Well I am no longer in Lilongwe.  I was a little disappointed about
that, but oh well.  I am now in Lusaka, Zambia.  In an area called
Matero.  My companion is in my MTC group, Elder Munguri.  He is from
Harare.  He has been here in Matero for 6 months and is going on 7 1/2
months by the end of this transfer.  Which almost guarantees that next
transfer I will have a new companion.  I am back on a bike.  The bike
is actually pretty nice, or at least it will be once it is finished
getting serviced today.  It is a Fox Psycho.  I don't really know much
about the area yet since I only got here on Friday and we still had to
deal with transfers.  But our Branch President is really powerful.  He
served a mission in the Kenya Nairobi Mission and was an AP for 9
months.  So he knows how to actually do things.  It is kind of nice.
I do however know that they drink a ton here.  I think that in the
three days that I've been here I have seen more drunk people than I
did in 12 weeks in Malawi.  I just found out that they opened a group
in Mtandire yesterday.  Brother Mitambo, Godknows and Fortunate's
father is the group leader.  I knew he would be even though he has
only been a member since General Conference.  He is just that
powerful.  I was so happy that they got it opened.  That area is going
to explode.  Elder Barlow who is now with Elder Gonza told me that
President Dube thinks that Lilongwe could become a District within a
year.  That would be great.  I don't know if there were any more
Utahns this week but I doubt it because they were all giving away ties
and white shirts to our recent converts last week.

I have no idea if that curriculum vitae was real or not but it
wouldn't surprise me if it was.  It seems as if carpet is not a very
practical flooring for the basement.  But at least it was caught
before it got bad though.  Was Copper freaking out in the water?  Yes
the chickens that they hang on their bikes are very much alive.  I've
actually seen one of those Trikke things before I left.  They looked
like they were fun.  I didn't hear about Dexter, that's great.  I'm
happy for him.  I know that he would be really excited and that Judy
would be freaking out.  I bet that the SC and Florida match up is a
good one based on their teams last year.  Anyway I need to go so I
will talk to you next week.

Love,

Elder Cecil

HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!

We had a great week.  3 baptized and 4 confirmed.  So I found out
yesterday that Chancellous is not actually studying to be a pastor.
He already was one but he is now just attending a theology school.  He
stopped preaching to study, planning to go back but has since decided
not to go back because he wanted to be and has now been baptized.  We
are going to begin teaching Felix's wife this week.  He says that he
wants his whole family to be in the church.  His wife was worried
about travelling to the church with their young kids but he said that
he would even leave by 6 in the morning to make sure that they were
there.  Church starts at 9.  Speaking of Church I was in Utah again
this week for Sacrament Meeting.  There have been about an equal
amount of regualar attenders and Utahns.  These three sisters asked to
sing a special intermediate hymn.  They sang I Need Thee Every Hour.
It was really good, they had beautiful voices.  Then a guy named Scott
or Steven Lund spoke.  He used to be the mission president in Atlanta.
 He said he was on an assignment from Elder Snow who is in the
Presidency of the 70 over Africa.  He was really powerful.  So I
really enjoyed church, even the other two speakers who are Malawians
did a good job as well.  I had to give a talk on the Holy Ghost on
Saturday at the baptism (I've given a lot of those).  I had panned on
using some scriptures and some experiences but then while we sang the
opening hymn I completely changed my mind.  We sang Let the Holy
Spirit Guide.  So I just decided to use the words to that song do the
speaking for me.  I think that it really gives a perfect example of
what the Gift of the Holy Ghost is and what it does for us.

I have a cool story that happened to us today.  A few weeks ago Elder
Barlow and Elder Mahachi wrote and article for the newspaper.  Elder
Mahachi is quite good at writing things.  President Dube approved the
article and everything.  They didn't really think that it would get in
the paper but this morning we found out that it is in the national
newspaper yesterday.  Here is the link to find it.  What They Call
"Mormons"

Tomorrow is Transfer Tuesday so I will find out for sure if I am in
the Zambia Lusaka Mission or in the Zim Harare Mission.  Most likely
the former.  I think that I will stay here in Lilongwe with Elder
Gonza.  I hope so I am really enjoying our time together and our area.
 I want to be here when we get a group for Mtandire.  Because that
place will catch on fire when we do.  I am hoping that when President
Dube comes this weekend that he will approve it.  If I am in the
Zambia Mission here is the address.

