It's Not About You

This week was kinda sad to be honest. Not because the work is worse, don’t worry but because I had to say goodbye to another companion. Sister Teuatu is going home! Before she left she taught me how to play this Malawian game called Baw. 

Its like Mancala and its so fun. We had became really close and I will miss her dearly.  Because she was leaving this week we said goodbye to lots of people and worked extra hard to reach our goals. I have seen how on mission how there really is a difference between just going through the motions and when you really, really put in the effort. The effort spent is so much better.  

But I wanted to share the biggest lesson I learned this week. Because it was sister Teuatu’s last week some of the people we went to wanted to just sit and talk and talk when we went and EVERYONE WANTED TO SAY GOODBYE, and because she was leaving there were lots of technical things we had to go and sort out and I was so tired and stressed from those times running around and seeing random people. It was very selfish of me. I was constantly thinking about how I felt about things and the things I needed to do and things that I wanted to get done. But this week in the car we were listening to this song that hit me so hard. We listen to like gospel pop songs a lot of them from our church about missionary work and there is this one called "Its Not About You." The song talks about how this kid is scared to go on mission he doesn’t feel like he is ready and that he questions if he is good enough but then his dad reminds him "Its Not About You." I attached the link (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXtjZfue5kk)  cause it’s a good song haha! But this really just made me remember that its not really about me. Its about the people I serve and the people I teach and those that I live with. When I focus more on others and less on myself I find that I’m happier and more like our Savior Jesus Christ. His whole life was spent thinking of others before himself. I know that my time left is flying by and I want my last months to be spent on me thinking of others and focusing on why I am really here. 

Oh and also our district meeting this week was so fun. We have the best missionaries ever gotta say....

This week to send sister Teutua off strong we had a baptism... of one of the couples we have been teaching! So before they were baptized they got married in the church. So on Friday we got to go and it was so cute to watch this awesome couple commit to each other and they looked so nice. We are happy for them and now they are officially married! 

Then on Sunday was their baptism. Teutau and I had  matching blazers made to wear! The joy on their faces was so great. Edward’s family are all members of the church and they were overjoyed that day as their final brother entered into the waters of baptism and joined them. It was so nice to see how a family can be united through the gospel. Kind of funny story though so Vanessa, the wife, she wears wigs to cover her hair and she kind of forgot to take it off before she went into the water, so when she got under the water the wig came floating up to the top! haha It was so funny haha oops! After the baptism Edward and Vanessa bore their testimonies. They spoke about how true the church is and how the Book of Mormon is true. I love seeing how powerful conversion can be.  

I’m grateful for the lessons I learn each and every week. Little by little I know I will become the person I am supposed to be. 

Hope you all enjoy Halloween this week! 

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton

POWERFUL PEOPLE

So this week was another good one here in Lilongwe. And especially in our area called KALAMBO! We had a baptism of Esnart Chimwemwe Steve Matola. Yes a very long name but she is great. So we have been teaching her for a while. She is the fiancé to the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. He is a returned missionary and the two of them have been dating since before his mission. She is one of the funniest people to teach. She listens and jokes with us about stuff too. She has a powerful testimony of the commandments and even though it’s hard for her to understand the Book of Mormon she still believes it is true.  Her baptism was so nice. Her fiancé was the one who baptized her. And don’t mind the pics, my shirt got wet while we were filling up her baptismal font. Haha. We have to fill it using buckets of water!  

Another powerful person from this week is Benson. So maybe I’ve talked about him before. He is this 19 year old we got as a referral from a member. He has been looking to find the truth and has been taught by other people like Jehovah witnesses but he just didn’t feel good about it.  So we have been teaching him and everything we teach him he just SOAKS IT UP. He asks questions and questions and reads chapters and chapters of the Book of Mormon...and then he says, “I have a comment about what we read.” And he tells us all about how it helps him understand the world today and how it helps answer so many questions he has. And when he comes to church he talks to everyone and he participates. And every time we teach him the spirit is so strong and I know that he is prepared to hear our message. 

And of course this week we met some fun kids and gave lots of stickers (yes I still have lots) and my favorite were this group of kids where they would copy everything I said in the way they thought it sounded. Haha. So like I would say, "muli bwangi," which is how you greet and then they would say it back to me but they made it sound funny cause I have a funny accent so they were mocking me it was pretty funny! I got them to say some pretty funny things too! I had them sing head shoulders knees and toes and say our names and they sounded so cute! I’ll get a video next time for sure haha. 

