my first baptism!
Philomene was baptized yesterday! barely. :) It started out with her not showing up to church. I stepped out into the hall during sunday school to call her, and she said she was making a cake for the refreshments afterwards. I tried telling her the refreshments were all taken care of, but she insisted on contributing! why it was the day of, I haven't the slightest idea. So, church ended at 12:30 and the baptism was supposed to start at 2:00. 2:45 rolled around, and Philomene still hadn't turned up and was not answering her phone. My companion was in tears and basically freaking out, the members were sitting in the hallway looking really bored, and we had a full baptismal font with no one to baptize. The Elders suggested we pray, so the four of us went into a classroom and got on our knees. Elder Gilmour prayed that Philomene would be able to arrive soon and safely. We came out of the room and seriously one minute later, she appeared at the door. with a cart full of food. We had to laugh at that point... it was so very Philomene. She was going on and on about how the devil didn't want to get baptized so he threw obstacles in her way as she was trying to get to the church. we quickly helped her get her baptismal dress on, then the show was back on!
She was baptized by Elder Weed. She had to be baptized five times because her knees kept popping up. by the fifth time, her wig was starting to fall off, but she looked over at us with a huge smile. Afterwards as she was drying off, she said, "I'm a member now! I'm a missionary!" She was glowing. Her happiness was contagious... i was so happy for her and with her. She didn't waste time on the whole missionary thing... She started talking to her friends she had invited to the baptism and by the end of the refreshments, I was taking down their information so we could set up a rendez-vous. Philomene is just incredible! It was a lovely day.
we saw éliane again this week... she's a doll! She is the one who is here in Paris alone and pregnant. Anyway, we taught her the plan of salvation and she totally accepted it. She told us it made perfect sense to her. It's nice when lessons go that smoothly! She came to church for the first time on sunday, which was so exciting. During sunday school, she kept leaning over and asking me, "when is the Mass going to start?" It was cute :)
Edinton and Anbu were at church as well. Anbu invited his friend, Donald, to the baptism. Donald was very interested and asked a lot of great questions. He said he is going to bring his 11 year-old son to church next week! We have been so very blessed. The people we are teaching are doing missionary work too! It is seriously incredible and such a blessing. I cannot wait for Edinton and Anbu to be baptized!
today for p-day we went to the Musée de l'Orangerie, home of Monet's water lilies. It was absolutely gorgeous. Monet painted them at the end of his life, nearly blind. They are MASSIVE... huge, curved murals surrounding large oval rooms bathed in natural light. it was ethereal. There were several other famous artists in the galleries downstairs, such as Manet, Renoir, Cézanne, and Picasso. It was so heavenly to drink it all in. I love the contrast of stepping off of a busy city street into a silent white room surrounded by beautiful paintings. It kind of mirrored being a missionary, stepping from the world I'm familiar with into an entirely different, heavenly sort of world. i love my little missionary world.
je vous aime, tous!
amour,
little mish.
the baptism
Souer Jorgensen, Philomene, me & Elder Weed
me & the water lillies.
me & soeur j.
monet the master.
lillies up close.
one of the water lilly rooms (there are TWO of them!)
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