The Last Email of 2017!

My socks (It was Christmas, don't tell anyone) 

Merry Christmas Everyone and Happy New Year!!

In case you don't have time to read my email (or just don't) I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I would also love to thank all of you for the prayers and support that you have given me over this past year. I have almost been out for an entire year now and it is wonderful to know and to feel the love from all of you. That love has been a very large help for me throughout my time here. I pray for and thank Heavenly Father every night for all of you, so thank you very much - I couldn't do it without you!



As for the week, I'm just going to tell you about Christmas and Christmas Eve because those were easily the best days! 

Oh wait - I will introduce my companion as well. His name is Elder Johnson he is from Calgary, Canada! He is age 24 and has only one semester left at College before he graduates. He is major in Theatre and Dance. He is actually super cool and I am really excited to work with him. He is physically older, but younger in the mission (Transfer 5), so he is mature, realistic, and has the energy to work. He is realistic with the way missionary work is and how it should be done so, we are trying something new this transfer as far as missionary work goes, so hopefully it will pay off - I'll talk about it more once we have all the logistics sorted out. Fun facts about him, he can Tap Dance, Jazz, Salsa, and a few others. He can also do this really cool thing where he raises the volume of his voice and he can get it SUPER loud. He gave me a few drills to do so that I can speak in a louder voice - Way fun haha. He has been in a bunch of plays and musicals and was part of BYU's Theater program. 

Christmas Eve was super nice, we had dinner with the Family Brialy and to accommodate  for President's rule about being home by 9:30 they moved the dinner from their house to the church so that we could be home on time. The meal was wonderful, we had Foie Gras, smoked salmon, lots of different appetizers, cheese, and baguettes of course!!! For the main dish we ate Turkey, potatoes, and vegetables. The turkey was so good, wow, one of the few times in my life where I have actually enjoyed turkey. The dinner was great, but the dessert, WOWEE that was unreal good. We had Bûche de Noël which translates as a Christmas log. I don't really know how to describe it, it had different layers and looked like ice cream but had the consistency of cream. Either way it was WAY good and I told Sister Brialy It was the best dessert I have had in France...because it was. I was honestly overwhelmed by their generosity and love. Not only did they invite four other missionaries but they also invited six other members who did not have any family to spend the holidays with. We didn't originally have any plans for Christmas day and they invited us to have dinner with them if nobody else offered. Like, holy smokes their Christlike love was manifest to me. They gave up their comfortable christmas eve meal at their home to spend it with others and make sure we had a great Christmas season. The Brialy Family is a great example of what the Christmas season is all about.  

Christmas day was pretty fun, Elder Johnson and I went handing out cookies in the morning to everyone and we tried visiting some less actives and people we knew wouldn't have anyone to spend the holidays with. I made a vlog of the whole day, but I don't know how to combine all the clips together, so maybe you can see it when I get home. Either way, we had a fun time and it was a pretty beautiful day as well. For our dinner we had been invited over to the Family Boquillon to eat with them. It was super nice of them because it was so last minute and they were kind enough to let us intrude on their Christmas day celebration. I had a great time and the meal was wonderful. I tried oysters for the first time and they were WAY good too. I'm discovering that I like a lot of seafood, no idea why, it just tastes so good. Again I was impressed with the generosity of the members here who offered us their home for the Holidays. The love the Boquillon's and Brialy's showed us over these two days has really had an impact on me and hopefully I will be able to reciprocate their actions one day as well. We had a fun afternoon with them and then we headed to church for our calls with our families.

It was so nice to SEE and TALK with my family! We had a great talk and they just let me talk, which was nice because I had a few things I needed to get out and they gave me great advice. It is very encouraging to know your family is there rooting for you and supporting you. Yeah, that was really nice to see all of them and I was able to talk to my Grandma through the phone, which was extremely special. I just love my family so much, I'm so happy they put up with me because I don't know where I would be without them!

Well that sums up those two days. Thank you again, Merry Christmas and Have a Happy New Year!!

Love,
Elder Molinari

Bûche de Noël

LATE EMAIL

Hello everyone

Sorry I didn't have any time yesterday to write and today I am stressed for time as well. I am writing this quickly while we are traveling into Paris and I can't really recollect everything that happened the past week; so I will just explain a lesson we had with Paula and what happened yesterday.

Yesterday we received the transfer news and I found out I am staying in Cergy. Unfortunately both Elder's Shenkal (my companion) and Seymour are leaving. Elder Shenkal is going to finish his mission in Dunkerque and Elder Seymour is going to Strasburg. I will be receiving a transfer 5 missionary who is coming out of his starting city and Elder Hidalgo is receiving a transfer 4 missionary from his starting city as well. I am a little nervous. Mostly because I'm the senior companion and now have the responsibility that comes with that. I still struggle quite a bit with my comprehension of French, so this will be quite the refiners fire during lessons. This is my chance to really break out of my shell and open my mouth, so I am excited and scared at the same time. I know that there will be a lot of prayers coming from me these next few weeks as I try to be the best example I can be. When it comes to this situation and missionary work, all I can say is that I will not leaning on my own understanding, I will be leaning on the Lord. I know as I am obedient and trust in the Lord, then he will qualify me for this great calling. 

Most of yesterday was spent moving some people around in Paris and visiting members. We had lunch with a member named Mana, who has been a complete blessing for our lessons with Paula. Then we spent the evening with the family Pettitt and the young adults. It was a very fun day and very tiring as well. 

Our lesson with Paula this week was on Thursday - I think - and it went great! We had prepared a lesson for her and felt inspired to extend the baptismal invitation. So we went and taught her with Paula and Sister Chesnal and as we were beginning the lesson, Paula asked us a few questions about the restoration and so we decided to answer those questions! In doing that, the entire lesson was changed and we were teaching her, not a lesson. We never even brought up the lesson we had planned. It was a highly effective lesson and was tailored to her needs. We didn't actually get the opportunity to extend the baptismal invitation, but we will next time! The next lesson is actually tomorrow, it will be great! Paula is progressing and learning very well, it is really cool to see her learn and to recognize the spirit in her life. 

Merry Christmas Everyone! I love you all, enjoy this special time of years with your families and don't forget the true meaning behind Christmas - our Savior's birth! 

Love you all,
Elder Molinari

"All men should have charity"

Their musical number

Salut mes amis,

Tuesday was a day to be remembered for me. You must be wondering why, what could be so important that would make Elder Molinari start his weekly with it? You could be thinking any number of things, but after 9 months on a mission, on Tuesday, I stepped in my first dog poop - on accident. I forgot about that, glad I remembered for the weekly. Some cool events transpired this week and of course I’m here to provide the juicy details!

On Thursday this week we had a lesson with a new investigator that was referred to us by our good friends Buki and Rejoice. Her name is Gaelle and she is awesome. She attended the baptism of Buki and Rejoice’s daughter, Holly, and came to church the next day; she accepted the invitation to be taught by the missionaries.

Well on Thursday we had our second lesson with her and we decided to teach the Restoration. We had two of the Young Adults with us, which is always a blessing because it is so much easier for a native speaker to explain something than for us Americans! I am trying to open my mouth more and during this lesson I was really trying to focus on what Gaelle was saying and contribute when I felt any sort of prompting. By the end of the lesson I was pretty into the lesson and I could tell she was as well. It was my job to finish up the Restoration with the Joseph Smith story, so I began speaking and had her read the First Vision. Then I bore a testimony about the truthfulness of everything we had taught her, the words just flowed off my tongue without me giving any thought to what I wanted to say. When I concluded she whispered a quiet “Merci.” This response to a testimony is always a confirmation to me that they felt the spirit. That for a moment they remembered who they really are, a child of God!

Friday we were invited to the Family Rochet (pronounced Roh-shay). They are an elderly couple who are super nice. I started talking with Brother Rochet and he mentioned how he used to be a fireman! I have always wanted to be a fireman, so this was very exciting for me, and we had a great conversation about his service. I asked what color his helmet was and he said Silver! And as we all know, a silver helmet is the coolest and also means you are Chief! Yes, indeed he was the chief fireman and after he told me that he got up quickly and went and grabbed this neat little trophy he had been given for serving as chief and a firefighter for so long. It was super cool, really enjoyed it. I love hearing the stories from the old days. They fed us this incredible meal! The appetizer was salad, oysters, fruit/cheese kebabs, pigs in a blanket, these cheese cremepuff things, and little blocks of cheese - wow so good already! After that Sister Rochet brought out these huge, probably half pound, steaks, with potatoes and roasted chestnuts- wowee. I was so stuffed I couldn’t finish the meal, I felt so bad, but I was so full and so was everyone else. Then she brought out this homemade cake that she made us all think was from a patisserie store. They are so kind to us and are a true example of service.

Elder Molinari thought it didn't snow in France!

Saturday we had our Ward Party and our investigator Paula said she was going to come with her daughter. The plan was for us to go pick them up and bring them to the church. But right as we were about to leave Paula called and told us her daughter had a fever and she wasn’t sure if they could make it to the party. We said we would come and meet her either way and give her daughter a blessing. So we went and administered a blessing of healing and Paula decided they could probably go. So we took the train to a station and had a member come and pick us up. Worked perfectly and we had already set up a ride home for Paula and her daughter.

