Joyeux Noël!‏

 

Merry Christmas from the crazy Limoges soeurs!!

Our buffet table at the party..Sorry I didn't get a better one though!
Really just lots of smoked salmon things. And weird meat. And this SUPER nasty spread that I can't even describe to you but it tastes like dog food. Hahaha.

I don't even feel like this picture needs a caption. It just describes so perfectly my life. Haha.

Salut my darling family!

 

I hope you are all having a wonderful time getting ready for Christmas! Gosh I really love this season. It is such a beautiful time of the year. Also, Christmas markets are a thing that we don't have in America that really we just should. We spent some time at the cute little market we have in Limoges. They just put up all these adorable log cabin houses in the middle of this huge square and they just sell a lot of different things. Also really delicious fried food I learned today. Also Pere Noël has an adorable house he is going to be showing up in soon. I am super stoked. Haha. Christmas in France is so fun! I only get this once, so I am trying to enjoy it as much as I can.

 

On Saturday night we had our ward Christmas party. Oh my goodness it was such a blast. Our ward definitely knows how to throw parties. I don't think I have talked about this ward a lot, but honestly I love them so much. We don't have a huge ward, but it is actually a ward and not a branch. We have about 60 people that come to church every week. And my goodness I love every single one of those members. They are so awesome at serving us. We are still working really hard at getting them to teach with us though..honestly that has been one of the biggest stresses of the mission. Finding members to teach with. It has been really hard here in Limoges, so we are trying to make that a goal this transfer.

Other than that, the members here are amazing missionaries. Whenever we have an ami come to church they just fellowship them like crazy!!

We had two member families give us these adorable Christmas packages. It made me feel so loved. Here I am trying to help them feel loved and I just feel so loved by them I want to cry...haha.
Anyway, so yes, the party was a blast. Our bishop is absolutely crazy. My goodness. He has the energy of a five year old. But it is hilarious. And he is actually an amazing bishop as well. Also, discovered that I really don't love French Christmas food...We had a huuuge buffet table full of food and I told myself I would try everything..and really there wasn't any of it I actually enjoyed. Haha. Some of it was okay. But nothing that was actually really good. And like the majority of the things I ate I didn't even know WHAT I was eating. French food is just a fun time. Haha.

But as the missionaries we did a cute little sketch and I think it went really well! It was just a really short sketch talking about the true meaning of Christmas. And then the adorable primary kids did a little program after us. I don't know why but when they are just up there singing their sweet little Christmas songs I just felt the Spirit so strong. I am so incredibly grateful for this time of year that we get to celebrate the birth of our Savior. What amazing gift that was given to the whole world. Our Savior, Jesus Christ. Goodness I love this life I get to live where I just get to talk about him all the time!

Other than that..this week was a little strange. Soeur L and I were honestly just super tired all week long. I don't even really know why. Yeah I am tired like 90 percent of the time..but it usually isn't a big deal. But this week we just felt like we were having to really push through every single thing we did. It is so beautiful to see though, how when despite how tired we feel, when we push through and do as much as we can all day..our Heavenly Father really blesses us. I really felt prayers from everyone this week as I was pushing through!

One of those amazing miracles that Heavenly Father has given us...is our amazing ami, H--! I don't think I told you much about him. I contacted him at a bus stop on the week we contacted 1,000 people. And as soon as I started talking to him, he told me he was Muslim. Which immediately made me almost just say "C'est bien! Vous croyez en Dieu!" which is usually the comment I make when people tell me they are Muslim. BUT he started just asking a million questions. We ended up talking for like 30 minutes and I ended up giving him le Livre de Mormon.  He asked me so many deep questions, it was awesome. It was really cool too because I handed him our card, walked away, and then he chased  after me and he was like "Hey this card says you have a DVD about Jesus? Can I have that??" Soo yeah, he says he is Muslim but honestly I think that is just because that is all he has ever known. He told us in our first rdv that he is looking for the truth. And he prays at the end of every lesson. We have only had three lessons so far but every lesson has been AWESOME. We have his baptism date set for Jan 17th. And it is very, very possible. As long as he keeps reading and praying..he is one of the most solid amis that I have ever taught! So I will keep you updated on him!!

I hope you all know how happy I am. I say that all the time, but it is so true. I just feel so blessed beyond words to be where I am right now, doing what I am doing.

I am so excited to hear all of your voices very soon! I will send you a different email giving you details on our Skyping session. I can't wait to actually SEE all of you! Haha.

Until then, keep having a wonderful Christmas season!!
I love you all so very much. I pray for you like crazy!

Je vous aime!!

Love,

Soeur Magleby

1,009

An adorable member in our ward knitted us all gloves!! So cute. I love this picture.

Saying goodbye to Elder Ashton!

Salut! First off, I am staying in Limoges! With Soeur L! You should have seen the little dance we did when we got our transfer call. I was so excited. I am SO excited to be spending Christmas in a city and with a companion that I love so much! Elder Stephens is staying here with us as well! We are very excited that we all get to stay here and have another blast of a transfer. The only change we saw was Elder Ashton leaving us. Yesterday was a pretty sad day to have to watch him get on the train to leave. I have seen so many missionaries die, and it kills me every time. And we were especially sad about Elder Ashton leaving yesterday because it has been such a blessing to have been able to serve with him in the same city this transfer.

I think one my favorite things about the mission is how many people I get to meet who are such amazing examples to me. There are already so many members I have met who have had such a huge effect on me, and also so many missionaries. I am so grateful for the amazing missionaries that we have in this mission and that I have the chance to learn so much from their example! It is really interesting to see how the older I get in the mission the more it kills me to think about leaving. It scares me always talking to missionaries who are on their last transfer and they talk about how fast it goes by. Like it seems like your mission is so long and all of a sudden you wake up one morning and you are on your last transfer. Gosh that is so scary! Because yes of course I love you all to death, but wow I still have so much to accomplish before I am anywhere close to going home! I am hitting my 6 month mark this month which means I only have a year left to be serving the Lord. That is so crazy to me. But I definitely don't let myself think about that too much. I just try to make myself aware of it so I am propheting of every moment that I have here!

I am so grateful for this transfer and all the things that I have learned. But it is always so fun to begin a new transfer as well. It is like every 6 weeks I get to evaluate myself and make new goals and continue to try to work to become the kind of missionary I know my Heavenly Father wants me to be.

Alright, now with the real stuff. 1,009. I am so proud of that number. Because that is how many people Soeur L and I invited to come to Christ this week! To give you an idea of how huge that number feels...for my entire mission, on average, I usually have somewhere between 300 or 400 contacted every week. But, we made a goal to talk to 1,000. We just felt like we really needed to end this transfer with a bang. And my goodness we did! This week was honestly soo tiring. Probably one of the hardest working weeks of my mission thus far. But we made a deal with God and asked him to grant us with new amis and with miracles if we accomplished this goal. And boy did He follow through! I saw so many incredible miracles this week. It was AMAZING. We went from having one "kind of" ami who wasn't even progressing to having two amis with a baptism date, and AT LEAST 10 really solid potentials that we are trying to make rendez vous with! It is crazy!! I wish I could sit and write down every single miracle I saw throughout the week because there were almost too many too count!

