WK 22 – Devastation

Something devastating happened this week. I finished all of the American snacks I brought. I can't wait for the day that I can eat Dynamita Doritos again. That reunion will be glorious. As I finished the bag that I brought I think a part of my soul left me.

It was a mostly slow week. People just did not want to answer our calls. That's a pretty big problem here in Ethiopia: communication is very inconsistent as well as peoples' schedules so it's hard to lock down lessons.

Something that has made up for that is the push for more member work we've been having here. In the Megenagna Branch where I'm at, there are 900 inactive members. That's a TON. It's pretty much the only reason that it's not a ward yet, and those saints could help strengthen the branch so much, so we've been working to reactivate them. 

One member miracle story: we called a man who was NOT happy to be contacted. He rambled off in Amharic so I wasn't exactly sure why but I caught a few details. Despite that he still wanted to meet with us and explain his situation. So we met with him the next day at his home and he unloaded on us. He's had a rough time the past few years and had a pretty good reason to be angry at the church here. He told us he was never coming back to the church. He didn't want to hear a message from us either, so all I could think to do was get to know him and finish with a prayer. Now fast forward to Sunday, Elder Anbesse and I are sitting outside making some calls and this member walks in the gate! It was honestly so cool to see.

Next member story, we went to Tulu Dimtu again to visit a Sister in the branch. She raises orphans so there were a bunch of kids traveling with us. I got started talking to one of the kids, his name was Nati, and we became homies. He only spoke Amharic, so I spoke as much as I could to him and I think he thought it was funny. On the Taxi to Tulu Dimtu he kept playing with my hair and we made some handshakes. When we got to Tulu Dimtu we hopped into a Bajaj (also known as a tuk-tuk I think. One of those covered tricycle vehicle thingies) and I had an "oh my goodness I'm in Africa moment" which happens every once in a while. There was a quick message shared on unity after a fantastic lunch and then we headed back to Addis. My impression the whole time was just how amazing the members are here despite their circumstances. 

Which kind of brings me to my spiritual thought, real quick because this email is long. I was reading in the New Testament this week and came across Mark 5:19 which says: "Go home to thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee." From that I felt impressed to tell my friends and family that despite the challenges I may face I can honestly say that God has done amazing things for me in my life and even just on my mission and I'm so grateful for the many little blessings in my life. Look for the compassion of God in your own life, I promise that it's there! 

Love you all

እግዚአብሔር በትንሽ ነገሮች በየቀኑ ይባረካናል

Elder Miles

 

I am struggling to remember to take pictures, so enjoy this picture of my breakfast this morning

WK 21 - Puppy for a day

Today marks five months as a missionary for me! That's not exactly a big milestone at all but it just happened to fall exactly on today. The next one will be a party though I promise. 

We had a Mission Conference and transfers this week! Every single missionary in Ethiopia (so like only fifty) gathered at the Megenagna chapel for some fantastic spiritual nurturing from President and Sister Dudfield, some training from the mission leaders, and lunch (which might have been the best part because it's the best food I've had since getting here). I got to see my entire MTC District in person finally because the remaining Elders came in with the new group. 

I'll be staying here in Megenagna with Elder Anbesse for another transfer and I'm totally pumped to be able to hit the work hard in a familiar area. Our apartment changed up quite a bit too so that will help keep things interesting. 

Sister Dudfield shared an awesome thought about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which includes faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. This is the pattern for living that Christ has given us so that we can experience growth and joy in this life and eventually return to live with him and God again. It's the straight and narrow gate. But it is important to remember that it's a process and a pattern, rather than just a one time thing. No matter where we are in life as we continue to have at least a little faith to push forward, to repent of our shortcomings, partake of the Sacrament, follow promptings of the Spirit, and strive to obey the commandments, we can be confident in our standing before God. That is what we make known as missionaries and it is so important for any member of the church to understand. 

We've been teaching quite a few people so here's a brief summary of the progressors:

- A man named Abraham that we teach over the phone who loves very randomly specific bible verses.

- Wendesen who is on date.

- Robel who is a young engineer and asks a ton of questions and makes our lessons very lengthy.

- and Tolossa who is soft spoken but is very knowledgeable and pretty much helped us teach Robel yesterday.

