Transfers....Change is sometimes welcome!

Hello everyone! How’s it going? Hope you all had another blessed week! Some big changes this week from transfers! Let me tell you about it!

Feb 16

Awesome day! We went roller skating and didn’t eat a bunch of junk food. I think I mentioned that I had found a cool place with roller skating, trampolines, arcades etc. while out tracting.  I made note of where it was to come back on our P-day.  Places like this are very uncommon in Ethiopia so it was surprising for me to find it. We were about the only people in the entire place.  There were two other people there but the rest of it was just my zone.  So, a bunch of missionaries out roller skating.  We had a GREAT time, and it was really fun! 🤣 Now I’m ready for the week.

Feb 17 

Today was great day! Good lessons. And lots of new people! We got into a little bit of an "argument" with an orthodox lady. She wanted to know our beliefs and then told us we were wrong. I was going to chew her out but decided I don’t want another broken nose 🤣 Another lady told us we were liars while we were looking for the home of some members.  The Ethiopian Orthodox church is very prevalent in Ethiopia, and it is not just a religion it is the culture and it has been part of the Ethiopian country for a very long time. While it remains the largest single religious denomination in the country, its share has decreased from over 50% in the 1990’s due to the rapid growth of Islam (approx. 34%) and Protestantism (approx. 21%). It is interesting that different parts of Ethiopia have higher rates of Ethiopian Orthodox members.  In Addis Ababa where I am serving it is 75%.  However, on the South Sudan border where we just opened the church there is only 17% Ethiopian Orthodox.

This is a map of the country of Ethiopia. It shows populations of different religions in the country. You can see that the area closest to the Somalian border is heavy Islam. The areas up South are primarily Ethiopian Orthodox.

Feb 18

Awesome lesson with this lady over the phone. And she didn’t ask weird or bogus questions! But it was a tiring day hahaha

I made dinner! My companion from Nigeria taught me one of the dishes from his country. It is delicious!

Feb 19

Today was an amazing morning! I met with a man named Metasebia. Let me tell you a cool fact about him. My friend and ward member from back home, Paul Christensen baptized his dad almost 30 years ago while he served his mission. And his son found me and we had really good conversation. Shout out Paul, I’m meeting with his dad soon. Which is a blessing about staying in this area. It is funny how things change, because until this encounter I was really hoping to get transferred back into the countryside.  Transfers came out today. I will be getting a new companion.  His name is Elder Owusu from Ghana and he’s sick (cool for your older people reading this😊).  My two companions were both transferred out of this area.  Being out of a triple makes me so happy!  Triples are hard!  The other great thing is that Elder Thayne will be coming to this house again! We have been together before, and I love having him here!

  This is where our house where we live. It is very nice by Ethiopian standards.

Feb 20

Today I was transfers and got my new comp. We got along almost instantly! That took a lot of the day.  However, in the evening we called some people, we went and showed them the church and prepared for tomorrow. I am excited to get into this new transfer!

This is me and my new companion Elder Owusu. He is from Ghana.

Feb 21

Today was nice, I got to know elder Owusu and we had a good day of work. Honestly a slower day but that’s ok! Next week will be better when I plan with him.

Feb22

Awesome Sunday! Not a lot of interested people. However, all the members came and they came on time! Big miracle! Awesome Awesome!!  We did some baptism interviews for next week for the other companions in this house of mine. They are all blind but know everything, and they know everything about our church and the layout so you wouldn't think they are blind. 

This is us singing "Happy Birthday" at church.

Our opening hymn at church on Sunday.

Feb 23 

Today we are just kicking it back and taking it easy because it is P-day. We are washing clothes.  Our washing machine finally was fixed after several months of it being broken. I had been hand washing my clothes up until this week in this apartment.   However, we realized that it takes A LOT of water.  Our water must be delivered by a truck and then loaded into a big plastic container on the top of the house.  This happens every week. Every apartment has their own water tank, and you have to pay for each load to be delivered.  However, since the washer has been fixed, we are running out of water before the end of the week. Like today we had to call and have them bring us a new load of water.  We may have to adjust.  We are going to end P-day by playing some card games and going to get food but that’s about it. 

I hope you know I love you all, 

Don't do stupid things! Don't pick a fight u can’t win. Don't go to jail on purpose! Good luck and have fun this week

Elder Frasier