Happy Thanksgiving!

Bonjour everyone and Happy Thanksgiving!

I'll apologize in advance because I do not have much to say about this week. Sadly, Not much happened that I can tell you about. So what I will do is more of a spiritual thought weekly about a that I read with Elder Shenkal this week. 

We read Elder Holland's talk from the MTC "Feed my Sheep." I'll attach the talk for anyone who would like to read it, be warned it is quite long and is basically all about missionary work.

Elder Holland's talk covers a lot of material, mainly missionary material, but near the end he starts talking about Peter and how Missionaries are like Peter, Christ's Chief apostle. Long story short, after Christ died, Peter basically says well "Wasn't it great? Wasn't it terrific? Let's go fishing." So the apostles all return to what they were doing before they joined Christ for his ministry. They all agreed it had been a good three years and went back to being fishermen. As the scriptures state they go fishing all that night and find absolutely nothing. In the morning a figure calls out to them and asks how their fishing is going and they tell him that it wasn't going very well - horrible in fact because they had not caught anything all night. So the figure tells them to throw the net on the other side of the boat and when they do they can't even lift up all the fish that are caught in the net. They know instantly that this figure is their Lord, Jesus Christ. They go ashore and this is where a little conversation between Peter and the Lord goes down. Christ asks Peter three times 
"Lovest Thou me?" to which Peter answers positively each time and to which the Lord responds with "Feed my Sheep." Elder Holland expounds on this topic and makes his own narration between them, but in effect Peter says, as Elder Holland put it, "I do. I do love you. More than anything." Elder Holland says this is the moment when Peter became the great apostle. Forget all that he had done in the past, he told the Lord that he loves him more than anything. And so the Savior tells him to feed his sheep. I'll put a quote from Elder Holland's talk in. This is his interpretation of what the Lord was saying.
"And to that, the Savior of the world said, "Then feed my sheep! I have asked you before to leave your nets. And I'm asking you again, and I don't want to ask you a third time. When I said 'Leave your nets,' it was forever. When I asked you to follow me, it was forever. When I asked you to be an apostle, it was forever. When I asked you to be a missionary, it was forever. When I asked you to see this through to the end, it was because it's not over 'til it's over. Now forget your nets, and forget the fish, and jettison your boat, and throw those oars away for the second time, and feed my sheep. We're in this 'til the end." You can read the actual account in the Bible in St. John 21. 

Now what I want to focus on is also what Elder Holland focuses on, the big question, an eternal question, "Do you love me?" Do we as Christians, disciples of Christ, love him enough to give our lives to him? Do we love him enough to take up our crosses and follow him? I'll be honest, I used to have a lot of problems with religion and what it asked of me and I couldn't wrap my mind around complying to 'commandments.' But something my sister told me years ago has stuck with me since. She said in effect, and I'll change the wording a little, "[Being a disciple of Christ] is not a religion, it is a life style.' My view on everything changed that day. A very big problem that I had been trying to deal with was now solved when I changed the way I thought about it. I realized I didn't need to look at religion as religion but more as a lifestyle that I wanted. A friend asked me once how I could devote my whole life to Jesus Christ and, if I remember correctly, I gave a pretty terrible response. But now I can say that I can devote my whole life to Christ because I love him. I love him more than anything the world can offer. Why am I sacrificing two years of my life to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others - because, I love him. Christ has done more for me than anyone else in the world and I am not ashamed to say that I am his disciple. I am not ashamed to share my beliefs, to share His restored Gospel to everyone. I still get nervous and I am by no means perfect, but through Christ I can become perfect and through Christ I can overcome all fear. 

I've realized some important lessons so far on my mission and one of the biggest being "Remember the Worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (Doctrine and Covenants18:10). We have so much work we can render to our fellow man. We have so many ways that we can feed His sheep. It's a very easy principle to learn, that when you turn outward, instead of inward and help others, you will find true joy. There are a thousand reasons to become discouraged on a mission and a thousand more to become discouraged throughout life, but I am a firm believer than if you turn outward and help others, instead of focusing on yourself, then you will no longer feel discouragement or any other negative feeling. There will still be hard times but even though there are hard times we will be content in the knowledge that "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings, ye are only in the service of your God." The path has been laid for us, it is up to us to decided whether to follow it. I am not completely sure how it all works, but I know that if you forget yourself and help others, you will find happiness. You will be telling the Lord, and proving to him, that when he asks each of us if we love him, We can say "Yes." As we do this we become more like him, we become more of the eternal being we were promised we could become. Elder Holland said that once we make this change, once we can answer "Yea Lord" we can "never go back," we can never be who we once were because we are disciples of Christ and that is not just a temporary venture.  What a marvelous work to be engaged in. To share the good news to “feed his sheep, and tell others that Christ lives, that the Authority of the Priesthood has been restored, that Jesus Christ’s Gospel has again been restored to the earth. In times of rejoicing or in times of discouragement, I am proud and I am glad to say that I love the Lord and will never "go back" because this is the path to True happiness, to eternal happiness.

Thanks for Reading, I hope it all made sense.

Best Regards,
Elder Molinari

Elder Molinari Here!

Ahh another week gone! 

This week was actually way long looking back. Elder Dunoskovic, in the other companionship in our apartment, finished his mission. He was replaced by Elder Hidalgo, who is from Costa Rica and speaks Portuguese, Spanish, French, and English. It's been an interesting transition.
I am still with Elder Shenkal if you were wondering.

