July 21, 2008

Dear everyone,

We've had a wonderful week. A lot of good things happened. We met a wonderful family called the Phiris.They live in Emmasdale and have 6 children. The father is the one leading everyone, and he just loved when we taught them about the plan of salvation, especially the part about the purpose of life and the Atonement of Christ. They all go to the catholic church except the husband who has never wanted to be a part of a church before. They were supposed to attend church yesterday but weren't able to. We have great hope for them.

We also began teaching the sister to the branch's YW president. The sister is Bwalya Mpange and was excited to read the Book of Mormon.

Friday we did an exchange with Elder Sithole (Swaziland) in Lilanda branch. I was with Elder Sithole in his area and Elder Woldemichael was with Elder Bisaso (Kampala, Uganda). Now I can say that I have done missionary work in every branch's area in Lusaka! Chainama, Munali, Lusaka, Matero, Woodlands, Libala, and now Lilanda as well! All seven. I'm not sure if that has ever been done in recorded history. I've been in Lusaka for a total of 10 months or so now. Crazy. Elder Sithole is awesome. A great district leader and just a good friend and missionary. I enjoyed being with him, though the number of lessons really wasn't all that great for the day. We did some service and cleaned up the outside of the Lilanda branch meetinghouse. It's right on a main road where lots of buses pass as well as drunkards. I think I heard the word "muzungu" yelled at me more in those 2 or 3 hours than ever before, haha.

Saturday Elder Sithole interviewed both Harsha Safeli and Eric Bwalya for baptism. They are both 9 year old boys and will be baptized this Saturday. Excellent!

Sunday we had 11 investigators at church, which was awesome! One of them was a sister we met in Chazanga named Esnart Phiri (23yrs). We were walking on the road in Chazanga on Saturday and this man stopped us and said he was a member in Chainama branch (I had never met him while I was there because he was out of the country or something) and he said he wanted us to meet his girlfriend and that she wanted to become a member of the Church. So he took us to her place and we taught her the Restoration and she came to church the following day! We have good sisters in the branch who have already started fellowshipping her and everything. We watched both Sunday sessions of the April General Conference yesterday at church. Reading from the Ensign is nice but watching them speak is different and quite nice. I loved Elder Christofferson's talk and Elder Holland's as well.

I love you all very much. Thanks for everything you do!

Elder Mckay Moline

(This is an old email not put on the blog until now.)
June 9, 2008

Dear everyone,

So Elder Woldemichael and I are now pretty settled in our new area/branch. We have some great members here, especially the branch missionaries. We have one named Mark Mbazima (18yrs) and he is the only member in his family. You wouldn't believe the kind of persecution he and other members go through here. He told us that soon after he was baptized last year his sister snuck into his room, stole his new scriptures and other church materials and burned them! A few weeks later she called her pastor at Bread of Life church to come and cast the demons out of him, which he attempted. Yikes! And believe me those aren't even the beginning of some of the crazy stories I've heard before. We have another member named Norbert Kalimbayi who just moved to Lusaka from DR Congo. He is experiencing similar problems with the people he stays with as well as neighbors. Luckily he stands up for what he knows to be true; in fact yesterday he told us that he had confounded them all with the Bible telling them to judge not unrighteously and to love thy neighbor as thyself, haha. It's so interesting to me that someone can preach that anyone who believes in Jesus Christ can be saved and yet turn against the ones who believe in Christ the most! Anyway, as I have said before, persecution and rumours are probably the biggest deterrant to the work here in Lusaka.

One of the members from Kitwe, Benson Kanyembo, came down to Lusaka this week to visit his brother, the only other Church member in their family. He came to church yesterday; it was great to see him again, though I learned a sad thing from him; he told me that he had made some mistakes in the past few months and would no longer be able to serve a mission. . . So sad. I know he would have been a great missionary.

Yesterday we had 7 investigators at sacrament meeting, which is good. One of them was a man who had recently moved to Lusaka from Angola, named Suy Jado. He speaks fluent Portugese and is learning a bit of Nyanja here. He has been to church 3 times now and has asked us if he can be baptized. Golden!