And also at one of our investigator’s house they have a dog named Jerry. He is so active and we love him so much and so we took selfies with him this week.

 How could I forget to include a pic with me and favorite thing to eat here . . besides shima? BANANAS! They come in these huge bunches I love it so much haha 

Anyways enough randomness I hope everyone has a good week.  Thank you always for your love and support. 

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton 

Just Another Great Week

So here in Malawi today is Mother’s Day!!!!! So happy Mother’s Day to everyone especially my wonderful mom who sends the emails and edits this letter every week.  You rock. For lots of other reasons too. I’m grateful for my dear mother.  

So this week was so spiritually packed. We had a Zone Conference and General Conference viewing and all I can say is that I still have a lot to improve, the church is true, and Russell M Nelson is a true prophet. . . and missionary work is the best. 

Mostly from General Conference i was amazed by how truly inspired our leaders are. Especially because I had written down like 4 questions that I wanted answers to and I had prayed I would find them, and every single one was answered. I know that our leaders are inspired on what to speak about and yeah they don’t even know really who I am or what my questions were but what they taught helped me in my life and I’m grateful for that so much. I learned about how to taking upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ means that we apply his teachings and trust in him! I’m going to work on applying more of what Jesus Christ did in his life. 

Also this week my companions and I were caught in a rain and dust storm. It was crazy. So we were waiting for an investigator by the chapel and we decide to go over and talk to this lady who stays near the church who was out cooking these potato fried things, I’ll try to find out what they are called haha, anyways so we go and she is talking to us and then all of the sudden a huge gust of wind comes and tons of dust and we run to the house haha and then all of the sudden the clouds start to come and then BAM it start pouring rain and then the investigator comes. So we go to his house and teach for a bit and then go back into the pouring rain and run to our car until it stops. haha Wow crazy times but good times too. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else soaking wet and covered in mud! No way! 

This week we were able to have an FHE with two of the less active families in our branch. Wow they are the most fun people ever. We played some fun games, ate good food and they told us some crazy riddles, but by far the best part was when we shared a thought about missionary work and asked them if they had given the pass along cards we had challenged them the week before to give out. AND THEY DID IT! Ah man me I was so happy and they told us they felt so happy and that the people were actually interested. Wow it was powerful and I look forward to seeing the effort they can make. 

Also one of our investigators named Esnart, she is the best. She made us "African” cake this week. Basically its banana bread but made with maize or corn flour..... its gross but I still love Esnart cause she’s awesome haha.  I  attached a pic so you can see it! She is getting baptized this week too! And then next month she is getting married to the second counselor in our bishopric. I’ll tell more next week. ;-)

But I wanted to share a scripture I read in my personal study this week. It talks about the Spirit which was a common topic at Zone Conference and always a good thing to learn more about. In 2 Nephi 26:11 it reads, “For the Spirit of the Lord will not always strive with man. And when the Spirit ceaseth to strive with man then cometh speedy destruction, and this grieveth my soul.”

We are all able to either feel the influence of the Holy Ghost or the constant companionship or nothing at all. But I testify that when we no longer have the companionship that’s when things get hard. The Holy Ghost is our guide and comforter and teacher and when its not there, things can really go wrong. But we can have the companionship of it when we keep the commandments and follow its promptings. 

I hope everyone has a good week. 

With lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton

Peace!

So this week was great too!  

We had the baptism of our dear Peace Mitambo! She is the cutest. She was so excited WOW! And if you ever get to meet her one day you can ask her all about the commandments and the prophet and she can tell you everything! These girls are smart. It was good because her family was able to come. They are all members but the mom is less active, but she came and it was good to have her back again. 

Peace and her sister collect all the stickers I give them every time and keep them on this chart its the cutest thing. 

This week we were teaching two of our investigators and they decided to invite their friends who are from Burundi so they speak French and Swahili. Luckily we had a pamphlet in French and even a returned missionary working with us that day that spoke French from his mission and soooo we were able to help their friends learn for that day. They were asking a ton of questions! Our member was answering them but within the lesson we used English to teach and then our member spoke French and Swahili to help them understand and answer questions and then the two original friends would explain things in Chichewa, the local language, so we had FOUR languages in one lesson! It was insane but so cool that the gospel can be understood in so many ways. 