Now for the subject line. We had a puppy for a day. Her name was Cheese. One of the missionaries in my apartment was walking to the Church the other day and saw a puppy outside of a shop that was getting rocks thrown at it. His motherly instincts kicked in and he scooped it up and took it with him the rest of the way, and I think he was planning on keeping it. Butttttt puppies are definitely not missionary approved and the APs made that very clear when he arrived at the Chapel so the next goal became to return it to the place where he got it. Due to him being busy and no one else wanting to help out, the responsibility fell on me to take it on the thirty minute walk home. So I stuck it in my bag and journeyed forth like a boy and his dog in one of those heartfelt movies. You know what kind of movies I'm talking about. When I got home the Elder cleaned Cheese up and let her go but we enjoyed the time we had together. 

Another week down. Have a great coming week everyone!

እግዚአብሔር ይወዳናል

Elder Miles

🧀

🧀 in a bag

Chowing on some sugar cane. Peep the mosquito bite right in the middle of my forehead

Marshmellow concert in the apartment

The new Megenagna district

Malachi District reunited in the flesh

WK 20 - Still Breaking Ankles

Here I am, walking down the street heading back to our apartment when a young child comes up to me trying to sell some tissues. At first I tried to buy them because 1.I kind of needed some and 2. I felt bad for this kid and I thought they were only one birr. Well turns out I got the price wrong. So I decided I wasn't going to but them anymore but now that I had shown the money this kid was locked in. He followed me all the way down the street trying to get me to purchase these tissues and would constantly stick his arm out in front of me as I tried to pass him. So I decided to have some fun: I picked up a little bit of speed and hit him with a hard jab. This child went FLYING by. It was a career ending, NBA highlight reel sort of ankle break. What can I say I guess I've still got it. Props to the kid though because he got right back up and kept trying.

We had exchanges early on this week and I was with our District Leader Elder Rundasa. Cool thing about him: he's a native Oromic speaker, which is another widely-spoken language here in Ethiopia, but he also speaks Amharic and English. Our first lesson together was actually with his little brother, who is getting baptized soon. That lesson was entirely in Oromic so I had even less of an idea what was going on. But Elder Rundasa did a fantastic job translating for me. Our second lesson together was even more wild though. It was me, Elder Rundasa, a member, and our investigator. Elder Rundasa spoke Oromic to the member, who translated it in a half-Amharic, half-English jumble to the investigator, who spoke the same way back. Not even kidding they would start a phrase in English and then just morph to Amharic. Then I sat there and taught in English and said the first vision in Amharic (my pronunciation got roasted though). It went very well despite the trilingual mess! I had an opportunity to bear my testimony on Russell M. Nelson and the Holy Ghost and he was very agreeable with what we taught.

There's a ton of stray cats and dogs here in Addis Ababa. They are literally everywhere. Last night I woke up to what seemed like all the dogs in the city howling at the same time. It was super eerie but kind of peaceful. Straight up it is the Call of the Wild out here. I also finally got to pet a cat! We found him in the trash and named him Buttons. He came up to us meowing so we hustled and made him some chicken nuggets and while he ate he let us pet him. Don't worry we made sure to sanitize like crazy afterwards.

We've found a lot of new people this week and have been teaching a bunch as well. A lot of first lessons, but also a lot of promise! We put a man named Wendesin on date this week and he has some financial issues so please pray for him! 

Last thing, we had our Area Seventy Elder Sitachi (I'm just gonna assume that is how it's spelled) visit and give us a short devotional. He taught us about how humility allows us to access Christ's power to endure all things God throws our way! As we humbly accept God's plan for us, difficult as it may be, we can be strengthened in the knowledge that it is for our good. And our Savior is with us every step of the way! 

Thanks for all the support! 

እግዚአብሔር ይመስግን

Elder Miles

Lunch Time

The most relatable meme

BUTTONS the ቆሻሻ ድመት

Elder Sitati, the Dudfields and the missionaries in the area

WK 19 - Amerikawiwoch YELEM

Good evening everyone. Welcome to another episode of the Life in East Africa podcast. Tonight we will be discussing Baptism.

