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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