People have asked us what we are eating here..... We have been going to lunch with the Preators most days and having our bigger meal at noon then just soup or something light at night.  The fruits (see my mango, pineapple, banana drink above) and veggies here are really good! The avocados and carrots are HUGE.  The bananas are too ripe but good in muffins.  Apples are pretty good and we had a good grapefruit for breakfast this morning.  We found YUMMY Raisin Bran and granola cereal a couple of days ago but it was $6 / box!  We are still looking for GOOD peanut butter and for brown sugar and chocolate chips but no luck. (Note: We JUST got back from lunch at Bro. Wright's (U.S. Embassy) and he gave us BROWN SUGAR from the commissary!! Woo hoo!  Too bad he is heading home in October.... : /)

The meat is a little scary (see the animal ~ a lamb? ~ in the meat case at a market!!) .... but it's pretty good in some restaurants.  The plate shown was our meal at the Selam Orphanage.  It was a 5 course meal, fixed and served by teenage girls from the orphanage.  YUM!  Besides the plate, we had a little taste of pasta, salad, soup and dessert!  The picture at the bottom shows us at the Hilton Hotel for lunch on Thursday with the two other senior couples in Addis ~ Campbells on the left from Hurricane,UT and Preators on the right from Burlington, Wyo.  (The fourth couple, the Tanners from Canada are 3 1/2 hours away in Awassa.)  My caesar salad was NOT good but they liked their tomato soup.  Our chicken fajitas were yummy and I almost cried when they brought out a HOT FUDGE banana split for us to share!!! Ice cream here is about $30 / for less than a gallon....Their bread and rolls are REALLY good here!! Yippee! (I doubt I am going to lose any weight! : / )

We went to Debre Zeyit on Monday to look for a home to rent but didn't find anything.... We are heading back there tomorrow (Wednesday) to look again.  Here are some photos from Debre Zeyit where we will be living soon (we hope)!

   This is pretty, green Debre Zeyit taken from the 

car window on our way into the city on Monday.

The NEW Debre Zeyit Chapel

View from the window upstairs
 in the chapel

Most of the side roads are cobblestone. They
cut the stones by hand from big rocks and set
them in a pattern, then pour sand over them.

A cobblestone road being made

We have enjoyed getting to know these cute boys who live in a group home near
the Mission Office and Megananga Chapel and hang out there a lot.
A young man from the U.S. gathered them off the street and gave them a place
to live... Abdi (left) and Tariku (right) have both been baptized and are deacons
in the Meganagna Branch.  Great boys!!  Preators are in the background walking
from the Ethiopia Mission Office, where Pres. Preator is 1st councilor to our mission
president and Sis. Preator is secretary in the mission office.

These are some scenes as we were driving home from the
mission office today.  People are all along the roadside
selling things everywhere you go.

Some people were selling vegetables under the highway bridge....

This guy selling sponges walked by our car.  Couldn't resist
snapping this one.

Just a quick shot of the traffic in Addis! We were trying to
go straight.... We have seen only two stoplights in Addis
and they are brand new!!  A couple of really big intersections
have had policemen directing traffic but this is what MOST
intersections look like!!! : O 

This poor guy was trying to cross the street above with ALL
those cars and he couldn't see a thing! He's carrying some
kind of flexible wood-type thing.

I LOVED the tiny shopping carts we saw
in All Mart, the store we shopped at last night.

The cereal names cracked me up! : D

Here we are with our "NEW" rental car.  We pay $150 month.
It's a Toyota Corolla with 140,000 miles on it! Bob has driven
us twice and we are okay so far! The driving here is CRAZY!
(Seven lanes of cars on a two-way highway all trying to get ahead
 of each other with donkeys, sheep and goats sharing the road
as well!!)

This little shop is like a Circle K or AM/PM.   : D  It's across
the street from where we are staying!!  There are
unfinished cement structures ALL OVER Addis.  It takes years
for a building to be finished....

This donkey went right in front of our car! On the right is
a 3-wheeled "baja" or taxi.  They are all over the place!

