WK 80 – The Death of a Generation

It is indeed a somber day. The original group of missionaries called to the Ethiopia Addis Ababa Mission Amharic speaking are finishing today. This includes my comp Elder Ayre, so I will be “killing” him. This generation of missionaries has been super influential on the mission and some of my closest mission friends are a part of it. It's way sad to see them go, but such is the circle of mission life. These next months will be different for sure but I'm looking forward to them.

We had Zone Conference this week. President Dudfield had us play Preach My Gospel Jeoparde and my team took a phat W. We talked a lot about member work and relating to people of other religions. As a zone, we talked about daily planning and making backup plans to make the most of our time. Every time we have meetings, I recognize just how much more I have to learn as a missionary, so it's always inspiring. I look forward to them.

We did service again this week. The coordinator asked us to play basketball with the kids because they bought a new basketball, and we taught them how to play a shooting game that President Dudfield would have us play in Kenya. 

It’s been pouring lately and mega cold, so that's been not so fun. It causes lessons to cancel and people to not come to church, but we make do. We went to Arat Kilo to do a joint lesson with the Elders up there that way we could pass off Tekaw's friend Esias, but because of the rain it ended up just being us. We taught him in the huge, new library up there. Then we met up with Tekaw after. Those two are awesome. 

I went on exchanges with Elder Ferrin this week. We got in one good lesson then rain made the rest of the day bare, so we prepared for and taught English class. 

This week we taught two new people. One's name was Alemu and he was a gray dot. We had one good lesson with him and then he came back a little bit fiery. Apparently, he knew more about the church than he led on and began to bash us a bit about baptism. We could not understand the point he was trying to make, so we called a member and had him talk to him. Alemu wanted to meet with the member Sunday morning but he never came so... 

The other was a young dude named Melaku. We got him as a referral from a high dude on the street. He told us his friend needed help and his friend ended up being Melaku. Melaku is a super nice guy that loves the Gospel, but has had a hard life and some obvious word of wisdom problems, but I feel like we can help him a lot.

Tesfay and Tekaw received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday. We are super pumped for them and their progress.

"Nothing happens in this church unless you work." 

-President Hinckley

We have to work for what we want tomorrow. 

 

Love you guys! Let me know how you are doing! 

Elder Miles

 እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Bye-bye lunch

Playing some ball with the ልጆች

The nice, new library

The boys going home and the guard

Getaye Elder Fry at ZC

WK 79 - Ethiopia Dreamin'

By the እናቶች and the አባቶች

I've always heard that people receive revelation in many different ways, especially in the way best suited for them. For a lot of the people we come in contact with, they seem to receive revelation mainly through the dreams they have. So, considering the amount of dreams we had to interpret this week, I'll discuss aspects of the week through the dreams people had. Just call me Joseph (no not Nelson, the one in Egypt).  

First off, we've been working closely with our recent converts. Tekaw took a trip to the city of Dire Dawa so we weren't able to meet with him this week. That gave us more time to meet with Tesfay and it was great! He is progressing really well and loves being a member. During a lesson this week, he told us about a dream he had after his baptism. He said that his Aunt (who took care of him growing up) came to him. She died a while ago, but she stood there, said nothing, and looked at him approvingly. Because of that, he said he knew that the decision he had made was correct. 

We were able to teach some long-time friends as well as find some new ones. On Thursday, we took the public transportation out to Jemo to visit a few members and investigators, and we met with Mamencha. We have taught Mamencha a little bit before and this time we decided to share a bit about the pre-mortal life and our life on earth. It was a bit of a difficult lesson at first because we were outside in the cold, the cars were loud, and the idea just wasn't clicking. We had a member there who helped us explain things thankfully. At the end, after we bore our testimonies, Mamencha asked if he could bear his.

After church and after reading the Book of Mormon, he told us he had a dream that he saw two foreigners standing on a mountain top. This man doesn't speak English, but he said that these foreigners were speaking English and that he could understand that they were teaching the true Gospel. He told us that because of that dream, he knew that our message was true. Now, we are going to make sure that he still progresses by reading, praying, and coming to church, but that was a cool experience. Even the member was shocked haha. 

Then there were some less profound dreams. We've been finding less-active members to work with, and one that we've been working with for a while now is super cool, speaks good English, and is a return missionary. She has some family issues though and that's why she doesn't come. But this week when we called her, she told us she had a dream where me and my comp were fighting and because of that I came to her crying. The weird part is that we have literally never met in person so I don't know how she could have a dream with me in it but I guess that's the way it goes. 

We had District Conference on Sunday, so we got to go to Megenagna with all the Addis members and missionaries. It was a good time. Sadly, the conference was in Debre Zeit and our Zoom broadcast had a terrible connection, so they leaders where we were cut the broadcast and gave their own conference. 

Thursday Elder Ayre went to Arat Kilo to cancel his papers because him and his group leave in one week. Crazy stuff. The group that's leaving is super experienced and good friends, so they will be missed for sure. 

