Paris France LDS Temple

I don't think Elder Molinari's photos of the Paris Temple did it justice. Here is a video about the new temple and a few photos taken off of LDS.org. You can go here to see them all.

                  

Week Two in Caen, France!

Bonjour Mes Amis,

This week has been super great. I AM FLUENT IN FRENCH... just kidding, but I am making progress. I am getting an ear for the language; I am able to hear every individual word they are saying, now I just need to figure out what they all mean. I feel like I'm really close to making a break through with the language. I am actually able to converse with some people and struggle through a conversation, so I'm SUPER excited for the future. The gift of tongues is such a blessing.

The beginning of the week was pretty fun! On Tuesday I was able to go on exchanges with the elders from Cherbourg. I spent the morning with Elder Leavitt, who was in my district in the mtc, and then the afternoon with his companion, Elder Eggbert, who is going home with my trainer. Elder Leavitt and I struggled to talk with people, but we still had a fun time being together again. His companion, Elder Eggbert, is super super nice and I went and taught a lesson with him, which was fun. We had a nice talk about mission life and how much it has blessed his life and I really enjoyed having some time with him. 

Thursday was SPECTACULAR! My zone was able to go see the Paris temple! It took us four hours, or so, to get there, but it was so worth it! The temple is stunning, absolutely magnificent. The gardens, the visitor center, the statue of Christ, everything is insane. A lot of my friends from the mtc were in my zone, so I was able to see all of them and it was super fun. I also met President Eyring's grandson, who is serving in this mission at the moment as well. The temple is so cool. I'll try to the best of my ability to explain everything I remember about the temple. This is the first temple that has a visitor center that is physically attached to the temple. There are two buildings for the visitor center and in one of them there are private rooms where missionaries can bring investigators and teach them about where they are. This temple also has every visitor center video, so you can watch those with your investigator as well. The temple itself is beautiful and has the most amazing stain glass windows I have ever seen. I think they were all completely unique in design and had different flowers on each window. The flowers on the windows are all flowers of france. The temple itself is absolutely stunning inside, (you'll have to go look up the temple on lds.org so you can see the interior), and is probably the most beautiful temple I have seen. Everything in the temple was absolutely stunning and the spirit was so strong there. It was such a blessing to be able to see the first temple here in France.

Saturday was so awesome. We had a rendezvous with one of our investigators, Joel, who the sisters had been teaching but gave to us because Joel said they were teaching him like a child. Joel has been in a few churches and knows literally everything about the Bible, so he wanted deeper conversations than what the sisters were giving him. He realized a while ago that our church answers a lot of the questions He had from verses he found in the bible and we also offer some definitive differences from other churches: the priesthood, book of mormon, etc. He knows so much about our church but was struggling with the decision to be baptized. So, we decided to make a lesson tailored to him about his concerns. To start off the lesson we watched the Easter video the church put out (if you haven't seen it, go watch it!) We watched that video to invite the spirit in and then we decided to watch Elder Costa's talk, To the Friend's and Investigators of the Church, from this past general conference.
Earlier that morning my companion, Elder walton, asked me if we should do that that talk or another talk. So I read through both and when I read Elder Costa's talk, I felt a strong spiritual impression that that was the talk Joel needed to hear. I also received a confirmation that he would feel the spirit from hearing that talk.
So we watched the talk and after it finished Joel had tears in his eyes and the spirit was so strong. Elder Walton and him talked About repentance for a little bit and I tried my best to follow the conversation. As they were talking I had a strong impression to tell Joel he was ready for baptism, but I hadn't heard the word baptism yet from their discussion, so I waited - impatiently. Then I heard my companion say baptism and as soon as he said it I cut in and bore testimony to Joel that I knew he was ready to be baptized. Then we invited him to be baptized in three weeks AND HE ACCEPTED! He said he knew that this was the will of God for him and he will prepare to be baptized on May 13th. It was so amazing to see the spirit confirm that to him and I know he will be blessed for that decision. He has been trying to quit smoking, so we are helping him with that also, but I know he will be ready for that baptismal date. He has found the truth he has been searching for. 

Yesterday Elder Walton and I went over to members house for a mangez vous and I had raw raclettes for the first time. A raclette is where you cut up meat, vegetables, potatoes, and then put melted cheese on top of it all. It was basically a better version of a garbage plate. MAN WAS IT GOOD. Once you get past the smell of the cheese and just accept that your food smells like feet, it gets a lot better. I ate so much. They wanted all the food gone, so even when I had said I was finished, I was given three more full potatoes to eat. I guess there are worse things in life than being fed until you are completely full!

Funny moment of the week:
On our way back to Caen, from Paris, my companion and I were waiting at the tram station when we hear yelling. We look over at the gate and there's this old woman screaming "MATTHIEU!" It turns out her son who had gotten on the tram had accidently taken her car keys with him and she had no way to get to him. So she's yelling and then a nice man let her go through the gate with his ticket and she sprints off, as fast as an elderly woman can sprint, screaming for him. You could hear her from so far away. It was just so unexpected! I think she found him because she eventually stopped calling!

Nothings really new with me. I fall asleep as soon as I sit down and I have an obsession with baguettes, but that's normal for being in France. Oh and I have developed the worst case of shinsplints of my life, It's worth it though. I love this work and I love the people.

Until next week Mes Amis

Elder Molinari!

P.S. thank you to everyone who has been writing to me! It means a lot to me and I love reading anything you send me. Merci beaucoup, je vous aime.

First Week in France

Bonjour friends,

France has been quite the adventure so far! It's a strange feeling being in another country - especially when the only language you hear is french. If you want to know how im managing you can watch the movie The Best Two Years - I am the new missionary trying to learn his language and understand the people. 

