WK 55 - Lil Ethiopia with My Grandson

I guess my son has been an absent father because my new companion is my Grandson! Elder Burke was training Elder Willden, and now I'm finishing his training. Funny thing is, my father (Elder Anbesse) is now companions with my son (Elder Burke). We've got a crazy family tree going on here. 

This week we had the opportunity to explore downtown Nairobi and look for Ethiopian communities. Sad thing was, we found no Ethiopians nor their communities, but hey it was a major blessing to get out and about and be talking to people face to face again. I guess I shouldn't say we saw no Ethiopians, because we went to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch and met two Habeshas. It was awesome to be able to speak Amharic like that again. That plus the food was like quick trip to Ethiopia. 

We talked to a man who had met with missionaries twenty years ago who said he'd be willing to read the Book of Mormon! One of our old investigators, Tesfaye, just informed us that he has moved to Uganda! I'm sad that we won't be able to teach him anymore because he was elect but I'm just glad we got in contact with him again.

We had another devotional this week, this time with Sheri Dew! She is the chief communication officer for President Nelson and so she shared a lot about him and how inspired he is. My favorite quote and a big theme was "prophets can see around corners." I love that. We can always find safety in following the prophet. Do you guys remember the gratitude video President Nelson came out with around November last year? Well she shared how he received some pretty specific revelation about it, like it's length and content, and it turned out to be the most viewed message by a prophet ever (at least in this dispensation).

That's pretty much it for the week.

Have a grandiose one እሺ? 

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

 

Goodbye Elder Musonda

Sheri Dew

Bubble

Summit District

Ethiopian ምግብ

This is pretty much Ethiopian steak

Getting lost in Nairobi

Summit Zone on the hunt

WK 54 - Bowling Dubs

Good morning, everyone! It has been one of those good difficult weeks. Honestly it was a hard one but I've learned a lot and I feel like my perspective has changed for the better.

With a lack of things to do, we've been trying to keep things fun by having some district activities every week. They've evolved as time has gone on and this week's might have been the best. The church here is massive so we've been utilizing that space to play hide and seek. The companionships hiding do their online work while one companionship is looking for the others. 

Our mission had a Zoom visit from the man himself Tad R. Callister. He wrote "The Infinite Atonement" and "A Case for the Book of Mormon" which I'm sure you may have heard of. We have been so blessed to have all these different speakers take time to minister to our mission. He talked us through the Plan of Salvation and one thing I like that he said was "The difference between a creation and a child is that a creation can never become like it's creator, but a child can grow up to be like it's parent." We really are children of God! 

We went bowling as a mission this week for our half p-day. I was bowling like garbage for the first half and then somehow, I kicked into overdrive with a turkey and I ended up getting the highest score in the mission. If you want to see an ESPN type highlight, send me a message haha. 

We did some service at the church shredding old financial documents. My tiny paper shredder kept overheating so I mostly just took out staples and sorted. It was actually pretty soothing. 

We've seen some more teaching success this week! Although he's not in our mission boundaries, we have been talking to a guy from Burundi who said he wanted to join the church after we sent him the PDF of the Restoration pamphlet. We called a Facebook referral we got named Abdi and he is so cool! He's super positive and kind and wants to learn about Jesus Christ. We're excited to work with him.

I've been thinking a lot about the phrase "charity never faileth" this week. A pure, genuine love for Christ will never let us down. It will always give us the hope and comfort that we need in this world of letdowns. Cleave or cling unto charity and you will find a greater light in your life!

Transfers are tomorrow. Elder Kearl and I are separating. I'll talk more about it next week. Thank you all!

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Elder Miles

 

Tad R Callister

The return of Anbesse

Foggy day

WK 53 - Alma vs. Moses

*Cue intro music*

*Run it back turbo*

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

How is everyone. This week was a unique one for sure. The highlight was definitely the mission tour we had with Elder Carpenter of the Area Seventy. We gathered together at the church to be tutored at the feet of a special witness of Christ and it was awesome! Not only that, but I had the opportunity to be one of four missionaries interviewed by Elder Carpenter afterwards. I will share some of my learnings later. 

My mission president and his wife, President and Sister Dudfield, were on a church news podcast this last week! The EAAM mission keeps on getting more famous for getting wrecked. On it they talk about their first experiences in the brand new Ethiopia mission as well as going over our evacuation to Kenya. If you want to hear more about it, go and watch it!

Last p-day we decided to explore downtown Nairobi and ended up on the top of a skyscraper! We got some cool pics so check those out. 

I went on exchanges this week with Elder Hedengren. We have continued our district activities and have been combining hackey-sack and Facebook finding. We taught a phone call lesson for the first time in a while this week to a guy named John Daniel. It was awesome to shake off the dust a little. 

