Sacrifice

Another beautiful hike we did this week! :)

Annnnd Soeur Shields and I have fun on our P-Day today. Haha. 

Soeur Pagano and I with our Limoges tee shirts the bishop made us :) She is the one that replaced me when I left.

Salut my dear loved ones!
This week has flown by. Seriously, so fast that it freaks me out. I know that I say that all the time...but the time just seems to be going so fast I can't even understand it anymore!

I have had a really wonderful week :) The week here has not been the easiest, but I am just loving life and having so much fun and I am just trying to keep my faith in miracles. But that is not to say that we didn't have wonderful miracles this week!

Lina is still doing well, We have had a little bumps in the road in trying to get her to understand the plan of salvation..lets just say she really loves the idea of reincarnation. So, we are working on that one. But other than that, she really is progressing, just slowly :) And we have been teaching her with Odile, the one who got baptized on July 5th, and it has been so great for her.

But other than that, we are still in our super strong FINDING mode. The main way we have been trying to find new amis is through our wonderful members...and we have seen lots of cool miracles. We have had a lot of members set up activities with us to meet their friends. But it just is kind of a slow process to get these people that members introduce us to to REALLY become progressing amis. So, we are doing our best ;) And I am really just trying to do my best to not give up faith and to really expect miracles. One of the hardest things I think is not letting my faith drop after the miracles don't really happen as much as I would like them to. But something I realized this week is that sometimes I need to not let the miracles pass me by just because they aren't the miracles I was expecting. Because nothing ever really seems to happen quite as we anticipate it, does it? And when I started changing my mindset and just searching for ANY miracles throughout the day..I was amazed by how many miracles I really did see!

This is one of my favorite moments of this week:  We walked on the bus, and I sat down and started talking to this lady. I realized the entire time I was talking to her that this guy in front of us kept looking back at me and my comp. Which happens millions of times a day. I can't even tell you all the stares we get. But he had a different stare. He wasn't looking at us to make fun, or because he thought we were super weird, I could just TELL the way he was looking at us as he just truly knew us or something. I know it sounds weird, but I knew I needed to talk to him. And so we get off the bus, but then sadly he just books it in the other direction. I was sad because I knew he needed to be talked to. And even as he walked away he looked back at us 3 different times...but anyway, we went throughout our day and then as we were walking home that night...I see him. Sitting on a bench with his son. And I can't even explain what happened in the next 5 minutes. I honestly don't remember anything, because it wasn't me. In my entire mission I have never felt so completely overtaken by the spirit. Before I knew it I just walked over to him and started talking to him, and then all of a sudden I was just testifying to him like crazy. And I just can't get out of my head the way he was looking as me as I was telling him how much his Father in Heaven loves him. He was searching my words so deeply, it was almost like I could literally just see how much his soul was searching for the truth. Haha that sounds so creepy. Sadly he wouldn't even give us his number because he wasn't interested, but it was a miracle nontheless. That was just one of the coolest moments I have had on my mission. I just love more than anything where I truly feel like a instrument in the hands of my Heavenly Father. There is nothing quite like it.


I want to end with telling you all a really cool principle I have learned and reflected on this week.

Sacrifice.

We have an ami, who is the husband of a member. He is so close to baptism. I want to baptize that man before I leave here more than anything. But this week I just realized, he really isn't there yet. He needs such a huge change of heart. They are just an adorable young couple that I want so bad to be an eternal family!! But we had a lesson with him this week, and he told us the real reason he doesn't feel like he can be baptized right now, is because he is in the army. And he said he isn't ready to have to ...Stand up for the church. To have to tell people he is a member. Or to have to reject a beer when he is with his buddies. Lots of different examples. But really, he just isn't ready to make the sacrifices it takes to be a member of this church.
And I honestly was racing my head for things I could say to him to get him to understand.  To understand that the sacrifices are WORTH it. But all I could do was testify to him. Of how much, I personally know how much it is worth it. That living the Gospel is literally worth every sacrifice.

And then I started thinking. Howcome those before us, especially the early saints... why were they so much more willing to make the sacrifices they did? They literally we willing to give up EVERYTHING. Everything they owned. And even their own lives. They dropped everything for the Gospel.
And I started asking myself...do we have the same kind of faith today?
Who would we be if we DID? If we had the same amount of faith as these early saints?
It is an ongoing process of something I am going to study.
But I would invite you to all think about this week just how much you are willing to sacrifice for your Savior.
You all make amazing sacrifices. Thank you for your example.
I love you all.
I will see you soon.
The Lord lives, He loves you.
Bisous!!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

La pluie et le soleil‏

Soeur Stevens and me :) After a really long hot day....

Our Bastille Day celebration!! We had an awesome member couple take us to go see fireworks and we hung out after and partied with them :) it was so fun.

Fireworks!! (nothing compared to the 4th though...haha)

Blurry because we couldn't get the kids to hold still...but  Soeur Pagano (a sister I live with) and two of the most adorable kids in the world. Also yes, I have an African braid in my hair.