Plot # 14048
Katima Mulilo Road
Lusaka
Zambia

Nic I could just imagine you running up to Mom like a crazy person and
it just made me laugh really hard.  Also I am glad that the beachballs
didn't die with Rosenblatt.  What is this car that you have been
looking at?  We bought a dart board last week and it is already worn
out.  We have been playing at every spare moment.  I hope that all is
well.  I will have transfer updates next week.

Love,

Elder Cecil

Yesterday our branch was invaded by Utahns.  We had around 45 people
from none other than Provo, Utah come to Sacrament Meeting yesterday.
They were all relatives that had come for some Humanitarian thing.  I
felt like I was in Utah again because all af the hymns we sang were
sang properly and I didn't have to listen to myself trying to guide
the rest of the congregation.  It was really weird.  One of them said
he would email you Mom, I think that his surname was Roney or
something like that.  Did you ever get an email from the Harpers?
Just wondering.  Well we had a good week.  Douglas who is actually
named Augustine Douglas (people aren't very good at telling you their
actual names when you ask), was baptized but he showed up to church
late so he didn't get confirmed.  Hopefully next week.  Felix, Annan,
and Chancellous are all supposed to be baptized on Saturday.
Chancellous is trained to be something else, but I can't remember
exactly what.  Felix probably knows how to study better than any
Malawian I have met.  We gave him Alma chapter 40 to read.  It talks
about the ressurection and the spirit world and such.  He is the only
person that I have taught that has picked up on the first and second
ressurection.  I was shocked when he asked about it.  But it was a
really good lesson because Edison was with us as well and he is also
very smart so we were able to explain about the next life in a lot
more detail than with most people.  It was really powerful.  I enjoyed
it a lot.  We were able to get a lot of member present lessons this
week, which is something that this area ahs struggled with in the
past.  We also did exchanges on Wednesday and Friday.  On Wednesday I
went to the other Elder's area with Elder Barlow.  We went into the
President's complex because they are teaching one of the President's
body guards and his family.  His wife is one of the most powerful
people I have ever met.  She really has a testimony of the Book of
Mormon.  She loves it so much.  She has already read the whole thing.
That was a really really powerful lesson.  She is also getting
baptized on Saturday.  I worked with Elder Mahachi on Friday.  I
really like to teach with him, our teaching blends really well.  Elder
Gonza is really powerful  we have a good time everyday, so I have
nothing to complain about.  The 8th was the one year anniversary since
I turned in my mission papers, and the 11th was my 7 month birthday on
mission.  Crazy right?

Dad when you talked about that conversation with Chase and Taylor did
Chase's comment mean that he is going to go or that he plans on going
or that he has the ability to go?  Because that just confused me.  I
remember when we went to Thunder Ridge and had to do those yells and
such.  All of the other troops would suck up to the counselors to try
to win the walking stick or whatever it was (when you win you get to
put something that resembles your troop on it.) but we decided to make
fun of the counselors instead.  It was a lot more fun that way.  Man
it sounds like there hasn't been any real upsets in college baseball
this year.  What happened to TCU?  I thought that they would be good
again this year.  Oh and Elder Barlow is from Irvine.  Well it is
always great to hear that the Yankees were swept by the Red Sox, it
just makes me happy.  I am also glad that the Braves are playing well
also.

The weather is basically like mid July in Utah.  Hot during the day
and it cools off a little during the night but not ever close to being
cold.  No I didn't actually teach Paul the Word of Wisdom, but I did
tell him that smoking is bad and that he should keep the WoW.  Then I
patted him on the shoulder and he said, "uhhh."  I didn't really see
Paul much this week though but he did smile at me once.  We had a
Deisel crisis this past week so we got to waste a lot of time waiting
in line for fuel.  We bought a Jerry can to put extra fuel in and the
Bullocks (couple missionaries) advised us to get a few more.  That
contributed to not seeing Paul or Musa much.

That's good to hear that Mindy got married.  Was her husband big?
Also it is good to hear about Hammy and Bear on a Bicycle.  That's too
bad that TJ got beat up, I've never been beat up but I'm sure that it
is no fun.  But at least he didn't have any broken bones or anything.

I taught about tithing yesterday in our gospel principles class and
the comment you made to me about obedience reminded me about something
that the manuel says.  It says something like 'When we pay our tithing
because we have to and not because we want to, we miss out on part of
the blessings.'  That was something I really liked.  It is also
something we try to focus on when we teach the commandments.  Rather
than focus on the "why we shouldn't" we try to focus on the "Why we
should" instead.  We try to show them that the blessings outweigh the
sacrifice by far.