The ward party was fun and Paula and her daughter had a fun time. The missionaries performed a musical number with a member and it was...interesting. We had a great time and I was super happy that Paula could make it. The member who brought her home even offered to drive her to church next Sunday, so we am super happy about that!

Missions are so exhausting, in a way that can only be explained if you have experienced it, but I know this is where I am supposed to be and am glad to be here - even if it is hard! Nothing can replace the experience of seeing and giving others the chance to accept the Gospel.

Much Love,

Elder Molinari

Week 41 of Our Adventures in France

Bonjour Friends and Family!

This week was so packed with stuff I have no idea where to start and what to include because I am well aware I write way too much. Alright I will focus on three things: The Visit by Elder Gary B. Sabin and his wife and the success of Light the World! Ok, on y va!

We were privileged enough to be visited by Elder Sabin and Sister Sabin. He is a member of the European Presidency and a member of the First quorum of the Seventy (if that has no relevance to you, refer to Lds.org.) So they gave us a wonderful formation about missionary work, but the advice can be applied to everyone!

One of the best things he spoke about was how missionaries should view numbers. Elder Sabin said in effect that numbers are important, but they aren’t just numbers. The number represents a person and it is our job to remember them as people not as numbers. Just as our Father in Heaven knows us personally, he also has numbered his people.

The big focus of Elder Sabin’s formation was how to judge our success and what to focus our teaching on as missionaries, and this can be applied for member missionary work as well. When it comes to teaching others about the Church of Jesus Christ we need to focus on one thing and that is The Plan of Salvation or the Plan of Happiness. A very big issue many people have is that they just do not understand who they are and the potential they have. Our message is the Plan, we share the plan and they learn who they are and what great things they are destined for. Every question anyone has, can be answered with the Plan of Salvation. Long formation short, Heavenly Father gave us the choice to decide if we will be exalted or not. We make our choices because of our agency, we can do whatever we want in this life, but an eternal law must be remembered, that we do not choose the consequences of our actions. So do your part and learn about the plan and then teach others and you will reap the blessings of heaven, rather than the consequences of choosing sin.

I really enjoyed how Elder Sabin determined how we are successful. He used the story of Nephi in the Book of Mormon. This is in the book of Helaman, when the Nephites are incredibly wicked and Nephi is not sure what to do any more and he prays to God and this is the response he receives. The Lord in effect tells him that Nephi you are not blessed because of the amount of people you have baptized or the amount of people you reactivated, but he said blessed art thou for trying your hardest. That was the theme of his message. We are not blessed because of numbers or because of the praise of man, we are blessed by how hard we are willing to work. Obedience is key to this principle and I will not claim to be perfect about following rules because I fall short a lot, but it is important to remember that we have not failed until we quit trying. So as long as we are working hard and trying to become better through the Atonement of Jesus Christ then we will reap the blessings.

Elder Sabin used this great analogy about the Commandments. In my mind I pictured the commandments as a giant wall, and he said that we can be beating ourselves up with the commandments or we can be blessing ourselves with them. It’s our choice to decide if we want to run into the wall and break ourselves or we can simply follow their teachings and enjoy a life that is full of the Light and Love of Christ. Follow the commandments and we will be blessed, it is that simple. Elder Sabin said, concerning happiness, “Smile because you know what you are doing is the will of the Lord. We don’t find happiness in everything, but we should in knowing we are doing what the Lord asks.” The life of a disciple of Christ is the best life and although it is hard and we will all face our ups and downs, I know the ups will always outweigh the downs and the joy we receive knowing we are worthy in the sight of God will be far greater than anything the world can offer us. Elder Sabin said we do not have to see success to know what we are doing is right and in my own words, Being faithful is more important than being successful.

Alright this email is long, so I will keep the rest of this short. We have been seeing a lot of success from the Light the World initiative. Truly the spirit of Christmas helps others receive the light of Christ more fully in their lives. We worked pretty hard this week and plan to work even harder this next week to find those who have been prepared to receive the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It is FREEZING here and it snowed as well, oh lala, we walk around in low 30’s and high 20 degree weather and it pierces you to the bone, but it is worth it! Light the world with your testimonies and your service and you will be blessed for it! I’ll invite everyone to watch the Light the World video again and determine to share it with someone else if you liked it.

Merry Christmas, I love you all and bonne continuation,

Elder Molinari

Happy Thanksgiving!

Bonjour everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll apologize in advance because I do not have much to say about this week. Sadly, Not much happened that I can tell you about. So what I will do is more of a spiritual thought weekly about a that I read with Elder Shenkal this week. 

We read Elder Holland's talk from the MTC "Feed my Sheep." I'll attach the talk for anyone who would like to read it, be warned it is quite long and is basically all about missionary work.

