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

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

Have you ever heard me say the word MIRACLE before?

Salut ma belle famille!!

Wow. I never know where to begin with these things. I have been super excited to write home this week! Not even that anything huge happened, I have just been dying to talk to you!

For starters, we just went and did some shopping for P day (obviously my choice) so it has just been a good relaxing P day! It is honestly so hard not to just buy everything though..especially when I just feel like all the stores here are my style...man. Sometimes I really miss shopping and wearing normal clothes. Hehe BUT I bought a dog scarf. With dalmantions on it.  So what can I say, I am pretty content.

This week has been absolutely full of miracles. I cannot even begin to describe to you all of the crazy miracles I get to witness every day. And it literally is every day!  The craziest day this week was definitely Wednesday. I thought I might as well just describe the whole day to you and then you can get a little "day in the life of a missionary."

-Woke up at 6:30.

-Ran circles around Soeur D- (she doesn’t run and I am literally going crazy without it)

-Did our 4 hours of studies.

-Then headed off to a rendez-vous we had with this guy that we just weren't so sure about. And oh man were we right to be sketched out. I don’t remember if I ever told you, but he was the guy who walked into the church a few weeks ago and just told us he knew the BOM is true and wanted to start meeting with us. Well, and then Soeur D talked to him on the day I was on an exchange and learned that he is one of those people that pretty much believes in everything along with our church. And also that is wife is suuuper Evangelist and didn't want us to come over. But said we could anyway. Soo here we are. We walked into their house and I have never had anyone look like they just straight up wanted to kill me. Haha! That women is noooot happy. But he is just a super happy guy and so he was happy to see us. So we sat down, and they ended up feeding us lunch....that was also a super sketchy situation. I honestly couldn't even describe to you what they fed us if I tried to. So weird. And it was just the weirdest situation. We could barely get a lesson in because he just talked so much, and she kept talking about all the Evangelist things that she believes. I don't know how much you know about Evangelists...but the extreme ones are pretty extreme. But just imagine a really extreme one, and then also a lady who is not exactly all right in her head. It was just so weird. She was like praying literally every two minutes under her breath and doing some weird gift of tongues stuff they believe in and it was just super weird and brought not good feelings. So. Needless to say we just walked out of there not feeling very good. I felt physcially and spirtually just gross. Like I just needed to go shake off this weird feeling. I just knew we needed some really good contacts that day or something! So we headed home.

-We then had a tombez-vous with a member (appointment that fell threw) so we decided to go try and pass by a lady who we had gotten her address a few days earlier when we were contacting and she told us she wanted us to come by. So we went to go find her.

-Still feeling a little weird we just tried to contact as many people as we could and get the good happy spirit with us again. We were walking for a while and couldn't find the name of this rue that the lady had given us. And then all of a sudden Soeur D- just stopped and was like "I feel like we missed something. Like someone walked passed us that we were supposed to talk to." So I was just like alright, then let’s pray and figure out what to do! (You would probably honestly be baffled at how much we pray as missionaries haha)  So we prayed, and then sat for a second trying to figure out what to do. This lady walked past and we ALMOST didn’t talk to her because she was going inside her house, but then we just quickly walked up to her, said our thing, and she goes "Oh yeah! I have had the Elders over before! But it has been a while. If you want you can definitely come by sometime and we can talk!" Just in case you didn't know...that is a very rare contact. Haha it was SO cool! We have a rdv with her tomorrow we are excited for. It was just so cool because if we hadn't stopped on that EXACT rue we wouldn't have seen her.

-Next miracle of the night. We were porting. And it was almost time to go home. But we decided to do a few more houses. We rang the sonnery and sat there for a while and nothing happened. So I started to walk away but Soeur D rang it again. Am I ever so glad she did! It ended up being this lady named Ca--. Cutest lady in the world. I can’t even tell you how much I love this woman. She came out and talked to us, then let us in! We ended up staying for a while and had to run home so fast because we were so late, but it was the coolest experience! She honestly wasn't super interested in our message but I have a feeling one day she will be...but we were like instant friends with her. She is just like the most hilarious women ever. She is like 85. And she was just like "What can I feed you?? What can I do for you??" It was so cute and so funny. So she ended up feeding us an entire meal. It was so much fun. She just was talking up a storm and we had so much fun. Then we sang her a song, left her with the Spirit, and ran all the way home to our apartment.

