But, its a good exhausted, because Gloria got baptized this afternoon!!! It started late, and one of the talks didn't show up, and she was wearing a black bra (oops) under a wet white dress, but it was awesome!!! Once the service itself started the Spirit was strong and, of course, we are sisters after all, so the tears were flowin freely when we saw Gloria all dressed in white and sopping wet! Gloria cried the whole way through and looked so beautiful in the dress we got her. When she was changing she said, "i just feel so new." She also forgot to take her cell phone out of her pocket, but she was so happy, she was just like, "oh well, the phone got baptized too!" It really was such a great day and I was just grateful to get to be a part of it! (side note--elder bednar just tricked me into biting into a wesabe peanut. dont ever do that.)(we are at the bureau writing our e-mails because it's a holiday and everything is closed...gotta love france and their holidays...lets just say its a good thing it's fast sunday, because we have no food and obviously cant go grocery shopping! haha.)
First things first, so I was putting some stuff down in the chapel during the zone conference lunch break (meaning not many people were in there) the other day & Pres Staheli came up & asked me how our family knew the Hinckley’s. I told him I didn’t think we did & he told me that when they were looking @ the transfer board last week, Elder Hinckley pointed to my picture & asked who I was. Pres said, “that’s Sister Pearce, she’s from Provo. Her dad is the tennis coach & BYU.” And E. Hinckley said, “oh, Brad Pearce?” so… 1. I don’t know why he pointed at my picture. 2. Do you know the Hinckley’s? I guess this Hinckley’s (Richard) wife was a big time tennis player & her brother played too, so maybe you know her from that?
So, I'm thinkin' I'll just bullet a few of the things I realized this week, because the neurons are just not firing properly at the moment!!!
THINGS I REALIZED THIS WEEK hehe:
- It is a little awkward calling someone, while you're on public transportation, to remind them to bring extra underwear to the baptism.
- I, somehow, am always the person to ask the awkward questions!! Like, "so....why exactly is it that you don't you come to church?" or "so wait, you haven't actually been baptized, you just come to church every week and go on splits with the missionaries for fun and you're just waiting for the 'right moment' to get baptized; do i understand correctly?" I mean, they are always questions that have to be asked to understand where the person's at, but I must just be awkward enough (or maybe blonde enough) to get away with it. However, one of them turned out super great this week. We were at a member's house (she has health problems and has a hard time coming to church), and her daughter's friend was over. Long story short, I ask the friend if she is a member of the church, and the member responds by saying, "no she's not baptized. But, she and her twin brothers want to be baptized." Well....... we are definitely okay with that! So, we'll see what happens! (we want to teach them as a family, but the kids are at school during the day and the dad works night shifts, so that's complicated. Otherwise we need permission to teach the kids....etc) That rendez-vous was fun though. I really think i fit in with kids better. The girls were braiding my hair by the time we left and the mom and girls told us they'd teach us an African dance next time! haha, that will certainly be an adventure!
- You know how we say "flat as a pancake?" well, they really do say, "flat as a crepe!" laughed so hard when i heard a kid say that when he was worried about his nintendo mario getting squished by some bad guy.
- Whenever I start feeling more comfortable with French, the Lord puts me back in my rightful place by sending a Haitian my way. I tell you what, sometimes I feel like they could be speaking German for all I understand!
- It's always comforting when young adult investigators tell you "ya know you're not ugly, nor do you appear to be crazy." And then it's always fun when they find out that we do, in fact, use electricity. Crazy mormon myths! gotta love it!
- I started thinking that I would get away with not having to eat anything gross as a missionary. Naive. Oh...but so naive! I won't go into details, because I have spent way too much time trying to forget the details, but suffice it to say meat and gelatinous substances should not go together. But, the sweet old lady, Jeanne, was just too cute to say no to. We grinned and bore it. Rather gracefully if I do say so myself. (ie we waited until we had left her home to throw up all of the meat and gelatinous substance.)
- We realized this week that it must be a very different experience living in an Elder apartment. From the sounds of it duct tape, super glue, and water balloons are used much more frequently! haha. I feel like we're missin out! At our apartment, it's like a game to see who can do the dishes before the other notices. Actually, during one of our planning sessions we had to set a goal to stop being so nice and "allow others the opportunity to serve you", because the "nice-war" was getting out of control! Ridiculous, I know.
- Some things have not changed. I would be the only one dumb enough to "go check in front of the car because they're might be a 'thing.'" Which, of course, led to Elder Prunin honking as I was bending over to check for the “thing,” me jumping and screaming bloody murder, and then everyone else laughing.
- Contacting is still always exciting. This week's most amusing experiences included one dude try to bisoux us, and another offering to move closer to where I live. ("Thanks, but no thanks, and ill give your number to the frere missionaries! have a good one!")
- And last---you just never know what is going to happen next! Remember the lady Evelyne, who we miraculously found last week?! Well, we go back to visit her again and turns out, her friend had asked to come over for our visit with her. (oh background....we had had a rendez-vous scheduled with her earlier in the week, which she ended up not being able to come to, but while we were waiting for her, we played with all the neighbor kids on the floor of the building. They were hilarious! and before we left we sang "I am a child of God" to them, and for a SUPER rowdy bunch, we were shocked how quiet they got and how intently they listened. I'm not gonna lie, it was precious!) Anyway, so we're teaching Evelyne and her friend and one by one, all the neighborhood kids show up! Apparently, they're like all one big happy family in their building and noone believes in knocking or anything, so the more the merrier! One of the 10-yr old girls was telling us how she has been asking her mom if she can pray before they go to bed, and they were all pretty excited about Jesus being resurrected (though, the re-enactment of it by David (he's 9 i think) might not have been on quite as high of a spiritual note....ok, so closer to blasphemy, but ya know, we do the best we can)! haha. AND, they're all coming to church tomorrow with Evelyne!! Primary is going to be one big party that is for sure! I so took primary and young women's for granted growing up. There are kids in this ward who are begging to come to church (because their parents are less active) and begging to be baptized (that's another battle with a mom who feels like her child needs to be prepared before he makes that decision), and it just reminds me how spoiled I was and am! I have so many blessings!!! And I want these precious children to have them too! I want them to know that they are children of a Heavenly Father who loves them, that He listens to their prayers, and that He just wants them to be happy. We really are blessed aren't we?!
Well, those are some of my thoughts about the adventures of this week! I love being a missionary, even if some days seem like an eternity! I hope things are going well at home! I love you. And I am so grateful to have such a wonderful family. You really are the best. Hopefully I'll have time to write you at least a short letter later today. Have a great week!
love, Jordan xoxo
Tara – Finals are over!!! I can’t believe, still can’t believe it took me so long to remember “scott.” If you “happened” across the talk “the meaning of the atonement” by Cleon Skousen on the internet something & it showed up in one of your letters, that wouldn’t be the worst thing! Hehe Love you sister!
J&M – Thanks for your letters! And no, Matthew you cannot have my iHome. Nice try though!
Josh & Halle – I miss you two lots!
p.s. Did I tell you I met the Bishop & his wife when I came to this ward during my study abroad? They were like a cute younger couple, so we sat with them. Obviously he wasn’t the bishop then.
p.s.s. We totally have fiches in our area book that have Andrew’s name on them!
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