August 26, 2014

hi selam new that is in my language it means how are you i hope all is okay there wow for us we had nice week like past weeks hearing nice testimony from my RC about Book of Mormon  so nice am proud on him wow his name is Richard we baptized him in the 2nd of August let me start from the time how we contacted him  we contacted his wife and start having lesson with here my companion and other missionary taught her about  book of Mormon after the finish and left her friend come to her shop and when she saw the Book of Mormon she said to Richard wife take out this book form your shop it is not good B/c the Book of Mormon have bad image here so many people think the word Mormon like evil thing they understand with the word Mammon from Bible in Matthew so she say all bad image about Book of Mormon so she believe her and take out Book of Mormon that time Richard is there and he say to his wife let me read the Book he start reading the Book he like it he read more than 1 hour to now at night when she cloth the shop he take the book with him to his house so for his wife she plan to do not take the Book to her house but he take it and she asked him to live the and he say no I will  read it i need it and she no she will never aloud to take the book to her house now the become 2 people and he told her she can go to her fathers house he will never live the Book out side the house continue reading the Book but that night they did not sleep she is not happy at all for him he dont when to live the Book out side of his house he continue reading and he have our contact number in the Book he call he want to me us and he visit the Church the next Sunday he love it he continue progressing by reading and praying and coming to church he ask to be baptized and become a member of the church then we baptize him last 3 weeks then after he always binge example for his family he really love the church finally he say to him self like Joshua in old testament I and my house we worship GOD hi start thinking how his going to help his family  they are 5.3 children and Brother Richard and his wife he now that being good for here be good he continue doing and sharing everything what he learn at church about the members and the teaching about family finally she agree with him to have lesson with us we start teaching her and give baptismal date she is doing good I love hearing testimony form other people B/c am building my faith strongly  In Jesus Christ and  I love sharing my testimony to and the other bad news is 2 off my investigators moving from our area to other area even other ward we thought them all the lesson and we are planing to have baptism on 30th August but before the day the move so we have to give them to other missionary out side of our ward am sad but I fill Baptized them but the are nice family but i Know I will serve in there ward one day before  i finish my mission and I will see them I cant wet to hear from them about selling in the Temple that is small about my week this week is transfer week maybe I will hear from President soon then I will now if I will go or stay for other months we will see the next week thank you so much for being good for me ...........say hello to all  and give my Love to all ..............

Love you more

Elder Birresa

August 26, 2014

 

 

August 18, 2014

It is good to hear from you, mom. You are always awesome. Thank you so much for being awesome, mom. For me you are the best. For sure I don't know what am going to do after my mission but I   like to continue with my school after mission.  I want to be camera man and editor. I start attending  the class 2 years ago but I finish 1 year, then I graduated. It is somehow hard to get job on it so after I finish, no job. To start my own business I don't have money, and I stop there and start accounting school again. I have done 1 year but am in mission now. I will be happy if start my school again in camera and editing.  I don't want go back to my village, it will be hard for me, no opportunity at all. So I will stay in Addis but if I had chance to come to there and work and schooling I will be more happy. It is good for me and for my all family if you can try to help me with that. Find out the way for me to get visa. Girl, not really, I don't have any relationship with anyone yet. With Jason I try to send him email every week but he don't respond my email and I stop sending for him.  Even I don't know where he is now, Kenya or U.S or Ethiopia. No idea. Anyways, we had wonderful week, like other week, finding new people and preparing other for baptism. It was good. Am so grateful for everything. We had 1 baptism last Saturday. We baptized young boy, 17 years old.  He want to serve mission 1 day. I know he will do that, he will serve 1 day. We got big family, even they are sharing their testimony with their family back in Nigeria. Their family asked them if the church is in Nigeria, we told them the church is in Nigeria too, they will find it soon.  We baptized his uncle last two weeks, and there are 4 in a family and they are from Nigeria. 2 left, but we are helping them by sharing the restored Gospel so both they will be ready for 30th August. I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. They are so excited and so happy and makes me happy too. Last Friday 1 of our ward member he invited us for his birthday party. He is 74 years old, his name is Brother Menson. He is nice man, we had wonderful time with him and his family. Other thing is yesterday Temple President ask me to translate Temple talks. I did from English to my language. It is Mormon helping hand weeks too. It is wonderful. The members they come in the morning and clean the clinic in our area. That is good. That is small about my week, we always having same week and same time but am so grateful for the experience. Am gaining from sharing the gospel to others, it is blessing for me and my family. Thank you so much for being good for me. Say hello to all, give my love for all.

Love more take care ..........So which city are you planing to move or already moved? I got email form my best friend today after long time. He is in Portland. He is doing good. Am happy for that too. I  love him, he is my best friend, we grow up together when he was here. Thanks again.

