08 September 2014, Tautira
My new companion came today. He's pretty awesome. He's from Orem, and was at BYU the same time I was.
It rained all week, and it kinda smells some places now. In fact, it’s rained since I got here. It rains a lot here. I will not eat green eggs and ham, Sam I am.
Lots of biking, we found 5 new investigators. One of them has a father who is from Italy. So I said “Mi ciamo Elder Molinari” and she was shocked. Then she started talking to me in Italian and I didn’t have anything else to say, other than what’s on the back of a shampoo bottle, and what was said to me every night before I went to sleep when I was little.
It gave her a laugh though.
She is awesome and I think she has a lot of potential. Another one of our amis actually came to church on Sunday- I was thrilled. I wasn’t so thrilled by the mutiny of the ward when I played piano; someone decides that the key is too high, so they change it and sing lower. Then the people around them follow, and before you know it everyone is singing a different key, I have to keep plugging along on the piano and the tempo slows down by at least half. I think my ear drums were bleeding by the end, but everyone after said it’s so nice to have a piano. All I can say is we need some practice.
I really don’t have much to say other than something I know everyone knows, but the words jumped out at me, maybe it’s because it’s in French. It was actually just a simpler way to explain something we are all taught.
We teach that we are baptized for the "remission" of sins - but I don't think I've ever met an investigator who can give me a definition of the word remission, so in other words we are baptized to receive the “pardon" in French, or forgiveness of our sins. This event happens at baptism, we receive this remission.
After baptism we can "conserver" is the verb in French or ( keep? in English) the remission or forgiveness of our sins by taking the sacrament and living the gospel; Thereby staying in a "just baptized" state as long as we are trying our best. The remission of sins then becomes not a single event (sometimes after a baptism we like to say "your the cleanest person on the Earth") but a cleanness and purity that lasts with us and is renewed each time we take the sacrament. Just a little tidbit from my studies this week.
Have a great week love you all!
Elder Molinari
