I had planned on inviting Soeur Walton and the newly adorable Soeur Simpson to my house on January 23rd when my host family would be gone but....I asked them about their plans to leave and they decided to stay home for the weekend. Dang it!! Well, that didn't stop me. I really wanted to have a discussion/food night with the soeurs so I proposed I still make dinner for them but we just meet in a different place. The church building! Perfect.
I had been craving aasian food like nobody's business and I am also on the man-hunt for some furikaki. (It's a seaweed/sesame seed seasoning for rice and it is HEAVEN). Well, I took a day and discovered the China Town of Paris in the 13th arr. Definitely going to revisit! While I did not find furikaki (so sad), I decided to make pad thai for the soeurs and I also picked up some vegetable shrimp dumplings to serve. And the best part is...it's all gluten free! Thank you, rice and Asians who eat a lot of it in every form. And for dessert, I through in some very non-Asian gingerbread pancakes with lemon curd. Something that hardly anyone here has heard of!? But I'll get to that.
So I spend my Saturday morning doing nothing and then going to the market en bas really quick and then doing nothing and then prepare what I can ahead of time for dinner... It's hard making a full course meal in a very far location when really pressed for time! So I transported lot's of tupperware and ziplocs of cut veggies and noodles and rice and jars of sauce and Pulco to drink. It was difficult and I ended up forgetting the bean sprouts for the pad thai (!?!?!) but while sitting on the bus, I noticed I smelt really good, like garlic and stir-fry. Not bad. And for another added bonus, I had a "Best Two Years" moment: an old lady sat by me on the bus and turned and asked which stop I would get off at and, without even a hesitation, I responded easy breezy Covergirl style. It may have been a conversation of about six words, but it was effortless! This month has seriously been the month where all this French is finally sticking.
I arrive at the stake center to find my soeurs and two elders jammin' out on the piano showing off their crazy good skills. Soeur Walton is a piano phenomenon!!! I have never seen somebody play so fast and so well! My piano idol! Well all of these missionaries have amazing hidden talents like Elder SOMETHING beatboxes like a G and made an awesome rendition of their missionary theme song with three other elders. Someday I want to grow up and be as cool as the missionaries in Versialles. Just sayin'.
After the musical talent show, I start pulling out all of the stuff to make and everyone got super excited and I'm so happy! The food turned out as well as it could considering it was my first homemade attempt and I have expectations of Thai Bistro running over my tastebuds. But everyone was happy and it was a success! The first round of Elders left after their appointment 'ami' didn't show :( and then two other Elders arrived for the appointment that they had with a cute Chinese lady. With so much extra food, I offered it to the Elders who ate it happily and thankfully I didn't have to carry it home! Their investigator had made some asian spring roll type things which we all ate out of respect and while they were a little salty and burnt, I was happy to be "one of the missionaries" that night and do as they do!
The soeurs shared with us a short message and we watched the Mormon Message titled 'The Hope of God's Light'. It was a perfect message. Even thought the video is about a man who, frankly, I really don't have much in common with considering he partied and drank and did drugs, I do know exactly what he means when he says he feels God's love like a hug and that he knows people were sent to him as an answer from God.
We wrapped up the night with a rapid dish cleaning session so the soeurs could get home on time and a selfie since I forgot to take a picture before! When I got home at 9pm from my dinner party that I told my host family about, they said, "that was an early dinner!" My only response was, "Ya, they were all American. We eat at 6:30, not 9."
I cannot tell you how much I love the soeurs here!! And the friends I have made who have helped keep me sane when the job is literally killing me and who have been adventuring with me from the start. So grateful today and for eternity!
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