Elder Holland's talk covers a lot of material, mainly missionary material, but near the end he starts talking about Peter and how Missionaries are like Peter, Christ's Chief apostle. Long story short, after Christ died, Peter basically says well "Wasn't it great? Wasn't it terrific? Let's go fishing." So the apostles all return to what they were doing before they joined Christ for his ministry. They all agreed it had been a good three years and went back to being fishermen. As the scriptures state they go fishing all that night and find absolutely nothing. In the morning a figure calls out to them and asks how their fishing is going and they tell him that it wasn't going very well - horrible in fact because they had not caught anything all night. So the figure tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat and when they do they can't even lift up all the fish that are caught in the net. They know instantly that this figure is their Lord, Jesus Christ. They go ashore and this is where a little conversation between Peter and the Lord goes down. Christ asks Peter three times 
"Lovest Thou me?" to which Peter answers positively each time and to which the Lord responds with "Feed my Sheep." Elder Holland expounds on this topic and makes his own narration between them, but in effect Peter says, as Elder Holland put it, "I do. I do love you. More than anything." Elder Holland says this is the moment when Peter became the great apostle. Forget all that he had done in the past, he told the Lord that he loves him more than anything. And so the Savior tells him to feed his sheep. I'll put a quote from Elder Holland's talk in. This is his interpretation of what the Lord was saying.
"And to that, the Savior of the world said, "Then feed my sheep! I have asked you before to leave your nets. And I'm asking you again, and I don't want to ask you a third time. When I said 'Leave your nets,' it was forever. When I asked you to follow me, it was forever. When I asked you to be an apostle, it was forever. When I asked you to be a missionary, it was forever. When I asked you to see this through to the end, it was because it's not over 'til it's over. Now forget your nets, and forget the fish, and jettison your boat, and throw those oars away for the second time, and feed my sheep. We're in this 'til the end." You can read the actual account in the Bible in St. John 21. 

Now what I want to focus on is also what Elder Holland focuses on, the big question, an eternal question, "Do you love me?" Do we as Christians, disciples of Christ, love him enough to give our lives to him? Do we love him enough to take up our crosses and follow him? I'll be honest, I used to have a lot of problems with religion and what it asked of me and I couldn't wrap my mind around complying to 'commandments.' But something my sister told me years ago has stuck with me since. She said in effect, and I'll change the wording a little, "[Being a disciple of Christ] is not a religion, it is a life style.' My view on everything changed that day. A very big problem that I had been trying to deal with was now solved when I changed the way I thought about it. I realized I didn't need to look at religion as religion but more as a lifestyle that I wanted. A friend asked me once how I could devote my whole life to Jesus Christ and, if I remember correctly, I gave a pretty terrible response. But now I can say that I can devote my whole life to Christ because I love him. I love him more than anything the world can offer. Why am I sacrificing two years of my life to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others - because, I love him. Christ has done more for me than anyone else in the world and I am not ashamed to say that I am his disciple. I am not ashamed to share my beliefs, to share His restored Gospel to everyone. I still get nervous and I am by no means perfect, but through Christ I can become perfect and through Christ I can overcome all fear. 

I've realized some important lessons so far on my mission and one of the biggest being "Remember the Worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (Doctrine and Covenants18:10). We have so much work we can render to our fellow man. We have so many ways that we can feed His sheep. It's a very easy principle to learn, that when you turn outward, instead of inward and help others, you will find true joy. There are a thousand reasons to become discouraged on a mission and a thousand more to become discouraged throughout life, but I am a firm believer than if you turn outward and help others, instead of focusing on yourself, then you will no longer feel discouragement or any other negative feeling. There will still be hard times but even though there are hard times we will be content in the knowledge that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." The path has been laid for us, it is up to us to decided whether to follow it. I am not completely sure how it all works, but I know that if you forget yourself and help others, you will find happiness. You will be telling the Lord, and proving to him, that when he asks each of us if we love him, We can say "Yes." As we do this we become more like him, we become more of the eternal being we were promised we could become. Elder Holland said that once we make this change, once we can answer "Yea Lord" we can "never go back," we can never be who we once were because we are disciples of Christ and that is not just a temporary venture.  What a marvelous work to be engaged in. To share the good news to “feed his sheep, and tell others that Christ lives, that the Authority of the Priesthood has been restored, that Jesus Christ’s Gospel has again been restored to the earth. In times of rejoicing or in times of discouragement, I am proud and I am glad to say that I love the Lord and will never "go back" because this is the path to True happiness, to eternal happiness.

Thanks for Reading, I hope it all made sense.

Best Regards,
Elder Molinari

Elder Molinari Here!

Ahh another week gone! 

