March 5, 2007

Dear everyone,

We had such a good week! I was so sad last week, because after we had finished emailing, I realized I had forgot to tell you about something really cool we got to do that week. One day that week as Elder Minch and I were leaving our house in the morning, a car pulled up and a man got out and introduced himself to us. He said he was from Centre for Christian Missions, which is a Bible college within Kitwe, and he asked us to do a presentation for some students there about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, our history, and some major doctrines. Of course we accepted, but we were a bit wary about the whole thing, because we thought they would have a lot of hard questions ready. We went and gave a 2-hour presentation which was pretty much an extended adaptation of lesson 1: the Restoration and then we spoke about the church and prophet today as well as The Family: A Proclamation to the World. It wasn't really the way we expected, in that there were only 12-15 students there, but they were all very receptive to the message, and had a lot of good questions about temples, eternal families, and the Book of Mormon. In fact, we even donated a Book of Mormon to their library, so they could read it if they like. So that was a really cool experience we had.

This week was also really nice. Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting again. So far, fast sundays have been my favorite on mission. All the testimonies I've heard in church have been so powerful. Virtually everyone is a convert to the gospel, so they all have such love for us missionaries and we are treated so well by the members. Yesterday both Isaac and Jessy Kabonso (who were both baptized 2 weeks ago) bore their testimonies in sacrament meeting. The Spirit was so strong. They are both so converted. My favorite thing is seeing them make friends with other members. Also, we finally have received the DVDs for General Conference Oct 2006! Every fast Sunday, we will watch 1 or 2 hrs of that. Yesterday we heard a few talks including Elder Bednar's "And Nothing Shall Offend Them." Man, that's a powerful talk! I was able to see the conference before I came out on mission, but this was Elder Minch's first time "seeing" it (we've had the Liahona magazine from Oct for 2 or 3 months now). I have a feeling that talk will be one of those that goes down in history like Pres Kimball's "Beware of Pride." Also, yesterday at sacrament meeting, I chose to have The Spirit of God (#2) to be the opening hymn, and one of the longtime members (at least 5 or 6 yrs), Sister Rose, told me that it is a sacred hymn, only to be sung at chapel and temple dedications. . . To make her happy, we sang something else, but Mom or Dad, have you heard anything about that before? I think it may just be a myth that was started by a seventy in South Africa a long time ago. . .

On another note, the next baptism which we had scheduled for next Sunday is going to pushed back a few weeks. Donald Manjimela (50s) who was supposed to be baptized then, has been out of town for the past two weeks and has a funeral that he needs to attend and help with this week, so we won't be able to teach him again for another few days at least. Also the other lady (Loveness Katongo, 40s) who was supposed to be baptized has missed the past couple of weeks at church and is now really sick. We aren't sure when the baptism will happen, but we're trying to figure it out still. They are still both very committed and they have friendships with other members in the branch which is great.

Missionary work really is rewarding! I know probably some of you think I'm faking how happy I am or something, but I'm not. People keep telling me missionary work is so hard and taxing, but I find it so enjoyable that I don't even realize I'm working hard most of the time.

I hope everyone has a fantastic week!

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. To answer Oma Warr's question: 25 cents here is quite alot. 4200 kwacha is about $1.00 right now, so K1000 can buy you a ride to town on a minibus, or 6 tomatoes at the market. One piece of bubblegum is K100. There used to be coins here, but inflation went crazy some years ago, so coins are all but collector's items now.

P.P.S. I just got a stack of letters! Thanks to everyone!