Goodbye Dear Comps

This week was Mafunda’s last week! Ah it was so sad and happy too. We went and took pics with all of her investigators and it made me so grateful for the wonderful people we have to teach. Even though I get so frustrated and sad when they don’t come to church, keep commitments or act on their faith, deep down I love them so much. I love the Zambian people here and I know Heavenly Father put me here for a reason. 

Before Mafunda left, I bought her a dashiki, this cool shirt that people wear here, I gave her a biscuit in every flavor we have ever tried together, and five dollars in American money which converted to South African currency is a lot and she was so excited LOL. She asked me to send this pic of her in the group email for this week haha. I will miss her lots-- that’s for sure. She has been such a great companion and we have had so many fun fun times and challenging times but it was honestly one of the best weeks of my mission. But I had to say goodbye cause she’s finished a good 18 months!  My new companion came on Sunday, Sister Ekheorohan from Nigeria! She is great and is so funny too! 

Not much happened this week to be honest. But Mr. Phiri, this man we have been teaching for some time now, has decided he wants to be baptized. It has been such a neat experience seeing him progress and realize and come to know the truth. HE HAS SO MANY QUESTIONS it’s so fun to teach him. 

Also this week we went on exchanges with the other sisters. So mafunda and I split and each went with another sister in another area. But I am the driver so I stayed in my area with the sister I was with. We had a good time and it is always fun to show someone around your area and have them introduce themselves to your investigators. 

 Cute kid story: so this week we went to go see one of our investigators who just got back from Zimbabwe. So we decide instead of parking the car where we usually park we would just pull up near her house and park it there. All of her grandkids and everyone from the neighborhood was outside and they came up to the car and talked to us. So I gave them the assignment to watch and protect the car while we were inside so they stayed next to it until we came out and then I took this awesome pic of them being strong guards haha they thought it was so funny. 

Anyways, that’s my week and next week is another great one I can feel it! 

Have an awesome first week of may everyone! 

with lots and lots of love

Sister Moulton 

"OOOOO Boniface"

Editors Note: A couple of these pictures were shared by another missionary mom. Harper didn't have time to upload all of her pictures today. Thanks for all of your love and support for our girl!

Happy Monday!  

This week I learned so much about so many little things. 

First of all, on Tuesday I got to give the presentation in District Meeting about bearing testimony frequently while teaching. I had each person draw out of a bowl a subject like temples, families, restoration, or prophets and then had them share a brief testimony about it. It was so powerful to hear the powerful testimonies of those in my district and it taught me that mission has helped me gain a strong testimony in SO MANY DIFFERENT THINGS! I know that we are blessed with a living prophet who holds the priesthood power and authority from God. I know that temples are the house of God where families are united and where we can feel God’s love. His love for us is infinite and truly he blesses us everyday through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. We are able to repent and become better people and one day live with him again. Missionary work truly is his work and I know that the message of the restored gospel needs to be shared to everyone! That is my short testimony. 

This week our sister, Sister Orchard, received some really sad news. Her brother had passed away Tuesday night. We were able to be with her when she found out the news and comfort her. It was so sad. We were all so sad. It made me very grateful for my family and for the plan of salvation that teaches us that families can be together forever. 

While she was gone to South Africa at her brother’s funeral, Sister Mafunda and I were in a trio with another sister. We also had to take a day off proselyting to help Orchard get everywhere she needed to be. We visited both of our areas and drove back and forth seeing investigators. One of those investigators is Bonfiace. As you can see from my title we say, "oooo Boniface” every time we talk about it him and its not a “ooo” like a interesting “ooo” but a “ooo” like a “haha Bonfiace!” He is so confusing and so we just say “ooo.” Haha. I don’t know if that made sense. But anyways...this guy the missionaries have been teaching him for so so long. And he doesn’t really keep his commitments all the time and always stand us up for lessons and always has crazy excuses on why he can't come to church. This week we decided during our lesson we would be bold and really figure out why he still wanted to meet with us and really decide if we would keep teaching him or let him go- in a way. So we start the lesson and he tell us how he has been praying and how he just wants God to speak to him. And he asks so many questions like he usually does. And we ask him what his purpose is in meeting with us because we feel that we aren’t really helping him progress and aren’t really fulfilling our purpose to help him come unto Christ. Then he tells me something I will never forget. He says, "Your efforts are not in vain," and tells us how much he has come closer to God in what we have been teaching him and how slowly but surely he will be there at his answer as he continues to pray. He taught me a lesson that I should never give up! These people need God in their lives and our efforts are not in vain. We keep doing missionary work and they will come unto Christ even if its slowly but surely. 

On Sunday we had a welcome back "party" for Orchard at our house and Sister Kupu told us to have all the sisters in Lusaka come too! So there were twelve sisters at our house and we had nice food, Mafunda and I made enchiladas, we had ice cream and cake and played some churchy games  haha and then got to know each other. The twelve sisters are exactly half of the sisters in our mission! Crazy right? It was so fun to be with them all. I even got to see my daughter! 

