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Hey everyone,

Another week has passed, and I hope you all had an eventful week because, I did not do much as a result of being sick and stuck in the apartment for a few days. I'm all better now, so until next time - which seems to be too often... There are some highlights from this week though; including having Elder Shenkal sleep over on Wednesday with his companion! It was very nice to see him again and he brought me some vitamins to help me recover - true friend right there. His companion is also seven feet tall, so he was fun to hug because you can only hug his torso! (We greet missionaries here by hugging each other. I wasn't just hugging him all night.)

Right right, so Friday was actually a very nice day for me. Elder Johnson and I decided to go to a place we had never gone before and it turned out to be a very fun experience. We got off the train and started walking around, but there was literally nobody out. So we followed signs for the center of town and eventually found ourselves walking through farm fields, surrounded by groves of trees with hidden streets and houses. I felt right at home! I love this scenario, it is my favorite on the mission and quite frankly the world. During times like these, you are on an adventure now! I'll try to paint a picture in your mind for You.

You are trying to find anything, because there is literally nothing, and then you turn a corner and the road dips down into a valley of trees and in the distance you see a bustling town! The buildings glimmering in the morning light of the sun. There are enormous hills in the distance with trees of the deepest green all over them. The sun is out, for once, and there are wispy white clouds splattered against the cool baby blue sky. You force your companion to stop so you can take a picture (actually forgot to do that for this town - sorry!) And then after admiring it again, you continue walking. You walk by old farms with horses and goats walking about. Your mind drifts into thinking about living back in the old days, with a horse and buggy until suddenly you get blasted with the horrible, but somewhat pleasant, smell of manure. 

You continue onward until you see some hidden streets covered with beautiful trees. You walk by a few and then decide to go down one of the streets. After a few unsure seconds you discover quant, little french homes, the kind you have dreamed about, but have never seen because you live in America. You knock on some of the houses, nobody is interested, so you continue taking the winding streets, through the trees and past more farm fields. A dog barks, you stand still because you are petrified with freight... Oh, that's just me, nevermind about that part. 

Then you arrive at the best spot, where you are elevated enough to see the town again in the distance and all the beauty of nature surrounding it, keeping it hidden from the world and every missionary because we don't have access to Google maps (kidding - we do.) Then you walk back and rediscover everything again, except the dog. You walk by as quietly as you can because you don't want to be barked at and have the image flash through your mind of it jumping the fence and then it chases you and bites your butt, but doesn't let go... OH, that's Still just me, ok forget that again. (A dog did in fact bite me there once and hold on!) Then you happily walk back to the train station, excited and refreshed for another adventure! I've been happy to discover that nature has grown to be something I love very much! Nothing matches seeing a magnificent landscape.

That was a much longer description, than I thought it would be. I hope you lived the adventure I lived Friday morning, except the dog part...should I leave that in there? Any way Friday was a great day for me and that morning left me feeling very happy for the rest of the day. Which was good because we had interviews with President and that was, actually, really good. For the sake of size, and your attention span, I won't include what we talked about, but if you are interested, you can just tell me, it actually helped me a lot. It was along the subject of doing missionary work and not really feeling fulfilled by it - he helped me a ton!

We visited a few members this week,end, I say weekend because that was the only time either of us were healthy! I'll only tell you about the visit Friday night for the sake of your time though. I would tell you about our investigator appointments but I was sick for Paula and Gaelle had a pretty short appointment with us. 

Quick side note though, Paula and Gaelle are doing great! Paula went to the temple visitor center with us on Sunday and she said she "felt something" there. President Sorensen holds a special testimony meeting in the visitor center of the temple twice a month on Sundays and has recent converts bear their testimonies. Elder Johnson asked her who she felt this feeling from and she responded everyone! We are looking forward to the lesson with her this week. 

Any way... appointment on Friday night was with a member family. The mother has three children and the two sons didn't seem very interested in the church. We decided to just talk about Christ. We read from 3 Nephi 1, about Christ entering the world, and then we watched the bible video "For God so Loved the World." It was really nice and the spirit enveloped the room. I asked everyone to share their testimonies of Christ and then shared mine as well. It was one of those moments where the words just flow off your tongue and you know the spirit is there! I finished and as everyone continued to talk, I felt really happy and like I was a missionary. It was a great moment and I hope the sons recognized the spirit that was present. 

