What is up Gang?!
Nice work at the sectional J&M!! Mom--your week just sounded too exhaustingly productive if you ask me (granted anything that involves the word "caulking" would warrant that opinion from me)! Dad-- alright already i get the point about your missionary work rant! hehe. and please tell me that that was you and josh who decided to stop and get those wyoming fireworks. oh and happy Father's Day next week! "why dont you get yourself something real nice" and then ill have a real gift for you here. ha. Tara--i started a letter to you today and was so excited to get another one in the mail. Joshy--i want to hear how you like the feel of your new racquet? thats pretty sweet! halle--girlfriend!!! i absolutely loved loved loved the picture you sent me of you on the podium with your medal! so cool!
Well, the work goes well. We set out this week determined to teach 20 lessons. And yeah....it didnt happen. BUT, we taught over twice as many as the first two weeks of the transfer and we set a baptismal date! That's what I'm talkin' about!! (If I may borrow Dad's new favorite phrase.) Her name is Nadia Lopez and she is from Cape Verde. We were mining the area books a while back, and it was kinda a mystery why the missionaries said she didnt seem interested and stopped teaching her, so we decided to investigate and find out what the story was. She was way excited to meet with us. She doesn't have much religious background, but she says she just feels good when she comes to church and when she has the missionaries over. So, it is so fun being able to teach her why she can feel that difference. In a lot of ways she's like teaching a child (like she had never heard of moses or abraham or read any of the Bible), and it is so refreshing! I know that for the honest and earnest seeker, all big concerns about our church and being baptized can and will be resolved (hullo truth on your side gives you a little edge up), but sometimes people get these crazy ideas (example--being re-baptized, even with authority, would mean that they didnt believe in Christ before or something) that really limit their progression. But Nadia is totally open and willing to do the work and make the changes necessary to be a member of the Church! And there are some other people in our ward who are from Cape Verde as well and they have already been great about welcoming her, teaching with us, and are getting excited about coming to her baptism on July 3rd. Hey, our zone is "Dreaming of White" and miracles happen every day.
I haven’t actually ever heard it from President myself, but I guess his “miracle of 2010” came about because one night he woke up & just felt the spirit really strong. So he went to his office & prayed, & I don’t know how he described it, but something like somehow he felt like he “felt” the keys he was given, for his calling as president of this mission, turn. And that he kind of had a revelation of where things could go. You know how I said that there have been > 100 baptism already this year? That might not sound like a whole lot, but when you compare it to the fact that, that’s more than ALL of last year, it’s sayin’ something! Anyway, I don’t know the details, but good things are happening in the mission.
Last week we had FHE with a two sisters (marie and kiki is what they have us call them) in the ward, and one of their non-member sons, and it was awesome. It probably helped that she didn't force feed us, but mostly it was cuz after the lesson and dinner, we were talking and Sister Nikiema said something about dancing in Africa. And so I asked her to show us and teach us. (Hey gotta profit from bein in a very African area!!) And I think she loved it cuz she got up and turned on some nice chill african style music and man she went to town. I was really glad her son had left, because we had an awesome girls dance party! (keep in mind these sisters are like 50 years old, but dang they still got it. they got some moves!!)
Another good night this week was when we were teaching English class to a bunch of men (mostly African) and I know I sounded super dumb when I asked if they knew the ABCs. haha. But, no, they didn't and they didn't know how to say the alphabet in English. And you know--that's kinda a good foundation to have! So we practiced and then we sang the song a couple times. And they loved it! They asked to sing it again next week even. I can only imagine how hilarious that would have been to pass by a bunch of old African men singing the ABCs with these little American missionaries. The things we do as missionaries. gotta love it.
Speaking of old men. There is this super cute, TINY old man in our ward named Frere Micale. We're talking he might be a few inches taller than me...maybe. He drove Nadia and us to church in Versailles on Sunday (it was Stake Conference), and when he came to meet us at the gare, the cute thing still had the huge sticker showing the size of his pants on the bag of his leg. He lives all alone, had obviously bought new pants, and didn't have anyone to tell him that he needed to take the tag off before going out in public! I know it probably wasn't super dignified, but I couldn't help but just being endeared to him and squatting down to give him a hand. You know how I have a weakness when it comes to cute old men!!
Two best public transportation sitings of the week:
1. little boy using the wall inside the train station as a urinal while mother stands by waiting for him to finish. for real.
2. little girl getting bored while standing and waiting for her mom to finish talking on the phone. So she sees a little crumb of food on the ground and picks it up and puts it in her mouth. oh how i wanted to cry!!!
Well, sorry I dont have very funny stories for the week. I love hearing about your adventures from home and am glad things are going well! I dont remember her name, but one of the church leaders who spoke at the conference yesterday (transmitted from Salt Lake), talked about 3 ways to be virtuous and strong or something (dang i need to pay attention better), and they were reading your scriptures every day, praying every day, and smiling!!!
Mom I loved that you talked about laughing in your e-mail, because it's so true--laughing and smiling give us power and make life so much better! I know I sure have a lot to smile and laugh about. I'm grateful for you guys and I miss you, but I am so grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. I am sure blessed.
Love you lots and lots,
Jordan
ps ive been waking up with these new huge bug bites every morning and it is so not a comforting thought!!! hello im in Paris, France, not Guatemala....I am so NOT okay with it!
ps mom your little dialogue on being funny made me giggle. i am not concerned about you, but after this e-mail maybe i should be concerned for myself.
pss LOVE YOU!!!!
Monday, June 21, 2010
Thursday, June 17, 2010
"Dreaming of White"
Hello Dearest Family!!!!
Ok first things first--Dad how did you manage to get attacked by another man-o-war?! Like seriously, how does that happen? No wonder why mom used to text me changes to your will before every trip you guys take together! Evidently you're just askin for it these days.
And heck yes "Soeur Pearce will have an investigator at that fireside" on the 4th of July!! What's funny is nothing stays a secret. I happened to randomly call Elder Stover for a question about institute and he was like "so I hear your dad is coming to town." haha. And he mentioned that President was talking to you guys about doing a fireside. And President kinda tested the waters (it felt like it at least) during our interview again this week. I told him we weren't planning on seeing each other (this was before I found out about the fireside), but that I didn’t think it would bother me. I was just more worried about my mom....but now I figure you can be tough!! hehe. Loving daughter I am. And Sister Bellini says she'd be fine because she only has a couple more months after that anyway. What is the fireside going to be on anyway? Is it the whole team doing it? (and dad so help me if you offer me to translate. I refuse. just sayin!)
Anyway, we had another great week. Started out by going to the Rodin museum for P-day and having these super American tourists ask to take a picture OF us. No they were not members of the church, and no they weren't in the picture with us. They actually just took a picture of us. So random! And that day we actually looked relatively normal (ok let's be real sister missionary attire doesn't usually make blending in super easy....). Today, on the other hand, we went into Paris to do a boat tour on the Seine with our district. And guess what all six of the Elders showed up in? Boo-boos. Yes, that's right African boo-boos. (I will have to send you a pic sometime.) We turned a lot of heads today that is for sure!! And all the Africans selling those little Eiffel tower keychains at Trocadero were going crazy. I felt like the elders were getting hit on by African men! It was kinda refreshing to be honest, but also SO entertaining!
Then we had interviews. The Zone leaders did a great training and had us "go back to the MTC" (we even had to hand over our plaques and everything) and then learned about finding, teaching, and baptizing, and even had gym time (aka ping pong and 3-legged-companionship-unity-building races) and role-played. Then they finished with us all sitting in front of the baptismal font for the big finale. They said they had been jealous of normandie having their "get on the wagon" thing, so they came up with one for us and gave a little talk to introduce it....bum buh da bum...."Dreaming of White." They talked about how this is not the time for planting seeds. This is the time for baptizing!!! Maybe slightly “Remember the Titans” pep talkish, but hey it worked!
It was powerful and we now have a zone goal that every equipe will have a baptismal date by June 21st. And then the next morning we woke up to a great voice mail from them singing "I’m dreaming of a white mission" (to the tune of White christmas of course), and it was hilarious! And then as soon as their training was over, Sister Bellini and I had to stand up and walk into the other room to role-play with President and Sister Staheli. Can you say pressure?! haha. jk it went great and wasn't too stressful. They wanted to make sure that their missionaries knew how to teach people to pray, because I guess when Elder Hinckley was here he said that nothing happens until you get people on their knees. So, we better be able to teach people to pray!! And I definitely learned something from the training president Staheli gave after about teaching prayer.
So side note: ya know how the Versailles zone had kinda been falling behind? Well, Bretagne is up to like >80% of the new standards of excellence! Like Bretagne was the area that had the biggest reputation for being totally dead & impossible to baptize in. So I guess President Staheli (he shared this @ mission council – so I heard it second hand) asked Elder Collins what they did to change it so drastically, and I guess E. Collins said something like, “President, we just believed.” Elder Collins is also the person, as I understand it, who started the phrase, “get on the wagon” – which is now like the mission wide slogan for the miracle of 2010.
This next week we have rendez-vous set up with like 8 potential new investigators. So things are picking up!! And you'll never guess who one of those appointments is with.....this was like one of the hardest things I've had to do I might add.....but Madame Dard. Yes, as in the Madame that I lived with when I was on my study abroad (the one who cleaned the bathtub with the kitchen sponge!!hehe). Her name kept coming up in my head, but I kept pushing it out saying that I didn't think she was even in our area and that would just be weird and awkward. But then when Sister Bellini was sick and I had the opportunity to do like 5 hours of area book studying and calls one day, I found other fiches that were by her metro stop....so why not right? We kinda had to be creepers cuz her building is really secure, but someone let us in and then we buzzed her apartment and she was like yeah, come on up. We talked for a little and she asked why I was back and everything. But, she and her sister were on their way out to a museum exhibit VIP opening, so she gave me her number and said to call. I didn't notice it, but apparently half way through our conversation she switched from tu-toying me to vous-voying me and I have no idea what that means!! I know I'm probably just being a girl and reading too much into it, but I don't know if it's that I'm older now and speak French better, or if she's trying to establish that now that I'm a missionary, we aren't as familiar.....aaaah. I just don't know. I fully intend on being bold about why we're here and why it's so important, but we'll see how it goes with her this week I guess! (Remember she is a very devout catholic) Her apartment still smells the same as I remember it.
