Monday, September 30, 2013

Vous pouvez faire tous avec le Seigneur!

 
Took this picture in our apartment today. I thought you all would enjoy a before and after! Haha

 
Elder Carré playing the piano in the gare in Bordeaux... I wish I could send you the video. He is literally the best piano player I have EVER heard. He is so amazing. I know it is not like a super amazing picture without the sound..but yeah, just to show you one of the highlights of my week!


Just the regular life of a French missionary, taking our lunch break in Carrefour
and enjoying an Orangina. Life is sooooo hard. Hehe.
 Okay, it totally is. But it so so worth it.
 
 
 
Hello everyone!  This is going to be a shorter letter this week because for some reason they decided to put a timer on all their computers here. So that is no fun. But that is fine because I don't really have a ton to say about this week.  It has been really great though! WE FINALLY HAVE OUR APARTMENT PUT TOGETHER!! It feels sooooo nice to have a nice place to go home to at night. And then we finished our cleaning this morning. So we finally have a nice clean apartment! It definitely makes everything a lot easier. It has been a long process. We did not get everything together until Saturday. But now it is done! And I am so happy! The Elders literally saved us. I will forever be grateful for them. Our Elders we have here in Pau are really amazing. I am so grateful for them. We have so much fun together!
 
Honestly we are just so over our heads busy right now. But it is so much fun!! We have so many people to teach it just feels like we are running around all the time. It is incredible. Whenever we contact someone and get their number we have just been giving them to the elders because we literally have no time to teach! We have five amis right now. It is so much fun. I love them all so much. We have seen some really cool things with all of them this week!
 
I am grateful for the past two weeks and the hardships I went through, because now that I went through that really hard time it feels like God is just pouring out blessings upon us. We had an amazing miracle filled day this past Saturday. It was so cool, and really made me realized how much He really is aware of us. He gives us trials for our learning and growth. But He will ALWAYS reward us, as long as we endure it well. Saturday we had a cool experience, where we had a tombez-vous that night so we decided to go visit an inactive member we have been wanting to see. And as we were walking there Soeur DeWeese was trying to get me to stop and do some porting...but I just felt so strongly that we should go and visit this lady. So I wouldn't let her stop and I was just like "there is no way we are not going to see her tonight!" So we went and rang her sonnery and she was so confused at why someone would be visiting her at 8 o clock on a Saturday night. But she let us in gladly and we were there for an hour, and it was such a cool experience. She was by herself that night when usually she has her family there. And we just had the Spirit there SO strongly with us. She is just this amazing, loud, so faithful african lady. So yeah, she is a blast. And has so much faith it is fantastic. She just kept saying how grateful she was that we visited her. It was a simple experience but it was really one of the first times on my mission where I have really felt the Spirit guiding me so directly. It is a really cool thing.
 
Last night we had a really cool experience with Y--. We had such an amazing lesson. We have just been pushing him like crazy to set a baptism date..but he just really doesn't like dates. And he feels like he still needs to "organize" his life he keeps saying, and talk to his family about it before he completely commits. It is actually really cool, because the way he talks about it, he really just understands how important baptism is. Last night he just talked and talked to us about everything he feels, really. And it was so perfect. He still doesn't have a date, but we feel so good about everything right now. He literally PROMISED us last night that he is going to get baptized. He just said he needs a little bit more time. But that there is no doubt in his mind that he is going to do it. And when he said those words, I just had this amazing Spirit come over me and confirm to me that what he was saying is right. And we talked about it after and Soeur DeWeese felt it too. It was really cool. I just had a HUGE spiritual confirmation last night that that God has an amazing plan for Y--. And that it is going to happen. I just love that man so much. He even talked about last night how in about 10 years we will have to come visit him. He was like "It will be so fun because you will probably have kids and I can see your family!" And then he even brought up that we will have to meet up with him at a temple in Africa (where he is from). Haha it was so cute because Soeur DeWeese and I had been talking about just recently how excited we are to see where he is at in 10 years and how we want to visit him. Also we decided he is totally going to be the bishop. It is going to be so great!
Life is so good. I am so happy. I am seriously just having so much fun! That is the greatest thing I have felt lately. This is just such an amazing time. I am having a blast, and I am learning so much.
 
