WK 28 - Obama Pen

Recently, a hobby of mine has become collecting the bootleg things you can find being sold in the little shops on the side of the road. For example, I bought some 100% legit fully-licensed Apple brand socks a couple of weeks ago. I found my golden item this week though: OBAMA PENS. It looks like a classic Bic ballpoint pen except it says OBAMA on the side. The box they were in at the store had his face on it. Perhaps the greatest find of this century. 

Last week we hit up a "Lion Park" which was basically just a tiny sketchy zoo. We did see the lions as well as some sick monkeys too. Nearby the park was the National Ethiopian Museum where we saw the infamous LUCY skeleton, although I can't remember exactly why she is infamous. Selam was cooler anyways. But basically she is one of the oldest humanoid skeletons we've ever found. After that, we ate at a restaurant that gave me mad Disneyland vibes. It was another solid Pday.

We headed downtown to Arat Kilo this week to help pick up mail from the Post Office. The more I see of Ethiopia the more I'm convinced there's no place in the world quite like it. We saw some huge, nice skyscrapers as well as the Prime Minister's Palace. But the Post Office was a mad house and we were there for almost two hours trying to figure out how in the world to get our mail.

Elder Anbesse and I have been running YSA activities here for the Megenagna branch the past couple of weeks and it's been fun, but we're struggling to get people and find things to do. The biggest turnout was this last week and all we did was play hackey-sack again. If you have any good ideas for YSA activities that don't require much talking/funds let me know haha I'm in dire need. 

We put two people on date this week, and we are really praying that they are ready unlike our past attempts. One is Estefanos who we've been teaching for a while and we're super excited for him. He's on date for this Saturday. 

The other is Dula, and we had a really cool experience with him when we put him on date. We taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ and extended the invitation for him to get baptized. He expressed to us that when he first came to the church (which is how we found him) he was only planning on seeing if he could wash his clothes in the bathroom, but as he met with us he felt super impressed by the family focus that we taught. As he shared that I felt very impressed to bear my Testimony on how I've seen the Gospel bless my family. It really touched him, and he gave us his wife's number who lives 600 km away. 

It was an awesome experience, and I want to share that same Testimony with you guys! I know the Gospel brings families together. I know one of God's greatest blessings to us is our families. Being out on a mission away from my family, I've realized just how much they've blessed me. Tell your families you love them! And find ways to serve them! 

ማንም ይህንን አይረዳም ፡፡  ከተረጎሙት እና ይህን መልእክት ካዩ አሳውቁኝ ፡፡

Elder Miles

Obama Pen

YSA Hackey-Sacky Grind

A normal day's lunch

Haile Selassie's Throne

7 up rock

Spooky Scary Skeletons

ዝንጀሮ (Monkey) 

አንበሳ (Lion)

WK 27 - Cathedral

Gooooood morning America. Last pday we visited an Orthodox Cathedral and if you know me, you know that I'm a major fan of giant churches (jk I don't think I've told anyone that but it's true). While I was there I was wishing that America had more churches like that, and I think the Spirit was like "are you kidding me" and hit me with the thought of Temples. We are blessed to have those beautiful houses of the Lord all over the world.

Speaking of temples, we had interviews this week and Sister Dudfield talked to us about reflecting on our temple experiences and so that tied in nicely! It was President Dudfield's birthday that day so shout out to him (also my Dad's birthday the day before so shout out to him as well). I taught Elder Anbesse what the acronym GOAT meant and told him to use it in his interview, and President and I had a nice laugh about it. 

He shared with me something I'd love to share with you all. The Savior ministered to the one, and we can to! As we pray to have someone put in our path, and as we follow spiritual promptings, we can be the Lord's hands each and every day!

We found some awesome new people this week. Matay is a LENGTHY Sudanese man who has been coming to the church for WiFi but wanted us to teach him. During our second lesson he asked how he could join the church, so he's lowkey on date for baptism but he didn't come to church so we don't know how serious he actually is. But Solomon and Dula came and they are both very interested. Robel and Estefanos are doing well, but we can't setup a time to teach them or get them to church. We have another man named Kasahun who is doing well too but we have the same problems with him. That is the fat struggle here but there's a lot of promise. Pray for all of them!

Quick funny story: the Hawassa Elders sent us the number for a member visiting up here. So we called him and invited him to come see the church in Megenagna but my goodness the man was crazy. He claimed all religions were true and that they worked together. He read us a verse from the Quran and then told us that masks were God's way of preventing the spread of heresy. He tried to take so many books from the Chapel and asked us to bless his water. That's not all of it, but it's the highlights. 

