WK 41 - Mini-Transfer

Hey guys. It's me again. Life in Ethiopia continues as normal. We haven't had water in 3 days, we can't speak the language, and we're surviving on bean paste.

Just kidding. It's amazing here. Our work is progressing. Our trio had already been dissolved. Elder Anbesse dipped to Tulu Dimtu and we have Elder Heiner and Elder Jensen in the Summit District. Our whole house is completely farenjies (foreigners) now. Should be a good group. 

We visited Patrick's home this week! That gave us another opportunity to go out to the Garden of Eden of Ethiopia, Bole Arabsa. We were able to meet Patrick's wife and daughter and share the Plan with them. But we also were able to talk to Patrick about his upcoming interview for Baptism this week!

Tariku is doing super good as well. We were able to get some help from Elder Anbesse when we had him to teach the hard Commandments like the WoW, LoC, and Tithing. But other than that, we somehow were able to teach him everything and prepare him for Baptism in our limited Amharic. He's got his interview this week too. 

I enjoy Sunday mornings every time they come. We take a taxi on a beautiful morning with beautiful weather while it plays some traditional Ethiopian music. I feel like I'm in a movie every time. We got over 100 people to church again this week. That makes over 100 every Sunday this month. President made a deal that if we could do exactly this he'd buy the whole zone food. We'll see if our dreams come true. 

Think about this. Faith is what propels us forward. Without faith we make no progress. When we feel stuck, like we can't overcome our problems, remember that we just need faith to keep going. Any amount of faith you can muster will bring miracles and allow you to overcome anything. 

Chow my friends

እግዚአብሔር ይባርካችኋል

Elder Miles

The family we visited had this nice Gato.

PATTY BOY

Comp pic in Arabsa

Family visit

The dopest pic of my mission yet. This is Bole Arabsa too.

Idk what's going on here but it this picture is sick

WK 40 - ስለሆነ "Because it is"

Oooh baby one highlight of the week came in the form of a confirmation of my growing Amharic ability. I'm finally starting to be able to understand the conversations going on around me and some of them are very entertaining. On the taxi ride home Saturday night I heard this exchange:

Woman: "ስንት ነው?" (How much?)

Driver: "አስር ብር" (10 Birr)

Woman: "ለምን?" (Why?) (That's more pricey than usual)

Driver: "ስለሆነ!" (Because it is!)

That was good on its own but then when we got off the woman started arguing with him again and he called her አህያ (donkey) and drove off.

Speaking of Saturday night, we visited our favorite place Yeka Abado for our weekly visit with the Branch's 2nd Counselor for FHE again. This time we had the Elder's Quorum President join us. The Elder's Quorum President is the happiest, most joyful and gleeful man you'll ever meet, but he's kind of deaf. So while Elder Anbesse translated about covenants to Amharic, I translated to written text for him to read.

You heard me right too. Elder Anbesse. The old dynamic duo has been reunited. We had some switch arounds this week and now we are a trio here in Summit for however long. I think we might literally be the smallest district in the whole world but that's ok with me.

We went on exchanges with the APs this week and learned a lot from them. We found some new people. Our existing people are doing really well. Patrick, Tariku, and Miki are preparing for Baptism. Sunday was amazing. We had a record high for church attendance for the whole country EVER! Robel and Gideon helped us teach a Sunday School lesson and did a powerful job. A less-active, return missionary that we visited a while back came with his family. One of our new people said he felt a feeling he could not describe during Sacrament Meeting. Everything is just falling into place. Ya know ስለሆነ።

Guys sometimes we have to make sacrifices in our lives. But with Christ as our example we know that when we make sacrifices, we show our love. Our sacrifices are more sacred to the Lord than our increase (D&C 117:13), because in them we show our love for him. If there is a sacrifice you need to make, maybe a habit or behavior that you need to let go of...just do it! The Lord will bless you so much as you fully and sincerely come to him.

Love you all

እግዚአብሔር ይባርካችኋል

Elder Miles

Shout out to my fellow Lone Peak Knight and former teammate Elliot Detjen for getting his call to the Ethiopia, Addis Ababa mission. It’s a good place to be.

Goodbye Elder Cockrell

Sunset over Megenagna Square. Isn't Ethiopia a beaut??

Bajaj Adventures

The return to Yeka Abado

Ice cream and APs

WK 38+39 - Korah Kids!

Oh my goodness! Elder Miles missed a weekly. The streak has been broken. I'm sorry to interrupt your constant stream of random information about Ethiopia but I promise it was for a good cause. 

Elder Burke's Mom runs a non-profit charity organization here in Ethiopia called Korah Kids, and she was in the country last week! We got the green light from President to spend the day with her and go do some service. It was amazing! We were able to distribute food and toys for families, check in on the progress of sponsored families, hang out with the kids, and we even visited a legit leprosy colony (little did I know it is nowhere near as contagious as the Bible makes it seem). The pday before that we got to play some ball so we've had good preparation days for sure. 

We've met so many people and have so many members to reach out to that it's honestly overwhelming, thankfully I'd rather be busy than bored. Patrick is doing good. Tariku is doing good but his baptismal date might get pushed back because we haven't been able to teach all the lessons. We've been visiting a man from Uganda named Emmanuel and his JW roommate Aniset and have been answering their questions. We met a soccer coach from Kenya named Samson that we started teaching. Quick updates on those people. 

We met a man named Miki on the taxi coming home from church last week and he's a homie! He met with missionaries pre-covid but then they disappeared on him so he didn't know what to do. We found him and started to meet with him and he's my favorite haha. He's super small, speaks great English (he was a tour guide), and is just funny. He calls me 100 miles for some reason. He came to church and then we actually brought him with us to a lesson with a family that lives in our area. The mom stopped us and wanted us to teach her kids about God. So we went over there and Miki was our assistant for it. But we're pretty much teaching him at the same time too. 

I'm a little late on this because of the time differences, but I still haven't been able to watch all of Conference! Even yesterday for church we watched it in Amharic with the members, and I tried my darndest to understand but alas to no avail. Then just before it ended I found out that they were showing it in English upstairs. 

But the point is that I have loved the messages I actually have heard! Brad Wilcox's message on worthiness not being flawlessness was great. Sometimes we forget that we don't have to be perfect to receive God's power. And then President Nelson came with the super inspired talk once more. We need to do things we have never done before to strengthen our spiritual foundations. Carefully ponder and pray about how you can do that! I promise that President Nelly knows what he's saying. 

Thanks y'all

እግዚአብሔር ይባርካችኋል

Elder Miles

Summit District

Exchanges with Elder Anbesse

Elder Burke and I with another one of the Korah Kids who came to church! This is Jordan.

One of the many amazing kids from Korah. His name is Luel.

A meme that made my day

The little girl who inspired Korah Kids! Her name is Jerusalem!