From August 22

Hey Fam,

Yesterday I ate a fish that looked at me the whole time...along with an avocado and tomato salad and jalapeno salsa...just to give you an idea of how my eating has branched out.  Another one that happened this week for example.  We met this guy outside while tracting who was watering his garden and he was showing us his different plants and he was especially proud of his chili pepper plant, so he gave us some chilis which were bright red and said whatever you do, do not touch these then touch your eyes...or blindness would ensue.  So later in the week, I was making a sandwich and decided it would be a great idea to cook up a few of these blindness peppers and throw em on the sandwich.  By the way cooking them makes them even hotter.  They were so good but scorchingly hot!  My nose was running and my tongue felt like a bubbling volcano!  It was awesome!!

To answer your questions... 1. What's the most important thing you've learned so far on your mission?  These are all hard questions, but this one especially is difficult.  I honestly don't think I will be able to truly answer it until I can look back on my mission and analyze it all in retrospect, but to this day I think the most important thing that I have learned is love.  Love is the motive for everything.  Love for the Lord and family caused me to come on the mission, love for investigators is what helps me study and plan for and teach them as their battles become my battles, and their doubts my future studies and conversations with Heavenly Father.  Love helps me lead those in my zone and desire their true happiness and success. I would have to say love...charity :)  

2.  What is one vital thing you have learned from each of the companions you've had so far?  Each companion has taught me a lot and I could go on for hours on this subject, but Elder M. who went home this past week taught me how to laugh and keep things light which is crucial because often times with so much weight and pressure on my shoulders smiling and laughing isn't the first thing on my to do list, but it sure lightens the load.

Elder C. gave me confidence and taught me patience.  Confidence because I was pretty much flying solo for a while with him not knowing too much about mission life or the language, and patience because thats what it took to try to understand how he was feeling and not expecting him to be where I could see his potential but rather helping him take the little steps that could get him there.  Elder K. helped me see the importance of listening, whether while teaching or talking with missionaries in the zone.  He was really good at listening, and then using what was said at the beginning later at the end of the lesson to tie things together.  

Elder H. has taught me a lot about love, but mostly, without even trying, the meaning of tolerance and flexibility.  At the beginning I was being unfair and expected him to, I don't know, be like Elder K. and run the zone in the same way, but thats not how the Lord would have it done.  He brings a whole different skill set and perspective and experiences to draw from and we can use that as an advantage as long as I stay flexible and tolerant of differences.  Embrace the change right?  

3. In what ways have you grown the most?  Honestly!?  I don't even know...I can't really answer that because I honestly have no idea.  I have a few guesses, but it is hard to judge myself, easier for someone to tell me...like you guys, but I have grown closer to my Savior and my knowledge of the gospel by like 1000 percent, and as a result my testimony has gone from being a sprout to a rock solid redwood, it has shot straight up, reaching toward the Son :)  On the not so spiritual side, my ability to be with and work with people and share my opinion in meetings, speak in front of people, etc...more outgoing and less reserved I suppose.  

4. What's the best part of being a missionary?  The hardest part?  The best part of being a missionary is watching people change.  Giving them the tools they need, and watching them apply them to their own lives and truly transform.  The hardest part is seeing people's potential, giving them the tools they need to gain salvation, and watching them use their agency to be lazy and leave the tools unused and untouched in the shed.  It is so hard to truly help people understand the importance of what we share and see things like work or other priorities get in the way.  

5. What brings you the most joy as His servant?  What brings me the most joy other than watching people change and come to the realization fo the reality of the gospel on their own are the whisperings of the spirit.  The soft whisperings that come at night as I kneel before my Father in heaven and give him an accounting of my work in  my part of His vineyard with His children for the day.  Its like a hug from Heavenly Father and a pat on the back.  That, by far has brought me the most joy.

Good questions, hopefully those answers suffice, but as for this week, a lot of stuff fell through, but the highlight has definitely been our work with Brother O. and Sister R.  She came to church last Sunday, and last Monday we invited her to be baptized on August 28th and she accepted!!!  What got her interested in the gospel was seeing her mom change into a completely different person and become happy as she used the tools we gave her in her day to day life.  

