IT IS TRUE

With her family, and our bishop who baptized her.

The 4 who got baptized on Saturday and the people who baptized them. So much white. Such a beautiful sight to see :)

Salut!
Well...you already know what I am going to write about this week.

This week was one of the most miraculous that I have had on my entire mission. It is honestly something that I will not be able to describe to you in words. But, I am going to do my best :) First off, I am staying in Lyon another transfer! And my new companion is Soeur Bragg...yup, THE Soeur Bragg!! :) It was honestly really sad to have to see Soeur Richardson go...she was a great comp., but my goodness when we got our calls we both just called each other and started screaming. I can't believe this is actually happening. Not only are we reunited from the MTC...but she is one of my favorite comps I have had. We get along so well. I am soo excited for this transfer. We are going to absolutely just tear it up in Lyon. Well, we are going to do our best! This is just such a city of miracles. It is absolutely incredible.

Speaking of miracles...
So this weekend I got to see two people making a covenant with God. Actually, I got to see 4. We had 4 baptisms here in Lyon. It was so amazing to see. 3 of them were from our ward. So on Sunday we got to have 3 confirmations in a row! It was so fun.

Saturday was such a beautiful day. I am so in love with Michal and Barbara. In the least creepy way possible. They are so absolutely amazing. I honestly can't explain what it feels like. To watch these people enter the waters of baptism. I feel really blessed as well, because I got to teach both of them from the very beginning. And I got to see them to gain a testimony. And to come unto Christ. And then follow him by being baptized. I am just so overwhelmed every single time I witness a baptism by the amazing spirit that I feel. It to me is just something so real. Almost tangible. I can just feel so deeply that this is the truth. And that this choice these people are making is the best choice they will ever make. And it will change the rest of their life.

But there was this one moment at the baptism that was by far my favorite :) All 4 of them decided they wanted to share their testimonies at the end. And it was literally the most beautiful thing I have ever witnessed. B--. She got baptized only a short like 3 and a half weeks after witnessing the miracle that I wrote to you about. She saw a true miracle of the Priesthood. And she let it change her life. And 3 weeks later...she was baptized into this church. Because she knew she couldn't deny the truthfulness of the miracle she saw. Teaching her was so easy. She accepted everything. Although, I always worried just a little bit if she had a real testimony of the gospel and if it was more than just believing in Jesus Christ. And then she got up there on Satuday. And talked about this miracle she witnessed. And talked about how this day has changed her life. And she knows it is true. And you could just feel that she really knew it. And then when she got confirmed on Sunday she was just radiating. Annnd she already paid her tithing. Haha. She is so unbelievable.

And then Michal. Sweet little Michal who had sooo many doubts! And just kept asking us over and over about how in the WORLD we can say that we know the church is true. And how this church is different. And not understanding why he would need to be baptized again. But, he wanted to know. So he read. And he prayed. And the Spirit worked absolute wonders with him. We had so many lessons with him where I feel like we just put our heart and soul into testifying to him because we wanted him SO BADLY to know it for himself. And to see him get up in front of everyone. And in his sweet simple French bear a beautiful testimony. And for him to say "Je sais que l'église est vrai." (I know the church is true.) I literally couldn't hold back the tears.

There is no greater joy in this life than to help people come unto the Savior.
I can't even explain how grateful I am to be a missionary. I feel like I am being blessed way more than I deserve. I just am so dang happy. Even if I am so unbelievably exhausted. ....it is worth it. Haha.
I love this work so much. I love my Savior so much. I know this work is true with all of my heart. And I just don't know how I got so lucky.
I love you all so much. Thank you for everything, as always.
Don't forget how much your Savior loves you. Come unto Him and He will come unto you.
Love you!!
Bisous!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

#baptism

Coucou!
Hi everyone :)

First off, I apologize. I don't have the full time to email this week...so this probably won't be the longest email. We spent the day at President Roney's house and so we got to emails a little late. Not gonna lie...it was worth it though :) I literally have the best mission president ever. We spent all afternoon playing pêtanque... you all probably have no idea what it is. It is a french game that I am kind of obsessed with.

Well, I feel like every week all I have been doing is telling you all over and over again about crazy miracles every single week...and this is another one of those weeks! Sometimes when I don't have time to write in my journal (which is....everyday) I just make a bulleted list of great things that have happened that week. So, I am going to do the same to you today.

•  First point on the list, this Saturday is September 27th. The day our mission has been preparing for.  And we are going to have 2 baptisms :) Well...we hope. Obviously we never know what will happen. But we have just seen AMAZING miracles this week. The first is B--. I already told you all about her. She is wonderful and just seriously so prepared. She is so excited for her baptism.
• The second is an ami we have named Michal. I don't think I have ever told any of you about him..but we started to teach him like the first day I got here. And he is soooo awesome. He is Polish, and speaks pretty decent French but we have had a bit of a language barrier. But honestly, it has just help me to learn how to teach simply which has been great. Anyway, he is just so sincere and he seriously has been searching for the truth. He has been reading like crazy in the Book of Mormon and has been progressing so great the whole transfer, but he has just let his doubts and fears get in the way of baptism. But we knew that he was ready for this Saturday. So we had a couple rdvs this week where we just sat him down and we were pretty much like "Michal. You know this is true. What is stopping you from being baptized??" and we had this really great moment where we were teaching in the institute and a bunch of members showed up and we were all sitting in a circle just testifying to him like crazy about how this is the true church. It was honestly one of the coolest moments of my mission. I felt the spirit sooo strong. It was so cool to be able just to look around that room and see how much everyone just KNEW with all of their soul that this church is true. I just can't get over how grateful I am to my Heavenly Father for blessing me with a testimony of this Gospel. Anyway, so we just really engaged him to pray to know. And last night we sat down with him and we just said "Alright Michal, it is time. Have you gotten your answer?" and it took him like 2 minutes to respond but then he just goes "Oui, je suis prêt" (yes, I am ready.) Haha and me and my comp had to do EVERYTHING we could to not freak out right then and there. So yeah, he was our huge miracle of the week. I am so so excited to see this Gospel change his life. It already has.
• One of our amis said a prayer for the first time this week. And it was adorable. And she prayed so perfectly. And also she prayed that I will live in New York City and be able to study cinema. Haha. It was hilarious and so adorable. It was seriously just one of the sweetest moments in the world, I thought I had to share it with you. So you know, it probably is going to happen now.
•  Sonia is still doing amazing. She is leaving for Spain this week so we sadly won't be able to see her for a couple weeks :( But she is getting baptized as soon as she gets home!! We are already planning her temple trip in October...she is incredible.
• Funniest moment of the week. We went to a baptism on Satuday for the elders in one of the wards here in Lyon, and we went into the room to perform the ordinance...and we opened up the baptismal font and the water had ALL DRAINED. Haha all of our hearts just sunk. One of the elders apparently bumped something and all the water was gone....we then spent the next 30 minutes just running around the chapel like maniacs throwing buckets of water into the font. Haha. It was super stressful, but also sooo hilarious. It was such a funny moment. Mostly because everything ended up working out :) They just had to do the baptism at the end.

Really, I just love my life. I haven't talked much about my companion this transfer...but honestly, we have had such a blast of a transfer together. I have never been so exhausted but I have never had so much fun either. I feel so blessed to have been able to work with her. But sadly this is her last week in the mission field. I have never killed a companion before...and honestly it is kind of weird. Mostly just sad. There are lots of tears, haha. But yes this is transfer week so things will be changing next transfer, so I will let you know next week. I (most likely, I guess you never know) I won't be leaving though. I better not! I love Lyon way too much :)

I just love my life. I really don't know what to say other than that. I am so blessed that I can't even comprehend it. I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father. I am so grateful to be able to feel of His love for me, every single day. It is the best feeling in the world. Gosh, I am just seriously so excited to spend the rest of my life serving Him with all of my heart.
I love you all so so much. Thank you for everything you do for me. I hope you have a wonderful week!
Bisous! Ciao!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

P.S. Sorry...no pictures for the week. I will definitely have some next week though!

20.

We had Zone Conference this week! It was wonderful. My comp and me and another sister I love, Sister Roberts :)

We hung out with our zone last week on P-Day and I just hate to take this picture because I was just laughing to myself at what kind of place we were "hanging out" in. #frenchmissionaries

We play soccer every Saturday, and Sonia came and then we all went out to sushi :) She is the best.

Salut! Welp. Another week of miracles.

This week...we had AMAZING things happen. The biggest miracle..is that we FINALLY reached our goal of having 20 lessons!! We actually ended up having 21. And it was so cool. Honestly, the best part of it was that all of these lessons we had were taught to our progressing amis. Well, most of them. We did have a couple cool miracle lessons on the street, but for the most part, we have just seen so many huge miracles this week in seeing our amis progress.

I am sooo excited for the 27th of September. The mission is just exploding right now. That is the only way I can describe it. We are all working so hard, and Heavenly Father is just pouring His blessings upon us. And I can't wait to see how many people we get to bring unto Christ that day! We are really hoping and praying to have 2 baptisms that day. We will definitely have one, Ba-- :) She is just doing absolutely wonderfully. She is just the sweetest. Honestly, I am so in love with all of our amis. I don't know why, but I sincerely LOVE all the people I am working with right now. I care so much for every single one of our amis. I just feel like they are all my best friends. Anyway, Ba-- is doing great. She is a huge miracle and her faith is just growing more and more!

And then our other huge miracle. Sonia. Ooh là là. I couldn't even put into words and tell you how much I absolutely adore her. Our rdvs this week were just incredible. From the very first moment she was contacted on the street she has been a huge miracle. And honestly, she just keeps being so much better than I even thought! It has been 3 weeks since we started teaching her. And she already knows with all of her heart that this church is true. In one of our rdvs she was just talking to me about how she is just so anxious to share this message with everyone. It was so cute. She was just like EVERYONE needs to know this!!" And so she has been talking to all of her friends about the Book of Mormon.  And she stays up until 2 in the morning because she can't put it down. And she just can't get over Alma. It is her favorite. Haha. She honestly has been showing so much faith, I am so amazed by her. The word of wisdom has been hard for her.But in just a week....she has gone from 20 to 4 cigarettes a day, and stopped drinking coffee and wine. She is just putting her faith into action. Being able to be a part of this experience with her has honestly just grown my testimony so much. She looked at me one day this week, and she just looked me in the eyes and said "This is has changed my life."

So simple. But it hit me so hard. I have seen the Gospel change so many people's lives throughout my mission. And that is the beauty of the Gospel. And it is just so cool to see when people actually recognize that change. She is just so simply excited to start her new life. And I couldn't be more excited for her!

Also...I don't know if I told you this, but she is a film director. And also she does theater and teaches cinema here in France. I KNOW. I about died. Soo long story short we are in the middle of making plans for our movie we are going to do together on the Book of Mormon :) Haha, really though. I am so excited.

I am just amazed again and again everyday of how beautiful this Gospel really is. And I am amazed again and again at how blessed I am to be able to be a part of it. And to see this change in peoples' lives.  It is something I will never be able to deny. There are many reasons I know I could never deny the Gospel, but just being able to SEE people come unto Christ and how much that changes their lives..that is absolutely incredible to me.

I just don't know why I got so lucky, honestly. To be able to experience all of this.  I just really love you all so much. I know this is God's work. And He is in charge of it. I have never felt closer to Him. And I have never felt happier.
Je vous souhaite une bonne semaine! Je vous aime!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

Beyond words.

We had a day this week where we teamed up with the Paris mission to try to find 1,000 new people to teach! It was fun. This...we were commanded to eat this pastry called a "mille feuille" for lunch :)

.....more food. Haha. This is how we celebrate getting a new engagé. Patisseries!

At our bishop's house...I just ADORE their family. They are so wonderful. 

Me and Soeur Bragg on our exchange!! It was so fun.

Salut!
I hope you all have had a wonderful week. This is been just ANOTHER week of crazy amazing miracles.... I have been just waiting ALL WEEK to tell you about the crazy things that have happened!! Things have happened to me this week that are beyond words. Things I can't even describe. But miracles that have built my faith like crazy.