But there is one that is really sticking out in my mind. Because it was absolutely hilarious. It was about 6:00 and we still had about 150 more people to contact to make our goal for that day. So we just went to centre ville where we knew it would be easy (blessing we decided to make this goal when we did because everyone is out Christmas shopping!) So we were just standing in the spot where we usually street board and just talked to everything that moves. Haha really though, I felt like such a hunter this week. Sometimes I feel really creepy a missionary. Anyway, talking to everyone who is walking past, and everyone was being super rude. Not just saying no. Like every single person I tried to talk to was not even giving me a second. For a full hour and a half, I couldn't even get ONE person to stop and listen to me. And it got to the point where I just stopped in the middle of centre ville, looking over at Soeur L and yelled out (in French, might I add) "WHERE ARE THE ELECT?!" I just literally looked up at the sky and said to myself "Okay. God places people in my path. I have to have faith in that. There has to be someone here that is going to listen to me. " and then I see this guy about to walk past me and literally say out loud "Maybe this guy will listen." His name is Jack and he is SO sweet and we are going to have a rdv with him this week. Haha! Okay so yeah he isn't one of the guys we have engaged to baptism BUT that was such a humbling moment and just really showed me how much God is aware of me.

The work is happening here in Limoges! It is incredible! I couldn't be happier to be spending Christmas here in this beautiful country surrounded by people who I love so much.

"Service adds substance to our souls" said the oh so wonderful President Roney. Man is that true. As I serve the people around me I am learning more love than I have ever felt before. It is the most amazing learning experience in the world. I love you all so much. Thank you for all the sacrifices you make for me. I will see you all way too soon! Keep spreading the love of Christ! Love, Soeur Magleby

French Thanksgiving.‏

Look!! I made Thanksgiving in France!!

Thanksgiving party!! Elders ami sitting next to me. She is sooo cute my goodness.

LIMOGES IS LITERALLY A WINTER WONDERLAND!

They finally turned on the lights!! It is seriously so beautiful and crazy. I haven't seen so many Christmas lights in my life besides Temple Square. I am going to be taking pictures like crazy this month. I feel so so Lucky to be serving in such a beautiful place!!

Another view of our beauiful Mairie!

Sometimes we get to have lessons in Paul and it smells like Starbucks and I just feel really connected with my innerself. Haha. This really was such a fantastic night! This is M--, he just got baptized right before he moved to France so we have taught him a few lessons.

Also....I present to you,

Literally the best picture I have taken on my mission thus far.

Hello my dear loved ones! I apologize this leter is going to be quite short because I spent a lot of time today answering back to people personally. You all just write me really great emails and I really wanted to talk to each of you personally, so I think it was worth it! Haha.

This week I got pretty sick. So honestly..not a lot happened. Most days I just really was trying to survive and get through the day. I have not been sick enough that I needed to go to a doctor or anything though. Mostly it was just a really bad cold and a lot of headaches. It just was really annoying to have a cold bad enough I honestly felt like I couldn't breath and then have to go spend hours trying to talk to people in the cold. So last night, when I realized that if I just got some more sleep I knew that could almost completely cure me, I decided to go to bed early. We were going to go out and work but Sœur L convinced me that it would be better for this week if I just got better. So I went to bed at 7:30.  10 hours of sleep! I feel like a new person! Haha. Honestly it was really hard. I felt really werid because I hate not working. But I feel SO much better today and I am ready for the week ahead!

We have a crazy week ahead of us. We have set some absolutely insane goals. But I know that with the Lord on our side..nothing can stop us. I am just letting you know, expect a crazy email next week FULL of miracles. It is definitely going to happen!

French Thanksgiving!! IT was SO fun!! Honestly..not as many people showed up to our activity as we wanted. But the people who did show up, it was amazing! We had such a blast! It honestly felt like a real Thanksgiving. I was surrounded by people I loved, singing and dancing, and making hand Turkeys. It ws fantastic. Haha. And we got a bunch of potential amis out of it. So it was a success! Also, I learned a bunch about cooking! Haha I pulled out some real Thanksgving food. I made mashed potatoes and yams, and then Stovetop stuffing so I guess that doesn't really count. And Sœur Loder made a pumpkin pie! From a real pumpkin. It was really impressive. It was hilarious, everyone was literally DYING over my yams. French people have never had anything like it. Everyone was like demanding for my recipie and I was like uhh...literally it is just yams, butter, and Brown sugar. I was actually surprised they turned out because it was definitely different using French ingrediants. But I ended up writing my "recipe" down for a lot of people, so they apparently turned out great! It was funny because after I made them I honestly don't even know HOW I knew how to make them. I realized I had never made them before, but I guess just growing up all those years watching Grandma Miller make them...I just knew how!

It was fun to be able to teach the French people about Thanksgiving. They all really loved the idea of having a Holiday where we just spend time with family and talk about think about things that we are grateful for. There was so much that I have be grateful for. This Holiday season is going to be one I am never going to forget. I could not ask for anything more in my life. I was trying to sit down and think about all the things I am truly so grateful to the Lord for..and my list is absolutely amazing. I literally have no idea how I got so blessed. No idea. I could never deny that I have a Father in Heaven who loves me just by looking around at my life.
I have an amazing family who is everything to me. I have amazing friends who have always been there for me. I am in France. I am Learning French!! I get to spend all day everyday talking about my Savior Jesus Christ and testifying of Him and His life. I get to have a front row seat to seeing the effect that this Gospel can have on peoples lives. There is literally no greater blessing. I am not going to lie, it is going to be a little sad not being surrounded by the ones I love this Holiday season. But I can only be sad for a minute. Because then I look around me and realized how blessed I am. I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father for all my amazing blessings. And I just want to be able to show Him that. So I am going to take this Christmas to work as hard as I possibly can for Him. I am in the most perfect position I ever could be to be able to serve my Savior, because I carry his name on my badge. And it is the only thing I am doing right now in my life. But all of you have the opportunity to show your Savior how much you love Him too.
I invite you to take this Holiday season, and to reflect on all the amazing gifts that you have. Show your Savior how much you love Him and are grateful for the things He has given you, and do that by serving the people around you. There is an ADORABLE Mormon Message that just came out about Christmas. Go Watch it. Definitely going to work for Mormon Messages one day. Haha. I must!!

Give a little of yourself this Christmas.
I am so grateful for you. I can't tell you how much your love means to me. In my setting apart, I remember my Stake President saying that the prayers of my family were going to be what is going to buoy me up on my mission. And it is so true. I can so literally feel your love around me every single day.
Thank you for your prayers. I pray for you all so much. Je vous aime! Have a wonderful week!! Love, Sœur Magleby

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...‏

>

Beautiful French countryside. 

Street board.

Missionary work is really boring.  #not

Salut! 