 

We had so many tender mercies this week for sure. One of the main ones was that this week we were doing exchanges with the other sisters but I had to stay in our area cause we have the car. . . which meant I had to drive to all the appointments and plan them all and remember how to get to them! I was so nervous cause I still can’t get some places without my companion’s help. She is always telling me to turn at the right spots and so thinking of a day without her I was terrified that we would get lost in the desert somewhere and I wouldn’t know what to do and I would have another sister with me too! She is new on mission and I didn’t want to freak her out. Anyways I had been praying that I would be able to get everywhere safely and remember where all our people stay and I wrote down directions and when the day came I still didn’t feel ready but I had no choice! So I left my comps to go to the other area and me and the new sister went to ours. And guess what?! We didn’t get lost one time. The Spirit really directed me that day and gave me the confidence and peace I needed to do God’s work. It ended up being a great day filled with lots of great people and powerful lessons. I am grateful God answered my prayer. He really is there for me or else I’d be lost somewhere in Lilongwe! 

Anyway I hope everyone has a good week! We will get to watch conference this week and we are all so excited! 

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton 

Loving it

Hello!  

So the feelings of awe and love still has not gone away from last week. I love the people here and I love the place too. 

The stickers you see on their faces came from your donations! Cute kids!

So just some thoughts from this week:

We are teaching a little 9 year old girl named Peace right who’s parents waited for her to be baptized and now she wants to and so we are teaching her and she is the cutest. And my favorite line from her this week was when we asked, "Peace what does a prophet do?" and she says "He talks too much about God." hahaha It was cute! We love this girl. She is getting baptized this week. 

Okay and I wanted to share what we eat for lunch everyday soooo when I got transferred to Malawi I knew I would eat more nsima but I’m eating it EVERYDAY NOW! We go to this little restaurant that’s basically in a shack and this kind ami, or women in chikewa, is the chef. ITS the best. 

This week we taught so many people. The people we go see they are ALWAYS HOME when they say and then when we go they usually have invited their friends to join in on the discussion, which is how we find most of our new investigators. These people are the greatest. The hardest part about serving here though is the language barrier. SO as missionaries we are called to serve in the English language and we pick up words here and there but we teach in English. And the church is in English, well most of it. I learned on Sunday that the classes they do in the native language, but anyways English. And so our president has been advising us to teach only those who can speak and read English. The reason is because that way they will be able to read the Book of Mormon, which is the keystone of our religion and testimony, understand us without a translator, and stay strong in the church. But the sad part is that we meet many people every day and even random people come to church that don’t speak English at all. But they want to learn. It’s really hard because we can’t communicate with them. And at first we would just tell them we can't. But this week we realized and learned an important lesson. WE CAN STILL SERVE THEM!!! Of course! And they can still feel the Saviors love through our service. And no language is required to serve. SO this week we have done a lot of washing, cooking, carrying bricks, playing with children, and it is the best thing. It reminds me of a scripture in Mosiah 2:17 

"When you are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God. "

I know that Heavenly Father is really helping me though. The driving is getting better, I haven’t gotten sunburned in the heat or had diarrhea from the food, my companions are great, and we see tender mercies in our work EVRY DAY. This work is true for sure. And this week I hit one year on mission! SAY WHAT?! I don’t know where time went.  Everyday I look forward to the people we will see and the things we can do. 

Also for p-day we decided to go and do something fun, so we went to this kind of national park in Lilongwe and its called Memorial Tower and we got to climb all the way to the top! Ah it was the coolest! Loving lilongwe!

One of my favorite people we are teaching is this couple. They aren't married but they are staying together and we have been teaching them and they finally came to church this week. They are named Kampson and Maggie. They are the cutest and I love it because every time we teach we are able to have fun for a while and then when it finally gets to the lesson then they are so committed and you can tell the spirit touched their hearts. And what is cool is that we are actually teaching a lot of couples and it makes me so happy to see how the gospel doesn’t just bless individuals BUT FAMILIES! I know that a family can be stronger and there can be more love when they center their lives on the gospel and I’m grateful I get the opportunity to go and teach that message. 

Anyways have a great week! Enjoy general conference (I’ll watch it next week!). Love you all!

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton