We have had a fun month in July so far.... After celebrating the 4th of July, we had a Mission Zone Conference for all the missionaries in Ethiopia on Tuesday, July 8th with President and Sister Chatfield here.  Then on Wednesday, July 9th, we had a special meeting for all RMs at 3:00 pm then a meeting for all YSAs at 5:00 pm.  All of the meetings were WONDERFUL.  The Spirit was so strong there! These young people are the future of the Church here in Ethiopia!!  They are GREAT!!  Here are a few photos from the last few days....

The Presidents ~ Habtu and Pres. Chatfield

The Meganagna and Awassa Ethiopia Zones at Zone Conference

Sister Chatfield

Young Single Adults after meeting with President and Sister Chatfield

Sunset overlooking Addis Ababa

Addis from the Belvedere Restaurant

The only two senior couples in Ethiopia with the Chatfields

The rain REALLY came down hard for about 1/2 hour and the 

power went out at the restaurant so we ate by candlelight.  

Homemade noodles, homemade cheese 

with bolognese sauce ~ Yum!

Addis at night

 

Bethi and Samri Wonnacott meet their dad, Tesfaye at

the airport Thursday at 3:00 am in the rain!! The girls were

adopted about 6 years ago and came back with Rick to visit. 

We just LOVE having my brother Rick visit Ethiopia!!

Tariku was happy to see Samara and Jordan in Rick's group again. 

He met them last year when they came from Utah.

Our awesome elders ~ Elders Christensen, Melton, Thornton 

and States in their matching sweaters

Yesterday was the 4th of July! We celebrated by having a little birthday party for Tariku, since he has no idea when his birthday is.  All the elders and Elder and Sister Moses dropped by the mission office to celebrate with us.  Last night we played games with Elder and Sister Moses and ate apple pie!

Tariku thinks he is 15 but no one knows for sure....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TARIKU !

We found sparklers for his cake and for the 4th of July!

Opening a few gifts.... a soccer ball and some art supplies

HAPPY 4th OF JULY!!!

(Our elders from Kenya and South Africa didn't understand what all the celebrating was about....)

Happy Tariku!

(Here are a few photos my brother Rick took when he met him as a

little guy found on the street and brought to live in Jason's group home.)

These are some more photos I took this week....

A typical rainy afternoon one day this week 

I took this from the doorway of our office, looking

towards the Church parking lot.  The storms can

be pretty big but the weather often clears up in 

just a short time.

We were turning left behind this black car when the white car

came toward us and swerved in between the black car and ours

without hardly slowing down!

Another crazy traffic shot showing cars going every which way...

Empty yellow oil containers are PRECIOUS here to carry water in.

This guy was just dragging these down the road.

We took these photos on the way to the office yesterday. 

This was across the street from a Church. 

Yesterday was some kind of a holy day for that  particular

Orthodox Church....

A very common scene on the road by our house....

The donkeys will come back REALLY loaded down!

We were excited to see these photos today from the Ghana Temple that were posted on Facebook! Habtu took them of the Ethiopian saints who are there this week!  We are SO happy that all of them got to go!

                 

Eyob, Mesi and baby Daisy on the plane flying 

from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia  to Accra, Ghana

Eyob is the Meganagna Branch President.

                 

Weynishet from Debre Zeyit and Zergi from Meganagna

who I helped with their family history.

The Ghana Accra Temple

The WHOLE GROUP

Seid and his wife and two children from Meganagna

Branch.  He is a gardener at our Church compound

and is also our "egg man" who brings us fresh eggs.

Kaleb, his son and Haymnot, his daughter 

are in our Seminary class.

Habtu, (Esubalew Alemayehu Biru) 

our District President and the 

mission office manager

Weynishet Kibret TIlahun

Meseret Mekonnen Wolde & Eyob Daniel Teferra

A FOREVER FAMILY!

Zergi Woldemariam Yirgu

Tomorrow is an exciting day for 10 members of our District in Ethiopia!  They are flying to Ghana to go to the Accra Ghana Temple!  I have been helping several of them with their Family History so they can do temple work for their deceased family members.  We attended Church in Debre Zeyit today and I was able to help Weynishet with her Family History using the MY FAMILY book.  Here she is with her fancy hairdo for the trip tomorrow!

We were asked to drive her to Addis from Debre Zeyit after

Church today since the flight is at 5:00 am in the morning!

We stopped by our house in DZ and picked mangoes, tomatoes,

beans and lettuce!

Bob had to get a picture with two of our favorite

guards at the Debre Zeyit chapel.  We miss seeing

them everyday...

I helped Meseret (Mesi) enter her family info on FamilySearch on 

Friday and got to hold cute Daisy, the youngest member 

of the group going to the Ghana Temple to be sealed!

Both Mesi and her husband Eyob are returned missionaries.

Daisy Eyob Daniel 3 months old

We had a FUN YM/YW Activity in the Meganagna Branch

on Saturday planned by Elder and Sister Moses. There were 

13 YM there (but no YW).... : /  They ate sloppy joes, played

human foosball and other games and we talked about Lehi's

Dream and holding to the rod.  We had 18 in our Seminary/

Institute class afterwards.

After class, I spent 2 1/2 hours with Solomon's Grandma, Zergi,

recording her family history names and dates (with the help of one

of our elders translating her Amharic) and Solomon was writing

his history too... He is the cutest thing! When Bob and I visit the

Meganagna Branch he runs to us and throws his arms around our

necks and kisses our cheeks in the parking lot!!

Ruth (12) and Yeabsra (8) came by to visit us just before we left

for the YM/YW activity Saturday.  I gave Yeabsra a little gift for

her birthday (which was Friday) and taught them to play a few tunes

on the keyboard I found upstairs in one of the closets! They loved it!

They picked up their July FRIEND magazine and Ruth gave us a

quiz on the June FRIEND.  Their family is Ethiopian Orthodox 

but Ruth LOVES the Church and reading the FRIEND and the

Book of Mormon and her parents don't mind.

I caught this perfect photo showing how the lines in the road and

the lanes have nothing to do with where the cars go.  There was

a 4th line of cars to the right of us on this two lane road Saturday.

This is for all the Mountain View TORO fans out there! This

would have been so much fun to have when our kids were TOROs!

Paul and Janna Morrell invited all the Meganagna missionaries

to lunch at the Sheraton Hotel in Addis one day.  We had a great time!

Elder Thornton is next to Elder Wold and Elder Muange from 

Kenya is in front.