Timing this week has been insane. This week feels like a year long. I don't really know how that happened! But last Monday feels like FOREVER ago! I can't believe it is already week 5 of the transfer. That freaks me out. Soeur L and I are so determined to stay in Limoges for Christmas!! I will be so sad if I leave. I am really hoping to stay. Also, Limoges apparently goes CRAZY on the Christmas lights because they are hanging them up absolutely everywhere. This ville is going to be lit up in December. I am so stoked. I love the Christmas season!! I can already feel that it is going to be a little harder at Christmas, I am sure I will miss home a little bit. But not enough that it could ever make me not thrilled out of my mind too be doing what I am doing! 

The highlight of my week was definitely Zone Conference. We only have interviews with President every other transfer, and this transfer is interviews so I was just like thrilled out of my mind to talk to President. Especially because I had some specific things I wanted to talk about. It is really cool to go into interviews with questions, because President Roney is just pretty much all-knowing and it is so fantastic. He is someone that has already, and is going to continue to change my life. We talked for a long time about everything.  I walked out of our interview pretty much skipping. It just made me feel really good to know that President really does think I am a good missionary and really trusts me and he is proud of the work we are doing in Limoges! 

We are still focusing on finding people like crazy here in Limoges. We have not been able to really get in contact with any of our amis or even our potentials. It is really frustrating. Like obviously life is busy but I am just so sick of hearing people tell me they are too busy to hear our message! If only they actually understand what we were actually trying to share with them. More happiness than they could ever imagine. I think they would have time then. Haha. 

We did have a fantatstic finding activity this week though! We had Stake Conference here in Limoges this weekend (Yes, I went to my very first Stake Conference!! Haha) So we had 6 elders who came to stay here with the Limoges Elders. So 8 of us missionaries went out street boarding on Saturday, and it was such a blast! I just realized you probably don't understand that. Street boarding is just where we make a board that says something...honestly it could be anything, just something to get peoples attention, and then we go somewhere super busy and just go crazy talking to people! I am pretty sure we each individually talked to at least 100 people, and we only had like 45 minutes. Missionary work is just such a blast. And we passed out a bunch of Book of Mormons, and got some numbers!

I am also super stoked for our Thanksgiving activity this week.I will defintiely let you know how it goes in my next email! We are expecting a huuge crowd. A huge crowd of amis, that is. So I am stoked. Also nervous because I am making yams, stuffing, and mashed potatoes..haha. Not sure how it is going to work with my french ingrediants, but I am going to do my best! 

I am sorry I don't have more exciting things to talk about this week! Just know that I am on top of the world! I am so grateful for all of your support. It lifts me up everyday.

I get to see God's hands in my life every single day. I have made a goal to start writing down more of the little blessings that I see everyday, because there is literally so many things that I see every single day. I know that my Heavenly Father loves me and has His angels walking with me! 

I love you my wonderful family! I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving! Don't miss me too much. We have the rest of our lives to spend the Holidays together, and I only have 18 months to serve the Lord. And I have got to make the most of it.

Je vous aime! Je vous souhaite un bonne semaine!  Love,
Soeur Magleby

Outdoorsy me. The horse actually like got nasty and spit allll over me and I DIDNT even freak out.

Also this week we had the best member experience in the WORLD! Also Soeur L was in heaven, haha. We have an English family in our ward who own sooo much land annnd have 19 acres. So while the Elders did some heavy labor we went and hung out with horses. ;) It was SO much fun!

C'est la vie

Last week we had a beautiful P Day and took a wonderful walk around the river!

I went picture crazy. It was one of those just absolutely perfect moments in life. This is the cathedral from the other side, the same one I sent a picture home a few weeks ago.

I'm just like....really happy. Haha.

This is how happy I was to get STUFFING!!! Yay!! Thanksgiving!!!!!! Haha.

Limoges is beautiful.

 

So I was really smart this week and made a list of all the things throughout this week that I want to tell you. Yay! I love when I do that. Haha.

 

For starters, MIRACLE WEEK. You know how I keep saying we had a bunch of opposition but I knew that meant that miracles were coming? The miracles definitely started happening this week. I learned a really good lesson this week.

 

So in our weekly planning, we made a really specific goal that we wanted to teach one lesson a day. We wanted to teach ONCE at least every single day. So we prayed for this goal like crazy. And worked as hard as we could to achieve it. And even though we didn't quite reach our goal, because we did our best, we were blessed so much!

On Tuesday, we had a really hard day. We decided to go out porting into this one neighborhood that we had tried before but didn't have a lot of time. So, we went back. Full of hope we would teach our one lesson for the day. Annnd we didn't. And it was pouring. And freezing cold. And we ported for almost 4 hours with absolutely no success. And we actually lost a potential ami. So we got home that night just exhausted. And sad that we had not accomplished our goal.

 

You will only receive a witness after the trial of your faith

 

Tuesday was our trial.

 

Wednesday was our witness.

 

We went to pass an ancient ami that we had found in our area book. A man opened the door. He said the girl we were looking for was in the apartment sleeping. We then proceeded to talk to him for 45 minutes. And say a prayer. And teach him practically the whole first lesson. Our lesson for the day! This man is amazing. We are teaching him tonight, and I am so excited! He is from Algeria, and talked to us a lot about all the scary crazy stuff he saw going on there. And how it made him no longer believe in God. He doesn't understand a religion where God would allow such bad things to happen. And we shared our message with him. And I saw his entire face change. It was SO amazing to be able to share with him the positivity of our message. And to promise him blessings. Promise him that he has a father in Heaven who loves him. And that life is meant for us to be happy! I could tell it is something he has been looking for, for so long.

 

I will let you know next week how our lesson goes tonight!

 

Something fun that we have been doing a ton of this week as well, is service! Serving the Elders. We have this fun thing going on with us and the Elders. It started the first night they got here. They had had a really long day, and they did not even have a fridge in their new apartment. So we brought them dinner that night. And they were so grateful. And then they came to our apartment and cleaned our kitchen and checked for cockroaches. Still feel indebted to them for that. And then from then on...we have literally been serving each other as much as we can. It is such a blast. We buy them pastries. They buy us éclairs. We go print off tickets for them at the gare and heart attack them. They buy us brownies. IT is SO fun! And this week we did a really fun thing, and we made them a huge lunch, because they were in desperate need of a warm meal. Their electricity bill was not paid. Which means they have been literally freezing in their apartment. It is really, really cold here. We felt so bad. So we made them chicken noodle soup and hot chocolate. Haha. It is just something that we have been doing that has really made me LOVE service even more!!

 

 

There is also something really cool that I have been thinking a lot about this week. I have said to you a lot of times about how amazing it is how much I have made such a better relationship with my Savior. And that I know him better than every before. And this week I have been thinking a lot about that, especially in my studies because I have really been focusing on studying the Savior's life. I have been reading the New Testament like crazy and also reading Jesus the Christ. It has been amazing. And there is this crazy thing that happens when I talk to people about Christ. And I honestly can't really explain it. But it's like, Christ is such this big figure in the world. Everyone knows who He is, whether you believe in Him or not. So it's like, when I talk to people about Christ, whether it is on the rue or in a lesson, people know who I am talking about. And I ask them if they believe in Christ. And we had this moment with Bill where it really hit me. He said he believes that someone named Jesus Christ lived, but he is not sure who he really was. And as I sat there and testified to him about who Jesus Christ was, I can't even explain to you how it feels. It feels like I am talking about my best friend. Someone I know really, really well. It is almost like I want to turn to my side and ask "Was that good? Did I explain your life correctly to him?"

