Third Times a Charm!

Hello! 

This week was good! The reason I say third times the charm is cause this week I had nshima for the third time since being on mission. Sister Sila and I were starving and we have been wanting to try this restaurant in our area (its not really a restaurant as you would say but more like a little shop on the road). So we go in and we wanted chicken and nshima but they only had GOAT. haha But I wanted to try it so they give us these huge servings and we sit down to eat. And I actually liked it! I ate some of the relish (pumpkin leaves) and the goat with the nshima and it was so nice. I guess I’m becoming Zambian?! We didn’t end up finishing all of it cause nshima fills you up real quick but I didn’t get sick and it was a fun experience so it was definitely a win. 

This week Sister KUPU our mission president’s wife went with all the sisters to Lusaka to some appointments. She came with us when we taught a new investigator named Charles. It was kind of intimidating at first but I realized that when we teach people its not us teaching it is the Spirit. So Sila and I did our best to rely on the Spirit and it ended up being one of the best lessons I’ve been in. I am so grateful for our mission leaders. I learn so much from Sister Kupu and she cares so much about us as missionaries. 

So an update on Sam and Chi Chi the guys we have been teaching. They are progressing so well! They have decided that they are willing to give up their habits of drinking and smoking. They set goals and plans of things they want in their future and have been working together to find other things to do with their time. They say that reading the Book of Mormon is the best thing. And they are getting so far. Chi Chi always likes to talk about Nephi. They are always fun to teach and I love to see how the gospel changes peoples hearts and lives. I hope that they will continue to work towards their goals. 

This week one of our investigators had an interview with the bishop so we walked with her to the church. Its probably a good thirty minute or so walk. But she had to bring her baby with her so she let me and Sister Sila take turns carrying her baby the Zambian way with a chatange! You basically sew a big piece of fabric and tie it around you with the baby inside! I don’t know how they do it though cause this girl was heavy but they can do anything with those babies on their back it amazes me. 

I wanted to share a scripture this week that really had a impact on me. This week we didn’t have a lot of progress with our investigators. Many of them choose not to come to church and I felt so sad that they weren’t keeping commitments like reading the Book of Mormon. Even many of our recent converts didn’t attend church. I felt like I was failing. But on Sunday I sat there during church and as I was watching George pass the sacrament I was prompted to read this scripture and it brought me so much comfort. The scripture is in Alma 29:9 it reads, “I know that which the Lord hath commanded me, and I glory in it. I do not glory of myself, but I glory in that which the Lord hath commanded me; yea, and this is my glory, that perhaps I may be an instrument in the hands of God to bring some soul to repentance; and this is my joy." 

When I read this I realized that I’ve been called to serve and this is His work not mine. That my success is not me but him. Missionary work is about learning to rely on the spirit and turn to Heavenly Father with concerns and helping others do the same. My job is to be the best instrument in Gods hand I can be and do all I can to bring souls to repentance. I know that this work is real and so important. I’m not the perfect missionary and people have their agency to make choices but I can try my best and in the end there will be some soul that is brought to repentance and that will bring great joy not only to me but to my Heavenly Father. 

I am so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. He truly does bless us in little and big ways each and everyday no matter who we are. Keep looking for those tender mercies and you will see them! 

with lots and lots of love

-Sister Moulton 

Dancing in the Rain

Hello everyone!  

This week was great! Here are some random awesome things from the week:

One night we had our car wash and this time I got to be inside doing the spiritual part while everyone else washed cars. Sister Mafunda, a sister from South Africa), and I watched a video with the investigators, bore our testimonies and answered their questions. It was a powerful experience seeing how the message of the gospel can touch people lives. The video we showed to some of them was one by Elder Bedna about revelation. Sometimes revelation is like a light turning on in a room - all of the sudden you receive an answer to a question - this is the least common. Another is like the sun rising, slowly the answer comes, and this is much more common. The most common being like a foggy night walking towards the light. You know its there and you can kind of see it but you have to use your faith to keep pushing forward to get to the complete light. I love this analogy because it is so true. As missionaries we commit people to pray about certain things to find the truth. Sometimes they struggle and sometimes they just know. No matter what though Heavenly Father hears our prayers. It just takes us seeking and doing our best to find the light. I am so grateful that we can receive personal revelation for ourselves to guide us and help us. 

One day this week sister sila and I were so busy in our area with appointments we didn’t have time to go home for lunch, so Sila had this brilliant idea to buy a fresh hot baked loaf of bread and some butter on the side of the road and eat that. I thought she was crazy but honestly it was pretty darn good! She said she eats it in Tonga! So we had it Zambian style haha never thought id be in another country eating white bread and butter for lunch on the side of the road in the Kalaingalinga market but I think its awesome haha. 

I also helped one  of our investigators wash her clothes this week in a bucket. That's how people do it here!

