward with increased enthusiasm and faith that the Lord is blessing work.