President Dube is coming to Lilongwe in two weeks so if my package is
in Harare by the time he comes, I should get it, along with any other
mail.  We don't really know anything about the split.  I don't know if
we will get to go to meet him, or if he will come to us, or if we just
have to wait until we get transferred to Lusaka or what.  So I guess
we will see.  I can't believe that it is already week five of the
transfer.  This transfer is flying by.  Well have a great week.  I
love you.

Love,

Elder Cecil

Well we had a pretty good week.  We have now officially changed the
boundaries of our areas.  But we are still waiting for a reply from
President Dube as to whether or not we can open a group in Mtandire.
But we are now teaching a guy named Douglas who the other elders were
teaching but he came to our branch.  He is really powerful  I taught
him once before when Elder Mahachi and I were companionless.  Now he
is our investigator.  We plan to have him get baptized this coming
Saturday.  Then next Saturday on the 18th we have more planned.  That
week we have Richard and Moses, as well as Felix.  Felix is really
powerful.  Chancellous came to church again so it is also possible
that he will be ready on that day as well.  So Chancellous isn't
actually a pastor.  Yet.  He is going to school to become one right
now.  But I have a feeling that he will change his career soon.  There
is this other guy named Annan who has been to church once, though he
missed yesterday, that seems pretty powerful.  But he won't be ready
in the next two weeks I don't think.  I'm not really sure how opening
a new group works but I'm sure that they will help us on that.  So
when I know you will too.  Oh and we are also teaching Ruth's brother
Andsen, the one we gave the blessing to.  And yes his name is Andsen,
I thought that it was Anderson for 8 weeks.  We've had two really nice
lessons with him this week.  I decided that their family is a bunch of
pineapples.  All hard and spiny on the outside, soft and mushy on the
inside.  They are all the most stubborn people on the planet but once
you break down the initial barrier things seem to go well.  When we
taught him the other day about how to feel the spirit the look on his
face seemed as if he was thinking about the day when he was healed.
Because I know he felt it then so I think he knows how to recognize it
now.  We just need to get him to read and pray and he will get
baptized.  I think the entire family will be baptized eventually.

Compounds are villages that are high density areas in a very small
place.  I have never seen so much dust in my life.  We get home at
night and have a layer of dust on our shoes an inch thick (not
literally but close).  Why they think that we are Satanist, I don't
know, but they say it at us to cast us out or something.  Next time
that happens to me I am going to pretend like I am on fire and freak
out then stop and say, "Just kidding."  When you talk about the
consonants blending together do mean like the "nd" in ndiri bwino?  If
so I will help you.  Say nnn deery  then for bwino you say it like
twitch but substitute the b for the t.  I can read all of their words
I just can't understand them.

Eish that is hard to miss out on West Point by one point.  Well I'm
glad that something worked out for him.  And I am also glad that a
mission is still in his sights.  He is too good of a kid to miss out
on the joys of a mission.  That is cool that he will be wrestling for
them too.  I received a letter from McCall Bulloch last week when the
Zone Leaders came.  She is going to school at Utah State.  Nicole and
Ali I am sure will be happy to hear that.  Mom I still think that your
5 hours of math each day is a bad idea, but I don't know maybe you are
just crazy like some of my friends in Mtandire.  Dad, I decided that
it is weird to hear you refer to Coach Labrum as Bro. Labrum.  Kind of
like it is weird to hear/read my first name.  It's good to hear that
things are still progressing out in Milford.  I hope you can get it
going soon.

Oh and also I found out the names of some of the crazy guys in
Mtandire.  One is Paul and my stalker is Musa.  Now I can talk to
them.  Paul likes to walk around saying, "Waya waya wayaaa," to people
trying to get hand outs.  Surprisingly enough he actually gets them.
Mostly because the people just want him to go away.  Apparently he was
an educated guy until he went crazy from too much marijuana.  I asked
him what he wanted the other day and he said, "ma cigarette."  So I
proceeded to teach him about the Word of Wisdom.  He is now my most
powerful investigator (said with extreme sarcasm).  We talk all the
time now and give each other fist bumps.  It is sweet.  Everyone on
the street just laughs whenever I talk to him now.  Anyway talk you
next week.

