Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a good Easter!!

This week has been crazy busy. But it has been so good! This next week will be even crazier! We are going to the temple on Wednesday and we just have a bunch of stuff to do to get Hermana Monroy home! It is crazy how fast time has flown. I spoke at a baptism yesterday. It actually went pretty well and a lot of members were like wow we didn't realize you spoke so much Spanish haha.

I have thought a lot about the Savior this week. It is so amazing the totally unconditional love that he has for us. The fact that he came here to be rejected and persecuted. To take upon himself all the sins of the world and yet do it with so much love. But my favorite part is what he taught us through his example. There are so many things that we can learn through the scriptures! I also love that I know that Christ lives! That because He was resurrected we all can be resurrected and live with God again. I know that He is our Savior and Redeemer and that through him everything is possible. It may not always be easy but it will be worth it!

Next Sunday we will have "E" and "J" baptisms!! I am so excited I can't wait!! It has been a long time coming but they are going to be such good members! The work is going good in the area and we are working hard. We are still in the process of finding new investigators and it can get a little frustrating at times but we just keep working and we know the Lord will bless us. "F" is back from El Salvador!!! We found him at the grocery store! We are going to start teaching him again!

MY DISTRICT!! :)

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all very much!

Hermana Montgomery

Last Week :)

Hello Everyone!!!

This week has been so great! We had a new missionary training. I love how practical and applicable all the things we learned were. I loved being able to see all my missionary friends again! They are all doing great and are enjoying their areas. President Weidman gave a talk on not being who you think you are. I have thought a lot about that this week. We really aren't who we think we are. Now the question is how do we help people realize who they really are? I now understand what it means that its important for the missionary and the investigators to grow and be edified together. I am loving this area and this mission experience. I have seen so much growth in myself already. And this is just the beginning! 

We had a baptism yesterday. It was so amazing! After "R" come up out of the water she just giggled. Then in the changing room she just couldn't stop giggling. It was the cutest thing ever! She is such a pure person. Everything about her is just good. 

After the baptism we went and visited "RL". She is 49 and goes to dialysis and has some kind of cancer. She is very sick. While we were there she got super sick she came back and then laid on the bed. So we just sang her hymns. It was the saddest thing. I couldn't help but crying. I just felt so much love for her and I just wanted to take away her pain. 

"E" had a miracle this week. She was feeling really bad with a fever and shaking. But she prayed and after an hour she said she felt the Holy Ghost's warmth fill her body and she instantly felt better. It was so amazing to see how her prayers were answered. 

We found a new investigator named "I". She lives in a two-toned purple house with a ton of flowers!  She was one of our potentials on the list to see but then the elders gave her name to us as a referral. We went and had a great lesson with her but when we went back she was super busy so we couldn't stay but we set up another appointment. She has so much potential. 

"J" will be home from El Salvador this week. We will hopefully have another baptism this Sunday for "E" if everything goes well. 

Other than that everything is super good. I hope you all have a great week! 

Hermana Montgomery

Hastening of the Work!

Hastening of the Work!

This week has been so busy!
There have been 2 marathons that cut right through our area so we have had to take the long way around on the freeway :) There was also the Thai new year which shut down part of town. I just love LA! haha
This week we have set 2 baptismal dates!

 "R" is getting baptized this Sunday!! :) The parents divorce papers are final now so she doesn't need her dad's signature. She is so excited! When we asked her how she felt about being baptized she said "I really want to be a Mormon" it was so cute! When we asked her what she thought it would feel like to have the Holy Ghost she paused for a really long time and then said "I think it would be like walking on rainbows". She is so smart and has such a desire to learn, it really is incredible for someone her age. She has great questions and is reading the Book of Mormon. She is growing so much! I'm really excited for her baptism this Sunday. She and her mom "P" are already sharing the Gospel and being great missionaries! It is so awesome!

"J" is excited to be baptized when she gets back from El Salvador on the 27th. We already have the program ready. She is going to be a super strong member! Most people already think she is a member.

Abuelita  is doing great. She is planning on being baptized on the 27th with her daughter "J" if her health allows. We are praying really hard for her to be well enough. Please pray for her legs.

We had exchanges this week with our sister training leaders. Even though we are in the same ward and meet every week, when you actually get to meet the people it is a totally different experience!
Also this Saturday Elder Beecher and Elder Arambula told us that one of their investigators needed us to stop by her store so we did and she told us she wanted to be baptized, and asked when the next service was.  Through both of these experiences I learned that by helping other missionaries we are all in this together. This is the Lord's work and we just have to be willing to open our mouths and share it.

Also can I ask a favor?? Can everyone please pray that we will be able to find a family of 4 from El Salvador who are ready to be baptized. We have been looking for them all week and a couple of times we have come close but we haven't found them just yet.

I hope everyone got to watch General Conference. It was so good! If you didn't please go back and watch it or read the Ensign. The words of the prophets are so powerful!

I love you all so much! Thank you for your love and examples. Have a great week!
Love, Hermana Montgomery

3 MONTHS and LOVIN' it!

WOW THIS WEEK HAS BEEN CRAZY BUSY!!!

I will start of with a miracle. Last monday was nuts. We ended up taking an emergency trip to Santa Monica that took almost all day so we didn't have time to go grocery shopping and we were pretty low on food. And to top it off we had NO dinner appointments. We were in a pickle!! But we knew that because we had done service, the Lord would provide for us. And as we were making calls people just started inviting us to dinner. And the ward had to 2 parties with a lot of food so we were able to eat there. So we were super taken care of and we were so grateful!

Also one of the senior couples in the mission just went home and they live about 10 minutes from Sheila's (my aunts) house. They are so sweet. They are the Kelly's. They live on the opposite side of the freeway. I am definitely visiting them when I get home.