This week was actually way long looking back. Elder Dunoskovic, in the other companionship in our apartment, finished his mission. He was replaced by Elder Hidalgo, who is from Costa Rica and speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English. It's been an interesting transition.
I am still with Elder Shenkal if you were wondering.

I'm just going to start on Friday because nothing really went on Wednesday and Thursday. We helped chauffeur people around on Wednesday for exchanges and then Thursday I was sick, yes again..., so we had to stay in. Friday though, we left the apartment and went and taught our investigator Janine. The lesson went well, we taught her a portion of the Plan of Happiness and left her with some commitments that we will follow up on. After that we went to return a big pot to our friends Buki and Rejoice, but we accidently took the wrong bus and ended up riding that to its terminus and back - that was a fun two hour detour! Once we got back to all of the bus stops we got on the right bus and delivered the pot! Mission Success! 

I started reading Jesus the Christ again on Saturday and got sucked in by it. Read it for a long time - really enjoying it. Any way, the highlight of the day, well the whole day, was spent at a members house. We had a lunch appointment with the Family Tornar. Brother Tornar was nice enough to come pick us up from our apartment. We chatted with him on our way to their house. He speaks so many languages. He is originally from Italy and moved her 27 years ago or something with his wife. From the languages I understood, he said that he speaks Italian, French, English, German, and Latin - pretty crazy! He told us some crazy stories about his life. He's an older guy and was born around the time of World War II. His dad was an officer for Mussolini, so he grew up with a lot of fascist influences in his life. The way brother Tornar learned German was from the book that the Nazis gave to the Italian officers to learn the language. He was young, so he didn't know the origins of the book, but when he found out later he tore up the entire book. He bought another copy, he thinks one of the last, because he realized it is an important historical document that should be kept. He showed it to us, it was from 1941.He told us stories about the Italian Mafia and the French Mafia, just super cool stuff. He has never watched The Godfather films because he says he doesn't need to, he's lived it. He's seen the Berlin Wall during the cold war too, just crazy crazy stuff. His wife made us this delicious meal. I don't remember what anything was called but I can describe it. We had steak patties with cheese melted on them and an egg cracked on top - boy was that good. Then some sort of cauliflower, cheese, potato mixture that tasted way good too. It was a super fun time. 
After we finished eating and chatting, sister Tornar told us that she had some friends she wanted to introduce us to. So we walked to the friend's house and had a chat about who we are and what we are doing here. They weren't very interested, and they were being thrown a lot of information, which wasn't really helping anything, so I started to really try and listen to the spirit to figure out what they needed. An idea popped into my head, that I decided to share. It was super difficult to say it in French, but they were fluent in English - tender mercy. So I shared what I had been inspired to say and the entire atmosphere of the room changed. The Husband opened up about his real concerns and we were able to talk about that for a while. By the end they still weren't very interested, but that's ok. You can't force religion on people, and each of us has our agency to choose, so we should respect that! I think I relearned the importance of following promptings from the spirit that day. 
After that we had to get to another area to give a baptismal interview and Brother Tornar was kind enough to offer us a ride. There was horrible traffic and it took two hours, but it was way nice of him to give us the ride. and that's the week for you.

Fun story: while waiting for the bus, a little boy, probably 3 or 4 years old, was waiting with his mom and he kept walking over to us and playing with all the leaves at our feet. So we started kicking the leaves back and forth, and then crumpling them up, and then pretending they were swords. The mom was on the phone the whole time, so I don't know if she noticed, but I thought it was pretty fun haha.

Until Next Week! Keep it real,

Elder Molinari 

Pictures are us with Frère Tornar and Elder Shenkal trying to teach me how to take photos. 

Transfer 6 Begins

Alright everyone, buckle your seatbelts and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday Elder Shenkal we had the great opportunity of pruning a tree for the Pettitt's. I had no idea how to prune a tree, good thing Elder Shenkal because he got right to business and was up 20 feet in the tree cutting branches from sketchy places in no time. Now me on the other hand. It took me about 15 minutes to get in the tree and then I was too petrified to move higher on the branch I was on, so I sat there for another 10 minutes. Eventually I got over my fear of dying and got to business and in no time at all I was up 20 feet in the air as well. We had a fun time and I know how to prune a tree now. 

Wednesday we did more service for the family Chesnel and we helped him build the Great Wall of France...in his backyard. We were able to finish his wall and he was very grateful. We ate lunch at his house first and then began work. We went for most of the day. Rendering service to others is super fun and I enjoy all the opportunities we get to do it. 