I'll just close this week by expressing my gratitude for each of you. Thank you for all of your support and the emails you send me - they are highly appreciated. You all have helped me in more ways than you could know, so I am grateful for each of you. 

Much love,
Elder Molinari

Bring Out Your Dead!

Hello Everyone,

Sorry, for the delay I am pretty sick right now and was sleeping most of the day yesterday. Anyone get the title reference? I'm not at that point yet - don't worry!

This week went by pretty slowly because Elder Johnson and I have been trying to fight off being sick. He won his battle, I lost mine! We did a lot of finding and meeting with members this week. The Bishop has been more than happy to give us the names of people who could use a little spiritual boost, so we have been pretty occupied with visiting them because it takes so long to travel around our area. It has been quite rewarding to visit with so many of these members, usually older, and to just let them talk. They all have very different life stories and love to share them with the missionaries! We have been reading the Book of Mormon at all of our visits and everyone enjoys it. There’s no better way to receive a spiritual boost than from one of the best sources of spiritual power!

Many of these older members are recent converts of 2-5 years and their understanding of the scriptures is very minimal. We have been able to discuss the teachings of the Book of Mormon with them and help them out a bit. We will continue to make these visits and to read the Book of Mormon, perhaps passages specific to their needs, or maybe we will just read. We have learned a lot about the needs of these dear members, and we want to try and help them in the best way we can - which happens to be using the Book of Mormon!

Usually, when you try and meet with members you have never met they are a little closed off at first. But, as soon as we begin to read the Book of Mormon they open up and we are able to really talk to them. I’m grateful for the Book of Mormon. There is no book on earth that I have read more than the Book of Mormon. There is a power that comes from the book. Everyone who reads it can feel that. If you are having a bad day or a rough week, or need a little comfort, you can open the book and just read and you receive the comfort you are seeking. How? I have no idea, but I know for me, the Book of Mormon has been a strong foundation of my testimony that I can stand on, and in many cases lean on. I’m grateful for said book, and I am grateful that it contains the fullness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Without it we wouldn’t know about the Plan of Salvation, the means by which we can return to live with our Heavenly Father. Without it we wouldn’t know who we are, where we came from, and where we are going. The Book of Mormon answers all the questions of mortality. The Book of Mormon stands as a witness that Jesus is the Christ and that his church has been restored on the earth, and that the same power used by the prophets and apostles of old has been restored to the earth today. If the Book of Mormon is a true book, then everything else is as well. I know the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. I have prayed about it, many times, and I have testified about it, and I know that it is truly an inspired book given to us by the Lord.

My challenge for all of you is to read it and ponder the words of life found within. “I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore, you shall feel that it is right.” That is just one promise given to us by the Lord, that if we ask, we will receive.

We met with our progressing investigator, Gaelle, this week. She is super awesome and very nice. We began teaching her the Plan of Salvation and it was pretty cool to see her reaction to it. The doctrine taught is something completely new to her. She comes from a Catholic background, and she was very interested in the premortal life and the fall of Adam. We are seeing her again on Thursday, so I look forward to finishing that lesson with her. We watched the video about life being like a play. How we are a main character in the play, but we have missed the first act, and that we need to study the script so we know what to do. But what is the script? Well it is the SCRIPTures of course! Study the scriptures and you will understand the play - you will understand your role! She has been reading the Book of Mormon and even asked if there were reference scriptures in the back of the Plan of Salvation pamphlet. It is quite the privilege to see someone get so excited about rediscovering a truth they were taught not so long ago! I’m looking forward to Thursday!

Ok, Voila, my email for this week. I hope through all of my coughs, runny noses, and tired head, that you got something out of this. Keep reading the Book of Mormon, keep Praying, Heavenly Father is there for you and he is cheering you on continually. Take comfort in knowing you are loved by him and he has a plan just for you!

Love you all as well,

Elder Molinari

New Year!

Well Hello Everyone!

This week has been a very exciting and important week of my mission. This week was full of life lessons that have changed the way I view missionary work.