Once again, thank you all so much for everything. Monday's are such a relief for me to be able to hear from the outside world and hear all the amazing things that are happening at home! I am doing fantastic. Just know that I am working as hard as I can to make you proud. This Gospel is literally the greatest thing. I am so beyond grateful to have this knowledge that we do of the restored Gospel.
 
I love you all so much!!
Love,
Soeur Mag
 
 
 
 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Opposition in all things

Went to Lyon for Bleus Conference this week!! Got to see my whole MTC District. Wow have I missed them. It was so SO fun to see everyone!! And I always love going to Lyon. It is a three day trip for us from Pau..but it is so fun! I am so grateful for all the amazing missionaries we have here!
Our stop at McDonalds in Monpellier. Just had to show all you americans what French McD is like...
this salad I had literally tasted like fast food version of pasta magherita. Haha it was so good!




Our apartment...hehe
 If there is anything I have learned this week, it is about opposition. I once heard someone say "If you aren't having opposition, then you aren't doing something right."
Then boy have I been doing so many things right! Hehe. I really do believe it though. I feel like so many amazing things are about to go down here in Pau. But before all the miracles happen, Satan is trying his hardest to pull people down. Too bad it is not going to work though.
 
Opposition this week looked a little like this. We moved into our new apartment Saturday. I am not sure what I was expecting when I walked in the door...but when we walked inside, we saw that it was completely empty. Except for a lot of boxes of Ikea furniture. I know this happens all the time to missionaries because obviously no one else has time to put all the furniture together, but wow has it been hard for us. Because not only do we have to put all our furniture together, but we just literally had nothing. And also the apartment was disgusting. And we were so busy with our schedule that we have not had any time to really put it all together yet. It has been one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had. When I went to bed Saturday night, sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an empty smelly apartment with nothing in our kitchen but bread and cereal, I realized just how strong this mission is going to make me. I have never been through something so hard. So that has been the hardest thing for us this week. But we have had a truly amazing miracle come to us by the name of Elders! I am so beyond grateful to have Elders in Pau.
 
It just makes me feel so much safer knowing that we have the priesthood here with us. So, the Elders are super amazing and are actually going to set up like all our furniture tomorrow because yeah...two soeurs setting up a bunk bed. I am not sure if that is even a thing we can do. And then today we finally went grocery shopping! And bought cleaning supplies! And at the end of this week we will be having a washer delivered to us. So things are fine now. Amazing, actually. Like I said, opposition comes. But all you have to do is overcome it well. God takes care of His missionaries. We will be just fine. It has just been really hard.
 
We have also had a lot of opposition with the members. I can't really go into a lot of detail, but we had a young adult inactive member come to us and wanted to have a rendez-vous. So we did thinking it was going to be an amazing thing and that he was ready to come back. Like I said..no need to go into detail, but he pretty much spent an hour telling us how he has come to realize that our church is Satantic and he is leaving the church. He even was trying to convince us that we should leave our missions. A lot of the things he talked about kind of shook us up a bit. But honestly..it was an amazing experience. Because he literally said "Is there any hope that I could get you two to think about leaving your missions and leaving the church?" And my response to him..wow, I have literally never testified like that in my entire life. In that moment, I very literally felt like a representative of Jesus Christ. It was so crazy. I testified as hard as I could. And I felt the authority to do so. It was amazing. I felt so strong. It really was an experience that showed me just how much I really do love this Gospel. Because to anyone who is wavering in this Gospel, a lot of the things he said could have really brought someone down and make them question the church. But I walked out of there having an even stronger testimony. My testimony to him was powerful but simple. I told him that there is absolutely no way I will EVER in my entire life leave this Gospel, because I know with everything in me that Jospeh Smith was a prophet. And because I know that, I know that this church is the one and only true church. And that I have a Savior. And I KNOW that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. Because I can feel Him with me. Especially right now. He is literally walking with me.
It was simple...but brought me so much strength.
 
You don't receive a witness until after a trial of your faith. I have had trials recently, but it has only made me stronger.
 
