Fire Week!

Yooooooooo what’s up everyone!!!! How are you?! I hope you’re all well! This week was super good and full of success.  It was also fun because I was able to go on two exchanges! Let's jump into the week!

July 7th

Today Elder Lucas and I had some member visits. While out on the visits we got trapped in the rain and got soaked hahahaha, rainy season is here!!! Me and Lucas are always ready with umbrellas.

July 8th

Pretty fire day! Today we were in a different area called Bole Bulla.  It is a very nice area of Ethiopia.  The church is looking for a new building in this area for church so we will have a lot more interaction in this area in the future.  We had a couple lessons in the middle of the day and then Elder Lucas and I went on an exchange with the Beklobet Elders.  For those of you that do not know what that means.  It means that we change companions for a certain amount of time and go out with different Elders.  It breaks up the time and allows each of us to see things differently with a new perspective.  I went out with Elder Carrol who is one of the District Leaders.  

July 9th

It was a pretty awesome exchange! We taught some people that were referrals and then had another member visit with a member named Hannah. She's super nice.  However, I had to do a little teaching with Elder Carro about how to appropriately talk with Sisters and how to be nice and assertive hahaha. There can be some cultural differences with respect to how men treat women in African countries.  After this exchange we hopped on over to the Meg area of town and started another exchange with the APs! I was with Elder Oloyde in meg! 

July 10th

Another fire day! (That is translated to another Great Day) Elder Ooloyde is from Nigeria 🇳🇬 and he's literally the goat (Greatest of all time) Meg is a nice spot to serve. I have to say that I don’t like doing missionary work in the city.  I much prefer the assignments I have out in the rural areas.  Currently I have been serving in the city. But with this transfer I have discovered that I really like the Meg area.  It has places that I can  work out and the members are very active here and they get together and play games do things as a congregation.  So, it might be worth it to stay in the city if they transfer me here and I am not just doing exchanges here.  Also had while here I went with the missionaries here and ate some fish and it was nice! I can already hear my mom saying " woooow see isn’t fish good" I love you mom, yes, it was nice, It didn’t have that fishy taste like salmon.  Fish is a very popular dish here.  They cook the entire fish by deep frying it, head and all. 

July 11th 

Today I worked a lot in Bole Bulla, which is where the church will be moving to soon, it is a nicer area. We taught our friend Weini and her 3 kids, and they seemed super nice and interested and want to hear more about the gospel of Jesu Christ. After that we cleaned the church and then went to one of our recent converts house to check up on them and visit.

July 12th

Today was a pretty normal Sunday. We had one of our friends named Degemegn come to church and he seemed to really like it! We are slowly building back up our numbers!  We have been working with a lot of the men here.  We have been trying to help them understand that they need to take the initiative and show up and participate. There has been a problem with them thinking that the missionaries can do everything, prepare the sacrament, bless and pass the sacrament, give the talks, lead the music, basically do everything.  We have had to stop doing this and teach them how to step up and take their responsibilities seriously.  We have a lot more women coming to church and doing what they know is right.  But getting the men to do what they need to is more difficult. 

July 13

Pretty normal P-day woke up called the fam and then, Sleep, sleep and u guessed it, sleep hahaha, lots of reading in Amharic and studying the language.  I realized this week that I can just talk without thinking about the language.  It is flowing and I know that is because I am putting in the effort.  I am looking for every opportunity to learn more and talk to people all the time so that I can have a better command of the language. Elder Lucas and I have been named “Eternal Companions” because we've been together a while hahahaha.  Today we set a goal together that for the next little while we are going to put in more effort to find some of the “lost members”.   Wish us luck and keep us in your prayers. 

Welp that’s all folks! This week was kind of hectic, and I promise this week I will take more photos! 

In case I don’t see you, good afternoon, good evening and good night 

Elder Frasier