Elder Birresa                              

August 11, 2014

Thank you so much for making my book, you are so sweet. Mom told me about it. It is so good idea. I love it. I have seen it, is so good, I love it. We had wonderful week. We contact few good people, totally they are ready to receive the Gospel. They welcome us with smiling face. We had wonderful time with them.  We share small about our message, the mother, she follow JW, her children Protestant. We had good time, they provided food, we enjoyed with them and we having baptism next week. His name is William, we baptize his brother last week. We are teaching his all family, they are Nigerian. William is 17 years old and he want to serve mission future like us, he is ready to be baptized. Yeah, 5 month now in mission. So far mission is so cool. I love sharing my testimony with others each day. I will learn something, before when I was home I don't know if my testimony is important  for others. Now I have seen, now I know our testimony, it is good for others. We had wonderful week like past other week with my companion by sharing the gospel. We contact new people this week, they are interested to know more about the gospel. We have 1 baptism this coming week, we baptize his brother last week. Now his younger brother is ready. We will get that all family. They are 4, we start sharing the teaching with all his family. They like church a lot, am happy for that.

Last week mom asked me this question,  I wonder how you came to be a Mormon. Tell me about how you were converted? For me I just come to live with Jason 6 Years ago from my town to Addis to live with him. For me when I was small I will go church with my family which Ethiopian Orthodox church. I don't now for some reason I stop going to church, for long time I stop going to church, but I know how church is important so when I come to Addis I heard about a church at home from Jason and others. I don't now much about the church for a first time when visited the church I feel happy and I say to myself I will be a member off this church. I contacted sister missionaries, I start having lesson with them, they always ask me to pray and ask about the lesson. At that time I did not pray to know but I will read the Book Of Mormon every time but always I feel joy and happiness after lesson all time when I think about it and read Book Of Mormon. Then  I was baptized in June 21 2009. Start going to church every Sunday and I start passing the sacrament every Sunday and I become friends with members and all missionaries. My first call in church is branch missionary  and I start working with missionaries. After school I learn  a lot from missionaries. Then my second calling in the church is the Branch  young single adult representative. I had wonderful time with young single adult in my branch almost for 2 year. That was good experience for me to serve at church, it makes me so active at church I become so friendly with everyone at church. First our home is little far from church, always walking 4 or 3  time is in week, it help me to grow. Then 3rd calling is Branch mission leader, having meeting with missionaries and branch missionaries, it help to learn about mission. I told myself to serve mission. You know for me it is very hard to go and serve mission. I have to finish my school  to use my chance and  I want go and serve mission so am thinking more than 1 year to decide about my mission. Finally I decide to do not serve mission because of my family. Am the oldest for my family, I have big responsibility about them. I can't live alone and go. I have to help my mom, she don't have anyone to help her. This point I decided to  not go. In that night in my dream am passing the chapel and my President is calling me by name and he say Come, we are waiting   for you.  I told him I will come and I passed the chapel. Then I think small time and I decided to go back to chapel and see. So when I go back I have seen many people waiting for me, sitting on the ground, and I passed them and ask my President why he need me? He say go open the room all thing which is there is for you and it is all food, that is small part my dream. That night for me  all the time  I will forget my dream, but that morning never, I remember each action in my dream. I think too much to understand. I understand that that is my call, I understand that way and I say to myself I don't need to think too much about tomorrow.  Then I decided to serve mission.  Then after few month's I meet mom (Ann) and Dad (Trace) that is small about my life. With church I like to share with you face to face. I know I will do that one day. Am so grateful for everything that God has blessed me with,  with my family, with all of you, and with my friends and with love for others. Now am missionary who represent Jesus Christ and his church in Ghana. I love sharing my testimony all the time.

About Ebola, it is bad, but it is not big in Ghana. This is massage from Mission President:   This past week we received 3 Elders that were previously assigned to the Liberia Mission, one Edler previously assigned to the Sierra Leone Mission, and one missionary from the MTC previously assigned to Sierra Leone. As you have an opportunity, please welcome these 5 wonderful, new missionaries to our mission. They are already assigned to proselyting areas and doing great work. We continue to monitor the Ebola outbreak which is continuing in Liberia, Sierra Leone,and Guinea. Unfortunately, the number of cases continues to rise (1779) as well as the death toll (961). The government in those countries are taking various actions including travel restrictions in order to prevent the spread of the disease. It appears a traveler who went to Lagos and later died had Ebola and may have infected 11 others in Nigeria. In Ghana, 21 people have been tested for Ebola based on various symptoms  but they were all negative and there are no confirmed cases in Ghana at all at this date. I hope this will help reassure your parents as well as help you to know that you can serve without worry or concern about this disease.

Thank you so much for being good family for me and Love you a lot.