We have gone over to teach Sister R. every day this past week, and she has read a chapter in the Book of Mormon every night and has been soaking it all up like a sponge!  She has changed so much in such a short amount of time!  Like before she wore all black and had piercings in her face, but after inviting her to be baptized, we came over the next day and she was in a white shirt and smiling and the piercings were gone and I hardly recognized her!  She loves the gospel and has seen it change her before her eyes.  The day after we taught her the word of wisdom, she found a bag of weed that she said before would have been difficult to pass up, but instead she threw it in the trash!  She is doing so good, and I have  grown to love her so much.  She still has a little way to go, but should be baptized Sunday :)  Also for temple service, we got to go to the roof of the temple and the guy let us climb the ladders up to 10 feet below Moroni!  It was sweet!!!  Love you guys, gtg :)

Love,

Elder Molinaro

View from the top of the temple

From August 16

Hey Family!


That's so crazy that the first day of school was yesterday and that my little bro is now a senior in high school with a parking spot! haha Hope all is well besides the fact that time seems to be speeding up!  Loved the pictures of the backyard and the waterfall and the fountain and of course, you guys!  Everyone looks great and it appears as if Ty is putting some sweet threads to good use.  He is growing as fast as Ashley's hair and Chris's mounting desire to abandon those childish teams and embrace the majesty of bay area sports :)  


This past week has been...actually...really good!  Seriously, no complaints. We are trying to tear it up right now, and this past week our teaching pool has really started to solidify.  We finally got to talk to Brother U. and he is scared of letting himself down after baptism.  Man I have been studying for him for days and tonight we will have a sweet lesson about Christ walking on water and beckoning to Peter to come to him tying it to what the Savior is doing to Brother U. right now, asking him to meet him half way.  At some point he has to face a fear and leave it to faith, stepping out of the boat...and when his faith falters, just like with Peter, the Savior will reach out and catch him.  I am pretty excited to teach him tonight.  Its kind of cool how excited it makes me to be able to teach these people.  Its because they have become a part of me, or like I have thought, prayed, fasted, and worked for them for so long that I love them so much and want as many chances to help them as I can get.  They have become more than investigators, they have become my friends.  


Sister P. is still messing with my head and heart flip flopping and showing interest and promise one day and nothing the next.  Brother O. and Sister A. are doing well though, they are loving the gospel and changing and it is so cool to watch.  At first we were just teaching Brother O, then Sister A. joined, then Brother M. came in only for the prayers, then Brother B. and Brother M, and now it is the whole family that is listening. They all listen and all kneel and pray with us, and this past Sunday they all 5 came to church and last night we invited Sister R. to be baptized and she agreed!!!  


We had an appointment with a former investigator this past week and it fell through, so we talked to her neighbors and found a girl named Sister D. who has an interesting past.  She was addicted to meth for three years, and had some pretty creepy experiences with idol worship and...well I will spare you the details, but some evil stuff, but she decided to listen to us, and yesterday we taught her the restoration probably the most powerfully that I have ever taught it on my mission, and she too accepted a baptismal date.  Right now everything is looking up, we have tomorrow and Thursday and half of Friday already full of appointments every hour on the hour and every appointment is with someone close to baptism.  I feel like we are about to open the flood gates and a lot of people will be baptized.  We are praying hard and trying to be exactly obedient and it is working.  Thank you all for all your help and prayers, they are working for sure.  I don't know if I ever told you guys but that girl, Sister A. that moved to Colorado has moved back and we've been teaching her, and she has really good fellowship, and came to church two weeks in a  row now!  Well this ends part one, this computer is sketchy so I will work on part two!

So besides investigators, this past week some other stuff happened too. We had temple service and we bagged grass and stuff on the temple lawn for 7 hours and I got to work with Hermano V. there for the whole day, I miss him. It is a project that they do once every 4 years, and last time they did it it took them 3 months, but with the missionaries help they will have it done in two weeks! Thats a lot of workers haha. 

Yesterday was Zone Conference and Elder Duncan of the 70 came and spoke and it was so good. He talked a lot about increasing faith and really believing we can do this and I am certain that is what jumpstarted us into setting two baptismal dates last night. I realized something too. I have felt like on my mission I have been able to start teaching people, or help them work through their struggles, but never quite get them to baptism...then I really thought about it, prayed about it, and heard about it at Zone Conference and have come to the conclusion it doesn't matter...that is a selfish thought, anyway. Its like a pitching staff in baseball. Very rarely does the starter go the whole game, it takes a whole pitching staff to pull out the W, and thats ok. As missionaries we are all a team and if it is my job to be a middle reliever or starter, and someone else will close thats ok. We are all on the same team. Times up love you guys :)

 

Love,

Elder Molinaro

From August 8

Dear Family,

 

"Breathe in, breathe out, breathe in, breathe out"...now you have an idea of what I have had to remind myself this past week. It was by far the most stressful, pressure-filled week of my entire life, let alone my entire mission. I think those breathing reminders kept me sane on more than one occasion.

 

Monday was good, but it was my last day with Elder K. (he had completed his mission and was heading home). I drove him to the mission office for his final interview and ate with him and the C. family one last time.

 

Tuesday is where the madness began. So, I took Elder H. with me to the mission office to drop off Elder K. It was weird...sad...like they put you with someone for every second of the day for 4 1/2 months then in a few seconds it's "Well, hopefully I will see ya' in about a year, maybe."...I didn't like it, to say the least. I knew it was coming, but I had no idea how I would feel. I gave him a hug goodbye and there was a Sister missionary right there and after he walked away she was like "Elder Molinaro, you look really sad.".. . I'm happy for him though. He served a good two years and became one of my greatest friends. So, then Elder H. moved on and I had a great day teaching and laughing and talking to people.

 

Then we got the call with transfer info. and our Zone got hit...hard. Twelve of 13 companionships changed. There was one new Zone leader to be trained and two new District Leaders to be trained. There were also two combined areas. The thing is that this transfer is crazy because 18 Spanish speakers went home, and 10 more go home off-transfer to get back for school in time. So we lose a ton of Spanish-speaking missionaries and haven't got anyone to replenish because the mission was bilingual but switched to one language calls...but on paper Salt Lake sees all these missionaries who speak Spanish so they send pure English speakers to try to balance it out...make sense?

 

So I am figuring it all out by myself because Elder H. doesn't know the Zone, just his District. I had to figure out who needed babysitters because half the Zone is leaving and half coming in and no one can be left alone even for a second. That was a headache and a half, but we got it figured out...only to get a call from the assistants at 10:40 p.m. telling me that they forgot to tell me that a certain Elder needed to be at the mission office for an interview at 8 am...awesome time to be on the 110 and 10 freeway in Los Angeles haha. So we needed to leave at like 6:15 but the problem was that everyone was asleep when I got the call! haha I won't bore you with the details but it was a circus, to say the least. We got it figured out, but I did not sleep one wink that night. My mind was racing faster than Patrick Marleau !

We got everything squared away Wednesday. I got my new companion and we were able to work a little and brainstorm the new Zone goal...but he has no clue about the Zone because he has never served here. Thursday we went up the mission office for new Zone Leader training and had a few good lessons...I will expound on investigators later.

 

Friday we presented the thing that had us running around like chickens with our heads cut off, also known as Zone goal haha. It is called "Here Comes the Son." It is a play on words from that song about the "sun" with this Son being Jesus Christ. We're talking about how He is coming and it is our job to baptize so He can come faster, and we need to shine like sunshine. Each area gets a sheet with a sunshine and a certain number of cotton balls that are "clouds" to cover the sun. Every time the area has a member-present lesson, sets a baptismal date, or has a baptismal date come to church they get to remove a cloud, revealing the sun and making it so the Son can come faster. The promised blessing is that as each area removes all their clouds, they will have a baptism.

 

This fixes areas combining mid-month, as well as there being a sheet for each area, not just companionship so when trios are made and missionaries go home before September, they will need to work both areas to remove all the cotton balls, not just have one area focused on and one neglected. It is also because it is ridiculously hot here haha. The presentation went well, we did it with ridiculous sunglasses on. We present it in ZLC on Tuesday.

 

Saturday in the middle of ZLM, I get a call from President telling me there is more excitement, and a few emergency transfers and we need to be at the mission office to pick up a car and get it to this missionary who was going to San Pedro and we had a two hour window to do it haha...That makes it 5 out of 7 days I went to the mission office! Crazy!!!

 

As crazy as this week was, and as much pressure as I felt, the Lord blessed us, especially with Hmo. O. and Hma H. They are progressing really well, and he is off coffee and now drinking herbal tea in the morning instead. They believe in the prophet and came to church Sunday. I love them so much. We haven't been able to contact Hmo U. for almost two weeks and it breaks my heart because he is so close too, on the verge, but I feel like he is avoiding us right now. PLEASE pray for him as much as possible. Like I said before we have a lot of potential peeps, just gotta push 'em over the edge and they will all be good.

 

Time is up and I don't want the computer to eat this letter like it did the other one. I love you guys so much...wish me luck.

 

Peace be the Journey.

 

Love,

Elder Molinaro

From August 1

Dear Family,

What's crackin', its me, Elder Molinaro, hoping to be able to actually get to send this email to all of you and not get kicked off.  Coming at ya from the Family History Library today while Elder K. is getting his final interview.  So glad you had fun in Cali with Grandma.  Its a great state isn't it??  I have grown to love it even more.  More every day since I have come to Los Angeles.  I miss you guys too, and it is weird how fast time seems to go now.

What is zone goal for August?  That is an excellent question, one I would love to know the answer to myself haha.  We have some ideas bouncing around, but until we get transfer information, we can't really do anything because we know that our zone will get shaken up area wise and companionship wise and we are losing Elder K. and two district leaders, maybe all three, so I kinda feel like the glue that is holding Metro together right now and sometimes it makes it hard to sleep at night haha.  I dream about things going wrong, or forgetting something really important.  Did I mention the fact that it is stressful to have responsibility when you don't know what your doing!? haha Just trying to take it one day at a time right now.  Poco a Poco.

Elder K. leaves Wednesday morning, and yesterday I had an interview with President where I found out who my new companion is and where I will be.  I will be staying in Huntington Park Central, and my new companion is named Elder...oh man, I literally just forgot his name!  That was weird, Elder H.  I do not know anything about him other than the fact that right now he is a district leader in Westwood Zone.  I have seen him twice I think, and never really had the chance to talk to him, but I have heard a few different reports from a few different missionaries.  So, I will be staying and with a new companion that I will be training as a zone leader.

I am pretty excited, we have a lot of work to do-so many people that we are teaching right now that could get baptized in the month of August its crazy.  Lots of potential means a lot of responsibility, but hey, if it is what the Lord wants me to do, I am down for whatever.  So I will be in this area for 6 months at least, and my first area for 9...crazy!  It doesn't feel like I've been in Huntington Park for 4 and a half months, but I really like being in areas for a while so I can get to know them really well and build lasting relationships with members and investigators.

I guess I will tell you whats gone on investigator by investigator, because day by day would be ridiculous.  First, yesterday was such a great day.  Church, which the missionaries were in charge of-I sang in sacrament meeting with the others and taught a class, attended a baptism for some other missionaries and did the missionary moment, ate with a member, then went to Elder K's departing missionary fireside.  The testimonies and music were really good, but the best part was seeing my recent converts after. 

The C. family is super active and goes to absolutely every activity/baptism/meeting.  Brother C. is the cub scout leader, and loves his assignment, Sister C. is inviting people to church, and they do FHEs and they say family prayers, and they are all reading their Book of Mormons.  Even the youngest!  She ran up to me and said she was on page 9!  Haha Sister I. and Sister M. are doing well, they are both primary teachers in Inglewood Second ward, and the C. family's youngest is actually in Sister I's class! 

Sister I. went and did baptisms for the dead on Thursday and had an amazing spiritual experience there and absolutely loved it.  Brother S. is coming to church every Sunday and bringing his wife as well.  Oh man, it is just a great feeling to know they are doing well.   Sister Y. too, she was there and was all smiles which is rare for her.  So yesterday was suhweet! 

