Lots of Pictures

27 July 2015 Moorea

We went on a long hike today to "the lookout of the three pines." I don't have a lot of time to write so you'll have to be content with pictures from the hike and a few others from the week - which I just realised are mostly flowers.

These remind me of Kirstin's cherry blossoms from Japan,
although they have nothing to do with cherry blossoms nor Japan!

This is me and a giant spirit tree.
Its called that because lots of spirits live in it o.o

Fields and fields..... of pineapples

This is the shot we climbed for - Three Pines Overlook.
Well, maybe for the panoramas too!

A selfie in paradise

This is an addition to my badge picture collection

Good Week

20 July 2015 Mo'orea

Relaxing at the swimming area of a resort near PaoPao

Well, it rained...almost all week. Missionary work is tedious when it rains, well not really. Tracting is tedious when it rains, and we do a whole lot of that here. Our movie night for "Meet the mormons" was a success. Our new ami François came, thanks to the support we have from another member who served his mission in Australia. After watching meet the mormons for about the 10th time, I can safely say my favorite part is the pilot's story, followed by the Humanitarian. The members here are INCREDIBLE! Its only been 2 weeks and you'de think I've been here for a month.

This week the pedal on my bike exploded. Well, the bolt exploded - good thing there were no cars on the road because it totally sent me veering into the middle of the road. So....the trooper almost made it to the end. Now I'm seeing what I have to do about the pedal...We do an Enourmous amount of biking here, but I don't think its as much biking as Tautira so its not too bad. I'm just very tired at the end of the day, thanks to my almost 5 months in a car.

I snapped a pic of this friend

Today we went to The hotel at the end of the Paopao sector. Dont ask me for the name because I cant remember. It was stunningly beautiful, and not a single person responded hello when you said hello to them. Welcome to the coldest part of paradise. Other than that we saw two dolphins do some tricks, and a small sea turtle sanctuary. Baby sea turtles love playing around in the water, its pretty amusing. Never before has the temptation to jump off a dock into CRYSTAL CLEAR water been so strong. Good thing there were railings on the bridge.

We got a new car! Not really. We're on bikes!

Since My father has been sending me speeches, I'd like to recommend one I find particularly enlightening. Brad Wilcox, on grace. Incredible talk. You can find it on BYU speeches.

Love you all!

~Elder Molinari

Post Coming Soon for 13 July 2015

Our computer broke and I haven't been able to get to the post for last week.

Transfer

6 July 2015 Tiarei

I hardly have any time to write you guys and since I'm on an American keyboard, its impossible to type quickly. I have a boat to catch to Moorea in an hour or so. I'll try to give events of the week through pictures! Oh, and I got changed at the last ;inute. I'm now going to Haumi at Moorea.

Love you all, enjoy the pictures

Elder Molinari

We had 2 baptisms this weekend, and the font drained over night...call the firefighters!

The shorter sister on my left is Titiura, To the right is Hinerava.
Hineraa was also a miracle.
She decided to be baptised Saturday last Tuesday.

After Baptism: moi, Titiura et Elder Houde

This is mami Taamino, she made the flower displays for the chapel Sunday

Last picture with my zone in Tiarei

Transfers

29 June 2015 Tiarei

The camera lens doesn't quite capture the gradient
colors in the sky.

Well its incredible, but I got transferred for the last 5 weeks of my mission. I'm going to Moorea, Paopao. I’m pretty happy; it’ll be nice to be on an island again. My companion is another Vanuatu, named Elder Tokalolo. The transfer was actually a "special assignment" designed to help elders who have been out for a while but have difficulty taking the lead, assume the responsibility. 3 others from my group that finish in 5 weeks have a similar responsibility. All in all I can't complain, Moorea is GORGEOUS, and the ward there works like crazy so It’ll be a nice send out. There’re no telephone poles in Moorea :)

Elder Houde,Titiura et moi

Anyways, this week we had an awesome experience! Titiura had her baptismal interview. The one thing that was preventing her from baptism was marriage. Her boyfriend said he would never marry her. So what did she do? The day of her interview, she came with all her possessions packed in two bags and announced she was returning to live with her mother. She has an incredible testimony, and it was amazing to see her leave the terrible situation she was in. After the interview she took the bus to her mother's house, and that was that. If that isn’t a literal example of faith, I don’t know what is. Especially since she had a testimony after reading the first Brochure we gave her, we hadn’t even taught yet! Just goes to show you that this is the Lord's work, He touches hearts. Choices determine destiny. Baptism is Saturday, just before the transfer happens Monday.