So. There you go. Day in the life of a missionary! It was such a fun day. It was just so cool, because I know because we had that weird experience that morning that Heavenly Father blessed us with so many cool experiences!

Things like that happen every day. Yesterday was an amazing day too. Taught a whole lesson behind a bus stop. It is just so fun. This work is so much fun.

To answer some of mom's questions that I got in the letter..

Transportation: we have buses her in Pau. So we take buses a lot or mostly we just walk everywhere. Weather feels about like home! It has been pretty hot. But it is starting to cool down. I am so excited for fall! My feet are doing alright. My bunions have started to hurt pretty bad recently. But I am doing alright! It honestly is a miracle at how well I am actually doing. Your prayers are DEFINITELY working is all I can say. There are only 4 sisters here in Pau. We live with the other two sisters and they are such a blast. I love them so much! As for food; we usually cook our own food most the time. I am actually learning how to cook some things! Haha because the sisters I am with actually cook..I haven't done that for a long time. So I am trying to learn!! It really is crazy how many things I am learning. I am going to be such a better person when I get home it is crazy. I will still be me though, don't worry! I am definitely still me. Soeur D is such an opposite of me it is hilarious. It actually is super hard. She is great, but it is really hard. For example, I will just say things like "What the, how is that a thing?!" And she is all like "A thing...what do you mean a thing?" Haha it cracks me up. So yeah I am still more. Just like a billion times more Christ-like. But yeah so we mostly make our own things. A bunch of different things! Not all super French. But yeah I am pretty spoiled here. The food is great. The thing I do buy a lot is this super great sandwich from the boulangarie right next to our chapel. It is the best place in town. And right next to our chapel. So great.

Okay I have to go, but one last miracle for the week...I CAN UNDERSTAND FRENCH§

 

(second email:)

Sorry left you on a cliff hanger there. Haha!

But yeah..I can understand French!! It is amazing!!

Okay but before you get too excited, there is still so much I don't understand. I don’t catch everything. It is so hard. My brain is just super tired all of the time. BUT it was the coolest thing in church yesterday. It is ridiculous compared to my first day at church. I understood everything that was going on. I even took notes! The first week that I was able to do that! And it was cool because we had a rdv with a lady in our ward that we had a rdv with the first day I was here..and I honestly didn’t understand everything. But we just had a rdv Saturday, and I understood everything!! It is the coolest thing in the world. So yeah I am still struggling. It is so hard. BUT Heavenly Father is on my side. I'm getting there. It is so so fun to be on this journey.

I love you all so so much. Thank you for all your support. You have no idea what it means.

Don't ever forget how lucky we are to have the Gospel in our lives. I am reminded every single day of how lucky and truly blessed I am to have been born into this Gospel. So many people are so lost in the world. We are so blessed to have this knowledge we do. Don't ever take that for granted.

I love you all so so much!

à bientôt!

-Soeur Mag (that is my official name now, Magleby is too hard for the French haha)

 

The reality of missionary life--getting caught in the rain

 

The amazing juene filles in our ward!! They are soo sweet. They made this sign for us.

Bonjour tout le monde!
First off, I apologize I am writing to you when it is like the middle of the night for you. I hope I don’t wake anyone up! Also, I am sorry this is going to be a pretty short letter. I have only about 40 minutes to write today. There is a slight possibility I might be able to get back on later though! I will see what I can do. So look out for maybe another email later. Also I might have some time today to write some letters, so anything I miss in this email I am going to try and write in letters! But I am not making any promises...haha. I am so crunched for time because we are going to the mountains today! The Pyrénées! Actually if it was my choice I would probably rather like go to a museum today or somthing. But just going with the flow. One of the ward members is taking us four sisters with them on their hike today. So it should be way fun! And beautiful! I will definitely be sending some pictures next week.

 

 This week absolutely flew by! So fast I can’t even believe it. It was a very fun week though. We had Zone Conference in Bordeaux this week, and I went up a day earlier because I did an exchange with one of the sisters there. It was soo fun! It was with one of the Sister Training Leaders and I learned so much from here in just one day. It was so cool. She has been here for a year so I was asking her every question about French I could think of. We had some crazy miracles too! We went porting; door to door, and we were so set on finding someone to let us in. It is pretty rare to actually have someone invite you in when you are going door to door, but we had the faith it would happen. AND IT DID!! It was so crazy. And of course it was the very last house we knocked on (well, rang the sonery) It was so funny because we talked to the guy and he said "Non, merci!" So we started to walk away and then all of a sudden they come running out yelling "WAIT! He wants to listen!" And his friend who lived with him was interested in what we had so say, so they let us in! They were just these two young guys so they weren’t like about to be baptized or anything, but it was still such a cool miracle. It was so fun to see that happen. We just talked to them about the livre de mormon for a little bit then had to run to another rendez-vous.