I can't even explain in words how LITERALLY I feel Christ walking with me every single day.

 

He is my best friend. He is my older brother. He is my Savior.

 

This is such a sacred time in my life. Where I get to spend all day doing His work. But I know no matter where we are in life, we can all make our lives sacred, and have the Savior walk with us. Every single day.

 

All we have to do is seek Him.

 

And He is there with us. Always. He is in our midst. As a representative of Him, I can promise you that.

 

I love you all so much! I feel your prayers. During all the hard times.

I think of you, and your love and support. And it keeps me going.

I love you all! Have a wonderful week!

Love,

Sœur Magleby

PS BIGGEST miracle of the week, we have not seen cockroaches in 5 days!! Ahh!! It is seriously a miracle!!

And there goes another week

Bonjour tout le monde!

I hope you all have had a wonderful week!
 

Honestly this week was kind of one of those that just happened. Haha that is the only way I can use to describe it. It happened. Another week went by. But it was definitely a really good week!
 

Right now the hardest thing for me in Limoges is we just really are not seeing any fruits of our labors. I have been starting to realize how spoiled I was in Pau. Just working like CRAZY and barely having a second to breath we were teaching so many lessons. But now all I feel like I have been doing for the past two weeks is getting a whole bunch of rejection. I am just like super craving to teach the Plan of Salvation or something, it has been way too long....haha. #missionaryproblems
 

I am having so much fun here though, besides not seeing an incredible amount of success. Because I have faith that it is going to come. I really just feel that we are so close to huge miracles. It is just going to take a lot of faith to get there. But we can do it! This week we did a lot of traveling. Thursday we went to Bordeaux for Zone Training. Which was such a good day. Because I FINALLY got my package, and also got to talk to the Elders in Pau and they told me about how all my amis are doing! It was so good to talk to them and to know that they are working really hard, it gave me a lot of comfort. I told them they better baptize Y-- at the end of this transfer.
 

And then on Friday we had such a fun night and we got to go to the musical night that the Elders did! I think I may have said something about them last week. I don't really remember. But it was in a ville an hour away, and we didn't have anyone to stay with but then miraculously our ami told us that she wanted to go and that she would drive us! It was so fun! So that was a cool night. Got to see a bunch of missionaries. And their music night was good! But..it was also just their first night. And one of them was sick. The one who sang. Haha they did a really good job though. The whole time I just couldn't help thinking about how they really badly needed someone who can play the violin really well. Or sing. Or both. Too bad there isn't someone like that in this mission......cough cough.
 

And then on Saturday we spent all day traveling AGAIN because an équipe of elders in our district had a baptism! It was really cool. It was actually the first baptism I have been to on my mission. So I was excited to finally witness one!

 Gosh this work we are doing is just so amazing. There is nothing in the world like seeing the look on someone's face when they come out of the water. Nothing. There is no words that can describe the happiness this Gospel brings. That's definitely something I have learned here. I sure hope the next baptism I get to witness is here in Limoges!!
 

I realized I have not told you yet about Lindsey! Lindsey is actually our engagé. Which means she has a baptism date. And she is just the sweetest girl in the world. I love her so much. And she honestly is so prepared. But she is just a super busy université student so she barely has time to see us. So that has been our biggest problem. But I know that she is going to be baptized. She already knows its true, I can tell. She just is actually like super smart so she kind of over thinks everything. It is really funny. Her questions blow me away sometimes. It is so fun.
 

This week we made some really awesome goals, and we have already been praying for them like crazy. I just love waking up in the morning and wondering what amazing miracles I will get to see that day. Man, I really just have the best life.
 

The war with the cockroaches is still raging on. Haha. We can't figure out how they are getting in our apartment, because we figured out they aren't actually COMING from our apartment. So we have pretty much just gone with killing them with raid and buying traps and trying to catch them. We declared war. Today I accidently stepped in a trap and exlaimed "Dang it I just trapped myself! We are totally losing!" Haha. So yeah it sucks. But honestly it could be worse. I was talking to an elder this week who had bed bugs. Much rather have roaches.
 

This girl who is preparing for a mission soon asked me this week "I want you to honestly tell me, what is a mission like? Like really, HOW is it?" And honestly for a second I didn't know what to say. It is so hard to answer that question. But I have been thinking about that question a lot this week and trying to answer it for myself.

A mission is really, really hard. Harder than I ever imagined. Ever. It is nothing like I ever expected. I don't really remember what exactly I thought a mission was like before I was actually on one. But it is definitely not what I thought it would be.
 

A mission has taught me so much. I have learned so much more than I ever thought I would. About loving people. About the Gospel. And about myself. I honestly look back on my pre-mission self and wonder if I even HAD a testimony. I feel like I honestly did not know anything before my mission. It is so funny. I think I have just grown so much.

I never knew how real the Savior's Atonement is. I mess up a lot as a missionary. And sometimes it is really hard. But I always have the opportunity to become better. To become the kind of missionary that I know all of you think I am...haha.

I just want you all to know how happy I am here. I have never done something so hard. But I have never done something so amazing in my entire life. I will never, ever regret this decision. This year and a half is literally changing my entire life.

I literally could not be happier.
 

Okay maybe if I didn't have roaches in my apartment. Haha.
But even then. Life is amazing.
 

I hope you all take a moment this week to really notice just how much God has blessed you. And how much He is really a part of your life.
He loves you so much.
This Gospel is everything. Don't ever take it for granted.
I love you all more than I could ever even say.
Sorry I didn't have any huge miracles this week. But there are so many amazing miracles that happen everyday. I wish I had time to tell you all of them.
Just know that angels walk with me.
I love you so much. Bonne semaine!

Love,

Soeur Mag

La pluie, les cathédrales, et..... cockroaches.

I tried to take a picture everyday this week.

This day I got a white chocolate bar. With speculoos in it. I was stoked. Haha.

It's the little things.

I JUST REALIZED I NEVER HAVE MENTIONED SPECULOOS.

Okay so you know cookie butter? It is literally that. Well, they have actually cookies of it too. And then they have spread. And it is literally the same as cookie butter. Super popular here.

It's the best. 



Moi et Soeur Loder! 



We look really angry in this picture...but honestly we were just trying to be funny.

We were really, really wet.

At the point that umbrellas don't help. Haha.

Bonjour!

Some weeks I am really smart and make a list throughout the week of things I want to say. And some weeks I forget to do that. ...this is one of those weeks. So I apologize beforehand how unorganized this letter is about to be.

 

Rain. And more rain. And just when you think it can't rain any harder. IT DOES.

That's a pretty solid way to describe my week this week. Haha. Sometimes I love it. Sometimes I end up walking in puddles in my shoes and kind of a little bit I just want to die.

 

But all in all, this week has been great! Well. Opposition in all things, of course.

But nontheless, it has been great. I just absolutely love Limoges. It has been super freezing here though. And I don't know if I mentioned this, but it has rained a lot too.