This is a street in our neighborhood.  Every home has a locked
gate with razor wire on top of the wall surrounding it. Some
have guards out front too!

We made it!  We arrived in Addis Ababa
Sunday, August 18th at 6:15 a.m.!!

We are in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!  We have been here for four days!  What an interesting country!
Here are a few photos.  I have dozens more but have had trouble with the internet here and it takes
awhile to get photos loaded.  : D  We are happy, healthy and well and are getting adjusted to the VERY different but fascinating country!!  

This is the gate to the home where we
                     are staying in Addis Ababa right now
 ~ waiting to find a home in Debre Zeyit.

The Preators' home in Addis Ababa
where we are living.

The countryside around Addis.

The Uganda Mission Office in Ethiopia.

The street outside the home where we are
staying.... Donkeys, sheep and goats are 
everywhere!

Our visas are here!!  HOORAY!! We fly out at midnight tonight (Friday, Aug. 16th)!!  We fly to Charlotte, NC then to Washington, DC.  Saturday morning, Aug. 17th we fly from Washington, DC straight to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!!! (13 1/2 hours)  We will arrive in Ethiopia at 6:45 a.m. Sunday morning! (A total of 19 hours in the air!)  We are excited!!!!!!!  Ü  Uganda Kampala Mission, here we come!!!

Well, we will not be flying out in the morning.... They sent the wrong visas to Salt Lake City.  They told us that they are issuing NEW ones and they should arrive tomorrow afternoon by FedEx! Hooray!! We are not sure yet WHEN we'll be flying out.... Hopefully, in the next few days!!  Ü

We went to a session in the Provo Temple this afternoon after our LAST class.  This is the temple we were married in Dec. 20, 1972.  It's been SO much fun to be back in PROVO where I grew up!! We have had GREAT classes and experiences here for the past 10 days.  We're ready to get going!!!

Here are our addresses.... Ü

Pouch Mail  (Leaves SLC each Friday)

(Only one sheet of paper (not lined) folded in thirds and taped shut with 2 pieces of tape an inch from each end. Do not seal the ends.)

Elder Robert Lee Wold

Sister Carol Joyce Wold

Uganda Kampala Mission

P.O. Box 30150

Salt Lake City, UT 84130-0150

Mission Office Address in Ethiopia:                                                              

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints                                      

Elder Robert Lee Wold                                                                               

Sister Carol Joyce Wold                                                                             

P.O. Box 25876                                                                                            

Code 1000                                                                                                    

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia                                                                                                                                                                                                        

If sending with any other mail service other than USPS, above the PO Box add:  

Bole: Sub City                      

Kebele 08/09 Worda 5 House number #162

All Packages take about 4 weeks USPS  

We had to change our email address.  AOL doesn't work here....
Our new address is :  woldmesa2@gmail.com    Ü

We have had a WONDERFUL first five days at the Provo MTC! Here is our district (Meyers going to Tonga, Harwards going to Johannesburg,  Johnsons going to London and us to Uganda) with our afternoon teacher Ana Fiorella Vela from Peru!   Ü Our morning teacher was Josh Sillitoe ("silly toes") from Las Vegas. They were GREAT teachers!  Our group was the largest group of Senior Missionaries EVER at the MTC ~ 128 of us ~ all going out to serve the Lord all over the world!!! Ü

We fly out on Thursday morning and arrive in Uganda Saturday night (9 am  AZ time ~ 46  hours later!!)  We fly to Chicago, then London,  then Johannesburg, South Africa and finally to Kampala, Uganda, where we will stay for 2 weeks, before flying back to Johannesburg and then up to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!! Whew!!!

Our next door neighbor, Sukey Dominguez, came over just before we left on Saturday and had her video camera..... Click on the link below to check it out! Haha!!!   Ü

http://youtu.be/cHCUicrWxyY

We just finished our first day at the Provo MTC!  We're here!!  My brother Bob and his wife brought us this morning! We are now official with name badges and everything!! Woo hoo!! Pretty exciting!! We LOVE the view of "Y" mountain from our window!! : D  It's been a GREAT day!