Love,

Elder Cecil

We had a good week.  2 baptized and 2 confirmed.  Always a good week
when that happens.  We are going to be redoing the boundaries of the
two areas in Lilongwe so that we can teach those who will attend our
branch and also be able to work with the members more.  Because right
now most of the people who are leaders in the branch are in the other
elders' area.  Elder Gonza had to go to Blantyre this weekend for a
leadership training.  I would have gone too but we had our baptism so
I had to stay.  Elder Gonza proposed to President Dube that we open up
a group in one of the compounds (village area we work in) called
Mtandire.  We will hopefully find out today if we can.  If we are able
to do that I really think that that area will catch on fire.  Because
most of our investigators are there and this way they don't have to
walk more than an hour to church.  Plus it will really help the
members too.  I really hope we get it approved.  We spent quite a
while discussing the reconfiguration af the areas and opening a group
with the other elders.  Richard and Moses are still progressing really
well.  Also one of the pastors named Chancellous Khosa (when he
spelled his name I thought he spelled it this way at first
"Chancewlous" so did Elder Gonza and we laughed a lot at it) came to
church, and accepted a baptism date.  We are now teaching a guy named
Felix Mpesi.  I met him during Edison's baptism interview he is his
neighbor.  He was very open to us about his past life, he also came to
church yesterday.  We got a referral from Robert the recent convert's
father Brother Kapopo (he was baptized in 2009) named Patricia, she
seems like she is really interested so we will see about her.  I
didn't mean to make it sound like Bro and Sis Malach were members
because they are investigators, sorry, but we never got to see them
this week so I don't know about them.  Right now these are the most
powerful investigators we have.

There was this crazy guy in the street on Friday that saw me and
thought that I am Asian (everybody in the compounds think that whites
and asians are the same.  especially little kids.) so he started
jumping around doing these ridiculous Kung Fu looking things making
sounds like "hie" and "waaa" it was quite possibly one of the best
things I've ever seen.  Then we had this other lady see us and she
started to point at us and said, "Jesus fire."  It is funny because in
Zambia they all think that we are Satanist and so they shout, "HOLY
GHOST FIRE" whenever missionaries pass.  But I've never heard of Jesus
fire before.

Well things seem to be changing quite a bit. I think when I get home
it will be a completely new ward.  Oh and Mom just some advice about
your ankle situation for the future.  Don't do that.  Just kidding I
hope it heals quickly.  Oh and since you like the words with a lot of
consonants try these on for size.  Elder Ngcobo, he is one of our ZLs
he was also my ZL in my first transfer.  Or how about Sister
Nhlengethwa she was in my Zone in Harare the whole time I was there.
No matter how hard you try you won't get these ones until I tell you
them.  I will give you a hint on Elder Ngcobo's:  It has a click in
it.  Most Chichewa words can be learned by saying them phonetically
(please excuse the spelling if it is incorrect.) but Elder Ngcobo is
Zulu and Sister Nhlengethwa is from Swaziland but I'm not sure what
the language is.  Dad that is really good to hear that you are ready
to start getting kids into the program.  That was the whole purpose
for all the hard work so things are beginning to pay off now.  Anyway
I love and pray for you always.

Much Love,

Elder Cecil

Muri Bwanji (how are you),

Yeah I finally learned how to spell that greeting this week.  Well I
enjoy Elder Gonza, he is kind of quiet but he does have a good sense
of humor which is good because if he didn't he would not like to be
around Elder Barlow and I. Yes I do still know the proper English for
that phrase.  I am pretty sure he hits his year mark this transfer.
Yeah President Dube will still be the mission president in Zim.  Our
new mission president in the Zambia, Lusaka Mission is named President
Padovich (I guessed on the spelling.)  He is from LA and was pretty
high up in Warner Bros. I think.  The split happens at the end of this
transfer.  Basically the AP's in Zambia are like ZL's right now.  When
a ward or branch missionary is working with a full-time missionary
they act as if they are full-time.  They get set-apart as a full-time
ward missionary, live and work with their companion, and receive
allotment.  They generally only do it for one transfer.

