December 26, 2007

Merry merry Christmas to everyone!

My second and last Christmas in Africa is now gone! And it was wonderful. On Sunday we had the sacrament meeting Christmas program; we didn't have enough time to practice all the songs with the choir so we just had kids come up and read scriptures about Christ and then between each scripture we sang Christmas hymns from the hymnbook while I played the keyboard. All in all it was nice except for the fact that most people are afraid to sing loud so it was a bit quiet. Christmas Eve (Monday) we took a bus to the Stevens' house in Luanshya and went and sang Christmas carols to the patients at a nearby hospital. It was really nice and a lot of people appreciated us I think. It's wonderful just lifting people up. It makes you feel great.

Christmas day (yesterday) all ten Copperbelt elders spent all day at the Stevens' house. We watched the movie Ben Hur, played Phase 10, Rook, and even Uno, and did our Christmas phone calls. It was nice to take a day and just spend time with other missionaries. Sister Stevens made us ham and turkey and scalloped potatoes and pumpkin pie. YUM! I got my package from home just a few days before so I saved it and opened it then. So thanks for everything in that (although my speakers are broken so I can't listen to any of those CDs yet). We also did a little white elephant gift exchange and I got a stick of Speedstick deodorant (which they don't have here, and the other stick deodorants cost K30,000 or $7.50).

On Saturday we had my first baptism in Ndola, Charles Kalaba. He was very excited to be baptized and the service went smoothly though the turnout was a bit disappointing. His wife and his parents all came though they are all not very fluent in English.

Sunday we met with Brother Mumba and his wife again and he is loving reading the Book of Mormon; he was telling us in his strange French/Zambian accent how as he reads it his mind is opened to so much understanding of the Bible and Jesus Christ in general. It was a really spiritual lesson and we taught him about the word of wisdom and he committed to stop drinking tea and coffee immediately. He's a really great man.

Well, I love you all very much! I hope you all had a great Christmas!

Elder Moline

December 17, 2007

Dear everyone,

Christmas is coming! Ndola is wonderful and the work is going nicely. Last Friday (14 Dec) was my "hump day" as they say. I'm now "over the hill" as pertaining to my missionary life. One year serving a mission and nearly one year in the country of Zambia. It feels great to know I've been out for a year but at the same time it's a bit depressing because I know I have less than half left to be a missionary. To celebrate my one year, all four of the Ndola elders (Elders White & Lawrance, and Elder Mokolobate & I) went out to eat at a restaurant called Starscape here. It's probably in the top five nicest restaurants in Ndola. It had Indian and Chinese food and we had a couple of Indian dishes and a couple of Chinese. I was quite impressed; it was probably the best restaurant food I've had in Africa. The bill between all four of us was equivalent to about $55 so not a bad price either.

So Elder Mokolobate and I are getting along just fine. As I said before he's very small and people always think he's a little kid which is funny. He's very prim and proper especially for an African; he spends 10 or 15 min each morning combing his already almost non-existant hair, ha ha. He's really a great guy though and he has a great memory for people and their names which is quite an advantage to have.

So Ndola is very similar to my green area (Kitwe) which is about a 40 min drive away from here. The Church has only been here for 4 or 5 years so most everyone are recent converts. The YM/YW programs are pretty nonexistent, but there are a decent amount of YSAs so they have seminary and institute regularly. Like in Kitwe we don't really get fed very much, but occasionally when we visit members they will feed us (probably once every week or two). Distance is the biggest problem for members. Years ago, the members used to meet at a rehabilitation center at the entrance of the city and so they had a decent amount of members in an area near there called Twapia but about 2 years ago they moved the church to the middle of town center to a former furniture store which is where it is at now. At this point it's the nicest and biggest meetinghouse in the Copperbelt. Since it is in town center everyone knows where it is and sometimes we just stand right outside the front doors and contact people. Quite an advantage. Sacrament meeting attendance is pretty random, usually between 60 and 80 though I'm told sometimes it has gone over 110 or as low as 40. I still play the piano (there hasn't been a sunday in the past year where I haven't; somehow someone always figures out that I play) and we'll be starting a weekly music class so at least one person in the branch can conduct music correctly.

