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
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