George is ready to be baptized this Saturday.  We also have this other
guy who Elder Shabangu taught before I came, named Edson, who will be
baptized as well.  He was about to be baptized and then went to
Blantyre on short notice, he doesn't have a phone and stayed there for
a long time.  So then he came to church yesterday and I actually
thought he was already a member the way he was answering questions and
things.  So yesterday we went to his house and reviewed the lessons
with him.  He knew it all and he bore his testimony to us.  It was
really powerful.  Richard and Moses came to church again yesterday, it
was just as I had suspected that it was because we didn't get to see
them.  We actually haven't seen Rafiki this week but we did start
teaching Moses' sister Maclina this week.  She seems really interested
and she speaks good english so that is a bonus.  We went tracting on
Tuesday and found a man and a woman, Brother and Sister Malach,
Brother Malach is a student in a technical college and he just didn't
go to school that day so we would have never found him had he not
decided to ditch school that day.  We also started teaching two
different pastors this week for the first time.  They couldn't come to
church this week because of some big huge pastors meeting this past
weekend.  That would be a powerful thing to convert a couple of
pastors.  They both were really interested in Joseph Smith and didn't
ever argue.  They just sat and listened and asked the occasional
question.  I hope that they don't get ahold of any anti-mormon
literature.  There is not much of it around but it sometimes comes up
with the extremely devoted people.  They tend to look up the church on
the internet and find some xing stuff.  There was this big thing about
the world ending on 21 May, 2011 and everybody was asking us about it.
 We would just tell them that no man knoweth except God and that we
would see them at church on 22 May.  Yesterday we came up with the
cheer, "I survived 21 May! Hip hip hooray!"  It was pretty powerful.

If I remember right Collin is planning on going on a mission but he is
delaying  because he wants to get into West Point.  But I could be
wrong so don't quote me on that or anything.  I think that I am going
to send a few letters to some of those guys and have you be the
delivery boys for me because I don't know their PO Boxes.  I decided
that it is weird to think that school is basically already out because
I still feel like I graduated just yesterday.  But it has now been a
year.  Anyway talk to you next week.

Much love,

Elder Cecil

Well I am still in Lilongwe like I thought but I am not training like
I thought.  There were only 4 new missionaries in the mission and all
of them are still in Zimbabwe.  My new companion is named Elder Gonza.
 He is from Bulowayo in Zimbabwe.  So har he seems powerful.  He was
serving in Zambia before.  Elder Maxfield went to Bulowayo so Elder
Mahachi's new companion is Elder Barlow.  He is crazy, like really
funny kind of crazy, not the psycho kind.  You should hear people here
try to say his name, it is hilarious.  There was a lot of changes this
transfer to get ready for the split.  We now have two sets of AP's.
One in Zim and one in Zam.  Elder Clark my baboon buddy is now an AP
in Zim.  My old area in Chitown, Seke, doesn't even have missionaries
right now.  I think that it will again soon but there is just a lot of
people working with branch and ward missionaries, like Elder Sefatsa
for example who is now in his 5th transfer in glenview (He has been
there since I came on mission.) is working with a ward missionary.
Ruth was baptized on Saturday and confirmed yesterday.  I was really
happy for her because I know how difficult it was for her to even be
allowed to be baptized let alone to be ready to be baptized. This week
has been really hectic with all of the transfers and other things so
we really haven't even had much of a chance to go out and work.  Which
I'm sure contributed to us not having any investigators at church.
But we do have like 4 powerful investigators right now.  One is named
George, he is a referral from a recent convert named Robert (I really
like Robert a lot, every time that we see him my day just gets a lot
better.) he was a church last week but since we never got to see him
this week he wasn't at church.  There are three other guys that are
all friends.  Richard, Moses, and Rafiki (the spelling is probably
wrong here but it is pronounced like the baboon on the Lion King.).
They were at church last week as well but again we didn't get a chance
to see them this week.  Brave had to go to a funeral last week so that
is why he wasn't there.  But he was there again yesterday.  His
brother, Bright, wasn't there again but I didn't get a chance to ask
Brave about him because I had to leave early to go pick up the other
elders at the airport with Elder Mahachi.  I shouldn't have said
bigger city but more industrialized and it has more branches.  It is
actually a district now.  We are still under the mission here in
Lilongwe.

That is cool that Chase was able to get the record finally, I'm sure
that he was happy about that.  Tell him congratulations for me.  I
figured that the track team would probably win region, that is normal.
 I hope they do well at state.  I will say that the baseball team did
a lot better than I expected them to this year.  But man Enterprise
won the State Championship, things must have been hard everwhere in
the state.  I'm glad to hear that the Braves are doing well and that
Chipper is playing.  I just had this thought that it must be weird to
not have Bobby Cox on the bench.  It is also nice to see that the Red
Sox swept the Yankees.  That always brightens my day. Anyway that was
my week.  I love you all.

Love,

Elder Cecil