Which reminds me to tell you our theme for the transfer, and I know you will laugh, because it totally reminds me of an Herbal Essences commercial. But it actually came about because I was singing that song from Hairspray where she says, “big, blonde, and beautiful”—so to that same tune, our theme is “Be bold and beautiful.” Haha. Great? Oh yeah. The beautiful is referencing the scripture that says like how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who proclaim the Gospel. So, we are determined to paint our toe-nails sometime this week as well, to help with the beautiful gospel preachin’ feet thing. And we are really “believin” in a baptism this transfer, so we are gonna be working really hard on those feet to find someone prepared! And the BOLD is because we know that there are people who are ready! So, we are gonna be BOLD & BEAUTIFUL this transfer! Haha laugh all you want, but we like it! (And, yes, sometimes I do wave my hair when we sing it; just for fun and dramatic effect!)
So I got called and asked to speak for a few minutes about the teaching process that led to Gloria’s baptism for part of the training @ interviews tomorrow and then also to do ANOTHER musical number at the Zone conference.
So can I share one of the things I love about my companion?! She takes the phrase "Stop and smell the roses" quite literally. Like I have learned that if we ever pass flower bushes (especially roses), I will have to slow down, because if I look behind me, her little behind will be sticking out as she leans over to stick her nose in the flowers. It is probably the most precious thing ever!
Ok and I have a request of you. Get up and go find a hymn book (right now!). Turn open to "In Our Lovely Deseret." Read the words. Then tell me how badly you would be squirming as you are singing that in a sacrament meeting with like 5 investigators!! And then try explaining that we're not a bunch of weirdos. Not an easy task I tell ya.
Well family, missionary life is great. I love you guys. I love hearing from you and I'm glad that things are going well at home. I'm so proud to have such awesome brothers and sisters, and I am sure grateful for ya!!
Love you more!!!!
Jordo
p.S. mom I’m starting to feel selfish now, so you can give matthew permission to use my ihome--on the condition that he gives it back when I get home......eesh....matthew just does have a way doesnt he?
pss tara – thanks so much for your last few letters, I’m sorry I haven’t had time to respond adequately. Love you sister!
Psss Johnny bravo – thanks for your letter this week! Your letters are so hilarious! Love you.
Pssss Matthew, totally left me hangin w/suspense at the end of your letter! You better plan on finishing it! Oh & nice work on the grades. And yeah…even when you’re in high school—always a safer bet asking a girl to forge your mom’s signature! That was pretty hilarious though! Love you
Psssss Joshy man – that was a pretty cool line thing that you learned how to do on the computer. I don’t know how to do that! Oh & I like my name the first way better. And, even though you totally cheated, thanks for the really long note! Love you
Halle baby! So cool that you have gymnastics 3x/wk now! Those were beautiful flowers you drew, I really like the leaves. And the rainbow was sooooooo good!!
liz and callie--peace. love. temple marriage. miss you.
Ok first things first--Dad how did you manage to get attacked by another man-o-war?! Like seriously, how does that happen? No wonder why mom used to text me changes to your will before every trip you guys take together! Evidently you're just askin for it these days.
And heck yes "Soeur Pearce will have an investigator at that fireside" on the 4th of July!! What's funny is nothing stays a secret. I happened to randomly call Elder Stover for a question about institute and he was like "so I hear your dad is coming to town." haha. And he mentioned that President was talking to you guys about doing a fireside. And President kinda tested the waters (it felt like it at least) during our interview again this week. I told him we weren't planning on seeing each other (this was before I found out about the fireside), but that I didn’t think it would bother me. I was just more worried about my mom....but now I figure you can be tough!! hehe. Loving daughter I am. And Sister Bellini says she'd be fine because she only has a couple more months after that anyway. What is the fireside going to be on anyway? Is it the whole team doing it? (and dad so help me if you offer me to translate. I refuse. just sayin!)
Anyway, we had another great week. Started out by going to the Rodin museum for P-day and having these super American tourists ask to take a picture OF us. No they were not members of the church, and no they weren't in the picture with us. They actually just took a picture of us. So random! And that day we actually looked relatively normal (ok let's be real sister missionary attire doesn't usually make blending in super easy....). Today, on the other hand, we went into Paris to do a boat tour on the Seine with our district. And guess what all six of the Elders showed up in? Boo-boos. Yes, that's right African boo-boos. (I will have to send you a pic sometime.) We turned a lot of heads today that is for sure!! And all the Africans selling those little Eiffel tower keychains at Trocadero were going crazy. I felt like the elders were getting hit on by African men! It was kinda refreshing to be honest, but also SO entertaining!
Then we had interviews. The Zone leaders did a great training and had us "go back to the MTC" (we even had to hand over our plaques and everything) and then learned about finding, teaching, and baptizing, and even had gym time (aka ping pong and 3-legged-companionship-unity-building races) and role-played. Then they finished with us all sitting in front of the baptismal font for the big finale. They said they had been jealous of normandie having their "get on the wagon" thing, so they came up with one for us and gave a little talk to introduce it....bum buh da bum...."Dreaming of White." They talked about how this is not the time for planting seeds. This is the time for baptizing!!! Maybe slightly “Remember the Titans” pep talkish, but hey it worked!
It was powerful and we now have a zone goal that every equipe will have a baptismal date by June 21st. And then the next morning we woke up to a great voice mail from them singing "I’m dreaming of a white mission" (to the tune of White christmas of course), and it was hilarious! And then as soon as their training was over, Sister Bellini and I had to stand up and walk into the other room to role-play with President and Sister Staheli. Can you say pressure?! haha. jk it went great and wasn't too stressful. They wanted to make sure that their missionaries knew how to teach people to pray, because I guess when Elder Hinckley was here he said that nothing happens until you get people on their knees. So, we better be able to teach people to pray!! And I definitely learned something from the training president Staheli gave after about teaching prayer.
So side note: ya know how the Versailles zone had kinda been falling behind? Well, Bretagne is up to like >80% of the new standards of excellence! Like Bretagne was the area that had the biggest reputation for being totally dead & impossible to baptize in. So I guess President Staheli (he shared this @ mission council – so I heard it second hand) asked Elder Collins what they did to change it so drastically, and I guess E. Collins said something like, “President, we just believed.” Elder Collins is also the person, as I understand it, who started the phrase, “get on the wagon” – which is now like the mission wide slogan for the miracle of 2010.
This next week we have rendez-vous set up with like 8 potential new investigators. So things are picking up!! And you'll never guess who one of those appointments is with.....this was like one of the hardest things I've had to do I might add.....but Madame Dard. Yes, as in the Madame that I lived with when I was on my study abroad (the one who cleaned the bathtub with the kitchen sponge!!hehe). Her name kept coming up in my head, but I kept pushing it out saying that I didn't think she was even in our area and that would just be weird and awkward. But then when Sister Bellini was sick and I had the opportunity to do like 5 hours of area book studying and calls one day, I found other fiches that were by her metro stop....so why not right? We kinda had to be creepers cuz her building is really secure, but someone let us in and then we buzzed her apartment and she was like yeah, come on up. We talked for a little and she asked why I was back and everything. But, she and her sister were on their way out to a museum exhibit VIP opening, so she gave me her number and said to call. I didn't notice it, but apparently half way through our conversation she switched from tu-toying me to vous-voying me and I have no idea what that means!! I know I'm probably just being a girl and reading too much into it, but I don't know if it's that I'm older now and speak French better, or if she's trying to establish that now that I'm a missionary, we aren't as familiar.....aaaah. I just don't know. I fully intend on being bold about why we're here and why it's so important, but we'll see how it goes with her this week I guess! (Remember she is a very devout catholic) Her apartment still smells the same as I remember it.
Which reminds me to tell you our theme for the transfer, and I know you will laugh, because it totally reminds me of an Herbal Essences commercial. But it actually came about because I was singing that song from Hairspray where she says, “big, blonde, and beautiful”—so to that same tune, our theme is “Be bold and beautiful.” Haha. Great? Oh yeah. The beautiful is referencing the scripture that says like how beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who proclaim the Gospel. So, we are determined to paint our toe-nails sometime this week as well, to help with the beautiful gospel preachin’ feet thing. And we are really “believin” in a baptism this transfer, so we are gonna be working really hard on those feet to find someone prepared! And the BOLD is because we know that there are people who are ready! So, we are gonna be BOLD & BEAUTIFUL this transfer! Haha laugh all you want, but we like it! (And, yes, sometimes I do wave my hair when we sing it; just for fun and dramatic effect!)
So I got called and asked to speak for a few minutes about the teaching process that led to Gloria’s baptism for part of the training @ interviews tomorrow and then also to do ANOTHER musical number at the Zone conference.
So can I share one of the things I love about my companion?! She takes the phrase "Stop and smell the roses" quite literally. Like I have learned that if we ever pass flower bushes (especially roses), I will have to slow down, because if I look behind me, her little behind will be sticking out as she leans over to stick her nose in the flowers. It is probably the most precious thing ever!
Ok and I have a request of you. Get up and go find a hymn book (right now!). Turn open to "In Our Lovely Deseret." Read the words. Then tell me how badly you would be squirming as you are singing that in a sacrament meeting with like 5 investigators!! And then try explaining that we're not a bunch of weirdos. Not an easy task I tell ya.
