Wednesday, March 14, 2012

From January 30


Dear Family,
 
Where to start!? This week went really well, really busy but really well...I think really busy is just the norm now. I can't remember what it feels like not to be stressed and have a million things to do. This next week is going to be Zone Conferences tomorrow through Thursday and then Friday is a mini-mission for the Downey Stake that we haven't even begun to prepare for. Like I said, a million things to do, but I am loving every second of it.
 
In some ways it seems like an eternity since I last Emailed all of you and in some ways it feels like just yesterday. I can't really describe the way that time works as a missionary, but it is odd to say the least.
 
Monday was our final day to catch up from transfers making sure that the board was updated and everything was current for the senior couples so that they could do their work. When transfers hit like the bomb that it is, it is our job to make sure that everyone gets stuff that is up to date so that their work day isn't brought to a screeching halt until they have what they need. It kind of skews the large priority list that we have been juggling because lists and updates end up taking priority over something of a lot more value just because it is vital if the seniors are going to be able to function.
 
To answer your question about senior missionaries, a lot of our work is inter-related. We help them with a lot of things and they help us with a lot of things. Part of the pattern switch that I described last week had to do with shifting a lot of tasks that we had been doing to the senior couples so that we could do more proselyting...or at least that was the hope. Lately it has been working out more and more, they just have a lot of questions on the processes of things which is fine and expected when any kind of transition like that is made.
 
I am so grateful for them and all that they do for us and the other missionaries. They are the behind-the- scenes workers that get little acknowledgement, but the work could not go forward without them. Elder O. especially is such a good guy, and such a good example to me and to all of us. Sometimes when he can tell we are getting really stressed, he pulls root beer out of I don't know where and says "Elders you need to sit down and have a beer." We then all three just stop and sit and take a few minutes to enjoy a root beer and breathe. He is the coolest. He always tells us stories from his ranch in Utah and gives us life advice on stuff to do with our boys and stuff not to do and what his dad did. Great guy. Elder W. is just funny...There is not time to Email all that I would like to about that man so I will leave it at that, but he is a funny guy. We mess with him quite a bit, but he throws it right back, all in good fun.
 
So Monday we finished getting updated and prepping for ZLC, and then Tuesday we actually had ZLC and it went pretty well. We rolled out the training that the Zone Leaders will be giving at Zone Conference and reviewed some stuff from pervious ZLCs. The focus of Zone Conference is mostly reinforcing what we have been working on, namely lesson plans and the mobile area book. It will be good, I hope.
 
As far as the rest of the week, it has been quite the blur. Days run together, and I don't stop thinking about all I have to do and get done. Even when I go to sleep at night I am thinking about it and dream about office work and training and trying to keep our area afloat and all that jazz. Is that what they mean when they say lose yourself in the work? I don't even feel like I have a self anymore, it is just whatever I need to do next.
 
We have had a little more time to work in the area and spent a good portion of it contacting members of the ward which has been really good. The work in Santa Monica will be different than any work I have done thus far. It will be a lot of referral work and working with the members which is good on the one hand, and bad on the other. In my Spanish areas I would be able to control how many people I would find and teach because I could go knocking and street contacting and find legit people, here it seems almost out of our hands.
 
Tracting is not effective in beach communities so we are completely at the mercy of the desire of the members to share the gospel with their friends. It is good though, because like I said last week the ward is way solid. Bishop is so awesome and all about missionary work and very good even though he has only been bishop for about 4 months, and Brother W. is the best ward mission leader I have ever seen. We sat down at correlation yesterday after church and I felt like I was in one of the District DVDs about how everything is supposed to work. He had a chart with the 555 listed out, the recent converts and their statuses, and people we should try to reactivate as well as part member families that have a lot of potential. He is so great, I really look up to him, too.
 
My mission has really given me a lot of people to look up to. A lot of people that Heavenly Father has placed in my path to help me grow and learn as much as I possibly can while I am here, and for that I am so grateful. We have some really terrific members in our ward. I am glad to be where I am.
 
Something that I have learned this week is the importance at taking things a little at a time. Line upon line, precept upon precept. That is what our Zone Conference training is about, actually...well kinda...I will have to give you the lowdown on that next week. Joseph Smith didn't get the sealing power in the Sacred Grove...not even when he got the Aaronic priesthood; rather it came gradually bit by bit until he was ready to receive the greatest power God had to give.
 
May all of us strive to be patient with the Lord and patient with ourselves as we wait for the greatest blessings to come. Each day is to prepare us for the next and each day is a chance to grow and be better than the day before.
 
I love you guys!
 
Love
Elder Molinaro

From January 23


Oh, boy! Am I glad for the chance to Email, finally. This morning we had some crazy stuff to deal with -- emergency transfers and car logistics and fixing the TMR entry process, and sheesh! Nothing like working on your day off haha. Not complaining though, glad to let the Lord pull me in all different directions and allow me to see how much I can do with His help.
 
I have found that life is like a violin in several ways. First, life is like the strings on a violin. They make their best sounds and chords when the strings are stretched to the limit...that is where miracles happen. Always makes me think of that talk by President Eyring when he talks about President Hinckley and how he had grown accustomed to pushing himself past his physical limits when he was reviewing a document at the end of a long, hard day. Missionary life, and life in general, is sweetest when I am being stretched and tried and pushed beyond what I think my limit may be.
 
