From Hot to Cold and LONG gas lines
- Apr 14
- 4 min read
Gooooooooooood morning, afternoon and evening everyone! Hope you are all amazing! This week was crazy. Long story short we are out of Gambela, let me tell you about it...
April 6th
Today was good! Last full day in Gambela. It was also technically P-day. We had some of our amazing friends come over and we taught them a little bit before we left. And then some of Rieks kids came over and we talked and played Frisbee all day! It was a nice way to end the rest of the time. We have pretty much been stuck in the church compound since last week when we were told for safety to stay inside the compound. So, we were at the mercy of people coming to see us.
April 7th
Travel day! We were finally able to get a plane ticket back to Addis. It was really hard to get a ticket because of the gas issues caused by the Iran conflict. It’s affecting a lot of things over here. Prices on everything, travel, and especially gas. New reports are saying that the prices of Goat and other meat have doubled since the beginning of the conflict. This is due partly because farmers must get their animals to market and that has become very difficult. Seeing what happens in Third World countries when conflicts, even outside of the country, is hard to watch and I am realizing that living in the US my parents sheltered me from it but now I am experiencing it firsthand. We spent most of the day getting from Gambella back to Addis, which is a 1.5-hour plane ride. When we made it back to Addis Ababa, we had some down time and then the Mission President took us out to dinner which was really nice! I love my mission leaders! We are very blessed to have them leading the mission and we will miss them when they leave in July. After dinner he took us over to the AP’s apartment and we spent the night with them. Tomorrow we are going to head to our new area. And then we spent the night in the APs apartment.
April 8th
Today not too much happened. We woke up and packed up again and then travelled up to our new area called Buryau. We spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting into our new digs. We are in an apartment with another set of missionaries. They are both from Nigeria. In the afternoon I went on exchanges because Elder Melling had MLC because he is now a ZL. A little about my new area. Buryau has faced rapid growth in the last three decades. It has grown from merely 10,000 people in 1994 to an estimated 130,000 people three decades later; consisting of migrants from the rural south of Ethiopia looking for work along with former residents of Addis Ababa who sought cheaper housing in the suburbs.
April 9th
Today was a pretty good day. We went over to introduce ourselves to our recent convert. We had a nice visit, and it was nice to be out doing work again. I Met some new people, and we had a group lesson with some people living in Gameblla over the phone. It was a little difficult with no translator... so funnnnn
April 10th
Some gooooooood work was done today! We had a couple of online lessons. But the lesson we spent the most time on was with Jembere. He has met with some missionaries before but not us. He knew what the Book of Mormon so we taught him the lesson about Joseph smith and accepted the challenge of baptism and so we put him on date which was dope.
April 11th
Another good day of work. This area we are in is a whitewashed area. (This means it has ALL new missionaries) For being a whitewashed area we aren’t doing too bad. We met with two recent converts today and we are looking to have some promising people soon. Today I finally felt a little more excited about the transfer. As I have mentioned before, it has been very hard with so much transition. We get to one place, and the work is going well and then things happen beyond our control and we must keep leaving. I am hoping that I can stay the transfer or return back to Gambela if things calm down in the world.
April 12th
Good Sunday! Not a lot of people came to church in this area today, but we watched general conference (we do this the week after most of the world because of the extreme time change) and then met with some members and called it a day.
April 13th
Today was P-day and so today we climbed a mountain!! It was fun! I wasn’t too keen on the idea but overall enjoyed it. It was fun to be out for the day. I will report more on the day later. However, I did take a video of the line to get Gas so that you have an idea.
Overall, a good week! Kind of a mental struggle getting moved around a lot but it’s alright! We are getting through it. When in doubt thug it out 😎😎
Don't get arrested, people don’t do stupid things. Unless it is a must. Love you all!
ቻው
- Elder Frasier
