July 23, 2007
Dear everybody,

Another week gone by.

Not too much to report on I guess. Things are doing quite well. A nice week for sure. We found 9 new investigators, which is quite good, exactly 140 contacts, and 16 total lessons. We still haven't been able to hook up again with Kelvin Sichone, but we will definitely find him this week. Brother Bulawayo has found a temporary job in town (here they call it a "piecework") so we weren't able to teach him this week. We received a referral from a recent convert (Stanley) in the Matero branch so we visited his two aunts who live together in Chelston. One of the aunts is actually a police officer and they really enjoyed the Restoration lesson. So much that two days later they showed up to church! The Relief Society sisters in the branch really fellowshipped them well and they loved it. Also, yesterday in sacrament meeting, Elder Rasmussen, myself, and a branch member performed a musical number. We sang hymn #335 Brightly Beams Our Father's Mercy. It was really cool. I love music.

We have started to visit members a little more often. We'll try to visit one member/family each day. We have several member families in our area. Yesterday we visited the Wamunyima family (Lozi from Western Province). I am attempting to learn another Zambian language called Lozi from them. It is a cool language. Mtozichwani means how are you. They are "old" members from 1994 or so. They are a good family, even though the father is a bit strange. . . The mother has fallen less-active because of work. A lot of the old members in the branch have family members who sort of just drift away slowly. It's really a concern. Another family, the Mwambas, are suffering from the same kind of thing. It's sad because the parents just let the children drift away without really doing anything. So we are trying to visit those families and figure out how we can help them.

Tomorrow is zone conference! President Bester is still in Johannesburg, so President Sanford who stays here in Lusaka will be presiding.

I love you all! This is the true church of the Saviour Himself!

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. I have not received any packages from Grandma Shirley or Grandma Warr. . .and I haven't received the keyboard class or the Ensign or stamps. I've heard from Mike twice now.

P.P.S. We met a man with the first name, "Trousers." Haha.

P.P.P.S. I am currently living with the three trunkiest missionaries EVER!

July 16, 2007

Dear everyone,

Another week gone already. I only have two more weeks with my companion until he goes back to America. Aye aye aye!

Well, have you seen the July Ensign yet? I'm sure you have. We get it much later than you I'm sure. If you saw that article with the sister missionaries in Temple Square, I'm sure you saw a few black ZAMBIAN GIRLS. They are the Sheas, and I've met their family. One sister (Mable) was AP there and has since come home, and now there are two others there (Sister Bwalya, whose mom is in Kitwe branch, and Sister Lillian Shea, who sister is Mable). Anyway, I thought that was pretty cool to see them there.

Chainama branch is wonderful. We met with the Bulawayo family again this week, and we shared with the the Family: A Proclamation to the World. They loved it, but afterward Brother B. unfolded to us a lot of problems that their family has been facing recently. Years ago, he studied at a Bible college for some time, and then joined himself with several different churches that subsequently went bankrupt and collapsed or something (I'm glad I'm not part of a church "business"). So for the past 10 years or so his wife has been the breadwinner, and he has had a lot of trouble finding work and providing for his family of 5 children. Not to mention he has a 17 year old son, Moses, who is absolutely out of control. A few Sundays ago he attacked his father and beat him over his left eye with a lead pipe. Consequently Bro B missed coming to church had to turn him in to the police for some time. So the Bulawayo family is having a lot of problems as of now and the father told us something about how he thinks he needs to wait before he joins himself to the Church. It was a really spiritually draining lesson, and after we left we just felt so much love for their family. I wish there was so much more that we could do for them, but we're just young foolish boys who really don't know all that much. Anyway, even though they are going through struggles, Bro. B (and even his wife) has felt the Spirit very strongly and we really have faith and are praying that they will realize that the restored gospel is the answer to all of their prayers.

This past Friday was in a general a pretty lame day: a lot of fall-throughs and not many good contacts. BUT, as we walked down the street I greeted a man, and he walked over to us and just said, "I'm Kelvin Sichone. Good to see you! I've been looking for you!" Then he proceeded to tell us about how the previous day he had met the elders from the Lilanda branch (Thayn and Weight) and they had taken his info and were going to give it to us on P-day (we don't have phones to use). But we beat them to it! Talk about tender mercies of the Lord! He said he had a few minutes so we walked to his house and he introduced us to his wife and two small children. We shared with him the Restoration and he loved it. He told us he had studied to be a Catholic priest for 3 years in Malawi and then backed out and went to Bible school in Ndola for 2 years. Since then, he has yet to find a church that he feels is right and correct. He told us that the message we shared was "exactly what my heart has desired for so long." He really seems like a smart man, and he was very excited to read and study the Book of Mormon. We have high hope for he and his wife.

