Baptism
Sleep
End of story.
Okay, so not really. That's as abbreviated as my stories come, but I could fill it in with tons of details. For example, all of church for me was in French (English was an option, but I went with French), and I was able to understand quite a bit more of the Relief Society (RS) lesson this time around because the lady spoke quite clearly and there wasn't a constant hum of translation because the lesson was offered separately in English. The lesson was about talents, and the sister pointed out that two people can do the same work, using different talents. She illustrated her point by using the story of Moses and Aaron, the latter contributing his speech skills and the former using his spiritual leadership skills, who together led the great nation of Israel. I, for one, am competitive and often feel like people who are "better" than me are a threat, that somehow they will be noticed and liked more. Really, though, we are here to help each other with the unique talents we each possess. We can complement each other, and when we make good use of the talents we've been given rather than hide them to "protect" them, we show Heavenly Father that we are responsible and capable, when then leads to receiving more talents--and responsibilities!
Sunday School also helped me see that I can understand some French--the guy who taught has tried talking to me before, but I had a hard time understanding him. This time was a bit more clear. And then, in sacrament meeting, I also understood parts, but I had a super hard time because we were at the very back behind a couple of families of small children, I was tired, and I wasn't focusing very well. I think I could've understood a lot more today than I did if I'd put forth a bit more effort rather than passively listening. Perhaps another factor is my confidence level, which is an observation Amy made while we were at the museum yesterday. Essentially, she thinks comprehension is positively correlated with confidence. I still am quite inept with the language in comparison with my native language, but really, I haven't studied French for even a year yet! And although I seem to stumble over my words even after having thought through a simple utterance various times, I do feel like I am getting more comfortable with the people here. I admit to getting jealous of the fun adventures I read about and hear about from the BYU Study Abroad students, but we aren't with the same program and we aren't here to have the same experiences. Sure, they get an elaborate picnic in front of the Eiffel Tower, free entrance anytime into the Museum of Orsay, and a trip to Versailles, but I get to go to a giant cemetery and get pictures with some of the greats, I have a picnic in a nice park out of downtown Paris with new friends I've met here, and I get to have an evening adventure with another new friend at the Museum of Orsay free for a special event! They get to have elaborate fun, but I've visited and will visit the same places and I'm making my own network of friends outside of BYU, while also benefiting from having them to spend time with sometimes, too.
Speaking of new friends and networks, I met a Venezuelan-American girl named Michelle who is working as a nanny here and is looking into becoming baptized! I went with her, another investigator, and two of the sister missionaries to the ward baptism this afternoon. Four people were baptized! I thought that hardly anyone got baptized in Europe, and apparently that is pretty true regarding the actual Europeans, but not so for the immigrants, particularly Africans and Chinese people! (What's sad for me is to realize that having an eternal family isn't even a big plus for the Church in the sight of many Europeans because the family isn't a huge commitment for them; there are many unmarried couples who have children and divorce is common. Every culture has something to offer, yes, and "fashion," cheese, and pastries are famously French, but I love that family is so important and central to Latinos.) At any rate, Michelle seems super nice and fun, and her family is living in Madrid! In fact, we'll both be in Madrid at the beginning of July, and she offered to show me around! It was exciting, too, to see her reaction to the baptismal ceremony, especially since she told us she's mostly convinced about getting baptized and because she's never seen one before. Today, she got to see 3 attempts and 4 successes! She pointed out that she loved that the mood was light. At first, after the first couple of individuals' baptisms, she saw one of the soon-to-be-baptized girls crying, which made her tear up, but then most of us ended up laughing a couple of times because between the baptizers being somewhat inexperienced, the missionaries being tall, the water being low, the girls wearing dresses with huge skirts, and the missionaries almost falling over a couple of times from trying to do the baptizing while kneeling, getting those new members immersed was no easy task! I hope Michelle enjoyed herself this afternoon--I know she loved the food afterward-- and I hope that she does get baptized.
Michelle ended up leaving with some sister missionaries, and I left with a couple of the friends from yesterday's picnic and the little girl, Emily. I spent part of my metro ride back with Emily and her mother, and we talked about Spanish, how I ended up studying French, and marriage. I found out this afternoon that Emily's mom has already been married and divorced twice and it was while she was getting divorced the second time that she was pregnant with Emily and investigating the LDS Church. Knowing this, I was nervous about talking near her about marriage and how much I want it, but she seems quite open to finding a better, new husband who is LDS this time. I told her that I admire her for not being bitter, and it's the truth. She participates in YSA stuff and today she and our accompanying friend were talking about going to the activities to catch a man! It was so nice to talk to her and see her excitement to one day remarry, despite what she's already been through.
Sadly, our conversation was cut a little short by a phone call from my parents and little sister, but we were about to part ways anyway at that point. So we said goodbyes and I talked with family! Later, back at my apartment, I was also able to finally talk to Cassi about some of the works I saw this weekend! And after that, I've had plenty of time to eat dinner, watch a couple of April general conference talks in French, look up museum info, watch some Mormon Messages in English, Spanish, and French, and do some blog-stalking and blog-writing. :) In the missionary spirit, here's a Mormon Message video for youth about missionary work:
Spanish version
English version
Invite people to activities and to church meetings. I mean, really, who DOESN'T like good feelings, fun, friends, and food?! (I just might dub those "The 4F's We All Want in Life"...)
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