Beyond all logic

Me celebrating with a pastry on my year mark

A beautiful place we stopped and had a picnic

At the baptism

My hilarious sister missionary tan lines I thought you would enjoy

Salut ma chère famille!

First thing before I forget to tell you, transfer calls are this week. In fact, President is calling us tomorrow which is super freaking me out...anyway, we all know that anything can happen! Obviously since I have only been here one transfer I intend to stay here another one, but that is what I thought in Tarbes...honestly now that I say it I can't believe it has already been 6 weeks since I have been here. I have to admit, it definitely has not been the easiest transfer for me. Honestly a lot of my other transfers feel like a walk in the park compared to this one. I can't even pinpoint exactly what it is that made this transfer a bit more difficult than the rest, but even though there were some days and nights that were super hard to get through..I am grateful for it. I have really learned so much this transfer. I guess overall I just have felt a lot of opposition, inside my head and just all around me. Everything from the work here, to some of the people, have just made me even work HARDER on my patience. But something my amazing Sister Training Leader said to me when I was telling her about how it was frustrating that I finally felt like I had done a pretty okay job at obtaining patience, and then this transfer I just feel like it has gone down hill. And she talked to me about how that is exactly what Heavenly Father does with us, to help us to progress. He isn't going to help us develop a Christ-like attribute and then just have everything be all fine and dandy. He is going to test us to see if we REALLY have developed this attribute, and give us trials in our lives. Like He gave me this transfer. I have been forced to aquire a lot more patience than I even had before this transfer, and He has helped me progress a lot. It is sometimes so hard to see in the middle of it all, but I am just working on gaining more trust in Him than I have in myself, because I know He knows a lot more than I do!

But not to say this transfer has not been absolutely wonderful!! Obviously I have been writing you about all the amazing things I have learned and all the amazing miracles I even seen. So even though yes it has been harder than the rest, it has been full with SO many miracles. And I really do love it here in this ville. We have seen so many miracles happen in this branch that are beyond words. I love so dearly all the members here, and they have been so SO amazing with us in doing missionary work!! It has been such an amazing thing to see.

The coolest experience I had this week was actually when we got to go to a baptism for one of the members who just turned 8. They are such an adorable family that I love so much and she is so sweet. We don't have a baptismal font here, so they had the baptism in one of the member's pools. But it was so perfect because it is in this city where actually most of our members live called Aix-Les-Bains and it is SO beautiful there. Seriously, to die for, just beautiful. And so the baptism was so perfect! The best part of it was there were 9 non members there. And they were ALL friends of our DMB. He is so incredible. It was such a miracle. And one of the families that came is one of the families that he brought us to visit once before, and so we got to talk to them again and we finally got their number so we are going to go visit them this week!! Haha it sounds like such a small thing but that was seriously our biggest miracle from this week. I mean....it is a family. They have like 5 kids. And the mom is SO sweet. And they are friends with members. I mean I am probably getting ahead of myself...but it is a perfect equation to me :) Haha. But the baptism was so absolutly wonderful, it made me cry! The spirit there was just SO strong. And I feel like that Spirit carried over into church yesterday. I have never had such a powerful experience at church. Our Stake Presidency was there for her confirmation and so it was just such a wonderful spiritually-packed meeting.

Also, it was an awesome meeting because we, us four sisters, did something absolutely CRAZY. Beyond all logic.  We told our Branch President to announce that there will be two baptisms this Saturday, July 5th. Literally impossible. And crazy. But hey, guess what? The other sister equipe here is having a baptism this Saturday. WHAT. Crazy miracle that happened yesterday, haha. And this may sound crazy, but I am literally not giving up the faith until Saturday is over. We actually just got gone done fasting to have a baptism this Saturday. It literally defies all logic. But you know what? I have come to learn that is exactly what faith is. Defying all logic. Faith is taking a step into the darkness. It is doing the unheard of! To just take a leap forward and do the things that are not logical. And overall, it is having more trust in Him than we have in ourselves. Like I said earlier, that is probably the biggest thing I have learned this transfer. I have faith in His promises. If only we endure it well, we will be blessed beyond anything we can imagine.

