Celebrate Good Times!

Happy 4th of July Family!!!

Seriously can't believe you got to see David Archuleta....again. AND for one of the best holidays of the year. Well, I guess I should just be happy that you are celebrating appropriately! Speaking of, we figured we only have the excuse to be super annoyingly patriotic Americans in Paris once a year, so despite the momentary regret of not having packed my fake blue eyelashes into my mission trunks (i know, total oversight), Soeur Smith and I managed to pull together quite the festive ensemble. Haha, we might be the only ones who actually think we are funny, but we sure think it's hilarious walking side-by-side looking like someone just puked red, white, and blue all over us!

After all, we are going to the Hagemann's for an All American fete (remember this is the may the fourth be with you-mary poppins lady). Though, when Sister Hagemann was giving me instructions we did have a pretty good laugh over the fact that out of the twelve of us missionaries here, only 4 are actually American. Which really just makes things even more fun, because we totally have another excuse to dress up on Bastille Day!! (I feel like Tara these days, but heck any excuse to dress up!)(and this is random and ironic, but we totally had la marseillaise stuck in our heads all morning in our apartment.....don't worry--we sang a rousing round of the Star-Spangled Banner for our opening song during comp study to make up for it.) Anyway, we also decided that it would be in keeping with the spirit of celebration to go to the Army Museum today and since we have some other things we have to do, this e-mail is gonna have to be brief (you may breathe your sigh of relief now).

So, this week's REASONS to CELEBRATE!!!

1. We can celebrate because Mikey, bless his heart, still looks after us. Just as he did months ago when I was serving in Paris Lilas (funny how things come full circle), one night as we were leaving the church this week, we said goodbye and he yells after us, "k be careful!!! You're too pretty to get raped."

2. We set a baptismal date with Zdroskov. Yeah, it has taken much practice muttering that name to finally get it down. Remember mine and Soeur Clark's bulgarian mamma friends from like way back last year? And do you remember the Bulgarian mamma introducing me to her son at church just a couple months ago and telling us to, and i quote, "make love and conversation?" Well, the son, Zdroskov, came to church again a while back and said his mom wanted to send me a hug and kiss (funny sister missionary moment), and we started talking to him about the church and his mom being a member and why he wasn't baptized, etc. We asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said no because he needed to change his name first (something to do with being from an old soviet country) or some other sort of ridiculous notion like that, so we gave him a book of mormon in bulgarian and that was that.

Well, he shows up to church a few weeks ago, pulls us aside saying he has something important to talk to us about (yeah....i'll be honest, i think we were both still expecting like marriage proposal 10 of the transfer to go down). And then continued by saying that after he left last time, he thought about it and that he wants to be baptized this month. So, long story short, we taught him with a member and he really does seem sincere. So, we are celebrating the beginning of what is sure to be quite the adventure trying to get Zdraskov ready to be baptized on July 24th. Let's just say we will be praying extra fervently for the gift of tongues, because holy cow this man speaks broken franglais like no other i have ever met. Case in point: "Je build my future famille à God." Good times baby!!

3. I am definitely celebrating the end of that concert! I mean, don't get me wrong--the concert was wonderful, there was a great spirit, and there were some really good new investigators found from it, but the stress leading up to it... let's just say I think my companion was just as relieved as I was to have it over. So, yes, I did end up doing as I was asked, stopped being difficult and sang a solo (I know that My Redeemer Lives) . It was cute, afterwards, Soeur Smith was congratulating one of the chinese twins on how well she did (she is like the best flutist i have ever heard) and the other one came over and was like, "hey! i helped too! My job is to calm her." And Soeur Smith was like, "yes that was my job too. So good job!!!" And seriously, Soeur Smith was and is an angel! And so that's exactly what I told President Poznanski when he asked me about my companion during interviews. Which, brings me to my last bullet....

4. Meeting the Poznanski's (still not sure how to spell that name....oops) was great! They are super nice, approachable, and it will be great having a French couple leading the mission. (He is the first French Mission President for this mission, and only the second French one ever.) They did everything in French, which was different. Though, of course, different doesn't mean bad, just different. And our interviews with President were brief, but he was very complimentary, and then said that a lot can be done in three weeks and that he really wants me to focus on teaching my companion all that I can so that she can teach the gospel as well as I can before I go (apparently he told her to be a vampire and suck out all of my knowledge, haha). So, I'll do my best, but really I learn more from Soeur Smith every day than I could possibly teach her. So, at least two things are certain--we will be learning a lot together in these next few weeks and we can celebrate having a wonderful new mission president!

Ok, well, sorry for the lame e-mail, but know that things are going great! We're celebrating the good times we're having in style and hope you're doing the same! I love you lots and lots!!!

Bisous, Jordan

p.S. as far as other celebratory news goes--Lou is also getting baptized the 23rd!! Bowchikawowow!!!


pss, so that means when making our travel plans, we need to be in paris on sat & sun for the baptisms