Empty & Full

Hey family!!!!!

Can I just say i love you?! Cuz I do. So much. I don't know how I got so lucky, but I'm definitely not complaining about having such great family and friends!

So, the Paris Lilas side of the apartment is totally empty, cuz it's just me. The other desk is bare, the closet looks so sad, and it's just weird crawling into bed and not having someone to say goodnight to on the bottom bunk. I mean sure, you'd think the whole 24/7 together thing would get a little old, but really it is surprisingly lonely without my companion here by my side at all times! So, since I am alone, I have been working with Sister Gifford and Sister Thompson and I love working with them, but our schedule is absolutely crazy full since we're working both areas. And Paris isn't exactly what you would call a small city! It has been one adventure after another this week. But President called last night and asked if I could take a mini missionary from Tuesday to Sunday, so I'll have somewhat of a companion until Sunday. Cross your fingers she speaks French! hehe.

Somehow we have been like surrounded by men lately. Good thing is that since we're in a threesome it's easy to teach them, but also leads to some interesting experiences. Like on sunday, this muslim guy, named Mody, (contacted him on the metro a few weeks ago and has come to church the last couple weeks)(and to clarify, he has muslim origins, but doesn't "participate" with them) came to church again. And afterwards i was talking with the other sisters and was like, "yeah, im pretty sure he winked at me; we are definitely passing him to the elders AGAIN." And they both said that he winked at them too, so voilà, easy decision. But then, later on, i realized he has an eye twitch. maybe the fact that he is coming to a christian, mormon on top of that, church on sundays and he might be found out and burned at the stake or whatever by his "people" is a little stressful, hence the eye twitch. Just throwin that out there!! (fyi i wouldn't actually joke about that if i thought it was an actual concern. we are very cautious about muslims.)

The chinese elders had a baptism yesterday and it was great and we had lots of investigators there!! kind of felt like we were herding cattle for most of it trying to run around making sure everyone is being taken care of, but it is such a blessing to have people see a baptism! the spirit is always strong, and then they can see that you know as much as we talk about baptism being like this big important thing, it really is very simple and very NOT scary. And can i just say how grateful i am for members who like "get it." k we'll ask people if they can help with some of our specific investigators or something and they'll be like, "yeah, of course, i'll come say hi at the end of church!" I mean that's nice, and it does help. It'll make them feel welcome. But at the same time it's like, no i meant like can you come take care of this person? like have them come sit with you and allow us to worry about the other thousand things that have to be done. For example, Fabienne (a young adult who got back from her mission like a year ago) came up after church yesterday and just took suzie and valerie into this meeting for the young adults (i think they were planning a party or something), which was so nice! We were then able to take care of the other investigators and didn't have to worry about keeping them entertained until the baptism started, and they felt like they were actually part of the ward, instead of just the tag-alongs of the missionaries.

So we taught the law of chastity to suzie and valerie this week, and the member who came with us, may or may not have kinda given the impression that we think you can never, ever, be alone with a boy. So, we might have to do some clarifying. haha. And after church on sunday, they came up to sister thompson and said, "so, wait, there is a living prophet today?" See!!! poignant example of why church is so important! Makes up for our mistakes and when we forget to mention like only one of the more important and unique aspects of our doctrine--like that we have a prophet! Big time stone. There is this story that sister staheli sometimes shares about a recent convert (like had been baptized for a few months or even more) who went to watch general conference and came out and the missionaries asked what she learned and she said, "well, i learned that God has a body and that we have a prophet today." hahaha. Oops. Slight oversight. There are interesting statistics that talk about how the average missionary, who was born and raised in the church, has accumulated over 6000 hours of gospel learning and instruction (or some very big number, but im pretty sure i just pulled that one out) by the time they are 19, but so many converts are baptized after like 12 hours! Kinda interesting perspective.

Seriously love you guys. I miss you lots (i actually got a little teary the other night lying in bed thinking of the next time i will get to hug my parents and how great that will be. probably like the best day of my life!), but I'm so very grateful to be here!

love, jordan xoxo

tell josh and halle good job on the primary program!!! and even though i wasn't there to cry during it, you can rest assured that ill probably get all teary reading his talk when i get it in the mail!!! so all is well!

and holy cow.....exploding fingers? What? i had no idea that could happen either! that's pretty gnarly. i hope you got good pics to log that away!!!

oh and guess what we heard? Elder collins was the new group of missionaries' teacher in the MTC. they said he was hilarious!

oh and tell tara i met elder hales! actually, we're becoming buds because im kinda like a guest member of their district these days.....and i am pretty impressed with his musical talent and french. and it's so funny because the first thing that all of her friends say is, "you are just like tara."

and yes, tell susan thank you for the letter and the handkerchief…… I was very grateful!!

did i also mention that we now have an exercise bike in our apartment? Elder Ellsworth bought like this 200 euro stationary bike a while ago, but it won't fit in his new apartment and he knows it'll get thrashed if it is in an elder apartment, so he had elder jensen and elder volpe deliver it to ours. and yes, they did come by way of metro, so the videos of elder jensen riding the bike while waiting on the metro quai or riding it while in the metro are seriously hilarious!! (they said this one lady was super annoyed with them, but it was funny to see how many people just didn't even bother paying attention. so french.