If I have faith in anything...I have faith in that promise. I know with every ounce of my being that if we just turn to Him instead of turning away...that everything will be alright in the end.  In fact, it will be better than alright.

It will be blissful. And more joy than we can comprehend.

Our mission is seeing absolute MIRACLES. This Saturday is going to be incredible! I can't wait. I couldn't be more blessed than to be exactly where I am.
I love you all so much.
Have a wonderful week :)
Bisous!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

1 Year

In honor of my one year mark...here is a picture of my first day in the MTC :) haha. Oh how much I have changed...

I just took a few photos walking to the cyber cafe today so that you can at least get a taste of where I am at!! I am SO happy to finally have a camera back. More pictures will be coming soon :)

Hey, you know something funny?

FAITH BRINGS MIRACLES.

I mean...who would have thought! ;) Haha. I have definitely had a week FULL of miracles! I really just tried my very best to expect miracles every day this week. And oh my goodness did they come! I taught more lessons in the presence with members this week than I have on my entire mission! And it was just miracle after miracle. We have really wonderful members here, but they all just live at least a train ride away so it gets really hard for us to have member-presence lessons. But we had SO many this week and because of the sacrifices of our members, our amis actually started progressing! It was such a wonderful thing to see. And then our DMB had all the members who taught with us get up in Sacrament Meeting and talk about how edified they were after they taught with us. ....it was pretty awesome.

We have SUCH an incredible DMB (Ward mission leader, well, branch) and we are just working as hard as we can to get this branch involved in missionary work! And it is working! We are literally having members come up to us talking about their friends they have invited to church. And the past couple weeks we have had multiple rdv's where we go with members to meet their friends. MIRACLES. This is the kind of thing I have been waiting for my entire mission, and I am starting to see members start to really work with us and it is bringing incredible blessings! Alright so, some of the miracles that have happened this week:

Found a new ami named G--. He is just one of those people who has SO many questions and he read 13 chapters of the Book of Mormon in one day. It has been so fun to start teaching him, he is one of those people that really just needs somewhere to go in his life..and he found it.

Another ancient ami we found this week that we started reteaching. His name is Fred. He has recieved ALL of the lessons but then got upset over something and hasn't talked to missionaries in 9 months. but we just called him and started teaching him this week...and he is super, super incredible. It might take him a little bit really build his testimony of the church but honestly, he has such a light.

Another ami we have named N--. She actually has quite a lot of problems and we are just trying to get her to turn her life around. But we showed up for her rdv and her sister was there! At first she was super skeptical and started asking us all these questions but then we asked if we could teach her and she stayed and listend to the Retab and asked SO many wonderful questions. I am just praying we get to see her again. She was a HUGE miracle from this week. She was one of the nicest people I had met and by the time we left she just absolutely was so interested in our mission and wanted to learn so much more.

These are just a few simple examples of amazing things I have seen this week. One of the biggest miracles I have experienced this week..was just how simply HAPPY I feel right now. Yes, I have been pretty much been happy my entire mission. You all know that. But never in my entire mission have I felt so honestly and sincerely 100 happy to be a missionary and to be doing exactly what I am doing. I feel like I have probably said that before...but this week I just felt so many prayers, I felt so much life in my life, and I felt so guided by the Spirit.

That is definitely the biggest thing that I learned this week. What a difference the Holy Ghost makes in my life. Having the Spirit with me is something that I have really strived for as a missionary, and honestly, it is one of the hardest things to achieve. To really figure out how to be in tune with the Spirit and to be guided by the Spirit. But Heavenly Father has really blessed me...and this week, I felt closer to the Spirit than ever before. I felt like I was actually able to really teach by the Spirit, and touch peoples hearts. And the way I testified on the street to people was different.

The Spirit is everything. Without it, these people can't know full the truthfulness of our message.
How grateful I am for the gift of the Holy Ghost!! I have had this gift since I was 8..but I don't think I have always fully used it and been aware of what a blessing the Holy Ghost is in our lives.  I am so grateful that as a missionary I am really learning to work with and to feel the Spirit..and so that I can know that my Savior is always with me. That He is standing beside me, and I feel more strongly of His love.

