Emergency Transfer Number Three!....Yes Again!

Ok ok ok! Don't worry, y’all, my nose isn't broken.  The reason we are being emergency transferred AGAIN out of Gambela is because of the war in Iran. The embassy let the Mission President know that all the missionaries needed to be close to the capital in case we needed to evacuate quickly.  We were in Gambela, which is a 1.5-hour plane ride.  This phone call came on Friday, and because of fuel issues, we could not get a flight out until Tuesday, as so many flights had been cancelled because there is not enough fuel to operate a normal schedule.   There are lines up to 24 hours long at gas stations with people trying to get fuel.  This has also caused a problem with power in our living quarters, which we have not had in more than three days. We were also told that we could not leave the church compound, which is where we live.  We have had to do so very briefly a few times to get food.  But mostly we are just stuck in the compound until we can get a flight back to Addis.  I will tell you more about my week below in my daily snippet.

March 31st

Today was good! People keep trying to scam us because my companion is white.  This has not been an issue for me, but it is for him, and I am always with him.  We are still waiting for our kitchen to come, and we keep having problems.  Mostly because people keep trying to scam us.  Right now, our apartment does not have a kitchen, so we are making do until we can get people to stop trying to take advantage of us. On a missionary note, it was a good day of teaching; we even were able to teach a few people in English!

April 1st

Wow... April is already here, today we went veeeeeeerrryyyy far from the church! About a 2-hour walk one way. We met with this amazing family and some other people! One of the church members named Dual came with us to interpret and help us, and honestly, he is AMAZING!

April 2nd

TRANSFER NEWS!!!..... we are leaving.... we are headed to a place called Buryu. It’s the coldest part of the mission. So, we are going from the Hottest place in the mission to the coldest.  In the rainy season, it has been known to snow!  (It is the rainy season now) because the war in Iran is making it harder to get fuel in certain parts of the world. The Mission President doesn't want us getting stuck if something big goes down. And so, we found out we will be leaving on Sunday. 

Ps. We can’t leave the compound... not allowed

April 3rd 

Today we taught a bunch of lessons in the compound... not the best, but it still worked.  We were at the mercy of calling people and getting them to come to us, which made things difficult.

April 4th

Today, a member taught us how to make the South Sudanese food that is called Akope! See pictures below. It is very delicious, and it was fun to make! Akop is a traditional South Sudanese dish, commonly prepared by the Nuer community and other groups in the region. It consists of steamed, small balls of flour—typically fermented maize flour mixed with a small amount of wheat, sorghum, or cassava flour—that resemble rice in texture. 

Making Akop is a labor-intensive, often tedious process involving soaking flour overnight, shaping the dough into small, rice-like pieces, and steaming them (often in a pot where the dough does not directly touch the water).

The other great thing about today is general conference started!!! We were able to leave to go to the member's house today for a bit.

April 5th

Church was fun! Lots of people showed up! We didn’t really do anything throughout the day other than help and conduct church because we can’t leave the compound! We do not have General Conference here like you do because of power, time change, and the ability to watch it, along with a bunch of other things.

April 6th

Today we hung out with some of the teens again and played lots of games, but it was hard because again we couldn't leave the compound... but it’s still very good! (See video below of us playing inside the church compound) For the last 3 days, we have not had power, so that's been fun... but we're pushing through it and trying to chill 😎 .  Not to be confused with we are chill, because with no power, it is actually FLAMING HOT! And I do not have a fan that works with no power.

This week, there have been a lot of ups and downs, I will not lie.  It has been mentally challenging because sometimes I don’t feel like I’m doing anything. That’s because I have moved around so much, and as soon as I develop a relationship with members or friends, I’m emergency transferred or pulled away. So, it’s been mentally hard to see my labors come through, but I think that's just something I need to get over. As time moves on and sometimes stays still, I think that I can see my progress.  Also, all this controlled chaos is beyond anyone’s control.  It is teaching me a lot.  But as I said, it is mentally taxing. 

But either way, I love you all, and I’m always staying happy and having fun with Elder Melling! You guys are the real ones 😁😁😁 general conference was hard to watch over here in Gambella, so I’ll watch this week and get you my fav talks next week

CHOW!

Elder Frasier