Other than that it was a pretty average week. Its hard to believe I’m so close to the end!

Love you all!

Elder Molinari

Concert and Work

22 June 2015 Tiarei

This week was incredible in terms of work. We were busy every day until sundown with lessons. The end of each day we were completely fried mentally and physically. We have these moments during our end of day planning where I'll stop to think, and Elder Houde will as well. Then we will wake up 15 minutes later. It’s pretty funny.

Anyways, I'm not sure if I already shared the story, but one of our amis, Titiura, will be baptised July 4th. Her date was given to her in a dream. We didn’t even fix it. No big deal. When you have a very spiritual people, Heavenly Father can accomplish his work in a very spiritual way. That just lets you know a little bit how things work here in Tahiti.

Tuesday we had a lesson in a Faaapu (farm), which involved crossing the river. Luckily it hadn’t rained too much.

This is us in the Faaapu. I’m hiding among the Bushes. The bushes are called bird of Paradise, "oiseau de paradis", because of the flower in them. This is the flower-

This is where we teach lessons to latchkey children that don’t have anyone really that watch them, in the back of our pick up.

Other news...I can site-read most hymns now on the piano. It’s been a little less than a year that I play every Sunday. It’s helped me improve a ton piano wise. Who knew that a little Chopin revival before leaving on my mission would have come in handy? Maybe I'll tie in a little engagement for all those reading this week. Break a habit and try something new. By that I mean, try to develop a new talent or skill. Who knows, maybe it will come in handy some day? ;)

We did the first of a series of missionary concerts this week. IT was really nice to see everyone, and to sing for an enormous audience! There must have been over a 1000 people! The concerts were, nice and the testimonies born were great as well. My favorite was my buddy Elder Franco. He bore a killer testimony in Tahitian. We will be doing more concerts throughout July, and even next Sunday. Did someone say road trip?



This photo is my companion, Elder Houde, Elder Gouttin, and I. He's a French elder that came with us at the same time. We finish together. We stole a big bag of popcorn after one of the rehearsals and ate as much as we could!

Today we went to a beach to play soccer. I cut my toe pretty badly on a shell. Tahiti problems.

Love you all!

Elder Molinari

Sorry!

15 June 2015 Tiarei

Auguste et moi

I realized last week I had sent photos, but not written a letter! The biggest thing that happened last week was Auguste's Baptism. It was awesome, and I absolutely love this guy. He's super funny, and is always cracking these dry jokes that just make me laugh so hard. Here’s the abridged version of his story.




We can’t find people. Say prayer. Go to end of road that leads to nowhere. Find Auguste. Auguste accepts lessons. We find out Auguste had tons of contact with the church as an adolescent. Lessons start. 2 weeks go by. Spirit bears powerful witness of the truth of the restoration to Auguste. Baptism fixed for following week. Auguste lives all the commandments and aligns his life completely with the gospel. Baptism. Miracle. Then Sunday, he got the Aaronic priesthood, and since we had two of our investigators getting it at the same time, he received, and then immediately got to participate in giving it. What an incredible experience. Miracles happen, God prepares people for us, and if we ask we receive.

We also have almost no P-day anymore because of concert rehearsals. Luckily the last one was today. As a treat president let us all watch “Meet the Mormons,” in French. It was awesome. My favorite story was the world war two bomber guy.

This week we had a genealogy activity at the church where we talked about the booklet my Family and how to fill out ascendance sheets. We had 15 amis, I'd say it was a success. Well I know that the genealogy is mostly done on The Norwegian side, I’m excited to do it on the Italian side.
Last week I had been missing teaching principles of the Gospel Sunday (I’ve kind of picked up the habit). Well, Heavenly Father worked things out so I could teach, but not only that, he inspired a couple we teach to come to church. The husband is a rather skeptical guy, and we never really get to have a good conversation because he's always diverging during the lessons. Well, we only did one lesson with them but it was difficult. So I had said to Elder Houde, the next time we see them we need to teach the atonement, one of the most doctrinally satisfying topics we can teach. Well, Sunday it just so happened that the lesson I got to teach was my favorite, the atonement. By the end it was obvious that they were visibly touched by the spirit and authority of the lesson topic. Let’s see if there’s progress this week *wink*

Elder Smith, whom I trained, moi and Elder Fareata,
who Smith is training. Three generations!

Well...that’s about all I have to say that I can think of at the moment.

Faaitoito outou

Elder Molinari