This seems like a very generic just missionary email this week....sorry. Haha.

Hey soo.....remember when it was a YEAR ago that I went into the MTC?! How crazy is that??
I can't really wrap my mind around it...
I can't wait to use the next 6 months to serve my Savior the best that I can.
I love you all. Have an amazing week. I will see you soon!!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

Sacred

On our 8 hour bus ride to Nice!

Hello my dear loved ones.
I honestly don't even know where to begin. I am sure you are all super excited to hear about how the conference went. And I have been very excited to share with you all what an amazing experience I had. But you are all going to have to bear with me a bit as I try to put it into words. I know, I know..I am supposed to be a writer, right? ;) But there are just some things that we feel in life that are almost impossible to put into words...and those are the kind of feelings I felt after this conference.

I honestly feel like this day changed my life. That probably sounds quite dramatic, but this day definitely changed many aspects of my life. I learned SO many things that have already began to make a change in my life, and I learned many things that, if I really work at applying them, I know will continue to affect my life, even after the mission. The only word I have been able to use to describe it is sacred. It was such a sacred experience.

It was such a beautiful day. The trip getting there wasn't too bad, the bus ride actually went by really fast. Before I knew it we were sitting in the conference center. Actually, the whole experience seems to be pretty surreal. After it was over I kept reflecting on it and it honestly all feels like a dream. I will start with a simple truth that I learned through this conference. The prophets and apostles we have on the Earth today are called of God. They speak to us the literal words of God. That is one huge testimony of mine that I know got so immensly strengthened through this conference. Studying the last General Conference talks this morning that really hit me. In getting the amazing opportunity to hear from Elder Anderson, I really was able to strengthen my own personal testimony on the prophets and apostles that are called in our day. They are truly called of God.

I couldn't even explain to you if I tried to about the Spirit that entered the room when he walked in. We all stood, and it was silent. And from that very first moment, the spirit in the room that day was something beyond words. I recieved a real testimony that he is called of God. And I know for a fact that everything he said to us was exactly what Heavenly Father wanted us to hear.  Gosh, this honestly is so hard to put into words! There was so many beautiful moments that I could just probably sit here and write a letter for two hours to explain it all. What he mostly talked to us about was a  lot about faith, and miracles. And he told us again and again that our mission is no harder than anyone else's! Just because we are in France and not in Brazil.. haha, that doesn't mean we have a harder mission. It is just different. And he literally told us straight up that we just need to have more faith. We are actually really, really blessed to be in a mission that makes us develop this incredible faith. I definitely have seen that on my mission. He told us that we don't have enough faith. And we need to have more faith to see miracles, every single day. And he promised us that if we do so, we can baptize every single month. It was so inspired. I have definitely tried my hardest to put this into action this week. And let me tell you...I HAVE SEEN MIRACLES!! I have literally felt changed after this conference, it changed the way that I do missionary work. I woke up every day this week expecting miracles, and then doing my best to have them happen. And they have!! I am still working like crazy for our July 5th goal...And because I have tried to develop more FAITH to see these miracles happen...they have happened! It is going to be crazy if we actually achieve our goal of a baptism on July 5th..but I know it could happen. We have a huge handful of potentials that have fallen into our lap this week, it has literally been so incredible to see!

But, I want to end with telling you the absolute biggest thing that changed my life from this conference. It was at the end, when he started testifying to us and promising us blessings. He said these words:  "Stop being so hard on yourself. You don't have to reach perfection on your mission. You just need to do your best, every single day."  So simple, and yet...I can't even explain to you what I felt as soon as he said those words.
Never, ever in my entire life have I felt such direct communication with my Heavenly Father. I felt like He was saying those words directly to me. I am really grateful I did my best to spiritually prepare for this conference, because I felt I was spiritually prepared enough that Heavenly Father granted me this amazing opportunity to feel of his love for me. It was a direct answer to prayer. It was so, so clear. I have never felt so enveloped in my Savior's love.