And then today we had a district activity. So it was the six of us sisters and the four elders and we played volleyball at the church and had pizza and ice cream! Our district is literally the most fun. There are people from all over the world, Tonga, Candada, Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and America and it is just so fun to get to know them all. So yeah that was my week! This next week is Sister Mafunda’s last week on mission and its so sad to see her go. I'm going to enjoy every last minute I have with her and I know that this will be a great week cause we get to go back to our area again! 

Hope this week is the best for you all as well!

-with lots and lots of love 

Sister Moulton 

James is Baptized!

YAY! Good week this week! 

So on Wednesday we had what’s called MLC. It’s where all the mission leaders come together for a council. so we got to see all the zone leaders and STLS from here in Zambia. It was an amazing experience for me. I learned a lot about how we need to minister to the other sisters and live by the mission rules on our own so that they will have an example to follow. How we need to be a “good shepherd” just as Jesus Christ was! Bringing in the lost sheep to the fold. The whole meeting just made me really thankful for the leaders in this mission. SERIOUSLY, we have the best! They even call it the Great Zambian Lusaka Mission! ;-) 

Also this week one of our investigators Febii fed us this AMAZING MEAL! Febbi-- we met her while on exchanges and this lady… she ia a little older and she has been through so much as far as death in her family. She has so much faith and we have been teaching her about the plan of salvation and she has been so fascinated by the fact that she will be able to see her family that ahs passed on again! That they are learning the gospel in the spirit world just like her too! The other day she asked us what food we liked and Mafunda said she likes rice and she asked me and I just said pasta cause I didn’t know what to say and then the next time we went to her house.. we are waiting for her to come in to start the lesson and we see she is prepping the table. Then she calls us in and we sit down and the table all set and there are so many pots and so much juice. She says as she opens one pot, "Rice for Mafunda," opens another pot, "Pasta for Moulton," and "Nshima for both of you!" She had prepared EVERYTHING had made this nice chicken curry and a nice cabbage salad and oh man we ate and ate and she was so happy that we were so happy and full.  Then as we are eating she tells us that the sausage is coming and then as we are finishing SHE BRINGS POTATOES FOR US TOO! Ah this lady did it all! She said she didn’t know exactly what we liked so she just made everything so we would feel at home. I dint have my camera that day but I wish I did because it is something I never want to forget! We finished teaching her the plan of salvation this week too and we invited her to baptism. She told us that she as already been baptized but we explained to her the priesthood and how it must be doe using the right authority for it to be recorded in heaven and she said she really wanted to think and pray about it before she says yes. Mafunda and I love this lady so much and we know that if she really asks in faith that Heavenly Father will lead her to do the right thing. 

THIS WEEK JAMES GOT BAPTIZED! Ah it was such a special day. James was so so excited and he told us that when he was baptized he just felt so so happy and free. He is smiling and happy and laughing so much more than when I first met him and I can see truly that the gospel has changed his life and his outlook on his future. 

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to be a missionary. You learn so much from so many things that happen. For example, this week we had this girl we have been teaching for some time and she tell us that our doctrines were so different from hers  (she is a Jehovah witness) that she didn’t think she could keep learning about them. She dropped us! She was grateful for us helping her learn to pray again but said we should just be friends. From this experience I learned that Heavenly Father gives us agency for a reason! If we didn’t have a choice than we would never learn and we would never experience anything. I’m grateful she was honest with us and Heavenly Father will help us find those people who are ready to learn. 

This week as we were walking in the area I saw this lady and she looked so happy and bright and I felt strongly prompted to go and talk to her. So we went and we ended up sharing a message with her about the godhead. She shared with us how grateful she was that we shared with her and we set up a time to come back and share again.  As we left the lesson, I realized that truly everyone does have the light of Christ in them. This woman had a glow to her, and her Heavenly Father loves her! The spirit touched her heart that day and I’m grateful that I am able to see the light of Christ in those around me and be able to share with them this wonderful message. 

So yeah! Everything is good over here in Woodlands and the work still goes on! 

Hope all is well back home. 

Thanks for the continued prayers and support. 

with lots of love, 

Sister Moulton 

Change Is Fun!

Hello!

So this week here in Woodlands we were able to watch General Conference! General Conference, for those of you who don’t know, is every six months there is a broadcast from Salt Lake where the prophet and apostles speak to us! We watched it this week in our chapel and it was great! I learned a lot about how important it is for us to receive personal revelation. Heavenly Father wants to bless us and help us and it is up to us to be humble enough to turn to him. I also loved the talk about how we are all children of God. He loves us so much and sometimes I think we forget how big that love is. He even sent his son for us! All in all it was a great inspiration and motivation for me to keep working hard as a missionary and remembering who I am here for! 