I know this sounds absolutely silly to say after all I just did, but honestly the mission is getting easier. It gets easier everyday. This transfer has already been so much better than the last. Because I am not scared to talk in French anymore. And being a missionary is starting to become more of just who I am, and it is in my nature now just to talk to everyone I see about Jesus Christ! It really just gets easier everyday. And there are hard times. But there are so many people in the world praying for the missionaries everyday. I try to never let myself forget that. And I can honestly feel it. And I have the Lord on my side. I literally feel angels surrounding me as I testify to the world of Him.
 
I have the best job in the world. Satan can do all he can...but light will always overcome the dark. So there is my inspirational thought for the week. Haha.
I love you all so so much!! Can't tell you how grateful I am for your prayers.
Don't worry too much about me...only enough to keep praying. Ha.
Je vous aime BEAUCOUP!! Have a wonderful week! I will see you soon!
Love,
Soeur Mag

Pau pour six semaine plus!

New haircut
Okay..another amazing member moment this week. This was the best meal I have had this far.
I thought you would appreciate this mom. It is vegtables and fish.
Probably does not look amazing, but I wanted to die I was so in heaven.
Also their apartment was AMAZING and we talked about Picasso, theatre, and Jane Eyre.
Sooo yeah.



My district! Which is now changed, but they were so great!!


We went to Bayonne this week for Distrct Meeting, it was so beautiful!!





Bonjour all my wonderful loved ones!
 
What a week. It has been a little bit crazy. Also kind of a crazy P day. Hasn't been the best. I decided to get my hair cut and dyed this morning and just ended up not being a super great experience..but ça va! My hair is fine. It is just nothing at all like I ever wanted my hair to be. Soo good thing I just don't even care what I look like these days. Haha!
 
So the biggest news is, I am staying in Pau for another six weeks! When we got the call I honestly was a bit upset..obviously not like super upset because c'est m'est égale but I was secretly hoping to start fresh with a new ville. BUT now that we found out we are staying here..so many amazing things have happened! So many miracles that have showed me why we need to stay. More on that later.
 
The coolest thing though is that even though I am staying, there are still changes happening! The other two soeurs who I was living with (before this transfer it was only us 4 soeurs in Pau, no Elders or anyone else at all), they both left to different villes. And we are getting FOUR Elders who are coming to Pau!! I am so excited. The Elders have not been here forever so I think the ward is going to love it too. So since there are four Elders and now only us two sisters, the Elders are taking over our apartment and we are moving to a new one sometime this week. So even though I am staying there is still moving involved. Didn't get out of that one. But I am so excited! The Elders will be so much fun.
 
Well, quickly I will talk about the kind of really hard part of my week, because I don't ever want you guys NOT to be uplifted by my emails. But I had a couple really hard days this week. Probably the hardest on my mission thus far. But honestly, they have been a turning point for me. But the day we got our calls for transfers (Friday) I am not even sure what happened, but I just broke down during equipe study. I am pretty positive I had been having a lot of emotions built up inside that probably needed letting out anyway, and then someone said something that made me feel really bad and then things just went downhill from there. But I am learning so much patience and charity, and I am going to be so much better because of it.
 
More than anything I just felt so alone. I just missed all of you so much. I just missed everyone who actually loves me or cares about me. It is so hard at times to feel like everyone just hates me. Not that I take it personally when people get mad at me or what not. But it just really makes me miss being around the people who actually love me. It is hard to be in a place where I feel like no one actually CARES about me, ya know?
 
Anyway, there is enough of my sob story. Done with the negative part! I just had to explain to you my feelings, but then it gets better because the story has a happy ending! As all endings do. I have never had to utilize The Atonement so much before in my entire life. And I feel like a completely different person because of it. In all sincerity, there is no way I would be here without it. There is no way I could make it through. I had a kind of hard night that night, but then I woke up in the morning just feeling like a different person. Completely different. It was one of those turning points for me. I really think I just needed that experience to remind myself what exactly it is that I am doing here. I am teaching people that they don't ever have to make it through hard times alone. And now that I have done that myself, it will make it so much more amazing to testify of it.
 