Our teaching pool has some quality people right now. We currently have 5 people with baptismal dates (quite a lot more than I was used to in Lusaka-- zero). The first is a great guy named Charles Kalaba, who will be baptized this Saturday. He stays pretty far from the church in a humble home in one of the poorest areas of Ndola. Yet every time we go over he has his wife prepare us something to eat, whether it be nshima and chicken or eggs and rice. He has been investigating for 6 or 7 months now and is quite excited to be baptized. We're also teaching a husband and wife, the Mumbas. They are both Congolese (from the DRC) and so they speak French, Swahili, Lingala, and English. The husband is a doctor who studied medicine in France and now has his own clinic here. He's a wonderful man and he and his wife are set on being baptized; the only setback is that they also stay far from the church and so we have to go pretty far out of our way to visit them. They have been 100% faithful in coming to church ever since they met the missionaries in October. We have two others with dates named Sharon Mwaka and Precious Kunda (from a part member family) and probably one or more two on the way as well. So we are pretty busy with all of them and several others right now.

I love this work so much and am so grateful to be a part of the work of my Father in Heaven right now right here.

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. We just got a new branch mission leader who is AWESOME. So we'll probably start having weekly coordination meetings now.

December 10, 2007

Dear Everyone,

This past week was pretty good. I have become a lot more familiar with our side of Ndola and the members and such. Mon -Wed I was companions with a guy in our branch named Nathan Nonde who is pretty cool. He has been a member for 4 or 5 years now and is waiting for his mission call. Thurs I was companions with a verrry recent convert (2-3 wks), Peter Kunda. You would never know he had just barely been baptized if you met him; totally committed to the gospel. Friday morning my new companion arrived: Elder Mokolobate (I spelled it wrong last week). He is from Johannesburg, South Africa. More specifically from Roodeport which is near Jo'burg. He speaks Tswana, Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English. His father is dead but his mother, sister, and niece and nephew are all members of the Church and he is the first full-time missionary in his family. He's very smart and knows his scriptures really well. Best of all he is excited to be on a mission and is very interested in getting to know people and not just follow me around. Which is good because I still hardly know anything myself!

So yesterday was my second Sunday here. There was a much better turnout this week, though everyone tends to be very late especially when there is rain. To my surprise I saw District President Kapata from Kitwe at the meeting yesterday. When he saw me he came over and gave me a huge hug (and he's a big man). It was great to see him again. I thought I never would! After church we went to a pretty far area called Masala where a lot of members stay. I had never been there before except for on exchanges once about 7 months ago. So a member named Moses Chimbwete took us there and showed us around to some member's homes. It's a nice area, but as I said before it is far away from the meetinghouse. Missionaries used to spend a lot of time proselyting there until we received a lot of counsel concerning the "center of strength" which is 45min-1hr walking radius from the church. Just like before when I was in Kitwe, most people in Ndola stay outside of the center of strength, and we might have a lot more "success" if we go outside of it, but the lasting effects usually end up being less-activity. So our primary focus for finding and teaching investigators should be within the areas closer to the church.

Elder White and I are putting our heads together and creating Christmas choir program for the Sunday just before Christmas. We'll have some scriptures read between each song and it should be really nice. So yes, people do celebrate Christmas here, although it's not anywhere near as "outward" as in America. It's not nearly as commercialized. You don't typically see Christmas decorations at people's houses and I have yet to see a Christmas tree, though the other day in one of the very nice neighborhoods I saw a few strands of Christmas lights on the roof of a house. We found a small fake Christmas tree in our flat the other day, so we have that set up on our study table. We're singing Christmas hymns at some of our appointments as well. We're getting into the holiday spirit now.

Thanks so much everyone for your love and support. There is nothing greater than being full time in the Lord's service. Especially in the Copperbelt.

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. The rains caught Elder Mokolobate and I unawares on Saturday and we got soaked head to toe, haha.

December 10, 2007

Dear Everyone,

This past week was pretty good. I have become a lot more familiar with our side of Ndola and the members and such. Mon -Wed I was companions with a guy in our branch named Nathan Nonde who is pretty cool. He has been a member for 4 or 5 years now and is waiting for his mission call. Thurs I was companions with a verrry recent convert (2-3 wks), Peter Kunda. You would never know he had just barely been baptized if you met him; totally committed to the gospel. Friday morning my new companion arrived: Elder Mokolobate (I spelled it wrong last week). He is from Johannesburg, South Africa. More specifically from Roodeport which is near Jo'burg. He speaks Tswana, Zulu, Sotho, Xhosa, Afrikaans, and English. His father is dead but his mother, sister, and niece and nephew are all members of the Church and he is the first full-time missionary in his family. He's very smart and knows his scriptures really well. Best of all he is excited to be on a mission and is very interested in getting to know people and not just follow me around. Which is good because I still hardly know anything myself!

