Elder Corey Miles - Ethiopia Addis Ababa Mission: WK 78

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