March 12, 2007

Hello everyone!

This week wasn't all that bad, but it could have been better. We completely lost track of one of our good investigators for the whole week, which was frustrating, but we found him again yesterday so it's all good now. It's quite frustrating when someone we're teaching doesn't have a phone. Sometimes that's a big problem, but probably about half the people I've taught have cell phones so it isn't too bad. Even in the poor poor compound areas, lots of people have nice cell phones. Sort of odd, I think.

This past Wednesday, I did exchanges with Elder Blanco (AZ) here in Kitwe. It was my first time proselyting here without Elder Minch, but I think I did quite alright. It's a confusing area as far as streets and directions, but we were able to get around just fine. It rained really hard in the afternoon, and both of us had forgotten umbrellas that morning when we left the house, so we got soaked, but we saved our scriptures. That's all that matters, right?

Anyway, yesterday (sunday) at church wasn't all that great. We currently have 4 investigators with baptismal dates and ZERO of them showed up to church. They all had lame excuses. People just don't really understand what Sunday services are for. They think they are just an optional bible study class or something. So if anything out of the ordinary happens they won't come to church. This week Elder Minch and I are going to really emphasize how much of a priority going to church should be, especially because of the sacrament etc. Hopefully we will be able to help them to attend more regularly and understand its importance. We probably will have to push back their baptismal date, but we'll see. . .

Last night we tracted for the first time in a few weeks. We got into a house with a husband and wife and we taught a really good lesson to them! And guess what? They even fed us! It was only my 2nd time eating at someone else's house. We had nshima and scrambled eggs & tomatoes. Quite good actually. I am learning to like nshima! I made it a couple of weeks ago by myself at the house. Making it is quite a workout, actually.

Sorry this is so short, but there isn't a lot else to write except that being a missionary is GREAT!

I love you all!

Elder Moline

P.S. Saryn, the cookies that I made didn't end up anything like they do at home, but they were delicious. Here, they don't have any shortening (I had to use butter), or chocolate chips (I had to chop up some candy bars) so the cookies were really poofy. Oh well. I'm in Africa, I should be grateful I have enough money to buy all the stuff to make them. I won't have that privilege if I go to Zimbabwe!