April 14, 2008

Dear everyone,

Weird, because I did send an email last week and yet I can't find it in my sent box. Oh well. I'll write everything I remember from last week as well.

My last week in Munali branch was alright. Elder Ulloa and I had some really cool lessons and met some good people to teach. Maron Njelele was baptized on 5 April which was great. She was really ready and excited to be baptized. That same Saturday morning I was transferred to be with Elder Musgrave in Lusaka branch. At the same time Maron was baptized, a family that Elders Musgrave and Sisneros had been teaching was baptized as well. They're called the Banda family and they stay in Northmead. A mother and three of her daughters. The husband/father committed suicide in December and the missionaries first met them about a week after the incident. So now they are recent converts in the Lusaka branch; a really great family.

Now I've been in Lusaka branch for about 9 days including two sundays. All I can say is WOW. This is definitely the best branch I have seen in my whole mission. Sacrament meeting attendance was 141 last week and a bit less than that this week. The branch president is Pres. Chikusu who is a doctor with a PhD and his two counselors are returned missionaries, quite young but they definitely know what they're doing. The Relief Society president is a wonderful cheerful plump lady, Sister Nkowane. There is actually a young mens organization. PEC is short and effective. WOW. Of course every branch has its weaknesses and developmental areas, but I am quite impressed with what I've see so far here. Our branch mission leader is Blessings Musandu (a Zimbabwean) who is quite dedicated as well. We even have two and a half American families in the branch who work for the American embassy, and also a family from Paraguay who hardly can speak English correctly. I try to practice my Spanish talking to them, but everything I ever learned about Spanish has escaped me. All I can speak is Bemba, Nyanja, and Lozi, haha.

We should be having three baptismal candidates interviewed this Saturday, two other children from the aforementioned Banda family (Frida, 21 yr old girl, and Michael, 17 yr old boy), and Sarah Chifunda who is the wife of a very active member Davis Chifunda, the district executive secretary. Two weeks later we should have a family of SIX interviewed. They're called the Chembe family. The father works for the Examinations Council of Zambia is very intelligent. They've been coming to church for a while but have struggled with reading the Book of Mormon so their date was pushed back once.

So yes, now I'm in a car. It's quite different and quite strange. We have a pretty nice Toyota Corolla, manual transmission. Elder Musgrave sort of taught me how to drive a stickshift and now I mostly have the hang of it. Still sometimes when getting in the car I'll accidentally walk to the wrong side thinking that is where the steering wheel is, haha. Once on my first day I even drove on the right side of the road for a moment. Now I feel quite good about it though. Driving here is crazy because the roads are AWFUL. Potholes and ditches galore. Roads are not maintained well at all.

This week we did a lot of driving. On Thursday the new missionaries arrived from Harare by car, so we had to shuttle them around Lusaka to their various areas .This transfer we had 4 different Lusaka missionaries get Zim TEPs, so we had to pick them up Thursday night as well so they could drive back to Harare the following morning. Thurs night we didn't get home until nearly 11:00 (23hrs). Most nights this week we got home past 9 because of the same sorts of things. Being a zone leader is cool but we have to run errands and deal with all sorts of problems that take away from proselyting time. Oh well. Someone has to do it!

Being a missionary is awesome. I love the gospel and the Church and I know that the things I am teaching are true because I have seen them change people for good.

love you all,
Elder Mckay Moline

P.S. Crazy story of the week: Tuesday afternoon one of our neighbors (we live in a flat) had some clothes stolen from off of their clothesline and he were furious about it. Wednesday morning around 7 these three guys knock on our gate with a bunch of wet clothes asking if they belong to us. Two of them had seen the third one wandering around in the morning with the clothes and so he pretended that he had found them in the bushes and was bringing them back to the rightful owner. Then the man whose clothes were stolen the previous day came out from his door and started yelling at the third guy for taking his clothes. Elder Musgrave and I quietly went back inside our house, and then a few minutes later we hear the thief confessing and begging for mercy. Our neighbor called the landlord and he came over and they all participated as one of them held the thief, another one grabbed a huge stick (more like a baseball bat) and beat the thief on the legs, ankles, and ribs nonstop for probably 15 minutes. All this was going on right outside of our window as Elder Musgrave and I were trying to eat breakfast. Then they took him to the police post nearby. Moral of the story: Do not steal in Zambia. Thieves are BEATEN.