On Tuesday we left to 'The Copperbelt' of Zambia, which is a little over 300km to the north of Lusaka. Our missionaries serve in three cities there: Ndola, Luanshya, and Kitwe.
This was my first time to even see the Copperbelt since I
never got to serve there. We drove with the Kupus in the van, so that was a
good experience. This was their first time driving in a car for that long...6
hours. The longest they've traveled in a car is probably 1.5hrs or so.
We got to the CBT and Elder Ss and I went teaching with a companionship in Luanshya. It was a wonderful experience. We met this new investigator and just gave her an overview of the restoration. She was so interested she asked for the missionaries to come again, but she lives in Kitwe so the missionaries there will have to be the ones to teach her. I guess that shows how we are all together in the work of the Lord.
The next day we had the whole zone meet for the 'Meet the Kupu's Devotional' and interviews with the mission president. That zone just felt good. Really good missionaries. But now there was a transfer and the zone changed a ton!
We got to serve the rest of the day on exchanges with the
CBT ZL's and then we left the next day. We stopped at a nice little cafe along
the road home. It sure is nice to travel with the Kupus ahah.
We had to call out a transfer on Friday and we hadn't talked
about them very much beforehand since we've been so busy with other things, so
we were talking and counseling for a couple hours on Friday. It took long since
President Kupu has only met half of the mission so we did a lot of explaining.
President Kupu has brought some good changes as well. He personally called everyone
that is called to leadership in order to extend the call himself. It was a
great experience and we feel confident about this transfer. I got to
see President Kupu's wisdom and divine calling as we counselled about the
transfers as well. He would listen to our comments and suggestions but then ask
a question or suggest something that maybe we hadn't considered. It helped me see that he is the one the Lord called to preside and oversee the missionaries and we are there to help and counsel. Transfers are always a revelatory experience though that's for sure.
As part of this transfer we are losing 5 really great missionaries who have been some good friends to me though out my mission. We're actually with all those departing missionaries right now at the mission office as they have their interviews and so forth. The Kupu's did a pig roast for them! We didn't have all the correct materials this time, so we ended up having to cut it into quarters and barbecue it. It was quite the adventure hunting down a pig though! My comp and I were asking all the members as we visited with people on Saturday and we got really lucky to find a man who sold pigs! We woke up early this morning and went with Pres Kupu and Junior back to the pig man and got the pig. Viewer discretion is advised when viewing those photos!
Love
Elder Grant Hiltbrand