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