 

 And then Zone Conference was sooo great! Zone Conference is when the Roneys come and talk to us. And we get an interview with President Roney. I love them so much. We have the best president ever. And sister Roney is just the sweetest lady ever. My interview with president was just simple and I told him that I really am doing so well despite just despite the normal hard times that come to every missionary.

 

 Alright, Y--. This week was full of many ups and downs with him. It was such a learning experience. We had a lesson on last Tuesday that was just absolutely terrible. We felt so bad afterwards and just wanted to cry. First he decided to bring his lesbian friends. So that was awkward. Haha and then the whole lesson he just talked about all his worries he has about baptism and about the ward. I could just really almost literally see in that lesson, Satan trying to get to his head. Because Y-- is going to be an amazing Priesthood holder someday. And Satan doesn’t want that. BUT then Saturday we had an amazing lesson that made up for it. It was soooo good. By some crazy miracle we got a member with us at our lesson. We had spent hours looking for one, and then when we showed up to the church she was just there. It was so cool. We just talked about baptism for an hour and a half. And we finally figured out what his issue is. He has not been praying correctly, or sincerely enough. It was so sweet, he just looked at us and said "Maybe..maybe I need to pray better. Can you explain to me how to pray again?" It was sooo sweet. And then at the end of the lesson, we had the coolest moment. I just looked at him straight in the eyes and said "Y--, If you REALLY pray and REALLY feel that this is the right choice for you, will you be baptized into this church?" And he just looked at me and looked like he was going to cry, and then just nodded his head and whispered "Yes." It was one of the most powerful moments. And then we got him to pray at the end of the lesson.

 

It is moments like that, when I just feel so happy to be a missionary. It really is so hard. I have to physically, mentally, and emotionally push myself to my limits every single day. But to have moments like that, where I am in the back of a church in a little ville called Pau, kneeling in a circle, listening to the sweet prayer of a man discovering God in his life….there is literally nothing better than that.

 

So, we still don’t have a date set with him. But he is definitely getting baptized. We are going to work on the date. I just hope it is while I am here!

 

 I wish I could say so much more, but I have to go. I love you all so so much. I literally think of you every day. Your faith in me are what motivate me to keep going. And your prayers are what give me the strength to carry on. I love you!!

-Soeur Magleby

August 19, 2013

Cheesy missionary time.

Bordeaux! We went for a Zone Meeting and are going again for a Zone Conference this week. It is so pretty there!
 



My two favorite cheeses so far

Bonjour! Vous me manquez!

Bonjour my wonderful family! I miss you so much! I hope you are all doing well. Thank you for your letters! It is so nice to hear from you.

Well. Where to begin with this week. I can't believe it has only been a week. I have only been in Pau for 9 days now. That blows my mind, it feels like I have been here for at least a month! Things are still going great for me. To be honest, this week was a lot harder than the last. I think I was just so happy to be in France it was like nothing else mattered, haha. But now that I am settled in, it definitely got a lot harder. I am just starting to be super frustrated with the language. I can't even tell you how frustrating it is when I just simply want to have a REAL conversation with someone but I can't understand what they are saying. I am just really starting to feel stupid like everyone told me I would. But I am working so hard. And I am going to keep trying and working harder. Honestly the most frustrating thing is how much English I have been speaking!! Me and my companion never speak French. And I am definitely not letting that go on for much longer. I set goals with her this week that like sorry, you can talk to me in English; but I am definitely going to be responding in French. I know I need to be patient with myself but it just gets really frustrating at times.

You all are going to be absolutely amazed at how patient I am when I get home. I can’t even tell you how much I am having to work on it every day. Haha probably you just won't even know who I am anymore I am going to be so patient. Every day it is something I have to work on...patient with myself, patient in God's timing, patient with my sweet companion...who literally makes us late to everything we go to..haha. It is so good for me though to be working on this quality of Christ. Blessings in disguise!

Alright. There is my rant for the week. French is really frustrating. NOW on to the miracles and fun things of the week that really make up most of my mission, so the other things don't matter..

First of, Y--. Wow has this been a week of miracles for him. I meant to take a picture of him this week but I forgot, but you guys have to see him. I will try to send one soon! We had three lessons with him this week. They all were amazing!! When we taught the rétablissment (sorry, restoration) when I recited the first vision he had the biggest smile on his face. Reciting the first vision is the coolest thing EVER. I have done it twice in lessons now, once today and one with our other progressing ami Madame L--, and both times, when I got to the end of it they literally both had the biggest smiles on their faces. It is just the coolest thing ever, such an amazing spirit. that it brings every single time. Jospeh Smith is the best. K sorry, back to Y--!

We had a lesson with him on Friday, and we watched The Testemants. It was so great. Except I cried. It was really embarrassing. But we could tell he loved it. And THEN we were talking to him on the phone Saturday night, and he told us that after that lesson he had a dream...I got excited right when he said those words. Because I knew what he meant. He had a dream, that he was baptized. And that Jesus baptized him. I don't know if that means a lot to you, but to us missionaries...aw man, you should have seen us when we hung up the phone. We were bouncing off the walls. SUCH a miracles. He is sooo close. SO close. We are commiting him to a date next lesson. I know he is ready. I just hope he begins to realize that!! So, I am hoping next week I will have some great things to tell you.

Other miracles (I cannot even begin to name them all), we got a new ami this week! Soeur D-- had met him contacting like two weeks earlier; but he never showed up to their rendez-vous, and then out of the blue he called us. And we set up a rendez-vous! And it went so well! He had sooo many questions about the book of Mormon. Also he is a ballet dancer. Haha he is so great. I hope that he contintues to progress! He is a really fun guy to teach.

Our other ami is Madame L--. She is a sweet sweet old lady, and she has such a sweet heart. Our only obstacle is that she can't see well at all, so she can’t read the Book of Mormon. So we are working on that, but I hope we get to keep seeing her more.

We have a few other potential amis; like this guy named David. Haha he was a fun experience because it was my first experience I have had where literally all we said was "hey we are missionaries of the church of Jesus Christ, we teach about Jesus. Do you want to learn more?" And he was seriously just like "Yeah, sure!" soo we set up a rendez-vous for the next day! And he actually showed up! Stuff like that is just so fun. Like to anyone who ever told me it would be hard to baptize here...of course it isn't easy, but I meet SO many people every day who are so ready to hear this gospel it is crazy.

Another fun thing of this week is we went to this sweet lady's house for dinner. She is in our ward, her name is Soeur Ca--. I almost died she is just the cutest old lady ever. She reminds me a lot of Grandma Magleby! Because she just lived in this adorable humble little apartment. But wow can that lady talk. And talk. Annnd talk. Haha it was so fun though. It is just moments like that that I feel so purely happy to be here. It is all about the little things. Also she fed us chicken liver. Soo there's that. It was terrifying. But she made it up and served us some super amazing cheese after. Haha.

This week the biggest thing I have learned is just how necessary prayer is in our lives. We emphasize it SO much to our amis. But I have learned it for myself too. There were a few moments this week where I just felt so overwhelmed, alone, scared, frustrated; and all these other annoying feelings. And there was literally nothing I could do but get on my knees. It is the only place I have left to turn. But it brings so, so much power to us when we do this simple act of communicating with our Father in Heaven. Haha you would probably think I was crazy if you knew how much I pray every day. But it really has made me realize how silly I was before to not utilize this tool we have before my mission. So that is my challenge to you for the week! Don't ever forget this amazing opportunity we have to talk with our Heavenly Father. He wants to hear from you.

I love you all so much. I am trying not to miss you so much because it is really hard at times. I am praying for you and I feel your prayers! I hope you all have an amazing week. Sorry if I didn't answer your questions..it is hard for me to fit so much stuff in my brain.

 

Je vous aime beaucoup!!

OH P.S I forgot something I guess kind of important...I talked in Sacrament meeting yesterday. For 10 minutes. Ummm yeah SCARIEST thing ever. To talk in front of French people!! When my French is so sketchy! But it went well. I honestly don't even know what I said. But everyone was complimenting after saying they could understand the whole thing. Despite my accent. Haha soo that is my next thing to work on.

Love you!

-Soeur Magleby

Our first letter from France!