Well family, missionary life is great. I love you guys. I love hearing from you and I'm glad that things are going well at home. I'm so proud to have such awesome brothers and sisters, and I am sure grateful for ya!!
Love you more!!!!
Jordo
p.S. mom I’m starting to feel selfish now, so you can give matthew permission to use my ihome--on the condition that he gives it back when I get home......eesh....matthew just does have a way doesnt he?
pss tara – thanks so much for your last few letters, I’m sorry I haven’t had time to respond adequately. Love you sister!
Psss Johnny bravo – thanks for your letter this week! Your letters are so hilarious! Love you.
Pssss Matthew, totally left me hangin w/suspense at the end of your letter! You better plan on finishing it! Oh & nice work on the grades. And yeah…even when you’re in high school—always a safer bet asking a girl to forge your mom’s signature! That was pretty hilarious though! Love you
Psssss Joshy man – that was a pretty cool line thing that you learned how to do on the computer. I don’t know how to do that! Oh & I like my name the first way better. And, even though you totally cheated, thanks for the really long note! Love you
Halle baby! So cool that you have gymnastics 3x/wk now! Those were beautiful flowers you drew, I really like the leaves. And the rainbow was sooooooo good!!
liz and callie--peace. love. temple marriage. miss you.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Pictures!
GLORIA DIAZ's BAPTISM!! May 1, 2010 Me, Sister Bellini, Gloria & Sister Giff
Yes...my jacket should have been done up...oops!
Me & Sister Bellini on the Seine.This was one of my first days in Versailles. We got stuck out in some city & apparently none of the buses ran after 7 pm, so we got to walk a LONG way! You can't tell in the pic, but it was also raining, so it was one of those "pituresque" tromping through the rain missionary moments!
Mining the area book!Sister Bellini secretly took this pic while Sister Gifford & I were sprawled out getting to work one evening!
I decided this could be titled either "Nasa nerds @ work," or Battle Preparations." hahaDistrict meetings are awesome either way! I snuck this picture in while we were deciding where to do our finding activity -- it was too kodak of a moment to pass up!
Paris P-day! Ice cream in front of the fountains by the Eiffel Tower....does it get much better?!
For your viewing pleasure...Welcome to St. Ouen!! This is the graffitti wall I told you about on our building. Home, sweet home!
Me & Sister Bellini headed to a rendez-vous one Sunday night! Sunday, June 6, 2010
No Surprises!
HELLO FAMILY!!!!
How are you doing this week? I can’t believe the crazy summer you have planned; sounds like a party though!! I'm pretty jealous that everyone is going to be at Lake Powell this year! Not gonna lie--you all sound pretty spoiled. mexico, jamaica, lake powell, europe, and new york (maybe?), plus the tennis trips all in one summer?! (denver, however, might erase some of the lucky points. I think I’m still scarred from that one year!) Granted, I'm currently living in France, so I guess we're all just pretty lucky! I love hearing your stories and love hearing about what's going down on the home front.
The past couple weeks have been great. I have to tell you about one couple we started teaching before we left Versailles. Their names are Clodine and Hadi. So, one evening we were passing by some old investigators in Rueil-Malmaison, but none of them were home. So, we asked some of their neighbors sitting on a bench if they had seen them lately, they said they were en vacances, so we just left a note in their box and thanked the people for helping us. Then we headed back to the gare.
As background--it's like a fifteen minute walk to the gare from this place. So, when we were a couple minutes away, you can imagine our enthusiasm when at the same time Sister Gifford and I both stopped mid-step and turned. She said, "oh man." And I ever so eloquently responded, "Dangit, I know." We had missed a great opportunity to talk to the neighbors sitting on the bench! So, after a short exchange, we turned and booked it BACK down the street and went and mosied on BACK up to the people on the bench, who had now been joined by another neighbor, and said, "ya know, we got all the way to the train station when we realized we didn't ask you if you would be interested in hearing about our message, blah, blah, blah..." And the two neighbors who had been sitting there before, deftly side-stepped it and slyly got out of there (I gotta hand it to them though, they did it very sneekily), leaving us talking to this new lady.
To all of our surprise, she was like, well if it's a good message, let's go to my house and you can meet my husband and talk to us." HAHA. For real! That was a testimony to me that the Lord can do His work, DESPITE us! I will admit that Clodine and Hadi are probably people we would have overlooked (I know that sounds terrible, but it's true). He has tattoos all over and has done time (it was kinda funny actually, because you could tell he was trying to shock us when he said he had gone to prison and had done a lot of drugs....so what?! We all have weaknesses, that's why we need Jesus Christ!), and Clodine is just very quiet, but the sweetest thing ever! They are a way down to earth and honest couple and said they've always had questions, just didn't really know where to find answers. HULLO! Ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ?!! Heck yes! And last I heard they are doing great!
Anyway, then we got transferred to St. Ouen. On Saturday Sophia was baptized (she’s that one with the super cute daughter who came to church with us). I’m not entirely sure why people can’t figure out the underclothing thing. I thought it was fairly common knowledge that when white gets wet it is pretty see through? Evidently not! This time, she didn’t bother to wear anything underneath! Haha. Too good.
There are three things that I did not miss about this apartment. And they all three live in the tree just outside our window and are all very jubilant, in their own unique way, about welcoming in the new day. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about waking up to birds chirping cheerily outside your window in the summer! I'm just not quite as enthused about it at 5 o'clock every morning! (nor, do I really qualify a crow's cawing as a 'cheery chirp')(dad, do you think you could get your bb gun through security for when you come to Paris??? just saying.) But, really after we waged war on the fridge with a very concentrated bleach solution, the place is habitable again! And we discovered that our neighbors are great! We had our "fete des voisins" this week, and we decided that would be a good opportunity to show them that we aren't 'those great religious fanatics next door' (or, maybe to confirm their suspicions of it, I don't know!). So, we went and took cake, and it was great! One of the older men, named Sam, was like "come sit down and tell me what exactly it is that you do all day." We were kinda celebrities since we're like 'the young Americans.' And even though the French might pretend to be stand-offish towards us, lots of people are at least somewhat curious, especially about the plaques and the church 'we work for.' So, it was a lot of fun and it's way more exciting meeting people in the stairwells these days. And apparently the man next door likes to hear us singing in the morning. (we sing a hymn to start comp study)! hehe.
Anyway, I'm getting used to the idea of being back in St. Ouen again. I know it was only closed for one transfer, but it really is like starting over and "opening" it back up, so I am so grateful to have Sister Bellini! The phrase she says more often than any other is "why not? Why the heck not?!" There really isn't anything that seems too hard or too big for her. And we feel like it's gonna be a good transfer. We want to "get on the wagon" and just really believe that there is good work to be done in this area!! President keeps talking about his revelation about the Miracle of 2010, so good things are gonna be happening. I mean, it's the end of May and the mission already has over 100 baptisms. St. Ouen is going to be contributing more from now on dangit!
And, of course, no matter where you are, not a week goes by without adventures of some sort!!! One of the most exciting, unfortunately, was getting separated from each other. So, we're walking through Chatelet (a huge metro, RER stop), and then I turn around and Sister Bellini is nowhere in sight. Ah dang; not good! If you had to make a list of worst places to get separated, Chatelet would be very close to the top. So, quite a while later, when I still don’t have a companion, and I have grown up with a mother who insists that there is a kidnapper on every corner, I had managed to come up with every possible worst situation and was pretty sure that Sister Bellini was in a trunk somewhere headed out of the country!
But, long story short, eventually Sister Bellini called in the Elders, who we had been working with, as backup (since she said the police were useless--haha she was sorta frantic at this point too), and they found me. I make sure to keep a better eye on sister Bellini in Chatelet now.
So, Friday was mission council. Sister Bellini is a coordinating sister, so Sister Smart and I did a mini-exchange for the day while our companions went to their boring meetings (haha jk. I'm dying to know what goes down in those secret-combination-conclave meetings!!hehe)! And apparently they've just had to drop a whole lot of investigators, so pretty much we had 5 hours of contacting on our schedule, but by no means was it boring!!!
Ok, well the first 4 hours were rather uneventful, but then we had an expo shift to do. (Expo is like a little open house/show-room set up with displays about Christ and the Restoration and Book of Mormon, etc where people can just stop in and ask questions or look around, etc.) So, we pulled out the harp and she started playing, because we've found that a lot more people poke their heads in, or at least glance in our direction, when there is music going on. Well, we had some great heads poke in!!
The first was this crazy Russian lady with bright red hair. Evidently she is a contralto and loved the music. So, she comes in, plops down at the piano and just starts playing and belting out some opera song!!! It turned quite a few heads and Sister Smart and I had to carefully avoid making eye contact in order not to lose it! The next was this man who looked like he was like backpacking through Europe or something. I asked if he had any questions, and he proceeded to ask if we were the Mormons. Yes...and then he follows that with a "so is it true that mormons can have multiple wives?" I said no, and he cuts me off and says, "well that doesn't interest me then." I had never quite had that response about polygamy before. But, I kept talking and shared our beliefs about family and the sanctity of marriage, etc, etc. And somehow (and I still have no idea HOW), he gets on this rant about energy fields and giving back to the Earth. Man, it was good stuff. But, the icing on the cake was when at the end, he puts his hands together and bows to me and thanks me for recharging his soul with my presence. Then he left. "Well, you're sure welcome!!! Anytime." Never a dull moment I tell you!
And THEN the third person, at this point, I think I'm ready for anything....EXCEPT, apparently, a man coming in and saying, "I want to be baptized." I'm fairly certain I responded with a "wait, really?" haha, dang I’m a good missionary! But, turns out, he is from Algeria and because of the muslim presence, he couldn't be Christian, but he believes in Christ and has wanted to be baptized into a Christian church for a long time. "Well, you came to the right place!!! I decided I should just learn to NOT be surprised by anything. People are ready for the gospel and it's such a privilege to be a missionary.