Thursday was wild and weird. We were having exchanges with some elders in our district and we get a text early in the morning from President Sorenson who says he wants to come to our area and go contacting with us. It was super fun. He showed up around 3pm and he went out with me and Elder Brown. It was pretty cool because President wasn't really in mission president mode, he was in Missionary mode. He spoke to everyone and did it in a natural way and we saw a lot of success from it. I was really inspired by how comfortable and natural he made missionary work look. We also went to an old investigators house and they let us in. President was super sweet in the lesson and he taught super well. It was one of the coolest experiences of my mission. Not many people get to say that they went contacting with their Mission President. 

As for the rest of the week, not much happened. Saturday night we went out to Buffalo Grill and got steaks for Elder Seymour's birthday (One of the Elder's who lives in the apartment). Transfer Six also started, I'm staying in Cergy with Elder Shenkal.

I don't testify enough in these emails, so I'll finish with my testimony of the Atonement. 

I know that Jesus is the Christ. He is the redeemer of all mankind. He suffered and was crucified for us. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can all become clean, we can all improve, we can all become who God intended us to become. The atonement of Jesus Christ knows no bounds and can be reached by everyone. Pray to your Father in Heaven and ask him to feel the redeeming power of Christ's atonement in your life. Then have faith, trust in the Lord and go to work becoming a better disciple of Christ. We can all do it as we walk side by side with Christ. 

Much Love,
Elder Molinari

Learning to See the Hand of the Lord

BIG news of the week! The baptism and confirmation for Holly was successful! I'll get to that in a moment though, I did a lot of stuff this week.

Alright on Wednesday we went into Paris for our exchanges with the Zone Leaders, Elders Christensen and Chang. I taught a lesson with Elder Christensen first and it went pretty well! I was really trying to focus and listen to the spirit and be able to understand. As I tried and focused on this man, I stopped worrying about what to say. I did make it a little too complex when I spoke but by the end I was feeling the spirit and understood what he was saying. As he spoke I felt prompted to ask him that if he prayed right now and had the faith, did he think God would give him the answer to if the Book of Mormon was true. He said he had the faith, so we all knelt down and he offered a prayer. The room filled with the spirit and the truthfulness of this Gospel was again confirmed to me. As he prayed I said my own silent prayer that he would receive an answer to his question. He finished his prayer and we knelt in silence for a few minutes. The spirit was so strong and when he stood up, he said that he could feel the presence of the Lord, he could feel his spirit. It was a really cool moment and he committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon every night. It was a great testament of the Lord truly directing and being a part of His work. 

After the lesson we went and did some contacting. We weren't having that much success, so I made the comment that the grass is always greener on the other side - so we switched to the other side of the sidewalk. We ran into this woman from New Zealand, who was super cool! She spoke very officially and proper and told us how she is a devout Christian and doesn't need the Book of Mormon. She kept talking with us though because she was very impressed that two young men were out trying to spread the Gospel of Christ. She made the comment that she would like her two daughters to marry "fine young men like us," then she added that one is already married and the other is engaged - darn! So we kept talking to her and Elder Christensen asked her a killer question, "Why are there so many churches?" She didn't know the answer, so we explained the restoration and then asked if we could pray with her. Elder Christensen gave a really beautiful prayer and asked that the woman's heart be softened. After the prayer ended she was very touched and accepted the Book of Mormon because she was so impressed by us! Super cool experience, the hand of the Lord was there. Funny moment in the contact, Elder Christensen was pointing his finger at her and she scolded him for pointing because it's rude. 

I'll just skip to the next day when I went on an exchange with a brand new, transfer one, missionary all by myself. WE HAD SUCH A FUN TIME! He has had a rough time during his training, so he was really eager to get out and do some contacting because he hasn't had the opportunity to do it yet. So we went right to work and began contacting. To my amazement, I was given the ability to understand the French as it was spoken and the words were given to me to speak. The hand of the Lord was there as we went about his business. We may have messed up the numbers we got, but we still had fun. We also went and gave a blessing in French and the words were again given to me to speak. I wasn't nervous because I knew the Lord would be with me. The imperfections of man will never hinder the work of the Lord. 

The next morning we went contacting again and had a cool experience. We handed out his Book of Mormon and wanted to hand mine out as well, so we went about trying to do that. We ran into a woman who said she didn't have enough time to talk with, but right before we were about to go back to the apartment we decided to go down a side street. Well there was nobody on the street, so we knocked a few houses - no luck. Then we see someone walking from the other end of the street and sure enough it was the woman we had contacted earlier! She walked up to us and asked who we were. again the words were given to me to understand and speak. She asked us about our church and said she wanted to go to one of our meetings. So we gave her a card and then I gave her a Book of Mormon! It was a tender mercy and another testiment to me of the Hand of the Lord in His work. 

I can honestly say, and it might be a little sad, but after these two exchanges and all of these tender mercies - I really felt like a missionary for the first time. I was giving it my all and I could see the Lord directing myself and my companion to where we needed to be. 

