January 28, 2008

Dear everyone,

Well, this morning early we got a phone call that President Hinckley had passed away just a few hours before. Death isn't really such a scary thing. As President Monson said a few conferences ago, death is just like moving into another room. The beauty of the restored church is that no death of any person can destroy the work that is going forth. A new president will be chosen, and a new apostle selected, and so the work continues! For Pres Hinckley it is on the other side of the veil though.

The work this side is great. Monday we visited a less-active member named Brother Salimu. He was the branch president before but because of a whole lot of things (all social), decided to resign and become inactive. So he hasn't been to church in nearly a year now. Sad that people become offended over things and let that take them away from the gospel of Jesus Christ. Whether it was him who was at fault or other members is irrelevant. The work and church are still true. He is such a good man and you can tell that he has some type of testimony, but he has just forgotten bit by bit over time as he has let these other issues get in the way. Satan can't destroy our testimonies, but he certainly can distract us so we lose our focus. It made me think of Elder Bednar's talk, "And Nothing Shall Offend Them."

Thursday we watched the Special Witnesses of Christ DVD at the meetinghouse for a branch devotional. The members hadn't seen it before and loved it quite a lot. Friday I conducted my first companionship exchange with Elder Lawrance. We did a heck of a lot of walking in this compound called Nkwazi. Elder Lawrance is a really cool missionary. One of only two Brits in the mission. He is quite new on mission (3 months or so) but a great teacher and very excited.

Attendance at church was quite poor yesterday because of the rains.

In two weeks we have district conference! The Besters and the Sanfords will come up the Copperbelt for that.

Well, I love you all, and I especially love this work. I know that it is of God and I see the evidence each day as I teach people. The Holy Ghost is real and he can guide and direct us if we qualify ourselves for his help.

Love,
Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. The power in the country has been off and on all week. There are a lot of rumors flying about why. Supposedly the Kariba dam (which powers all Zambia and Zimbabwe I believe) burst and they are repairing it, but no one really knows if that's the truth or not. Luckily it's on today so I can email.

January 21, 2008

Dear everyone,

Well, the week was very good. I forgot to tell you all something kind of important last week. I'm the new Copperbelt district leader! So I'm supposed to conduct DDM each week, do baptismal interviews, and go on exchanges with other missionaries in the district. It'll be quite a bit of work, and to be honest I'm a bit nervous, but I know that it will become easier as time goes on.

So on Saturday I conducted my first baptismal interview in Kitwe. And guess who it was? A 14 year old boy names Moses Katongo. If you remember, back when I was in Kitwe we baptized a lady named Loveness Katongo. After her baptism we were even teaching her son, Moses, but he never was 100% serious; he just came to church off and on and would read the Book of Mormon on occasion. But now, nearly 9 months later he is ready for baptism. His 16yr old brother, Collins, was also supposed to be interviewed but he changed his mind or something at the last minute. So it was very cool to see Moses again. He'll be baptized this Saturday I believe.

A funny thing happened on Saturday night at a member's house just before we left to go home (which was on the opposite side of the city). The power went out (which isn't too unusual) so we finished the lesson by candlelight and then caught a bus home only to find the power was out of the whole of Ndola including our flat. . . strange. Then we found out that the whole COUNTRY had the power go out. It was out for about 20 hours in all of Zambia. The place where we meet for church is in a former furniture store which only has windows at the front entrance so we held combined elders quorum/R.S. just near the windows, skipped sunday school, and had sacrament meeting there as well. So we had a shortened church service, but it was still nice.

The missionary work in Ndola is fine. Brother Mumba went out of town last week but is back now. He's scheduled to be baptized 9 February. We have started to work a lot more with less actives. This week we taught several different less active families including the Zimbas who were some of the pioneers of this branch, baptized back in 1995 I believe. They are great people but they haven't really told us what is stopping them from being active. They have testimonies, but my suspicion is that they were offended by someone in leadership and are using that as an excuse to not come. So we are adding quite a few more members to our "teaching pool" so we can use them to find new investigators. To answer your question, Dad, we have nearly no investigators who have been in the pool for more than 3 months. Mostly because if they were in the pool that long (and not progressing towards baptism), we lost contact with them since we whitewashed this area 7 weeks ago. But we do have a few people who were taught earlier by other missionaries but were dropped and now we've picked them up again.

Well, I love you all very much, and as always, I have a testimony that this work is of God and His hand is in it much more than mine is. Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer and He lives even today to direct His work and Church.

Love,
Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. Weather report: it rains nearly everyday. Torrential downpours happen unexpectedly but only last for 5-20 minutes at a time usually. When it isn't raining, it is quite hot. Sometimes I wear a hat to keep the sun out of my eyes.

January 2, 2008

Dear everyone,

The past few weeks have been hectic and busy but very nice. Christmas and then New Year were both wonderful. And now tomorrow is zone conference. Elder Paul Koelliker of the Africa Southeast area presidency is going to be here, which I am very excited about.

Ndola is great. One of the members of my previous branch in Lusaka (Chainama branch) moved up here to the Copperbelt with his brother. He's a cool guy and will be working with us this Friday. As I believe I have told you before, our star investigator right now is a man named Doctor Jackson Mumba. He was contacted by the missionaries on a bus about a month before I arrived, and was given the Book of Mormon right there. He loves learning and is very anxious to be baptized. He is one of the most warm and friendly men I've ever met and he always has a huge smile on his face. This week we met him at the church and taught him and during the lesson he told us that we "carried the message of angels." He really has gained a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon. Because he is going out of town for some time he'll be baptized on Feb 9th. The only real setback is his wife. She speaks fluent French, Lingala, Swahili, and Bemba, but she is working on her English. Jackson, his wife, and their two children, Albright and Grace haven't missed church once since I've been here. So Sister Mumba will be baptized after a couple of months of speaking and learning English at church. One of the great things about the Mumbas is that they are so outward and friendly that they are friends with everyone in the branch already. We don't have to find fellowshippers for them; they find them themselves. There's a man in the branch, Brother Katumbai, who hardly speaks any English because he is from Kinshasa, Congo (which was where he was baptized). He has been a member for at least 15 years now, and yesterday in testimony meeting he bore his testimony in French and Brother Mumba translated for him.

Yesterday after church we visited some members in an area called Masala and we had a devotional about temples and family history work, etc. It was a really good devotional and everyone there learned a lot.

Again the work is going well and I am doing excellent. I know that this is the Lord's church and His teachings. We just got the new Teachings of the Presidents of the Church (Joseph Smith) manuals and I was reading it last night and I have no doubt that he was truly and instrument of the Lord in the Restoration of the gospel.

Love you all!
Elder Mckay Moline