And then Elder Anderson testified of the Savior. And I couldn't hold back the tears. I literally just started weeping. NEVER, EVER in my entire life have I felt such a strong witness of the reality of my Savior. And that He lives. And His love for us.

Of all the things I learned form this conference...that was my very favorite.  I learned..that my Savior lives. And that He loves me. And that this is His work.  No matter what my future holds, I will never, ever be able to deny that witness I received.
Ever.
I am sorry this was kind of all over the place...but you can probably see how truly incredible it was.
How blessed I feel to have been able to have had this experience.
I love my life more than I can even put into words.
This gospel is HAPPINESS. Pure, true, and everlasting happiness.

And that is all that matters.

I LOVE YOU ALL. I am just so happy I feel I could explode. I pray for you all like crazy.
I know that our Savior lives and He loves us. Turn to Him. He loves you more than you can imagine.
I will talk to you soon!

Love,
Soeur Magleby.

Deals with God

Coucou!

Well, you are probably all super suprised to here from me. But I am getting online today because Monday we will be leaving for NICE! :) My life is kind of crazy right now. Yesterday we went to Geneva for Zone Training, and we are going there again today for Zone Conference...and then Monday we leave for Nice! To see ELDER ANDERSON. It literally feels better than Christmas. It is better than Christmas. I am freaking out, haha. I don't think I have really comprehended it yet, but I am so stoked. It is going to be quite a long trip though. Not TOO bad because at least I am not on the other side of the country... but we leave Monday morning and we are taking a train to Lyon. And then we are taking a bus (that is going to be FULL of missionaries) to Nice. We leave at 1:30 at get there at 9:30. Yeah, it is going to be a fun time. Haha.

As for this week..I feel like I just talked to you, but honestly we have had a wonderful week! I am donig a lot better this week. I just feel a lot more with it. I don't know why last week I just felt a little all over the place. Like I said, I think I just needed time to adjust. but now I am adjusted and I am super in love with this ville. I still feel pretty new..I mean, it is only the second week. But every day I just fall more in love with it!! I also love being in the Geneva Zone, it is really fun. Super different than the other zones I have been in though, mostly because I am one of the like 3 Americans in the Zone. It is super super fun though, I love it!

My main focus right now is July 5th. I wake up in the morning and go to bed at night just thinking about how badly I want to accomplish our goal to have a baptism that day!! So this week I wanted to get really serious about making a deal with God. Making deals with God are the best, He always follows through ;) So I told Soeur Reichelt that I really just wanted to sit down and get serious about this. So we made a list of everything we needed to do to reach our goal, and we asked Heavenly Father that as we promise to do these things, to put people in our path that will be ready for baptism in just a few weeks.
And then the miracles came! We got 3 new amis this week. All of them super wonderful as well. We have not been able to set a date with any of them yet...but that is the goal of this week: just seriously asking EVERY ami we have who even has the potential of getting baptism in just 4 weeks, to commit them to baptism. It is a super super crazy illogical goal that we have, that we would be able to find someone who will be prepared, and ready, in such a short time. But I know it is possible. I have seen it. Na-- was ready to be baptized the next day after we met her. And I know I can find someone like her again., but it is definitely going to take A LOT of effort on our part. I just really am having to rely on my Savior to mold me into the best missionary I can be to be able to accomplish this goal.

I think the coolest miracle from this week was a lady named Mo--. It was the end of the night, we just had about 20 minutes left, so we were just walking around doing contacting. Feeling pretty tired and ready to go home. So we were just walking, and then we just saw a lady sitting by herself. I don't even really know why, because it was kind of awkward, but we just went and sat down next to her. And then we just started making small talk. Which led into us asking her the questionnaire. Which led into us teaching her about The Book of Mormon. And then we left her with a prayer, and made a rdv for this Sunday :) All in under ten minutes. It was a really cool experience, and I think it touched me so much because she had SUCH a light with her. She was one of those that we gave her the Book of Mormon, and she just looked at us with SO much gratitude in her heart. She really, really needs this Gospel in her life. And I love when I can physical see that inside of people.

