Elder Corey Miles - Ethiopia Addis Ababa Mission: WK 21

Today marks five months as a missionary for me! That's not exactly a big milestone at all but it just happened to fall exactly on today. The next one will be a party though I promise.

We had a Mission Conference and transfers this week! Every single missionary in Ethiopia (so like only fifty) gathered at the Megenagna chapel for some fantastic spiritual nurturing from President and Sister Dudfield, some training from the mission leaders, and lunch (which might have been the best part because it's the best food I've had since getting here). I got to see my entire MTC District in person finally because the remaining Elders came in with the new group.

I'll be staying here in Megenagna with Elder Anbesse for another transfer and I'm totally pumped to be able to hit the work hard in a familiar area. Our apartment changed up quite a bit too so that will help keep things interesting.

Sister Dudfield shared an awesome thought about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This is the pattern for living that Christ has given us so that we can experience growth and joy in this life and eventually return to live with him and God again. It's the straight and narrow gate. But it is important to remember that it's a process and a pattern, rather than just a one time thing. No matter where we are in life as we continue to have at least a little faith to push forward, to repent of our shortcomings, partake of the Sacrament, follow promptings of the Spirit, and strive to obey the commandments, we can be confident in our standing before God. That is what we make known as missionaries and it is so important for any member of the church to understand.

We've been teaching quite a few people so here's a brief summary of the progressors:

- A man named Abraham that we teach over the phone who loves very randomly specific bible verses.
- Wendesen who is on date.
- Robel who is a young engineer and asks a ton of questions and makes our lessons very lengthy.
- and Tolossa who is soft spoken but is very knowledgeable and pretty much helped us teach Robel yesterday.

Now for the subject line. We had a puppy for a day. Her name was Cheese. One of the missionaries in my apartment was walking to the Church the other day and saw a puppy outside of a shop that was getting rocks thrown at it. His motherly instincts kicked in and he scooped it up and took it with him the rest of the way, and I think he was planning on keeping it. Butttttt puppies are definitely not missionary approved and the APs made that very clear when he arrived at the Chapel so the next goal became to return it to the place where he got it. Due to him being busy and no one else wanting to help out, the responsibility fell on me to take it on the thirty minute walk home. So I stuck it in my bag and journeyed forth like a boy and his dog in one of those heartfelt movies. You know what kind of movies I'm talking about. When I got home the Elder cleaned Cheese up and let her go but we enjoyed the time we had together.

Another week down. Have a great coming week everyone!

እግዚአብሔር ይወዳናል

Elder Miles