Saturday I conducted a baptismal interview in Lilanda branch for a man who used to be a Muslim (not something very common around here). In fact before I could interview him it had to be approved by the Africa Southeast Area Presidency because he used to be a part of some underground Muslim extremist group here in Lusaka (I had no idea there would be such a thing here) though he never actually did any terrorism of any kind. He was great and definitely ready for baptism. Later on Saturday we attended a training meeting for all the branch mission leaders in the district. We've noticed that most BMLs really don't know what their calling is and what it means. Typically branch presidents give the calling to young single adults so it doesn't really seem like a real 'leadership' position which it should be. Anyway I conducted most of the meeting with the help of the district presidency. It was very effective, I think.

That's all for the week I think. I know that this is the work of the Lord and however inadequate I am I hope I can help the work move forward here in Zambia in some small way.

love,
Elder Mckay Moline

July 14, 2008

Dear everyone,

Another seven days flown by. The past week has been good though. Yesterday at church we watched the two Saturday sessions of the April general conference. Well, the power went out after the first session and then the people who were faithful enough to hang around afterward until the power came back again watched the second session. We had some appointments to go to so we missed the second session. I know we're 3 months late, but it was cool being a part of the solemn assembly that took place with all the different groups sustaining at different times. Thomas Monson is truly the Lord's prophet today.

One exciting thing that happened this week was that the APs came up to Zambia to do exchanges with us. Unfortunately we were only able to do a half day exchange, but it was still cool. I was with Elder Bitter (Idaho) and Elder Woldemichael was with Elder Patterson (also Idaho). It was my first time teaching with Elder Bitter since the MTC over 18 months ago. We had a good half day together. While they were with us, President Bester went up to the Copperbelt and released and called a new branch president in Ndola. The new BP there is Brother Chishimba who has only been a member for 10 months now! Imagine, a recent convert as branch president. He'll be great.

Saturday Elder Woldemichael and I attended a baptism in my old area in Munali branch. Elder Ulloa is still there and he baptized a lady that we tracted into while I was his companion, Catherine Ngoma. I may have written about her while I was there. She's about 45 or 50 and a professor of nursing at the University of Zambia. When Elder Ulloa told me she was getting baptized last week I was sooo happy. She's a great lady but to be honest while I was teaching her, I thought she would get discouraged like most other people and give up. Just the opposite happened. She read the WHOLE Book of Mormon and came to church nearly every week and now she wants her 3 daughters and son to be baptized as well. It just goes to show how much first impressions can be false! We can't just give up on someone because we think they will fall away. Miracles happen!

Well I think that's all this week.
Families are forever!

love,
Elder Mckay Moline

July 7, 2008

Dear everyone,

The week has been wonderful. We had some good experiences with some of our investigators. One investigator named Barbara Kulima, I think I've told you about before. She is coloured and a single mother of two sons (16 and 12 years old). She stays very near the meetinghouse in an area called Emmasdale. She has been taught by the missionaries for a long time, at least 5 months, but she has only attended church once or maybe twice because of her work. She works for a TV station as a camera technician and because she refuses to go to her boss' church he makes her work on Sundays. So she has wanted to resign so she can be baptized, but her boss is being very difficult. The TV station is a religious one and her boss is a pastor for some pentecostal church and she says he is just an "evil" man. So she gave him her letter of resignation and he decided to extend the amount of time before she can stop working up to 4 months (for most people it is 2). Also, just to spite her he went out of the country and intentionally "forgot" to pay her her salary for June. So because she had no money to pay her sons' school fees they have had to stop going to school for the past two weeks. All this not to mention her uncle who she stays with will not let us near his house so she is trying to find somewhere else to stay. So she has been having a lot of problems and trials recently. We met with her on Thursday and she was acting a little bit strange, very stressed out. We talked to her about adversity and the Atonement of Christ, and as we were teaching she just cried and cried. This is my second time seeing a Zambian cry in a lesson. She really felt the Spirit and she felt much better afterwards. Yesterday she came to church although she was feeling quite sick. We fasted for her yesterday as well.

Another investigator is facing some other trials. Pinky Kabinga is her name. Twenty year old single mother of one boy. We used to teach her at her house but her mother who she stays with said she doesn't want us there anymore, so now we're meeting with her at the church. Before she used to argue with us about doctrines, etc, and we nearly dropped her, but now she has told us she received an answer to her prayers and she knows the Book of Mormon is true! The tricky part is now getting her to church and baptized. . . she wants to but her mom is not supportive at all.

