Elder Knapp, Mari, Han, and Elder Lazarev
27 mars 2010 9 (Day 208)
Tra la la! Today Han got baptized! It was quite a busy day. I woke up and cleaned my room, cleaned myself, printed off my talk, and did all those other things to get ready. In the afternoon me and my cute self (straightened hair, Hannah’s navy blue dress with a yellow cardigan) over to Hannah’s room where we practiced the song with Jessica. Jessica is Hannah’s super cute friend from Washington that is Protestant. We headed off when it was time to go and got a lot of stares for looking so good on a fine Saturday afternoon, lol. It was actually kind of annoying. We got there right on time (we arranged to go early to practice singing with the elders) and the gates were locked! While we were waiting Jessica decided that she looked like she was going to a funeral and shouldn’t wear her black tights. She took them off, right there on the sidewalk and then changed her mind and wanted to put them back on. Cue Elders Maxfield and Bourgeois. Needless to say, Jess was screaming, “Tell them to stop! Don’t let them come closer!” and I was laughing and they were trying to look away. Ha ha, oh the sporting life. Elder Bourgeois did say that we looked very nice, which was nice of him to say. I thought I looked awesome in my 50s dress. My favorite comment from the day was when Elder Knapp said seriously, “Can I ask you a question about girls?” “Sure.” “If they are already tall, why do they wear high heels (referring to Hannah, who is tall and was wearing high heels.” I just laughed because I have never worn heels and tried to make my best guess as to why girls ever even wear them.
We practiced with the Elders once the others came which was a good thing. We ended up changing a lot of how we were planning on singing the song. We sounded pretty good though. It was six o’clock, the time of the baptism, and no one was there! Only Jenn, another ISEP student that is in some of my classes was there. A few other members eventually dribbled in, but there were maybe twenty of us total, which is not a lot. The program ended up being a catastrophe…they didn’t even have Han’s name written correctly and I was scheduled to speak first and we were supposed to sing while Han was changing…but the song was for her because it is mostly in English. I gave my talk and it went relatively well. I started to say a word in English but corrected myself and looked at Han because when I looked at the audience I just saw Elder Knapp’s head bobbing up and down. It sort of reminded me of Kirstin holding up time signs, in a bad way. I talked about persevering to the end and Elder Knapp said I did a great job, other than talking too fast and over-articulating. I love contradictions. Even though Han had practiced getting baptized and Elder Lazarev had done his pushups to practice (ha ha…Han maybe weighs 100 pounds) she still didn’t exactly know what was happening. She got baptized though and I went to help her change, which was good because she had left her bag in the kitchen so I went to grab it.
While I was waiting everyone else sang hymns. Elder Knapp and I were putting Han’s wet baptismal dress away and we heard them announcing the special musical number that we were both in! We both went charging into the chapel where everyone was looking around because they were missing 1/3 of the musical number! Zoinks! We sang our song and it turned out really nice even though we messed up on one part. It really wasn’t bad considering how much we did (or didn’t) practice. Anne Garon gave a talk about the Holy Ghost afterwards and then we had a little snack afterwards. Luckily I brought more than one plate, because Hannah and I were the only ones who brought things along. We all talked a little and then cleaned up. Jen said that she really enjoyed the baptism service and that it was different, but that it was good to be in a church again and she felt very honored and privileged to be there.
Jean Luc offered the Elders a ride and they started to pile in when Elder Knapp said, “Come on guys…” There were four of us girls in dresses in the dark (myself, Han, Hannah, and Jessica) and regardless of Elder Knapp’s gallantry the Elders got in the car and we ladies made the trek to the tram station alone. A man on a bicycle stopped us and asked me (in French) about the church we came out of. He said that he had people visit his house before, but that he didn’t know anything about it and that he was wondering when we have services and such. I gave him a brief explanation and got him a pass along card and invited him to come on Sunday at 9am. He said that was early so I said he could just make it around 11am for the most important part. He asked if all four of us would be there, to which I said yes. He then responded that he would be there at nine tomorrow. Now during all this time in the alternate universe of the missionaries….
They had started to go their merry way off in the car when they saw that we were stopped on the sidewalk. By a man. They decided that this didn’t look good. They proceeded to get out of the car and try to get a better look to see if this man was harassing us. They were still worried. They decided to do a little drive by and drive around. They called my cell phone (which I didn’t answer because I was teaching this man) to see if we needed help. They waited nearby until the man left and then came closer and asked what happened and if we were all right. I told them what happened and they went off. During their time in the car Elder Knapp said that he saw that I was giving him a piece of paper and just started to laugh because he knew exactly what I was doing. I thought it was special (and especially funny) that it was Elder Bourgeois, the one who made the determining decision that they were not walking with us, was the Elder the most concerned and trying to call us. Good karma.
It was neat talking to Han about being baptized. She really felt a difference and said she wasn’t nervous when it happened even though she was terrified because everyone would be staring at her. I counseled her to write it all down. I also rolled my ankle twice walking to the tram station. It was fun. Probably a good thing the missionaries weren’t there to laugh at me.
