Another Week

19 August 2014 Bora Bora

Gee, this week felt like it went on forever...well not during the week, but now that its Monday it feels like its been 3 months since last Monday...en bref. 

Here are last week's photos from the motu.

Sketchy barge to motu Tapu

Me on the sketchy barge

Motu Tapu and then my battery died!

Since elder Peterson had to do an interview Thursday Elder Gilson came with me to Anau. We did Port à port, but then got caught by a Mami who talked to us for 2 and a half hours - trust me I tried to escape. It used up the entire day :|

Alors, we started lessons with this guy named Teremoana. He's super awesome and I'm hyped to continue the lessons, what’s even better is that his friend is an inactive member named Pai. So I'm pretty optimistic for the direction of the lessons. We will end up saving a soul either way. Somehow we are approaching the 12 week mark here in Bora - just 3 more weeks till we hit it. I guess in 3 weeks we will see who's going to stay.

This week we made pain chocolate

It was delicious!

We had a training meeting that was given by Elder Pearson the president of the ocean pacific area. He talked about revelation and prayer and the first principles and ordinances of the gospel. He said if we feel like God isn't answering our prayers, we aren't asking enough questions. We need to ask more inspired questions to have more revelation. Then he talked about the spirit, and said we need to designate the spirit as our teacher. Everywhere we are we need to be constantly learning from what’s around us, and our teacher is the spirit. In any church meeting, any class, the teacher isn't the teacher, the spirit is.

He then said we can all be taught at the level we need to be in any given class no matter who the teacher is if we designate the spirit to be our teacher.

Well I just kind of rambled on there but that was the gist of it. Anyways it was a nice meeting. President Bize told a story about a lady that he visited whose daughter was getting baptized that said she went to a church meeting and felt nothing. His response was, well that’s natural, you’re not ready to feel the spirit yet. He then engaged her to stop smoking for a week in order to just feel the spirit at her daughter's baptism. Kinda put how much we need our investigators to be prepared for baptism in perspective.

We hiked up to a WWII site. These cannon were enormous!

It was really high up.

well...That’s all I got this week. Love you all!

Elder Molinari

Heiva on Motu Tapu

11 August 2014 Bora Bora

I want to write a lot but I feel really lazy...we'll see what happens.

(Editor’s note: Sorry for the late post. I guess I was “feeling lazy” too or just very busy!)


This week went well, we hit our goal of 20 contacts at the end of the week, and we even hit our goal of 4 new investigators. It was pretty awesome.

We went to a house with a lady named Moea for the 5th time maybe and she was finally there again, what was even better was her husband was there as well. He was drinking but he wasn’t drunk yet and he invited us over. Elder Peterson and I had made a goal to take every opportunity to do lessons, so instead of trying to fix a time to come back we decided to do a lesson right there. It went pretty well, and she even told us that her neighbor wanted to see us. So after the lesson we went across the tiny dirt path to the other house and called hello. 

We were greeted by Ramond, she’s probably in her 50's and she said she wasn’t against having us over. So we asked if we could share a message again and she said yes so we went in. In fact she told us the Moea had been there, one of the times we had passed - she was just hiding in the house. Ramond told her that you shouldn’t do that to missionaries because like the Bible says they light be angels in disguise (little do they know we actually are angels - read the bible dictionary:]).

This lady was really awesome, she’s already had the missionaries once before, but is a little held up by that fact that she is adventist. However, she shared some pretty interesting things with us. She says she doesn’t talk at Church anymore because when she asks question- or thinks outside of the box- she starts an argument. Alors, she told us she now sits silently at church and doesn’t talk. She even said she was confused why if God only speaks truth, and if the Bible contains the truth, why are there so many churches? Her pastor (not sure what they have at the adventist church) said it’s the same God, just worshipped different ways. She didn’t buy it because she said you can’t interpret truth, there is only truth.

