Happy Birthday America
Welp, the 4 of July came and went. It’s crazy that a year has passed since my buddy Tate Christensen and I had our firework stand! Good job, Gwen, for sticking it out even with the firework ban this year.
This week was alright; let’s hop into it
June 30th
One of the best days of missionary work I’ve experienced in a while. Because finally, all the lessons showed up, and as a bonus, we had 1 lesson at one of the members’ houses. Today we committed and put 3 people on the date for baptism. It was lit!
July 1st
How the crap is it July.... excuse me..... Where’d June go? Hello? Anyway, we had MLC (Mission Leaders Conference), and we discussed some fun action items that were some of the best we have had in a while, in my opinion. And then we also got to meet with our new Mission President, which was awesome! Our new mission president would like to focus on self-reliance with many of our members. Especially the education component. He helped establish a group, a Branch to a Ward to a Stake on the Ghana border with the refugees coming in from Sierra Leone who were escaping civil war. He has seen what education can do to help people lift themselves out of poverty and how that can help spread the word of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We will see what changes are in store.
July 2nd
Zone conference but not rly!!! Woooo! Lowkey, what zone conference ended up being a small devotional with the new Mission President and helped everyone get to know him better. he laid out his plan to us and what he wants to do with Ethiopia, which includes getting more programs of helping with money and Ethiopians starting work and the missionary work expanded. Overall, I think he is a really smart guy. I am excited to see what this change will bring.
A few pictures of the area that I am in.
July 3rd
We had some members bring us lunch, Aster and Selam. They are some of the most “goated” members here. (That means awesome for you older folks) Not to be confused with the goats I see on the street here. It was very nice, and it was fun to meet with them! We had a good discussion about culture in the church here and how to increase the membership and keep retention. We also met with a group of missionaries from Beklobet and worked with them a bit. Beklobet is the area where we see a lot of our members go to church. So, we are working on how to change the culture and have people attend the location that they should attend geographically. Wish us luck!
July 4th
Happy Birthday, America 🦅🦅. There is an Ethiopian Chef that lives and has a restaurant in NYC. He was adopted like me. When he became famous, he went back to Ethiopia and started the same restaurant which I ate at for my birthday. Tonight they lite a bid American flag on the side of the building for the 4th of July. This will give you a good look at what the capital city of Addis looks like.
Today we met a guy who is really into meditation. Lowkey a weird lesson but whatever. You get a few of those out on a mission, as you all can imagine. After that, we went over to the church and worked on cleaning the church. After we needed to find one of the members, we went out in search of her. Found her and found some cool teaching opportunities on the way! It is different here in how people meet up with others. There is a lot of time for socializing and meeting people. Sometimes that happens by chance; sometimes we are out actively looking for our friends, neighbors, and church members.
July 5th
Today was church; we did not have good numbers- maybe 15, including 2 missionaries. Not even 4 missionaries could be there; that’s another story 💀, but overall, it was a good service. There is some discussion about changing where we meet (the church location). Because a lot of the members are choosing to go to a church in a different location, we may be moving. But I will keep you posted on that. After that, we had some teaching and then accounting to do. Lastly. as the Cowley's left, (Our old Mission leaders) they stopped in Kenya with several of our ward members who were able to visit the temple for the first time. It was a very special experience for them, and I loved hearing about it from many of those that had gone when they returned. Kenya is the closest temple to Ethiopia.
July 6th
P-Day. Today we were just vibing as usual, reading Doctrine and Covenants in Amharic and studying, sleeping, etc. Lowkey chill
Anyway, don’t do stupid stuff, love you all
Elder Frasier