They are both continuation miracles from the two miracles I talked about last week :)

Starting with Barbara. Remember that girl that I talked about last week, the one who was suuper sick and then got the blessing and was literally healed? Yeah. As if that wasn't a cool enough miracle. The miracle continues! We set up another rdv to go see her this week because obviously we knew this would be a perfect time to start teaching her..and it was incredible. She obviously had a bunch of questions on the priesthood. So we taught her the retab and then talked a lot about the priesthood. And then we got to the end and started to bring up baptism, and she was like "Oh yeah, after Sunday, I am coming to church all the time. All the time." And we were like "Sooo...baptism?" And she was just like "Um...YES. When does it work for you?" Haha. It was literally the easiest baptismal date I have ever set. She is SO ready. We set her date for September 27th :) I don't remember if I told you...but that is the big day in our mission where we are trying to have as many baptisms as we can. And we have a goal to have at least two baptisms that day, so it really was a HUGE miracle. She was going around at church everyday telling everyone "I am getting baptized!" It was so cute. She is so SO wonderful. :)

And the miracles don't end there. It also continues with Sonia. She is the one that found the Book of Mormon in a library in Spain and read the whole thing...we had one of the absolute coolest lessons I have ever had on my entire mission this week. And plus I was on exchange with my MTC comp Soeur Bragg :) so it was super cool to be able to have this crazy awesome moment together. We knocked on the door and as soon as she answered it I could just tell she had something to say. And she almost dragged us in her apartment and sat us down on the couch. And she told us she had something incredible to tell us. And she was shaking. She then proceeded to tell us that the night before, she had done as we had asked, and she had prayed to know if the Book of Mormon is true. And then that night she had a dream. I will probably spare the details just fro her privacy, but she described to us a beautiful dream in which she was dressed all in white. And Joseph Smith was in it. And he layed his hands on her head. And as she was telling us she said "When he put his hands on my head..I just felt this peace. This peaceful feeling that is beyond anything I have ever felt before in my whole life. It was incredible." 

When she finished telling us Soeur Bragg and I just like sat there in shock for a second. And then we asked her what she thinks and about the book of Mormon now...and she said, "I know it is true." It was one of THE coolest moments on my entire mission. The Spirit that was in the room was incredible. I honestly was holding back tears.

It is moments like that on my mission that I will never be able to deny the Spirit witnessing of the truth that was in that room. Those moments like that built my testimony SO much. It is amazing to see how much Heavenly Father loves His children and truly answers their sincere, faithful prayers. She is going to be baptized as well :) Obviously. We just have not been able to fix a date with her yet because she is going to Spain and doesn't know for how long.

I will never understand how I got blessed to be a part of all this. How in the world did I get so blessed that Heavenly Father has entrusted me with His children?

This week was awesome, obviously. Just miracles after miracles! And some really great exchanges with sisters that teach me so much.  I am truly just loving every minute of my life these days. ...okay except for 6.30 in the morning. Sometimes I am not super in love with my life then.

BUT all the rest of the day I am just so dang happy!
I absolutely adore Lyon. And honestly...absolutely AMAZING things are happening in the mission right now. We are all teaching way more than we ever have. Heavenly Father is hastening His work here. It is so amazing to see, and to be able to be a part of it! I have never had such an awesome, exhausting, and hardworking time on my whole mission. And I just love it.

I love my life more than I can really describe it. I just love being so close to my Heavenly Father. I have been working on my prayers lately...and it feels like I am just having a conversation with someone who knows me so well. It is the coolest feeling. And the most comforting.
I love you all. Thank you for your prayers. They really help.
Bisous! Je vous aime!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

And the miracles keep comin!‏

I found fro yo in Lyon...I was so excited. Haha don't mind the random background.

Our awesome Lyon zone!!

My first exchange of the transfer :) with darling Sister Kupfer. I lived with her when I was a blue!

...Lyon is pretty.

I don't know if you will recongize him...but I ran into this kid this week. I mean...it was pretty fun :)

Salut! :) I honestly do not even know where to begin with this week. I don't think I could even tell you everything that happened in just ONE email. Soo...I will do my very best.

This week was full of HUGE mriacles. It was a super busy week as well. Started out the week with going to a meeting that we have for all the leaders in the mission. It was so great. It was (obviously) my first time going, and it honestly was so fun just to be able to be in that room with some of the greatest missionaries in the mission, and with our super awesome mission president. And to be able to talk about how to have more success in the mission and to help all the missionaries. Honestly...our mission is exploding right now. It is such a cool time in the mission. I just feel so SO blessed to be here right now. We also had our zone training this week and it was great because we got to help with part of it. Recently in our mission we have just focused on having unity as a mission. And I feel like this transfer we have just really exploded with making that our focus. And it has been the absolute coolest thing to see! No matter how big our mission is our how many missionaries we have...I can't even explain how cool it is to feel completely united with the entire mission. It is so cool. It just, once again, makes me realize how much I LOVE this mission.

I will probably say this ten times before the end of this email...I just feel so, so BLESSED! That is all I can really feel this days. Just so much happiness. And so, SO blessed!

Okay, I am too anxious. I want to tell you about the absolutely amazing miracle we saw this week!
So, a huge focus we have right now in the mission as well is having 20 lessons a week. Honestly...it is SO hard. I know it is possible...but having 20 lessons a week is actually a ton. There have only been a few equipes that have reached it. But we are trying with all of our might! And we saw two absolutely amazing miracle lessons this week.

First one. Saturday. It was such an awesome day. Started out the door playing soccer with our amis like we do every Saturday morning (no I am still not good), and then that night we decided to go pass this miracle person that Soeur Richardson had met two transfers earlier. It was this girl she contacted that was a huge miracle because she had ALREADY read the Book of Mormon. But she is Spanish, so then she left to Spain for the past two transfers. But we knew she was home so we decided to go pass her. She answered the door and recognized us immediately. And we ended up having a really awesome lesson with her right then and there...

Do you remember Natalie? And how amazing of a miracle she was? Sonia reminds me so much of the Natalie miracle I had. She is absolutely INCREDIBLE. Literally...my mind was blown. She is the absolute most prepared person I have ever seen. She found the Book of Mormon in a library. And she read the entire thing. Her favorite scripture is in Alma and her favorite book is Moroni. Oh, and her favorite scripture in the bible is James 1:5. When she told us that Soeur Richardson and I just literally started like laughing so hard...it was like, way too good to be true. She already knows SO much about the church.  Gosh...I honestly can't put it into words. But she is absolutely incredile.

I just can't believe I got to be apart of such an amazing miracle. I just feel nothing but absolute gratitude that Heavenly Father has let me see so many amazing miracles throughout my mission.
He is preparing people. And he puts them in our path. I just love so incredibly much to be able to be apart of it all!

And then that night we decided to celebrate by going to get this reeeaally good food called MasterTacos...haha. And on the way there we met this awesome guy...who ended up calling us, 5 minutes after we gave him our card, and telling us he wanted to come to church and "to become a part of it." What the?? Haha. Literally...I can't get over all these miracles. Oh, and then we ran home from MasterTacos in 5 minutes and then was...let me tell ya. Another huge miracle. Haha.

Okay...one more. And then yesterday we went to pass a less active. And we walked in and her daughter was suuuuper sick. And her daughter is not a member. and so we prayed with her. And then we got the impression to ask her for a blessing. So, we asked her. And she knows a little bit about the church..so she said why not. Long story short, this girl was literally sitting on the couch in absolute tears she was in so much pain, and then we had this awesome member come over and give her a blessing. And 5 minutes after her blessing....she stood up and starting DANCING around the room. It was the most hilarious thing. Sorry, I didn't really do the story justice but it was honestly one of the coolest things I have ever seen.

I LOVE THE PRIESTHOOD.

Sorry, this email is all over the place. But I hope you have been able to see just how happy I am. And how many miracles are happening!

I am doing so great. I am just so happy. I can't even understand how I deserved all this.

My testimony has grown so much, even in just a week.
I know this church is true  with all of my heart. And I just love it so much I couldn't even put it into words. I am so grateful to be a missionary. So, so grateful.
I love you all. I hope you have an amazing week!
Love,
Soeur Magleby