This week was....boring!
What up family and friends? This week was not that exciting lowkey kind of boring, but I found myself reading Atomic habits so that’s fun. We struggle to find things to occupy our time after 6 pm when we are required to be inside for safety. That has been a challenge. I found this English book on the street from a book seller and my companion suggested I read it as it helped him. I highly suggest reading it. Anyway, let’s hop into this week
Oct 27
Today was normal! We had sports workout in the morning, but it was just me and Van. Usually, we have others that will join us from the branch. But not today. After that we had an office meeting and that was good. Iit was one of our senior couples’ last DCM (District Council Meetings) so that was a little sad. After that just hung out and worked on helping one of the Ethiopian branch members Elder Gebre who will be leaving on a mission tomorrow. We will be taking him to the airport tomorrow at 4 AM to leave for the Ghana MTC. Here in Ethiopia, we help a lot with those types of things as the families do not have cars or access to transportation other than public transport. He must be there so early, he is staying with us, and we will take care of getting him there early.
Oct 28
It was an early morning, and we took the new Elder to the Airport, and he was denied access to the plane. They told him that his visa and paperwork looked fake. This is so typical of Ethiopia and how things operate here. The paperwork had been all handled through the church and none of it was fake. However, it is hard to argue, and we just must fix what they tell us and try again. However, I feel bad, because he will be late arriving to the Ghana MTC and we are not sure how long it will take us to get his paperwork done. He will be staying with Elder Van and I until he can get this all sorted out with our mission office. Because we have such a small church presence here. The mission president not only runs the mission, but he takes care of ALL church organization issues just like this one.
Oct 29
We tried again today to get him on the plane and he didn’t make it.... He was kicked out a second time. We have a senior sister missionary what has been working on it and I think she has made some mistakes. We are still loving her anyway. So, the three of us left and went out to find someone that was interested in hearing our message.
Oct 30
Also, just a chill day! We had our movie night, and we watched McFarland which was awesome. If you haven't watched it, go watch it Mcfarland, USA is the movie. We have these movie nights with all our members to have some sort of a social gathering to encourage fellowship and activity. After the movie was over it was time to head home.
Oct 31
Happy Halloween! 🧛♂️
One of my favorite holidays and I was sad I had to miss it. There is no Halloween here. But don’t worry, its chill. Overall finding day as well where we found one of our members houses and were excited cause he just got out of jail. One issue we have here is locating our members as finding homes is difficult and they usually come to the church to meet with us. Locating where people live is a real bonus to us. Most places here do not even have street names unless it is a major street and until just recently there have not been any street maps or ways to navigate locations. So, it was nice to see him. But then we went home
Nov 1st
How the heck is it November? Today was a good Sunday we had like 100 people at church. We taught one of our friends Gatwech the word of wisdom while he was actively drinking coffee. lol that was fun. For those of you who do not know, Ethiopia is the birthplace of the coffee bean, and it is a HUGE part of the country. Everyone has coffee ceremonies here and they will sit and visit around the ceremonial pot for hours. I will give you a picture of what a ceremonial coffee ceremony looks like. There is nowhere you go that this is not happening. They will have coffee ceremonies two or three times a day. It is a very big part of life here. You can imagine how difficult teaching the word of wisdom is.
Nov 2nd
Cooking, cleaning, sleeping, working out and overall enjoyment today! Elder Gebre is still with us, and we don’t know when he will leave, we hope soon so he can get to the MTC so send some prayers for him.
Welp overall boring week sorry gang but not every week is exciting in missionary work, sometimes I’m just stuck in the office but that’s ok. I love serving with Elder Van and being with the mission leaders and learning from them.
Anyway! CHOW!
Elder Frasier
