We had a GREAT Sunday yesterday!  One of our Institute students,  Motuma, who was baptized last Sunday, asked Bob to confirm him a member of the Church.  After Church, our cute Yelamdar, who is 14, was baptized.  Her mother joined the Church a month or so ago and gave the talk on Baptism. Her sister, Elshaddi, who is 16 or 17, came to Church for the first time Saturday for institute and also Sunday for the whole block, the baptism and choir practice and told the girls she wants to be baptized too!  They were SO happy and so are WE!!  We also had a friend, Tesfaye, attend our branch for the first time yesterday.  His wife died in childbirth six years ago and he was very sick with what they thought was AIDS.  Friends of my brother, Rick, adopted his three children.  Tesfaye is now well and living in Debre Zeyit.  We have been in touch with him and he came to Church.  It was so good to see him there!  He enjoyed it and said he wants to come back.  We also gave birthday treats to Kaleb, who turned 11 on the same day our grandson, Carson did and to Yonaton and Dagim who are our grandson, Tanner's age, for his birthday on March 26th!

Motuma just before he was baptized March 16th

Happy Yelamdar in the pink and black, and her older sister,

(2nd from the left)  with some of our YW and Primary kids

Ylemdar with Elders Self, Taylor, Christensen and Ferrara

Cute Yelamdar after her baptism

Bob and I with Tesfaye the first time we met him

The group from Hope Arising, which is based in Gilbert, AZ

They are from AZ, Utah, California, Texas and Canada.

They brought us 25 CTR rings that Jamie sent along with pictures and notes from the 

grandkids and they also brought me a BIG bag of COSTCO chocolate chips!! Ü

Kaleab, 11, who shares his birthday

with Carson

Yonaton and Dagim in our branch, who are 

almost 15, the same age as Tanner

We had ONE last breakfast before Elder Self was transferred

to Awassa….

I took pictures today at the Church of two sweet friends of ours.  Sister Meaza in our branch, who is from Kenya, always washes the clothes after baptisms.  I had to get a picture of her after she finished  today.  She always washes the clothes and towels in a tub on the grounds of our chapel and hangs them on the fence to dry. We just LOVE this wonderful lady!  She loves to hug us and kiss our cheeks!  The custom for greeting Ethiopian women and girls is four kisses on the cheeks ~ left cheek, right cheek, left cheek and right cheek.  The guys shake hands and lean in touching right shoulders together.

Zinash is one of the gardeners at the Church and does such a great job with all the flowers.  She wanted me to take a picture of her today IN the flowers!  She is a single mom with a little 3 year old boy. She doesn't speak any English, but greets us EVERYDAY with a BIG smile, a handshake and a hug.  She is ALWAYS cheerful !

Cute, happy Zinash

Sweet Sister Meaza

Bob had a fun 63rd birthday Saturday!  We celebrated by taking our elders to Kuriftu Resort in Debre Zeyit, for the lunch buffet, since they met the goal they set for teaching lessons the week before!  We had a GREAT time and then went back to teach our institute class.  I made German Chocolate cupcakes and we played a game after class to see who knew Elder Wold the best.  The girls won!  (I forgot to get a picture!)

ALL the waiters came and sang Happy Birthday to him!

They brought him cheesecake with strawberries, blueberries,

coconut and chocolate on top and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY

on the plate, decorated with fresh flowers!

(It's the ONLY place we have seen cheesecake in Ethiopia!)

"Happy Birthday to me!!"

Left to right: Elder Alex Christensen, Elder Taylor, Elder Self 

and Elder Ferrara

Companions in this amazing mission!

The Expressway is still under construction but will be SO

WONDERFUL when it is finished! We have hundreds of

trucks going through our town all day and all night. It is the

main street from Addis to Djibouti !!  This was taken out near

Kuriftu Resort.  Our elders had never seen it!

Here are a few more photos I haven't posted yet....

Bob took this when we went to lunch one day in the
garden at the Rosemary Hotel here in Debre Zeyit. I LOVE
this fun entrance! Giraffes are my FAVORITE animal! 

I took this photo of our Primary kids yesterday on
my friend, Julie Fuhriman Young's birthday. She
drew the picture on the cover of this March 2014
FRIEND magazine! 

This is a typical street corner scene in Addis Ababa with
people EVERYWHERE!

I just couldn't help taking this photo.  This mannequin
in Friendship Mall cracked me up!  They are FUNNY here
with all colors of hair! 

This is the truck we used while Julie and Jeremy were here.
We borrowed it from the Tanners and traded it for our small
Toyota Corolla.  We have a new Lifan now!

We just received these photos from our mission office in Uganda.  They were taken at the mission home in Kampala, Uganda in December 2013 at our Mission Couples Conference.

The four Uganda Kampala Mission couples serving
in Ethiopia ~ the Preators, Tanners, Wolds and Moseses
(Yes, I feel like Big Bird with the muppets!)

The 15 couples serving in the Uganda Kampala Mission
at the mission home together.  We LOVED getting to know
all of them!

Pres. Chatfield with his counselors, Pres. Preator in Ethiopia
 and Pres. Casperson in Uganda

More photos!! Elder and Sister Tanner stopped by this morning as they were on their way to Addis Ababa to fly home this weekend from their mission, after serving in Ethiopia for 18 months.  They shared Elder Tanner's photos from the 2 days we spent with them in Awassa and Yirgelem...

Jeremy tried swinging on a vine!

We made it to the falls!

Bob and our funny guide, Mustafa

Inside a tukul where this family lives....with their cow, chickens and goats!

The fanciest tukul in the village we stopped at on the way

to Yirgelem 

The family whose home we visited and some of their neighbors

in the village who came to greet us 

One of the vultures they fed right in front of us

at Aregash Lodge in Yirgelem

Hyenas they left raw meat for...

Elder Tanner's camera was the only one good enough

to get a good shot of the hyenas.  We could

see them but it was getting quite dark.

Dinner at Aregash Lodge

The cool tukul Bob and I stayed in

What a beautiful setting!

This was taken on our early morning walk from the lodge to a little 

village through the forest, where the people live in tukuls.

The cacti were SO tall! 

We saw several hyena dens.  Thank goodness they were asleep!

What a FUN week with Julie and Jeremy!

Bob and Jewels watching the lady getting pulp from the 

leaves of the fake banana plant next to her home.

The home of the lady we met

Another view of her home and the fake banana trees around it