Sept. 9 letter




There was this one awkard time we went to the dentist this week...so there's that. Haha

We were helping an old lady. Long story.



Another one of our amazing members!! She is 20 so she is just like one of us.
She taught with us with and she is AMAZING!



Life of a missionary right here...haha I thought you would enjoy that.
They were actually like really, REALLY good..




The cute family we played charades with.

Salut ma belle famille!

 

I know I say this all the time..but how is it already Monday?! So strange. Time is the weirdest thing around here. This is the last week of my first transfer...and in a way it went by fast, but in a way I just feel like I don't know anything but France and missionary work.

 

To be honest, I don't have a ton to say this week! I really don't even remember what all happened this week. There was nothing super huge! Well, okay there are cool things that happen everyday in missionary work. But nothing like there was in my last letter.
 

This week actually had a lot of really sad and frustrating moments..mostly to do with Y--. I don't think I said anything about  him last time, but yeah things aren't the very best they could be. Haha which is me being so negative because he is honestly doing so great. But we just can't get him to commit to be baptized! And mostly that is because we can't get him to pray, or to read the scriptures by himself. And he is never going to understand baptism if he doesn't do that!! We were really hoping to have a baptism by the end of this transfer, but that is not going to happen. But I know for a fact he is going to be baptized soon, because even he says that! He is just one of those amis that you have to be patient with. But on Saturday we taught him in his apartment...and THAT in itself is a miracle. I don't remember if I told you, but when I first met him he was living in a homeless shelter. And now he has an apartment. FULL OF FURNITURE. The furniture part is amazing. Because he had nothing. Absolutment rien. But our members are absolutely amazing, and also through some other miracles, he now has an apartment full of furniture! But yeah we will keep working on him...it is so funny. I went to bed that night after our lesson where he said a lot of his concerns about baptism, and I was just absolutely devastated..I have never felt so sad over something that wasn't even my life before! He is still amazing though so I shouldn't be too sad.

 

This week we had a lot of amazing member experiences. If I leave Pau that will be the one thing I miss, is how great the members are. But honestly..I wouldn't be too sad if I left. I belong in a big city. Hehe but we will see! Anyway, we had a lot of dinners with members this week. I just love having nights with the members. We went to this one members house this week, the H--'s. The dad is actually inactive and has been for a really long time. But the mom is very active and they have two ADORABLE little girls that are at church every week.  They are so perfect. Well, except for the inactive thing..but those little girls are just so cute. And we just ate a bunch of popcorn and marshmallows and had such a good time. Haha yeah marshmallows here a thing..I don't know why but they are super good here. Like...Better than America. I don't know I find that with a lot of things, just weirdly better...haha. But yeah and last night we had a rendez-vous with another amazing family, they have 6 kids and the parents are divorced so just the one mom..but they are so cool. They are all recent converts too! Except for the kids under 8 of course. But we played charades with Book of Mormon stories..I haven't laughed that hard in so long. It was so much fun!

 

There is another family who I am SO stoked about having a rdv this week with too, they live in Pau but are from America..they are actually from New York City. The dad is like this super cool music director guy and they live in New York. But the mom speaks French so they decided to come live in France. Soo yeah pretty much my dream, they just got back from vacation so I am so excited to talk to them!

Anyway, sorry as you can tell I just love the members here..members in France are so strong!!

 

Okay, story time for the week. I don't want to make any of you worried about me so I don't want to make this too long, but just remember that I am SO protected as a missionary it is amazing. So don't worry about me, but I thought you would be interested in the craziest thing that happened to me this week..Soo remember that couple from last week who the wife was the crazy Evangelist? So we went back this week. SO just prepared to pour the Holy Ghost into their house. So we got there. And within two minutes the wife and our ami..(well, former) were fighting because he told us he was going to come to church this week. Annnd then before I knew what was happening she stood up and literally threw her chair across the room and ran outside. Hahaha okay honestly know it is just funny even though I know it shouldn't be. After it though all I could do was laugh cause I didn't know what else to do. So yeah that happened...and then some other just psycho things like she pulled out a razor and threatened to do some crazy stuff...so all in all..we aren't going back there. Not safe. BUT my goodness is he one amazing guy. He is honestly trying to do what is right. PS After this incident she immediately started crying asking us to forgive her...yeah it was just like the weirdest thing of life. So that is my crazy missionary story for the week! Haha.

 

Something cool I have started doing that I am super stoked about...I decided to start writing again. Soeur D and I were talking about how it is important to incorporate the things that are still US into missionary work. Like she loves music and she reads and studies the French hymns all the time. And I decided I needed to start writing again! So I decided I am going to write poems for every subject I study. Like every Christ-like attribute, First Vision, Plan of Salvation..things like that. I started a couple days ago and oh my goodness it feels AMAZING to write again. I just started and didn't ever want to stop!! I have been studying Hope this transfer, so I decided to write a poem on that. It is so much fun! I will send you one home some time if they ever end up being good. And then like obviously I had to buy a cute new journal today just for poems because of course I can't just write them in a silly old notebook...yeah, there are too many cute journals here for me to handle...hehe.

 

So that is kind of my week! We also had District Meeting this week that was so fun. My district is great and we just laugh so much together and learn so much!

In District Meeting we talked a lot about the Atonement, and we talked a lot about how missionary work is such a sacred experience, and I have been thinking about that a lot. I love those words. That it is a "sacred experience." Because it truly is. I have never in my entire life felt so close to my Savior. I have never felt close to becoming like him. And most of all, I have never gone through something so hard that makes me feel like I am so much at better understanding of what He went through. My day to day life is truly sacred right now. It is amazing. And so hard. And so exhausting. But so so sacred, and therefore..so worth it.

 

As always, thank you for your prayers! Keep 'em comin!

Je vous aime mon famille. Merci pour tous les chouse que vous faîtes pour moi. C'est vraiment le seule moyen que je peux faire ma mission, est avec vous. Je vous aime beacoup! Dieu vous aime!

-Soeur Mag