Day 190: Funniest Tuesday Ever

9 mars 2010 (Day 190)
I was so so so tired on my run today. I can’t believe how sore I am either. I went to the gym after my run and worked out my arms. Guess who benched 45 kilos! Yay for me. I even got some homework done and sent my demand for a carte de sejour (what lets me be here legally). You see, they lost the one I sent in September. I won’t complain here, but long story short, it is dumb!
I had a great afternoon/evening/night. Hannah and I went off to visit teach Cheryl at the church about modesty. We were both really nervous about it because it can be a touchy subject. Hannah was also in a really funny mood so everything out of her mouth was hilarious. She told me about this time her sister told her brother to give his unibrow back to Bert from Sesame Street and then threw some scriptures at him and hit him in the head! When we got to the church we went to go to the bathroom and we were going to have a quick prayer in there since the missionaries were being noisy making tortillas. Hannah attempted to say it but she started cracking up and then I was laughing and we both ended up laughing so hard and so much that we were both crying. Mind you, this was in the bathroom and the kitchen is by the bathroom. Elder Bourgeois imitated Hannah’s laugh (we were that loud) which only made us laugh more. We made it out of the bathroom (eventually) rather tear and giggle free. Cheryl was running late so Hannah went to play the piano and I helped the Elders by making some tortilla dough. Another funny story! I was showing Knapp the bruise on my arm from him (he denies it) and told Elder Lazarev it was okay because I had a raspberry from him from soccer. Elder Bourgeois was frying tortillas, turned and said, “Knapp you gave her a raspberry?!” “No it wasn’t me, it was Lazarev.” “Me, not like that!” (Bourgeois was indicating the blowing on someone’s belly farting noise raspberry). Do you see how important communication is?
When Cheryl came we went into a room and started the lesson. Other then Quinton trying to disturb us it went really great. We all learned so much about modesty and Cheryl not wants to dress more modestly and it just all went over really well. The lesson was an hour long, so by the time we were done the burrito fun was about to begin.
I went into the kitchen to help prepare stuff. Paki’s mom told someone I was Swedish and that I lived at IKEA…it was so funny. I also told Elder Knapp about my dream where he pretty much turned into a vampire at church and then told me that it was true and that I should watch out next week, lol. Zeng Chao called and told me that he was coming and bringing a friend, which is so awesome because he told Elder Lazarev that he wasn’t going to come. He came and socialized with a lot of people and ended up talking with his friend and Elder Lazarev about the gospel (after we all ate) until about 10pm!
I sat by Cheryl, Cheryl’s friend from New York (who graduated from Yale…cool!), some crazy older gentleman that Elder Lazarev randomly invited, and Elder Knapp. Elder Knapp and I talked a lot to the random investigator. I don’t remember his name, so let’s just call him Congo because that is where he is from. He seemed like a pretty serious man but we had fun talking to him. Elder Knapp and I started this little battle of the witty stabs in this conversation. Naturally Congo likes playing soccer so I add that Elder Knapp is great at playing soccer and he later stabs back that I’m a super player or something ridiculous and false like that. I was impressed though because Knapp knows a lot about Congo (the parts of the country, the food, languages, etc.). He has apparently gleaned all this from talking to other Congans. I found out that Elder Knapp likes fencing (go figure…it is such a mind game and he goes to UPenn). Other random things learnt about the missionaries…Elder Lazarev is going to do ROTC, goes to BYU but has never been to SLC and Elder Maxfield is apparently very very rich. He lives in the same city as Hannah and so she figured it out when they told each other where they lived. Back to Congo. I’m not sure about the vibes that I got from him. He seemed kind of nice though because he invited Elder Knapp and I to come to dinner one night. We both simultaneously said, “Yes, I’d like to.” (In retrospect I should have said WE’d love to….see story below). I was trying to get Congo to commit to coming to church on Sunday and he was asking if he’d see me, to which I had to say no, because I will be at a friend’s and going to church there. He was telling me that I could ask Elder Knapp though if I came and prayed to God and that that would be totally fine with him. Just how this part of the conversation went made me think that Congo thought we were married…oh man. People. Hannah and I had a ward member ask us if we were sister missionaries. I was finally sassy this time (like I always am in my head) and said, “Have you ever seen us with nametags on?” Honestly people, I wasn’t even wearing THE skirt this time!