Investigators?  So Brother U. didn't get baptized the 24th, he backed out and ever since then he has been a mystery.  We are praying hard for him, because he could be baptized anyday now, but he is scared to take the step and he knows it.   He feels like he needs to be perfect after baptism, and his biggest fear is that after he is baptized he will say a swear word when he is with his friends.  Says he wants to get more into it and make sure he is ready...which is super frustrating because Heavenly Father told him he was ready a few weeks ago!!  Please keep him in your prayers.  Literally any day now he will be baptized because we have taught him everything he needs to know, and quite frankly he is ready. 

Brother O. and Sister A. are doing well.  We have had a few really good lessons with them, including one that I had while on exchanges with Elder G.-He is the assistant right now, Elder W's old companion-about the plan of salvation tied to the atonement and baptism and the Law of Chastity.  They are the Elect of God for sure, just eating it all up and really desiring the change that the gospel can and does bring.  We took them to the visitors center this past week, and they loved the idea of eternal families and temples, and they have only been together for 4 months so pushing marriage is tough, but that would be ideal.  That or separate houses.  We are leaving it up to them for now.  They missed church yesterday because something came up, but they were at the departing missionary fireside and liked it a lot too.

Sister P. dropped us about a week and a half ago, and we took it pretty hard, so this past week we went over there and talked to her and it was one of the most spiritual lessons of my mission because it was pretty much pure testimony and testifying the whole time.  Her biggest issue is that she got baptized when she was 13 and she did it with her mom, so she feels like doing it again would erase what she did with her mom who is no longer living, so thats hard for her.  She came to church though and that was a huge step. 

We are also teaching a lady named Sister J. and her two daughters.  They were an old referral that we just had the feeling we should recheck, and she said she was just thinking about us and her daughters said she should call us again, and we showed up the next day!  Gotta love those spiritual promptings.  She loves the idea of a true church and the Book of Mormon, and I feel really good about her and her progress quickly toward baptism. 

We went to visit a less active family too, and there was a man there who just moved in that asked us to teach him something about the church, so we blasted him with the restoration and the spirit and he wants to read the Book of Mormon and keep learning more.  Then ysterday at church, this member walks in with these two ladies and we recognize them as another old referral.  She said that they were her friends and they want to learn.  They loved church and stayed after to watch the baptism and loved it and even gave us two referrals haha. 

Sorry for walking you through my whole teaching pool right now, but that is the reason I am so excited!!  We have so much work to do, and I pray Elder H. is ready to roll up his sleeves and get to it.  The Lord is trusting us with a lot of his children to shepherd to the truth, and I know all of these people can get baptized this next month.  I just gotta keep trying to keep the pedal to the metal.  Full tilt, no excuses to not baptize this month, more than one person-maybe ten.  I feel like with my 4th companion coming in, I got some kind of greenie fire back or something.  I am pumped.  Like Sharks hockey pumped.  It is gonna be so good, I am so excited!  I love you all so much and wish you coulld feel how I feel right now.  Peace, Joy, energy, drive, but best of all the love of my Savior.  Peace be the Journey :)

Love,

Elder Molinaro

PS-Last p day we went to San Pedro for Elder K. to practice some song for the fireside that he sang with a few other missionaries last night, and after we went to the Korean Bell, and saw the docks of LA harbour, and these sweet basketball hoops right on a cliff overlooking Palos Verdes Estates and the ocean. We gotta go back there someday.  It was so cool!!!

Temple P Day

Justin is in very back on the far left.

From July 25

Well. Sometimes ya lose, sometimes ya win, sometimes it rains.  Just now I lost and it rained haha I composed my email on word and the computer said I had 5 minutes left then kicked me off...Elder K. let me use three of his minutes.  I am alive and well.  Have fun in nor cal :)

Love,

Elder Molinaro

From July 18

Dear Family,

Well, it has only been a few days since my last Email, but I am so happy I get to talk to all of you again!  Your time in Colorado sounds like it is a blast.  You guys just can't hold still haha, but then again that is how we travel right?

I am loving my mission more than ever right now.  Elder K. and I are really getting along well, having a lot of fun together and working hard even with his time coming down to the wire.  It's crazy that he only has two weeks left…which means that the next transfer is in two weeks!  I swear, transfers go by like hours right now -- way too fast!  I can't believe I have been here in Los Angeles for a year on Thursday!

