Dear everyone,

The week was excellent. It was the last week of the transfer; we had a meeting with the district presidency on Tuesday night, zone conference on Thursday, and district conference on Sunday.

I asked President Bester and he told us we could give Jackson Mvula a baptismal date and that he would have to be interviewed by someone in the mission presidency and then approved by the area presidency before he could be baptized. So we gave him a date for 27 September. We found out yesterday that he actually isn't as young as we thought; he is 72 years old! And he walks every Sunday for two hours to get to church. He is a good, humble man.

Zone conference was wonderful as always. Sister Bester spoke about the temptations of Christ in Matthew 4, and Pres Bester spoke about the eternal plan of God as it pertains to the celestial family. Good stuff.

District conference was on Sunday from 10 to 12. It was at the main chapel which has just gone through an enormous addition and now can accommodate a lot more people than before. A bus picked up all the members from Matero branch and took them there. Unfortunately two of our baptismal candidates, Esnart and Bro Mulenga, arrived late to find the bus had already gone. Oh well. The Phiri family didn't make it either because of a funeral (there are an awful lot of those around here). Pinky Kabinga made it to the conference and loved it, though still she hasn't accepted a date for baptism.

Because of transfer stuff, I can't spend much more time. I love you all very much and I love this work. God lives and his plan for us is so much more than we sometimes understand.

Love,
Elder Mckay Moline

August 4, 2008

Dear everyone,

Another week gone yet again! A lot of great things happened this week. Yesterday we had 13 investigators attend church! That's the most I've had my whole mission I believe. Actually now that I think about it Elder Musgrave and I tied that in Lusaka branch a few months ago. Anyway it is still great. The reason it was so high? We had a whole family come. They are the Phiri family from #6 Emmasdale Police Camp. I think I wrote about the family a couple of weeks ago. We actually met Bro Phiri on 11 July. A few weeks prior to that we had tracted into and met the firstborn son, Jimmy, and his friend so we taught them the Restoration, came a few days later and loaned them a copy of the Book of Mormon. We didn't find them at the next appointment so we sort of forgot about them for a week or two; then one night we just decided to go and check up on Jimmy and that is when we met his parents, Bro and Sis Phiri, and taught them. We taught them 3 or 4 times in that first week. They have 6 children. The parents and 5 children came to church on Sunday (everyone except the oldest one Jimmy). Two of the children are below the age of 8. The first two or three sundays they missed because of Bro Phiri's work. He is a detective for the Zambia Police and there were a couple of murder cases in Woodlands that were taking a lot of time to solve. Anyway the fast and testimony meeting yesterday was great and they said they very much enjoyed all the meetings. The branch was very good fellowshipping them as well. We have great hope for them. Bro Phiri hasn't been to any church in years, though the mother and children occasionally attended one of the thousands of pentecostal churches around. We hope to give them a baptismal date sometime this week.

Suy Jado, the man from Angola, has been missing for a couple of weeks now so his baptismal date has been cancelled for now.

Ben Mulenga still has his date for 23 August and is progressing towards it. His issue is just understanding completely and remembering the things we tell him. Sometimes he just forgets stuff, haha.

We extended the date of 13 September to Esnart Phiri, who came to church for the 3rd time yesterday. She is doing very well.

One of our investigators, Pinky Kabinga, bore her testimony of the Book of Mormon in sacrament meeting yesterday! She used to be very critical of the Church and its teachings but she's been humbled by the Spirit and now the YSAs in the branch are fellowshipping her like crazy. For some reason she hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet though. . .

Today is the beginning of week 6 and we just found out transfers! I'm staying with Elder Woldemichael and Elder Lawrance is staying with Elder McMullen. They are opening a new area for missionary work in Malawi! A city called Lilongwe. If I'm not mistaken it is a 2-4 hour drive north of Blantyre, which was the only city with missionaries before. Many years ago there was a branch in Lilongwe but it was closed for some reason. Last September the branch reopened without missionaries. Today we found out that Elder Tshani (DRC) and Elder Mrwetyana (SA) are going there, alone! How interesting that would be. Elder Sithole is going to Zim, so we have two new district leaders in Lusaka 2, Elder Spelman (SA) and Elder Kalume (DRC). Elder Spelman is training someone named Elder Brown who we can only assume is American so likely I won't be the only white guy anymore, haha.

Zone conference is on Thursday; exciting! Lusaka district conference will be this weekend (9-10 August) and Elder Young of the area presidency will be here for that. I'm excited to meet him.

This is the work of God; I know it and I love it.

Elder Mckay Moline

July 28, 2008

Hello everyone,

A great week. Wednesday I did an exchange on Wednesday with Elder Tshani (DR Congo) who is the district leader in Woodlands. I was with him in Copperbelt over a year ago and he is still awesome. He was in Malawi for a long time. We were in my area and had a good day together.

Tuesday one of our investigators, Jackson Mvula, called us and wanted to meet with us. He's the one who used to have two wives. Anyway we met with him and he told us he wanted to "register for baptism." Awesome! We didn't give him a date yet because we wanted to find out from Pres Bester what the Church's policy about former polygamists is. . . so we'll find out first and then go from there.

Saturday was the baptism of Harsha Safeli and Eric Bwalya. There was also a baptism for a sister in Lusaka branch who the sisters have been teaching and another in Libala branch as well. Four baptisms for the zone! The service went well.

After the baptism we visited a less-active family, the Simuzoshas. He was the first branch president of Matero branch when it was formed in 2003. He still comes to church, though not enough to hold a calling. His wife and children have never come since I've been here even though their daughter is serving a mission in Botswana right now. I think it's just laziness combined with murmuring about leadership that keeps them away. Sad story.

Yesterday at church we had 6 investigators. One of them was a first-timer, Susan Kampengele. She has promised to come for several weeks now but finally fulfilled today. She is a single mother with a 4 year old daughter. She came with her daughter and a cousin who is visiting from the Copperbelt. Unfortunately she came late and left early but hopefully next time we can get her to stay for the whole 3 hours.

Well, we gotta go. In a few minutes we'll be leaving to go to the same reptile farm I went to last year with Elder Ulloa and Elder Musgrave. It should be fun.

Thanks everyone for your love and support!

Elder Moline