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