Hello again my darling loved ones! I hope you have all had a good week :)

I have had a really wonderful week! A reaaaaalllly really hot week. I think I sweated all week long. You're welcome for the details. Haha. Despite the super hot sun, we were able to think at least a little bit straight and we got to see many wonderful miracles!

I still just love Soeur S so much. She is such a hard worker. She is already contacting people by herself. She didn't take any French before or anything she is still working her best to be able to comunicate, but she just literally has no fear and is just taking on the mission life at full speed! It is so great. I am so grateful to be able to be her mission mom :)

I told you about Lina last week, and she is still doing super well. We actually saw another miracle with her this week. She said that after we fixed her baptism date she has just felt a huge change in her life, a really good one. She has been smoking for more than ten years. But she said that the Saturday after we had our rdv and we fixed her baptismal date, she was shopping and for some reason got pushed into the electronic cigeratte store. For those who don't know, a lot of people use electronic cigerattes (without nicotine) to try to help them stop smoking. And she said she doesn't really know how it happened, but she got convinced to buy one, and now she is been smoking that and she said she doesn't even have a desire to smoke. I know it sounds probably a little funny, but honestly...  miracle. I can't even tell you how many people I have taught that smoking is the only thing keeping them from getting baptized. So the fact that she decided to quit all on her own is an absolute miracle. It just really testified to me that Heavenly Father really prepares His children...He is definitely preparing her for her baptism in September. I am so excited.

Other than that we have just had a hard working week with lots of little miracles along the way. One of my favorite days this week was actually when I got to go on exchange with one of my absolute favorite missionaries in the mission, Soeur Stevens. She has been my sister training leader for about half my mission, and we have just really become good friends. And I got to go on another exchange with her this week and it ended up being a REALLY cool day. We saw a really cool miracle. We went to visit an old couple who are less active because they aren't really able to come to church, and the night before we had set a goal to have a lesson in the presence of a member, even if we didn't have any planned that day. We wanted to see a miracle. And we ended up teaching the restoration to this old couple's cleaning lady...it was SO cool! She was just there and apparently she is kind of like a stay-in nurse, and she ended up sitting with us and talking to us and taking a Book of Mormon. Another really simple miracle...but honestly it was such a cool moment.
And I actually really loved this exchange because I learned a huge lesson this day. In Annemasse they recently just had a member pass away. He was only 50 years and it was unexpected. And it really affected a lot of the members there because apparently he was just like a amazing missionary and a super wonderful guy. So we spent most the day going and talking to members and trying to help them feel better after his death...and it was a sad thing, but also a day where I really got to build my testimony. I got to testify a lot about how I recently lost someone I really care about...but how I know that now that just means she is just an angel watching over me :)

I just can't even put into words how grateful I am for the plan of salvation. If I ever have ANY doubts about anything...I just think of the happiness that our Heavenly Father has promised to us. Our eternal happiness. With those we love. And I really can't imagine anything better than that.

I am just so grateful for this Gospel. I am so grateful to be a messenger of the truth. And to follow Him in every way that I can.
I love you all!!
Bisous!!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

BLEU FIRE!

Me and Soeur Shields!

Haven't showed you many pictures of Chambéry...so, voilà. 

Me and my awesome companion ;)

​.......the first time I saw this poster. I AM DYYYYING. I literally just had to stop and stare at it for a few seconds. Thought you would enjoy seeing it in French. 

Coucou!!

Hello my dear loved ones. I have been so excited to talk to you all week because I am sure you are all dying to know how my bleu is...well...She is absolutely WONDERFUL. Her name is Soeur S, and she's from North Carolina. She just has every single quality that is so perfect as a bleu. She is just so sweet and so happy to be on a mission. She definitely has that bleu fire. She reminds me so much of what I was like when I was brand new. She is just so super excited to be in France and to be a missionary and man, I just forgot what it was like to have so much ENERGY. Haha. It really is so absolutely wonderful to train. It gives me a new energy. New missionaries really just have a different energy. You just get really...tired, after a while. For lack of a better word. And I forgot how much more energy I used to have, and she really helps me to regain that energy. It is awesome. And I realized how much I have just gotten used to the fact of living in France, because she is just dying at every little cobblestone and alleyway. And I forgot that I used to be like that...I think I took it for granted a bit. Anyway in summary, she is just the perfect bleu. We are having a blast together. All is well!

This week we spent lots of time in Lyon, so we only got about 2 days to really do work here. But the time we spent in Lyon was so fun. I was soo happy because one of my old companions Soeur C is also training this transfer. So we pretty much spent the ENTIRE time talking and her just filling me in on everything that is going on in Limoges, because she is now on her 5th transfer there. And I got to talk to our convert Co-- on the phone. It was just a fun few days getting to spend a lot of awesome time with a bunch of great missionaries.

