August 27, 2007

Dear everyone,

Happy Birthday to Mom!

Good week! 26 total lessons, 22 new investigators. Better than ever before since I've been here. I'm still with Brother Piyolo, probably for the next two weeks until the next transfer starts. It's much different being companions with a non-fulltime missionary. Basically he just follows me around and helps me teach, but mostly I'm in charge I guess. I feel like the stewardship of the area is all on me, being a set apart missionary. It's different, and it will be good to have a change in a few weeks.

This week we met some very interesting people, including an inmate who just was released from 11 1/2 years in prison (I have no idea why). He seems like a genuine, kind, man. He probably weighs like 400 lbs. He promised to come to church yesterday but failed to show up for some reason. Again we had zero investigators at church. That's probably the hardest thing to get people to do. To be honest I really have no idea why. Everyone promises to come, but comes up with an excuse. It's so sad, because I know what they are missing out on when they skip church, but it's so hard to get them to understand what they are missing. Even a few of our member families are slowly falling less active. Nothing like loss of testimony or anything, just pure laziness! It's so frustrating because we stop by their homes multiple times each week, trying to be friendly and encouraging them to help us with missionary work etc, and they make promises but just fail to fulfill. Oh well. I only have my own agency; I can't force anyone to do anything else.

OH yeah! At church yesterday we got to watch two talks from the April 2007 general conference DVD. My first time to see them live. President Monson is awesome.

Sorry this is so short, but not a whole lot happened this week and my time is up. I'll write more next week.

I love all of you! I know this work is the Lord's!

Elder Mckay Moline

August 20, 2007

Dear everyone,

Happy TWENTY-FOURTH anniversary Mom and Dad!

Zambia is great as always. We definitely had an interesting week though. We dropped two of our investigators with baptismal dates yesterday when they again missed church. So we're just going to wait for a few weeks before we see either of them. Both were just ok. We will actually take them seriously when they start being serious about keeping committments. That's probably the biggest setback we face in this area; people who just don't take the gospel/Book of Mormon seriously. It's quite a sad thing, because people are used to just being a part of a church where you can show up or not show up to anything and it doesn't really matter because "the church is in my heart" as most people like to say. People will make commitments to read and pray and come to church every single lesson, BUT you can really tell who is ready just by seeing if they KEEP that commitment. "I'm a very busy person," most everyone says after they fail, but really you already know that the person really just isn't committed. Sad, but true. So that is what we are dealing with on a daily basis as of now. We are finding new investigators like crazy, and then dropping them almost as crazily. Sifting, sifting, sifting. Being a missionary is such an interesting thing; it's the most depressing period of my life because you see great people give up and fail, but at the same time it's the most enjoyable because you see even greater people accept and receive blessings. It's quite stressful sometimes. Hard to explain I guess.

We have one investigator with a baptismal date: Mary Nyrongo (35) who is a single mother of 3 boys. She has come to church one time and missed church yesterday because she had to go to Malawi to bury her mother who died recently. She has potential to be a very very converted member; she just has to study the Book of Mormon daily.

Brother Bulawayo is still having some family difficulties but he's committed to keep seeking for answers from the Lord. We are really praying that he can find strength and realize he needs to be baptized. We found 13 new investigators this week, 3 families.

Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Poche, our new district leader. He is from Nairobi, Kenya, and he's awesome. We found 5 new investigators and taught 5 lessons, so quite a decent day. He's a great leader. Thursday we had a missionary district fast and although we haven't necessarily seen the fruits of it yet, I felt it was a good fast.

Last Saturday we had a district-wide (all seven branches) fireside with the theme: "IT'S TIME FOR ACTION!" where the speakers spoke about Lusaka becoming a full fledged STAKE. Basically there is a lot of work to be done, but it can be done in the next year we hope. There needs to be 1900 members and 5 units fit to be made into wards. . . I don't know realistically how close we are to that, but I do know that the Chainama branch isn't quite there yet; as of last year, there was ONE full tithe paying Melchizidek priesthood holder. CHABE! ("only!") Aye aye aye! So there is definitely a lot that needs to be done. Not just missionary work either. So that's basically the goal that the entire Lusaka zone is looking at: becoming a stake in Zion. When it happens there will be 3 stakes in the mission; only two more to qualify to be a temple district. . .

I know I say this every time, but thanks for everything! I love you all very very much. Feel free to send me mail! If you send to the Lusaka address, it will get here faster, but the pouch address is just fine as well.

This is the Lord's work. He is in control. I've just got to qualify for His blessings. I love it!

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. The APs came up from Harare last week and they brought my CD player, speakers, and CDs! So I have been listening to those CDs that Maurie made for me for the first time! They are nice.

P.P.S. To answer your question from the Worst Case Scenario game, Tanner, no; it is rude to ask for food from people when you are a guest at their house. I don't have any idea where they got that from; maybe somewhere in the bush or something. And no, I was going to send a package a while ago when I was about to burn a picture CD, but because of the whole memory card fiasco, I never did it. I might do it sometime, but don't expect it anytime soon. And no, I haven't gotten your letter, yet.

August 13, 2007

Dear friends and family,

Seven more days gone! I was with Brother Rabson all week and then today he was released and my new companion is Joseph Piyolo also a regular member from Munali branch here in Lusaka. So he will probably be my companion for the next 4 weeks or so, until the next transfer starts. I had thought there would be a missionary kicked out of Zimbabwe by now, but I was told that all the fulltime missionaries currently in Zimbabwe have TEPs or are Zimbabwean citizens, so we don't anticipate anyone being booted anytime soon after all.

