Happy Late Christmas and Happy New Year!

What a year it has been. Looking back this whole year I have been on mission! Best year yet! 

To celebrate Christmas and everything we had a good time. 

First was our zone Christmas party, then the branch Christmas party, and then our Sister Christmas dinner! 

The zone party was fun as always. We have a great mission president and wife and every time they come it makes me feel like I’m sort of home haha. I know my real parents are FAR FAR away, but I’m so grateful for the mission president’s love and the good food they feed us. 

To top all the parties off, ORTON got baptized! Just before the branch party all the members came to support him. He was so pumped. This guy has been preparing for a long time, but because of his English is took him awhile but he kept working and working and now he is so good. It was truly amazing to see how much of a desire he had to be baptized. He learned English for it! Happy, happy day. After, our branch made food and we all ate together. It was a great time and we had lots of investigators come too. They had kind of like a little talent show and everyone got so into it. Malawians know how to make something small really great and I love it so much.  

Highlight of the week was Christmas Eve. Because Christmas was on a Tuesday we had a proselyting day on Monday. It was kind of a hard day cause we were tired haha but it ended up being one of my favorite days on mission. First off it rained during the day but it was still ok and we managed to see the people we needed to see. We even got to do some service on the way when we got to help a guy who’s bag of potatoes had fallen off his head! I rushed out of the car to help him and then everyone shouted "Azungu!!!!" They were somehow surprised I would get out to pick up potatoes and then a bunch of people came running and helped us do it fast before the rain was too much. Then to help us really get into Christmas, one of our investigators had asked about Family Home Evening. We said we could come and do one with them! So we went to their house and brought little treats and everything and a lesson. The family is a mom and dad and two kids that are under 12. We taught about the story of baby Jesus and how the circumstances showed how our Savior was the Prince of Peace and how even his mother Mary  had to sacrifice a lot but was so humble about everything. It was a humbling experience to share the Christmas story with that family. Every year at home my family and I share the nativity story, but to be able to share the light with another family was really humbling for me and made me especially grateful for this time I have to be on mission. That was our Christmas Eve and it was the best. 

Christmas day we got to skype our families. It’s a great day for missionaries! Then that night we made SO MUCH food and ate ate ate and opened presents that my mom had sent. 

The most important lesson I learned this past two weeks comes from a phrase that we kept hearing last week. Two different times someone has come up to us saying, "I am a sinner," both of those guys were drunk people who needed help and when we ended up teaching one of them it really showed me that really all of us are sinners. But you see we just all have different sins. We all have different weaknesses. Sometimes we struggle with loving and forgiving others. Some of us struggle to control our anger and it leads to hurting our brothers and sisters. Some of us, like these men, struggle overcoming temptations, but you see ALL OF US ARE SINNERS in some way. The best part of God’s plan is that ALL OF US CAN REPENT! Because of our Savior, Jesus Christ all can enter into his rest. I love this scripture in Alma 12:33-34

“But God did call on men, in the name of his Son, (this being the plan of redemption which was laid) saying: If ye will repent, and harden not your hearts, then will I have mercy upon you, through mine Only Begotten Son;

34 Therefore, whosoever repenteth, and hardeneth not his heart, he shall have claim on mercy through mine Only Begotten Son, unto a remission of his sins; and these shall enter into my rest.”

When we humble ourselves and realize we make mistakes and have weakness and don’t let our hearts be hard, He will give us mercy and we can receive forgiveness! The part I love most is, “enter into his rest.” Through following our Savior’s example we can become better people. We can be happier and one day rest with our Heavenly Father. For me, I know that I have weaknesses and make mistakes but I also know that our Savior is real. Jesus Christ is our Savior and because He lives I can always become better. 

I hope you all have a happy new year! 

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton 

Merry Christmas from Malawi!

Editor's note: Sister Moulton didn't send an email this week but after a power outage and borrowing two different computers from members and two different meeting house locations, she was able to video chat with us for about 40 minutes early, early this morning. She looks great, loves Malawi and the people there and is excited about the work. Thank you for loving and supporting our daughter. 

Happy Week Before Christmas!

Time flies too fast! But finally for the first time this month it felt like Christmas haha. So, happy week before Christmas! 

So update on our dear Unity....... on mission I have learned to just accept what comes and this was another example. We were all prepped and ready to help her be baptized and then she just left to the village. We go to see her family and they all said her family had called her to the village... so yeah we didn’t get to see her all week. The mom left with her so there isn’t a lot of communication as to when she will come home! Sorry if I got anyone’s hopes up but makes sure you know that it will work out. That’s another thing I’ve learned. I can’t get down or sad because in the end, I know it will be okay she will come back! Faith is the first principal of the gospel and a very important one in missionary work too. 

Fun experience of the week was eating bugs for my first time! Because its been raining, these special bugs they come out of the ground and the kids they catch them. So while we were waiting for an appointment at the Mitambo’s house (its Peace’s family), Peace cooked for us some nice bugs. We meet and teach a lot of people at their house. I forgot what the bugs are called but they were not that bad! Crunchy and nice! The Malawian eat them as snacks for the rain time. They cook them with salt and a little water. 

Let me share a little about why i love Malawians so much. 

1. They have nothing but they give everything.

2. They love to listen to the message.

3. They are the humblest people I have ever met. 

1. This week Sister Joanna just decided randomly to give me this nice nice skirt. It has little elephants on it she said that, "White people like these things." haha Joanna is the best she loves to give missionaries things and I am grateful for her. 

