Dear family and friends,

Happy (early) Valentine's Day!

It's nice to write to you all again this week! It was a good week. Last monday night, the copperbelt couple missionaries (the Swans, from Cache Valley) called me and told me that the next day I would be going to Lusaka to get my temporary employment permit. So the next day after DDM, Elder Zimmerman (Ndola) and I took a bus for 4 hours to Lusaka where I spent the night with the zone leaders. For dinner we went to this pizza place and for a few minutes I forgot I was in Africa at all. It was just like Pizza Hut! The next day (wed) they drove me to the immigration office (wow, so many white and chinese people!) where I filled out the necessary paperwork in order for me to stay in Zambia. The nice thing is that there is a member of the Zambian Parliament in Lusaka named Bob Sichanga who also happens to be a member of the church. I guess he is pretty high up there because a few people who saw me at the bus station asked me if I was a part of Bob Sichanga's church, haha. Anyway, so he met us at the immigration office and helped us out. If he wasn't there, the whole process would probably have taken all day, but we were in and out in an hour! I got to see Elder Mugwandia again at the office as well. As soon as we finished there, the zone leaders drove us right back to the bus station and we got on the bus to go back to the copperbelt again. Even though the trip was short, I was really anxious to get back to Kitwe. It's my home now!

On Thursday and Friday, we were able to teach some really good lessons. Man, there is this one investigator we have, Brother Chali, who has been coming to church almost nonstop for about 10 months, but every time we make an appt with him, he doesn't show up. We've made 3 appts with him since I've been here and he just is never there. Saturday, all but one of our appts fell through. For some reason, saturdays generally seem to be the worst days for proselyting. Most people have a little plot of land somewhere where they grow corn, and a lot of people just forget about everything else and go tend their "farms" on saturdays. So the one lesson we taught was to Brother Kasanda, who is committed to be baptized in April. Seems like a long time away, doesn't it? He's going out of town to Lusaka for a few weeks in March, and we figure you really can't overprepare someone for baptism. Also, we hope to be able to start teaching his wife and maybe have her baptized the same day. He really seems to be committed. Sunday/yesterday was district conference. It was held in Luanshya and was for the Kitwe, Luanshya, and Ndola branches. Most people who would have normally come to church didn't come, because they don't have enough money to get transport. So we only had one investigator there. But the conference was very good. Pres and Sis Bester came as well as Elder and Sis Kimball (the Lusaka couple) and all of them spoke. Afterwards all the missionaries and the Besters and Kimballs were privileged to have a delicious lunch at the Swans' house in Luanshya. This was only my 3rd time to see Pres Bester, but I just love him! He is always cracking jokes and is just really fun to be around. After we got home last night we taught a really good first lesson to a new investigator and he seemed really interested. So we plan to teach him and his family about the Book of Mormon on wednesday. It should be really good.

I hope everyone is doing well. I love you very much!

I absolutely love Africa and I love missionary work here!

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. Reminder to everyone: Use the pouch address for mail, but make sure not to send cash/checks or any film paper because all of the mail I've gotten so far has been inspected.

P.P.S. I sent an email to Saryn, Maurie, and Dad, but myldsmail is being strange so I don't know if they were sent at all... sorry!