No SPAs left this week! It's like a miracle. Fear not, the next round of departures is quickly approaching...I know you're all excited because there's nothing more interesting than reading a blog about someone you don't know leaving and seeing pictures of everyone who spoke at their farewell. Real barn burning investigative journalism here.
On the other hand, three people are leaving the Beklobet Branch this week. Elder Horstman, Sister Yodit, and Sister Julianne. Elder Horstman is going home from his mission. Yodit is leaving to go on her mission. Julianne is going back to Europe.
Sister Yodit and Elder Horstman gave talks today for their last Sunday. Elder Horstman spoke about his vision for the future of the Church in Ethiopia. He read Doctrine & Covenants Section 135, where John Taylor announces the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and recounts all that Joseph Smith did for the Church in the 24 years between his first vision of Heavenly Father and the Savior and his death. Elder Horstman mentioned that the Church has been in Ethiopia for almost 20 years. If we all work hard, the next 20 years can see the Church grow exponentially with many more branches and districts and eventually wards and stakes (for any non-members that are confused by the lingo, I know some really nice young men/women with name tags who live near you and would love to come explain...seriously, open invitation). He spoke about the power he's felt when teaching the gospel with members at his side (a necessity here since the missionaries speak only limited Amharic) and both the foreign missionaries and the locals bear testimony together ("out of the mouth of two or three witnesses..."). He also mentioned that when he left on his mission, he waved goodbye to his family and friends and now that he's going back home he's once again waving goodbye to his family and friends.
Elder Horstman served his entire mission in the three branches in Addis Ababa (Beklobet, Megenaana, and Kaliti), which is pretty unusual. Many of the missionaries also spend some time in Uganda, and almost all missionaries at least spend time in the other Ethiopia congregations (Debre Zeit and the three congregations around Awassa). He's a good guy and his family is from somewhere north of Salt Lake. We tried to determine if he lives near where my parents are moving, but I have an unfortunate characteristic where every city in Utah sounds familiar to me but I can't place any of them. I guess that's what happens when you're always meeting members from random small towns in Utah and when half your city names come from the Book of Mormon. Lehi, Jordan River, Nephi, Roy, Syracuse, etc. all sound familiar but I can't tell where any of them are. Basically, I know where Salt Lake City, Provo/Orem, St. George, and Lake Powell are; I locate everything else based on X miles east/west/north/south from one of those places. For example, I know my parents are moving to the north of Salt Lake City area, but I've got nothing more specific than that. Probably means I'm geographically challenged given I spent four years at college in Utah.
I took the missionaries out for dinner on Friday as a bit of a farewell with President Berhane, our Branch President, and Noah, who works with me at ATA. President Berhane's on the far left and Noah's on the far right. In case you can't figure it out, the missionaries are the four guys in their early twenties in white shirts and ties. As you can see from the picture, my phone gives me two options for pictures of people at night (1) zombie (due to the flash off their eyes) or (2) outrageously dark. Thus, I leave it to you to determine which picture works better for you.
Below is a picture of Elder Horstman and me today at church. You'll notice the third member of the picture...the thing on my face. My only excuse is that I got really busy for about 1.5 weeks, and then it (tentatively named "development beard") was too long to shave with my manual razor. The plan now (about 3 weeks in) is to grow it out until I go see my sister Emma around the end of September. We'll see if I can make it that long.
Yodit is going to the Accra Ghana Mission (apparently there's also a Missionary Training Center there). She's been a member for three years, and the branch is really going to miss her strength. Yodit talked about how much Christ loves us, how that is what matters most (1 Nephi 11:17), and that He suffered for all our pains and sicknesses, not just sins (Alma 7:11-13). We need to develop our testimonies such that nothing can separate us from Christ's love and we would never abandon Him (Romans 8:35-39 and John 6:66-69). Yodit said she wants to see all the members and many more of their friends at Church when she returns.
Below is a really good picture of Yodit and Sister Campbell (part of the couple that runs the Church's Ethiopia humanitarian work) and a not-so-good picture of Yodit and me. I blame (1) Elder Horstman who took the picture, (2) the sun that was outrageously bright today, and (3) me for having us face the wrong direction (towards the sun).
Julianne is a grad student from Oxford who had been in Ethiopia for almost a year doing research (I don't remember what she's studying). Her husband is a German Catholic, but he came to church a couple times. We should all feel sorry for him because he's studying politics and law, which frequently feels even more bureaucratic here than in the US. Sorry, no pictures.