I would like to officially announce that I have signed a record deal with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints rap label. This week for a zone activity we wrote "Epic Rap Battles of History" type songs but for different prophets. I was Alma and I got paired up with Elder Nelson who was Moses. I knew that the sonnet I wrote Junior year about my hermit crab (R.I.P Big Richard) wasn't a fluke because Elder Nelson and I got into it and wrote some BARS. Stay tuned for a music video release.

Now. I learned a lot from Elder Carpenter. The man is full of wisdom. But I love what he told me about changing hearts. He said that we can change our behavior as much as we want, but really only Christ can change our nature. There has to be a much greater purpose there. So if you are trying to overcome something, become more loving, or help others change their hearts, don't forget to involve our Savior Jesus Christ. It is because of the enabling power and grace of his sacrifice that we can do this.

Thank you guys so much. I really appreciate all your support. I'd love to hear from you!

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Podcast

EAAM w/Elder Carpenter

FLOATIN (My album cover)

Nice view of Nairobi

The building we were on

Week 52 - Just like that

And just like that... one year down. That's right. January 7th marked one year since I began this wild, but amazing, ride of a mission.

Last pday we were bored so we pulled up Google Maps and found the Nairobi National Museum. We decided to go and it was awesome. The first part had things about animals and Kenyan history. The second was a reptile park where we got to a lot of holding (pictures attached). Afterwards we wandered their grounds which were quite foresty. 

We've been doing our best to reach out to members and offer help with Come, Follow Me. We also got some people to download the Book of Mormon! 

Instead of a bean field we helped out at a corn field picking weeds. Takes me back to the summer chores days. 

For our half pday we headed to a university field and played some ultimate frisbee and basketball. It was a blast but man does online work sure take a toll on your physical shape, my goodness. 

For our one year mark we decided to go get some wings at a place we found hear in Nairobi. All of the MTC Elders came and we called up Elder Lyman. It was good but it sure wasn't BDubs. 

I've been reflecting on the last year a lot this week thinking about what I have learned most and it came down to Christ-like attributes. Humility, diligence, patience, compassion, and any others you can think of can help you come closer to your savior as you develop them.

Have a good week everyone! 

ኢግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

شكرا يا الله

Nairobi National Museum

Hall of African mammals

Game of Thrones machete chair

Cool snake

This little gem was hidden in the forest

Tortoise with the boys

Fresh cut

Corn field

WK 51 - Starting 2022 with some BEANS

Good morning my friends and family. Happy New Year! I hope the end of your holiday season was good. I don't know about you but 2022 seems like a fake year you'd use in a movie but somehow we are actually living it. 

We started out the week by getting flu shots. Later that day I went on exchanges with Elder Bringhurst who is one of my MTC boys! That was a good time. We tried to set up a lesson but then the lady told us not to call her. 

Here's something kind of strange: the Area Presidency has given us the approval to have one and a HALF p-days. And I'm not even joking. Starting this last week, we get to have the first half of every Thursday for a mission activity. This week we went to a nature preserve and went on a walk. It was awesome to be out in the woods again. There was a swamp, a cave, and a waterfall along the way. 

To keep things lively we've been trying to do district activities twice a week. Those are nice to keep things active. We'll play Spikeball after we do some online finding or just do other creative ways of doing work together to make it fun. 

For New Year's Eve Elder Kearl decided he wanted to kill a chicken. An Elder in our mission is an experienced butcher so we went over to his apartment and Elder Kearl killed it in his shower. My goodness it was gruesome; it looked like a murder scene in there. The Elder made us some nice chicken fried rice out of it.

On New Year’s Day we went and did some service by weeding a little bean patch along the side of the road. One of the senior couples talked to the owners to see if we could help. So, in the morning we walked along the train tracks until we got there and began to weed like crazy. Last year on New Year's Day, if you would've told me that I'd be sitting in a bean field in Kenya a year from then, I would've called you crazy.

President Nelson posted something on Facebook that I really loved. He asked us to work on three things this new year:

1. Strengthen your spiritual foundation

2. Resolve to be kind to others

3. Put forth effort; be resolute and consistent

Those are things that I've been trying to work on recently and it was cool to see President Nelson talk about them. Now is good time to set some goals and improve. 

I have a good feeling about 2022. Love you all! Big things are coming. 

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Elder Miles

P.S. If you want to see the most horrible (so hilarious) picture of me ever taken, shoot me a message

Neature

Spelunking in the cave on p-day 2

The waterfall

Our boy moments before catastrophe

Chicken fried rice

Malachi Elders! We said goodbye to the legend himself, Elder Lyman, this week

Bean farm