Second, life is like a violin in that sometimes one of our strings breaks and we are forced to improvise while still making the sweet music that can come if we put our mind to it and don't ever give up. Great musicians will compose on the fly, if need be, after a broken string and no one will ever know. To be the great musicians of the strings that compose our lives we must: one improvise, and two do it with a smile on our faces. God knows our string has broken...in fact, often times He broke it, but the real test of our talent as a musician is the ability to take that broken string and carry on in spite of it...Just food for thought to start off my Email today.
 
What a week! It was actually one of the best weeks of my mission because it was the busiest days of my mission/life hands down. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we worked from waking up at 5 am to 10:40 at night with about 20 minutes for each meal...Nothing like an 18 hour work day on 5 hours of sleep! They were honestly the greatest days though because I got to see what I am capable of...Now I am not saying that I did a terrific job at everything I did during those 18 hours, but just on paper I never would have thought I could do that! I would have laughed and said you were crazy if you would have told me that I would work for 18 hours straight on little sleep, but we did it and it felt great. At the time it was absolutely exhausting, but looking back we can see how much the Lord helped us to accomplish everything we needed to do.
 
It was really weird dropping Elder H. off at the airport (he finished his mission), but Elder M. and I are doing great together. He is such a good companion, and we have been working hard to fix a lot of the patterns left by our predecessors that were creeping into office life. We have everything much more organized and efficient, and we are constantly doing something, never taking a break or stopping to just sit...We are talking diligent to the max...We have seen a large number of blessings as a result and have been able to spend a lot more time actually proselyting, which was the main goal. We want to be able to just go into Santa Monica and tear it up and find and teach and baptize like never before.
 
The area is amazing. It has had sisters in it for the last 3 years so Elders are a switch for the area. Just good to get new blood in there, I think. We are now in the Santa Monica First Ward, and our ward building is the second church building constructed in California and is only a few blocks from the beach. We met with our new ward mission leader on Thursday night and talked with him about the vision for the ward and what we can do to help lift it and stuff and he is the best ward mission leader I have had to date on my mission. He is so cool. His name is Brother W. and he is in his late 20's. He's way excited about missionary work, way excited to just help us in any way possible, and perhaps the greatest part is, he understands that we have been called as full time teachers and that it is the ward's job to be finding investigators for us. He is quarterbacking all of that effort and we text him nightly to update him on how things are progressing; he is the man.
 
Speaking of the man, there are actually two...Bishop M. is awesome, too. We met with he and Brother W. yesterday. Bishop M. is a young guy with young kids and definitely knows what he is doing, even though he is a fairly new bishop. He said the ward will take care of reactivation and retention and he wants us to baptize. That is like music to a missionary's ears! He is willing to help with whatever we need and is excited for missionary work in 2012. He said that 2012 is a great year for missionary work and to talk about the Church because it is so easy right now, which is so true.
 
It is a time to be out and vocal about the gospel because it is now that the Lord has given us to use the media, and the election, and Broadway and tons of stuff to our advantage, so we gotta do it! He has a great ward mission plan and we will be working more with him as the work progresses. We have met a few members from the ward and they are excited to have Elders and it just seems like everything is going our way right now. We are being very blessed.
 
Transfer day, like I said, was busy juggling between logistics and getting everyone where they needed to be and coordinating cars and rides and training, and new missionary orientation. Pretty much Wednesday morning we pushed the "go" button that we had been prepping for a week and there were no phone calls so that was good news. Crazy that we think up what everyone will do and then they just do it...It doesn't make sense to a lot of them, but as long as it makes sense in our minds (those who have been staring at maps and the transfer board for hours) then it goes well. Kinda like us and our lives. Sometimes we do not understand why something is happening or why we are asked to do something because we are in a forest and only a few feet from a tree right in front of us. It is important to remember that Heavenly Father created the forest and can see the whole thing and is guiding us where He needs us to be.
 
Had a great personal study this morning about the Plan of Salvation. I realized today that yes, God has one big plan of salvation for all of us combined, but at the same time, He has a plan of salvation for each of us individually. Each event that occurs in our lives is part of this plan of salvation He has made for each of us. Therefore, when we are prompted to talk with someone about the gospel, we are being led by the Spirit to do something that God has planned in that person's individual plan of salvation.
 
Don't make Heavenly Father use His backup plans because you, who are His primary plan, fail to act on a prompting. We must live in such a way that the Lord can trust us to do what we are prompted to do -- the first time He prompts us to do it.
 
This week we also had the opportunity to make what is called the "Mobile Area Book" which contains all the ward information and has our area broken down into more manageable sections to help with planning and make us more effective as we concentrate in one area rather than traveling all over creation trying to do something effective. I have attached a few of the pages if you wanna take a look...It was fun to come up with and we name every area something different. We named them after Book of Mormon Prophets!
 
Another perk of being in the office that we recently discovered is that in Microsoft Publisher you can put pass along cards through the printer and have names, numbers, church meeting times, locations and a mini map on there... It looks pretty cool, actually. We are just trying to use all of our resources and work our fingers to the bone and the Lord is blessing us so much for it.
 
I love you guys a ton and I am so grateful to have served the Lord for 20 months and can't wait to see what else He has in store for me!
 
Love,
Elder Molinaro