She’s super ready; even if she told us she will stay adventist. All we need to do is get her to pray and receive a confirmation of the truth....we'll see how that goes this week. What was even cooler about the lesson is that she was speaking this fluent blend of Tahitian and French and Elder Peterson and I understood it all. It was incredible. So just like that we had 3 new amis and we got our goal of 4 new amis this week.

Also this weekend we went to the Motu Tapu with the 2 wards. We did a mini Heiva, and it was fun. President Bize and the entire Presidency du stake were there as well. We competed in various challenges: sac jumping race, running with fruit (coconuts tied on both ends of a log), a coconut fern roof making race, and coconut husking race, and to finish it off a tug of war and a pirogue race (ocean canoe race) just search Vaa and you'll see what they are. I liked the fruit race, lots of people said I was a rocket. Thank you Pole Vault!

It was a good time. Unluckily, my camera died because I forgot to charge it the night before.

President and Sister Bize et moi

We got to spend a lot of time with President Bize, our mission president, this weekend. It was really awesome. He's a super awesome person; his wife is awesome as well. He's making LOTS of changes that are really good. First of all for all P-day activities he said as long as we tell whatever leader is over us where we will be and what we will be doing we can go. Hikes, sporting activities, even boats in the lagoon are fine as long as it’s not dangerous. He said we need to use our own judgment.

He also made many changes in the leadership of the mission. There is a hierarchy now, because he said there were too many fresh missionaries as Leaders when they still need to be trained. Also, only the most obedient missionaries, as well as missionaries that have been out for a while will be leaders/trainers/island missionaries. This means as well that A DZ must pass by DL, and he said only "older" DZ/DL's will be trainers. (Ed. note: DZ = zone leader and DL = district leader. A zone is made up of multiple districts. A district is a collection of missionary companionships. These are typically designated geographically.)

These changes are going to eliminate lots of problems I think, especially inadequate trainers.

I REALLY like his style.

Plus, he did a meeting just for us to discuss the problems in the ward. We could tell all the problems without being criticized for "complaining" for once. Then they wanted to personally see the house to make sure it was safe and up to date.

Overall from the visit I got the impression that they really worry about us, and that our feelings are their most important priority. It was great.

ummm...Have a great week. I'll try to send pictures later!

Love you all a ton!

Elder Molinari

Pain Raisan

4 August 2014 Bora Bora

This week we had a funny experience en faisant (by doing) port à port (door to door).

We approached two houses at the very end of a quartier ( neighborhood...but a single street), and because I couldn’t really decide which one to go to, Elder Peterson just ended up yelling “Iaorana” to see who would come out first.

The house on the very end ended up being the winner. Two little girls came out one was the neighbor, the daughter of the family. They probably had 8 - 9 years. We said hello and asked if their parents were there. One of them, Ravahere, ran to the house to get her mother.

We waited a little bit and she came back and said her mother was busy. We asked her to find out what her mother was busy with, so she ran back and asked. Then came back and said “with the baby.”

We asked what her name was then, and she told us “Ravahere,” then we asked what her mother's name was. So she ran back to the house and asked, came back and said her name. Then we asked, what her last name was, and she couldn’t remember - so she went to go ask again.

At this point I was chuckling pretty well because she kept running back and forth asking her mother questions. It was pretty cute.

Then she came back. We asked if her mother had talked with the missionaries before. She left, came back, "yes". Where? Another trip. “Raiatea.”

Then we gave her a Book of Mormon to give to her mother - after all the questions. Her mother accepted it and we are going to try to pass by again this week. We gave the two girls each an Article of Faith card, because they have a picture of Jesus on them with children.

It was a touching experience for me to share the gospel par l'intermediare d'une petite fille (through a little girl)

This morning we went and baked Pain Raisan with a couple of investigators that are really old. They had a pâtisserie here in Bora when they were younger. Their names are Jean Jacque and Marie Claude. Jean Jacque is French. He got married on Bora when he was stationed here in the military and never returned to France. 

Jean Jacque, Elder Lee Chip Sao, Marie Claude and Elder Peterson

We went SUPER early this morning and made raisin bread with them. It's been a looooooong time since they baked something. It took us a while, but it was worth it. It was delicious!