This week was transfers and me and my companion, we stayed but there was lots of changes in our flat! There are now three companionships in our flat. So one of the companionships is Sister Kivalu and Sister Jones. Sister Kivlau is from Tonga and she is great! I have lived with her for most of my mission now! She is training Sister Jones from Arizona. Then the other companionship is Sister Orchard from South Africa and Sister Nakale from Botswanna. They are great too! We are having so much fun with all of them. Every night this week we have gone to bed laughing together about some funny thing and we are having a good time getting to know each other. I’ll send of funny picture of us all. haha

This week we were able to see Esther and Mayba. We decide to have the bishop come with us to help us answer some of the questions he had. His wife ended up coming with us too. When we were walking in, Sister Mafunda and I were so scared. Had we made to wrong decision to bring the bishop?? Would Mayba be intimidated?? As we taught and discussed during the lesson and as bishop was able to answer some of the questions and testify what he knew to be true, the spirit there was powerful.  It led Mayba to really open up and understand the things we were saying. Mayba was able to tell us how he has been praying and how he just has more and more questions but he really just wants to know the truth. He was prompted to read the pamphlet we left for him and said he learned so much and just really wants to know the truth about all these things. Listening to him I could just feel Heavenly Father’s love for him. He loves this man and his family and as Mayba continues to act on his faith and study he will lead him to the truth. The bishop did a great job answering some of his tough questions about the Sabbath day and Mayba was very respectful and they became good friends by the end. I am so grateful for the spirit that leads and guides our work. I know it was inspired for us to bring bishop with us and I am grateful for the spirit that fills are mouths with what to say when tough questions come. I see it everyday and am grateful that Heavenly Father doesn’t leave us here to do the work alone but gives us the Holy Ghost to be our third companion! 

We took a selfie at our district meeting this week cause it was Sister Osho’s last week!  

 We played a game a little game while we waited for an appointment with James and these are some of the kids from our area. 

April is flying by! Have a good week! 

With lots and lots of love, 

Sister Moulton 

Overcoming

Hello!  

GUESS WHAT!  First off, the biscuit search is one step closer to being completed. In fact, it may even be- but we feel like there are more flavors we are missing. This week the other sisters found lemon and shared with us! So I attached a pic of how happy we were when they brought them home for us, but the search still continues AND this week we also found and tasted a PINEAPPLE ONE! So who knows how many flavors there really are? 

This week on Tuesday I hit my six months on mission! That’s a huge milestone for me.  I can’t believe I am one third of the way done with my mission and that one third has just flown by like that! I am so so so grateful for the year I have left to really learn and grow and become better. I still feel like I am learning everyday and I am so grateful that mission is teaching me so many things about how to deal with people of all kinds, how to communicate, how to really love people and how to rely on my Heavenly Father. 

This week was a great week for us! We are teaching some great people. Esther and Mayba… we met with them this week and they are doing well and told us how praying as a family is really good. But, they had some tough questions about the restoration and Joseph Smith. They are willing to listen and pray to know if it is true but the doubts are there. Me and Sister Mafunda hope and pray that they will sincerely pray and ask Heavenly Father because only in that way will they get the answer. They are also struggling with the Sabbath Day. They are seventh day adventists. and that means that they believe that the Sabbath is on the seventh day,  Saturday, and that everyone who worships on Sunday isn’t keeping the Sabbath day holy. We know that we keep the Sabbath on Sunday since the resurrection of Jesus Christ! And we keep the Sabbath day holy by going to Church and partaking of the sacrament, not making others work on Sunday and by making it a day of rest. But that is one issue that they have and so we will continue to teach and invite them to pray. Mission has taught me for sure that tough questions are good because it makes us as missionaries want to study more and lets us really help the investigator understand but in the end its up to them to ask for the truth themselves. 

This week we were teaching this woman named Febbi and we were able to meet her grandmother! Her grandmother is over 90 years old.   They actually don’t know exactly how old she is and she doesn’t speak English very much but Febbi would translate what she was saying. The lady was telling us about how she remembers when Hitler came and how scared she was and how her and her family had to flee. She has been though a lot this lady! 

Also this week, we were street contacting and met this man named Isaac. He let us sit in his front yard and share a message and he just kept asking questions that led to the next thing so we just kept going! He really wanted to know why there are so many churches on the earth today and how Heavenly Father gives his authority to prophets. It was amazing to see how inspired his questions were and how truly the gospel and the message we share answers so many of them! I am so grateful Heavenly Father led us to him so that we could help him find the truth. 

I want to end with a thought about what we learned this week at church, (we are watching General Conference next week because of the time difference). The lesson was on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. We watched a video of the Easter story and there was one phrase from a scripture quoted in it that really hit me. The scripture is in John 16:33 it says: 

"These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." 

Jesus Christ overcame the WORLD and he overcame DEATH and he overcame ALL OF OUR SINS. As for us, we only have to overcome our own challenges, doubts and sins. I am so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and for the sacrifice he made for the world. Because of him we can know that we will live again.  We have an example to follow and we can become clean from the mistakes we make. Everything we do is centered around him and we should continue to try and center our lives on the teaching of Jesus Christ. 

I hope that everyone has a great week! Thank you so much for the care and support that you give me and my family. Love you all!

With lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton