Thursday, November 20, 2014

Too much love.

S-- officially left for Spain this week!! It was pretty sad...but, she is so excited to get baptized over there, I am not too worried :)
This is a really awkard angle...but the best we could do. Had a fun little lunch with some of our sisters in Lyon this week :) Gotta love baguette sandwiches. 

#wheninFrance.... have to go to KFC. Haha.
MASTERTACOS PARTY. Okay this picture is terrible, but it shows how much fun we all have together. Haha.



Salut! :)

I hope you all had an amazing week! I did, that is for sure. This week was kind of crazy. Okay, a lot of crazy. Like I have already said, the first week of the transfer around here is kind of crazy with us housing all the missionaries coming in and out. This week went a lot smoother than last transfer though. It is kind of exhausting to have about 20 sisters in our apartment all the time...BUT I also absolutely love it. My favorite part is getting to talk to all the blues (all the new missionaries that come in.) They are so dang adorable. Honestly, it kind of made me emotional this time around. I was just thinking about how much I love my mission, and how it just feels like it was JUST barely that I was as lost as they are. They seriously have so much energy though, it is so inspiring. They just all come here so ready to serve the Lord with all their heart. It really reminds me of when I had that much energy...and it really inspired me this week. So, sometimes it is hard running the missionary hotel, but other times I absolutely love it :)

But despite all the craziness, Soeur Bragg and I were able to teach 20 lessons again this week!! It took a whole lot of determination, but we were able to do it! We are going to try to teach 20 lessons a week this transfer. Which isn't too evident sometimes because with this being a 4 week transfer and having to do all of our exchanges...we are kind of all over the place. But it just makes us work harder :) aka....I am literally going to come home on a stretcher. Haha.

Soeur Bragg and I have just been trying our hardest though to REALLY have a baptism this transfer. We are determined to end our mission with a huge miracle! And for so long we just felt so much opposition. And there is still tons of opposition going on...but this week we really saw some huge miracles. We now have 3 amis for the 6th of December! And this Saturday there was a baptism in one of the other wards in Lyon...and 2 of our amis came!! One of them was just there when we showed up, it was SUCH a miracle. And then we had 3 amis come to church yesterday :) Kind of a big deal because we have had like no amis come to church or the last transfer...it has been really frustrating. Yesterday we were just beaming it felt so good to have people there at church!
One of the guys we are teaching, we found him through a really funny miracle. About two weeks ago we had a list of addresses of old amis that we were trying to pass. So we find this apartment building, walk in, and immediately hear a bunch of africans talking extremely loud and having a party. We start to walk up the stairs and realize that the sound was coming from the exact apartment we were looking for...haha. We felt really intimidated by the amount of african men we knew we in there...but MANGOS (I'll explain later) we knocked on the door. Ended up being a huge miracle because the old ami was interested to meet with us again and also EVERY PERSON IN THE APARTMENT. Okay, a couple of them were kind of fighting with us about the bible, but they all one at a time just started asking us questions. It was so funny. So then we went back to teach them and one of the guys was really super interested. So, we started meeting with him individually this week and he now has a baptism date! So, that was a fun time.

Pretty much...I don't really even know how to feel right now because I have 1,000 and a half emotions going through my head at every second. Haha.  I just honestly can't believe this is all coming to an end.

I love my mission more than I can put into words. And I am pretty sure I say that every single week. But it is true! It is honestly breaking my heart to think about leaving these people. I love them so much. The members. The missionaries. The French people. Gosh, it really is just way too much love.
I just don't know how in the world I got so blessed. I thank my Heavenly Father every single day for this absolutely beautiful blessing He gave me. But, I still have 3 more weeks, so I am going to keep serving Him will all that I have :)

I hope you all have a wonderful week, I love you all so much and I'll see you way too soon!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

Friday, November 14, 2014

A week in photos

Hello my darling family!
Well.....here is the biggest news of my week. SOEUR BRAGG AND I ARE STAYING TOGETHER!! We literally get to finish our missions together. Started and finished together. So crazy!! I really can't even believe it is happening. And we get to die together in Lyon! The best place ever. Gosh, I don't understand how I got so blessed. I love my entire mission so much, every single place I have served in. I wouldn't change it for the world! And being able to stay in Lyon for 3 transfers has been a dream...it has been so fun. I absolutely love it.
So, I am happy :)

Honestly I can't even really remember what happened this week...haha. One of those weeks. So, I decided I would just try to send you some photos to make up for all the ones I have missed out on the past few weeks, and try to explain my week.

After Soeur Bragg and I got our transfer calls :) We obviously had to celebrate with my favorite pastry...haha. I literally can't believe it. We are going to do our best just to work like crazy these next 4 weeks!


Probably the most fun part of my week...we went on an exchange to this ville called Besançon! It was LITERALLY freezing...but, it was so so beautiful! We had a lot of fun.


Yeah...sometimes missions just feel like one big party. Haha. I really love every minute of this life! Even though sometimes I don't think I can go on...because I have never been so tired in my life. But I just walk through the streets of Lyon everyday and try to soak it all in. Because I know that before I know it I won't get this life anymore. And I am just so, SO grateful for this opportunity I have to serve my Savior. This experience has changed my life in every way. And also, I have literally never had more fun or laughed so hard...


Sonia!! We love going out to dinner...haha. Sadly she is going to be moving to Spain this week :( it is kind of breaking my heart. BUT. We had the coolest moment with her this week...oh, I guess the next picture would probably go better with this.


Sonia has been working like crazy so she finally had ONE day she wasn't working...and she asked if she could come teach with us. And it was the COOLEST thing ever. Her testimony is so beautiful. We introduced her to another one of my favorite people in the whole world, Jamila :) I love these two people so much I can't even tell you. It was just the coolest thing to be able to hear her testify to sweet Jamilaabout how the Gospel is what she has been looking for her entire life. And now she knows that she is not alone. And she has comfort and peace in her life. Literally...HER testimony built mine.
The Gospel is incredible!!

Well, that is about it for this week.
We are just going like crazy and working as hard as we possibly can. I really hope I can do everything I can to serve my Savior in this little precious time I have left.
I love you all so so much!
I will see you soon!
Bisous!
Love,
Soeur Magleby

Family.

At our family history activity

Hello my dear family!
I know I say all the time "this might be a shorter email..." but I am kind of serious this time. Haha.
The problem is..I just experience so many AMAZING things and it is impossible to try and put them into words. But today was a week that literally changed my life. I know that probably sounds super dramatic. But, it's true! I had so many beautiful experiences this week.

We got to here from Elder and Sister Kearon (of the 70s). They came to visit us for a special conference. And then I was super blessed and all the leaders of the mission got to go to a another meeting in Geneva the day after. It was just so incredible. I really am obsessed witht he Kearon's. They are so cool. They taught us SO much.

Also, President talked to us during the conference. He seriously just changed my whole perspective on the mission. He really just emphasized how everything we are doing is for our families. Present and future. And that is something that I have obviously known the entire time...but he just talked about it to us in a way that I have never realized before. He just kept telling us that "Today could be the day that changes our future generations!" And I just really left that conference deciding that I wanted to be that person. I wanted to be the kind of person that is going to bless the generations that follow me. Kind of werid to think about at the moment. But honestly...family is what pushes me. Everyday. And I just want to use it to push me even more. That is why I am just forever grateful for you all and I tell you all every week. I am so grateful for you because your love for me is something that pushes me to work harder every single day. Because I have been able to see how much Heavenly Father has been blessing us all during this time I have been away. And it is so beautiful to see!
I don't even know if this is making any sense.

Honestly...all I can say to you this week is just how dang happy I am. I literally couldn't be any happier. I feel so incredibly blessed to have been able to be a part of this sacred experience with Elder Kearon. I have had so many moments like this on my mission that have changed me. And they have changed my future. And I just walked away from these two conferences thanking Heavenly Father over and over again for this absolutely beautiful experience I have been able to have.

I love my mission more than I can even put into words. I love my mission president. I love this country. I love these people. I love all of these amazing missionaries I get to serve with.
I will forever be changed by my mission. And I am forever grateful. I love the Savior with all of my heart. And I am just so excited for my future where I get to continue showing Him how much I love him!

