Bonjour chaque ami,
This week has been full of learning and new experiences.
I had a really fun day on Tuesday with Elder Walton and Egbert. Elder Egbert had been dropped off in Caen so that he could ride with Walton and I to Paris the next day and go to the Mission home. We got to spend a lot of time just hanging out and enjoying each others company - it was so relaxing. We ate Kebabs for lunch and had Ice Cream afterwards, then they had to finish packing so we went back to the apartment and enjoyed their last night together in Caen. It was a really nice birthday. Speaking of which - I'm 19, wow. My good friend, Elder Tropnas, called me and sang happy birthday to me on the phone, was a pretty funny and awesome surprise. Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, that meant a lot to me!!
Now for the information everyone wants to hear. Tuesday morning I dropped off Elder Walton and Egbert in Paris and went to pick up my new Companion, Elder Taylor. He is a year and a half into his mission and goes home in November. He is from Northern California and is the oldest of four siblings. He went to BYU provo for a year before his mission and is studying developmental biology and wants to go to medical school. I have a lot of first impressions, but I'm trying not to judge because for all of my previous companions I have judged too quickly and then ended up being great friends with them. What I can say is that he is basically the complete opposite of Elder Walton. He is much more reserved, quiet, doesn't really express himself all that much; he has his quirks, just as we all do, I just have to get used to him.
Honestly didn't really do much else this week. Elder Taylor and I went contacting and after an entire day of contacting we found some Nigerian, Tito, who was introduced to the church in Nigeria, and he came to church on Sunday. The problem is, he only speaks English. We were also given another investigator by the sisters, who also, only speaks english. You're probably thinking, "oh that is great he doesn't have to speak in french with them!" Actually no it is not great because these english speakers always come to church and then complain about how they did not feel the brotherhood, or unity, and we can't really fix that problem because they only speak english and not french! Mildly frustrating.
We taught Constantine a lesson on Thursday about Joseph Smith. We watched the Restoration video and the spirit was pretty strong in the room. We watched it in Russian, but I could still feel the spirit! Then Constantine started playing on his phone during the video and stopped paying attention until I told him to pay attention to the first vision scene. Then I asked him if he thinks it would be important to have prophets on the earth today and he said yes, but then said anyone who follows God is a prophet. Cleared that up. I asked him if he would pray to know Joseph Smith is a prophet. He told me he knew he was, good! Then I introduced him to President Thomas S. Monson, our prophet on the earth today. Constantine said he wasn't a prophet. So I challenged him to pray and ask if President Monson was a prophet and he refused. He said he has his agency and does not agree with us that President Monson is a prophet. We will try to work on that.
Saturday we had a zone conference to meet the new Mission President, President Sorenson. His family was all there and every missionary introduced themselves. President is super young, I think he is 42, which is really young for a mission president. He speaks french very well though, I was impressed he had kept it up so well. He served in France probably 20 or so years ago. He has three fairly young children and one serving a mission in Norway. He is very optimistic and I respect that. I look forward to serving with him and seeing what he will do with the mission. He had this glow about him as he spoke and the spirit really testified to me that he had been chosen by God to be the new president of this mission.
This week has been full of learning and new experiences.
I had a really fun day on Tuesday with Elder Walton and Egbert. Elder Egbert had been dropped off in Caen so that he could ride with Walton and I to Paris the next day and go to the Mission home. We got to spend a lot of time just hanging out and enjoying each others company - it was so relaxing. We ate Kebabs for lunch and had Ice Cream afterwards, then they had to finish packing so we went back to the apartment and enjoyed their last night together in Caen. It was a really nice birthday. Speaking of which - I'm 19, wow. My good friend, Elder Tropnas, called me and sang happy birthday to me on the phone, was a pretty funny and awesome surprise. Thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes, that meant a lot to me!!
