Such a busy week! :)

Hello Everyone!! Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

This week was so busy!! So I'm going to try and get in as much as I can! Here we go....

This week was so good! We had a baptism and it was amazing! The lady's two daughters came and the spirit was so strong. She bore her testimony and it was so good!

Update on one of our investigators: She is still reading the Book of Mormon but doesn't want to get baptized because her dad was not happy about it. I think she is really scared and intimidated by him. But we went over for her birthday and it was really good.

Update on Abuelita: She hasn't been doing well this week. She has been feeling very sick and we haven't had much time to visit her because we were out of the area a lot but this week we are going full force back to her.

Update on the one of our families: We dropped them about a week ago and on our way to coordination meeting Sister S. called us crying and said that they were going to loose their house. She was so upset and so we said we would try to help her out but we didn't make any promises. We talked to Bishop Nunez and he said to invite the family to church and he would talk to them afterward to see if there was something he could do help. At first they said they would come but when we called Saturday night they said they wouldn't come because they were too shy. So we are going to visit them tonight and they have to be out of their house by Wednesday so we will see what happens there.

The area is going well and I love the ward members here. They are so great!! I love the young people of this ward and their desire to help the missionaries! It's so great. They contact us and ask if they can come with us. The work really is hastening here. It's going to be a little strange this week because we sort of have to start over again and find some more investigators. But I'm excited.

We have had some miracles on the street. We found a family for the English Elders and we found one lady for our area. We have a ton of formers and potentials to work with so I have no doubt that we will be able to find new investigators.

This week we had such a good sister training. We were asked to study Psalms 23. I have learned so much from it. It was such a great conference and it was nice to just have it be sisters. I encourage all of you to study Psalms 23.

This week I also got to do temple service. It was also so amazing! I loved being in the temple. It was so beautiful and huge!!! I cleaned the plants in the garden room. We cleaned each plant one leaf at a time. Then I got to help hang one of the chandeliers. It was so pretty. I learned so much from the workers that was in charge of the chandeliers. There were some water spots on the crystals and we had to clean everyone individually because he said the Lord walks through here and he notices every little detail and we don't want to disappoint him. Then we vacuumed each chair and the floor and washed each chair. We vacuumed the hallways and cleaned more plants. It was so beautiful in there. I also met one of Kristina Nye's friends from BYU-I (Zach who married Kambrie Neild's roomate and he came on a camping trip here). I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to be inside of the Lord's house.

We also had a carne asada party at a family in our ward's house as kind of a farewell to half our district. It was so good. All the missionaries and the ward missionaries were there. We ate and had birthday cake for Elder Casco. Then a few of us were asked to bear our testimonies and I was one of them. It was the best night we have had so far it was so good to all be together and relax a little.

 

 

So update on foods I like: PAPSAS, avocado, and orange/mandarins...yes you read that right!! Something is wrong with me....haha

Also there was an earthquake this morning. It caught me in the middle of my prayer and was super scary but nothing bad happened but I was definitely awake!

I survived transfer and will be here with Sister Monroy for another transfer. This is her last transfer before she goes home. In mission terms: I'm killing her and she will die here. Missionaries talk really weird....

I just want to tell you all that specific prayers work. I said two this week and they were answered perfectly!! It was so cool. One was that Sister P would arrive by 4:07 and she arrived exactly at 4:07! And then I prayed that a girl would call us back by the time we made it to her intersection and that she could come with us and she called us back and could come! It was so cool!

Anyways I don't have anymore time but I love you all!! Have a great week!
Hermana Montgomery

 

I'M MELTING........

Hello everyone :)

This week we will start out with the work update:

We have had some miracles in our area this week. I'll start with Abuelita. She came to church! She is 78 years old and has a lot of health problems that have prevented her from coming to church and being baptized. But she has talked to her doctors and the said that what she has is not contagious and she is ready to be baptized.

