"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