Good Week!

21 April 2014 Tiapa Paea

We had a little bit of progress this week. We had a service project at DMP's house. We helped him clear out his garden, which was incredible overgrown! It went well, then we made some new mounds for plants, and planted I think cabbage? So we’ve gotten pretty close to our DMP recently and we were pretty united in our coordination meeting this week. In an interview I had with President Sinjoux he just told me to "faire bouger les choses", simply get things moving. So we got some things moving; planned family nights with the ward leaders. Elder Smith and I made a reading calendar for the book of Mormon and the bishopric is going to start a ward reading program - because no one does- and we have a few open houses in the run.

We have a slightly crazy man that we visit that thinks Elder Smith is related to Joseph smith. Its just easier to say yes than to try to explain anything. However the other day I was talking with his wife and he was talking with them and he accidently said yes that he is going to be the future prophet...oh boy don’t know how we are going to get over that little bump.

We helped a drunken man out of the street Friday. He smelled sooo badly of alcohol. Mind you this is before noon. He had fallen in the gutter and he was staggering in and out of the road. We got him out of the road and then the police turned up thankfully because I wasn’t really sure what to do after that. It was funny.

OK, so this Sunday Elder Smith and I gave a special musical performance. So Saturday night the Bishops wife asked him if he could sing in Sacrament meeting, and Elder Smiths go to response is "oui". So we ended up having to sing/play piano on Sunday. He picked how firm a foundation, which honestly wasn’t too bad to play. But we sped off to the Chapel After the meal Saturday to practice a little. It was sooo funny. It worked out in the End. With Divine help I didn’t mess up on the piano and his singing pronunciation wasn’t too bad :) Actually the piano playing is coming along, its not too hard to play things now!

Today we hiked into the valley to see the waterfalls. The waterfalls were pretty lame since it hasn’t rained in like 4 weeks, but other than that it was an awesome hike. We actually ran into Frère Mairau. He is from Rurutu in the Australes but he has land here that they live on. He’s got this faaapu next to a cliff built on an ancient group sleeping site.

He has lots of goats and a pig and duck and chickens.

He cleared all the land himself. It was pretty neat. We met him walking up the path with a chainsaw over the shoulder, followed by his three dogs. It was pretty funny. I think he is in one of the pictures.

Umm...Still stuck and slowly moving through Isaiah in 2 Nephi in Tahitian right now. Isaiah 15 was pretty neat, talks directly about our day. There was a quote that I really like from general conference:

"The day's complexity demands further simplicity" - L. Tom Perry

Interpret it as you will, it just hit me hard. I also liked:

"Knowledge comes only through prayer and study" - Boyd K. Packer

These quotes are invaluable help for seeking new ideas for ourselves spiritually and temporally.

Bon Semaine! Faaitoito! Ua here au ia outou

Elder Molinari

The Longest Week of My Mission....so far.

14 April 2014 Tiapa Paea

I don't know why but this week just felt like an eternity. Don't get me wrong. we've been having a good time, but when we hit Friday it felt like we had been here for years. Something about this sector just ages you; I’ll have gray hairs soon. We still haven’t found any new investigators, but we have a few plans. Well, one plan, left. 

We are going to sponsor Genealogy Jedi for nonmembers and invite everyone. We’ve titled the phases of our plan "Genealogy a New Hope", "DMP (ward mission leader) Strikes Back", and "Return of the Investigators". But seriously, we're pulling straws here. Well, four years ago last week... I kid.

We are doing a concert right now in all the stakes around Tahiti we are almost done. We have 2 left to go. I get to sing in a quartet, bass, so that’s pretty cool. It’s normally in front of TONS of people, so it’s definitely a new experience. We sing lots of songs, and there is this slideshow going at the same time behind us, so I have no idea what it shows. It’s all the missionaries on Tahiti and Moorea that sing.

 There’s this sister here that I affectionately call the crêpe lady. She’s this big Tahitian and she loves to tease Elder Smith in Tahitian. Every time we visit she makes us crêpes and you have to eat a minimum of 3, and even when you eat three she goes and makes more, even after you say Pa'ia(full). The best part was the first time we went Since Elder Smith didn’t get too much of what she was saying, she just kept funneling him more and more crêpes. Each time he would say "done," she would pour out another one and smack it down on his plate, half on the plate half on the table. Then she would tell him to "faaafaro" (straighten out) the crêpe. Then, after he had eaten 4, she sat down, looked him in the eyes, and said "Faahou Toru?" (Again three?). I was cracking up, I told him to say yes or no. She was loving every minute of it. In the end he said no (It was a good guess ;) ). We encountered her again yesterday at our faatamaraa, and she made him eat 2 bowls of ice cream. This was after she asked him if he had eaten Crocodile in Tahitian. That sister is hilarious.