Also, our mother and daughter duo agreed to be baptized and we were so excited! We were having two lessons a day with them. One in the afternoon for the daughter and then one in the evening for both of them. Everything was going great, she was praying, reading, coming to church, but then came the time to have her dad sign the consent form. Long story short-he filled her with a lot of doubts and now she doesn't want to be baptized. It's super sad but I feel she will come around shortly. The mom still has a lot of questions about what her ex-husband had told her but we talked about them and she is still excited to be baptized. She has her interview on Wednesday and baptism on Sunday. Her daughter is going to be there and maybe that will help her want to be baptized as well.

We also had one less active family at and church and one other less active at church this week. It was really awesome. We have also met a lot of people on the street and have return appointments with them so that is really exciting. The ward is great and so helpful to the missionaries. We have had 11 member present lessons! It is so awesome to have members who are willing to help!

Hopefully next week I will have some baptism pictures :)

OK SOMETHING FUN!! Look for me on Google street view. On the corner of Lexington and Wilton. It was like a week ago but maybe you will see me.

The elders were making fun of me the other day when they were handing out mail. They saw my package with flowers on it and they were like "Greenie mail, that will stop" and handed me the package. I just laughed.

This week has been alright and transfers are coming up next week. We will find out this week if we are getting the boot or not.

Thanks for everything! I hope you all have a good week!!!

Love, Hermana Montgomery

DOWN CAME THE RAIN AND WASHED THE SPIDER OUT!!!

DOWN CAME THE RAIN AND WASHED THE SPIDER OUT!!!

I have never seen this much rain!! It is constant downpour!! For hours and hours on end. I took some videos of it but it doesn't do it justice. It is incredible!! But the people here have been fasting and praying for it so hey I guess you can't have everything. haha But I had to burst out my big coat because I was freezing. I'm getting so weak!! Mexico and California have ruined me. haha Good thing we have a really good heater!

This week was great I had my two month anniversary and I got to see all my friends the day before. Everyone is doing great and it was so nice to catch up and share stories! I miss them all so much and it was good to see them. We learned how to better improve our studies but we are doing so great in that area but it was just awesome to help each other out. During one part they kept all the new missionaries together and took the trainers to another room. It was so nice :) That is when the stories all got told I could relax and be myself a little. It was great. President Weidman is so great and is so inspired.




So update on the work:
This week has been pretty good. The rain did not slow us down and other people in the rain appreciated our enthusiasm and dedication. We had great success in street contacting and found several new potentials. We changed the way that we did the contacting. We started putting the message of Christ first and then the English cards second. It was amazing to see how much more people were willing to open up to us. It was really neat.

This week we also did a mini exchange with the sister trainers. I was originally going to go with Sister Phillips but because of the weather we had to change and I was given charge over my area. I was so amazed with what I was able to do and my confidence became so much stronger. My crutch was gone and I had to step up. I really loved it so much. It gave me more confidence in my ability as a missionary. We had many good experiences and were able to discuss different ideas on how to do things. We did get a little lost but we met awesome people on the way.

So the night of exchanges we went to visit one of our investigators and talked about inviting her daughter to be baptized. It worked out perfectly. She said that she would like to be baptized with her mom on the 16th and so we are going to start teaching her. They both came to church yesterday. We are so excited that they are going to be baptized together!!

Abuelita went back to the hospital and when we went to visit her she was gone. She was discharged and called a taxi haha. We went to visit her and we also talked to the bishop and he said that she can be baptized whenever she wanted. It was such a relief to us! I have come to really appreciate the bishop this week. He has really us out this week and been a great example. One of our investigators is sadly leaving us this Thursday :( He is going to El Salvador for a month to visit his dying mother. We told him how to find missionaries there and hopefully when he gets back he will have the desire to be baptized. 