Well, I love you all. Feel free to write me letters!

Send pictures, stamps, packages, or anything else to:

Elder Moline
Zim-Har Mission
P/Bag 325x
Ridgeway, Lusaka
ZAMBIA

Or just use the pouch for only letters.

Until next week. . ..

Elder Moline

P.S. We met a lot of people with funny names this week: Macguyver, Wisdom, Mushroom, Pethious, Clever, Business, Winter, Wishbone, and Soft. All males. And also we met a woman named Romans.

July 9, 2007

Dear everybody!

Whoa, this week flew by. The weather is now pretty cool and it will probably stay so for another month or two. I'm wearing my sweater pretty often. Lots of chilly wind!

Chainama branch is great. Last monday after emailing and things, we went to this huge curio/souvenir market especially for Heroe's Day. We were walking around and we met some black American women from, out of all places, MURPHY, TEXAS. Haha, it was funny to talk to them just for a few minutes. They are here with North Texas Women's Bible Association or something like that. Total southern accents and everything. So that was funny. Also just Friday, Elder Rasmussen and I were walking down a street in Avondale and we passed two muzungus, so we stopped and talked to them for a few minutes. They were husband and wife from Cleveland, Ohio. They were doing a mission trip for Saint Victor's church or something. So they were in a city called Kabwe, smack dab in the middle of Zambia for 2 weeks I believe. When Elder Ras told them he has been here for two years, their jaws hit the floor, ha ha. They were quite impressed I think and we even shared with them a little bit about the Book of Mormon etc. It was strange talking to Americans because there are a lot of strange words and phrases that Africans use that we've adopted as well ("flat" = apartment, "that side" = over there, "how is the day" = how are you, and a lot more) so I had to think about my words really carefully. Plus we both throw in Nyanja and Bemba into our everyday conversation. Elder Rasmussen is much worse than me too.

The lowest point of the week came after church yesterday. We had a PEC meeting that was a bit contentious. I can really see why it is so important to keep the Spirit in meetings, because without it. . . . nothing gets done. Mostly it was just certain branch leaders taking offense to District-level criticisms. Even though it really wasn't a good meeting, I think people learned valuable lessons from it. . . BUT, we really do have some great leaders in the branch. Branch President Likonge is one of the sweetest men I've ever met, and we have some really hardworking others as well.

On Wednesday I went on exchanges in an area called Matero with Elder Mugwandia (Kenya), who was in the MTC with me. He has been here in Lusaka since he began mission (this is his 5th transfer here). It was fun being with him, but it made me really appreciate my area a lot more! This week Ras and I almost hit our goal of 140 contacts. We hit 132. BUT, we did a lot of other great work. Now we have two more investigators with baptismal dates. Dickson Sachinayi is planning on being baptized on 11 August, as well as another guy named Jesper Lupaka. Neither of them had been to church when we gave them those dates, but Dickson came to church yesterday for the first time. Jesper had an emergency trip to Chongwe, another city in Zambia so he wasn't able to come. Both Jesper and Dickson are around the age of 20. Dickson is very shy and quiet and Jesper is quite talkative and inquisitive. So now we are preparing 3 people for baptism. Not to mention Brother Bulawayo! Man, he is so prepared. On Saturday we taught he, his wife, and his daughter together, but taught the Restoration mostly for the wife, because he has heard it before. She really enjoyed it and he asked some more great questions. Yesterday, Brother Bulawayo came to church and he loved it! We had great meetings yesterday. So we plan to give Bro Bulawayo a baptismal date this week. We're confident his wife and children will follow shortly thereafter.

The key indicators we're hitting here in Chainama (and in Lusaka in general) are quite low compared to the rest of the mission. We're only teaching one-half to two-thirds of the lessons we taught in Kitwe, and we're still looking for new investigators ALL the time. We didn't hit our goal for new investigators, but we're going to focus more on that this week. We did find two families last week so we did hit that goal. We're going to continue that effort every week.