BUT, let's be real, despite all the lessons I've learned, I'm still surprised on a daily basis. Like when the member leading the music at a baptism on Saturday (again, a different elder equipe called the day before and asked me to come play the piano for their baptism....I was more than happy to, of course, and it was for the baptisms of this couple!!! 4 beautiful children! So great.) whips out a tuning fork and makes everyone like hum the first note before starting and then proceeds to lead the music with the tuning fork. Or when there is mention of speaking with the gift of tongues after you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, I just really shouldn't be surprised. I also shouldn't be surprised when we get sandwiched in a metro between this scooter gang of ten little 10-yr old boys with 10 scooters and the whole cheering section for a rugby team (I dont even know what team it was, but there was a whole lot of yellow and blue face paint involved)(apparently, there was a final match at the Stade de France--which just so happens to be on the same metro line as our church building!), and then somehow mace is sprayed and the metro doors get blocked. I also should not be surprised when I'm sitting next to a child on a couch during a rendez-vous, and the next thing I know there's a whole lot of wetness on my leg and a big unidentified area of moisture on the child's clothes (lovely!).
Anyway, I'm sorry I just ramble on so much with no real point! But, I love you guys and I promise I'm not consciously TRYING to bore you to death via these e-mails. However, I do sincerely apologize if it comes off that way. I am so grateful for your support and hope you remember that I pray for you every day!! We gotta run, but I will write you by hand later.
Love you more!!
Jordo
p.s. One thing that has been thoroughly entertaining to see lately is the amount of contention that comes from stillettos on public transportation! Particularly buses. I can imagine that it wouldn't be a very pleasant feeling to have your foot stabbed with a stilletto heel as a person is flung into you, but you should see the "looks of death" that people exchange, while, of course, saying "c'est pas grave" through gritted teeth! hehe, simple pleasures.
ps2 thought i would share the lamest french thing I learned this week--"storm clouds" = les nuages qui annonçent une tempete. for real. like talk about not keeping things simple!
Ps3 tell ali & matthew c. thanks for the letters (& to matthew cunger that yes, the Eiffel tower is big!) and lisa thanks for the email.
Ps4I talked to Elder perdue a couple of weeks ago. Yes, like tim—the “epic adventure” one, dad chased away!! It was just on the phone, but it was still kind of weird. Like it’s so much easier being “normal” as a missionary when it’s not people that you knew before. I don’t think I gave Andrew enough credit when I ran into him! haha
Ps5 so one weekend we didn’t make it to the store in time & it worked out that none of us had any toothpaste left. Sister Gifford & I scrimped & squeezed but Sister bellini choose to use a combination of baking soda & mouthwash. That’s about as close to roughin’ it in Nicaragua as we get here!
Ps6 if It’s not too much trouble ask Allie to write down some notes about the best thing to study for the NCLEX. & tell Tyler & Sonya, I loved their announcements and I was so touched that they thought of me!
How are you doing this week? I can’t believe the crazy summer you have planned; sounds like a party though!! I'm pretty jealous that everyone is going to be at Lake Powell this year! Not gonna lie--you all sound pretty spoiled. mexico, jamaica, lake powell, europe, and new york (maybe?), plus the tennis trips all in one summer?! (denver, however, might erase some of the lucky points. I think I’m still scarred from that one year!) Granted, I'm currently living in France, so I guess we're all just pretty lucky! I love hearing your stories and love hearing about what's going down on the home front.
The past couple weeks have been great. I have to tell you about one couple we started teaching before we left Versailles. Their names are Clodine and Hadi. So, one evening we were passing by some old investigators in Rueil-Malmaison, but none of them were home. So, we asked some of their neighbors sitting on a bench if they had seen them lately, they said they were en vacances, so we just left a note in their box and thanked the people for helping us. Then we headed back to the gare.
As background--it's like a fifteen minute walk to the gare from this place. So, when we were a couple minutes away, you can imagine our enthusiasm when at the same time Sister Gifford and I both stopped mid-step and turned. She said, "oh man." And I ever so eloquently responded, "Dangit, I know." We had missed a great opportunity to talk to the neighbors sitting on the bench! So, after a short exchange, we turned and booked it BACK down the street and went and mosied on BACK up to the people on the bench, who had now been joined by another neighbor, and said, "ya know, we got all the way to the train station when we realized we didn't ask you if you would be interested in hearing about our message, blah, blah, blah..." And the two neighbors who had been sitting there before, deftly side-stepped it and slyly got out of there (I gotta hand it to them though, they did it very sneekily), leaving us talking to this new lady.
To all of our surprise, she was like, well if it's a good message, let's go to my house and you can meet my husband and talk to us." HAHA. For real! That was a testimony to me that the Lord can do His work, DESPITE us! I will admit that Clodine and Hadi are probably people we would have overlooked (I know that sounds terrible, but it's true). He has tattoos all over and has done time (it was kinda funny actually, because you could tell he was trying to shock us when he said he had gone to prison and had done a lot of drugs....so what?! We all have weaknesses, that's why we need Jesus Christ!), and Clodine is just very quiet, but the sweetest thing ever! They are a way down to earth and honest couple and said they've always had questions, just didn't really know where to find answers. HULLO! Ready for the gospel of Jesus Christ?!! Heck yes! And last I heard they are doing great!
Anyway, then we got transferred to St. Ouen. On Saturday Sophia was baptized (she’s that one with the super cute daughter who came to church with us). I’m not entirely sure why people can’t figure out the underclothing thing. I thought it was fairly common knowledge that when white gets wet it is pretty see through? Evidently not! This time, she didn’t bother to wear anything underneath! Haha. Too good.
There are three things that I did not miss about this apartment. And they all three live in the tree just outside our window and are all very jubilant, in their own unique way, about welcoming in the new day. Don't get me wrong, I'm all about waking up to birds chirping cheerily outside your window in the summer! I'm just not quite as enthused about it at 5 o'clock every morning! (nor, do I really qualify a crow's cawing as a 'cheery chirp')(dad, do you think you could get your bb gun through security for when you come to Paris??? just saying.) But, really after we waged war on the fridge with a very concentrated bleach solution, the place is habitable again! And we discovered that our neighbors are great! We had our "fete des voisins" this week, and we decided that would be a good opportunity to show them that we aren't 'those great religious fanatics next door' (or, maybe to confirm their suspicions of it, I don't know!). So, we went and took cake, and it was great! One of the older men, named Sam, was like "come sit down and tell me what exactly it is that you do all day." We were kinda celebrities since we're like 'the young Americans.' And even though the French might pretend to be stand-offish towards us, lots of people are at least somewhat curious, especially about the plaques and the church 'we work for.' So, it was a lot of fun and it's way more exciting meeting people in the stairwells these days. And apparently the man next door likes to hear us singing in the morning. (we sing a hymn to start comp study)! hehe.
Anyway, I'm getting used to the idea of being back in St. Ouen again. I know it was only closed for one transfer, but it really is like starting over and "opening" it back up, so I am so grateful to have Sister Bellini! The phrase she says more often than any other is "why not? Why the heck not?!" There really isn't anything that seems too hard or too big for her. And we feel like it's gonna be a good transfer. We want to "get on the wagon" and just really believe that there is good work to be done in this area!! President keeps talking about his revelation about the Miracle of 2010, so good things are gonna be happening. I mean, it's the end of May and the mission already has over 100 baptisms. St. Ouen is going to be contributing more from now on dangit!
And, of course, no matter where you are, not a week goes by without adventures of some sort!!! One of the most exciting, unfortunately, was getting separated from each other. So, we're walking through Chatelet (a huge metro, RER stop), and then I turn around and Sister Bellini is nowhere in sight. Ah dang; not good! If you had to make a list of worst places to get separated, Chatelet would be very close to the top. So, quite a while later, when I still don’t have a companion, and I have grown up with a mother who insists that there is a kidnapper on every corner, I had managed to come up with every possible worst situation and was pretty sure that Sister Bellini was in a trunk somewhere headed out of the country!
But, long story short, eventually Sister Bellini called in the Elders, who we had been working with, as backup (since she said the police were useless--haha she was sorta frantic at this point too), and they found me. I make sure to keep a better eye on sister Bellini in Chatelet now.
So, Friday was mission council. Sister Bellini is a coordinating sister, so Sister Smart and I did a mini-exchange for the day while our companions went to their boring meetings (haha jk. I'm dying to know what goes down in those secret-combination-conclave meetings!!hehe)! And apparently they've just had to drop a whole lot of investigators, so pretty much we had 5 hours of contacting on our schedule, but by no means was it boring!!!
Ok, well the first 4 hours were rather uneventful, but then we had an expo shift to do. (Expo is like a little open house/show-room set up with displays about Christ and the Restoration and Book of Mormon, etc where people can just stop in and ask questions or look around, etc.) So, we pulled out the harp and she started playing, because we've found that a lot more people poke their heads in, or at least glance in our direction, when there is music going on. Well, we had some great heads poke in!!
The first was this crazy Russian lady with bright red hair. Evidently she is a contralto and loved the music. So, she comes in, plops down at the piano and just starts playing and belting out some opera song!!! It turned quite a few heads and Sister Smart and I had to carefully avoid making eye contact in order not to lose it! The next was this man who looked like he was like backpacking through Europe or something. I asked if he had any questions, and he proceeded to ask if we were the Mormons. Yes...and then he follows that with a "so is it true that mormons can have multiple wives?" I said no, and he cuts me off and says, "well that doesn't interest me then." I had never quite had that response about polygamy before. But, I kept talking and shared our beliefs about family and the sanctity of marriage, etc, etc. And somehow (and I still have no idea HOW), he gets on this rant about energy fields and giving back to the Earth. Man, it was good stuff. But, the icing on the cake was when at the end, he puts his hands together and bows to me and thanks me for recharging his soul with my presence. Then he left. "Well, you're sure welcome!!! Anytime." Never a dull moment I tell you!