We found this sweet restaurant in our area where we can eat nshima and relish for 5pin (That's the nickname for "thousand") or K5,000, which is about $1.25. You can get fried chicken (called inkoko), beef (nyama), fried fresh fish, or trotters (the lower part of a pig's leg), all with nshima and a cooked vegetable called rape. It's actually all very good, except for the trotters. . .I tried them the other day and the pig skin is still on it and everything. It tasted like just fat and rough skin; not too appetizing. But anyway, the restaurant is really good. Before, we would just eat some biscuits and a soda for lunch, but eating a full lunch and smaller dinner is healthier I think.

The work continues as always. It was a fun two weeks with Brother Rabson. He's a small, quiet guy, and we got along just fine. Lusaka is great. We found NINETEEN new investigators. 17 came from setting appointments with street contacts and 2 came from tracting (we don't tract very often, only in the evenings or saturdays). Two families: the Simbeyes and the Munsanjes. So we did quite well in that regard. One of the hard things about missionary work is continually finding, teaching, and then dropping/progressing. You always have to be doing all three or the teaching pool becomes stale I guess. One of our new investigators is actually a Muslim; kinda crazy, huh? Most Muslims I've met around here are just sick of Christianity in general. He is a cool guy who was really interested in our message. We finally found a referral we had been looking for for some time. His name is Arthur Phiri and because we couldn't find him, we taught his mother and father who we gave the Book of Mormon. When we finally met him on Saturday, he had read through (and UNDERSTOOD) the pamphlet we left as well as read a good amount of the chapters of the Book of Mormon. We committed him to baptism there and then, and he accepted and was excited. We're not sure why he didn't show up at church the next day, but I think there was probably a legitimate reason.

As always, Zambia is GREAT. Being a missionary is excellent.

I love you all lots,

Elder Mckay Moline


P.S.Yep, President Bester is back to the grind again. Full health and everything.

August 6, 2007

Dear everyone,

First off, Mom, I received the Ensign and all of those stamps this past week. Thank you SO much. From now on, as soon as you receive the conference issue of the Ensign, send one directly to me, pretty please. It is quite nice to have a copy of my own. ALSO, I finally received two packages! One from Grandma Shirley and one from the young women in the 8th ward. Thanks very much to both of you. The things contained therein were most delicious and useful (thanks for the ties, Grandma!). I guess there is still one more on the way from Grandma Warr.

Oh yes, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAURIE! I sent you a cool ostrich head postcard, but I didn't have your BYU address so I had to send it to Plano instead. I'm sure you'll see it someday.

So, my new companion's name is Rabson Ndhlovu. He is the branch mission leader in the Munali branch here in Lusaka and has submitted his mission papers and is currently awaiting his mission call, so he doesn't have a job at present. Because there is an odd number of missionaries here in Lusaka, he volunteered to act as a full-time missionary for some weeks, until another elder can be moved here to be my companion. So Rabson is a cool guy. He is a coloured (half German, half Zambian, Chewa tribe), but both of his parents died when he was young so he has never been outside of Zambia and he has a thick Zambian accent. He has been a member of the Church for 7 years, and he's very quiet, so I do most of the talking and the teaching, but we've been having a lot of fun. Lusaka has now been divided into three districts. Our new district leader is Elder Poche from Nairobi, Kenya. He is a great missionary. Elder Carruth is now the district leader in the Libala district. Also there are two new missionary couples here in Lusaka: the Bowhuises and the Stevens. The Stevens are CES missionaries and were recently kicked out of Zimbabwe, so they will be taking the Swans' place in the Copperbelt in September, and the Bowhuises just arrived fresh from Utah. I don't really know where they will be going. It all depends upon if Zim grants them TEPs or not.

This past week was alright. It's definitely different being with a branch missionary. But things are good. We taught 16 total lessons which isn't all that great. Our zone has set a goal for 30 lessons each week. Lessons with members present that is. That's something we are definitely struggling with. We don't have many members in our area who can come teaching with us on a regular basis. So we're going to try to start by having at LEAST one member present lesson each day; probably at night, after the members get home from work/school. It'll be tough, but we'll do our very best!

As for birthday packages, feel free to send them! Packages are wonderful things. Always appreciated. Requests: photos/photo album (I only have 3 photos of my family here!), card games (Uno and the Great Dalmuti especially, even Phase 10), a good jump rope (I am gaining a bit of weight . . .), music CDs (classical, or church-related, anything good), talks on CDs from general authorities etc. (Dad, I vaguely recall you having The discourses of Henry B. Eyring. . . that would be nice), TIES, and anything else! I have a sweet tooth so any candy would definitely be appreciated. Thanks very much in advance!

I think that's everything.

I love you all!

God lives!

Elder Mckay Moline



P.S. In the future DON'T SEND ANYTHING TO THE ZIMBABWE ADDRESS (65 enterprise rd, etc).
To be completely honest, I might not see Zimbabwe again for the rest of my mission, or if I do it won't be for a while. If you want to send anything, send it directly to Lusaka. Not only is Zambia nicer to packages, but it eliminates the extra waiting time from Harare here to Lusaka.

Elder Moline
Zim-Har Mission
P/bag 325x
Ridgeway, Lusaka
ZAMBIA
aining a bit of weight . . .), music CDs (classical, or church-related, anything good), talks on CDs from general authorities etc. (Dad, I vaguely recall you having The discourses of Henry B. Eyring. . . that would be nice), TIES, and anything else! I have a sweet tooth so any candy would definitely be appreciated. Thanks very much in advance!

I think that's everything.

I love you all!

God lives!

Elder Mckay Moline