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