So on Saturday Holly was baptized. Her father did the baptism and it went great...almost. I was a witness and because of my more quiet nature, I didn't say anything when he said the words to the baptism wrong. So everyone thought the baptism was good and I did too because the other witness hadn't said anything either. But then I started thinking about it and got worried, so we called the Mission president to ask his opinion and he said we should probably redo it, just to be safe. So we did a secret baptism while everyone was eating and redid it. It's all good now though! I learned a valuable lesson that night. If someone's salvation is on the line - SPEAK UP! It was a very happy occasion for Holly and her family. It was great to see her love for the Lord manifested in this covenant with her God. On Sunday I was privileged to stand in the circle as she was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and receive the Holy Ghost. The spirit was so strong in circle and I felt an overwhelming feeling burning in my bosom. It was a great day. I'm happy for them.

It's been a long week, but I have been surviving. As a missionary you experience the world differently and that is a blessing. I'm not perfect and neither is anyone else, but it is a great blessing to try and help others become more like their Father in Heaven. Hard times still come though, not everyday is perfect and the hard times really seem to mold you into the person you are trying to become. I'm learning a lot right now, I know it's for my benefit, my on the job training. When the natural man wants to turn in, you should turn out because that is what Christ would do. So I am trying to turn out and love my neighbor. 

Thanks for reading my weekly's, I hope that you each are able to get something out of them. I pray for you all each night, for your well being and success in all you do. I love you all very much! Keep up the good work and always put your trust in the Lord and turn out to help others.

-Elder Molinari

Elder Molinari's Weekly

Salut salut,

As many of you may have notice I updated my profile on Facebook! I don't remember if I mentioned in any of these emails that our mission is authorized to use Facebook now. Well... WE ARE! I haven't really used it at all yet and still need to start posting, etc. But before I release an official post on my page, I will say that we are not allowed to use the Messenger Application and if you want to write to me, it will still have to by e-mail. I will be posting spiritual thoughts, quotes, talks, videos, etc. So if this is something you are also interested in reading then you can Friend me on Facebook and enjoy whatever I post! I am on my only Facebook account, which is Nicholas Molinari. My posts will be most likely be in French, but don't worry! Facebook will automatically translate for you.

As far as this week goes, we did more than last week! Let me look back... 

On Tuesday I woke up with some terrible stomach pains (yeah, again.) and wasn't allowed to leave the apartment, so nothing really happened that day! I only ate a bowl of rice that day, which was not nearly as filling as other food, but that's ok I was being spiritually fed all day! I did receive a blessing of healing that morning and I was impressed by the words. Elder Seymour performed the sealing of the oil and told me I would recover and then mentioned how Heavenly Father wanted me to relax and stop worrying about not having enough time to change and grow. That I need to realize I still have a lot of time left for me to learn and gain the experiences I need to grow and become the person He needs me to be. I was very comforted by that blessing, especially since I had not mentioned my concerns over that subject to anyone. A small testament that God knows his children and gives us the Fatherly comfort and counsel we all need. 

Wednesday was better and we were able to go visit a woman name Lea and her husband. We taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel and we were able to answer many of their questions that they had about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Lea's Husband had a specific concern about whether we were a cult or not, since we are called "Mormons," yet we profess to be of Christ. A friend of their family, who is also a member, was there and in much better French than Elder Shenkal and I had, explained that Mormon is basically a nickname. We are in fact called The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we are the only true Church on the earth. We are not a cult - at all, we "talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our Children may know to what source the may look for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26 It's in the Book of Mormon, check it out some time if you don't know what that is.) After we made clear that we are in fact a church, we continued with the restoration and used the Joseph Smith video to explain the Prophet of the Restoration, Joseph Smith. As we were watching I was sitting there listening and the spirit overwhelmed me and I felt this complete peace, to the point where my emotions almost overcame me. After the video ended I stopped having worries about my French and began to testify and the words flowed from my mouth. It was a powerful moment for me, as I truly saw the scripture come to pass that says "seek not to declare my words, but first seek to obtain my word and then shall your tongue be loosed..." (Doctrine and Covenants 11:21, also scripture, check that one out too!) 

I'll just briefly go over the other three teaching appointments we had this week! I have failed to mention that we have three baptismal dates. Two are for October 28th and one is in December! 

We met with Buki and Rejoice, who have recently been reactivated and they have a little 9 year old daughter who is prepared for baptism. I'm not sure if this is the way it's done in America, but we teach all of the missionary lessons to anyone who is over the age of 8 and they can choose to be baptized. So she has chosen to be baptized and she is one of those baptismal dates. Her Parents are super nice people and it was amazing to go over to their house and discuss the importance of Baptism and keeping our covenants after baptism with them. 

