October 1, 2007

Dear everyone,

Things in Lusaka are wonderful. Time is flying it seems. This week was alright. I received the birthday package from my family, hurray! Thanks so very much. I also received the envelope with all the notes from the Warr family reunion. It was nice to hear from everyone! I can't wait to go waterskiing again.

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with Elder Magero who is from Kampala, Uganda. He's a really funny missionary who came out just in June. He's the only member of the Church in his family and has a rock hard testimony. We had a good time together. At one of our appointments with an investigator named Ronald, we were sitting on his front porch (they call it a veranda) and this huge snake slithered past my feet so I stood up and backed away. It was probably two inches thick in the middle and 1 1/2 meters long. It slithered over to a bush and then Elder Magero jumped up and starting yelling at Ronald and myself, telling us that we needed to go find some big rocks and sticks to kill it with. So we gathered some rocks and then while Magero kept an eye on the snake, we said a prayer: "Heavenly Father, please help us to kill this serpent. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen." Then he chucked a big rock into the bush and the snake slithered away along the house. Then Ronald and I both threw rocks and hit it as well. Elder Magero, in the mean time ran ahead of it and smashed a metal rake right on the head several times. It kept wiggling for several minutes afterward, but it was pretty certain it was dead. So that's the strange story of the week. Afterward Ronald told us that it was a venomous snake and it might've made its way into the house so it was a good thing we stopped it.

Other than that, nothing too exciting happened. We taught 25 investigator lessons, but we are still having trouble working with members. We set appointments for them to work with us, but they almost always flake out on us, which is a bit discouraging. This Sunday we're having a special fast so that the members can help find people for us to teach. Our prayer is to work with them more closely and have them give us more referrals to teach and baptize.

Nothing else on my end. As always, I love you all. Don't take the gospel for granted; so many people are lost and confused in the world. . . I love having correct knowledge about our Heavenly Father and His plan for us.

love,
Elder Mckay Moline