It was just a very sacred experience. And now I am just so excited for this transfer I have ahead of me! We are literally so swamped with missionary work it is crazy.
The soeurs who just left Pau gave us a few of their amis that they had, and one of this amis, his name is C-. And he just got engaged to baptism. I am so SO excited!! So I officially have an ami who is engaged to be baptized! Haha I hope that is exciting to you as it is to me. This is just one of the miracles that proved to me how important it is that I stayed here this transfer. His baptism is on the 28th..which is kind of stressing us out like crazy. But he is so ready. He lives with one of the members in the ward. And he is just so sweet. Soo yeah, if things go as they are supposed to, I will be having my first baptism in a couple weeks!! I am SO excited!!
 
Another miracle is how many inactives showed up at church yesterday..it was crazy. This sweet lady that we have been trying to get a hold of FOREVER. We have left her cookies and tried to call her like crazy. And she walked into Sacrament Meeting yesterday!! I almost cried I was so happy. And then also, Y- is another huge reason I am so excited to be here. We are going to baptize that man before we leave Pau. We are just so set on it. Haha he drives me crazy, but wow am I so excited to see that man with the Priesthood someday. He is going to do so much good.
 
So yeah, just a few reasons I am so stoked for this transfer!! So many AMAZING things are happening!! Being a missionary is just so crazy. One minute I want to give up and the next I am just crying because I am just SO happy. It really is so much fun. And all the amazing things make all the hard things worth it.
Another cool thing I want to talk about is this family in the ward. Oh. my. goodness.
I know more than anything that I was supposed to be here at this time to meet this family. Heavenly Father is so hilarious. He showed me this family is all like "Hey here is your perfect dream family! Look at what you can achieve in life!"
They are a member family in our ward, but they were gone all summer and just came home. We went to their house last night for dinner and I just wanted to die of happiness. Just a few things about them and then you will understand what I mean..
They are American, from New York City. They live just outside of New York but the dad works in New York City, and he works for Sony. He is a music producer. They have been here for two years and just decided to come to France because the mom knows French, and they wanted their kids to learn French. And they just love it here. They all have the coolest style..the dad is totally a hipster. And they have four kids who are just the sweetest ever.
 
Soo yeah. Literally my dream family I want to be someday. Their house was SO beautiful. And then he played and sung us a song on the piano and it was so good. I just can't even describe how much of a blessing this family is to me. I know I was supposed to meet them. I talked to the mom for so long last night, and it was just exactly what I needed. They are just so amazing and I am so grateful for them. I will never forget them. Also, she said to me last night "Don't forget our names because when you are home you can come stay with us in New York!" Sooo yeah. Once again, I was MEANT to meet this family. Haha. So that was definitely the highlight of my week.
 
Sorry if this letter wasn't the best this week..you all tell me you love my emails then it makes me feel so pressured that they aren't going to be good! Hehe. Don't worry about me. It is hard, but it is amazing. It is all worth it. And I know I will look back on this time in my life with so much love.
 
I love you all more than you know. Keep on keeping on. Life isn't easy. But with our Savior, we can find happiness in all the difficult times. Please don't ever forget that. It is the message I try to share with everyone every single day. And if anyone listens to me, I hope it's you! Hehe. I love you all so so much. I think of you always.
Bon semaine!
Love,
Soeur Mag

Sept. 9 letter



There was this one awkard time we went to the dentist this week...so there's that. Haha
We were helping an old lady. Long story.



Another one of our amazing members!! She is 20 so she is just like one of us.
She taught with us with and she is AMAZING!


Life of a missionary right here...haha I thought you would enjoy that.
They were actually like really, REALLY good..



The cute family we played charades with.














































Salut ma belle famille!
 
I know I say this all the time..but how is it already Monday?! So strange. Time is the weirdest thing around here. This is the last week of my first transfer...and in a way it went by fast, but in a way I just feel like I don't know anything but France and missionary work.
 
To be honest, I don't have a ton to say this week! I really don't even remember what all happened this week. There was nothing super huge! Well, okay there are cool things that happen everyday in missionary work. But nothing like there was in my last letter.
 
