Elder Corey Miles - Ethiopia Addis Ababa Mission: Week 34

My takeaway from this first week in Summit is that there are a lot of opportunities for service and member work, but I've got a funny feeling that finding and teaching will struggle a little.

We've been involved with a lot more English classes this past week. We attended one class where they literally just had us talk to the kids. Their English was good though so it was way fun. We met a kid named Nathnael who will be the next Ed Sheeran mark my words.

The teachers invited us back to attend the graduation on Saturday and it was a party because they treated us like celebrities for what I felt like was doing almost nothing. All in a day's work, I guess. They gave us nice chairs near the front. They had us hand the certificates and prizes to all the kids. All of the students wanted to take pictures with us afterwards. I even got to help cut the ceremonial, traditional, graduation bread (Momma I made it! I'm famous!) It was actually super effective though, because we were doing member work (2 of them work there), finding new people (one of the teachers invited us over for dinner on the Ethiopian New Year), and we were providing service.

Another teaching opportunity: we were eating lunch one day and talked to this man. Out of nowhere he invited us to come tour his school. So we went and it was like something out of a Disney Channel show. The architecture was crazy and they had some sick stuff like goats on the roof and a professional recording studio in the basement. He told us we could help out there too sometime.

We've gotten swarmed a few times while out street contacting. One was by a bunch of dudes looking for work and when we mention our church name they told us to scram. The other was by a bunch of people who saw us pull out a Book of Mormon and wanted to learn more. One guy grabbed the book and started preaching for us. I don't think everyone got the picture of our purpose though, they just saw everyone handing out their numbers so they did too. For example, one of the ladies just giggles and says I love you every time we ask her if she wants to be taught.

Oh well. We taught a man named Emmanuel who wants to start his own church. We taught a man named Yigezu who we tried to teach purely in Amharic and sadly I don't think he was feeling it. Occasionally we'll meet someone who has lived in the states, and we met a guy named Yessuneh who lived in Ohio. We invited him to church and he showed up!

This week I've taken a step back. Sometimes it's important to just remember the basics and not overcomplicate things. God loves you. Christ loves you and his Atonement applies to you. As you follow the Gospel and do all you can to serve others, you will find peace and joy. We can serve in little ways every day and much of that can be by just showing them love. We aren't here to just shove the Restored Gospel in people's faces, but we can touch hearts and show how it has changed us.

Love ya guys.

እግዚአብሔር ይባርካችኋል

Elder Miles