Elder Corey Miles - Ethiopia Addis Ababa Mission: WK 81

What do a Cambodian accountant, a Russian doctor, and an American engineer all have in common? They attend a branch in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

We had transfers last Monday. Elder Ayre left with his group and so I received my new companion Elder Folau. We are staying in Beklobet and so he's joining me in my stomping grounds. He's a super hard worker and speaks the language very well so I'm excited to work with him.

One night, Elder Ayre and his parents joined us for a lesson with Tesfay because they came to pick him up! It was an awesome experience and it was great to see Elder Ayre's parents meet the man he baptized.

We visited a super less active member this week. We had a YSA member show us how to get to her house and we pretty much just showed up unannounced. She is notoriously stubborn, which is funny because she still has a very solid testimony and is a return missionary. She also acknowledges that she is less active and wants to come back, but she has some issues she needs to overcome, plus her husband is strict Orthodox so that makes it hard. We enjoyed our time there though, and she was super grateful, so we hope we can help her get back to church. She volunteered to say the closing prayer which apparently was her first time praying out loud like that in ten years! Plus, it's a miracle that we even got in her house. Missionaries have been trying to do that ever since COVID. The Spirit was strong there.

One morning we had a lesson with a recent convert named Astarekegn who wants to be a missionary so bad but hasn't been a member long enough and is a bit too old, so we wanted to talk about how to do missionary work with him. The lesson went great, he was super excited to invite people, and we took him out street contacting. Five minutes in it started dumping buckets so we took cover under an awning and got to know him better. At least he saw us get a number, I guess.

We've been working with a lady from Cambodia who is a member who just resurfaced because she totally forgot about the church and some of the doctrine. She wanted to meet with us to remind her, and she was SERIOUS. There was no chat time. We said a prayer, she whipped out her phone to RECORD our lesson, and starting asking fantastic questions. She's the nicest lady and even brought four friends for us to meet on Sunday, so that was cool.

Sacrament meeting was awesome! For one, Tekaw and Tesfay, both of our recent converts, passed the Sacrament for the first time! I was also asked to give a talk, so I challenged myself to give it entirely in Amharic, and I did. It was pretty funny when a member came up to translate for me thinking they would translate into Amharic, but instead translated into English for me. I was so nervous though, the whole time I was gripping the microphone so hard.

What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ? Like what does it TRULY mean? It means that we believe the example and teachings of Jesus Christ can lead us to true happiness and eternal life. Do we consider ourselves disciples of the Savior? Do we truly follow his teachings believing it will show us the way? Just some thoughts I had last night.

Bravo six

Going dark

Elder Miles

ተባርኩ