Normally one or two times a week we ride all the way into the valley to visit Christian, but he’s usually not there. It’s ok though because it’s really nice and peaceful in the jungle.

Up in the mountains where no one lives. The rock piles are ruins of an ancient village.
This is still our sector, but its nearly uninhabited.

This week I got to water a driveway. That’s what most Tahitians do, they just stand with a hose and let it fall on the driveway. I’m not sure why yet. But I joined in this week, so I’m officially Tahitian. I bore my testimony in testimony meeting in Tahitian, and most of our meetings with Bishop and the Faatamaaraas are in full Tahitian now. So that’s good. Maybe I can hit my goal to be nearly fluent by June.

Same place just with all the trees that have flowers.
Sometimes I think it's fall, but then I realize its the flowers on trees.

Umm..Spiritual... In my lecture of the Book of Mormon in Tahitian sometimes verses I would read over stand out really powerfully in the Tahitian language. I particularly like 2 Nephi 7: 7, I believe the Lord will give us this steadfastness and pride in our beliefs if we are faithful to him. The Psalm of Nephi was also powerful in Tahitian, 2 Nephi 4:31 was a favorite of mine. "Ia rurutaina vau a fatata mai ai te hara" I shake at the closeness of sin. Take a minute and read this chapter, chapter 4, and look for the qualities that Nephi prays for that we should seek to have as well. It was a great wake up chapter for me! 

Ok, Love you all, Have a good week!

Orometua Molinari

Last Week's Entry

8 April 2014 Tiapa Paea

Editor's note: Elder Molinari emailed a day late last week. The editor was unable to post to his blog due to scheduling constraints. Sorry for the delay. Here is last week's entry and we anticipate another to arrive later today.

Things don’t really change much here. 

We are doing our best to find new investigators, but i think its been 2 weeks without a new lead. The joys of a tiny sector. Oh well, learning lots of other things at the moment. Elder Smith and I laugh like crazy all the time, its great. I haven’t laughed this much in a long time. We need it or we will go crazy in our hamster cage. I think I need to speak a little more French with him as well *cough* *cough* It’s been several weeks since I made the switch to doing everything in Tahitian. Sadly I realized my French ability has decreased just a little bit. Not dramatically, but enough that sometimes I don’t get what people say to me at the first time. OH the joys of having to learn two languages!

Who knew most of my trials would be mental? I think I’m a bit too much of a perfectionist. I’m not very good at setting obtainable short term goals; something I really need to work on! I think my problem is I look too far ahead! Time to learn how to set reasonable goals I guess. I think that’s an important life skill that we all need to learn how to develop, or we will just end up getting nothing done, well not NOTHING but we will not be maximizing our focus.

EIAA!!!! I have a small amount of "skinny-chub" as Elder Gilson would call it. Don’t worry you can still see my abs, but there is probably a perfectly normal amount of body fat on my belly that I’m not used to having. O.O

Right now we don’t have any gas so the shower is freezing. More freezing than it was at Raiatea, it stings when it hits your skin. It’s getting cooler here as well. I’ve had to break out the second blanket at night again (even though it can’t be less than 75 degrees). Elder smith is currently dying at "had to break out my second blanket" line. Oh boy, I’m loosing it, I will turn into an icicle our first winter at home!

This was a valley we visited 3 weeks ago, very deep into the center of the Island. The blue thing is a bridge that leads to a water control plant or something.

These are the missionaries we were with in the valley. We are on top of the bridge. There were MASSIVE eels in the water, but my camera battery died and I couldn’t take any pictures! Kirstin you’ve probably already eaten eel at this point ;)

Well that’s all for this week. Know that I love you all. I’ll keep plugging along here. 