BUT, I love it. And I love my companion so much. We just work so well together. And she is hilarious. She always keeps me laughing. We are just really similar in a lot of ways. We have a lot of the same interests, and the same way of working. So it is so great! Also it is really fun to teach with her because she is a recent convert of about 4 years. So it is so cool to see how much she can relate to our amis. Also she loves deep doctrine. We have had some pretty intense companionship studies this week...my mind has been blown quite a few times. It's fantastic. It is so fun to study SO much about the Gospel and increase my testimony and knowledge so much... and then go out and start from square one when we teach people.

 

I am engaging all of you to go find and read a talk this week called "The meaning of the Atonement" by Cleon Skousen. Of course, I can't write an email without an engagement. Haha. But if you have not read this talk before...go read it. But beware, it might just blow your mind. It changed my entire view on the Atonement though. It is absolutely amazing.

 

I decided that I really want to get serious on studying The Atonement this transfer. I just feel like I could study it for the rest of my life and still not come even close to understanding it. But it really increases my desire to serve so much. If only we could all understand more fully what our Savior did for us. I think if we all actually understood it and applied it to our lives... what an amazing change we could see in ourselves.

 

So that is my goal this transfer! And it already has been amazing studying every single day. 

 

Also my companion is a lot more brave at killing cockroaches than I am. Which has really saved me this week. Last night I went into our kitchen, innocently getting some food to eat. I moved something on the shelf, and about 15 baby cockroaches came flying out.

 

Any of you that know me probably can predict how I reacted.

It wasn't pretty.

 

It has been so annoying having to live with them!! BUT we have this miracle called the Elders. Haha, have I think I may have mentioned before how much I love serving with Elders...but honestly. They save us. So they are at our apartment today trying to see if we can get if figured out. If not, I'm moving. Haha. But honestly it's fine, I just hope we get if figured out so I can eat my food in peace and not wonder if maybe I am getting a bit of extra protein in my diet...(dad taught me that one. Just a little bit of extra protein, right? Haha)

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Halloween! I really missed it here. But honestly on Halloween we had SUCH a fantastic day! I can't even tell you why. It wasn't like we saw this ridiculous miracle. There has been a lot of opposition going on here. We can feel it. But I really believe it is because the work is about to take off.

But Soeur Loder and I just felt like we were walking on clouds all day on the 31st. I think it was just a really happy to be a missionary type day. And it is soo beautiful here in Limoges. So many fall leaves and colors everywhere. And, even though it isn't huge here in France, there were little kids dressed up all over! It made me so happy!

Also, there was this beautiful moment where we were trying to pass a potential ami...knocked on all the doors in the apartment building, couldn't find him, so we walk out and walk down the street a little bit, turn the corner, and BAM huge cathedral in front of our face. It was so great because we weren't expecting it. I will send you a picture! It was just one of those tender mercies.

Cathedral we ran into! Not even a picture of the whole thing..I couldn't fit it all in one picture.
Also someone was playing the organ inside like crazy. It was fantastic. 

Being a missionary in France is the greatest thing of life. I still can't get over it every single day how lucky I am.  Satan has been messing with my head a bit this week. Trying to get me to be lazy and almost wish I wasn't on a mission at times. It has been a little hard. But honestly...he is so silly. Trying to get me to think for a second that I wouldn't want to be here. Yeah, it is honestly ridiculously hard at times. And a lot of times I really miss my old self and my old life. But I am doing the work of our Father in Heaven. I am standing in place of His son. I am so grateful for this experience. I am changing so much. I am so extremely blessed that I get the opportunity to be here. 

And most of all, I am blessed to have such an incredible support system.

You all mean the world to me. I love you all SO much.

Please keep praying for me.

I am praying for you.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. And most of all,  I hope you all know that your Heavenly Father loves you. He is literally only a prayer away. He is always there for you. No matter what.

Literally, no matter what. I hope you never forget that. 

Je vous aime!! Je vous souhaite un bonne semaine! 

Love,

Soeur Magleby

 

P.S.  I miss root beer a lot.

And peanut butter. Haha.

Peanut butter is only an American thing. So they have like tiny jars of it at some stores but for like 10 euros on the international aisle.

But its fine.

We get crepes.

LIMOGES!

Don't ask me what I am doing with my face...but me and little baby Charlie at the Halloween party!! Haha. 

Elodie and Sebastian Barbaroux! Bishop and his wife! They are soo amazing. 



Dropping off Elder Uluave! My cute little Pau family. Love them so much.

Salut!

None of you seem to have freaked out that I didn't write yesterday...so that is good. I was on trains all day yesterday so I didn't have any time to find a computer. So, obviously, I got transferred! I am in Limoges!

 

Only my first day so obviously I don't really know a lot yet...but I am super excited about this transfer. I love it here already! It is so pretty. And so much more of a city than Pau was. I am just such a city person...I just feel so in tune with myself when I am in a big city...

 

So yeah, President took sisters out of Pau for a transfer until all that n'importe de quoi clears up. It really wasn't a big deal. I am really sorry if I worried all of you! Honestly I had had like no sleep that night before and I was just super exhausted, and I really have no recollection of even typing that email...so yeah, I apologize. But everything is all good now! And I am excited for this transfer! I am with Soeur Loder, and I just love her already. I think our personalities are going to go really well together. She is like super just to the point and is honestly hilarious but just has super dry humor so a lot of people don't get her. But we are getting along already, I think it is going to be a good time working together. The only complaint I have this far is our apartment has a cockroach problem...so that has been fun. It is so sad because it is a nice big apartment buuut yeah. Super gross, and they haven't come up with a solution yet so we are just living with it....  Once again, it's amazing how much I learn on the mission. Like how to live with cockroaches! Haha.

 

I am really happy to be here, but honestly leaving Pau was super hard! Some of the members were so emotional on Sunday...it actually really touched me to see that. There were a lot of people who were really sad to see us go. And it was sad, but also made me realize how much work we actually did in Pau and how many people's lives we touched. So it was really cool. There is this one lady, her husband is inactive and has been for a really long time, so we were working with him quite a bit, and she was SO sad to see us go. It like really surprised me, it was really cool how much she cared about us. AND her husband showed up to the Halloween party on Saturday!! Just to see him inside the church. I was beyond thrilled.

 

Also, yeah.... ward Halloween party. It was such a good time. Sometimes being a missionary is just literally so much fun. Haha and I have been missing Halloween so much here! So it was great! BUT by far the highlight of my week was our musical night we put together. Oh. my. goodness. Best night on my mission thus far. It was absolutely AMAZING. I don't remember what I even said about it, but yeah we just all got together (as Pau missionaries) and decided to have a musical night. Mostly because Elder Carré is the best piano player in the whole ward and we just wanted him to play for the ward. Haha. Side note, Elder Carré is now in what we are calling as a mission the mission Backstreet Boys. President called like 5 Elders to be in a music group and there are just going to go around the mission playing for people and doing music firesides and things...so sick. 