This week was good, with the temple of course, but then on Thursday we had a few really good lessons, one of which was with Hma. P. (the lady we were teaching fairly regularly until she stopped progressing).  She is the one who had two brothers who served missions, then they each passed away shortly after.  We were gonna have the lesson at the church because it’s a way better environment for her  to feel the Spirit than the house she is living in, but we ended up teaching in a house of a member who we are using to fellowship her.  She is big into the plan of salvation, and we explained to her that it is good to learn about the plan, but it means nothing if she isn’t willing to act on what we are teaching her.

I love using the teaching model of asking inspired questions, listening and discerning then teaching doctrine.  The Spirit just puts stuff to say in your head and it's like I receive revelation and connect the dots as I speak and piece it together for her.  It's kind of hard to explain but it is a really cool feeling.  Well, the Spirit and I were really thinking hard and then the thought came to me of how I would feel if I had passed away and was waiting in spirit world and my sister, who I loved more than anything else, had not decided to follow the truth yet.  How I would feel? What I would do?  I brought up this point to her and helped her see that missionaries have been constantly placed in her path for a reason.  I asked her what she thought Heavenly Father and her deceased brothers were trying to tell her.  It was really powerful and, without us even saying anything, she said that she would be at church next week and keep reading in the Book of Mormon.  She seemed pretty sincere, so I guess we will see. 

Friday I went on exchanges with an Elder named Elder S. in his area…the city of Watts.  It was pretty cool/crazy knocking doors in the projects and being in a place with so many of God's children who are confused and lost.  Even though that describes the world in a nutshell, Watts and south central Los Angeles has an especially high concentration haha.  Elder S. is a funny Elder who really wants to work hard, but he stresses himself out sometimes…OK, a lot of the time, but it was good to be with him to be able to learn from him and try to calm him down and help him see that everything would be OK.

We ended up finding people to teach for most of the day, but with the right mentality, tracting and street contacting can be really fun.  Kinda like everyone who walks past you is a puzzle and you have about 45 seconds to put at least a few pieces together before the "puzzle" tells you to get lost or that they are not interested.

Saturday was a great day, mostly because Elder K. told me what happened in his lesson with Hmo. U. while we were on exchanges.  They said they followed up on him praying about being baptized on the 24^th of July, and he said that when he prayed he was kneeling there and the biggest happy feeling he had ever felt came over him and he was just kneeling there, smiling.  They taught him about the Spirit and he got it and accepted baptism on the 24^th…this Sunday!!!   I was so happy!  They said that right when he accepted to be baptized he felt like there was a warm blanket wrapped all over him.  I thought that was an awesome way to describe the Spirit. 

Then, Saturday afternoon we offered to help our investigator named Hma. Z. wash dishes…and she had a mountain of them sitting in her sink.  She cooks for a living, but isn’t the greatest at cleaning so we washed up and cleaned her kitchen and she thought it was just the greatest thing.  She was laughing and screaming and inviting her family and neighbors over to watch these two white boys in ties wash dishes and do work even her own husband and sons aren’t willing to help with.  It felt good to give service.

That night we had a missionary night at the church where we taught a class to the members who came about how they can help us do missionary work by befriending investigators, offering a ride, bearing testimony, etc., and it went really well.  The Bishop shared this cool story about how his family came to know the gospel because one of his mom's friends invited their family to a family home evening with the missionaries there, and look how much he has progressed. 

Sunday morning at 7 we had stake report meeting.  A few of the high counselors, the stake president and Elder K. and I are becoming pretty good friends.  I really like them because they know how to joke and laugh.  The stake president loves Star Wars…in fact his kid's names are Anikin and Leah, not even kidding!  He is a great guy and really works hard.  It is cool to be involved in a lot of the behind-the-scenes type meetings to really see how the church is run and how it works.  . . . Hmo. U. came to church for all three hours for the first time in three years!  And a few other members brought friends to church, keeping their commitment that we left with them earlier in the week.

This week I learned about praying for ourselves.  Lots of times people think they are selfish if they pray for themselves, but Heavenly Father already knows what we need, right?  So when we don’t ask for His help to achieve it, it is like telling Him that we think we can do it alone.  It takes humility to pray for yourself! 

I love you guys so much and am so happy and so glad to be serving the Lord.

Peace be the Journey!

Love,

Elder Molinaro