WK 98 - A Variety of Thanksgiving ነገሮች

This week, I really don't have a crowning event or a funny moment to name this email after, so instead, I named it after the Holiday. Plus, we did a lot of things, so there is the Amharic word for things: ነገሮች።

In our first week as a trio, we did a ton of finding and it was pretty fun. We spent a lot of time out on the street speaking with lots of people and it felt good to raise my voice and share my testimony with anyone that would listen.

We traveled to a bus hub called Lamberet twice to teach some lessons. One was with a man named Tarike who basically led us all the way out there only to schedule another time to meet. The next time we went, we met an older gentlemen named Mulugeta and his brother Gobena and they were so sweet. They appreciated us as missionaries and we got to share about what we do with them.

Our friend Addis is progressing very well. He is in Alma in the Book of Mormon now and is loving it. We hope we can put him on-date this week after we teach him about the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity! 

We had a cool miracle moment this week. Early on, we met with a man named Kidane and visited him at his work. A few days later, he came to the church and we gave him a pamphlet about the Restoration. The very next day, he shows up unannounced and asks for a Book of Mormon that he can read on his own. He felt a connection with the Joseph Smith story too and is eager to learn more. 

President and Sister Dudfield's son and his friend came to Ethiopia to visit this week and they asked us to take them out to get some Ethiopian food. It's always fun seeing people eat Ethiopian food for the first time, especially the Injera and also because it can be spicy. They really enjoyed it until the friend ate a whole chili pepper and then it was game over. We had a good time with them though. 

We played some volleyball this week and got smoked. Man, when it comes to anything athletic, I'm rusty. 

Another Elder's Mom came to visit the mission and help out, so one night she treated us to a nice Ethiopian restaurant with some traditional dancing and singing. It was so fun and we were very grateful. 

And of course, there was Thanksgiving. I felt very grateful for a lot of things this year and I couldn't help but feel blessed. I'm grateful for a Father in Heaven who guides me every day as I seek it. I'm grateful for a Savior who enables me to do things I could not without him. I am so grateful for family friends, companions, and leaders who love, support and lift me every day even though I don't always merit it 🤣

I'm grateful for you!

Have a noice week

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

The best of the best food

Sunglasses to match the boys (more to come)

Ethiopian band

Some happy Elders and a kind mother

WK 97 - At the Feet of an Apostle

This week flew by like none other and yet I still feel like I have very little to talk about (except for one thing of course but I'll get to that later). 

We have some good people we are currently working with:

- Addis, our Book of Mormon reading phenom, is still progressing really well. He's in Mosiah currently. He loves it. We have been teaching him about the Gospel and we want to put him on date this week. 

- We met with a recent convert and his friend this week. The friend's name is Binyam and he seems fairly interested. He's busy now though so we are hoping to work with him more in the future. 

- Zinash, our strong Mekane Iyesus (Baptist) scholar, is absolutely loving the Restoration, the fact that we have a living prophet, and the Book of Mormon. She said she would bring friends and family. It is always odd teaching her because her primary language is Afan Oromo and I think I speak more Amharic than her. We teach her in English.

- Our friend Abayneh who we thought we would drop this week actually pulled up and has been awesome! So, we will continue to work with him. 

We went on exchanges this week and we returned to my old area Beklobet for it. I was with Elder Turner, and we had a good day. We did a lot of finding and talked to some good and some not so good people, but then I got to see my recent convert Kebebew! It was awesome to see him again. 

HERE'S THE TITLE STORY: Elder Christofferson came to Ethiopia this week! It was so cool to, as President Dudfield says, "learn at the feet of an Apostle of the Lord." Sunday morning, we had a devotional with him, Bishop Causse the Presiding Bishop of the church, Elder Palmer of the Presidency of the Seventy, and Elder Ardern from the Area Presidency. It was quite the powerhouse line-up. All the members in the country came to that morning meeting, and because we were expecting 400 or so people, we had to hold the meeting in the conference room of a hotel. It was an amazing experience and I feel like the members were strengthened in exactly the way they needed. Our interested friends Abayneh, Addis, and Rahel came to the meeting as well! 

Later that night, we had a missionary only meeting with those four and it was easily one of the coolest meetings of my life. We got to shake their hands (I'm never washing my hands again) after taking a picture, then all of them shared a five-minute thought. Elder Christofferson finished out with a powerful thirty-minute message on Repentance. 

The next morning, we had transfers and an area security training, so my p-day got moved to today. Speaking of transfers, I'm now in a trio now! My last companions, Elder Folau, decided to join Elder Marble and I in the office. Indeed, these next few weeks will be blessed. 

ቻው ቻው Brethren and Sistren

Until next week

Elder Miles

Addis and I walking to the Hotel

The conference room we met in Sunday morning

Our boy Abdi enjoyed Elder Christofferson

Elder Marble and I

The Brethren

Saw Tekaw again! The gang is reunited!

Farewell dinner for Sister Asfaw

The Ethiopia Addis Ababa Mission and Elder Christofferson!

 

WK 96 - "Do I hear Minecraft music?"

Hey what's up everyone! To be honest I don't have a lot of energy to write a creative intro because to be fair, I haven't had a whole lot of energy this week. But alas, as Michael Jordan had his best games when he was sick, perhaps this will be at least entertaining and somewhat spiritual. I love you guys!

Last p-day, we did something legendary. I've sent out pictures of me at a green and tan cathedral before. This week, WE GOT IN. We came in the morning while they were cleaning and the doors were open. I will forever thank Elder Benjamin Johnson because he was brave enough to just walk in. The Priest at the door didn't stop him, just told him to take off his shoes. So, in we went. And it was sweet! I've got some pictures down below. 