I won't go into too much detail because I think the revelation Elder Johnson and I have received this week could make for a great talk one day, but I will tell you how missionary work has changed for me. I have mentioned before how Elder Johnson and I are focusing much more on the member-missionary relationship and doing missionary work through the members. I believe that members are the most effective way to do missionary work and hopefully we will see the fruits of our efforts in meeting with members soon. We had a planning session this week where we really wanted to figure out what we were supposed to be doing. We had this great idea to do member missionary work, but we had no idea how to achieve it and we were lacking the direction we needed.

So after a lot of praying, through the confirmation of the spirit, we have felt that it is important to try and meet with three member families a day, while also getting in at least two hours of finding each day. This also includes visiting with less actives, part member families, and teaching as well. So far we have seen a lot of success from this. Our day is always full because we are always making sure that we are doing something. Elder Johnson and I have both felt great peace as we have focused our efforts 100% on the people of France, especially strengthening the ward. We have already met with less actives, taught lessons, done finding, and met with members this past week and it has been exhilarating. We are doing short, quick visits with the members and less actives. The purpose of the visits is to bring the spirit into the home and inspire the members - it works. We are natural in our approach and we simply share our message and go on our way. We believe that if we uplift the ward and help them develop their spirituality, then the desire to do missionary work will increase and the work will progress. Figuring all of this has taken a while to figure out, but now that we are focused and know we are being guided in our work, we are very excited to work and do our part.

I feel the most important lesson learned from all of this is that you need to focus on those around you. You need to focus on building others up instead of focusing on building yourself up. When you focus on those around you, you naturally build yourself up, as well as increasing the desire within yourself, and those around you, to aid your fellow man. We, as missionaries, are called to preach repentance and baptize converts. I believe helping members, less-actives, and part- member families change and have the desire to help their fellow man is doing just that. We help them focus more on Christ in their life and, as a result, their love increases. Their love and respect for the sacrament increases as they remember him throughout the week.  The result is - they become like Him. This truly is a great work we are engaged in!

As for the rest of the week... it was great! We had zone conference and David Archuleta came and sang for his. His testimony was very genuine and you could really feel that he believed in what he shared. I really enjoyed having him speak, and sing, to us! His voice is also WAY good, and I was super impressed! We also were able to hear from Bishop Causse that evening and he spoke of the importance of members bringing their friends to visit the temple - I agreed! That was cool to listen to him speak in his native tongue! 

Ok ok ok… what else. Right, so we had asked the Bishop for names of some people to go and visit and one of them was a less active woman. We went and visited her with a member and it turns out she had been in a bad fall this past year. She had fallen and broken both of her legs, I think, and had been in the hospital for six months! Miraculously, she walks just fine now! The sad part about this visit was that nobody visited her in that six months! Luckily the Bishop had stopped by and talked with her and another ward member had brought her a little Christmas tree, that made her very happy. We were glad we could go and visit her; we also found out that she has a 16 year old daughter, so I am going to ask the Young Women to contact her and invite her to church/activities (Totally forgot on Sunday.)

This email is all over the place, but I’ll finish with our great practice teaching with some members last night. We visited the Elder’s Quorum President to teach him the Plan of Salvation. His girlfriend was visiting, I thought she was his wife, so she joined in as well. When we started the both of them said they weren’t married, but I couldn’t tell if they were being serious because they were holding hands and just seemed like a married couple, so I figured it was part of the roleplay. So we taught the lesson, they fixed our french grammar and they really liked the lesson. Afterwards, when we started to eat dinner, I ask them, “So, how long have you two been married?” They both kind of got this look on their face, like “he didn’t get it before,” and then then told me to the sound of laughter from my companion that they really weren’t married! We all laughed over it. They are both very very nice and we had a fun time there.

Sweet, hope everyone’s new year is going well and you are keeping all of your new year resolutions! 

Much Love,

Elder Molinari 
 

P.S. I also think this week is an excellent time, if you haven't already, to reflect back on the life of our dear prophet President Monson. Maybe read a few of his talks or what his biography movie. He was truly an amazing man that focused one "the one." I am very grateful for his exmaple to me.