A fun lunch - Sister Martin leads singing in Primary - cooking - more

 

Went to lunch with Elder and Sister Oba. They are called to help establish good government relations. They also teach self-reliance class in their branch which we may be doing as well. They've been in Ethiopia quite a while so we asked them a lot of questions about NGO's, people, driving, etc. We had a good time.

Sister Martin and I went shopping for a few office supplies in the building directly under the place we meet for church. After we walked upstairs to see what was happening in the church. President Kefeni, of the district presidency, was there measuring the Primary and Relief Society rooms for carpet. He asked if we had time to got over to select colors for some carpets/rugs. We said sure and so we hopped in his truck and went to a few stores in the Piasa shopping district. 

Sister Martin was just called as 1st counselor in Primary in charge of singing time. This was her first Sunday doing the music. Our branch primary includes nursery (under 3 years old). They usually have between 5 - 10 children. The Primary President only speaks a few words of English and Sister Martin only speaks a few words of the Amharic language but they seem to work things out somehow. The Relief Society President (center) came in to translate and help with the children. They were all sitting on the new carpet.

Had a tender mercy. Sister Martin woke up sick, yet it was the first time she would be leading the singing in Primary. She prayed that she would be well to attend church without any symptoms and the Lord blessed her to feel good enough.

They learned to sing I am a child of God in English and Amharic. It was beautiful.

Another interesting thing is that 4 our our children all have the same assignment to lead singing in Primary. Now they can all collaborate together with their ideas.

Even though it's hard to find the right ingredients we keep trying to cook. This recipe turned out quite good. I call it Kerala, India Egg Curry. I was missing tamarind, curry leaves, cinnamon sticks, etc. so I had to substitute some of the ingredients and it worked out. Sister Martin made the Naan bread. Since we can't find a rolling pin yet, she uses one of our drinking glasses to flatten out the dough. It turned out really good, especially the naan bread. We made extra so we shared with the 3 young missionaries that live upstairs. 

We have a new bakery right next door to our apartment. We bought some good bread. One was plain white and another had barley in it. Not too bad at only 75 cents a loaf. We've also got a few fried samosa's that are filled with lentils. They are about 25 cents each. Also good. 

The tall building next to the bakery is our apartment building.

This is the apartment where we live

I watched a video recently released by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints called the "October 2023 World Report". After I watched it I watched the one for April as well. They include a lot of humanitarian projects that will be the type of things we will be working on. Very Interesting. Enjoy.

October 2023 World Report

April 2023 World Report