And THEN the third person, at this point, I think I'm ready for anything....EXCEPT, apparently, a man coming in and saying, "I want to be baptized." I'm fairly certain I responded with a "wait, really?" haha, dang I’m a good missionary! But, turns out, he is from Algeria and because of the muslim presence, he couldn't be Christian, but he believes in Christ and has wanted to be baptized into a Christian church for a long time. "Well, you came to the right place!!! I decided I should just learn to NOT be surprised by anything. People are ready for the gospel and it's such a privilege to be a missionary.
BUT, let's be real, despite all the lessons I've learned, I'm still surprised on a daily basis. Like when the member leading the music at a baptism on Saturday (again, a different elder equipe called the day before and asked me to come play the piano for their baptism....I was more than happy to, of course, and it was for the baptisms of this couple!!! 4 beautiful children! So great.) whips out a tuning fork and makes everyone like hum the first note before starting and then proceeds to lead the music with the tuning fork. Or when there is mention of speaking with the gift of tongues after you receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, I just really shouldn't be surprised. I also shouldn't be surprised when we get sandwiched in a metro between this scooter gang of ten little 10-yr old boys with 10 scooters and the whole cheering section for a rugby team (I dont even know what team it was, but there was a whole lot of yellow and blue face paint involved)(apparently, there was a final match at the Stade de France--which just so happens to be on the same metro line as our church building!), and then somehow mace is sprayed and the metro doors get blocked. I also should not be surprised when I'm sitting next to a child on a couch during a rendez-vous, and the next thing I know there's a whole lot of wetness on my leg and a big unidentified area of moisture on the child's clothes (lovely!).
Anyway, I'm sorry I just ramble on so much with no real point! But, I love you guys and I promise I'm not consciously TRYING to bore you to death via these e-mails. However, I do sincerely apologize if it comes off that way. I am so grateful for your support and hope you remember that I pray for you every day!! We gotta run, but I will write you by hand later.
Love you more!!
Jordo
p.s. One thing that has been thoroughly entertaining to see lately is the amount of contention that comes from stillettos on public transportation! Particularly buses. I can imagine that it wouldn't be a very pleasant feeling to have your foot stabbed with a stilletto heel as a person is flung into you, but you should see the "looks of death" that people exchange, while, of course, saying "c'est pas grave" through gritted teeth! hehe, simple pleasures.
ps2 thought i would share the lamest french thing I learned this week--"storm clouds" = les nuages qui annonçent une tempete. for real. like talk about not keeping things simple!
Ps3 tell ali & matthew c. thanks for the letters (& to matthew cunger that yes, the Eiffel tower is big!) and lisa thanks for the email.
Ps4I talked to Elder perdue a couple of weeks ago. Yes, like tim—the “epic adventure” one, dad chased away!! It was just on the phone, but it was still kind of weird. Like it’s so much easier being “normal” as a missionary when it’s not people that you knew before. I don’t think I gave Andrew enough credit when I ran into him! haha
Ps5 so one weekend we didn’t make it to the store in time & it worked out that none of us had any toothpaste left. Sister Gifford & I scrimped & squeezed but Sister bellini choose to use a combination of baking soda & mouthwash. That’s about as close to roughin’ it in Nicaragua as we get here!
Ps6 if It’s not too much trouble ask Allie to write down some notes about the best thing to study for the NCLEX. & tell Tyler & Sonya, I loved their announcements and I was so touched that they thought of me!
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Halle--I am totle totle grate too!!!!
My dearest family!!!
It's hard to believe it has only been a week since I talked to you. Time warp for sure out here! I was glad to hear that some things have not changed and it was great imagining you all cuddled up in the family room (with josh being stubborn in the other room of course)!! I figured that Halle said it right in her letter to me last week--life is totle totle grate-- and talking to you just kept me smilin all week! Unfortunately since I didn't get to e-mail you last weekend, I don't even know where to start with the adventures over here on this side of the Atlantic. So to simplify, I am bulleting this baby and titling it 'happenings.' Cheating? maybe....but there are just too many great things to share!!!
HAPPENINGS:
1. One day I left my planner at an investigators house. you can only imagine! (reference: bridesmaid dress January 2010)
2. Mohammed the carrefour jumper, has earned a special place in my heart. We pass him almost every day and he always walks out and shakes our hands and says to each of us individually, "oh there you are!! the most beautiful!!!" His name doesn't leave much to ask, but he is hilarious and he takes good care of the carrefour (in his black suit and with all 6'5" of his towering form!).
3. I have seen my fair share of gross things in clinicals, but I gotta tell ya, even I squirmed a little bit when an investigator was holding his newborn baby and she spit up. Evidently there was some leftover in either her mouth or nose and he was not okay with it, so he proceeded to suck it out of her nose. Not joking. It was not a pleasant experience.
4. I extended my first baptismal commitment! He said yes!!! phewf. But, we passed him to the elders cuz his wife isn't showing as much interest anymore.
5. I realized that our companionship works really well together because we all bring something different to the table. Sister Bellini snorts every time she laughs really hard. Sister Gifford makes happy noises whenever we see something cute or when she's on the phone (like only a girl can). And I have taken up the habit of tripping on a very regular basis. Like it's a hazard! (I have since been banish-ED to the inside of the sidewalk and the inside of the train quais.) We are quite the force to be reckoned with I tell you what!! But really, even when we get frugi'd four out of five rendez-vous in one day, it's still fun working together! (side note: the term frugi means that the investigator doesn't show up, and it evidently comes from this African drink that looks and smells great, but tastes terrible.) We're hoping that Heavenly Father is patient with us, because occasionally prayers in our apartment end up with lots of giggling. Or like I imagine it would be fairly amusing hearing us trying to sing a hymn that has sections that are only for the men!! (somewhere along the lines of Dad singing next to Bishop Schow!)
6. Best phone call of the week: "I am praying. Call me back later." click. Okay....will do!
7. Best movie quote of the week: we are out running one morning and it's a super foggy/hazy sunrise, so the sun just looks like this big orange ball, and Sister Gifford goes "A red sun rises, blood has been spilt this night." so great!!! (family, so help me if you can't name the person. I kept strict rules during that marathon so I hope you got your head in the game!)
8. Worst French mistake of the week: (ok, let's be real. There are probably way too many of these to adequately account for them) This Haitian man comes up and asks me for my number, but he tu-toyed me and somehow I thought he had asked me if I knew someone named Stipley (instead of him saying s'il te plait). So he asked me for my number and I responded, "oh i'm sorry I dont know him, but have a good day!" My companions got a nice chuckle out of it.
9. Worst blonde moment of the week: we are at the mission home to have cake and ice cream for President Staheli's birthday. It's also mother's day, so we're all sitting around talking and I asked how Sister Staheli's mother's day was going, and she says that it's been great, and President Staheli says, "Well tell them what you got." So she says that she got a MacPro. I wanted to be excited for her, so was all like "ooooh! so cool!" pause, pause, pause. wait, I have no idea what that is, and then out loud I say, "Wait. Like the make-up?" Again, one of those moments I should have just kept my mouth shut! First asking President how old he was (I tell you, it just slipped out), and then pulling out a serious Elle Woods. I was on a roll.
10. Most nerdy moment of the week: We are talking as a district and Elder Mckay is telling us about a phone call that had bad connection or something and he says, "it sounded like C3PO." And before I could stop myself, I respond with a, "Actually, that would be R2D2." The other elders were like "oooh. shut down by Sister Pearce. bah dum bum sh." It was almost along the same lines as, "did you just say prime-ape?" (reference Cassidy, 2007)
11. Most frustrating thing of the week: Teaching people that feel like they already had great baptisms. "So, you know that the Book of Mormon is true?" bah oui! "And you know that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration?" Bien sur. "So, you want to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ by the power and authority of God?! "well, I was already baptized, remember?” aaargh. And so then you try to lovingly drop them by saying "you know as missionaries we are here to invite people to Christ by helping them prepare for baptism, etc, so we will be here whenever you are ready, etc" and then they stand up and say "okay same time next week?" I mean what do you do???!!! haha. I know Alma says to be bold, but not overbearing, but like really!!! I think overbearing might get through a little better sometimes! k jk (mostly).
12. So, I mentioned on the phone how I love our district. I am always thoroughly entertained. But, I'm not such a fan of role-playing in front of all of them! Elder Bednar, our district leader, prepared this awesome lesson on using the Articles of Faith more often to respond to concerns (adding another arrow to your quiver, as he put it), and it was awesome!!!.....until I had to respond to "Gladys." Apparently, she's an investigator people have been teaching for ages, who thinks that the Holy Ghost just descended on her and that she doesn't need to be baptized. John 3:5 does nothing for her, Jesus' own baptism, among many other things, is apparently not quite proof either. So I babbled something about the 4th article of faith and sat down as quick as possible! Enough of this quiver stuff!
13. I had my first nursing nightmare this week. It was like Grey's Anatomy meets the circus. Not fun. But, I have decided that nursing is helpful on a mission as well, because when your companion says, "so, what is a uterus?" I can be like, okay, we need to chat and I'm gonna draw some pictures... Unfortunately, that experience also made me realize how much I'm forgetting.....guess I’m gonna have to keep the faith for those blessings!
14. Worst wall of shame moment of the week: Ward ping-pong tournament. I lost second round. I think you would have kicked me out on the street if you had seen how I played! But, there was a heckling French mother involved, and I just did not hold up well under the pressure!!!
