Simply wonderful

Throwback to my last week in Limoges

Cou cou my darling family.

I have good news.  I love it here! Haha. It really has been a wonderful first week.

All of you are shooting me with questions like crazy so I will try to answer some of them:

 

First off, Soeur S is awesome. I have been so blessed with companions. It has been interesting to work with her because we do our work a little differently, but she has really already taught me a lot. She is a super hard worker and dedicated missionary and SO sweet and I really couldn't ask for more. Also she is from West Valley so pretty much we are from the same place so that already gives us a lot in common. But we really do have a lot of things in common, and it has made it a lot easier to work.

 

The branch is wondeful as well. It really isn't that tiny, we had 40 people come to Sacrament meeting this week. I really expected it to be a lot smaller. But it is really great! The members are really adorable here as well. They are super easy to love. They work with us quite a bit as well, it is really wonderful. I have already became good friends with a member here. I actually knew her from before when I was in Pau, but she literally is incredible. She does everything for us and finds people on the street for us. It is so awesome. And actually yesterday she got her mission call....it was so fun. She had been waiting for it forever. And she waited to open it until right after church when everyone was there. It was so awesome. (PS she is going to Germany)

I really loved watching her open her call and see that look on her face and see how excited she was, because it really brought me back lots of memories to that moment, more than a year ago now, when I opened my own call. And it really made me remember how I felt at that moment. How much hope I had. How just downright EXCITED I was for my mission.

 

I remember so clearly that moment of reading those words "France Lyon Mission". And I just took a second and sat there and look around myself, more than a year later, and looked and where I was at. How different I am now from that girl who first opened that call letter. And how much I know love these people I serve. I had no idea what was in front of me at that moment. And I just feel so, so blessed to have already had all the experiences I have had on the mission, and I am just so excited to see what still lies ahead in this wonderful experience!

 

So, yeah. Comp is great. Branch is great. Amis are great. The city is great. No cockroaches in the apartment.  Sooo I would say things are going pretty well :)

 

We have seen a lot of little miracles this week. Everything from contacting people who have family members who are members of the church, to teaching almost full lessons on peoples doorsteps. It has been so fun. There really is a lot of work happening here. In Limoges, we obviously saw a ton of amazing things and did a lot of work there. But honestly apart from the amis I would tell you about every week, we didn't have a lot of other stuff going on. My favorite thing about working here so far is that we have been really busy! We are teaching a lot. We are visiting members often. It just feels really good to be really busy, and it has really given me the opportunity to just really focus on the work I am doing. I don't have even a lot of time to think and I have just been focused on everything I am doing at the moment. It has made me feel like  a lot better missionary. 

 

That is really it for the week. It was just a simply really good week. But I am also glad it is over, haha. It is a little hard just to be completely new at everything and not feel like I know anything that is going on. So I hope this week I can just focus on getting really adjusted here.

 

This week I was just really grateful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I felt the Spirit really strong with me this week as I was testifying to people. The Holy Ghost is just something I am constantly focusing on. On learning how to really recongize the Spirit in my life. It has been a harder language to learn than French. I have to work on being worthy of The Spirit every single day. And honestly, sometimes it is really hard. But when I feel the Spirit testify through me..there is really greater feeling. So I guess I woulds say that is something I have really learned this week. The importance of the Spirit. Don't ever forget it. Don't ever forget that the Holy Ghost is literally our best friend. Don't take it for granted.

 

I love you all so much.

I will talk to you soon!

Bisous!

Love,

Soeur Mag

TRANSFERRED‏

 

Hello my dear family.

 

Yes, it happened. I left Limoges :( Literally one of the most sad days of my mission. But, in a good way of course. I just felt like I was leaving my family. As I was packing up my things I literally felt like I did when I was leaving home going to the MTC. Spending 6 months serving those people really made me love them like a family. I prayed so hard to love them that it may have worked a little too much...haha. I really created life-long friendships in that ward. Those 6 months I spent in Limoges really changed me. And by the time I left, that entire ward had changed. They are not the same people as when I arrived. I was so blessed to be able to see the change made in them. It really was a ville of miracles. And our adorable bishop gave me a present this morning when I left...he gave me a tee shirt that they had made an iron on for that has a picture of the Limoges gare and it says "J'ai servi à Limoges. La ville des miracles!" (I served at Limoges. The city of miracles!) it literally was just the cutest thing ever. I think that just really shows how close I got with these members. They gave me a tee shirt when I left, haha ;)

 

And then, we ended this week, and I ended my time at Limoges with the most beautiful miracle that could EVER occur.  Co-- is now a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

 

There are really no words to explain the feelings that I had as I watched him go under that water, and then later recieving the Holy Ghost.  I feel so, so blessed. That I was able to be an instrument in the hands of my Heavenly Father, to be able to bring one of his lost sons back to Him.  It was such a beautiful experience. I can't wait to see what lies ahead of him on his journey :)

 

And I am sorry I don't have a lot of time tonight, I just wanted to get on to let all of you know where I am at now!