This week actually had a lot of really sad and frustrating moments..mostly to do with Y--. I don't think I said anything about  him last time, but yeah things aren't the very best they could be. Haha which is me being so negative because he is honestly doing so great. But we just can't get him to commit to be baptized! And mostly that is because we can't get him to pray, or to read the scriptures by himself. And he is never going to understand baptism if he doesn't do that!! We were really hoping to have a baptism by the end of this transfer, but that is not going to happen. But I know for a fact he is going to be baptized soon, because even he says that! He is just one of those amis that you have to be patient with. But on Saturday we taught him in his apartment...and THAT in itself is a miracle. I don't remember if I told you, but when I first met him he was living in a homeless shelter. And now he has an apartment. FULL OF FURNITURE. The furniture part is amazing. Because he had nothing. Absolutment rien. But our members are absolutely amazing, and also through some other miracles, he now has an apartment full of furniture! But yeah we will keep working on him...it is so funny. I went to bed that night after our lesson where he said a lot of his concerns about baptism, and I was just absolutely devastated..I have never felt so sad over something that wasn't even my life before! He is still amazing though so I shouldn't be too sad.
 
This week we had a lot of amazing member experiences. If I leave Pau that will be the one thing I miss, is how great the members are. But honestly..I wouldn't be too sad if I left. I belong in a big city. Hehe but we will see! Anyway, we had a lot of dinners with members this week. I just love having nights with the members. We went to this one members house this week, the H--'s. The dad is actually inactive and has been for a really long time. But the mom is very active and they have two ADORABLE little girls that are at church every week.  They are so perfect. Well, except for the inactive thing..but those little girls are just so cute. And we just ate a bunch of popcorn and marshmallows and had such a good time. Haha yeah marshmallows here a thing..I don't know why but they are super good here. Like...Better than America. I don't know I find that with a lot of things, just weirdly better...haha. But yeah and last night we had a rendez-vous with another amazing family, they have 6 kids and the parents are divorced so just the one mom..but they are so cool. They are all recent converts too! Except for the kids under 8 of course. But we played charades with Book of Mormon stories..I haven't laughed that hard in so long. It was so much fun!
 
There is another family who I am SO stoked about having a rdv this week with too, they live in Pau but are from America..they are actually from New York City. The dad is like this super cool music director guy and they live in New York. But the mom speaks French so they decided to come live in France. Soo yeah pretty much my dream, they just got back from vacation so I am so excited to talk to them!
Anyway, sorry as you can tell I just love the members here..members in France are so strong!!
 
Okay, story time for the week. I don't want to make any of you worried about me so I don't want to make this too long, but just remember that I am SO protected as a missionary it is amazing. So don't worry about me, but I thought you would be interested in the craziest thing that happened to me this week..Soo remember that couple from last week who the wife was the crazy Evangelist? So we went back this week. SO just prepared to pour the Holy Ghost into their house. So we got there. And within two minutes the wife and our ami..(well, former) were fighting because he told us he was going to come to church this week. Annnd then before I knew what was happening she stood up and literally threw her chair across the room and ran outside. Hahaha okay honestly know it is just funny even though I know it shouldn't be. After it though all I could do was laugh cause I didn't know what else to do. So yeah that happened...and then some other just psycho things like she pulled out a razor and threatened to do some crazy stuff...so all in all..we aren't going back there. Not safe. BUT my goodness is he one amazing guy. He is honestly trying to do what is right. PS After this incident she immediately started crying asking us to forgive her...yeah it was just like the weirdest thing of life. So that is my crazy missionary story for the week! Haha.
 
Something cool I have started doing that I am super stoked about...I decided to start writing again. Soeur D and I were talking about how it is important to incorporate the things that are still US into missionary work. Like she loves music and she reads and studies the French hymns all the time. And I decided I needed to start writing again! So I decided I am going to write poems for every subject I study. Like every Christ-like attribute, First Vision, Plan of Salvation..things like that. I started a couple days ago and oh my goodness it feels AMAZING to write again. I just started and didn't ever want to stop!! I have been studying Hope this transfer, so I decided to write a poem on that. It is so much fun! I will send you one home some time if they ever end up being good. And then like obviously I had to buy a cute new journal today just for poems because of course I can't just write them in a silly old notebook...yeah, there are too many cute journals here for me to handle...hehe.
 
