Elder Molinari's Adventures in France

Salut chaque ami!

Lot's of incredible things happened this week and I am excited to share them all with you!

Tuesday was a pretty relaxed day, Elder Taylor and I had two rendezvous with our newest investigators, Tito and Clifford. I love them both so much, they are super awesome guys and I am enjoying the teaching experience  with them. Unfortunately they are both english speakers , so I can't practice my french with them, but I am more than happy to teach in English too! 

Our lesson with Clifford was pretty fun, he is a really intense African guy who has SO many questions about our church and the gospel. We taught him the restoration and he understood it very well, it made sense to him that there would need to be a restoration after the great apostasy. He had a little trouble understanding the priesthood though and wanted to know how some people perform miracles without having the priesthood. Elder Taylor gave a rather confusing answer, so I Tried to salvage the situation. I brought up the story of when Moses had his encounter with Pharaoh and his magicians used the power of Satan to perform their "miracles," then I explained how even though they used that power, the power of God still won. That answer satisfied him, but I wanted to also clear up what Elder Taylor had said - something along the lines of some people were not worthy, I do not really remember what he said. So I flipped to D and C 121 and read to Clifford that the powers of the priesthood and heaven are inseparably connected. I simply went over all the situations the scripture states and how if we abuse the power of the priesthood, then we lose that authority to use it. He was very satisfied with that answer as well. All around good lesson, Elder Taylor was getting a little frustrated because Clifford was having a hard time understanding, but I thought it was wonderful! You can't expect everyone to understand the Gospels unique vocabulary after you mention it to them once. Instead of getting frustrated we should be excited for them because they are interested in the gospel and want to ask questions. 

We also taught Tito later that day about the Plan of Salvation. He is much more relaxed and less intense than Clifford. He asks questions of understanding, but for the most part accepts everything we teach to him. He is so prepared, everything we teach just makes sense to him. We had challenged him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon in our last lesson and when we followed up on that this time, he started flipping through the pages to show us where he was. I expected him to have read, maybe to the Joseph Smith Testimony, but NO! He had read all the way to 1 Nephi chapter 7 and then he recited the history of all that he had read. I was blown away by how faithful he had been. We decided to challenge him to baptism that lesson and set the date for August 12th and he accepted that invitation. If I get transferred out of Caen this next transfer, the 12th would be my last Saturday and I would love to see him be baptized because he was for sure prepared by the Lord. Hopefully everything will work out, he has been sick the past few weeks and hasn't been able to come to church for that reason. 

Rest of the week wasn't that eventful. 

On Wednesday, Elder Taylor and I went into Paris for District Leader Training and received word that there were a few new rules in the mission, one of which being all Disney Music and Soundtracks have been banned. I was pretty bummed, to say the least, but I felt this reassurance that I would be able to follow this rule. Music is a huge part of my life, but I know that if I have to give up some music now so that I can be a more effective disciple of Christ, then I will make that sacrifice. I am excited to see how the new rules change our mission.

Thursday Elder Taylor and I went to Cherbourg for an exchange with Elder Leavitt and Thelemaque. We did a lot of contacting and had a few good exchanges with people. Elder Leavitt and I talked with a young guy who was interested in religion in general. I always find it curious that young people are the most interested in religion. France is filled with a lot of disbelief in God, but young people are always so willing to talk about their beliefs and maybe even learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Sunday was a great sabbath day, as usual. I almost fell asleep in sacrament meeting...again, but the same member, Nicolas, saw me and started to pretend to fall asleep. After that I didn't fall asleep any more. The talks were very good, I was sitting in front of my companion, who was translating - so I could actually get something out of the talks this week. The stake president came to our ward and spoke to us and he said something that I really liked. He said, "We do not clean the temple because it is dirty, we clean it because we are keeping it from becoming dirty." He went on to say how that is similar to our bodies and I would also like to add our spirits. If we have a dirty spirit, then we can clean it up with the atonement of Jesus Christ, but if we are continually keeping our spirits clean by: reading our scriptures, studying the words of modern day prophets, going to church, fulfilling our callings in the church, serving others, etc, then we are keep our spirits clean and by so doing becoming more like Jesus Christ. We prevent our spirits from ever becoming dirty. When we have clean spirits, Heavenly Father knows, we know and we are blessed with the light of christ, which others will know and recognize.

This week was a great week. A mission is truly a special opportunity and I am very grateful to be on one, especially in such a beautiful place like France. I really do love it here and I love the people, the work, and this gospel. 

See you all next week,
Elder Molinari