We had MLC this week. It was quite nice if I might say. I left feeling enlightened in many different categories. I had to do a roleplay in a pretend scenario, and in this pretend scenario a man came to us and told us that an angel in a purple robe appeared to him and ordained him to be a prophet, then we had to respond. The funny part is, a real situation like this is not unheard-of. But despite that, we learned a lot about power, authority, communication, correction, love, you know the good stuff. 

We have been teaching a dude named Addis this week who is an absolute stud and is always smiling. We found him while bench contacting and he has met with us ever since. We gave him a Book of Mormon this week and today he told us he had already finished First Nephi! Pray for this man! During the lesson where we were teaching about the Book of Mormon, it had gone really well and we were bearing our testimony, then in the background we heard someone playing Minecraft music on the piano. 

On the other side, we haven't been able to meet with President Yohannes's wife because they have been busy. Pray for them that we will have time to go! 

Friday was sad. I woke up early in the morning feeling colder than normal. Turns out I was just shivering a lot because my stomach had gone to red alert. I spent the whole day in bed and was a cold boy. Elder Marble was sick earlier in the week, and a bunch of the other missionaries were sick too. 

I was feeling mostly better Saturday. It was a crazy day though and I didn't really have the energy to keep up. We taught our friend Abayneh and he wasn't really having it. We met with a member who called us frantically out of nowhere and then ran out of the compound five minutes into our lesson. We also met with Elder Marble's recent convert named Muvunyi and he was awesome. We had to drain a baptismal font, but to do that we had to get in. Then a young member boy decided he'd do it himself and went swimming. Not literally, but it was pretty funny. 

This week I've been thinking a lot about the Savior's power to forgive. Sometimes, when we do something wrong, we feel like we have to do so many unrealistic things to make it right. Of course, we have to make our wrongs right and apologize, but we also need to seek the power of the Atonement to help us feel forgiven, clean and healed. How can we do this? By stopping, praying, taking steps to change, and preparing for the sacrament. This power is REAL and will help us to feel truly forgiven. We can even forgive ourselves.

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን በቅርቡ እንገናኛለን

Medhanitalem Church, or The Savior of the World Church

The entryway

The holy of holies area

THE DOME WAS SWEET

Enjoying the cool church

Chanoly Noodle with the Meg ZLs

Arat Kilo grand opening

Haircut before and after

WK 95 - MOUNT OF OLIVES

It has been such a wild week. Like, I look back at it and I've definitely never had a week like it before. Did I enjoy? Yes. Do I have a lot to talk about? Also, yes. Plus, I was able to do something I've been wanting to do for 22 months now.  

Monday morning, we picked up the mother of an Elder serving here, along with her sister and her two friends from the airport. You may be asking, "Why is a mom coming? Does that happen much?" The answer is actually sometimes yeah. A few mothers have come in the past to help out the mission because we desperately need it. So, we welcomed them gladly and helped them ship their bags to the mission home. It was so fun to have 4 moms straight from the USA appear for a week. They were so fun and did a whole lot of good for us here. 

We had a few meetings this week. Elder Christofferson is actually coming to Ethiopia in two weeks so we are preparing for that! 

I started MyPlan this week. It is a program the church does for missionaries who have six weeks left. I've seen so many missionaries do it and I guess it is my turn? Wack. 

We played some basketball this week on the church's court and have started making some friends. 

A new trend has hit the EAAM: bench finding. It’s really hard to find good people to teach in this country. So, the solution is to have them find you! We sit on a bench and say hi to everyone until they stop to talk. We actually found two or three solid people that way and met with them this week!

Thursday was one of the coolest days of my mission. One of the services the moms were giving was haircuts, and so we travelled with them to work with missionaries along the way. 

First stop was Summit, an old area of mine. I hadn't been back in a year since before we went to Kenya (in fact today is the one-year anniversary of us evacuating Ethiopia). It was so cool to see it again. They now have a cooler house than I did though. They gave haircuts, we talked with missionaries, then we moved on. 

Next came Debre Zeit, or in English, the Mount of Olives. Now, I have heard a LOT about Debre Zeit during my time in Ethiopia. It is a town just outside Addis that missionaries always called the promised land. Now what makes Debre Zeit special is that they have a huge chapel that looks like a small Temple which is especially weird for Ethiopia. I've always wanted to go and see with my own eyes, but I never got the chance to serve there. I got to visit on Thursday though and it was so cool. We got to eat lunch there and help the missionaries teach for a bit. I also really enjoyed the drive, seeing what it looks like outside of the concrete jungle. 

I got my own haircut. Hopefully I come back looking fresh because of it. 

We did some service packing food for a humanitarian organization working with the church. We tied bags of Teff flour for hours and my hands were raw by the end but it was fun to be there and participate. 

Saturday night and Sunday morning we spent time in Arat Kilo to help prepare for the opening of the brand new group there. The meeting was awesome and they had 50 people for the first time. It is a blessing to see the church grow here.

This email is already long enough. I'm enjoying every day though and I'm very grateful for the experiences I'm having. There are for sure ups and downs, but the Lord always leads us along if we let him. 

Elder Miles

እግዚአብሔር ይመስገን

Summit, my old area

Debre Zeit Chapel

This is supposed to say "Texas Burger"

Delivering the moms

President Dudfield enjoying the goods

Arat Kilo for dinner

Roadtrippin' to Debre Zeit

Enjoying by the temple looking church