This week I was reminded of the parable of the current bush. Sometimes, the gardener cuts us down and we wonder why, but then the gardener says, "someday when you are healthy and laden with fruit, you will thank me for loving you enough to cut you down." I love how this applies to us as God's children. God gives us challenges to prepare us for a future full of blessings we can't imagine.

Ahoy Mateys

Love you guys!

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Playing chair Jenga in the primary room

Enjoying District Conference with Tesfay

WK 78 - A light on the horizon

This was an interesting week. There was a nice mixture of good and bad, happy and sad, peace and anxiety. That's mission life for you though. In fact, I guess that's just life. I'm so grateful for how I've learned to rely on the Lord to help me grow and appreciate it all. Truly, challenges are for our refining. 

We had a small 4th of July party and ate burgers, fries, and no-bake cookies. Happy Birthday America. Earlier in the day we went to a Lion Park in Sidist Kilo and got lunch in Arat Kilo. The highlights were the monkeys doing silly things indeed and also bought shirits which are traditional wraps. 

Another big event of the week, I officially hit my 18 month mark! The light is now on the horizon and I don't know how I feel about it. One thing is for sure, I still feel like there's work to be done, so prepare to hear the best stories coming up... 

We did service this week at the Degnet after-school center. We got to go and teach 55 children English. It was such a blast that we enjoyed very much. 

We went on two sets of exchanges this week. The first one, I returned once more to be with my Father, Abba, and የንስሃ አባቴ Elder Anbesse. We worked in his area and caught up. We taught some good lessons. One guy was super meek but loved the lesson, another believes everything but the doctrine of baptism. Good stuff. 

Next exchange was with Elder Bringhurst, my MTC brother. That day was a Muslim holiday and it sprinkled the whole time. All of our lessons cancelled even before one o'clock, so to stay productive we split up the work and called through the entire member list. 

We met and taught some cool people this week. We were having a slow day when a random dude came out of nowhere named Fitsum. Turns out he had met with missionaries before. We sat down and taught him. He really just wants to know the truth so has been studying the Book of Mormon. We taught a young lady named Shewit who lives far away but came to church and we invited her to learn more about the Restoration. She spoke really good English and we had a good discussion. Lastly, we taught a young man named Bonke after church who told us if the church was closer to his home he would come every day, so for now we'll settle with once a week. 

Our friend Tesfaye who has been struggling lately got baptized this week! Prayers were answered and we were able to work with President to determine that he was ready. He's so genuine and seeking the truth. He's also had some job opportunities so things are looking up for him! We love him and have been amazed with his progress. 

I forgot my scriptures one day, so for a personal study I was reading through a church magazine and found some good stuff. One of my favorites talked about a girl who struggled to feel God's love. She came to the realization that she felt it was all or nothing. Because she didn't feel God's love, she thought he didn't exist. But someone helped her realize that it's never that way. God loves us and is perfectly empathetic, even when we can't feel it or don't believe it's truly there. I promise that it's there.

 

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

M O N K E

4th of July feast

Sittin in a tube while it rains

Classic work position

A bat we found at church

Tesfaye's baptism

My shirit

WK 77 - You've got a friend in me

This week was awesome because we got to finish it out strong with the baptism and confirmation of Tekaw. He's such a solid dude and probably the closest friend I've ever had in an investigator. We are really trying to help him make friends with the members. In his testimony, he shared how he has looked for truth and after praying, he received an answer in less than two weeks. He talked about how he wants to serve in the church for the rest of his life and he definitely has the potential to do some good.

Funny story though, we were cleaning out the font, and in order to drain it we needed to put some rocks underneath it because it's just a big metal box and that tilts the water out. Well, we left the rocks underneath and a water truck filled the font up with a tilting rock underneath. We came the next morning to an uneven baptismal font and since it weighed a thousand pounds, we couldn't pull the rock out.

We had MLC this week. It was super enlightening and the whole time it made me want to be a better, more focused missionary. Elder Ayre and I gave a training on five minute lessons on the street. We also learned about the importance of Preach My Gospel and being accountable. Preach My Gospel isn't just for missionaries, but for members too! How many of you have read Preach My Gospel? It's good stuff. 

We visited a member this week and had a bit of a scare because a police officer came in after us wondering what we were doing. We were able to meet with our friend Mamencha who lives in the same place and teach him about the Book of Mormon. We also had a miracle and met a man named Bonke who came to church yesterday. We taught a guy named fitsum who is really odd and can't read.

Coolest teaching opportunity was when we taught a young man named Jonah. We invited a member to help us teach and the spirit was there as we shared about what happens after we die and our unique beliefs. He is a strong Protestant, but he shared afterwards how much he loves our doctrine because we focus on Jesus Christ. Maybe we can help him to love it even more...

A cool quote I heard that I will paraphrase: "repentance is not the backup plan, it is the plan of happiness." Sometimes we feel like if we were better, we wouldn't need to repent. That if we need to repent, we are following the backup plan or have fallen to the lower track. But repentance is a part of the plan to give us happiness. We NEED to repent in order to experience that joy.

Shout out to Elder Larson for giving me a shout out and also responding to my weekly who knows how many weeks in a row.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Post-MLC action

Pondering deeply

Tekaw!!

Lunch with our boi