November 17, 2008

Dear everyone,

This week was great. We found 11 new investigators to teach which is
pretty good for us. We spent a lot of time tracting again because of
the area split that happened last week. Our goal is to find people who
will be leaders in the church, i.e. fathers (potential priesthood
holders) with wives (R.S.) and children (YM/YW, Primary). The Church
in Zambia is still very small and needs people who will help branches
grow and progress, rather than be a burden. So we've spent time
tracting in "low-density" areas, which would mean working class
families who are a little more well to do.

We also spent some time looking for new housing for the elders in
Lilanda branch. Right now they are staying 6 in the house and it's
just too much so we've been looking for a new place. We found 3
perfect places for them, but all 3 times as soon as the landlord found
out which church we were from they told us to find another place and
they didn't want our people staying there. Ugh. Such is Lusaka. The
search goes on.

Friday I went on exchanges with Elder Hill (Provo, UT) in his area,
Libala 2. Remember after I was transferred from Kitwe I was Elder
Sisneros' companion in Libala 2 for about 3 days? Then I got emergency
transferred to Chainama with Elder Rasmussen. So this was my first
time back in that area since then. Nearly 18 months, wow. Anyway, we
had a great day. It was my first time riding a bike on my whole
mission. I now know why we don't use bikes normally. The only bikes
available for a reasonable price in Zambia are xing xong Chinese ones
that have no gears and parts fall off every other appointment you go
to. What a pain. The bikes we used are commonly called "charcoal
chariots" or "black horses" by missionaries because they are normally
used to by Zambians who sell charcoal on the streets. Libala is a
struggling area but we had 3 different members work with us during the
day and we taught 7 member present lessons, which is quite good.

Saturday one of our baptismal candidates was interviewed and passed.
His name is George Shanzi (28) and he will be baptized this Saturday
at 12:30. His father is a member though currently out of the country.
George has a wife and children but they all go to another church (UCZ,
United Church of Zambia).

We have two other candidates who should be baptized the day before I
leave, 13 Dec. They are Ernest Banda (32) and Gift Mumba (17).

The church is true!

love,
Elder Mckay Moline