November 3, 2008

Dear everyone,

This week has been slightly crazy. Thursday was election day here. I never =
realized how involved and excited people can get about politics! All the =
buses had posters on them. Wednesday was a pretty crazy day. Lots of truc=
ks were driving around with posters all over, honking and shouting, doing=
anything to get attention. A lot of them were drunk as well. People were=
running in crowds on the streets shouting "Pabwato!!" for one party and=
"MMD!!" for the other. Thursday we had our district meeting and then sta=
yed inside the rest of the day to avoid and problems with riots and such.=
=20

We also found out transfers. I have come to find out that if you think some=
thing will happen at transfers, it almost never happens. So guess who my =
new companion is? Elder Woldemichael again! By the end of this 6 week per=
iod we will have been together just about 7 months. That's more than twic=
e as long as I have been with anyone else before. I have never heard of a=
companionship in this mission staying together for that long! So it is. =
Elder Woldemichael will be the one to "kill" me. We are very good friends=
and enjoy each other's company so it's not a big deal. If I had to choos=
e one companion to be with for this long, it would be him.=20

So Thursday afternoon we were told that a new elder would be arriving at th=
e airport at midnight that night coming all the way from England. All we =
knew was his name, Elder Kyambadde, and that he had been serving for 21 m=
onths in England and because his visa ran out there he would be finishing=
his mission here in Lusaka. That's something that doesn't happen everyda=
y. So Elder Woldemichael and I had to drive to the airport at midnight to=
get him. He is from Kampala, Uganda and he seems like a great elder. Tal=
k about a change though! Manchester to Lusaka.=20

Friday we stayed in all day because of the possibility of riots from the pr=
evious day's elections. After the results were counted, the army was post=
ed at different places in Lusaka to stop rioting so actually there was re=
latively little violence. We spent the day doing absolutely nothing at ho=
me; it wasn't very pleasant.

Well that's most everything. This week we'll be busy doing transfers so we =
gotta go now.

Love,
Elder Mckay Moline