 

But we put this music night together last minute, but it was such an amazing turnout!! SO many people came. And so many amis!! It was incredible. We had so many amazing people come that I honestly thought NEVER would come. But they did! It was amazing! Elder Carré played a lot of songs, then we had some members sing and play guitar, soeur D sang a couple really awesome songs (she has an amazing voice) annnd I read a poem. Haha! That is really all I can do I decided, is write. So Elder Carré played a hymn in the background, while we showed the video of the Savior in Gethsemane over a projector and I read a poem I wrote on The Atonement.

It was pretty awesome. So as you can tell... I am doing so great! Don't worry about me at all! 

 

I feel really good about this transfer. The only word I can really think of right now is just content. I feel super content right now. I am just really happy about life. Now content looks really weird to me. I hope that's a word in English..because contente is a word in French...

 

Oh also super happy thing about my French. Shared my testimony in French on Sunday because I was leaving...and I had SO many people tell me how impressed they were with my French, especially compared to the first week I was there. The bishop's wife was so dramatic about it and she was like YOU ARE GOING TO BE FRENCH MY THE ENTIRE OF YOUR MISSION!! And I was just like yup...that's the goal. Haha. So that was super motivating.

 

Also, I just HAVE to tell you the most hilarious thing from the week.

So we had this ami..who was honestly a pretty solid ami. Really searching for the truth. But honestly just a super awkward guy. Really really nice, but just like really weird social skills. Well, we were having a lesson last week, and at the end of the lesson he turns to Soeur D and says "I really need to tell you something and I haven't been able to talk to you alone." And then goes off on this 10 minute monologue.... and at the end...HE PROPOSED TO HER. Hahahahaha. Oh man it still makes me lose it. I am not even joking. He told her that she did not have to make the decision now, but that he wants her to think about it... Hahaha I have never laughed so hard or felt so awkward in my entire life.

 

C'est la vie de la missionaire....

It's too great.

I love you all so much! Keep doing what you are doing, I feel your love and I feel your prayers!!

You are so amazing!

Love,

Soeur Mag

Bonjooooour!

I think I may have already sent you a picture of them...but the greatest family in the world.
Their story is amazing!!  Remind me to tell you someday. Haha.

Sooo one of the highlights of my week is we went and got SUSHI!! It is a long story how we ended up there. But yeah. It was the sushi place I have been dying to go to every time I walked past. I was so stoked!! And I just HAD to show you this. This wasn't how all the sushi was, but look! It is sushi with a crepe around it! So French. It was so good too. I was just dying. So fantastic.



From this morning with the cute stuff the Elders brought us!

 

So in dad's email to me this week he said that I seem to have a little bit of a theme with all my letters. Which I am not sure if I do intentionally or not. Maybe it is just the writer in me. hehe. So I was just thinking about the theme for my week this week.

L'AMOUR

____________________________
(next email)

 

I really don't know what button I push sometimes that makes it send. I am sorry. I will try to not let that happen again. It really seems to always happen when I leave you with a cliffhanger though. Haha!

 

So, my theme for this week: Definitely love. Love in all forms. Okay, really that could be the theme of all of our lives. But it really has been something I have been thinking a lot about this week.

 

Love came in good and bad forms this week. This week it has really hit me how much I really love these people I am serving. I cannot explain it to you in words if I tried. I care for these people so immensely. And not just for them as people. I care for their salvation! There is just nothing more that I want than to teach people about their Savior, and teach them about the kind of happiness they can receive if they just simply FOLLOW Him! I really am involved in the most amazing labor of love. I am so glad Heavenly Father has blessed me with this love for these people. It really is what drives me.

 

But sometimes loving the people so much is what makes this work SO hard.

A couple stories from this week to explain.

 

First off, C--. Oh my sweet C--. He has killed me this week. Killed me with love, really. He is just the sweetest 18 year old Spanish/British guy in the world. Haha I don't know if I ever told you, but he is from Spain, but has a British accent when he talks English because his mom was British. He just is so great. Anyway, I am going to have to spare the details because it is a very personal thing for him. But this week he no longer became our ami. He has such a huge testimony. He knows this church is true. His prayers are the most amazing I have ever heard! But, he has a problem that he would have to be able to overcome in order to be baptized, and he doesn't believe he can. It is a really hard trial for him. And he told us this week he is so grateful for all we have taught him and he is going to keep coming to church, but he doesn't believe he can be baptized because of his situation.

 

I was so sad after our rdv. I just feel so sad for him, because he has such a desire! But, I have so much faith he is going to be baptized someday. I don't doubt it. So we are going to just keep loving him as much as we can!

 

We are kind of having a hard time with every single one of our amis. They all kind of seem to have stopped progressing for various reasons. So this week we are really kicking things into gear. But that is definitely a reason why this week has been a little tricky. I just love all of these people so SO much, and it kills me when they don't progress. When they don't understand just HOW happy this gospel can make them!

I am keeping the faith though. I think miracles can happen in these last two weeks of the transfer. And I am so ready for it!

 

But also...loving people is what makes this work SO fantastic!!

 

On Friday night we have young adult activities, and Fridays there is just always a lot going on at the church so lots of people are always there. And my goodness, have I mentioned how much I love this ward? Haha. They are sooo fantastic. Friday night we just had SUCH a blast with the young adults. I really have become like best friends with some of them. They are people I definitely want to keep in touch with. I just went to bed Friday just like so happy! I am pretty sure I was singing and dancing around the apartment.  I do that quite often though. Haha. But I just love when we get to have member experiences because I just love them all so much!

 

And to top off my love week, this morning was soo fantastic. So, there was a lot of things that have been going on.... I wish I had time to explain it all, but it doesn't really matter. There are just a lot of hard things lately. But honestly, I am just happier than ever. So, we had a pretty hard night last night. But Elder Uluave who we are serving with in Pau, who is also our district leader, called us last night and really helped. He is such a fantastic Elder. We have become such good friends. But anyway, this morning he sent us a text and said "Hey don't leave your house yet we are coming to bring you something" And so we walk downstairs, and they were standing there with pain au chocolats and chocolate cereal for us. Haha! It was just so cute. They were like "We just wanted to bring you the things that help us when we are sad." It really made my whole day. It is so amazing to feel cared for sometimes.

 

So there are just a few different examples from my week of l'amour!

 

I wish I could just sit for hours and write to you about everything that is going on. There is so much I don't have time to tell you! But just know I am so happy. I am so full of love! For everyone around me! Sometimes that is also hard because I just love and miss you all so much. But, I am so grateful to have a family I love so much!

 

Also, update on the guy I talked about last week from the bus! Oh my goodness he is golden. We had a rdv with him and he is just sooo ready to hear the Gospel. He literally said this; before we had even begun the lesson "Like I just don't understand, shouldn't there be modern revelation in the world today? There should be like prophets!" Yeah. That's when you know it is going to be a good lesson. I hope we see him again this week because we haven't set a rdv yet. But I am so excited to teach him!

 

Also, everyone seems to be asking me about my French. Haha. I just really don't know what else to say other than...yeah I really can't speak French. But I am definitely trying! And honestly, I have seen a lot of miracles. I think my companion and I are at the same level now and she has been here 7 months. It definitely is still going to take a lot of time because I am sooo far away from being where I need to be. But it is not my huge struggle like it is for some people. I can have conversations and teach really easily. I just have so much vocab to learn.