So that is kind of my week! We also had District Meeting this week that was so fun. My district is great and we just laugh so much together and learn so much!
In District Meeting we talked a lot about the Atonement, and we talked a lot about how missionary work is such a sacred experience, and I have been thinking about that a lot. I love those words. That it is a "sacred experience." Because it truly is. I have never in my entire life felt so close to my Savior. I have never felt close to becoming like him. And most of all, I have never gone through something so hard that makes me feel like I am so much at better understanding of what He went through. My day to day life is truly sacred right now. It is amazing. And so hard. And so exhausting. But so so sacred, and therefore..so worth it.
 
As always, thank you for your prayers! Keep 'em comin!
Je vous aime mon famille. Merci pour tous les chouse que vous faîtes pour moi. C'est vraiment le seule moyen que je peux faire ma mission, est avec vous. Je vous aime beacoup! Dieu vous aime!
-Soeur Mag

Tuesday, September 3, 2013

Have you ever heard me say the word MIRACLE before?


Salut ma belle famille!!

Wow. I never know where to begin with these things. I have been super excited to write home this week! Not even that anything huge happened, I have just been dying to talk to you!

For starters, we just went and did some shopping for P day (obviously my choice) so it has just been a good relaxing P day! It is honestly so hard not to just buy everything though..especially when I just feel like all the stores here are my style...man. Sometimes I really miss shopping and wearing normal clothes. Hehe BUT I bought a dog scarf. With dalmantions on it.  So what can I say, I am pretty content.

This week has been absolutely full of miracles. I cannot even begin to describe to you all of the crazy miracles I get to witness every day. And it literally is every day!  The craziest day this week was definitely Wednesday. I thought I might as well just describe the whole day to you and then you can get a little "day in the life of a missionary."

-Woke up at 6:30.

-Ran circles around Soeur D- (she doesn’t run and I am literally going crazy without it)

-Did our 4 hours of studies.

-Then headed off to a rendez-vous we had with this guy that we just weren't so sure about. And oh man were we right to be sketched out. I don’t remember if I ever told you, but he was the guy who walked into the church a few weeks ago and just told us he knew the BOM is true and wanted to start meeting with us. Well, and then Soeur D talked to him on the day I was on an exchange and learned that he is one of those people that pretty much believes in everything along with our church. And also that is wife is suuuper Evangelist and didn't want us to come over. But said we could anyway. Soo here we are. We walked into their house and I have never had anyone look like they just straight up wanted to kill me. Haha! That women is noooot happy. But he is just a super happy guy and so he was happy to see us. So we sat down, and they ended up feeding us lunch....that was also a super sketchy situation. I honestly couldn't even describe to you what they fed us if I tried to. So weird. And it was just the weirdest situation. We could barely get a lesson in because he just talked so much, and she kept talking about all the Evangelist things that she believes. I don't know how much you know about Evangelists...but the extreme ones are pretty extreme. But just imagine a really extreme one, and then also a lady who is not exactly all right in her head. It was just so weird. She was like praying literally every two minutes under her breath and doing some weird gift of tongues stuff they believe in and it was just super weird and brought not good feelings. So. Needless to say we just walked out of there not feeling very good. I felt physcially and spirtually just gross. Like I just needed to go shake off this weird feeling. I just knew we needed some really good contacts that day or something! So we headed home.

-We then had a tombez-vous with a member (appointment that fell threw) so we decided to go try and pass by a lady who we had gotten her address a few days earlier when we were contacting and she told us she wanted us to come by. So we went to go find her.

-Still feeling a little weird we just tried to contact as many people as we could and get the good happy spirit with us again. We were walking for a while and couldn't find the name of this rue that the lady had given us. And then all of a sudden Soeur D- just stopped and was like "I feel like we missed something. Like someone walked passed us that we were supposed to talk to." So I was just like alright, then let’s pray and figure out what to do! (You would probably honestly be baffled at how much we pray as missionaries haha)  So we prayed, and then sat for a second trying to figure out what to do. This lady walked past and we ALMOST didn’t talk to her because she was going inside her house, but then we just quickly walked up to her, said our thing, and she goes "Oh yeah! I have had the Elders over before! But it has been a while. If you want you can definitely come by sometime and we can talk!" Just in case you didn't know...that is a very rare contact. Haha it was SO cool! We have a rdv with her tomorrow we are excited for. It was just so cool because if we hadn't stopped on that EXACT rue we wouldn't have seen her.