15. Lamest excuse of the week: So, what happened on Sunday? Why couldn't you come to church? "Oh, well it rained." That was another, 'puh-lease' moment!! Like where are we? Brazil?? But, we follow Preach My Gospel and we are devastated that they didn't keep their commitment and we love them and try again!
16. Saddest thing we saw this week: One day. Two different locations. Two different old ladies. Eat it to the ground. Like we are talking no reflexes left in these dear old things, so they hit their chins on the sidewalk. flat as a crepe, if you will. So sad!!! But, after people converged and they walked away just fine, I will admit we may have chuckled a couple times. Twice in one day, I mean come on!!!!
17. Most touching thing of the week: (or rather, one of them) We are teaching an investigator about prophets and we show her a picture of President Monson and she says something like, "oh c'est lui?" But then she was like worried that she had said something wrong because she referred to the prophet as "him." She was like "I don't know the protocol," and wanted to make sure that she was showing the right respect to the Prophet of God. It was really neat and such a testimony builder to me of really what a blessing it is to have a prophet on the earth!!! (I left out the fact that my brother had gone to the jazz game with him the other day, hehe)
Anyway, that was a whole lot of rambling about random happenings. You can try to make some sense out of it! haha sorry!!! And I realized just now that I probably didn’t talk about our investigators and stuff enough, but I promise along with all the fun we're having, we are managing to get some missionary work done! Life is totle, totle grate. I love missionary work and I am so, so happy to be a missionary. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the scriptures that teach us what we have to do to gain access to the Atonement. And I am grateful for a prophet and apostles who testify of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We read the talk "Meaning of the Atonement" by cleon scousen last night (thank you tara!) together and wow, we truly have a Heavenly Father and Savior who love us! We are so lucky and blessed to know it. I love you family and I am grateful for you too! I have some more stories to tell you, and responses to your letters, but I’ll have to put them in my hand-written letter later Have a great week!!! LOVE YOU TO ETERNITY!!!
Sister Pearce
p.S. i am going to try to attach a pic of our p-day adventure today. we went to the chateau at St Germain en laye with our district and played ultimate frisbee and got gelato!! And I won't lie--we need to step up our morning workouts cuz that was some serious ultimate frisbee! But, don't worry--my team won!! (granted, I’m fairly certain it didn’t have a whole lot to do with me hehe)
ps2 I never got nanas package and still haven’t gotten yours. I think it’s best to send things to the mission home, because it’s a pain to try to track them down at the post office or at the landlord's cuz it's not like we just have a porch that they leave things on and we just have little tiny drop boxes. But, we're gonna go try to find where the landlord lives this week and see if your package is there. tell nana thanks though!!!
Ps3 sorry I think you had more questions, but I’ll have to answer later!!!!! we have two lessons to get to tonight! love you!!!! sure grateful for you!
Ps4 To Cassidy, did you try my sheets-out-the-window method this time? I did you give you quite a few methods to work with after the “Hawaii incident” ’09?!
Ps5 I haven’t gone to the chateau grounds yet since I’ve been here, but I pass by it almost every day. Like either walking, or we’ll be on a bus & I’ll turn my head & be like “oh look, there’s the chateau de Versailles.” Haha, sometimes I forget I am in France! We’re going to have a picnic in the chateau gardens one of these p-days.
It's hard to believe it has only been a week since I talked to you. Time warp for sure out here! I was glad to hear that some things have not changed and it was great imagining you all cuddled up in the family room (with josh being stubborn in the other room of course)!! I figured that Halle said it right in her letter to me last week--life is totle totle grate-- and talking to you just kept me smilin all week! Unfortunately since I didn't get to e-mail you last weekend, I don't even know where to start with the adventures over here on this side of the Atlantic. So to simplify, I am bulleting this baby and titling it 'happenings.' Cheating? maybe....but there are just too many great things to share!!!
HAPPENINGS:
1. One day I left my planner at an investigators house. you can only imagine! (reference: bridesmaid dress January 2010)
2. Mohammed the carrefour jumper, has earned a special place in my heart. We pass him almost every day and he always walks out and shakes our hands and says to each of us individually, "oh there you are!! the most beautiful!!!" His name doesn't leave much to ask, but he is hilarious and he takes good care of the carrefour (in his black suit and with all 6'5" of his towering form!).
3. I have seen my fair share of gross things in clinicals, but I gotta tell ya, even I squirmed a little bit when an investigator was holding his newborn baby and she spit up. Evidently there was some leftover in either her mouth or nose and he was not okay with it, so he proceeded to suck it out of her nose. Not joking. It was not a pleasant experience.
4. I extended my first baptismal commitment! He said yes!!! phewf. But, we passed him to the elders cuz his wife isn't showing as much interest anymore.
5. I realized that our companionship works really well together because we all bring something different to the table. Sister Bellini snorts every time she laughs really hard. Sister Gifford makes happy noises whenever we see something cute or when she's on the phone (like only a girl can). And I have taken up the habit of tripping on a very regular basis. Like it's a hazard! (I have since been banish-ED to the inside of the sidewalk and the inside of the train quais.) We are quite the force to be reckoned with I tell you what!! But really, even when we get frugi'd four out of five rendez-vous in one day, it's still fun working together! (side note: the term frugi means that the investigator doesn't show up, and it evidently comes from this African drink that looks and smells great, but tastes terrible.) We're hoping that Heavenly Father is patient with us, because occasionally prayers in our apartment end up with lots of giggling. Or like I imagine it would be fairly amusing hearing us trying to sing a hymn that has sections that are only for the men!! (somewhere along the lines of Dad singing next to Bishop Schow!)
6. Best phone call of the week: "I am praying. Call me back later." click. Okay....will do!
7. Best movie quote of the week: we are out running one morning and it's a super foggy/hazy sunrise, so the sun just looks like this big orange ball, and Sister Gifford goes "A red sun rises, blood has been spilt this night." so great!!! (family, so help me if you can't name the person. I kept strict rules during that marathon so I hope you got your head in the game!)
8. Worst French mistake of the week: (ok, let's be real. There are probably way too many of these to adequately account for them) This Haitian man comes up and asks me for my number, but he tu-toyed me and somehow I thought he had asked me if I knew someone named Stipley (instead of him saying s'il te plait). So he asked me for my number and I responded, "oh i'm sorry I dont know him, but have a good day!" My companions got a nice chuckle out of it.
9. Worst blonde moment of the week: we are at the mission home to have cake and ice cream for President Staheli's birthday. It's also mother's day, so we're all sitting around talking and I asked how Sister Staheli's mother's day was going, and she says that it's been great, and President Staheli says, "Well tell them what you got." So she says that she got a MacPro. I wanted to be excited for her, so was all like "ooooh! so cool!" pause, pause, pause. wait, I have no idea what that is, and then out loud I say, "Wait. Like the make-up?" Again, one of those moments I should have just kept my mouth shut! First asking President how old he was (I tell you, it just slipped out), and then pulling out a serious Elle Woods. I was on a roll.
10. Most nerdy moment of the week: We are talking as a district and Elder Mckay is telling us about a phone call that had bad connection or something and he says, "it sounded like C3PO." And before I could stop myself, I respond with a, "Actually, that would be R2D2." The other elders were like "oooh. shut down by Sister Pearce. bah dum bum sh." It was almost along the same lines as, "did you just say prime-ape?" (reference Cassidy, 2007)
11. Most frustrating thing of the week: Teaching people that feel like they already had great baptisms. "So, you know that the Book of Mormon is true?" bah oui! "And you know that Joseph Smith was the prophet of the restoration?" Bien sur. "So, you want to be baptized into the church of Jesus Christ by the power and authority of God?! "well, I was already baptized, remember?” aaargh. And so then you try to lovingly drop them by saying "you know as missionaries we are here to invite people to Christ by helping them prepare for baptism, etc, so we will be here whenever you are ready, etc" and then they stand up and say "okay same time next week?" I mean what do you do???!!! haha. I know Alma says to be bold, but not overbearing, but like really!!! I think overbearing might get through a little better sometimes! k jk (mostly).
12. So, I mentioned on the phone how I love our district. I am always thoroughly entertained. But, I'm not such a fan of role-playing in front of all of them! Elder Bednar, our district leader, prepared this awesome lesson on using the Articles of Faith more often to respond to concerns (adding another arrow to your quiver, as he put it), and it was awesome!!!.....until I had to respond to "Gladys." Apparently, she's an investigator people have been teaching for ages, who thinks that the Holy Ghost just descended on her and that she doesn't need to be baptized. John 3:5 does nothing for her, Jesus' own baptism, among many other things, is apparently not quite proof either. So I babbled something about the 4th article of faith and sat down as quick as possible! Enough of this quiver stuff!
13. I had my first nursing nightmare this week. It was like Grey's Anatomy meets the circus. Not fun. But, I have decided that nursing is helpful on a mission as well, because when your companion says, "so, what is a uterus?" I can be like, okay, we need to chat and I'm gonna draw some pictures... Unfortunately, that experience also made me realize how much I'm forgetting.....guess I’m gonna have to keep the faith for those blessings!
14. Worst wall of shame moment of the week: Ward ping-pong tournament. I lost second round. I think you would have kicked me out on the street if you had seen how I played! But, there was a heckling French mother involved, and I just did not hold up well under the pressure!!!
15. Lamest excuse of the week: So, what happened on Sunday? Why couldn't you come to church? "Oh, well it rained." That was another, 'puh-lease' moment!! Like where are we? Brazil?? But, we follow Preach My Gospel and we are devastated that they didn't keep their commitment and we love them and try again!