 

But honestly, I am so grateful I don't have to do this work alone. I have my Savior by my side. I have my amazing family cheering me on. I am just so happy. It is so hard. But it so unbelievably worth it.

 

I love you all so so much. I hope you are all doing well. And most of all, I just hope you are happy. That is all that matters.

I love you all!

Love,

Soeur Magleby

Bonjour ma famille!

This guy in our ward works at this amazing Bakery called Paul, and has recently decided to bring all the missionaries the left overs at the end of the night.

I have never seen so much bread and pastries in my entire life.

Kind of a little bit the best thing ever to be a missionary in France. Hehe.

A really bad picture of everyone at Conference! Missionaries in Pau and also the sisters from Tarbes. And Ailine, a member who is like our best friend. And yeah we definitely were squished in a tiny room watching it on a tiny computer. Do what it takes to hear conference in English...haha

Just trying to take pictures of random things you all might be interested in seeing.

This is my desk where I spend four hours a day. I like it. You are probably all on there somewhere. Hehe.

And yeah don't judge me....

 

I don't have much time to write this email because of this silly timer they have going on now at the library so I will try to get in everything that I can! Sorry. I spent too much time reading all of your fabulous emails and jumping up and down in my seat because I just love you all so much.

 

For starters.. just had a great time going to a Chinese buffet with all the elders in Pau today. It has been such a fun P-Day. Hanging out with the Elders is always such a fun time.  Conference was so great!! It is such a cool experience to watch General Conference as a missionary. It just is such a different feeling about it than I have ever had. Dad said to me in my email that we really feast upon the apostles words, and it is so true. And honestly just hearing everyone in every single prayer praying for the missionaries just gives me so much strength. It is absolutely amazing to think about how many people pray for us every single day. I know some days it is the only way I make it through.

 

This week has been so fun!! We had some really cool miracles. The coolest miracle I had this week was with this young guy named M--. So we were sitting at the bus stop, and he walked past. I had this little itch of a feeling to talk to him, but he was walking really fast and I didn't really want to stop him, so I let him walk past. (forwarning-this story will show you how sometimes I am really not this amazing missionary you all seem to think I am..haha) Anyway, about five minutes later, he comes back! And I just think to myself aw man there is some reason I really need to talk to this guy.. he is literally being put directly in my path. But he was listening to music and I just felt really weird about talking to him and I really am not sure why..so yeah I still didn't talk to him. And then he gets on our bus. And I get myself prepared and I tell myself "Okay, there is no way I am letting him get off the bus without talking to him." And then he literally STANDS RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME. For like 5 minutes. And then FINALLY I realize how stupid I am being and say the most stupid thing ever...but I just knew I had to say SOMETHING to him. Anyway. I just say something stupid and then we get to talking and long story short.... he is so super interested in learning and we have a rendez-vous tomorrow! Honestly the biggest miracles of it all is that HE called US. I didn't have time to get his number, so I just gave him ours..and he actually called us. Let me tell ya. That doesn't happen often. So yeah the biggest thing I have learned this week, and my biggest goal from now on is just to open my mouth! They talked about it a lot at Zone Conference this week. And that's exactly what I am going to do. Every second of every day.

 

Something funny from this week..I don't know if I have ever told you about the Le--'s. Which is so funny because they are just such a huge part of my life it is funny to thing you don't know them. I just assume you know everything. Haha. But they are a family in our ward, and they have the missionaries over every week. For 20 years. They have had the missionaries over. EVERY WEEK. So yeah, I have eaten there a lot. And they always serve the same thing. Anyway, this week Frère L-- just went a little crazy and decided he want to take all of us to McDonalds instead. And then he decides to order for us. And then he decides to get us EACH two Big Macs. Yeah for those of you that know me, you know how much I was dying. Because no way do you ever turn down food from members here. You just can't. And he is one of those that makes us eat so much.  Needless to say, I have not felt so sick in my entire life....it was hilarious.

Also I will just pretend I am not going to be like thirty pounds heavier when I get home. Haha.

 

Other than that, we are just teaching like crazy! We have 5 amis that we are teaching right now who are all really amazing. Only two progressing. But they are getting there!

This week I have really grown such a huge love for C--. I don't know how much I have said about him. But during a lesson we had this week I literally just got filled with the Spirit. I really felt like I just got the tiniest taste of what his Savior feels for him. It was like in that moment I wanted nothing more than for his salvation.  That is all that mattered to me in that moment.

 

Being a missionary is just so cool. Forgetting myself is such a blessing. And it is the greatest thing I could do for myself. This morning during personal study I read over my notes from my setting apart, and I got really emotional at this one part that says that I got blessed that when I feel alone, the Savior will help me to feel of my family's love for me and that they will be here with me.  It just hit me when I read that this morning because it is crazy how much I can literally feel you here with me. That is why a lot of times I forgot what I have and haven't told you because I feel all of you here with me. At all of my hardest moments. And the fun ones too.

 

You are always here with me.

Your prayers really do lift me up and keep me going.

I love all of you so much. I am so grateful to have such an amazing family.

I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Love,

Soeur Mag

Vous pouvez faire tous avec le Seigneur!

 

Took this picture in our apartment today. I thought you all would enjoy a before and after! Haha

 

Elder Carré playing the piano in the gare in Bordeaux... I wish I could send you the video. He is literally the best piano player I have EVER heard. He is so amazing. I know it is not like a super amazing picture without the sound..but yeah, just to show you one of the highlights of my week!



Just the regular life of a French missionary, taking our lunch break in Carrefour
and enjoying an Orangina. Life is sooooo hard. Hehe.
 Okay, it totally is. But it so so worth it.

 

 

 

Hello everyone!  This is going to be a shorter letter this week because for some reason they decided to put a timer on all their computers here. So that is no fun. But that is fine because I don't really have a ton to say about this week.  It has been really great though! WE FINALLY HAVE OUR APARTMENT PUT TOGETHER!! It feels sooooo nice to have a nice place to go home to at night. And then we finished our cleaning this morning. So we finally have a nice clean apartment! It definitely makes everything a lot easier. It has been a long process. We did not get everything together until Saturday. But now it is done! And I am so happy! The Elders literally saved us. I will forever be grateful for them. Our Elders we have here in Pau are really amazing. I am so grateful for them. We have so much fun together!

 

Honestly we are just so over our heads busy right now. But it is so much fun!! We have so many people to teach it just feels like we are running around all the time. It is incredible. Whenever we contact someone and get their number we have just been giving them to the elders because we literally have no time to teach! We have five amis right now. It is so much fun. I love them all so much. We have seen some really cool things with all of them this week!