So yesterday was my second Sunday here. There was a much better turnout this week, though everyone tends to be very late especially when there is rain. To my surprise I saw District President Kapata from Kitwe at the meeting yesterday. When he saw me he came over and gave me a huge hug (and he's a big man). It was great to see him again. I thought I never would! After church we went to a pretty far area called Masala where a lot of members stay. I had never been there before except for on exchanges once about 7 months ago. So a member named Moses Chimbwete took us there and showed us around to some member's homes. It's a nice area, but as I said before it is far away from the meetinghouse. Missionaries used to spend a lot of time proselyting there until we received a lot of counsel concerning the "center of strength" which is 45min-1hr walking radius from the church. Just like before when I was in Kitwe, most people in Ndola stay outside of the center of strength, and we might have a lot more "success" if we go outside of it, but the lasting effects usually end up being less-activity. So our primary focus for finding and teaching investigators should be within the areas closer to the church.

Elder White and I are putting our heads together and creating Christmas choir program for the Sunday just before Christmas. We'll have some scriptures read between each song and it should be really nice. So yes, people do celebrate Christmas here, although it's not anywhere near as "outward" as in America. It's not nearly as commercialized. You don't typically see Christmas decorations at people's houses and I have yet to see a Christmas tree, though the other day in one of the very nice neighborhoods I saw a few strands of Christmas lights on the roof of a house. We found a small fake Christmas tree in our flat the other day, so we have that set up on our study table. We're singing Christmas hymns at some of our appointments as well. We're getting into the holiday spirit now.

Thanks so much everyone for your love and support. There is nothing greater than being full time in the Lord's service. Especially in the Copperbelt.

Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. The rains caught Elder Mokolobate and I unawares on Saturday and we got soaked head to toe, haha.

December 3, 2007

Dear everyone,

I am no longer in Lusaka! Tuesday last week was zone conference, which as always was wonderful. Sister Bester wasn't able to come, but Pres was there. The zone song was alright. Pres. spoke to us about having quiet dignity in our callings as servants of the Lord and how we exemplify that by the way we dress and act every moment of everyday. As missionaries we recognize people who are prepared for the gospel by the way they recognize us, which implies that we are to live very high standards of conduct. It was very good and I learned a lot from it. After zone conference was over, transfers were supposed to be announced, but then there were a bunch of last minute changes that had to be made so we didn't find out until the following night (wed).

So crazy as it may seem, I have been transferred back to the zone of my nativity! I'm back to the Copperbelt yet again, but this time I'll be serving in Ndola (one of the three cities with branches). I have mixed feelings about leaving Chainama. I loved it there, but after a while, being in an area like that wears you down. There was little member support and things are still struggling. I feel like I did my best strengthening members and finding people though maybe we weren't able to see the fruits of our labours while I was there. Elder Tibagalika is remaining there and will be working with a branch missionary until another elder can come to take his place.

I'll be whitewashing here in Ndola, which means both elders who were here have been transferred so neither I or my companion know the area at all. That's not even the crazy part. I'll also be training a new missionary! His name is Elder Mokolobato I believe and he should arrive sometime on Thursday or Friday of this week. I'm not 100% sure, but I think he's from somewhere in South Africa; if not, then he's from DR Congo.There are four elders here in Ndola: Elder White (who has been here for over 9 months now), Elder Lawrance from the UK who came from the MTC 6 wks ago, and then myself and my companion. So I took a bus from Lusaka to Ndola on Saturday and all day Saturday and Sunday I was companions with Elder Duma (Durban, SA) who after 6 months here is being transferred to Zimbabwe. Basically we didn't teach any appointments on Sat. or Sun.; we just walked around half of Ndola, visiting members and investigators, and we both prayed that I would be able to find my way around after he left. Two pretty stressful days. There are a lot of things I need to remember. I just had to get Elder Duma to pour all his knowledge of the area into me so I can be ok taking over. So he left this morning and until the new elder arrives I'll be companions with a member of the branch here. Currently there are 8 investigators with baptismal dates, including two husband/wife families! One of them came to church yesterday. I met many of the members yesterday and there are some really really great people here though I'm struggling to remember all of their names at once. The fast and testimony meeting was great; they are very excited people about the gospel, which is exactly what the Lord needs. Although I'm still a bit uneasy about knowing everything there is to know about this area, I know that if I have the Spirit everything else will come in time.

I love this work! My testimony and faith grow more and more everyday.
Ish, I'll hit my hump day in less than two weeks. . .it does go fast.
Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. Everyone, send everything (photos, letters, packages) to this address until I get transferred:

Elder Mckay Moline
c/o Elder Stevens
P.O. Box 90948
Luanshya
ZAMBIA

P.P.S. Zimbabwe will be slashing 4 zeroes off of its currency in the next month or two.