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.