Learning to Pray - Pizza Hut - A Beautiful Baptism - Trick or Treat? - Training

 

The young missionaries that live in our apartment called us up one day and asked us if we would join them for a class on how to pray in Amharic Ethiopian language. We said, "Yes".

Going through the basics of prayer. They first taught us how to say "Dear Heavenly Father". Then they taught us how to say "We thank..." and then how to "Please bless..." And finishing "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen". 

Here's a picture of the white board of what we learned. 

We had a good time and were thankful for the time they spent teaching us.

We received this group photo from our zone conference.

PIZZA HUT??!

We called up the office couple, Elder and Sister Woodbury and arranged to go to a mall for lunch. It was a nice restaurant and the food was pretty good. It wasn't as good as Pizza back home but not bad. They don't really have any sausage, bacon or pork products here, which are some of our favorite pizza toppings. This pizza had little ground beef meatballs instead of sausage. They were ok except for the bones.

We had the opportunity to attend our first baptismal service in Ethiopia. They have them nearly every week. The service was held for an 8 year old girl and this sister. We loved how she wore her traditional Ethiopian dress after the baptism. Both girls bore their testimonies. We felt an amazing outpouring of the Spirit of God. May God continue to bless them. 

I went up to her after to tell her "Congratulations" in Amharic language. She was kind enough to tell me I almost got it right. 

We were impressed of how many came to support those getting baptized. 

TRICK OR TREAT?!?

Since there is no sign of Halloween in Ethiopia, we gave a few chocolates we brought from home to some workers that helped in our apartment. Sister Martin doesn't mind since she is a super chocolate lover. She has a sign in our kitchen back home that says: "I would give up CHOCOLATE but I'm no quitter!

We had our first online training including updates from the Malnutrition Project that we attended. 

Training is one of our first steps to learn how to best serve the people in Ethiopia. There are a myriad of organizations in Ethiopia that do humanitarian projects. We learned that many organizations have great brochures to try and raise money for projects. Some do very little to actually help people. Our trainer, Phillip was telling us that he visited a project that actually was doing nothing their brochure depicted. There are many projects that have been finished that the Church has helped fund that need final evaluation and monitoring, including follow up with the sustainability areas. We are learning little by little. 

We are learning that the needs are great and so many are hungry or are not getting a healthy diet. Of the 50 children tested for malnutrition at the church that we attended, only 20% were considered healthy. The test results of the children 6 months to 5 years old analyzed 3 areas: Weight to Height ratio (risk of stunted growth), Height to Age ratio (risk of wasting), and MUAC (middle upper are circumference). I was so sad to hear that one of the Sisters who brought her child in for the afternoon testing admitted she had not eaten anything that day. 

Oh Heavenly Father, thank you for our blessings, please help us find ways to help the truly needy people out there in the name of Jesus Christ. 

On a lighter note, we have Family Home Evening twice a month with the couples which usually includes lunch or dinner. Most of the couples preferred something before dark. We were all asked to meet at a nice restaurant for lunch. Since it was only a 20 minute walk from our apartment we decided to walk.

Sister Martin had a Burger meal and I tried the Tandoori chicken. Not a 5 star but pretty good food. The presentation was excellent though. 

Since half of those pictured are from New Zealand, it was interesting to hear the couples talk about how their Rugby team lost by 1 point in the final game of the Rugby World Cup. South Africa 12, New Zealand 11.