Have I ever mentioned that Kev sounds terrible when he speaks English, because he does. The intonation is awful and he says things really awkwardly with how he says everything. Needless to say it is starting to annoy me. I had my bangs down today and he would not let it go (I swear he has a thing with hair…he was obsessed with Hannah’s one Sunday). I told him multiple times that I didn’t cut it or do anything different to it, that it was the same hair. He told me that it looked better…which was then covered up with a quick “nice.” BURN! I was laughing though that he was telling me that he didn’t like my hair before and Knapp joined in the game and was like, “Look, she is going red because of the compliment you gave her.” The game is on Knapp…the battle has begun and I will get you back. He is definitely in the lead though because I was by the stove by Lazarev and Knapp pops his self in and says, “You’re hot.” Me, “You mean the pan?” Lazarev, “Oh man, not that.” Me, “You don’t think I’m hot?!” “I didn’t say that…erg! I’m leaving!” Poor kid, it is just too fun to tease. It isn’t every day that an Elder calls a girl hot on his mission.
What else…Someone brought a classical guitar so I got to play a little bit. I miss playing and can’t wait to by my own guitar! Anne Garon lied to Cheryl and I, saying that it was her birthday to get us to sing for her. Two men in the ward washed all the dishes. I was so grateful for them. I played hostess, cleaning up and mingling here and there. Elder Knapp (I’m getting that kid back for all of these I swear) just had to go out of his way to introduce me to Senegal (once again forgot his name so we shall call him the country of his origins) who wanted to practice his English. We talked for a while until I passed him off to Cheryl and her friend (wa ha ha). He actually spoke English really well and didn’t have an accent or make grammatical errors. He wants to teach English back in Senegal. One of the ward members was telling me really funny stories about what he would do to blue missionaries (brand new) when he was on his mission. He’d send them into the boulangerie asking for “une baguette gratuite” (a free baguette), to the pharmacy (thinking they were asking for cough medicine) “un soutien-gorge” [literal translation: throat support real translation: bra] and that he’d have them tell Sisters that the food was disgusting. It was pretty funny. I’ve never heard the soutien-gorge one before, but I definitely want to use it.
As mentioned previously, the missionaries were out late. We started eating late (normal) but we also had people bring dessert and we had lots of amis (investigators) and lots of ward members so everyone stayed around and talked a lot. Elder Maxfield and I realized that it was almost time for them to be home (at 9:25) and we weren’t done cleaning! We started cleaning as quickly as possible (Lazarev was teaching, Bourgeois was playing the piano, and Knapp was talking). By the time we were all cleaned up and mostly waiting for Lazarev to finish teaching Kev was giving the missionaries such death glares. I suggested to Maxfield that maybe they ask Kev for a ride home so that they could get there faster. He naturally agreed because he is such a nazi when it comes to missionaries (he freaked out at the last YSA activity when he saw the missionaries at the church at the same time as all the youth). They were all in the car except for Lazarev who was telling me the funny story about the girl I told him to contact that is Chinese (who came with Zeng Chao) heard the message that Elder Lazarev left and thought that it was a Chinese person playing a prank on her and that it wasn’t an American so she never answered! Elder Bourgeois came in because Kev was about dying by this point and so they all left.
A mystery someone left a Swedish flag in my backpack (guesses anyone?) and Hannah and I got a ride almost all the way to our house from our home teacher (thank you!). What a night! We got home at 10:30 and we had left for church at 4:30! Hopefully Kev didn't scold the missionaries too badly...they were giving lessons and set up a lot of appointments and did a lot of good last night!