After a long hard wait, we are finally here in Addis Ababa! We arrived 10:30 p.m. local time - 1:30 p.m. D.C. time, 11:30 a.m. Utah time! :) We flew eight hours to Frankfurt, had a four hour layover then flew eight hours to Addis. It took about a half hour to go through customs. When we went into the Diplomat customs line, there was a man with a sign with Jeff Wright written on it - I waved very enthusiastically letting him know that YES! The Wright's have MADE IT! He was a very nice man, (can't remember his name) but he got us through Customs and outside to meet Dave (Jeff's boss) and Melaku (our driver). He drove us to our current hotel. The very next morning they had Melaku pick us up and take us to the Embassy. We went through a series of briefings - that I will never remember because I was so dead and jet-lagged! I wish they had given me a couple of days to sleep! But it has paid off because of those briefings we are able to access our unaccompanied baggage and commissary! Thank you Dave! They told us that it takes the same amount of days to get over jet-lag as time zones (7) and it's true! It's just been over a week and I feel like I am rested. The altitude is about 8000 feet, so I am having a hard time catching my breath. I went up my first set of stairs yesterday and it took it all out of me! The health unit told us that it could be three months before we got used to breathing here.
Our first Sunday we went to the Bangladesh Branch. It has about 75 members of which about 50 attend. The meeting is in English and is translated to Amharic. They had eight missionaries in our branch, but were told that two were called on a mission and before they go they serve in this area for a month or so. They usually only have six. Dave and Annette were in this branch, but he has been called to serve as a Branch President in another area :( Brother Leishman is the Bekalobet Branch President. He stopped by Jeff's office and asked Jeff if I wouldn't mind serving in the Relief Society for support. They had a baptism after church that day. The baptismal font was a metal box they used a ladder to get in and out of. The water was freezing and the young women getting baptized was terribly cold!
But the LDS Church in Addis is growing rapidly!
Our first Sunday we went to the Bangladesh Branch. It has about 75 members of which about 50 attend. The meeting is in English and is translated to Amharic. They had eight missionaries in our branch, but were told that two were called on a mission and before they go they serve in this area for a month or so. They usually only have six. Dave and Annette were in this branch, but he has been called to serve as a Branch President in another area :( Brother Leishman is the Bekalobet Branch President. He stopped by Jeff's office and asked Jeff if I wouldn't mind serving in the Relief Society for support. They had a baptism after church that day. The baptismal font was a metal box they used a ladder to get in and out of. The water was freezing and the young women getting baptized was terribly cold!
But the LDS Church in Addis is growing rapidly!
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