So this week it rained pretty bad one morning. So bad in fact that none of us sisters could go out. I have never ever seen it rain that hard. It wouldn’t have even worked to have an umbrella and all of our appointments were outside at the beginning of the morning. So we were waiting for it to stop but while we were waiting for the rain to stop Sister Sila and Sister Kivalu (another Sister from Tonga that we live with) had a fun idea to go get soaking wet in the rain! So we get all ready and we go out and I was just standing there waiting to go out cause it looked so cold and then there came Sister Sila and she grabbed me and pulled me under the big fountain of water that was coming down from the roof and she is super duper strong (she’s like way taller and bigger than me as you can see from the pic) and I couldn’t get out! I got soaking wet and so did she! Then Sister Garner and the others got in and we had a good time taking pics and dancing in the rain. 

Missionary work is great here in Zambia and I’m continually grateful for all your prayers and support. Have a good week! 

with lots and lots of love, 

Sister Moulton 

Fasting for Rain

Hello Family and Friends!

So this week it rained pretty much ALL WEEK. This guy in our ward fasted that it would rain because there is currently a drought and its really affecting the farmers I guess. He bore his testimony about it on Sunday, and also about how Heavenly father would answer his prayers, and He sure did! The rain kind of held back our work this week. We teach a lot of lessons outside on grass or in people’s yards on stools and so it made it kind of hard. We even ended up teaching a whole lesson standing up! The guy insisted we teach him cause he was so interested, even if it meant standing the whole time!  

Yesterday we taught this family. We go to their house every Sunday because that’s the only day they are free. They are such a sweet family and they have a new born baby and a ten year old son that are just the cutest. The dad is the one most interested and he always has so much to say its great! The family is very strong Seventh day Adventists, like since their great great grandpa. We taught them about the plan of salvation and they really seemed to connect to it. This week though they offered Sister Sila and I this drink. Its a maize (corn) drink called Chbwantu. They ferment it and you mix it with sugar... its non-alcoholic don’t worry. So they insisted we try it so being good missionaries we tried it! And wow the first sip was SO BITTER. Wow. It kind of tasted like drinking cardboard with flour? In a drink? But also super bitter? There were white chunks in it too. I don’t even know how to explain it haha and Sister Sila and I sat there and drank the whole glass smiling through our teeth trying not to throw up. It was a good experience though! 

This week we went to go teach Precious and while we were waiting for her to come, Natasha (Stella’s ten year old daughter) wanted us to teach her so we got out the Book of Mormon and started to read. Then she ran out for a second and came back with a friend and we kept reading and then a couple minutes later another little girl showed up and then a couple minutes after that another until there were five little girls all reading the Book of Mormon together! They were all so excited to read and learn how to say the new words. It was super cute and made me smile to see how happy these girls were reading the Book of Mormon together. The Book of Mormon is great no matter how old you are! 

Anyways not much happened this week but good stuff is up ahead! 

With lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton

FOR FREE?

Hello Everyone!  

This week was so good. On Tuesday we held a free car wash at our church! So people would come, we would wash their car and while it was being cleaned some of us would take them on chapel tours and then at the end they watched a short Mormon message and we gave them a Book of Mormon! We had a lot of people come and it was so funny when they pulled up cause they would be like, "This is for free? What’s the catch?" well... the catch is you get to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you get a Book of Mormon and you get to feel the spirit AND YOU GET YOUR CAR WASHED. Pretty good deal if you ask me. We met some awesome people and got some good contacts to call and meet up with in the upcoming week. And it was so fun to wash cars and what’s even cooler is that two of our investigators the two guys who read the Book of Mormon, came and helped us wash and so did the bishop and other members. It was a great activity and a great way to find and our mission president wants us to do it every week now for a while...so if you have any good car washing tips let me know haha!

Also this week Mary, George’s wife told us she wants to baptized but she feels like she wasn’t there to learn all the lessons and she wasn't cause she always had to leave when the baby was crying and so she asked if we could teach her again! She learns a lot slower because she doesn’t know English well but wow she is so great. And cute George Junior came to church in his best outfit it was so cute. 

Also I’m attaching a pic of me peeling potatoes! Okay so here on the street they fry potatoes wedges and sell them for 5K and they are called chips but they are basically French fries. So my companion loves them so we have been going there a lot more and we have become friends with the people at the shop. Jack and Hanson work there and they always wave hi to us when we go by and talk to us about the work. Jack let me peel some potatoes this week which was actually super hard and I don’t know how he does it that fast. They go through around ten bags of potatoes A DAY. BIG BAGS. He also told me and Sister Sila about his family. He was an orphan for his whole life and lived at a religious orphanage. He started college but didn’t have enough money so now he is saving up so he can go to school to be a builder. He wants to go back and build for the orphanage. The people here are just the coolest, and jack definitely makes the best chips too! ;)

Anyways its gonna be a good week and the work still continues to go on! 

love you all, 

Sister Moulton