Wendimu got baptized on Saturday! It was a really neat experience. We had to climb through a chapel window to get in and get the font filled in time because the Church was locked and we had forgotten our phone at the apartment. Eventually we got it all together and we only started 20 minutes late! I conducted and Elder Anbesse performed the Baptism. Afterwards Wendimu bore such a sweet, sincere testimony about how he came to know the Church is true. That is a powerful man right there.

We confirmed him in Sacrament Meeting yesterday and that was the most spiritual part for me. Standing in the circle with Melchezidek Priesthood holders from the branch here and listening to the blessing in Amharic was just....so cool. Sorry for the lack of refined language but that's the word that described it for me. The Priesthood HAS IN FACT been restored to the Earth. We have access to that power. What a blessing. It allows us to do so many amazing things for God's children. 

We had to lockdown in our apartments for a day this week because there were some anti-American protests going on in Addis. That's where the subject line comes in. It means "no Americans" in Amharic. I'd imagine that was said quite a bit that day. So we just studied and listened to a BYU devotional. I honestly thought we could've just adopted Australian accents for the day and been fine but like safety first right?

Have a great week! 

አሪፍ ሳምንት አላቹ

Elder Miles 

Wendimu!!!

Chilling in the hood behind out apartment. This is what houses look like in Addis.

Chicken Sammiches

Dynamic Duo

Roof chillin

WK 18 - Bizza Box

I think these emails are starting to develop a bit of a food theme. Here in Ethiopia, they love to write things in both Amharic and English, and sometimes that English isn't great so you get some hilarious spellings. For one, we were playing ping-pong in the Church parking lot yesterday and I realized the table (which was so incredibly weather damaged by the way) had "Table Tannis" printed on the side. And a restaurant we ate at had a nice selection of "Berger" and even a "Bizza Box." Pics included below.  We were dying laughing.

Along with the pizza theme, we decided to splurge this week and get some Pizza Hut this week. You heard me. There is a Pizza Hut here in Ethiopia. And there was a Coldstone right next to it. They were in a mall that was easily the nicest place I've been to here.

Our Baptism didn't go through this week. Danny just didn't show up which was a MAJOR bummer because we have no way to contact him. He doesn't have a phone so we would schedule him at our meetings and he was always consistent with the time we setup. He made it all the way through to the baptismal interview and then just didn't show up for his Baptism. I was really looking forward to it so that was a bit of a damper. If anyone has any advice on finding an unfindable man let me know.

On the flip side, we put a man named Wendimu on date who has some of the most incredible faith. He works for another church so getting baptized puts his livelihood at stake. But he has a testimony of the truth of the Book of Mormon and has faith that God will provide for him as he takes these steps. 

This week was hard. I often times feel slightly useless because I don't speak the language and I don't quite get how the work goes here. It can be really hard communicating ideas to my companion. This is what the spirit has directed me to: PATIENCE. Patience is a Christ-like attribute and a Godly quality. It allows us to enjoy life during trials. It shows trust in God's timing and allows for spiritual growth with diligence and consistency. Patience is a quality we can develop with practice, use of the atonement, and God's help.

Have a great week everyone!

ጤና ይስጥልኝ

Elder Miles

You can't outpizza the hut

"Bizza Box" and "Berger"

Anbesse and I

"Table Tannis"

Air Sponge 3s

WK 17 - We found fries

That's it. That's the highlight of the week. After a long day of walking and lacking sustenance, we stumbled onto a back alley road and found an እናት (Mother) frying up some taters. A serving was only 10 birr which is like 25 cents so we loaded up on those things. They were perhaps the greatest fries I've ever eaten and lemme just say I was a happy Elder. 

They were actually that good but really the highlight of the week was on Thursday. Elder Anbesse and I took a bus to a town 30 minutes outside of Addis Ababa called Tulu Dimtu to do some finding and my goodness it was an experience. For one Tulu Dimtu isn't necessarily a "town" but more like a huge grouping of apartment complexes that people have set up shops around and at the base of. It's strangely isolated from Addis, and all the roads were dirt. Legit some people were traveling by donkey-drawn wooden carriages it was so awesome. I'm sure it's way off the beaten path for a white person too so I was drawing a lot of stares haha.

