It's a Wonderful Life: Day 18

This afternoon I went to a baptism for one of Michael's investigators. I didn't really understand much, even so, by the end, I was able to feel the spirit as we sang Ensemble a Tout Jamias and the son gave the closing prayer. It was a great experience to be able to share that with Michael.

I also got to meet Michael's new companion, Elder Johnson. I like him a lot and Michael says he likes him too. I also got to meet Sister Elizabeth Smart today. It was interesting talking to her. She seemed so normal and chill. It was funny because I couldn't remember a lot of things about her. When she told me she was a music major I asked her what instrument she played. Duh! How could I not remember she played the harp. I also asked her where she was from. Well hopefully she just thought I was retarded. When I got home I watched an Opera interview with her and it was amazing that I had talked with her. I cant believe all she went through and how she manages to do all of this here. She is hard core!

Funny side note: After the baptism Michael and his new companion, Elder Johnson, had to go to the mission home so they left pretty quickly. Michael was trying to figure out how he would get his wet baptismal pants home, that Elder Gardner had worn. I said I could take them and give them to him at church tomorrow. So here they are just drying in my room. Once again I am taking care of my little brother.

After that I traveled home and Ally and I went out for the night. We were going to just head in to Paris and find dinner somewhere. There was an opening institute dance that we didn't think we would go to. We heard it was more of a party and that people didn't dance(boy were they wrong).

We checked out the institute and there was a fireside going on. We didn't think it started that early, but we thought we would just come back at eight when we had heard the dance was suppose to start. We got a nutella and almond crepe to hold us over until we could eat dinner at the institute. At Hotel de Ville there was a huge party. At first it was just somebody talking about what ever, but then the music started! It was so fun! There was this random American DJ from Miami and Ally and I jumped in on the dancing.

It was really fun and we were there for about 45 minutes. There was a big guy standing by me dancing. I noticed him, but I didn't think much of it seeing as everyone was just dancing and having a good time. He had been dancing by us for half an hour when Ally and I decided we were going to head back to the institute. As we went to cross the street about a hundred feet from where would had been dancing, this same guy come up and started talking to me. He was asking me to do something with him or something like that. He was speaking French. I said 'Non' quite firmly with out looking at him and then he said, "Pourquoi?"(why?) I said Non more loudly and forcefully. He wouldn't leave us alone and kept talking. I said Non a few more times and then I grabbed Ally's arm and we walked away. We watched to make sure he didn't follow us and I was glad we were only a few streets away from the institute.

So I had my first real experience with a creepy Frenchman. Not too bad. I actually enjoy the fact that I can be a total jerk and somehow its okay here : )

At the church there was dinner and then a dance. When we started dancing there weren't that many people dancing. But after a while everyone was dancing. There were probably at least a hundred people who stayed for the dance. We had a really good time. The dance was similar to our's back home, but different in a few ways too. All the songs were American which I thought was funny, but all the Frenchies knew the words, even if they had no idea what they were saying.

All in all, a good day and I haven't been to a dance in over two years, so I had a really fun time! Life is good. As I took a break from dancing and sat in the window of the church, looking past the beautiful architecture of our cute church courtyard, I had nothing to wish for when I saw the brightest star. Once again I felt grateful for the amazing life I have and all of the wonderful things that I get to do here.