Two highlights from this week:
We got a really awesome new ami named Gabriel. He contacted us on the street. He said he saw Jesus on our badges and wanted to know what we were talking to people about. We had a really good conversation with him, and then a few days later we called him. And he said he had looked up the website, and he was ike "Of course this church is true!!" haha. It truly is a huge miracle. He was like "It just makes SENSE that God would call someone like Joseph Smith to be a prophet. This has to be Christ's church!" And then we had our first lesson with him and pretty much he was just testifying to us the entire time..it was so awesome. And then we fixed a baptismal date for the end of November. Soo he is awesome. I will keep you updated!

Also, Saturday we had our genealogy activity! We set up this huge activity in our insitute and then all of us Lyon missionaries go out and contact people and invite them to come in and do their family history. It was SO cool. Almost all of the missionaries had miracle lessons. Gosh. The family just touches EVERYONE'S hearts. Family history is the best. I wish I would have appreciated it more...but now I will!
Sorry again for the short email.
Just know I love you all.
I will see you all soon.
Church is true. Christ is the Savior. Don't forget it.
Love,
Soeur Magleby

20

You know what the best thing ever is? How many weakness we have, and how imperfect we are, but despite all that...how much Heavenly Father is willing to shower His blessings upon us. I am really so astounded everyday by how much I am given and how much I don't feel like I did absolutely anything to deserve it..this week was INCREDIBLE. My biggest thing to testify of this week is that even when we don't think we can physical go on..we can. The strengthening power of the Atonement is something that blows my mind everyday. It is so, so real.

We did it this week! We hit our goal of 20 lessons. And it is actually insane that we were able to do it. We also amazingly were able to help two of our sisters to get 20 lessons as well because we went out to their ville and worked with them...it was so fun. I saw so many awesome miracles this week.
Two of the biggest miracle days were the day of this exchange and last night, when we finished teaching our 20 lessons :) I got to go on my exchange with an adorable blue (on her first transfer), Soeur Jacobsen. She is so cool. And..this is one of the days that I was just amazed I was able to get through.

Let me just take a second to testify about fasting. Literally...it is the best thing ever. Haha. I laugh at myself that I ever thought once a month was hard. Because as a missionary..we fast all the time. And we have been fasting for tons of things lately. (By the time this week is over I will have fasted 5 times in 2 weeks...haha) And probably my "before" self would have complained a lot. Okay...I still complain. Working on that. But it is AMAZING how blessed I am. We fasted this day with our sisters for one of their amis. So we woke up at 5 in the morning, took a 3 hour train ride, and then went and worked like crazy all day and didn't eat until late that night....and beforehand I thought I was literally going to die. But I didn't. Not even close. We were able to find some really awesome lessons and some cool new amis. And I had soooo much energy I can't even tell you. I was able just to be happy and work hard all day long. And I wasn't even that hungry! Haha. Lying in bed that night I was just amazed at how hard I was able to work. It was incredible. I feel so incredibly strengthened, everyday.

And then last night was so fun. We had to teach 6 lessons to reach our goal. And we had about 5 rdvs fixed, but we kind of knew not all of them would work out...so we had our 3 fixed ones that worked out really well, and then it was 6 o clock. And we had 3 more to teach. And we knew they all had to be miracles. So we prayed LIKE CRAZY and put our trust in the Lord, and we went for it! Our whole zone was also praying for us, so that was super awesome. I felt so much support.And obviously like I said earlier, we were able to do it! It was incredible. We talked to a couple people that I could tell really really need to talk to someone. We had a lady just start crying and told us how alone she feels and how much she just feels like she has something missing from her life. It was such a tender experience. This week was really just full of working as hard as we could, fasting and praying like crazy...And that seemed to a perfect equation.

Sorry, I don't have much more to say this week.....I don't have many of these left though. Trying to not to think about it. Just hold on a little longer and then I will be able to tell you all these stories in person :) Haha. I love you all!

IT'S TRUE. So let's do our best do choose to follow our Savior everyday.
Love you!
Soeur Magleby