We had a lot of success in Tulu though and that was honestly miraculous to see. All of the people here really love Christ and are willing to talk to us. 99% of the contacting is done in Amharic which is a struggle currently but even I was able get a number speaking English to some people from Sudan. One guy called out to me in perfect English, but then proceeded to sit me down and tell me his conspiracies about missionaries and the Church. On the way home from Tulu we must have gotten on the wrong bus because it took a major detour and we ended up getting a tour of Addis for a few hours.

One more thing. We have a friend who is going to be baptized this week! His name is Danny and he's awesome. I don't know him very well but I'm super excited for him

I've been thinking a lot about temples this week! One of the goals of our mission is to get a Temple built here in Ethiopia! In order to do that you need a Stake, and in order to get a Stake you need at least 7 branches. Right now, Ethiopia has 4. But with the growth that we are seeing 7 is reachable soon enough. Thinking about people that don't have access to those blessing made me realize just how grateful I am for the temple and how much I miss it. It's a place to learn about God, his plan, serve, receive guidance and feel unrivaled peace. I hope we will all take advantage of those blessings as temples re-open.

Have a great week everyone!

እግዚአብሔር ያውቃችኋል እና ያፈቅራችኋ ል

God knows you and loves you

Elder Miles

Only photo I got of Tulu Dimtu

Amharic Fanta

Tegabit, the best Ethiopian food I've had so far

Elder Anbesse and I

L to R: Elders Rundasa, Kearl, Lyman, Larsen, Anbesse, and Miles

FRIES

WK 16 - SIGANALEN BRRRRRO

Heyyy well I hope everyone is having a great middle of the night! So much has happened in the last week that there's no way I'll be able to do it all justice so I'll briefly hit on the most important parts:

I said goodbye to everyone in California which was hard! I was pumped to come to Ethiopia but it was a sad day leaving all the people I was getting to know.

We flew from Santa Barbara to San Francisco to New Jersey to Togo to Addis Ababa in a fat 23 hours of travel time. Ethiopia welcomed us with a thunderstorm (made it just in time for rainy season. It's poured every day since coming) and it was straight up like a movie descending through the clouds with lightning flashing around us.

The airport took forever to get out of, and when we finally made it out and were loading bags, random locals started showing up out of nowhere trying to "help us" and President Dudfield and the APs were not having it. Fists were nearly thrown. It was a nice welcome haha.

Speaking of President Dudfield, him and Sister Dudfield are the best. First off, they are Australian so their accents instantly make them fun. We stayed at the mission home the first few days and I can tell just how much they love the missionaries and the country. They cooked us our final familiar meals (rip), took us to church (it was Ethiopian Easter on Sunday so I got two Easters), and sent us off. 

Addis Ababa is unlike any place I've ever seen. I can't describe. It's huge. It's such a cool city. The weather is perfect in my opinion. It's got a bunch of skyscrapers which are either super nice or half done and crumbling. And in between are either nice, walled off houses or tin shacks. It's an interesting combination of modern and third world but I love it. Here are some things I've seen so far:

•       Cars just do what they want. Traffic is insane here.
•       A few carcasses on the street.
•       Shepherds driving goat herds next to the freeway.
•      People chilling in abandoned buildings
•     And so on. I'll include more in other emails I can't remember it all.

I'll be finishing my training in an area of Addis Ababa called Megenanga with my trainer Elder Anbesse. He's a native Ethiopian and a little fireball. His name means Lion in Amharic which is lit. He calls everyone brrrro (with a rolled r) and there is a bit of a language barrier but his English is pretty good and I'm excited to learn Amharic from him.

I won't have a lot of time to communicate because our companionship shares a phone so our time is split. I'll try my best to respond to emails but just know that I see them and am sending out mental messages of appreciation.

Sorry for the lengthy email, but lastly is my spiritual thought! President Dudfield shared with me the importance of including spiritual events and my testimony in my emails, so I'll do a better job at including those in my letters. The biggest impression to me this week being on the other side of the world: God ABSOLUTELY loves all his children everywhere. That means you and you and YOU. The people here are amazing. Their testimonies are so strong.

እግዚአብሔር ጥሩ ነው

Elder Miles

 

Some slappin' Tibs Firfir. We got here at the end of fasting season so we had meat.

The Meganagna district: Elder Kearl, Elder Rundasa, Me, Elder Larson, Elder Lyman, and Elder Anbesse

Elder Miles with President and Sister Dudfield