I saw a pole vault pit the other day, It was while we were driving into the city. It distracted me too much. xD 

Love you all Elder Molinari

A New Companion

31 March 2014 Tiapa Paea

My new companion is amazing. His name is Elder Smith. He is from Micronesia Saipan. His parents are from California and he has lived on Saipan his entire life. However, he only speaks English. ;) I am pretty sure he likes our secteur, even though it’s really little. Training is awesome; it’s all I wanted to do in the MTC and now I get to do it. Our daily schedule is as follows. Since he’s in training we have to do a supplementary hour training every morning. We wake up, do sport, then 1 hour personal study, 1 hour companionship study, 1 hour training study, 1 hour language study, and then its 12:00. We eat lunch and then go out, so the morning is pretty long but I like it. Since we don’t have many lessons a week, we do a lot of member visits, which I think personally is the best way to learn the language. It’s stress-free, and they keep talking with you, so it’s great for Elder Smith's French. And at the same time, they speak Tahitian with me so it helps me as well. So awesome; he’s already caught on so fast. He’s one of those people that I don’t think would ever complain about anything.
 District leader just adds a few more things that I have to do. On our Friday district meetings I have to give trainings. I gave my first last week and a lot of the sisters said they really liked it. Luckily I’ve already given a couple when I was at BYU as Sunday school president, so the only difference was speaking French in front of 12 people, which isn’t really that bad. Honestly I’m more comfortable teaching in front of people than leading meetings.
 We gave talks in sacrament meeting this Sunday. Saturday night the Ward mission leader calls me and tells me we’ve got talks tomorrow. Luckily our church starts at 10, so I could prepare it before hand, and Elder Smith bore an awesome testimony. I talked about Ammon, and his example to the King Lamoni. He didn’t start preaching the gospel right away. The first thing he did was offer service, and provide a good example. This softened the heart of the king and prepared him to receive the gospel. So the message was we need to provide service and show good examples if we want to soften the hearts of others for missionary work. (Good examples are a problem here). Piano is coming along as well. I can almost sight read easy hymns. On Sunday I sight read “Where Can I Turn for Peace” and it went pretty well. 

Oh, the training I gave was on Helaman Chapter 5, starting at verse 29 or something. It’s the story of 2 missionaries, Lehi and Nephi, and what I called an example lesson. The Nephite, Aminadab, was an inactive, or a member integrator. I thought it was interesting that the Lamanites directed all their questions to him, and it was he who responded because of the example of the two missionaries. In fact, I was astounded that Lehi and Nephi didn’t really talk at all throughout this encounter. They were just there to invite the spirit and it was with the church member that the Lamanites learned what they needed to do. So I applied this story to how it is important to have members at lessons because the people we teach will be more willing to believe what we say coming from another fellow person than the missionaries. We just need to have the spirit with us at all times. Voila, the insights that the spirit gave me on that one.

Not much happened this week.

24 March 2014 Tiapa Paea, Tahiti

Well not much happened this week, except the transfers and everything. So many people are moving around. President opened up lots of new islands in the Tuamotus and he opened Hive Oa again in the Marquises. Elder Lovelock is heading to Hiva Oa so that was pretty exciting! I'll stay here where I am and be the District Leader and I'm training an "Elder Smith". That’s all I know for now. I’ll meet him after midi on Tuesday. In my District there will be 4/5 companionships of sisters training. I’m bracing myself for whatever will be the result of that. Maybe that’s why I was put here to keep a level head! So all in all, in our Zone we will have 6 new missionaries. I think that’s more than any other Zone.

There is a lot of sadness in this area. Lots of drinking and drugs. I don’t think there is exactly more than Raiatea, but because I’m in such a small area I know about it all. And for all the people that say marijuana doesn’t do anything to your brain, they are wrong. When you smoke and drink too much you become crazy. Literally. I can’t tell you how many people have fallen into JUST marijuana here and are now completely useless. It’s like they have been lobotomized and then given the mind of a child. It’s very sad to see. We need to be grateful everyday for the lives we live. We have more blessings and more safety than we even realize.

The language is still coming along. I switched all my studies/ reading to Tahitian a few weeks ago. I’m a few chapters into second Nephi, but its slow going with Isaiah. Most of the words were invented to translate Isaiah. I also got a super awesome compliment the other day from a member from Huahine. We were in the Faatamaaraa (missionary meal) and he told me he already knew where I had served the first time I talked with him because of my ACCENT. HA! Best compliment on mission so far. He said that there is an accent from Raromatai. Oh man did that give me motivation to keep plugging along in Tahitian. 