When we got back here, we did have one really awesome miracle happen. We have a wonderful ami named Lina. Honestly the work in here has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. Right now, Lina is our only progressing ami. When last transfer we had about 5. So we are definitely going to work on just finding lots of new miracle people this transfer. Anyway, Lina. She is wonderful. It is hard to really explain her....but she is an amazing artist and just has a really profound way of thinking. Haha. She is pretty golden though, as long as we get her to really hold commitments. But we had this really cool lesson with her on Saturday which sadly my bleu didn't understand a word of.. but she just talked a lot about just how much she knows the church is true. And how God really led her to this church. She kind of has a lot of deep ways of thinking..but honestly every single thing she believes just goes in perfectly with what we believe. And she just kept talking about how weird it is that all the things we teach her just feel so weirdly familiar to her..like she knew them before. I told her yes, it is because she did :) And the sisters just ported into her, around Christmas last year. And she said right before they knocked on the door she had just prayed, and had a voice in her head tell her "open the door." And then all of the sudden someone knocked on the door. And she opened it, and it was the sisters. So she is literally just like one of those super golden people. But like I said, we have a lot to try and overcome before her baptism. BUT the miracle was that we fixed her date for the 27th of September, and she thinks that is a perfect day. Probably sounds far away, but that is kind of like our next July 5th for the mission that we are going to try to have even MORE baptisms. And I am not letting this one slip past me! So, there was our miracle for the week.

Other cool miracle is guess who walked into our sacrament meeting yesterday? Gérald Caussé. He is the 1st counseler in the Presiding Bishopric. And obviously French, haha. But apparently sometimes he stays around here, so he came to church yesterday. I pretty much almost peed my pants though because I had to give a TALK yesterday. So I had to talk in front of him...I was terrified. It was really cool though. He talked to us, and I thought about how cool it was that I got to hear him talk in French and understand every word! Haha. It was a cool experience.

Everything is going so well for me right now. Honestly, life is wonderful. It truly is. I am just so happy with my situation right now. And I am happier than ever to be a missionary. I am so grateful for my mission. All that I have learned, and all that I have yet to learn. It has already changed my life in so many ways. I just feel blessed beyond words. I love you all. I hope you have a wonderful week!!

Love, Soeur Magleby

Transfer number 9!‏

The baptism!

This is her with the girl who got baptized the week before, which is when she said she heard angels telling her she was next! :)

My fourth of July!! :) We have a friend who is American...so we got together and ate huge burgers and mac and cheese. So, at least I did something. Haha

Hello my dear family!
So, you already got the news. But yes, I am staying here another transfer and I am training!! Which means I am recieving a brand new missionary :) I am actually headed to Lyon in couple hours; I stayed here  and kicked it with Soeur Nuutinen for a day and a half, the other sister who lives in my apartment. I am super excited to train! I am also just a little bit nervous. Mostly I am just excited to find out who she is!! But don't worry, I will definitely update you next week all about it :) I creepily already love her though...haha. I just have a feeling this can be a great transfer. There are wonderful miracles happening here, and I KNOW that it is only just the beginning!

On the downer side of things, although it is nothing to be too sad about, we didn't end up having a baptism on July 5th. BUT I am super grateful that I still get to assist in a miracle baptism by the other sisters equipe! It was a really wonderful and just beautiful and perfect day. And I love so much the girl who they baptized, she is so wonderful and will be such a great addition to our branch.  

But, the biggest and most wonderful miracle is that on July 5th, as a mission we had 22 baptisms!! Now THAT is a miracle. Absolutely incredible. This week I have just been filled with so much gratitude. I am so so grateful to be exactly where I am, I am so grateful for this mission. I am grateful for our president. And I am grateful to be here at this time, when we are seeing so many miracles. Here is a line from President Roney this week in The Miracle (the newsletter we get every week in the mission):   "Please write in your journal and write home and tell everyone that you were part of a true miracle of our day....Your names will be written down in the heavens as the missionaries who were there when the world changed."

President could not have said it better. Things are changing here. The work is hastening like crazy. More and more people are coming to the truth, more and more people are being prepared...and how incredibly grateful I am to be apart of this work, at this time!! I just feel so overwhelmed with gratitude and happiness. I just feel so overwhelmingly blessed to be a part of it all, to be apart of this work. Especially here in this wonderful country where crazy things are happening!!

Sorry I don't really have a lot to say this week. Really, all I have to say is how happy I am. How happy I am to be a missionary. How happy I am to be a disciple of Christ. To be a daughter of God.  In Relief Society yesterday we had a really wonderful lesson and there was a part of it that really touched me. Our member who was teaching passed out pieces of paper and had everyone write down in one or two words, what one or two words would represent them. But she told us as missionaries we weren't allowed to do the activity. And then at the end, she had as stand up. And she said "I didn't make the sisters do the activity, because they already have. They wear who they are over their heart over single day. They have Jesus Christ written on their plaque. And simply by that, they show their faith every single day. And they show others who they are, and what they believe in."  It was simple but I just felt so full of love at that moment. That when people look at me..they see exactly who I am. They see that I believe in Jesus Christ.

And that is exactly what I want people to see when they look at me for the rest of my life.
What a beautiful challenge and opportunity we have. To represent Him and to be His disciples.
I love you all. I will talk to you soon. Have a wonderful week.

Bisous!! 

Love,

Soeur Magleby