 

 

MIRACLES, MIRACLES AND MORE MIRACLES!

Okay, first off. THESE COMPUTERS ARE CRAZY. All the letters are totally not where they are supposed to be...I feel five years old again learning how to type. So sorry I wish this letter could be longer! We have an hour and a half each week to write, but today it is going to have to be a bit shorter because we got to the computers a bit late and we have to run to a rendez-vous with an ami in just a little bit. But we just went and toured a Chateu! it was so fun. HELLO EVERYONE THAT I LOVE, I AM IN FRANCE!!! Oh my goodness. I cannot even explain to you how happy I am to be here. This week has been absolutely crazy, but man am I happy. So as you know, I am in Pau!! I love it here so much. Its a pretty small town but that is why I love it so much. The people here are so nice. Seriously. I find that everyone likes to tell me how crazy they think I am in a very kind and loving way. Haha.

 

I am going to send you pictures. hopefully, but it is so beautiful here! There are obviously so many great places in France, but I just love our apartment so much.

We have a balcony and our apartment overlooks the entire city. We pretty much just leave the doors and windows open all the time, and it is soo great. I sleep on the top of the bunkbed, and we have a huge window that we leave open when we sleep, so I fall asleep every night and wake up every morning overlooking the cute little ville of Pau. I feel like this is a dream. Never has any other missionary been so happy to be in France, I can tell you that.

 

Miracles are happening like crazy. It is amazing. Soeur D-- and I have decided that I have bleu magic. It is the craziest thing ever. This is literally only my third day in Pau and I cannot even begin to tell you how many miracles I have already seen. I've grown up my whole life hearing all these cool missionary stories, but you have no idea what it is really like until you are in the middle of one. Just a few examples of the miracles this week: talking to a man on the train here for 2 hours straight and taught him the entire first lesson. A random guy walked into the church yesterday and just said "I know the book of Mormon is true.I want to meet with you." Yesterday while we were porting (door to door) we found a man named Ol-- who is the most prepared person I have ever met. God has been preparing him to hear the Gospel for a long time. It is just absolutely crazy how much I can see God's hand in this week. It is right in front of my face every single day.

 

And then there is Y--. He is seriously the best. He is our progressing ami right now. I so wish you could meet him, or just see him. He is the coolest guy ever. The only way I have to describe him is he is pretty much Bob Marley. He is just so hilarious, I love him so much. He came to church yesterday for his third time! He is so close to baptism it is crazy. But he is just questioning himself. But I have faith he is going to get there. We are going to work hard. He calls us "his angels" haha it is so great. We have two other amis but I have not met either of them yet, but we are hoping to have rendez-vous really soon!

 

The only struggle I am having right now is how much this work is hard physically. My health just tanked after we got here because all that travel sucked so bad (two layovers, almost missed a plane, didn't sleep on the plane so practically was awake for two days straight, annnd it is an 8 hour train ride from Lyon to Pau) soo that was hard. But for me right now, that is the only hard thing about this work. I keep saying to Soeur D-- "Am I in the right place? I thought this was going to be super hard...but I am having the time of my life." So please keep praying for me because this physically sucks, this really is ridiculously hard work. But I am beyond happy. The miracles I get to see everyday are astounding. I have a front row seat to watching people come to know their Savior Jesus Christ, and there is no greater feeling in the world. Plus no matter what grows wrong that day, I get to come home, make a cup of tea, and go to bed overlooking France. Could it get any better? I really don't think so.

 

The food is amazing, of course. Even though we have to shop at Carrefour which is pretty much like french walmart, it is still so good. It is embarrassing how much cheese I have had in the past three days alone... The language is hard. I don't understand anyone. Okay, I usually understand like the gist of what is going on, but I don't understand a lot. But I am not frustrated yet. It is fine, because I know it will come! And a couple people have told me I have a good accent. So as soon as I can understand, and I learn 1000 more vocab words, I am set! haha  Alsooo contacting is terrifying and especially porting. Haha porting is fun, some people are so crazy. But it is so worth it to find the people who will listen!

 

I am so sorry I wish I had more time. But I will talk to you next week! and yeah even though it still takes a while, letters would be great. I love you all sooo much. I am having the time of my life here! hope all is well! Don't worry about me.

Love,

Soeur Magleby

Best food I have had so far... this is for you mom. It was like fruit salad with basil and vanilla bean ice cream.