16. Saddest thing we saw this week: One day. Two different locations. Two different old ladies. Eat it to the ground. Like we are talking no reflexes left in these dear old things, so they hit their chins on the sidewalk. flat as a crepe, if you will. So sad!!! But, after people converged and they walked away just fine, I will admit we may have chuckled a couple times. Twice in one day, I mean come on!!!!
17. Most touching thing of the week: (or rather, one of them) We are teaching an investigator about prophets and we show her a picture of President Monson and she says something like, "oh c'est lui?" But then she was like worried that she had said something wrong because she referred to the prophet as "him." She was like "I don't know the protocol," and wanted to make sure that she was showing the right respect to the Prophet of God. It was really neat and such a testimony builder to me of really what a blessing it is to have a prophet on the earth!!! (I left out the fact that my brother had gone to the jazz game with him the other day, hehe)
Anyway, that was a whole lot of rambling about random happenings. You can try to make some sense out of it! haha sorry!!! And I realized just now that I probably didn’t talk about our investigators and stuff enough, but I promise along with all the fun we're having, we are managing to get some missionary work done! Life is totle, totle grate. I love missionary work and I am so, so happy to be a missionary. I am so grateful for the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I am grateful for the scriptures that teach us what we have to do to gain access to the Atonement. And I am grateful for a prophet and apostles who testify of Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We read the talk "Meaning of the Atonement" by cleon scousen last night (thank you tara!) together and wow, we truly have a Heavenly Father and Savior who love us! We are so lucky and blessed to know it. I love you family and I am grateful for you too! I have some more stories to tell you, and responses to your letters, but I’ll have to put them in my hand-written letter later Have a great week!!! LOVE YOU TO ETERNITY!!!
Sister Pearce
p.S. i am going to try to attach a pic of our p-day adventure today. we went to the chateau at St Germain en laye with our district and played ultimate frisbee and got gelato!! And I won't lie--we need to step up our morning workouts cuz that was some serious ultimate frisbee! But, don't worry--my team won!! (granted, I’m fairly certain it didn’t have a whole lot to do with me hehe)
ps2 I never got nanas package and still haven’t gotten yours. I think it’s best to send things to the mission home, because it’s a pain to try to track them down at the post office or at the landlord's cuz it's not like we just have a porch that they leave things on and we just have little tiny drop boxes. But, we're gonna go try to find where the landlord lives this week and see if your package is there. tell nana thanks though!!!
Ps3 sorry I think you had more questions, but I’ll have to answer later!!!!! we have two lessons to get to tonight! love you!!!! sure grateful for you!
Ps4 To Cassidy, did you try my sheets-out-the-window method this time? I did you give you quite a few methods to work with after the “Hawaii incident” ’09?!
Ps5 I haven’t gone to the chateau grounds yet since I’ve been here, but I pass by it almost every day. Like either walking, or we’ll be on a bus & I’ll turn my head & be like “oh look, there’s the chateau de Versailles.” Haha, sometimes I forget I am in France! We’re going to have a picnic in the chateau gardens one of these p-days.
Monday, May 17, 2010
The adventures of the week!!!
WHAT IS UP DEAREST FAMILY??!!! ok im just gonna tell it to ya straight--this e-mail will probably be super lame, because I am exhausted and i think it'll take much more than a miracle to string an entirely coherent sentence together.
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:
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!
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Heavenly Father is in the details!!
Hello dearest family!!!How are you????!!! I'm starting to feel the stress of the Utah match that will be goin down later on tonight!!! I dont know how you're handling it!
I feel like I just wrote you, but still so much has happened since then. First of all we had a huge zone conference and Elder Teixeira came. It was awesome! And President Staheli gave us new standards of excellence (aka weekly and transfer goals)! They are like double what they were before and include one baptism per companionship per month! He likened these standards of excellence to the Liahona, and said they shouldn’t be a burden anymore than the Liahona was a burden for Lehi and his family. Depending on your area and different circumstances, it might take people longer or shorter to get there, but the standards are just to give us a direction to be working. I'm excited and I know that, since these were prayerfully discussed and submitted under the direction of our priesthood leadership, they are definitely attainable! Eventually....hehe. But, our Versailles elders are startin it out strong!
We went to the baptism of one of their investigators, Joshua, this morning! It was so great! Elder Draut said that Joshua was like shaking when he got into the font because he was so nervous, but afterwards he was just so happy and glowing (i know that sounds way girly, and joshua is definitely a man's man, but you get the idea). Oh and apparently, third time really is the charm! (now i understand why mom was so particular about having our hair pulled back so tight to keep from floating up) The investigator is from Kenya. The elders ported his apartment a few weeks ago and he was definitely someone prepared! And even though his siblings aren't members of the church, when he called them and told them he was getting baptized, they all insisted on coming! (His sister flew from Kenya i think, and one of his brothers is a diplomat here in France or something.) The whole thing was wonderful, except the fact that we had to do ANOTHER musical number.
K you know how I stress about these kind of things, and how I really don’t like singing in public at all. Piano, whatever, that I can handle. But when it comes to singing, I get all nervous! Plus, the Elders called us late on Thursday night to do it, then Sister Bellini was too sick to leave the apartment all Friday, and then the baptism was Saturday morning! So pretty much we figured out what we were going to do an hour before the baptism started (Sister Gifford played and Sister bellini and I sang I’m trying to be like Jesus and A childs prayer.) I thought it was terrible! So you can imagine my enthusiasm when one of the bishopric members came up afterwards and said it was so great he wants me to sing in Sacrament meeting in two weeks. Lovely. just lovely.
But, going to that baptism made me even more excited for Gloria's baptism next weekend! (ps the elders have another investigator who is getting baptized the next weekend, so it’s just an exciting time!) And we found out Gloria for sure can be baptized! We were talking one night and decided we needed further clarification about what it meant to "have an address." Turns out, that while she should still keep looking for her own place, we can use the address of the shelter where she stays at night and gets mail! So, we had her try on her baptismal clothes today and we're going to figure out her program tomorrow. But, she still needs her own place, because wherever she is staying, she can’t stay there every night and she doesn’t sleep very well, because people steal stuff from you while you're sleeping. I don't know how she handles it. She is looking for places, but it's hard because she doesn’t speak French, like at all. I think I left out that detail last time! Our lessons are hilarious!! She speaks spanish, a tiny bit of English, and pretty much zero french. So when we don’t have a member with us that speaks spanish, it's like we need the gift of tongues! She usually does okay speaking in English, but when she gets excited about something, she starts speaking super fast all in spanish, and then when she says, "comprendas?" (or whatever it is), I'm pretty sure our confused looks say it all! When we have a member it is easier, but just so you get a feel for how that goes down: we teach in English (because that’s her second best language), Gloria speaks in Spanish, and the member translates into French for us! So great. The church is true in every language! So, one thing I am grateful for this week is personal study time. the Preach My Gospel sentence that says that even though people may question your message intellectually, it's hard to argue with a sincere testimony (or something to that effect). We started reading in the Book of Mormon with one investigator this week, and we hadn't gotten two lines into the passage, and she stops and goes off about why it doesn’t make sense that we have another book of scripture and how it can't be legit since none of the people in the book of mormon are talked about in the bible, etc, etc; etc. She wasn't really listening to any of the answers we gave, and it sounded like she had just kinda made a decision in her mind before she even asked her questions. Well, that morning I had spent some time in Chapter 11 of PMG and read that sentence (above). So, I thought about that and decided to just bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, how I came to know it was true and how it has helped me. Nothing spectacular happened or anything, but the atmosphere changed and we were able to have a great lesson. I am just grateful that our job is to bear simple testimony, because let's be real--I am no scriptorian! I should know much more about our church and our teachings than I do, considering I was blessed enough to be born into the Church, but I am grateful to know that I just need to teach the best I can, answer the questions I can, bear testimony of the simple truths I do know, and let the Spirit do the rest! So....miracle of the week! (sorry this is so scattered.) In an attempt to mine our area book(s), we sorted and organized and re-sorted and re-organized about a billion difference fiches (umm....in english I think they are called like investigator progress records or something). We found one that had a name and the number of the non-member friend who had referred her to us. So we called the friend and asked if she had a number for the lady, who's name is Evelyn. She didn't. We asked if she had an address. She didn't. But, she said she lives next to the gare in Saint-Cyr and gave us the name of the street she thought she lived on. So, we look in all our books and on our maps and the street name doesn't appear to exist. But, we felt good about this person and wanted to find her. So.....pretty much we knew her name is Evelyn. And we knew she lived somewhere around the gare, on a street that may or may not exist. I can just picture Heavenly Father kinda chuckling at our stubborn determination, because we had NOTHING! But, He must have been amused and decided to help us out a bit....k....a lot.
We get there and this street doesn't exist on any of the city maps either, so we stop a young man and ask him if he knows of it. He doesn't, but says that we should ask the lady that takes the tickets in the station. So, we go ask her and she says, "oh yeah, it's a house just up the way" and gives us directions. So, we follow her directions to a social house (it wasn’t a street name, but the name of the social house), where the gate like opens as we walk up (I think there were people in the driveway who saw us, but still it was funny). The lobby is empty, but eventually a lady walks out and tells us that no one named Evelyn lives there, but there is another social house just up the street where we could check. So we go there and run into this Arab man who doesn't know her, but goes and asks all his Arab friends and then comes back and says that they think there are three black women that live in the building "over there." Ok....so I think you get the gist. Long story short--Evelyn was the first person we found in the building "over there" and she let us in and we taught her! Heavenly Father is definitely in the details of our lives! (ps she was in Haiti for the earthquake and it sounded crazy!!!!!!) Anyway, she is great and I am excited to see how things work out cuz the gospel would so bless her life!