Elder Birresa                    

August 10, 2014

Hello. That is good to read you message. I don't know anything, am sorry. I wish to serve you in there when you are sick, but I know you will be okay. Am sorry, but I will keep praying for you that you will be okay.  It hard time, it is blessing, I know you learn from it a lot and we have to show him our faith. Then he will bless us more and more in our life and in your family's life. Am so grateful to have all of you for me. The time is flying. Next Friday I will be 5 month in mission. People here in Ghana they are humble nice people, they like to share what they have. They welcome you. I love Ghana, it is not difficult to proselyte in here. There is no off day except Monday. In here you can talk with everyone about the church, but one thing everyone have bad image about the church. Last week we found 1 smart man we share our  message with him, even we give him Baptismal date and we invited him to visit our church on Sunday. He promise to come and we leave him, but he did not come so we have to follow up. After church we went his house and he say he is ready to come to church, in the morning his brother called for him and ask him are you coming to church. They are Pentecost and he say I will go to LDS and his brother say don't go there, they dont believe Jesus Christ, they believe in Joseph Smith, they have different  book. We see him and have spiritual lesson with him, help him to understand, you know just having bad image about the church, that is all. But they are so good. I love them. For my companion he is is nice and good man. He is from Utah, my first companion he is from Idaho. He is not good.  He don't like me at all, he don't like African Elders. I had hard time with him, 3 month.  I feel it like a year. You know sometime some missionaries are bad. For now am having nice time with my companion. We had 3 baptism last Saturday. It was so cool and next we are working on the family to baptize them. That is cool, but we are having hard time now. I don't know if you heard about Ebola. It is killing people in here, West Africa. The church take missionaries from  Liberia and Sierra Leone so you can say all West Africa, except Ghana. So we are praying. We don't  know tomorrow, for today am okay. Those missionary from those country, they are in MTC Ghana. Maybe they will come to our mission. That is the problem for now. Ghana is different from Ethiopia. There is too much church in Ghana, more than Ethiopia. So it is business in here, there is a lot of pastors and false prophets in every corner. I don't know if you know about Ethiopia, but we have 2 big religion, Muslim and Ethiopian Orthodox. Those are very big churches in Ethiopia, but something which I like about Ghana, it is easy to talk with people about your message. They are cool. I love them, but I miss home. I will go after 19 month, long way to go.  I hope Daniel is looking forward to serve mission. Am so happy to hear from you. Thank you so much for sending email for me. For Rachel: Wow, you are done. Am so proud on you. I hope you had wonderful time on mission. Mission is good, help us to understand our self, keep doing the right thing in the right time and with the right people for the right reason.  I want visit   Brazil  one day. World cup, I love foot ball, finally my team  is champion. Am happy for that. For me, am enjoying my mission so far, hope to read you letter soon. Have good time and take care .

Much love

Elder Birresa(Jote )   

       

August 2, 2014

That is was cool, Mom. I wish to be there. Super cool for me. My week is somehow bad. It raining for 2 days. We proselyte  under the rain. That is my first time when I feel cold in here. It was rain and evening, only short slave white shirt, I start shaking because I went out under the rain all day. That is why we found one old man, he have the old Book of Mormon he got from missionary when he was in South Africa 20 years ago. Long time he have until today. That was cool, even you can go our mission website Accra West Mission, you will see our picture. It was cool. I know you will enjoy by watching pictures, but my mission is flying. I passed 3 month on mission. Mom, oh the time, am so glad  to see all of you. That was good for me. I do feel the Spirit in each my day. Am so grateful to be missionary. It is blessing for me. I found myself here in great place, nothing like mission. I hope Griffin is preparing himself for mission. Give my hug for all of them. Love you all

Wow, Emma, you are so sweet. It is true when we do bad thing it hurts us inside. I love the way  that your teacher help you to understand. It is painful, right, Emma? So you knew what we have to do. We have to pray all the time and read our scriptures, then the Holy Ghost is there to help us keep doing what is right in the right time, okay Emma. Even I attend Primary on Sunday. I love Primary and I have pictures with them. I will send it for you next week. Okay, Love you, Emma and I really want to meet you one day. I know I will see you one day!!!!!!!

Hi, Dad, how are you? You are super busy man. That is cool. 100, that is a lot. I wish to be there. We had wonderful time. I get new companion, my 3rd companion. Everyone is coming and left me there. I am old in my area now since I come until today long time. But it is okay. My new companion is from Provo, Utah. He is nice man and we had 1 Baptism last Saturday and we are going to have 3 baptism next Saturday.  That was cool and my recent convert passed sacrament during sacrament program yesterday. That is so wonderful to see someone which you found  on street passing sacrament and having a strong testimony about Jesus Christ. Totally we had wonderful week by helping them to be ready for their baptismal day. That was good. I love being missionary. Nothing is like missionary. Give my love to all  have good week !!

Love you lot         

  

August 1, 2014