That thing on fire was something next to the church that they burn stuff at but for some reason that day the fire was really big and the smoke was pouring into the church compounds. Ya that was the church, it wins an award like every year for the best grounds in Addis Ababa I think.

Being a missionary really does prepare you for standing in front of people. All the talents and skills you learn on a mission really benefit you for this life, and in the life to come.

We will be finding out transfer news probably on Thursday and the week following there will be new companions and things so I will let you know in my next email what is going on. I think I’m staying but I think I’ll be getting a new companion.

The milk here is just not pasteurized, or not done as well at least. The milk here expires like 3 days after you buy it so you have to buy it every couple of days.


The week has been another good and quick one. We spent quite a bit of time this week working with the recent converts and preparing a few of the men for the Priesthood. The recent converts here are doing well but the Branch President is just working on finding them all spots to serve in callings in the church.

Tuesday we were able to go to J’s house although he wasn’t there. We spent some time sharing with his wife but she really likes the preachers on TV who do the ‘miracles’. We tried to explain how true desciples of Christ don’t take money from the people and how miracles are not to be done in public like that and broadcast on television. She just insisted his money came from God because “he prays too much” and it was just a little bit frustrating. We were also wondering why J hadn’t been there on Sunday but we didn’t get to see him until Thursday. When we did see him he said that he had worked really late on Saturday night, like 6 in the morning, and that he had been too tired. We also found out that he later that week also drank a little bit while DJing. It’s easy to see that he messed up because he hadn’t been doing the things the Lord asked in order to protect him from sin. We will push his date a little bit back but we really hope we can get him prepared for baptism soon.

We also have a couple of new Sudanese young men we are teaching; S and D. We met them at different times but we’ve started teaching them with the other Sudanese members. The Sudanese really seem to understand the message of the Restoration and can see the church is true. I love those people.

Sunday was a fast Sunday obviously and there were some pretty good testimonies given. We had 108 there on Sunday again but we didn’t have quite as many investigators as we have been getting. I guess that’s what happens when we baptize all the really great people we’ve had. The Branch President also won’t baptize anyone unless they come 4 weeks in a row to all 3 classes. If they miss a class, or a Sunday they have to restart and come 4 weeks in a row again. It really is going to slow the baptisms down and I fear some people will keep on coming and missing every once in a while and won’t be able to get baptized for sometime. We’ll see how it works out.

Today and the rest of this week will be really busy. We have Elder Renlund, President Jackson, and the assistants flying in tonight and we will have trainings with them tomorrow. It should be good but I have to conduct the meeting so I hope I don’t make too many mistakes. Today we are also having 18 other missionaries staying in the 3 houses we have around Megenagna for the trainings tomorrow morning. It will be pretty packed in everyone’s houses but we did that because some came from far, and others have a hard time getting to the church that early in the morning from the other side of Addis Ababa. We will have 10 people (including us) at our house alone. I’ll make sure to wake up early to get a hot shower before it’s all gone!

Well that’s been the week for me. Not too many exciting things but I’ll let you know more about how this next week turns out the next time I email.

Elder Welch