At this rate, I'll only ever need to write about people coming and going. Until next week...
On the other hand, three people are leaving the Beklobet Branch this week. Elder Horstman, Sister Yodit, and Sister Julianne. Elder Horstman is going home from his mission. Yodit is leaving to go on her mission. Julianne is going back to Europe.
Sister Yodit and Elder Horstman gave talks today for their last Sunday. Elder Horstman spoke about his vision for the future of the Church in Ethiopia. He read Doctrine & Covenants Section 135, where John Taylor announces the martyrdom of the Prophet Joseph Smith and recounts all that Joseph Smith did for the Church in the 24 years between his first vision of Heavenly Father and the Savior and his death. Elder Horstman mentioned that the Church has been in Ethiopia for almost 20 years. If we all work hard, the next 20 years can see the Church grow exponentially with many more branches and districts and eventually wards and stakes (for any non-members that are confused by the lingo, I know some really nice young men/women with name tags who live near you and would love to come explain...seriously, open invitation). He spoke about the power he's felt when teaching the gospel with members at his side (a necessity here since the missionaries speak only limited Amharic) and both the foreign missionaries and the locals bear testimony together ("out of the mouth of two or three witnesses..."). He also mentioned that when he left on his mission, he waved goodbye to his family and friends and now that he's going back home he's once again waving goodbye to his family and friends.
Elder Horstman served his entire mission in the three branches in Addis Ababa (Beklobet, Megenaana, and Kaliti), which is pretty unusual. Many of the missionaries also spend some time in Uganda, and almost all missionaries at least spend time in the other Ethiopia congregations (Debre Zeit and the three congregations around Awassa). He's a good guy and his family is from somewhere north of Salt Lake. We tried to determine if he lives near where my parents are moving, but I have an unfortunate characteristic where every city in Utah sounds familiar to me but I can't place any of them. I guess that's what happens when you're always meeting members from random small towns in Utah and when half your city names come from the Book of Mormon. Lehi, Jordan River, Nephi, Roy, Syracuse, etc. all sound familiar but I can't tell where any of them are. Basically, I know where Salt Lake City, Provo/Orem, St. George, and Lake Powell are; I locate everything else based on X miles east/west/north/south from one of those places. For example, I know my parents are moving to the north of Salt Lake City area, but I've got nothing more specific than that. Probably means I'm geographically challenged given I spent four years at college in Utah.
I took the missionaries out for dinner on Friday as a bit of a farewell with President Berhane, our Branch President, and Noah, who works with me at ATA. President Berhane's on the far left and Noah's on the far right. In case you can't figure it out, the missionaries are the four guys in their early twenties in white shirts and ties. As you can see from the picture, my phone gives me two options for pictures of people at night (1) zombie (due to the flash off their eyes) or (2) outrageously dark. Thus, I leave it to you to determine which picture works better for you.
Below is a picture of Elder Horstman and me today at church. You'll notice the third member of the picture...the thing on my face. My only excuse is that I got really busy for about 1.5 weeks, and then it (tentatively named "development beard") was too long to shave with my manual razor. The plan now (about 3 weeks in) is to grow it out until I go see my sister Emma around the end of September. We'll see if I can make it that long.
Yodit is going to the Accra Ghana Mission (apparently there's also a Missionary Training Center there). She's been a member for three years, and the branch is really going to miss her strength. Yodit talked about how much Christ loves us, how that is what matters most (1 Nephi 11:17), and that He suffered for all our pains and sicknesses, not just sins (Alma 7:11-13). We need to develop our testimonies such that nothing can separate us from Christ's love and we would never abandon Him (Romans 8:35-39 and John 6:66-69). Yodit said she wants to see all the members and many more of their friends at Church when she returns.
Below is a really good picture of Yodit and Sister Campbell (part of the couple that runs the Church's Ethiopia humanitarian work) and a not-so-good picture of Yodit and me. I blame (1) Elder Horstman who took the picture, (2) the sun that was outrageously bright today, and (3) me for having us face the wrong direction (towards the sun).
Julianne is a grad student from Oxford who had been in Ethiopia for almost a year doing research (I don't remember what she's studying). Her husband is a German Catholic, but he came to church a couple times. We should all feel sorry for him because he's studying politics and law, which frequently feels even more bureaucratic here than in the US. Sorry, no pictures.
At this rate, I'll only ever need to write about people coming and going. Until next week...
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