Bonjour Mes Amis!
My first few days in the MTC have been packed! After Kirstin, Blake, and Kristoffer dropped me off I was quickly rushed to all these different rooms, got my name tag, and then into my classroom. The teacher spoke only French for the entire time and I have to say - I understood none of it. I've forgotten almost all of my French, but I think I will be ok.
The MTC food is alright, nothing great, nothing awful; It's just your basic cafeteria food.
Now on to the information everyone wants to hear. I have two companions - Elder Laurie and Elder Abegg. There are two other elders in my district and four sisters and I room with all of the elders. Both of my companions already speak French.
The first day I was at the MTC we did a workshop and it was run by a sister who had served in the France Paris mission. It was actually the sister that I watched all of the youtube videos about which really helped me prepare. I thought that was pretty cool. During that workshop we had the opportunity to teach a nonmember from Italy, who's name was ChiCho. He is a catholic and has had all of his children baptized in the catholic church, all of them except his last child who died at two days old. ChiCho's friend had told him about the plan of happiness, or as he called it, the happy plan and ChiCho thought he wasn't eligible for it because his son had died without being baptized and he was now in limbo. We were able to tell him that his son wasn't in limbo, but he was in heaven and after that Chicho went silent and was overcome by emotion. It was a pretty good experience, if he was really a nonmember.
Thursday we studied, and did some more workshops. My schedule is all over the place because I have only been here for a few days. We are learning a lot of French very quickly. Pretty much everything I thought I learned in four years of french class is being taught in four days of french class here. Hopefully I will be able to pick up a little bit before I leave here, right now I am pretty lost. We are also teaching our first investigator tonight, which should be interesting.
Last night we met our Branch Presidency and they went over the white handbook and what we do on Sundays. We were also interviews to determine senior companions and district leaders. Both of the new French districts were there. On Sundays we have talk roulet. So we are given the topics of the sacrament meeting talks and then the branch presidency randomly picks anyone from the French zone to give a talk on the subject for 3-5 minutes. Luckily it's fast Sunday this week. As I said earlier we were all interviewed. I was made the district leader. When I met with the Branch President I didn't want an interview I wanted to make it more of a conversation and I think that made the difference. My branch president has such a strong spirit and I told him that and we just chatted a little and had a good time chatting.
Other than that, nothing else has happened. I'm still trying to get used to being called Elder Molinari. I almost feel like this isn't really happening, but IT IS! When I arrived on Thursday I felt mildly nervous, but then all of our devotionals were talking about feeling homesick and nervous which made me feel nervous! Then I prayed that night and just asked for peace and I feel like I've gotten that peace. I have worked so long to be able to serve a mission and I know this is where the Lord wants me to be. I look forward to the coming weeks and the many things I will learn.
Au Revoir,
Elder Molinari
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