Also, for zone conference (two weeks from today), we, the Lusaka missionaries, are going to perform a POWERFUL zone song. We plan on doing a song called "In a Coming Day." Elder Boehme had the sheet music for it and it's a great song. The words are based off of Elder Bruce R. McConkie's final testimony in general conference. I'll be playing the piano (well, digital piano) and I think it will be great. By the way, if anyone has any really good sheet music, make a copy and send it to me. I'd like to have some other songs to perform in zone conferences in the future. Elder Rasmussen and I have been having a lot of fun singing hymns at lessons and things for members and investigators. I've come to really love the hymns in the hymnbook more over the past few weeks.

Well, I think that is everything.

I love this work with all my heart. As always, thank you for your prayers and love and support. I know that my redeemer lives and this is His gospel.

And thus I end mine epistle.

Love,
Elder Mckay Moline

July 2, 2007

Hello everyone!

Happy Canada Day (yesterday)! We live with two Canadians so they wouldn't let us forget. Today actually is an African holiday, Heroe's Day. Tomorrow is Unity Day (also African), and to top it off, Wednesday is American Independence Day. Lots of holidays this week.

Anyway, this week was nice. Not too productive as far as plain numbers go, but we did a lot of good work. Elder Rasmussen is a great companion and we're getting along great. Even just in the 10 days I've been with him, I've learned a lot of great skills in teaching, contacting, and especially loving the people. Elder Rasmussen just has this deep abiding love for the people of Zambia. It's funny, because he actually becomes an African while we're out proselyting. He speaks Nyanja and Bemba both fairly well and people just love it. We are still working to increase the number of investigators in our teaching pool as of now. We have one with a baptismal date named Sylvester Banda who is 23 years old. We plan to have him baptized on 28 July. He is a very quiet guy, but he loves reading the Book of Mormon and coming to church. We have just a handful of other investigators who have been taught more than once. Our goal is to contact 140 people every week and to find at least 10 new investigators each week, including at least two families.

This past Saturday we taught a man by the name of Ben Bulawayo (40). He had previously only been taught the Restoration and given the Book of Mormon, and Saturday we decided to share with him the Plan of Salvation. We only had time to go through half of it, but it was one of the most (if not the most) spiritual lessons I have ever been in! Brother Bulawayo is a very smart man who attended a Bible college for 2 years, but he was sick of the corruption etc. in so many churches so he has seen. He took about 8 pages of notes as we taught about the Fall of Adam and Eve and the purpose of life and he just soaked it all up like a sponge! Then he gave probably the most sincere prayer I've heard ever. It was a long prayer, but it was really from the heart. The Spirit was incredible! Wow. Elder Rasmussen and I walked out of that lesson spirits soaring. It was just a testimony to me about how this is not our doctrine or our work, but the Lord's. It was pretty humbling.

Also, we taught a young man named Moses Samalama (21) who is actually the son of a pastor. He also has been reading the Book of Mormon, but says he hasn't yet received an answer to his prayers concerning it. We read through part of Jacob 4 (quickly becoming one of my favorite chapters) with him and he really felt the Spirit as we read. Even though he said he has heard all sort of rumors about us, he really wants to know for himself. He has more integrity than most other people we meet.

Funny story: We also met a man this week who is a pastor of the Berean Baptist Church in Chelston. His name was David and we had a really good conversation with him. Just as most pastors do, after a few minutes he began to preach to us, but the interesting thing about David was that when he switched over to his "preaching mode" he immediately began speaking with a southern drawl; no joke! He abandoned his Zambian/South African accent, and changed to a "howdy y'all!" type of southern baptist voice. Afterwards, I just couldn't stop laughing.

Friday, all the missionaries in Lusaka did a service project at District President Mulenga's farm. We got large sticks and beat large bags of shucked, dried maize to make the kernels fall off. Then we had to sift through them and pick out anything that wasn't a maize kernel. We were there for a good 3 hours and got a lot of work done for them.

Yesterday, Sunday was a good day. Fast Sundays are always nice. Church attendance was a bit low, but the testimony meeting was really great. I taught the gospel principles class about baptism. Elders quorum was a bit odd. The man who taught forgot to prepare a lesson as so often happens, and it was a bit slow. But overall, the sabbath was good. Last night we visited Branch President Likonge at his home and watched a short video about how Wilford Woodruff found the Church.

Well, I think that's about everything.

I love you all! My testimony of the Saviour and His work is growing more and more every day. I love being a missionary and working in His name.

Elder Mckay Moline