My plane ride was 10 hours and I slept for 8 of those hours. When we landed, we were greeted by my mission president and his wife, President Babin and Sœur Babin. We were then driven to the mission office and president started interviews with the missionaries, those who were not interviewed had the opportunity to go try and talk with the people of France. I got rejected by everyone! It was fun though, I had no idea what they were saying and they had no idea what I was saying! After that we went back to the mission office and had lunch - I had my first French baguette  and it was tasty. After lunch we went to the mission home, where president and his wife live, and they let us relax for the rest of the night - I fell asleep lounging in the sun, which was so relaxing. Sister Babin made us lasagna for dinner and then we had some french dessert, but it was chocolate, so sister Babin gave me some ice cream with strawberries - that tasted so good after 6 weeks in the mtc. Everyone went to bed after that and they all slept wonderfully - except me. There was an Elder snoring like a lawn mower the entire night, but I persevered. 

The next day the assistants to the president took us to a spot called consecration hill. It overlooks all of Paris and is just a really peaceful spot. We had a few minutes to just write In our journals and decide the type of missionaries we want to be. It was a really nice moment for me because I received the peace I had been searching for, which is still helping me now. I was worried about the language, the work, cooking, all kinds of stuff and I just felt that everything would be ok. It was a nice personal revelation moment for me. On the way back I was talking with one of the assistants, who asked how I was feeling, so I told him everything and one of the things I said how I had been praying about the missionary who would train me, since December. He thought that was interesting because he told me that when they were choosing trainers for the new missionaries, my trainer was the first one picked and they felt that it was the right pick for me instantly. After that we found out who our trainers were and where we would be serving.

My trainer is Elder Walton and we are in Caen, France right now. Caen is a nice little city with a good amount of people, who aren't in a rush like the Parisians. My trainer is from Utah, he has 2 months left on his mission and is fluent in French. He is focused and knows everything about the mission and he also knows how to cook. 

My thoughts on France so far - 

-Everyone smokes. You pretty much smell cigarettes all the time and there are hundreds of smoked ones on the ground outside. Hopefully I don't come home with cancer. 

-These guys know their style. Basically, it's either skinny clothes or nothing. The suits here look so niceee. My companion also told me that twice a year there is a country wide sale where everything in stores goes on sale, starting at 40% off and continues for a few weeks and goes up to 80% off. It happens in June and January. It's pretty awesome.

-Most people aren't interested in religion. They either don't have time to talk or they are another religion and aren't interested in changing. It's ok though, I know there are people out there who are prepared to hear the message of the restored gospel, we just have to find them!

I'm so tired all the time. We walk 8-10 miles a day, and do a lot of talking. It's ok though, the work is hard but I am learning to love it. If I could understand what anyone is saying that would be great.

I had dinner with a member and it was rough - for me. Everything we ate was everything I detest. We had raw ham, don't like ham, we had brie cheese, not a big fan, and we had salad, which I do like, but it had vinegar on it which I hate. I persevered though and finished the meal, but it was a trying few minutes.

We are teaching an investigator named Maud, who is an elderly woman. She loves geneology and has been working with some of the members at our geneology building. My companion, Elder Walton, and I were teaching her about the temple and family history and when we showed her a picture of the Paris temple she told us that she had seen that building in a dream. She told us how she had already made a reservation to see it, during the open house! What a miracle! She also told us how she hadn't been taking her pain medication for two weeks because she had received a priesthood blessing which got rid of all the pain she was experiencing. How cool is that!?

I have to admit I feel pretty clueless in France. I don't understand anything anyone is saying! I now understand a little bit of what people mean when they say missions are difficuot, but I'm fine with it! I am learning so much and I am grateful for these learning experiences because they are helping me learn so much.

Fun facts about France that I have noticed:

-Kleenex makes toilet paper and paper towels here.

-Water fountains don't exist

-Light switches for the bathroom are outside the bathroom

-the toilet has its own room

-Most of the cars you see here are BMWs, mercedes, Audis, and a lot of Nissan jukes. Oh and mopeds are everywhere.

I will see you all next week!

Elder Molinari

He Made it!

From the Mission President: 

"Dear Brother and Sister Molinari, we were thrilled to welcome your son to the France, Paris mission today. As you can see, he arrived safely. Thank you for sharing him with us for two years. We look forward to working with him."

 Dear Brother and Sister Molinari, we were thrilled to welcome your son to the France, Paris mission today. As you can see, he arrived safely. Thank you for sharing him with us for two years. We look forward to working with him.

Included in his letter was also a very useful tidbit on sending packages to Elder Molinari:

"Parents often wonder about sending letters and/or packages to their missionary and many of you have asked about the extreme cost of sending packages to Europe to your missionaries. Our advice is to not send packages—if you want to treat your missionary, send money and let them spend it here. The reason for this is because packages are very often not received, if they are received they take a while to get out to the missionary, and, most often, the customs charges are exorbitant. If you list anything for over $25, the customs can be very expensive. Recently we received a package with a value of $50 and the missionary had to pay $56 in customs. We’ve had missionaries have to pay customs charges for over $100. So be aware! Some parents have had good luck ordering from Amazon.fr or Amazon.co.ukand have saved on shipping as well as not having to pay customs charges. Another site to check out is Ravbox.com—a local company with an English website, quick service, American products, and great delivery record to our office."

If you'd like to send something to Elder Molinari you can send it here: 

Elder (First and Last Name)

La Mission Française

131 Blvd Carnot code d’accès B25168, 2^eme étage 

78110 Le Vesinet

France