August 19, 2013

Cheesy missionary time.

Bordeaux! We went for a Zone Meeting and are going again for a Zone Conference this week. It is so pretty there!
 



My two favorite cheeses so far

Bonjour! Vous me manquez!

Bonjour my wonderful family! I miss you so much! I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for your letters! It is so nice to hear from you.

Well. Where to begin with this week. I can't believe it has only been a week. I have only been in Pau for 9 days now. That blows my mind, it feels like I have been here for at least a month! Things are still going great for me. To be honest, this week was a lot harder than the last. I think I was just so happy to be in France it was like nothing else mattered, haha. But now that I am settled in, it definitely got a lot harder. I am just starting to be super frustrated with the language. I can't even tell you how frustrating it is when I just simply want to have a REAL conversation with someone but I can't understand what they are saying. I am just really starting to feel stupid like everyone told me I would. But I am working so hard. And I am going to keep trying and working harder. Honestly the most frustrating thing is how much English I have been speaking!! Me and my companion never speak French. And I am definitely not letting that go on for much longer. I set goals with her this week that like sorry, you can talk to me in English; but I am definitely going to be responding in French. I know I need to be patient with myself but it just gets really frustrating at times.

You all are going to be absolutely amazed at how patient I am when I get home. I can’t even tell you how much I am having to work on it every day. Haha probably you just won't even know who I am anymore I am going to be so patient. Every day it is something I have to work on...patient with myself, patient in God's timing, patient with my sweet companion...who literally makes us late to everything we go to..haha. It is so good for me though to be working on this quality of Christ. Blessings in disguise!

Alright. There is my rant for the week. French is really frustrating. NOW on to the miracles and fun things of the week that really make up most of my mission, so the other things don't matter..

First of, Y--. Wow has this been a week of miracles for him. I meant to take a picture of him this week but I forgot, but you guys have to see him. I will try to send one soon! We had three lessons with him this week. They all were amazing!! When we taught the rétablissment (sorry, restoration) when I recited the first vision he had the biggest smile on his face. Reciting the first vision is the coolest thing EVER. I have done it twice in lessons now, once today and one with our other progressing ami Madame L--, and both times, when I got to the end of it they literally both had the biggest smiles on their faces. It is just the coolest thing ever, such an amazing spirit. that it brings every single time. Jospeh Smith is the best. K sorry, back to Y--!

We had a lesson with him on Friday, and we watched The Testemants. It was so great. Except I cried. It was really embarrassing. But we could tell he loved it. And THEN we were talking to him on the phone Saturday night, and he told us that after that lesson he had a dream...I got excited right when he said those words. Because I knew what he meant. He had a dream, that he was baptized. And that Jesus baptized him. I don't know if that means a lot to you, but to us missionaries...aw man, you should have seen us when we hung up the phone. We were bouncing off the walls. SUCH a miracles. He is sooo close. SO close. We are commiting him to a date next lesson. I know he is ready. I just hope he begins to realize that!! So, I am hoping next week I will have some great things to tell you.

Other miracles (I cannot even begin to name them all), we got a new ami this week! Soeur D-- had met him contacting like two weeks earlier; but he never showed up to their rendez-vous, and then out of the blue he called us. And we set up a rendez-vous! And it went so well! He had sooo many questions about the book of Mormon. Also he is a ballet dancer. Haha he is so great. I hope that he contintues to progress! He is a really fun guy to teach.

Our other ami is Madame L--. She is a sweet sweet old lady, and she has such a sweet heart. Our only obstacle is that she can't see well at all, so she can’t read the Book of Mormon. So we are working on that, but I hope we get to keep seeing her more.

We have a few other potential amis; like this guy named David. Haha he was a fun experience because it was my first experience I have had where literally all we said was "hey we are missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ, we teach about Jesus. Do you want to learn more?" And he was seriously just like "Yeah, sure!" soo we set up a rendez-vous for the next day! And he actually showed up! Stuff like that is just so fun. Like to anyone who ever told me it would be hard to baptize here...of course it isn't easy, but I meet SO many people every day who are so ready to hear this gospel it is crazy.

Another fun thing of this week is we went to this sweet lady's house for dinner. She is in our ward, her name is Soeur Ca--. I almost died she is just the cutest old lady ever. She reminds me a lot of Grandma Magleby! Because she just lived in this adorable humble little apartment. But wow can that lady talk. And talk. Annnd talk. Haha it was so fun though. It is just moments like that that I feel so purely happy to be here. It is all about the little things. Also she fed us chicken liver. Soo there's that. It was terrifying. But she made it up and served us some super amazing cheese after. Haha.

This week the biggest thing I have learned is just how necessary prayer is in our lives. We emphasize it SO much to our amis. But I have learned it for myself too. There were a few moments this week where I just felt so overwhelmed, alone, scared, frustrated; and all these other annoying feelings. And there was literally nothing I could do but get on my knees. It is the only place I have left to turn. But it brings so, so much power to us when we do this simple act of communicating with our Father in Heaven. Haha you would probably think I was crazy if you knew how much I pray every day. But it really has made me realize how silly I was before to not utilize this tool we have before my mission. So that is my challenge to you for the week! Don't ever forget this amazing opportunity we have to talk with our Heavenly Father. He wants to hear from you.

I love you all so much. I am trying not to miss you so much because it is really hard at times. I am praying for you and I feel your prayers! I hope you all have an amazing week. Sorry if I didn't answer your questions..it is hard for me to fit so much stuff in my brain.

 

Je vous aime beaucoup!!

OH P.S I forgot something I guess kind of important...I talked in Sacrament meeting yesterday. For 10 minutes. Ummm yeah SCARIEST thing ever. To talk in front of French people!! When my French is so sketchy! But it went well. I honestly don't even know what I said. But everyone was complimenting after saying they could understand the whole thing. Despite my accent. Haha soo that is my next thing to work on.

Love you!

-Soeur Magleby