It also really touched me because I had a cool experience, where I got to testify to her of the current death of someone who I really, really love. She asked me why the Book of Mormon helps me. And without even really think about it..I told her about recently in my life, I had lost someone I really really loved. And it was really hard. But one day I was reading the Book of Mormon, and I was reading about the Spirit World and where people go after this life...and I just got this overwhelming confirmation that I know exactly where she is right now, and I know she is happy, in peace, and without pain. And that's why I am so grateful for The Book of Mormon.

I walked away from that experience just feeling overwhelmingly grateful to be a missionary. That I have these really cool experiences in my life, and then I am able to testify to people about these experiences. Everyday. On the street! In France!! I couldn't think of anything quite greater.
I love you all. I am so grateful for this beautiful life I am living.
I will talk to you all next Monday and I am sure I will have PLENTY to say :)
Talk to you soon!
Bisous!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

La prière

Hello my darling loved ones!

Welp. I made it through my first week here! Honestly, it has been a pretty crazy week. It is just always a little bit hard for me at first to get adjusted to a new place, a new companion, etc. But at the end of it, I am super happy to be here. I just feel like I was blessed this week because Heavenly Father taught me a lot.

This is an adorable ville and I really, really love it. And the Branch is super wonderful! I love the members. They are really funny and love to joke around, and I always love that. It is not too huge but not too small either, it is about like Tarbes, about 40 people at church everyweek.

We saw a lot of really cool miracles this week! We met a lot of cool people. My companion is super, super wonderful. I feel so spoiled to have been blessed with such amazing companions on my mission. I really have never had any huge problems with any of them. And it is fun to have a German companion! I don't think I am going to learn much German though...super, super difficult. Haha.

We have had a really hard working great week together though. My FAVORITE miracle, was yesterday ;) We have an amazing DMB. Ummm I don't remember what this is in English. Ward mission leader? Well, branch mission leader. And this week of June is a special month of invitation, we are calling it. Which means all the members are going to work extra hard this month to invite their friends to sacrament meeting! So we have been going around asking the members like crazy what we can do to help them to invite their friends! And we called our DMB Frère Munn and he was like "Well, I have quite a few people living by me I would like to introduce you to..why don't you come over on Sunday and we will go around visiting them?" And that is what we did!

That probably doesn't seem very exciting to many of you...but honestly my whole mission..I had never had a member help us out like that. I feel like most of my mission has just been trying to help members become missionaries. But he was so ready to help us! And so we spent yesterday walking around the adorable city of Aix-Les-Bains visiting his neighbors. We saw some really cool miracles. Nothing HUGE as in someone right then and there wanting to be baptized, but we met some really really wonderful ladies and a beautiful family that is in much need of the Gospel.  It was just a beautiful day full of miracles spent with a member with lots of wonderful occasions to testify! Those are my favorite kind of days ;) That was definitely the highlight of my week.

Like I said earlier, this week was mostly just a learning experience for me. My Heavenly Father really wanted me to learn a big lesson this week. I really want to tell you all this week of how grateful I am for prayer. I really had a few moments this week where I just felt really, really alone. The change for me was harder than expected. And I just felt really overwhelmed. And I don't really know why, but I couldn't get myself to focus on anything I was doing. I just felt like my mind was all over the place. And so I decided at night that I was going to go in another room than the other three sisters, so that I would be able to pray out loud.

I really loved praying out loud before my mission but it is obviously harder to do my personal prayers aloud because I am always with my comp. But I really new that was what I needed.  And so I took a few nights...and I just spent a really long time talking to my Heavenly Father. And pleading for His help. And telling Him that I don't know how I was going to do it without Him. And He carried me. He helped me through. He didn't take my burdens away. But He helped me to deal with them.

How incredibly grateful I am for the divine power of prayer. My testimony would be nothing without it. I am so grateful for my personal relationship with my Father in Heaven.
Don't ever take this relationship for granted, and work your hardest every day to continue to make this relationship stronger.

I LOVE YOU ALL. Thank you for your prayers.
I will talk to you soon. Have an amazing week!
Love,
Soeur Magleby