Now for the information everyone wants to hear. Tuesday morning I dropped off Elder Walton and Egbert in Paris and went to pick up my new Companion, Elder Taylor. He is a year and a half into his mission and goes home in November. He is from Northern California and is the oldest of four siblings. He went to BYU provo for a year before his mission and is studying developmental biology and wants to go to medical school. I have a lot of first impressions, but I'm trying not to judge because for all of my previous companions I have judged too quickly and then ended up being great friends with them. What I can say is that he is basically the complete opposite of Elder Walton. He is much more reserved, quiet, doesn't really express himself all that much; he has his quirks, just as we all do, I just have to get used to him.
Honestly didn't really do much else this week. Elder Taylor and I went contacting and after an entire day of contacting we found some Nigerian, Tito, who was introduced to the church in Nigeria, and he came to church on Sunday. The problem is, he only speaks English. We were also given another investigator by the sisters, who also, only speaks english. You're probably thinking, "oh that is great he doesn't have to speak in french with them!" Actually no it is not great because these english speakers always come to church and then complain about how they did not feel the brotherhood, or unity, and we can't really fix that problem because they only speak english and not french! Mildly frustrating.
We taught Constantine a lesson on Thursday about Joseph Smith. We watched the Restoration video and the spirit was pretty strong in the room. We watched it in Russian, but I could still feel the spirit! Then Constantine started playing on his phone during the video and stopped paying attention until I told him to pay attention to the first vision scene. Then I asked him if he thinks it would be important to have prophets on the earth today and he said yes, but then said anyone who follows God is a prophet. Cleared that up. I asked him if he would pray to know Joseph Smith is a prophet. He told me he knew he was, good! Then I introduced him to President Thomas S. Monson, our prophet on the earth today. Constantine said he wasn't a prophet. So I challenged him to pray and ask if President Monson was a prophet and he refused. He said he has his agency and does not agree with us that President Monson is a prophet. We will try to work on that.
Saturday we had a zone conference to meet the new Mission President, President Sorenson. His family was all there and every missionary introduced themselves. President is super young, I think he is 42, which is really young for a mission president. He speaks french very well though, I was impressed he had kept it up so well. He served in France probably 20 or so years ago. He has three fairly young children and one serving a mission in Norway. He is very optimistic and I respect that. I look forward to serving with him and seeing what he will do with the mission. He had this glow about him as he spoke and the spirit really testified to me that he had been chosen by God to be the new president of this mission.
Real quickly, I just wanted to share something I had read in the Teachings of Gordon B. Hinckley (A prophet). He told a story about a naval officer he had met who became mormon because of the positive influence of some of his comrades. The man was from a distant nation which did not accept Christianity too much. President Hinckley met this man and asked him if it would be worth it to pay such a great price, that is to be disowned by his family, rejected by others and mocked, in order to remain a worthy member. The man replied with two questions that have stayed within my mind. The first was "It's true, isn't it?" to which President Hinckley responded, with a yes. The second was "Then what else really matters?" As I have been struggling with the adjustment of a new companion and basically having all the responsibility of the area dropped on my shoulders I have thought about these questions. Even though I'm feeling overwhelmed and not the happiest, I can think about these questions. The answer to the first question is obviously yes. I know the gospel of Jesus Christ is true and because I know that, the second question really puts everything into perspective. This is a tiny moment in my life, but a moment that I can learn from. As Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said this is "on the job training" and Heavenly Father is forming and shaping me into the person he needs me to be. I can't just meet perfect person after perfect person, I have to meet a variety of different people, so that whenever Heavenly Father needs me to help others, I will know how to best help them.
Missions are super tough, I've never done anything harder than this. Even though there are times where you feel like being any place but the mission, I can't help but feeling like I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything else.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love sharing it with others because they too can experience Eternal joy, not just temporal joy.
Avec amour,
Elder Molinari
Missions are super tough, I've never done anything harder than this. Even though there are times where you feel like being any place but the mission, I can't help but feeling like I wouldn't trade these experiences for anything else.
I love the gospel of Jesus Christ and I love sharing it with others because they too can experience Eternal joy, not just temporal joy.
Avec amour,
Elder Molinari
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