We also visited our investigator, Colette, who is also planning on entering the waters of baptism on the 28th of October. She is an older woman, who is engaged to a member and because of him has been investigating the church. Her fiance lives in America and recently had emergency Heart Surgery, so we decided the best message for her would be to talk about trials and not to worry if you put your trust in the Lord. We shared the talk by Elder Holland, a member of the Quorum of the twelve apostles, "Tomorrow the Lord Will do Wonders Among You." She was very touched and the meeting went very well. Unfortunately her alarm didn't go off on this past Sunday and she missed church, but here's to next week!

Our last meeting this week was with another investigator, Happy. Going into the lesson we were planning on giving her a lesson on the Word of Wisdom, but she expressed concerns about work and the stress from that, and so we completely scrapped the lesson plan and followed the spirit. She showed us that she is in Ether right now, in the Book of Mormon, and I mentioned a scripture I really like in Ether. From that scripture we followed the spirit and spoke about putting our trust in the Lord during our hard times. Unfortunately she has to work on some Sundays, so we had to move her baptismal date to December, I am glad that I will be able to teach her more throughout the coming weeks and really get to know her. 

Many good things throughout the week, but as always it was faced with many trials as well. Missions are difficult in a way that is hard to describe, but I think, the positives outweigh the negatives.

Best Regards,
Elder Molinari

P.S. Elder Shenkal and I went to the doctor and got me a prescription for some meds (I'm fine, don't worry) and then we bought Steak N' Shake. IT WAS SO GOOD! Don't get me wrong French Food is super good, but American food is super good too and their Steak burger tasted just like an american burger. Also got a HUGE milkshake, was way good!

What a SICK Week!

Alright, There isn't much to say this week. Long story short, our entire apartment got sick this week. It started with Elder Shenkal and then traveled to Elder Dunoskovic and then to Me and then a little bit to Elder Seymour. But ironically, the week we were all sick we were still SUPER busy. We had two dinner appointments and we helped a less active move on wednesday and Thursday. I really don't have much to say other than that, so I suppose I will share some spiritual experiences/lessons I learned this week.

The first miracle I witnessed was when we were at our dinner appointment on Saturday night. We shared the video by Gordon B. Hinckley's talk "Lessons I learned as a Boy." Prior to watching this video I was struggling to follow the conversations (there were 8 people in total at dinner) and was pretty quiet for that reason, since I had no idea what was going on. As we watched the video I felt the spirit pretty strongly and as soon as my companion asked the family what they thought about the video, the french clicked and I could understand what was being said. Tender mercy, grateful for it.

The second experience is also concerning the video Lessons I learned as a Boy. For a long time I have never really been able to understand what the meaning of the story was, but I finally connected all the dots and I have an idea of what the video represents. (If you haven't seen the video, just youtube it.) I'll write a little description of the video.
First you will see the two boys and then you see the man working out in his farm fields. The younger boy thinks it would be a good idea to hide the man's shoes and wait to see the reaction of the man when he comes back. The older boy doesn't think that is such a good idea and suggests another experiment. The older boy discerns that the man must be very poor by the looks of his clothes and decides they should put two silver dollar coins into the man's shoes and see his reaction to that. They decide to do that. They put the silver dollars in the shoes and then hide. Eventually the man returns and puts one foot into his shoe, feels something hard and then takes out the first silver dollar. Wonder and surprise show on his face and then he puts his foot into his second shoe, feels something hard again, pulls it out and then finds another silver dollar. His emotions overcome him and he kneels down and offers a prayer of thanksgiving. In which he tells of his wife who is sick, and his children who do not have anything to eat. He thanks the Lord for this bounty from unknown hands and evokes the blessings of heaven upon them. He leaves. The boys were touched by this man's prayer and as they leave one says to the other "Now don't you have a good feeling?" 

My interpretation of this video is as follows;

The two boys can represent many things. They can be missionaries, the members of the church, or the older can represent Jesus and the younger is us. These boys see a man in the distance, who is poor and without, he could represent those without the gospel of Jesus Christ. The boys hiding the coins in his shoes could represent how there are many without the gospel who are searching but don't know where to find it. Now the boys give the man the two silver dollars, which could represent the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The material value of the coins is temporal, but the spiritual value will last through the eternities. As members and missionaries we share the gospel with others and give them the fruits of the gospel, which can heal the sick (his wife) and spiritually feed the hungry (his children). We may not always know the outcome of our efforts, as the two boys didn't know the effects of giving this man 2$. But they are always blessed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we are finished sharing the Gospel with others, we leave, saying "Now don't you have a good feeling?"  

I'll probably have more to say next week!

Catch ya later!
Elder Molinari

Some pics of Monets Garden paintings and me touching the bottom of the louvre triangle.