Bonjour!!!!
Well.... this email is going to pretty short because the internet café decided to not have internet for a while and we are meeting up with some other missionaries in a little bit....so Ill try my hardest to keep things pretty concise.It will be easy since this week can pretty much be summed up in one word. EMOTIONAL.
Where to start. Well....everyone pretty much knows how much I detest, loath, and dread change. I think a mission is going to be very good at curing me of that because things change constantly. Seriously. Constantly. I used to think six weeks was a long time. Like when people would tell me that they did a study abroad in Paris for six week. Pre-mission life I probably would have been like 'woah...your cool'. But now six weeks is a blink and all the sudden Im forced to experience CHANGE again. Missions have this awful system called transfers...which last six weeks. So for the first two weeks you are trying to find your groove- what your companion is like, what the area is like, find people to teach, etc. The next two weeks are awsome. You know the area (kind of), you have a system with your companion, etc. Then the last two weeks is spent agonizing and praying that whatever happens next transfer will be good. Hoping you will get a good a companion or area, the people you are teaching will get baptized, etc. THEN the whole awful system starts over again. Ugh. Last transfer, the amount of change was kept minimal. I stayed in the same place, with the same companion. But this transfer, change was necessary ( Soeur Pearce thinks that she can like go home and be with her family and move on with life and stuff...rude; I know) So I knew change was coming. Sigh.....
So on top of all the emotions that go along with change Ive also been experiencing all the emotions of loosing Soeur Pearce. Ok Ive probably been sappy enough in my past emails and you guys are probably sick of hearing how amazing she is. But Im going to go through a serious struggle sending her off!!! We talked about it this week and we've decided we are like a couple that is being forced to break up. You know like one of those cheesy war films where the soldier has to go off to war and they never see each other again. Except that we aren't a couple. And we will see each other again. And she isn't going off to war, rather she is going home to a cruise with her family. Hmmmmm...maybe our attempt at making our situation really tragic failed completely.....but still we are thinking with the emotions! That means we arent exactly being rational....
But, as usual, Heavenly Father has a sense of humor. Turns out CHANGE CAN BE GOOD. Shocking I know. But I am staying in Paris for my third transfer. And my new companion is Soeur Williams, who has not only been my roommate for the past two transfers because she was serving in the other Paris ward, but she is also someone I know and love!!!! Seriously, she is adorable. This doesnt diminish how much Im going to miss Soeur Pearce, but I think Ive come to the realization that change isnt scary. Actually its necessary. If things didnt change, then we wouldn't every appreciate everything we have. What is that scripture... opposition in all things. As one wise elder explained to Soeur Pearce this week " Missions are like contacting. If you follow someone down the street even after they've rejected you, it gets awkward. So if you linger in your mission for longer than your supposed to then things just get awkward." So just for the sake of keeping things non-awkward I guess the transfer system isn't THAT bad. For now Ill just be grateful I get another 6 weeks in Paris!!!!!
Love you all!!
Soeur Smith
PS Zdravko is getting baptized this week!!!!!!!
PPS. I finally figured out to attach pictures! Yes I can be smarter than the computer!!! So here are few for you! I still cant figure out how to label them...so for now you'll just have to kind of guess where they are from. The girl with long blonde hair is Soeur Pearce...I think I attached another one of me with Soeur Williams. And the group in front of the Eiffel Tower is my district from Transfer one....other than that I can't remember what else I attached to good luck figuring it out :)
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