September 5, 2011
ሕ ሞም!! (Hi Mom)
Ya, that is just a little of the language that I have to learn now!! :D It
is so weird to be in a different country AGAIN!! I feel a little like I am
starting my mission all over again, which, of course, is causing me to have some
conflicting feelings!! haha But seriously I am really happy to be here in
Ethiopia, to learn another culture, and to come to love another people! It is
really exciting! There is so much culture and history in this country, and the
people here are really proud of it! They take great pride in a few things.
1) The fact that they were never colonized by another European nation like
most of the other countries in Africa.
2) They have the original church that Christ belonged too (Orthodox
Christian) 3) They have the most beautiful Women in Africa.
They seriously and deeply believe all of those things, and they will defend
them to the death!! haha THey are a really proud people. I agree with points
number one and three, although they were conquered by Muslin in the Second
World War, but soon regained their freedom. The women here are really beautiful
though, but they are modest!! Such a change from Uganda haha But they do have a
natural beauty, something quite interesting. They also claim that King Solomon,
yes in the Bible, had a child with a Ethiopian Princess, and so they have the
priesthood from his Kid...... something like that haha Some really weird stuff!!
But I love it here! There are a TON of Orthodox Christians and a lot of Muslims
of course, but no unhallowed hand can stop the work from progressing!! :D
The church here is really small, and is located in two central parts in
Ethiopia. One place is the capital called Addis Ababa ( meaning "New Flower").
We have two branches in the capital, and one group of Sudanese people meeting.
Each branch has about 80 people coming every week and we have about 40-50 coming
to the Sudanese group. As Zone Leaders, we attend both the Meganagna branch and
the Sudanese group, also called the Gergi Group. Since we are the only
Missionary leaders up here, we are like the acting AP's. We work super closely
with the District President, and with the missionary office couple, Elder/Sister
Parrish. We have our own office at the church, it is really cool! President
Jackson has given me a huge assignment to come up here and help out the work. It
is kind of stressful!! haha We also have a branch meeting down in Debre Zeit,
about a hour from where we live. They have a super strong branch of over 100
people, and they are also getting a brand new building built there!! It is so
huge and has underground parking! That is our strongest branch in Ethiopia. I
will be sending some pics soon, but in the email place I am at, there is no
place to plug in my camera, and the Internet is really slow!! Sorry!! :( The
second area of concentration is about 4 hours south of us in an area called
Awassa. They have 2 branches down there and are doing a great job of running it,
there are also two ZL's called down there to run the work.
But all in all, the work is going to go great here! I got here on Friday
night, and got really sick haha It was a big altitude change, and a huge
climate change. Addis Ababa is about 8,000 feet above sea level and my body was
not use to it, so I got quite sick, and combine that with the food they eat, not
good haha But it is not unusual, so they had medicine waiting for me and now I
am 100% ok! :) It is SO cold here! It gets below 50 at night!! AH!! And in the
day, not above 75!! I had to pull out my long sleeve shirt and my sweater to
wear with my church clothes!! Crazy!!
So ya, I had to leave alot of stuff in Uganda because the airline only
allowed me to bring ONE suitcase not over 30 kg, so I had to drop alot of things
in my other suitcase and leave it in the mission home, so I may need you to send
me some things.... sorry haha I do need some flea collars though!! the house is
so dirty!! The previous elders for the last two years have left it discussing,
so Elder Lefevre and I are going to clean it hard core, but we still need the
flea collars and stuff haha Ill send you my new address, so don't send anything
else to Uganda, it gets here to Ethiopia in like 2 weeks!! Awesome!! :D So ya,
ill send you the address super soon.
Well that's all I can think about so far!! We did have two baptisms this
week in my branch! I interviewed one of them, but I had to have a translator of
course because I don't know the language yet haha But i am so excited for this
new chapter in my mission!! I love it here!! Salomno!! ጴአቼ (Peace be with
you)
Elder Kendall!! :D
ps- ask me lots of questions!! :D
No comments:
Post a Comment