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.
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.
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