Jean Jacque provided instructions. We followed.

One pan done

Lookin' good!

Voila`!

Hiking the Summit

Here are the promised pictures from our hike last week. It takes a long time to upload pictures from these old computers. Sorry for the delay, but here they are! I hope you enjoy them.

It was a gorgeous day for our hike.

This is our companionship -
Elder Lee Chip Sao, Elder Peterson et moi.

So we begin. Onward and upward!

This was from the first lookout point.

The closer point to the left is our destination.

Almost there!

Made it!

This is the view from the summit.

We actually hiked on a bit further.

This is the view of the other side.

I still have those abs!

Surpassing the Year Mark

28 July 2014 Bora Bora

Well somehow it’s been more than a year now. Don't really know how that happened.

This week we found 6 new investigators, I think it’s the first time in my mission I found that many in one week. One of them was a lesson from our port à port sessions on the other side of the island. The two others were..I guess port à port as well, but it was just people we talked to on our way to visit a member’s house.

4 of these new investigators were found in a single lesson, it was like I was watching a TV show or something during the lesson. It was the first lesson. So we sit down, with this guy named Tauirai Tino (changeheaven body) and we start talking and his friend comes over - we didn’t get the name- his friend is just a little bit drunk, that "I had a vodka cruiser before breakfast" kind of drunk, and he joins us in our lesson.

Of course this is your average middle-of-the-jungle, wooden-benches-outside kind of lesson. Then they start arguing about the meaning of their name, because they are cousins, then all of a sudden, the argument gets serious and the big guy Tino says, "excuse us Elders we gotta go clear this up". So he grabs the guy and brings him over to where we can't see them.

While this is going on another friend, Maui, comes along and sits down in our bench circle. He told us not to worry about it cuz they are like that all the time.

Then Tino comes back and sits down and we continue the lesson. I think this guy was talked to by Jehovah’s Witnesses or something cuz he talks about the 144,000 chosen. We counter it with John 3:16, Christ came to save everyone, and we continue. At about this time two more people come walking by - a couple- and say hello as they pass. Then all of a sudden, the man turns around and says they are going to stay as well and they sit down.

Their names are Mickey and Philemon. During this, Tino's nephew also wandered over and sat down. So all of a sudden we go from this lesson to a sermon for this group of people. Keep in mind this was all in Tahitian as well. So we talked about the first vision and Book of Mormon, and the spirit was really strong. Then at the end we fixed another time for next week. They called me Orometua-which is a title of honor here- then we left.

We got to the bottom of the hill and I turned to Elder Peterson and said, "what just happened?" We didn’t really know it was quite a bizarre, yet awesome experience. 4 New investigators in one lesson. Thank you Heavenly Father.

Other than that, we are just continuing with our tracting sessions, and praying for more miracles like that.

We've inspired our third companion, Elder Lee Chip Sao to learn Tahitian. Hopefully, he will follow through with it. Tahitian is just such a weird language anything done in it feels surreal. Maybe it’s just the fact that it’s such an oddity that white people are walking around talking about Jesus in Tahitian...That’s probably it.

That was probably the most "stand out" experience this week. I laughed quite a bit at Kirstin's Japan-bicycle-mami experience (ed. note: check out his sister's blog @ molinariintokyo@blogspot.com or use the link right over there ===> in the side bar). Sounds like she got a little taste of what the island life is like here :)

What else...

I don't really see the ward division happening. There’re too many inactives, and I feel like there are not enough tithe paying priesthood holders to actually create a ward in ANAU. Maybe a branch...? We've been port à porting there because we think the Lord will help us find his future ward leaders for ANAU since there is not enough member/church exposure on that side of the island.

Most of the OLB's (ed. note: ???) we do are with very nice people...I hope they read those brochures!!!!!

The problem is everyone was waiting for the division. Then when it didn’t happen, people got discouraged. If it doesn’t happen again I feel like the members will just get even more demotivated.

