Salut Mes Amis!
This week was quite an adventure - I truly experienced the ups and downs that the mission offers.
On Thursday this week my companion and I went to Paris for a mandatory legality meeting. The meeting itself wasn't anything special, but everyone who came into the mission with me had to attend the meeting, so it was super awesome to see them all again. The night before Elder Walton and I slept over at the our Zone leaders apartment, which is in Paris, and it was actually a super nice apartment. Very spacious and it has the best shower in the mission, with jets and everything. After the meeting on Thursday, we went back to Caen and made it in time for Soirée Familiale (Family Night)! Our ami, Constantine, came, which was super awesome, but very difficult to manage because he doesn't speak French and I don't understand anyone so I couldn't translate for him. One of the sisters came and translated for him, but he kept looking at me for a translation of what she was saying! I basically ended up talking to him about the book of mormon and had him read the introduction and then I set up a meeting with him the next day!
On Friday morning, I taught Constantine with Elder Egbert, an Elder from Cherbourg. Him and his companion had stayed the night because we had district meeting on Friday. I told him I wanted to teach the plan of salvation because all of Constantine questions are always centered around what the plan of salvation can answer. The lesson went SUPER well. Every single question that Constantine asked would be a question that we were about to answer using the plan of salvation. It was super cool to watch it all unfold. There was a very clear difference between him in this lesson compared to other lessons. He was super excited and his interest kept growing as we progressed through the plan. He was especially interested in the spirit world because he was very concerned about his parents and if they are in spirit prison, so that concern allowed us to transition into temples! We talked a little about baptism by proxy in the temple and how his parents can be taken out of spirit prison if he does the temple and genealogy work for them. He was very very interested, so we are talking more about temples next lesson.
Saturday was ok. Don't really remember what we did, but It was a productive day. While my companion and I were out contacting we had a little disagreement and I said we could address the issue later during our companion inventory. Well later that night we were talking about everything we were doing well and what needed to be improved upon. I gave him a pretty long list of things he needed to improve on and he didn't take too kindly to that. I had just realized there were things I had no idea how to do and that I didn't really feel like I was being trained. He didn't really talk with me for the rest of the night and not much on Sunday either. There is a happy ending to this story though. On Sunday night I apologized for the way I presented everything he could improve upon and we are chill again, but he was very understanding and agreed he could be doing better. I'm excited to see the growth we will have because of this experience! Missions are great, but you need to make sure you are working effectively with your companion because you are on the Lord's time, not your time. If you are having issues in your companionship that hinders the companionship of the spirit and makes it harder to work effectively.
Sunday was so nice! I talked with our ami, Joel, who doesn't set rendezvous' with us very much, BUT he agreed to a meeting this week and also told us he hasn't smoked in 15 days and that once he is finished with the repentance process he will be baptized!!!! That's soooo exciting, I'm so proud of him and his hard work to overcome the challenges in his life through the atonement of Jesus Christ. I also had the amazing opportunity to video call my parents and my brother! What a blessing, it was soooo good to see them again. Being away from them for so long I realize now how much love I have for them andThat same love goes to everyone back home and to all of you! So many people have had an immensely positive impact on my life and I'm grateful for each of you! I was also able to say talk with my grandma for what little as well and that was such an extraordinary joy as well! Yesterday was an amazing amazing day. I love how it all happened on the Sabbath day as well , as if it was a testimony of what amazing things can be done on the Lord's day.
The reason this email is being sent so late is because I went to Omaha beach today and also Mont St. Michel! One
I'll see you all next week!
Love you all,
Elder Molinari
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