So, I never got to tell you about the Borderie family (the members we had FHE with last week)! She is like a famous artist & her dad has a painting in the Vatican, so he’s like a super famous artist. And they live in the tallest building in Europe, that people actually live in. They are on the 46th floor and have a panoramic view & you can see like ALL of Paris! We were up there @ night & were there to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling! Anyway, great, super nice family. And brother Borderie was like all over hearing about Dad playing in the French Open & stuff & was asking so many questions…he was like, “you need to tell that to the French because they’ll think it’s great.” So, I need some details! Haha Just so I have more talking material. Maybe not your whole resume, but some good French open highlights (if you have time).
So, we just went to the St. Ouen apartment, cuz it’s close to Leiney’s, to check the mailbox (I’m glad we went, I had 3 letters) & steal some stuff (like the scale haha). Well, there was a stench, I investigated a bit & determined it was coming from the freezer. I had a bad feeling before I opened the door, but not even all my nursing experience could prepare me for what we found! Apparently the Elders turned off the electricity. So, there was like an inch puddle of rotting bloody beef & rotting banana mush coating the bottom of the freezer. I so wanted to pretend I hadn’t seen it, but we are tough sister missionaries, so we pulled out gloves, like 6 garbage bags, bleach & a roll of paper towels, starting breathing through our mouths & went to it. Man, we took one for the team! hahaWell, I miss you. Somehow it came up and my companions made me sing our family night song to them during companionship study the other day and I won't lie--I was pretty close to a tear or two! hehe, but they would have been happy tears. Our super cheesy family night song is just too AWESOME! I hope things are going well! I can't believe finals are over and that school is almost over! Is it warm there now, cuz it is beautiful here?! Well, I gotta go, but I love you all so much!!! Love, JordanXOXOXOXOXOp.s; i will write my snippets to you in my letter tonight! and there are other things i just have to tell you! love you
I feel like I just wrote you, but still so much has happened since then. First of all we had a huge zone conference and Elder Teixeira came. It was awesome! And President Staheli gave us new standards of excellence (aka weekly and transfer goals)! They are like double what they were before and include one baptism per companionship per month! He likened these standards of excellence to the Liahona, and said they shouldn’t be a burden anymore than the Liahona was a burden for Lehi and his family. Depending on your area and different circumstances, it might take people longer or shorter to get there, but the standards are just to give us a direction to be working. I'm excited and I know that, since these were prayerfully discussed and submitted under the direction of our priesthood leadership, they are definitely attainable! Eventually....hehe. But, our Versailles elders are startin it out strong!
We went to the baptism of one of their investigators, Joshua, this morning! It was so great! Elder Draut said that Joshua was like shaking when he got into the font because he was so nervous, but afterwards he was just so happy and glowing (i know that sounds way girly, and joshua is definitely a man's man, but you get the idea). Oh and apparently, third time really is the charm! (now i understand why mom was so particular about having our hair pulled back so tight to keep from floating up) The investigator is from Kenya. The elders ported his apartment a few weeks ago and he was definitely someone prepared! And even though his siblings aren't members of the church, when he called them and told them he was getting baptized, they all insisted on coming! (His sister flew from Kenya i think, and one of his brothers is a diplomat here in France or something.) The whole thing was wonderful, except the fact that we had to do ANOTHER musical number.
K you know how I stress about these kind of things, and how I really don’t like singing in public at all. Piano, whatever, that I can handle. But when it comes to singing, I get all nervous! Plus, the Elders called us late on Thursday night to do it, then Sister Bellini was too sick to leave the apartment all Friday, and then the baptism was Saturday morning! So pretty much we figured out what we were going to do an hour before the baptism started (Sister Gifford played and Sister bellini and I sang I’m trying to be like Jesus and A childs prayer.) I thought it was terrible! So you can imagine my enthusiasm when one of the bishopric members came up afterwards and said it was so great he wants me to sing in Sacrament meeting in two weeks. Lovely. just lovely.
But, going to that baptism made me even more excited for Gloria's baptism next weekend! (ps the elders have another investigator who is getting baptized the next weekend, so it’s just an exciting time!) And we found out Gloria for sure can be baptized! We were talking one night and decided we needed further clarification about what it meant to "have an address." Turns out, that while she should still keep looking for her own place, we can use the address of the shelter where she stays at night and gets mail! So, we had her try on her baptismal clothes today and we're going to figure out her program tomorrow. But, she still needs her own place, because wherever she is staying, she can’t stay there every night and she doesn’t sleep very well, because people steal stuff from you while you're sleeping. I don't know how she handles it. She is looking for places, but it's hard because she doesn’t speak French, like at all. I think I left out that detail last time! Our lessons are hilarious!! She speaks spanish, a tiny bit of English, and pretty much zero french. So when we don’t have a member with us that speaks spanish, it's like we need the gift of tongues! She usually does okay speaking in English, but when she gets excited about something, she starts speaking super fast all in spanish, and then when she says, "comprendas?" (or whatever it is), I'm pretty sure our confused looks say it all! When we have a member it is easier, but just so you get a feel for how that goes down: we teach in English (because that’s her second best language), Gloria speaks in Spanish, and the member translates into French for us! So great. The church is true in every language! So, one thing I am grateful for this week is personal study time. the Preach My Gospel sentence that says that even though people may question your message intellectually, it's hard to argue with a sincere testimony (or something to that effect). We started reading in the Book of Mormon with one investigator this week, and we hadn't gotten two lines into the passage, and she stops and goes off about why it doesn’t make sense that we have another book of scripture and how it can't be legit since none of the people in the book of mormon are talked about in the bible, etc, etc; etc. She wasn't really listening to any of the answers we gave, and it sounded like she had just kinda made a decision in her mind before she even asked her questions. Well, that morning I had spent some time in Chapter 11 of PMG and read that sentence (above). So, I thought about that and decided to just bear my testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, how I came to know it was true and how it has helped me. Nothing spectacular happened or anything, but the atmosphere changed and we were able to have a great lesson. I am just grateful that our job is to bear simple testimony, because let's be real--I am no scriptorian! I should know much more about our church and our teachings than I do, considering I was blessed enough to be born into the Church, but I am grateful to know that I just need to teach the best I can, answer the questions I can, bear testimony of the simple truths I do know, and let the Spirit do the rest! So....miracle of the week! (sorry this is so scattered.) In an attempt to mine our area book(s), we sorted and organized and re-sorted and re-organized about a billion difference fiches (umm....in english I think they are called like investigator progress records or something). We found one that had a name and the number of the non-member friend who had referred her to us. So we called the friend and asked if she had a number for the lady, who's name is Evelyn. She didn't. We asked if she had an address. She didn't. But, she said she lives next to the gare in Saint-Cyr and gave us the name of the street she thought she lived on. So, we look in all our books and on our maps and the street name doesn't appear to exist. But, we felt good about this person and wanted to find her. So.....pretty much we knew her name is Evelyn. And we knew she lived somewhere around the gare, on a street that may or may not exist. I can just picture Heavenly Father kinda chuckling at our stubborn determination, because we had NOTHING! But, He must have been amused and decided to help us out a bit....k....a lot.
We get there and this street doesn't exist on any of the city maps either, so we stop a young man and ask him if he knows of it. He doesn't, but says that we should ask the lady that takes the tickets in the station. So, we go ask her and she says, "oh yeah, it's a house just up the way" and gives us directions. So, we follow her directions to a social house (it wasn’t a street name, but the name of the social house), where the gate like opens as we walk up (I think there were people in the driveway who saw us, but still it was funny). The lobby is empty, but eventually a lady walks out and tells us that no one named Evelyn lives there, but there is another social house just up the street where we could check. So we go there and run into this Arab man who doesn't know her, but goes and asks all his Arab friends and then comes back and says that they think there are three black women that live in the building "over there." Ok....so I think you get the gist. Long story short--Evelyn was the first person we found in the building "over there" and she let us in and we taught her! Heavenly Father is definitely in the details of our lives! (ps she was in Haiti for the earthquake and it sounded crazy!!!!!!) Anyway, she is great and I am excited to see how things work out cuz the gospel would so bless her life!
So, I never got to tell you about the Borderie family (the members we had FHE with last week)! She is like a famous artist & her dad has a painting in the Vatican, so he’s like a super famous artist. And they live in the tallest building in Europe, that people actually live in. They are on the 46th floor and have a panoramic view & you can see like ALL of Paris! We were up there @ night & were there to see the Eiffel Tower sparkling! Anyway, great, super nice family. And brother Borderie was like all over hearing about Dad playing in the French Open & stuff & was asking so many questions…he was like, “you need to tell that to the French because they’ll think it’s great.” So, I need some details! Haha Just so I have more talking material. Maybe not your whole resume, but some good French open highlights (if you have time).
So, we just went to the St. Ouen apartment, cuz it’s close to Leiney’s, to check the mailbox (I’m glad we went, I had 3 letters) & steal some stuff (like the scale haha). Well, there was a stench, I investigated a bit & determined it was coming from the freezer. I had a bad feeling before I opened the door, but not even all my nursing experience could prepare me for what we found! Apparently the Elders turned off the electricity. So, there was like an inch puddle of rotting bloody beef & rotting banana mush coating the bottom of the freezer. I so wanted to pretend I hadn’t seen it, but we are tough sister missionaries, so we pulled out gloves, like 6 garbage bags, bleach & a roll of paper towels, starting breathing through our mouths & went to it. Man, we took one for the team! hahaWell, I miss you. Somehow it came up and my companions made me sing our family night song to them during companionship study the other day and I won't lie--I was pretty close to a tear or two! hehe, but they would have been happy tears. Our super cheesy family night song is just too AWESOME! I hope things are going well! I can't believe finals are over and that school is almost over! Is it warm there now, cuz it is beautiful here?! Well, I gotta go, but I love you all so much!!! Love, JordanXOXOXOXOXOp.s; i will write my snippets to you in my letter tonight! and there are other things i just have to tell you! love you
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