This Sunday I was able to follow the discussion for the most part in Priesthood meeting, and I even added to it, several times. I thought that was a pretty big milestone :) So things are going well in that respect. I have lots of help, in the morning when I read the Buka a Moromona, the words that I translate are used throughout the day, no matter how random. I translated Sheep (mamoe) and sheppard ( Tiai) the other day and someone used those to words, in a conversation that wasn’t even about the gospel. It’s nice to know that someone is there helping you learn the language quicker! I hope Elder Smith is ready to speak lots of Tahitian!

I just think the hardest thing will be finding ways to fill the day up; lots of member visits maybe xD

I’m sorry to hear about Brother Kie, but I’m sure he was in a lot of pain, and he’s probably having an amazing time with all the people he did temple work for. "How great your joy will be with the souls you have saved" or something like that. I just realized you and Daddy have hit that point in your life where people start dying. But don’t worry; there is literally no reason to fear death. In fact, I think it will probably be like coming up out of water after holding your breath for a long time. Pure relief.

A Grandfather's Passing

18 March 2014, Tiapa Paea, Tahiti

Firstly, I’d like to offer my condolences for the death of Morfar (ed. note: Morfar is Norwegian for mother's - mor, father - far). However, I have to be honest, when I heard that he was in assisted living, I told myself "aita haere tera" (no go that), I thought he was gonna pull the plug himself and it looks like he did.

I have absolutely no doubt that he is happier on the other side, no doubts at all. He wasn't exactly happy to be here. He loved his family, but I think it would have been too much for him to watch the country go down the tube. By now he’s met ALL the ancestors that he is endlessly talking about, and he’s been reunited with Mormor (ed. note: mother's mother).

Plus, he will now be able to understand the importance of what all his grandchildren are doing in random places in the world (ed. note: 3 grandchildren; one in Norway, a cousin, Nathan Sperry, one in Tokyo, his sister Kirstin and one in Tahiti). Don't worry about him, he wouldn't want you to, I've received my confirmation that he is happy, and doing better than ever. :] So don’t stress, know that it’s not a long time and we will all see him again, and now his temple work can progress!!!

President Sinjoux called me with the news. I don’t know, it’s funny but I was actually expecting it that day, there seemed to be some kind of somberness in the day. Then when I saw that President Sinjoux was calling, I was like, “Morfar died.” He was a great Grandfather, a little odd but I could tell he really loved and was proud of us all in his own way. 

We had a zone activity on Monday. That’s why I didn't write.

My companion is getting transferred next week. Bummer! We don’t know where he is going yet. Oh, and I’m training here and will be the district leader here too. The District Leader here is over all the sisters’ areas, and if I need anything else done I go to the Zone leaders, who I live with, so that makes things easy.

I will be staying in this little neighborhood of a sector and train next week. I’m pretty excited, and at the same time a little nervous just because there is not much to do to fill up the day. If I get some gung-ho elder he might feel like what we are doing is useless, because let me tell you, its nothing like what your expectations in the MTC are like here. But whatever, plenty of opportunities to speak Tahitian here!!!! So I’m content. In fact this teeny tiny sector is like a cultural Tahitian melting pot. There are people from all the islands here. There are people that speak Magarevian, Marquisian, and Puamautu.

My new companion is going to speak lots of Tahitian with me! So that will be good for him, since most trainers here don’t speak Tahitian, to be honest. So he'll have a good foothold on the two languages at the end of this area. I hope he's cool and "flexible.” Elders that are too stiff end up not having a good time here, and the people aren't exactly fond of them as well. And in a sector like this, the only way we get new investigators is through the people. I also have a bad habit of singing Tahitian love songs (maybe it’s a bad habit *cough* cough*), or maybe it’s a good thing he won’t understand what I’m saying at first. ;]

I haven’t quite gotten used to this area yet; I just feel a little like I’m in a hamster cage but that will change once I know the members better.

I have a fear that the roads in my current sector will absolutely destroy my bike. The roads in this sector have a reputation of breaking frames. Yes you read me right, frames. If my bike was having trouble with flat Raiatea, it will not hold up here. I'm using a bike from one of the zone leaders who has a car, but he is being transferred too. I’ll see what I can do to get another one.

Aside from that, there’s not much to report on. Things are going well. The work is the same as ever, but we've got some plans to move it forward. I'm feeling just a little bit of what Kirstin feels right now, except here people are always home so we can do member visits pretty easily. And to organize a family night, it doesn't take much; just tell everyone to be there and whatever you do they love it! So probably not the same atmosphere as Japan!

OK. We have a lesson. I have to go!

Have a good week.

No Entry So Far This Week

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