Hope it's been a good week! Have fun and stay positive homies.

እግዚአብሔር ፍቅር ነው።

Elder Miles

The fountain

Matching bracelets

The Cathedral

The Bois at church

Me squinting in the In-Joy burger

DRIP 🥶

WK 26 - 6 months + GOAT Elders Quorum

On Wednesday I hit my 6 month mark! Just a fun little milestone but it doesn't mean much yet. There's still plenty of time and work left to do but I'm excited to see where it goes! As of now I've spent about 2 months in each section of my mission: MTC, California, and Ethiopia. It'll be nice to stay a bit more permanently somewhere.

This week was not the funnest. Our area slowed down big time because no one was answering their phones, so we started purging our Area Book and cutting people we weren't having any success with. On top of that, our Baptism disappeared for the second time in a row so there's some stepping up to do.

Our two most progressing people are doing well though! Robel came to watch a Baptism, and Estefanos brought his Lil bro to church! 

And since this week was deader than the goat we saw some puppies munching on, so I'll talk about the little details day-by-day:

Tuesday: Watched the Church video "Your Great Adventure" and remembered just how good it is. It compares our lives to a man who ran a 100 mile race in the desert, and how often times we get tired and want to give up, but God doesn't expect us to be perfect, he just expects us to keep trying. I recommend you all go watch it!

Wednesday: 6 month mark. My tummy was not happy with me today. During lunch I told the owner lady that I was feeling a little sick in Amharic and that's why I wasn't eating, and some random dude outside the restaurant was shook. Told me that he appreciated my Amharic.

Thursday: Had exchanges with the DL today. Went and got some more Pizza Hut plus some Coldstone this time. That Oreo Cheesecake was the greatest thing I've ever eaten.

Friday: Did a District blitz to get as many numbers as possible for a companionship in a new area. I was reunited with my MTC Elder Lyman for an hour for it!

Saturday: Robel came to the Baptism of Elder Rundasa's mother and really enjoyed it. Had the first Megenagna YSA activity this week and played Hackey-sack. 

Sunday: The best day of the week. Had 5 people come to church, got 3 referrals and had a BOMB Elder's Quorum taught by the GOAT members Dr. Berhane and Brother Thomas. Brother Thomas is an English speaker, but his accent is so intense that its basically like he doesn't speak it. So even though I had no clue what was going on the lesson was still fire.

Take care y'all. Put your shoulder to the wheel.

እግዚያብሄር ይመስገን

Elder Miles

Brother TEMESGEN

6 month celebration meal. Peep the pineapple juice. 

The squad after church.

A nice meal of goat. 

WK 25 - Bushwackin'

First of all. HBD AMERICA! I hope everyone had a fantastic Fourth of July. This was the strangest Fourth ever because I'm in another country and its cold and rainy, but we made do and celebrated with burgers, fries, and sparklers. 

This week was very, extraordinarily, extremely plain until today.  Instead of playing soccer like we usually do (and briefly on that, not to toot my own horn but my 7th grade midfielder skills are coming back), we went exploring!! The only goal was to head into the mountains near our area, so that's what we did and the experience was definitely worth the calf-destroying hike. By the time we reached the top I saw something I haven't seen in ages: a forest. And not just any forest, but what you'd imagine an African forest to look like. There were little tin shacks everywhere up there with people coming out and seeing what we were doing. We were probably the first white people some of those kids have ever seen. It was surreal and honestly what I expected when I imagined serving in Africa. I keep having experiences where I'm like "dang I'm really here" and this might've been the most prominent one. 

We had some good and bad when it came to the people we are teaching. We had two referrals this week that are awesome, a young man named Estefanos and an older guy named Abeba. Sadly Estefanos's phone got stolen this week and he met with us very distressed, but despite that he came to church!! We ended our streak of not getting people to church and had three come so that was nice. We started second hour too which should help the branch here a lot. 

We had a Baptism for Wendesen scheduled on Saturday but he dipped off the face of the planet again so we're gonna take him off date. We put Tolossa on date for this coming Saturday though so we're pumped for that! 

Spiritual tidbit for the week: I just wanna say that I know God answers prayers, although sometimes it takes some time for it to be realized. Don't stop praying. Don't stop hoping. Don't stop doing good and trying. God hears you.

Thank you y'all

አመሰግናችኋለሁ

Elder Miles

So-called "Sun Chips"

Comp Unity

'MERICA

More pupz

The African Jungle

A nice Pday hike