Dear Family,
This week was a great one. Even though I feel like I say that almost every week, this one was really good. Zone Conference on Tuesday was terrific. I was kind of nervous my first time conducting anything ever, but it was one of those pressure things haha bring it on right? The way president talked about and explained the gathering of Israel and the urgency that there is in the work, no matter if we have baptized one this year, or 1 million, the Lord is coming and we’ve got to gather faster than ever.
Our training went really well and I had a lot of fun doing it, with lots of analogies and visuals and talking about becoming fishers of men. Its easy to drop a hook in the water and call it fishing, but when we drop it then pull it out then drop it somewhere else, then take it out again it makes it hard to catch anything. Fishermen are patient and find the fish as well as letting the fish come to them, but think of how many more fish you can catch if you put a net in the water and we talked about how people can keep their nets in the water and had them make goals to fix certain things in their areas. I liked it a lot, and like any lesson, the teacher-me-got more out of it than probably everyone listening which is fine by me.
Also, at zone conference they always announce the clean car awards. Elder K. and I got a ten out of ten on our car cleanliness, and the church sells cars after they hit a certain amount of miles so surprise at lunch during zone conference they say that there is a companionship who has no tickets, no fines, no accidents, a very clean car, and for all that they gave us the keys to a brand new 2011 Toyota Corolla! It is dark gray and smells like a dream haha so that is what we are rolling around in these days-pretty nice :)
But zone conference overall was very inspiring and got the energy way up. That pretty much set the stage for the mission goal for the month of June with every companionship in the mission looking to baptize. It feels different in the mission ever since zone conference. Like there is an excitement or buzz that hasn’t been here for a while-seems like everyone is gearing up to really roll up the sleeves so to speak and work harder than they ever have.
I know for us in our area, it sure has felt like that. These last few days we taught a ton of lessons and this week we found 22 new investigators (candidates for exaltation) which we were really excited about because its exactly what our area and morale needed. The usual number is around 5 or 6 just fyi. Unfortunately not a lot of them decided to come to church, but the Lord is just testing us to see if we will keep working hard. I love missionary work; these really are shaping up to be the best two years.
As far as investigators go, Sister P. is doing well. She is progressing slowly but surely and is on the brink of baptism, I can just feel it. Hermana M. should be getting married this week or next so she can finally get baptized as well. The work seems to be picking up, but it was slow/still is because people are lazy. I am not talking about missionaries either, because for the most part we are a very hard working mission as I have heard from people that have experienced other missions. Just people in general are lazy.
It is sad but true and people will commit to things they have no intention of carrying out like coming to church or being there for appointments which makes it hard. I know this issue of lackadaisical living is not a new one, but the more people I visit the more true it is. Then I open my Book of Mormon and read about what happened to the Lamanites when they got lazy and forgot about church and started desecrating the Sabbath, and it ain’t pretty. It slows down the work, but on the flip side it has taught me a lot of how I want to live the rest of my life and how I don’t.
I have really been focused lately on doing the hard things. I always remember President Nichols’ talk about we can do hard things and it helps to drive me. Even if it is something small, like waking up a little early to go running instead of laying in bed, or talking to the guy that looks like the furthest thing from a Latter-day Saint that looks like he wants to hurt us and then take a picture...I wasn’t called to sit back and do nothing. I wasn’t called to Los Angeles to be comfortable. If I wanted to sit on a couch I could do that anywhere for a lot cheaper than what I am doing out here.
As I put my head down and power forward, doing hard things, I get to see how much I can do, how much potential the Lord has for me. That is my constant struggle, my constant battle- trying to identify and reach the potential the Lord has for me, the potential he has for each and every single one of us.
This week I challenge all of you who are reading this to do something hard that you don’t normally do. Just do it! The Lord will bless you and you will be amazed at how much you can get done, a glimpse of your potential :) I love you guys and look forward to hearing how it goes. Peace be the Journey.
Love,
Elder Molinaro
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