Great Young Adult Activity - Couple's Getaway - Meskel Ethiopia Holiday -

Sister Martin and I decided to drop in on the final day of the YSA (Young Single Adult) Conference, since it was near our apartment at Entoto Park. It was the very first YSA Conference in Ethiopia.

Estifanos is a recent convert to the church.

Friends from our branch, Simon and Mengesha

Some great views at Entoto Park.

With President Efrem, our District President

Everyone we talked to loved the conference.

Our friend, Leta 

This is raw meat served at this lovely buffet dinner.

We were all surprised at the fancy decor that was set up for our group.

Many commented that this was the nicest event they have ever attended.

Since one of our Senior Couples is going home, we all decided to do an overnighter in this new hotel by a lake about an hour or so drive, in Debre Zeit/Bishoftu, Ethiopia.

It was a cool hotel with lots of adventurous spots to explore like this cave looking stairway down to the restaurant.

Our Mission Leader's daughter just finished her mission in Zambia, Africa and came to join her parents. She joined us for the little trip.

She was featured in the beginning clip of a beautiful presentation called, "A Missionary." It is all about missionaries from New Zealand currently serving around the world.  Watch it...

Sister Cowley and Sister Martin

Everyone ready for a 7am walk up the hill and back? 

When we got back, President Cowley and Elder Oba ran up and back.

View from our balcony.

We took a few minutes to check out a local artist. Lemma Guya painted famous people and the culture of Oromia, Ethiopia.

Pictures say a thousand words...

How about a game of SWOOP?

A beautiful place for a quick overnighter. Some of us stayed one night and some 2 nights. Nice place except they haven't installed the elevators yet and no stairway handrails.

Never saw anyone or any bird on the lake. Perhaps the water is like a dead sea. It's an ancient volcano filled with water. 

Here's a piece of our trip itinerary.

In Ethiopia, they celebrate and have a holiday called Meskel, meaning "Cross." It's all about the Empress Helena from Ethiopia who traveled to Jerusalem in about 300 AD to find, if possible, remnants of the cross of Jesus Christ. As the story goes, she prayed and built a fire and the smoke led her to the spot where she was able to dig and locate the true cross of Christ. Now in Ethiopia, they celebrate this event with fires throughout Ethiopia. 

We counted 4 we could see from our apartment balcony. One was directly in front of our apartment.

People also feast and celebrate this holiday with their families.

The streets were much quieter than usual with not very many cars on the road.