I'm just going to start on Friday because nothing really went on Wednesday and Thursday. We helped chauffeur people around on Wednesday for exchanges and then Thursday I was sick, yes again..., so we had to stay in. Friday though, we left the apartment and went and taught our investigator Janine. The lesson went well, we taught her a portion of the Plan of Happiness and left her with some commitments that we will follow up on. After that we went to return a big pot to our friends Buki and Rejoice, but we accidently took the wrong bus and ended up riding that to its terminus and back - that was a fun two hour detour! Once we got back to all of the bus stops we got on the right bus and delivered the pot! Mission Success! 

I started reading Jesus the Christ again on Saturday and got sucked in by it. Read it for a long time - really enjoying it. Any way, the highlight of the day, well the whole day, was spent at a members house. We had a lunch appointment with the Family Tornar. Brother Tornar was nice enough to come pick us up from our apartment. We chatted with him on our way to their house. He speaks so many languages. He is originally from Italy and moved her 27 years ago or something with his wife. From the languages I understood, he said that he speaks Italian, French, English, German, and Latin - pretty crazy! He told us some crazy stories about his life. He's an older guy and was born around the time of World War II. His dad was an officer for Mussolini, so he grew up with a lot of fascist influences in his life. The way brother Tornar learned German was from the book that the Nazis gave to the Italian officers to learn the language. He was young, so he didn't know the origins of the book, but when he found out later he tore up the entire book. He bought another copy, he thinks one of the last, because he realized it is an important historical document that should be kept. He showed it to us, it was from 1941.He told us stories about the Italian Mafia and the French Mafia, just super cool stuff. He has never watched The Godfather films because he says he doesn't need to, he's lived it. He's seen the Berlin Wall during the cold war too, just crazy crazy stuff. His wife made us this delicious meal. I don't remember what anything was called but I can describe it. We had steak patties with cheese melted on them and an egg cracked on top - boy was that good. Then some sort of cauliflower, cheese, potato mixture that tasted way good too. It was a super fun time. 
After we finished eating and chatting, sister Tornar told us that she had some friends she wanted to introduce us to. So we walked to the friend's house and had a chat about who we are and what we are doing here. They weren't very interested, and they were being thrown a lot of information, which wasn't really helping anything, so I started to really try and listen to the spirit to figure out what they needed. An idea popped into my head, that I decided to share. It was super difficult to say it in French, but they were fluent in English - tender mercy. So I shared what I had been inspired to say and the entire atmosphere of the room changed. The Husband opened up about his real concerns and we were able to talk about that for a while. By the end they still weren't very interested, but that's ok. You can't force religion on people, and each of us has our agency to choose, so we should respect that! I think I relearned the importance of following promptings from the spirit that day. 
After that we had to get to another area to give a baptismal interview and Brother Tornar was kind enough to offer us a ride. There was horrible traffic and it took two hours, but it was way nice of him to give us the ride. and that's the week for you.

Fun story: while waiting for the bus, a little boy, probably 3 or 4 years old, was waiting with his mom and he kept walking over to us and playing with all the leaves at our feet. So we started kicking the leaves back and forth, and then crumpling them up, and then pretending they were swords. The mom was on the phone the whole time, so I don't know if she noticed, but I thought it was pretty fun haha.

Until Next Week! Keep it real,

Elder Molinari 

Pictures are us with Frère Tornar and Elder Shenkal trying to teach me how to take photos. 

Transfer 6 Begins

Alright everyone, buckle your seatbelts and enjoy the ride.

Tuesday Elder Shenkal we had the great opportunity of pruning a tree for the Pettitt's. I had no idea how to prune a tree, good thing Elder Shenkal because he got right to business and was up 20 feet in the tree cutting branches from sketchy places in no time. Now me on the other hand. It took me about 15 minutes to get in the tree and then I was too petrified to move higher on the branch I was on, so I sat there for another 10 minutes. Eventually I got over my fear of dying and got to business and in no time at all I was up 20 feet in the air as well. We had a fun time and I know how to prune a tree now. 

Wednesday we did more service for the family Chesnel and we helped him build the Great Wall of France...in his backyard. We were able to finish his wall and he was very grateful. We ate lunch at his house first and then began work. We went for most of the day. Rendering service to others is super fun and I enjoy all the opportunities we get to do it. 

Thursday was wild and weird. We were having exchanges with some elders in our district and we get a text early in the morning from President Sorenson who says he wants to come to our area and go contacting with us. It was super fun. He showed up around 3pm and he went out with me and Elder Brown. It was pretty cool because President wasn't really in mission president mode, he was in Missionary mode. He spoke to everyone and did it in a natural way and we saw a lot of success from it. I was really inspired by how comfortable and natural he made missionary work look. We also went to an old investigators house and they let us in. President was super sweet in the lesson and he taught super well. It was one of the coolest experiences of my mission. Not many people get to say that they went contacting with their Mission President. 

As for the rest of the week, not much happened. Saturday night we went out to Buffalo Grill and got steaks for Elder Seymour's birthday (One of the Elder's who lives in the apartment). Transfer Six also started, I'm staying in Cergy with Elder Shenkal.

I don't testify enough in these emails, so I'll finish with my testimony of the Atonement. 

I know that Jesus is the Christ. He is the redeemer of all mankind. He suffered and was crucified for us. Through the atonement of Jesus Christ we can all become clean, we can all improve, we can all become who God intended us to become. The atonement of Jesus Christ knows no bounds and can be reached by everyone. Pray to your Father in Heaven and ask him to feel the redeeming power of Christ's atonement in your life. Then have faith, trust in the Lord and go to work becoming a better disciple of Christ. We can all do it as we walk side by side with Christ. 

Much Love,
Elder Molinari