Well, time is up already. Sorry. Lots to do today. Love you all very much!

Elder Mckay Moline

June 30, 2008

Dear everyone,

Today marks the start of a new transfer! My old companion, Elder Musgrave, flew to Malawi yesterday. Elder Woldemichael and I took Elder Zulu to the airport to go to Zimbabwe yesterday as well. The only airline flying into Harare anymore is Air Zimbabwe. Zambia, Malawi, and South Africa don't fly there anymore, haha.

The week was good for us. We taught a good amount of lessons despite having zone conference. One investigator that we are very excited about is Suy Jado (pronounced "sigh"), the one from Angola. He is wonderful and very committed. His wife doesn't speak any English unfortunately. He works everyday except Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday we taught him the second half of the gospel, baptism and confirmation and enduring to the end. He loved it and told us that the desire of his heart was to receive the Holy Ghost someday. Cool!

The work is moving forward. Our hope is to have 4 baptisms on 26 July. Things are looking good for that now.

I have been studying Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage recently, and wow what a great book. I started from the beginning a few months ago and now I'm on chapter 35 or so, just at the Atonement. I really have to be "in the zone" to study it or else I don't get very much, but I have learned a lot from it about the life of Christ, His parables, etc. I recommend it to all.

Sorry but time is out so I gotta go.

The things I am teaching are true!

Love,
Elder Mckay Moline

my address is still:

P/bag 325x
Ridgeway
Lusaka
ZAMBIA

June 24, 2008

Dear everyone,

Hello again. I'm a day late emailing because we had zone conference yesterday. Zone conference is always wonderful.

This last week was great. We were quite successful in terms of numbers or key indicators. We taught 23 lessons with members present, 6 lessons to recent converts, and found 12 new investigators. That's pretty good, though as always there is much room for improvement.

Wednesday we started to teach a 9 year old boy named Eric Bwalya. His father is the elders quorum president and a strong member who has been to the temple several times. The funny thing is that he has always stayed with his parents but they just happened to "forget" his age and what age he could be baptized so now we are teaching him a year late as a convert baptism. People really don't bother to keep many records here. I guess that's why no one thought to baptize him. So now we're teaching him. Sort of a freebie investigator, I guess.

We met the same coloured lady again, Barbara. She should be resigning from her job soon so she can be baptized.

So now we have 5 investigators with baptismal dates. Two of them are 9 year old children (Eric and Harsha), One is a shikulu (old man) Ben Mulenga, one is a 23 year old girl named Betty Musonda, and the last is the Angolan man names Suy Jado. The date for all of them is 26 July, though we're not sure how many are going to make their date. On Sunday we had 11 investigators at church, but only 3 of those with a date. So the work is moving here for sure. There is a lot of harvesting and teaching to be done. The field is white.

Zone conference was great yesterday. Pres Bester talked about the Holy Ghost and the gifts of the Spirit. I learned a lot of good things. Sister Bester talked about having a positive attitude all the time. That was also good. We also watched this video clip of Henry B. Eyring at an MTC devotional and speaking briefly about how mission calls are assigned. Wow, he was very emotional as he talked about it and it just made me feel like a billion kwacha. I really was "handpicked" by the Lord to come to this very mission and this very area at this time. It feels wonderful to know that, though it is a bit daunting as well. There is a lot expected of me now. The conference was great. My interview with President Bester was great as well. Such a great man and he always says something that is exactly what I need to hear to call me to repentance, haha.

I finally finished the conference Ensign from April. There's no doubt in my mind that the men who lead this Church are led by directly by the Lord Himself.

We also found out transfers. Elder Woldemichael and I are staying here. Elder Musgrave is going to Malawi to be ZLs with Elder Mugwandia. Elder McMullen will now be Elder Lawrance's companion in Lusaka One zone. In our zone, Lusaka Two, we will have all the Congolese elders in the mission: Elders, Kabeya, Kalenga, Tshani, and Kalume. All of them are great. Elder Sithole from Swaziland will be the new district leader. I will be the only muzungu (white guy) in my whole zone, haha. My first time ever. 4 Congolese, 1 Ethiopian, 1 Swazi, 1 Ugandan, 1 Tanzanian, 2 Kenyans, 1 Ghanean, 1 South African. Quite diverse.

Alright, well thanks so much for all your love and support. This is God's work.

love,
Elder Mckay Moline