This week we got to go to the temple. It is so beautiful!! I loved it even more because as I walked around I was like oh I cleaned that, Oh I vacuumed here, I hung that chandelier. The session was so great and I learned so much. I get to go again this month because my companion is going home.

We also went twice to a salad restaurant in the Westfield mall. The owners are members so all missionaries eat free. It is so delicious!! I have never been so full off of salad in my life!! They are super nice people and the mall is so fancy. They have underground parking and a valet system....

We had another earthquake this week. Friday night, we were walking up to our apartment and as we got to the top of the stairs the whole building started swaying back and forth. It lasted a good 15 seconds. I like the swaying ones better than the shaking ones. Since then our emergency kits have been updated and we have had to review safety and emergency procedures.

This weekend was full of activities. Friday night we had a party for one of the members 50th birthday. It was so fun and a lot of our investigators came. They had entertainment dances during dinner and a singer from Mexico came. We left before the real party started though...

Then Saturday we had the Women's broadcast and so we had to go into another town to watch it. It was so good! I especially loved the videos and the music! It made me so excited to watch General Conference. Afterward we came back for an elder's despedida (farewell). It is something the ward does its really cool. So instead of doing a farewell talk Sunday, they do it Saturday and the missionary gets to chose who speaks and its all about them and then afterwards there is food. It is a really good idea. At first I thought it was a little silly but now I see that it is a good idea.

We are in the process of finding new investigators. But our goal for this transfer is to work with the members. We are teaching a lady and she will be baptized after she gets back from El Salvador. Also her mom is supposed to be getting baptized the 6th but she will probably want to wait until her daughters get back from El Salvador. We don't know for sure, we are going to visit her today and find out.

I hope everyone is super excited for General Conference!! I promise that if you go with questions in mind and have faith that they will be answered, they will be. I know that we have living prophets today who receive revelation from God for our day. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that he is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that if we let Him, He can become our best friend, closest ally, and our anchor in times of trial. I know that Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us and that He has a perfect plan for us. I know that the true church has been restored on the Earth today. I love you all so much and know that good things are coming your way. Invite a friend to watch conference, who knows you might get your own baptism!!

I love you all! Have a great week!
Hermana Montgomery

Week of March 24th

This week has been interesting for sure....But I'll just focus on the good parts. Our investigator was confirmed yesterday. She looked so pretty! It was one of the prettiest blessings I have ever heard! Afterward Bishop Nunez was introducing her to the ward and asked for a sustaining vote. And she gave two thumbs up with the biggest smile on her face! It was the cutest thing ever!! She told us later that she wasn't sure why she did it, she was just so happy!

Another miracle happened this week. We received a referral a few weeks ago from one of the members and we have "broken in" to her complex a few times but she wasn't there. But this time she was and we got to go in and talk to her. She is 49 and has been doing dialysis for 2 years. I think she also has some sort of cancer or leukemia. She is super sweet and we told her we would bring a lot of members to meet her and she got really excited!

The next miracle: One of our investigator's daughter's has stopped listening to us after her dad talked her out of it. It was super sad and it made our visits over there a little awkward. But we just kept going. But last night when we went by it came up. We asked if she would still like to learn and she said yes!! We were so excited. She is so cute! Then she went to her room for a while and so we needed to leave so we said a prayer with her mom and as we were saying amen and she walks out and says "Oh I missed it!" We are super excited to start teaching her again!

Next miracle: We found a family on the street one day so we talked to them and they were super interested and even wanted to feed us dinner!! But sadly they are english speaking so we gave them over to the elders. On Friday we drove down the street and the dad was walking the dog and asked why we haven't come over. So last night we decided we would go visit and then make the transition. But when we showed up the elders were there!! So we taught with them and it was really awesome! They are such a great family!!

BUT THE GREATEST MIRACLE THIS WEEK: So we decided to visit another one of our investigators again. We went to her house and she wasn't there so we called her. She told us that her live-in boyfriend had left her and she needed help changing the locks. I was so excited!!! She has been investigating the church for like 7 months now but couldn't get baptized. But now she could! We finally got someone to help her with the locks after we tried and failed.

Then we had a relief society activity and we had invited abuelita but she said she couldn't come. So we were at the church and to our surprise I looked up abuelita and her friend (the one in the above story) were walking through the door! I almost cried!! Long story short she wanted to be baptized that night or the next day but we told her next Sunday and she agreed that would give her time to invite friends and family and for us to take care of all the paperwork and interviews. We are just so excited!! She is so great! We are hoping that they both be baptized next Sunday!! :)

Other than that we have just been trying to find new investigators and its hard work. But we have decided the best way is through members. So all you at home- help the missionaries out!! :)

Things are going good and we have a busy week ahead. We are doing a temple session Wednesday and have interview with President Weidman on Thursday. And we have a baptism to plan for :)

Here is some fun facts about my area:
Papusas(sorry I spelled it wrong)- its like a corn tortilla with meat and sauce in the middle and then you put this cabbage stuff on top and salsa. They come from El Salvador. They are so good!! This week we also had Chi. Its a drink made of the cha-cha-cha-chai plant. It's super good! Also a El Salvador recipe. Most of the ward is either from El Salvador, Guatemala, A few from Equador, a couple from Peru and Honduras, and only a handful from Mexico.
The majority of my area is like driving in downtown Twin Falls. Lots of little houses and lots of apartment buildings. But finding a parking space is like finding a needle in a haystack. Nearly impossible especially in the evenings.

This picture is of the granddaughters of a recent convert. The younger one reminds me of my cousin Gabby--They are sooo cute!

This picture is the group from this weeks baptism! So exciting! 

Here is a picture of my district:

I hope everything is going great at home and I love you all so much! Thank you for your prayers :)

Love, Hermana Montgomery