This week we also talked with a lot of less actives and had some breakthroughs with them so now we know how to help them. I have learned that the mission is not about teaching but about helping people see the bigger picture. Helping them realize the importance of keeping their covenants. Helping them feel the love of Jesus Christ. We are in this life to help one another. How great is that responsibility. I hope you all find at least 3 ways to help someone this week.


I love you all so much and thank you for the emails :) Thank you for your prayers! Share your testimonies and read the scriptures. You will be blessed :) Have a great week!

Love, Hermana Montgomery

The Work is GREAT!!

Hello everyone!! :)
Sorry I didn't get the chance to write last week. There is just not enough time in an hour!

So a little catch up on last week. We had zone conference and it was absolutely incredible!! Heavenly Father really does answer prayers and really does give us revelation. I got to do a role-play with Pres. Weidman as my companion and it was so awesome. He is so amazing and so is his wife. I love them so much!! Both my companion and I got blessings that week and they were awesome. Mine talked about her and hers talked about me. It was really cool. We met some really awesome new people and the work is going great. There is a family we are trying to work with and they have 3 kids under the age of 12 and it was so cute. I made a deal with the two younger ones that if they helped me with Spanish, I would help them with English.  When the little girl said the opening prayer she prayed that I would get good at Spanish. Then in the closing prayer the little boy prayed that I would be able to talk to them in perfect Spanish and that they could learn English. It was so cute!!

This week has been so good! We took two trips to the visitors center. The first trip was with an investigator. We have been struggling with him a little. He had a baptism date and then told us he wasn't ready and not to force him. So we thought the best way to help him was take him to the visitors center to clarify the difference between a chapel, temple, and visitor center. It was a very good tour and on the way home he informed us that he is leaving for El Salvador in 2 weeks. We are not really sure what to do but we will figure it out in the Lord's time.

We started working with one of investigator's daughter and on Friday we took them to the Visitors Center and it was amazing!! We talked a lot about the temple and what goes on there and I really think it helped her to see the bigger picture. She accepted to be baptized March 16th. After she said yes she said "all I wanted was to have my girls there to support me." Everything from the role play we did up until that moment rushed through my mind. It is so incredible how revelation works! After she accepted and her daughter agreed to be there and was happy for her we went into the Christus and looked into the windows in silence for a good amount of time. Eventually she just started sobbing. Then after lot of tears she asked if she could offer a prayer and she did and it was such a touching and spiritual moment.

These week we have also had some really good experiences street contacting. We have met 3 new people who look like they will soon be investigators. It's so awesome how when we open our mouths the words are there and people are willing and ready to listen.

Overall it has been a very good week. I feel like I have made a break through here in the ward and I am starting to feel accepted. People are actually excited to see me and talk to me. Church was much more enjoyable and we had 5 people come! One of them moved out of our area but we would call her. Then she just dropped us and we haven't heard anything for 2 weeks and then she just showed up at the church and stayed for Sacrament meeting and we gave her the Book of Mormon that she had come to get. It just built my testimony that when we are obedient, the Lord blesses us.

Let me tell you about a miracle.
The elders found a place that would let them do their laundry for free. They told us to check it out so we went and talked to the owner and he was so cool!!! He gave us a giftcard with $100 dollars for all of the missionaries to share to do their laundry. It is such a huge blessing and the owner is so nice to us and all the workers treat us so nice. It is a brand new business and it is so fancy compared to the other laundry mats we were going to.

Thank you Galvez family for the package. I loved it!!

This week I have training again which is awesome because I get to see all my elders from the CCM and it is the day before our two month mark. That's so crazy!! Time is going so fast. I'm having a great time here and things are going awesome!!

This cute little abuelita reminds me so much of Grandma Montgomery. She is 79 and she wants to get baptized so bad but has to wait for her leg to heal first. She is awesome! We go over at least 4 times a week and sing hymns to her and read the Book of Mormon with her!

Me driving my new car!! Crazy California driver now! :)

I hope everything is going good and that all is well.

Love you all!!
Hermana Montgomery