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

Pau pour six semaine plus!

New haircut

Okay..another amazing member moment this week. This was the best meal I have had this far.

I thought you would appreciate this mom. It is vegtables and fish.

Probably does not look amazing, but I wanted to die I was so in heaven.

Also their apartment was AMAZING and we talked about Picasso, theatre, and Jane Eyre.

Sooo yeah.




My district! Which is now changed, but they were so great!!



We went to Bayonne this week for Distrct Meeting, it was so beautiful!!



Bonjour all my wonderful loved ones!

 

What a week. It has been a little bit crazy. Also kind of a crazy P day. Hasn't been the best. I decided to get my hair cut and dyed this morning and just ended up not being a super great experience..but ça va! My hair is fine. It is just nothing at all like I ever wanted my hair to be. Soo good thing I just don't even care what I look like these days. Haha!

 

So the biggest news is, I am staying in Pau for another six weeks! When we got the call I honestly was a bit upset..obviously not like super upset because c'est m'est égale but I was secretly hoping to start fresh with a new ville. BUT now that we found out we are staying here..so many amazing things have happened! So many miracles that have showed me why we need to stay. More on that later.

 

The coolest thing though is that even though I am staying, there are still changes happening! The other two soeurs who I was living with (before this transfer it was only us 4 soeurs in Pau, no Elders or anyone else at all), they both left to different villes. And we are getting FOUR Elders who are coming to Pau!! I am so excited. The Elders have not been here forever so I think the ward is going to love it too. So since there are four Elders and now only us two sisters, the Elders are taking over our apartment and we are moving to a new one sometime this week. So even though I am staying there is still moving involved. Didn't get out of that one. But I am so excited! The Elders will be so much fun.

 

Well, quickly I will talk about the kind of really hard part of my week, because I don't ever want you guys NOT to be uplifted by my emails. But I had a couple really hard days this week. Probably the hardest on my mission thus far. But honestly, they have been a turning point for me. But the day we got our calls for transfers (Friday) I am not even sure what happened, but I just broke down during equipe study. I am pretty positive I had been having a lot of emotions built up inside that probably needed letting out anyway, and then someone said something that made me feel really bad and then things just went downhill from there. But I am learning so much patience and charity, and I am going to be so much better because of it.

 

More than anything I just felt so alone. I just missed all of you so much. I just missed everyone who actually loves me or cares about me. It is so hard at times to feel like everyone just hates me. Not that I take it personally when people get mad at me or what not. But it just really makes me miss being around the people who actually love me. It is hard to be in a place where I feel like no one actually CARES about me, ya know?

 

Anyway, there is enough of my sob story. Done with the negative part! I just had to explain to you my feelings, but then it gets better because the story has a happy ending! As all endings do. I have never had to utilize The Atonement so much before in my entire life. And I feel like a completely different person because of it. In all sincerity, there is no way I would be here without it. There is no way I could make it through. I had a kind of hard night that night, but then I woke up in the morning just feeling like a different person. Completely different. It was one of those turning points for me. I really think I just needed that experience to remind myself what exactly it is that I am doing here. I am teaching people that they don't ever have to make it through hard times alone. And now that I have done that myself, it will make it so much more amazing to testify of it.

 

It was just a very sacred experience. And now I am just so excited for this transfer I have ahead of me! We are literally so swamped with missionary work it is crazy.

The soeurs who just left Pau gave us a few of their amis that they had, and one of this amis, his name is C-. And he just got engaged to baptism. I am so SO excited!! So I officially have an ami who is engaged to be baptized! Haha I hope that is exciting to you as it is to me. This is just one of the miracles that proved to me how important it is that I stayed here this transfer. His baptism is on the 28th..which is kind of stressing us out like crazy. But he is so ready. He lives with one of the members in the ward. And he is just so sweet. Soo yeah, if things go as they are supposed to, I will be having my first baptism in a couple weeks!! I am SO excited!!

 

Another miracle is how many inactives showed up at church yesterday..it was crazy. This sweet lady that we have been trying to get a hold of FOREVER. We have left her cookies and tried to call her like crazy. And she walked into Sacrament Meeting yesterday!! I almost cried I was so happy. And then also, Y- is another huge reason I am so excited to be here. We are going to baptize that man before we leave Pau. We are just so set on it. Haha he drives me crazy, but wow am I so excited to see that man with the Priesthood someday. He is going to do so much good.

 

So yeah, just a few reasons I am so stoked for this transfer!! So many AMAZING things are happening!! Being a missionary is just so crazy. One minute I want to give up and the next I am just crying because I am just SO happy. It really is so much fun. And all the amazing things make all the hard things worth it.

Another cool thing I want to talk about is this family in the ward. Oh. my. goodness.

I know more than anything that I was supposed to be here at this time to meet this family. Heavenly Father is so hilarious. He showed me this family is all like "Hey here is your perfect dream family! Look at what you can achieve in life!"

They are a member family in our ward, but they were gone all summer and just came home. We went to their house last night for dinner and I just wanted to die of happiness. Just a few things about them and then you will understand what I mean..

They are American, from New York City. They live just outside of New York but the dad works in New York City, and he works for Sony. He is a music producer. They have been here for two years and just decided to come to France because the mom knows French, and they wanted their kids to learn French. And they just love it here. They all have the coolest style..the dad is totally a hipster. And they have four kids who are just the sweetest ever.

 

Soo yeah. Literally my dream family I want to be someday. Their house was SO beautiful. And then he played and sung us a song on the piano and it was so good. I just can't even describe how much of a blessing this family is to me. I know I was supposed to meet them. I talked to the mom for so long last night, and it was just exactly what I needed. They are just so amazing and I am so grateful for them. I will never forget them. Also, she said to me last night "Don't forget our names because when you are home you can come stay with us in New York!" Sooo yeah. Once again, I was MEANT to meet this family. Haha. So that was definitely the highlight of my week.

 

Sorry if this letter wasn't the best this week..you all tell me you love my emails then it makes me feel so pressured that they aren't going to be good! Hehe. Don't worry about me. It is hard, but it is amazing. It is all worth it. And I know I will look back on this time in my life with so much love.

 

I love you all more than you know. Keep on keeping on. Life isn't easy. But with our Savior, we can find happiness in all the difficult times. Please don't ever forget that. It is the message I try to share with everyone every single day. And if anyone listens to me, I hope it's you! Hehe. I love you all so so much. I think of you always.

Bon semaine!

Love,

Soeur Mag