 

I am grateful for the past two weeks and the hardships I went through, because now that I went through that really hard time it feels like God is just pouring out blessings upon us. We had an amazing miracle filled day this past Saturday. It was so cool, and really made me realized how much He really is aware of us. He gives us trials for our learning and growth. But He will ALWAYS reward us, as long as we endure it well. Saturday we had a cool experience, where we had a tombez-vous that night so we decided to go visit an inactive member we have been wanting to see. And as we were walking there Soeur DeWeese was trying to get me to stop and do some porting...but I just felt so strongly that we should go and visit this lady. So I wouldn't let her stop and I was just like "there is no way we are not going to see her tonight!" So we went and rang her sonnery and she was so confused at why someone would be visiting her at 8 o clock on a Saturday night. But she let us in gladly and we were there for an hour, and it was such a cool experience. She was by herself that night when usually she has her family there. And we just had the Spirit there SO strongly with us. She is just this amazing, loud, so faithful african lady. So yeah, she is a blast. And has so much faith it is fantastic. She just kept saying how grateful she was that we visited her. It was a simple experience but it was really one of the first times on my mission where I have really felt the Spirit guiding me so directly. It is a really cool thing.

 

Last night we had a really cool experience with Y--. We had such an amazing lesson. We have just been pushing him like crazy to set a baptism date..but he just really doesn't like dates. And he feels like he still needs to "organize" his life he keeps saying, and talk to his family about it before he completely commits. It is actually really cool, because the way he talks about it, he really just understands how important baptism is. Last night he just talked and talked to us about everything he feels, really. And it was so perfect. He still doesn't have a date, but we feel so good about everything right now. He literally PROMISED us last night that he is going to get baptized. He just said he needs a little bit more time. But that there is no doubt in his mind that he is going to do it. And when he said those words, I just had this amazing Spirit come over me and confirm to me that what he was saying is right. And we talked about it after and Soeur DeWeese felt it too. It was really cool. I just had a HUGE spiritual confirmation last night that that God has an amazing plan for Y--. And that it is going to happen. I just love that man so much. He even talked about last night how in about 10 years we will have to come visit him. He was like "It will be so fun because you will probably have kids and I can see your family!" And then he even brought up that we will have to meet up with him at a temple in Africa (where he is from). Haha it was so cute because Soeur DeWeese and I had been talking about just recently how excited we are to see where he is at in 10 years and how we want to visit him. Also we decided he is totally going to be the bishop. It is going to be so great!

Life is so good. I am so happy. I am seriously just having so much fun! That is the greatest thing I have felt lately. This is just such an amazing time. I am having a blast, and I am learning so much.

 

Once again, thank you all so much for everything. Monday's are such a relief for me to be able to hear from the outside world and hear all the amazing things that are happening at home! I am doing fantastic. Just know that I am working as hard as I can to make you proud. This Gospel is literally the greatest thing. I am so beyond grateful to have this knowledge that we do of the restored Gospel.

 

I love you all so much!!

Love,

Soeur Mag

 

 

 

 

Opposition in all things

Went to Lyon for Bleus Conference this week!! Got to see my whole MTC District. Wow have I missed them. It was so SO fun to see everyone!! And I always love going to Lyon. It is a three day trip for us from Pau..but it is so fun! I am so grateful for all the amazing missionaries we have here!

Our stop at McDonalds in Monpellier. Just had to show all you americans what French McD is like...
this salad I had literally tasted like fast food version of pasta magherita. Haha it was so good!




Our apartment...hehe

 If there is anything I have learned this week, it is about opposition. I once heard someone say "If you aren't having opposition, then you aren't doing something right."

Then boy have I been doing so many things right! Hehe. I really do believe it though. I feel like so many amazing things are about to go down here in Pau. But before all the miracles happen, Satan is trying his hardest to pull people down. Too bad it is not going to work though.

 

Opposition this week looked a little like this. We moved into our new apartment Saturday. I am not sure what I was expecting when I walked in the door...but when we walked inside, we saw that it was completely empty. Except for a lot of boxes of Ikea furniture. I know this happens all the time to missionaries because obviously no one else has time to put all the furniture together, but wow has it been hard for us. Because not only do we have to put all our furniture together, but we just literally had nothing. And also the apartment was disgusting. And we were so busy with our schedule that we have not had any time to really put it all together yet. It has been one of the most humbling experiences I have ever had. When I went to bed Saturday night, sleeping on a mattress on the floor in an empty smelly apartment with nothing in our kitchen but bread and cereal, I realized just how strong this mission is going to make me. I have never been through something so hard. So that has been the hardest thing for us this week. But we have had a truly amazing miracle come to us by the name of Elders! I am so beyond grateful to have Elders in Pau.

 

It just makes me feel so much safer knowing that we have the priesthood here with us. So, the Elders are super amazing and are actually going to set up like all our furniture tomorrow because yeah...two soeurs setting up a bunk bed. I am not sure if that is even a thing we can do. And then today we finally went grocery shopping! And bought cleaning supplies! And at the end of this week we will be having a washer delivered to us. So things are fine now. Amazing, actually. Like I said, opposition comes. But all you have to do is overcome it well. God takes care of His missionaries. We will be just fine. It has just been really hard.

 

We have also had a lot of opposition with the members. I can't really go into a lot of detail, but we had a young adult inactive member come to us and wanted to have a rendez-vous. So we did thinking it was going to be an amazing thing and that he was ready to come back. Like I said..no need to go into detail, but he pretty much spent an hour telling us how he has come to realize that our church is Satantic and he is leaving the church. He even was trying to convince us that we should leave our missions. A lot of the things he talked about kind of shook us up a bit. But honestly..it was an amazing experience. Because he literally said "Is there any hope that I could get you two to think about leaving your missions and leaving the church?" And my response to him..wow, I have literally never testified like that in my entire life. In that moment, I very literally felt like a representative of Jesus Christ. It was so crazy. I testified as hard as I could. And I felt the authority to do so. It was amazing. I felt so strong. It really was an experience that showed me just how much I really do love this Gospel. Because to anyone who is wavering in this Gospel, a lot of the things he said could have really brought someone down and make them question the church. But I walked out of there having an even stronger testimony. My testimony to him was powerful but simple. I told him that there is absolutely no way I will EVER in my entire life leave this Gospel, because I know with everything in me that Jospeh Smith was a prophet. And because I know that, I know that this church is the one and only true church. And that I have a Savior. And I KNOW that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer. Because I can feel Him with me. Especially right now. He is literally walking with me.

It was simple...but brought me so much strength.

 

You don't receive a witness until after a trial of your faith. I have had trials recently, but it has only made me stronger.

 

I know this sounds absolutely silly to say after all I just did, but honestly the mission is getting easier. It gets easier everyday. This transfer has already been so much better than the last. Because I am not scared to talk in French anymore. And being a missionary is starting to become more of just who I am, and it is in my nature now just to talk to everyone I see about Jesus Christ! It really just gets easier everyday. And there are hard times. But there are so many people in the world praying for the missionaries everyday. I try to never let myself forget that. And I can honestly feel it. And I have the Lord on my side. I literally feel angels surrounding me as I testify to the world of Him.

 

I have the best job in the world. Satan can do all he can...but light will always overcome the dark. So there is my inspirational thought for the week. Haha.

I love you all so so much!! Can't tell you how grateful I am for your prayers.

Don't worry too much about me...only enough to keep praying. Ha.

Je vous aime BEAUCOUP!! Have a wonderful week! I will see you soon!

Love,

Soeur Mag