 

I am now in a city near Pau, so I have been here before. I am back to where I started! Haha. But I am excited because I will get to go back to Pau for district meetings, it will be fun. So far so good here! It is a teeny tiny ville. And it is a branch, not a ward. But I am really excited to see what awesome things can happen here!

My new comp is Soeur S. I knew her before and I was super excited when President told me I was going to be her comp because she is really sweet. We have only been together a few hours, and I already love her!! It will be a good transfer. She is from Utah but she is Mexican so yes she speaks Spanish, haha.

I really just can't convey how happy I am with my life right now. It truly has been an absolutely incredible week. All I really feel right now is so, SO blessed. I am so beyond happy to be a missionary for my Father in Heaven. He has blessed be so immensly. I just don't know what I did to deserve all of these blessings.
I love you all so much. I hope you all have a wonderful week! Sorry not a lot to say this week but yeah....had a baptism.So that pretty much sums up the week for me. Haha.

Je vous aime!
Bisous!
Soeur Magleby

A Prophet's Voice

Me and my birthday burger ;)

Annnd then my cute companion

Hello my darling family!

Well. First off, thank you all so much for the birthday wishes! It means so much to me. You all sacrifice and do so much for me and I just hope you know how much I really appreciate it.

 

I have had a really wonderful day today! I feel super lucky that my birthday just happened to fall on a P-Day. It couldn't get anymore perfect! I woke up this morning and my companion had put like three adorable birthday cards on the table along with an adorable French journal and crispy M&M's. She knows me so well. It was adorable. And then after studies we headed to the mall and did some good shopping for a couple hours. And then we went to an adorable little classy French restauarant annnd don't make fun of me but my American side definitely came out and I ordered a burger and fries. Aw man, it definitely was perfect though. Hehe. So, that is my birthday so far. Just thought you would all want to know how I spent my birthday in beautiful France. Pretty much the same as always...and it was perfect ;)

 

Welp. This week, frankly, did not have a lot happen. So I decided I just really wanted to talk about today about how much I absolutely LOVED conference. My goodness. It was incredible. I felt like I was just eating up every single talk. It really helped because I felt like I did a lot better at spiritually preparing myself before this conferenced. I really prayed a lot that I would get the personal messages I needed to feel out of this conference. And it definitely worked! I got a lot of answered prayers to questions I did not even know I had.

 

But one of the biggest things I just took away from this conference is just how grateful I am to have a living prophet on the Earth. I never realized before my mission JUST what that meant. Because I have just always grown up with that knowledge. But going around and telling people we have a living prophet and then people telling me how crazy I am, it has made me realize just what that really means to us. I just literally would be lost without their counsel. I had this really funny moment that made me learn a lot, when we were all sitting in front of the TV with all our pens and notebooks and Co-- looked at us and said "What is that?" pointing to our notebooks. And I was like "What do you mean what is that? It is stuff for us to take notes.." and he was like "Yeah but don't you already know everything?"

It really hit me right then. That Co--, who is at the beginning of his "covenant path", looks at us as missionaries and how much we know, and just assumes that we know everything about the Gospel. And yes, obviously, my mission has helped me grow A LOT in knowledge. To the point that I am not even sure WHAT I knew about The Gospel before. But also, my mission has made me realize how much I DON'T know. And how I will never be able to learn it all. Not in this life. Therefore, we NEED the prophet's counsel. We absolutely need it. Because we will never know enough. Ever. Not until the end.

Which brings me to the next biggest topic that I have learned recently...Trust. Trust in the Lord. Heavenly Father has really been trying to teach me this lately. I can see it. Trusting in Him and in His Son. For me, that is one of the key ingrediants. Sometimes I stress myself about how much I don't know. How much I still have to progress. How far I still have left to go on this journey. But, I know and have a huge testimony now that AS I trust in the Lord...Everything will work out.

Also, here is one of my favorite quotes from conference:

"If you let Him be the leader of your family, everything will work out." (President Eyring)

What a HUGE amazing promise. From a prophet of God. If we just put our Savior first. Let Him lead and guide our loves. And most importantly, our families.
Everything will work out.  It will all work out. I PROMISE you that.

How grateful I am to have a loving Heavenly Father who loves us SO much that He called a prophet to speak to us in our day.  Now THAT, is a miracle.

Another miracle? Co-- is getting baptized this Saturday. Things are all worked out. All he has to do is get through this week...and he will be able to take his first step on this amazing covenant path of life. I am so excited for him. I will update you all next week.

I love you!!!

Love,
Soeur Magleby