2. We found so many people this week. People are ready to hear our message. Now we just have to wait and see if they will ACT upon it! But I seriously love it so much and we met some real fun ones this week too. We went in to teach these two boys that were interested and when we sit down we realized they spoke NO English and could not read. When I would say something- I guess with my American accent, which I though was gone haha - the one boy would say "WAHHHATT?" I would repeat what I said and he still didn’t get anything. We would have our member talk haha.  But they wanted to learn SO badly, so in our broken Chichewa we taught them some small things and invited them to church. I love the desire to learn. 

It truly humbles me and makes me feel so grateful for the gospel I know. 

3. We are teaching this single dad named Hillary. He just showed up to church without being invited because he said he needed a church close to his house, so its perfect!  But since then he has come every week and enjoys it every time. He knows A LOT but when we teach him he listens and asks very inspired questions. He is so humble despite us being young sisters and not knowing as much as him, he is still learning and being taught, Humility is a Malawian trait I truly love. 

I hope you all have a great week before Christmas and even though this Christmas is going to be a lot different than it is back home, just like last year, I’m grateful for the time I still have to spend here in wonderful Malawi. 

Love you all. Thanks for the support. 

with lots and lots of love, 

Sister Moulton 

Another Good One

 Hello family and friends,  

Another good week in Lilongwe!  Christmas is coming fast! 

This week once again I realized I just love this place more and more. We did a lot of finding and many many times I truly saw how we were led to people that were ready to hear our message. 

I want to share one experience we had though that really taught me how precious and special baptism truly is. So we have been teaching these two girls named Unity and Prisca. When I got to the area everyone thought they were members cause they had been coming to church for so long, but we found out they were not and turns out no one had even taught them in two years! I don’t get it haha but anyways we have been teaching them and the one girl, Unity, is so good. She is a 15-year-old going to high school. She just always loves learning and loves the church so much and every time we go the sister and the mom always say they are busy but her, she is always free.  They were going to be baptized the week before Christmas, but this week we went to keep teaching them and Unity told us her mom is trying to find her a boarding school in a village where there is no church. So she will be leaving on the exact day she was supposed to get baptized! We asked her then what day she would want to be baptized? We told her she could wait until when she finished school next year but when I said that my heart hurt a bit, and I knew it would make her sad. Then her face showed it. The poor girl, she looked so sad. She was so excited that day we invited her before and you can tell she has been looking forward to it and even after going to church for that long like its her church and now she was gonna have to wait even longer. And she started to tear up. We sat there with her and my comps said, "You want to be baptized next week before you go?" and she said yes. In between tears that she was trying to hide. Baptism is truly a special thing and this girl knows that. She will come back after school closes for breaks and things. So this week our plan is to finish teaching her and help her but we will see if it will work. I know by faith it will be ok. I am grateful for the knowledge I’ve had my WHOLE life of the restored gospel, AND of the opportunity I had to be baptized when I was a little 8 year old. 

Let me also include some pics of my fav kids lately. This little boy. . . he is the nephew to one of the members and she brings him on Saturday during cleaning and he is always so much fun. We have become good friends and his laugh is the cutest thing ever. 

And the three little girls. . . the one on the left is Favor and the one on the right is Miracle, the one in the middle just popped in, but I saw them sitting there after we were finished with a lesson and I had to take a pic. I love how their faces are all so different too. Also note the Christmas stickers they have on their hands! ;) 

Hope everyone has a good week! 

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton

"My Life is a Gift, My Life Has a Plan"

 “My life has a purpose in heaven it began. My choice was to come to this lovely home on earth and seek for God’s light to direct me from birth.” 

HELLO! Just wanted to share with you a primary song that really describes my week. 

This week my dear little Peace turned 11! So we made her some American treats and sang to her. I love this girl with all my heart. 

This week as well we started our English class! Our Relief Society suggested it and we felt it would be a good service and a way to help those that we are not able to teach but they want to learn. So they can learn English! We had been planning how we would do it but we were kind of unsure because we didn’t know who would come. But the day came and we had six people show up. A mix of investigators and members and even a less active member came to our class. So we started with learning the alphabet and then to two letter words. I never knew how hard it could be to learn English. NO IDEA! But by the end of the class you could see the improvement. Even though most of them already know how to speak English, we saw how starting with the basics helped them learn how to BETTER speak and then write English. And hey it felt cool to be a teacher too! We are blessed with the ability to speak and read in English. Don’t take it for granted!

Okay but now let me get to my title. Soooo remember my friend Joanna from last week? The woman we sang with. Yeah so this week her daughter gave birth to a baby boy,  and we got to meet him! It was a beautiful sight and seeing a fresh new face come into the world was so humbling. A new life came into the world! Life truly is a gift. 

There were so many times this week when during the day we ran out of time. Like we just did not have time to see everyone. It would make me so stressed and worried but at the end of the week looking back i saw the progress we had made. But I also realized how precious time is. It reminds me of a scripture in Ecclesiastes 3:1 that states, "To every time there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven." My purpose right now is to be a missionary that is what my time has been given for. I chose to spend my time in this way and it could not be more rewarding. I feel my Savior’s love each and everyday and I know our work is truly led by Him. 

Also this week I was studying more on the plan of salvation and I learned a valuable lesson. Satan truly is part of God’s plan. If there were no opposition we would never learn! Just like during our day if we didn’t have appointments that fall through we wouldn’t find the awesome people we find when we go finding! There is a time for everything but there is opposition in everything. Heavenly father knows us personally and individually but Satan is always there to lead us away from what we know we should do. 

So even though Satan is real we can always remember and know that we must choose good and that the life we are given from God is truly a gift. 

I hope you all have a great week! 

with lots and lots of love,

Sister Moulton