Hello my lovely family,
February is finished! On to another month - how exciting! I have been out of New York for over a year now, so that is kind of interesting. But, this Sunday was cool because Elder Peel and I attended an English speaking branch.
So there is this branch in our area that is English speaking. There are a few American military bases and a big NATO base as well, so there are a few english speaking mormons who work there! We are only allowed to visit this branch once every trimester. Elder Peel was asked to speak, and I was asked to give the closing prayer! Elder Peel gave a great talk and then a Platoon Commander that I think recently moved in with his family gave a talk as well. His talk was really good as well, and pretty humorous, he totally embarrassed his wife when he introduced them. He said how they met at college and she fell in love with him before she even knew his name because she saw him in a swimsuit! She looked horrified, it was great. Honestly it was super nice speaking English at church - wow. Other than me chuckling every time we sang a hymn or someone gave a prayer, I really liked it. It was super weird singing and hearing prayers in English. Also, the English hymn book is like holding a textbook - I mean, my hand was physically tired from holding that up! The French one has probably 150 less songs or something.
We participated in Sunday School and the teacher was glad to have us because missionaries are gospel textbooks, so he had us for backup. Honestly though, he didn’t need us because the members are participated really well - I was impressed. The only counselor in the branch presidency had us go say hello to the Primary children - so they could know what missionaries look like… It was honestly very sad to see how much this branch loved having missionaries there. They were so grateful to just have in the meeting - we sat on the stand as honored guests and everyone was so kind and expressed how much they miss missionaries. Kind of stinks that they don’t have missionaries there.
In Priesthood the discussion was on family counsels and the example used was from the parenting manual and a conversation between a son and a father. I know it will sound weird, but I am very opinionated on parenting and like to think I know a thing or two, so I was an active participant in this conversation. It was pretty cool to see how open all of the men were, they expressed problems they have with children and how it should be handled. I gave a little thought on how we, as parents (talking as if I am one ha), should try to never respond with anger to our children because it will never result in a constructive outcome. As hard as it is, it is crucial to listen to the entire problem first and counsel with your child in a loving and calm way. This builds and solidifies trust and confidence between you and your child. Everyone agreed with me, which was weird because I have no experience to backup that statement other than multiple parenting manuals and church talks! I even left a few of them with a homework assignment to read the talk “Within the Clasp of Your Arms.” It is a talk by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland from the April 1983 General Conference. His son also speaks right after him. The talk is all about the parent-child relationship and had a very profound effect upon me, so I challenge all of you with children to read it and even if you don’t have children (aka me) still read it because it is incredibly good.
Once I got over my English headache, I really appreciated being in church meetings where I was able to fully understand and follow everything. I have gotten over that fear of not wanting to share anything, when you have something to say and Sunday was kind of a “test” day to see if I would actually speak more and I did. It is very rewarding to share an idea and have others bounce off of it and then you can bounce off of others ideas as well. Frankly, you should never feel scared or embarrassed to say anything that may help another person.
After church we talked with the Branch President’s wife, who was super nice. Her daughter is heading off to Spain for her mission in a few months. The wife is also hooking me up with AMERICAN cereal - oh lala I am so excited. There is an commercary area for all of the people that work in the NATO building with food from all over the world for super cheap. So they are getting me Life, Captain crunch (one of those huge walmart bags - I KNOW RIGHT!!), and some Basic 4 cereal as well. Literally what a blessing. The entire branch wants to invite missionaries over, but they don’t know if they are allowed to - pretty sad.
We went and visited one of the members, who had a referral for us, after church and ate lunch with him and his daughter. We ate macaroni and cheese! The father made a joke about how I would write home about eating macaroni and cheese! He was a little embarrassed he hadn’t had time to prepare something better! But that is ok it because I can write to all of you about it! We shared a spiritual thought and he told us all about his job and some history of the area we were in. Super cool actually because, I think he said, one of the first conflicts was held on the bridge just outside of his house and also the last right parallel to that bridge a little ways down the river. He was pretty entertaining to listen to and it was just super chill and fun. He explained how easy it is to talk about religion in the NATO base because you are allowed to in Europe. In America or in American military bases you can not speak of religion, but in NATO Europe, you can say whatever you want! So he has people on the daily asking him about being Mormon - what incredible potential to share the gospel!
I guess you can figure out what the highlight of my week was haha. My last thought will be our lesson with our friend Jonathan. We taught him the entire Plan of Salvation with a member and his friend, Elder Kabango. We trekked long and far to teach that lesson and we had 1 hour and 40 minutes to do it - I know over 45 minutes! But, it was just enough time and we used the scriptures to explain the entire lesson and it went great. Jonathan accepted it and is progressing well. I am very excited for him and to be a part of his conversion!
The rest of the week was very difficult and none of the people we came in touch with responded to calls or texts! But, that is ok because we can not control their agency and we will never try to do that! It is important for us to remember that even if people do not listen to us, or answer their phones, or texts, that we need to not become discouraged and know that we have been successful because we did what was required of us. Yes - that is a good thought to end on.
I hope you are all doing well. I continue to pray for each of you every night and hope that you will continue to draw closer to your Father in Heaven and his Son, Jesus Christ. Remember that prayer is not a one way communication and if you ask the Father with a sincere heart for help, you will receive it.
Bless you all and much love,
Elder Molinari
I have pictures, but I was too lazy to transfer them here. Maybe I'll send them tomorrow morning or something - sorry :)
No comments