Personally, I feel like a division is something that everyone needs to work for and not just something that happens from time to time. We haven’t merited it yet in my opinion. I think everyone wants it to happen just to cut the number of inactives down. "We'll give everyone 200 and see what happens after!" My goodness, not exactly a division if you ask me.

Well...sorry I don’t mean to be negative, just realistic.

We might have transfers here soon. Well probably, because president said it’s a waste of a team of missionaries to do 3-3 (ed. note: 2 companionships of 3 instead of 3 companionships of 2). So I think the Elders of FAANUI might be going or Elder Joly because he finishes next week. Then he'll slide over one of them and transfer the other. Either way we will know this week!

Hope you all have a good week!

We are going to hike up the giant mountain today, so I’ll send pictures later hopefully.

Elder Molinari

A Loooooong Week!

21 July 2014 Bora Bora

This week was super long, probably because we didn’t have very many lessons. Lots of port à port (ed. note: door to door)! We decided to focus this week and last on looking for new investigators, because it seems like it’s just the same people that were being visited before and frankly there aren’t very many potentials anymore. So just like what happened at TIAPA, we hit a “reset” button and went out searching for more people. I'd forgotten how great tracting in the islands is. The people are a lot nicer than those that we port à ported at TIAPA.

We had some pretty awesome experiences with the port à port. One of them we randomly decided to stop at this house and this old Papi came out. There were dogs barking and snarling everywhere. We were talking with him and he was having a difficult time understanding us. Then we realized he was pretty deaf. So once we started yelling it went better.

It was a pretty bizarre experience all in all. It might be the only OLB (ed. note: ??) experience I've done yelling, in Tahitian. We talked then he said he had back pain, so I offered to give him a blessing. He accepted and we went inside. Then-still yelling- I explained what we were going to do. In Tahitian things come out really blunt, and it’s pretty funny. What I said was.

"Papi, E horo'a matou ia oe the hoe haamaitairaa na roto te mana na te Atua. Te mau nei matou, ta'na mana, no te mea e mau tavini matou na te Atua!"

The translation is, we are going to give you a blessing through God's power. We hold His power, because we are his servants. Elder Peterson said it was pretty epic, especially since I was yelling the whole thing. Then we gave him the blessing, gave him a Joseph Smith Brochure and left.

After we’d pedaled away for a little bit Elder Peterson starts laughing and says, "what just happened?" Which made me laugh because it was pretty funny. Then he asked what do you think the papi thought? For all he knows we could have been three random angels - speaking Tahitian. He might have thought it was some kind of bizarre dream.

All in all tracting is pretty fun in the islands.

I got the package, and it was soooo awesome, thanks a ton I love you guys! Everything was there in it. The ant proof container is especially awesome. The Rubiks cube, while the [insert Chinese word] Cube is pretty cool, its super light and turns super easy. I like messing with it before I go to sleep it relaxes me.

The ward division is probably going to be the 9 of August, I think? We will see, everyone is pretty sure it’s going to happen. They found Elder Peterson and my house. I haven’t seen it yet but it’s on the other side of the island kind of next to this resort called Sofitel, just after Matira. It’s apparently in a pretty nice spot, everyone said its small, but that doesn’t bother me because the house at Uturoa was probably tinier!

My reflections this week were about trials. Trials can make life difficult and god gives trials to everyone. However, some people have to deal with more because they don’t know the gospel and they transgress against the law they don’t know about. Although they are not punished for it, they still end up suffering the consequences of their actions, whether or not they knew it was a commandment. Therefore, by teaching people the gospel and helping them follow the commandments; life is made easier because most of the bad consequences are removed when you follow the commandments. The trials stay but the other bad effects go. There’re my thoughts!

Love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Molinari

A few pictures

One of the resorts on a motu

President et soeur Bize et moi

My awesome new hat!

Note from editor: Some problem with the the blog site isn't allowing the addition of pictures in the post I made yesterday. So here they are in a separate post.