-Next miracle of the night. We were porting. And it was almost time to go home. But we decided to do a few more houses. We rang the sonnery and sat there for a while and nothing happened. So I started to walk away but Soeur D rang it again. Am I ever so glad she did! It ended up being this lady named Ca--. Cutest lady in the world. I can’t even tell you how much I love this woman. She came out and talked to us, then let us in! We ended up staying for a while and had to run home so fast because we were so late, but it was the coolest experience! She honestly wasn't super interested in our message but I have a feeling one day she will be...but we were like instant friends with her. She is just like the most hilarious women ever. She is like 85. And she was just like "What can I feed you?? What can I do for you??" It was so cute and so funny. So she ended up feeding us an entire meal. It was so much fun. She just was talking up a storm and we had so much fun. Then we sang her a song, left her with the Spirit, and ran all the way home to our apartment.

So. There you go. Day in the life of a missionary! It was such a fun day. It was just so cool, because I know because we had that weird experience that morning that Heavenly Father blessed us with so many cool experiences!

Things like that happen every day. Yesterday was an amazing day too. Taught a whole lesson behind a bus stop. It is just so fun. This work is so much fun.

To answer some of mom's questions that I got in the letter..

Transportation: we have buses her in Pau. So we take buses a lot or mostly we just walk everywhere. Weather feels about like home! It has been pretty hot. But it is starting to cool down. I am so excited for fall! My feet are doing alright. My bunions have started to hurt pretty bad recently. But I am doing alright! It honestly is a miracle at how well I am actually doing. Your prayers are DEFINITELY working is all I can say. There are only 4 sisters here in Pau. We live with the other two sisters and they are such a blast. I love them so much! As for food; we usually cook our own food most the time. I am actually learning how to cook some things! Haha because the sisters I am with actually cook..I haven't done that for a long time. So I am trying to learn!! It really is crazy how many things I am learning. I am going to be such a better person when I get home it is crazy. I will still be me though, don't worry! I am definitely still me. Soeur D is such an opposite of me it is hilarious. It actually is super hard. She is great, but it is really hard. For example, I will just say things like "What the, how is that a thing?!" And she is all like "A thing...what do you mean a thing?" Haha it cracks me up. So yeah I am still more. Just like a billion times more Christ-like. But yeah so we mostly make our own things. A bunch of different things! Not all super French. But yeah I am pretty spoiled here. The food is great. The thing I do buy a lot is this super great sandwich from the boulangarie right next to our chapel. It is the best place in town. And right next to our chapel. So great.

Okay I have to go, but one last miracle for the week...I CAN UNDERSTAND FRENCH§

 
(second email:)
Sorry left you on a cliff hanger there. Haha!

But yeah..I can understand French!! It is amazing!!

Okay but before you get too excited, there is still so much I don't understand. I don’t catch everything. It is so hard. My brain is just super tired all of the time. BUT it was the coolest thing in church yesterday. It is ridiculous compared to my first day at church. I understood everything that was going on. I even took notes! The first week that I was able to do that! And it was cool because we had a rdv with a lady in our ward that we had a rdv with the first day I was here..and I honestly didn’t understand everything. But we just had a rdv Saturday, and I understood everything!! It is the coolest thing in the world. So yeah I am still struggling. It is so hard. BUT Heavenly Father is on my side. I'm getting there. It is so so fun to be on this journey.

I love you all so so much. Thank you for all your support. You have no idea what it means.

Don't ever forget how lucky we are to have the Gospel in our lives. I am reminded every single day of how lucky and truly blessed I am to have been born into this Gospel. So many people are so lost in the world. We are so blessed to have this knowledge we do. Don't ever take that for granted.

I love you all so so much!

à bientôt!

-Soeur Mag (that is my official name now, Magleby is too hard for the French haha)