Miracles, Miracles, and MORE Miracles!!

Hello Everyone!!!

This week has been amazing!! I love the YSA branch so much!! We have had so many miracles this week!

We had a few lessons with a less active Diego and he super wants to come back. He has been less active for 4 years but he has been coming to church and meeting with us and is doing awesome!

We also had another less active at church, Vera. We have met with her a few times and she came to church! Everyone was shocked to see her there!

We also had a miracle with a mix up in our phone. We had been texting an Adrian all week and he was responding really weird to our messages. We were confirming our appointment and he asked if we could move it to that night and then he gave us his address. We went and as we were about to knock on the door we hear "Hey over here" I said "That's not Adrian" but we went over and he was holding a plate of cake and told us we could come on back to the backyard. We asked if Adrian was back there and he goes "No, I'm Adrian" We were super confused and he said "Well you guys are Mormons right?" We said yes and he said "Yeah come share the word with me". We found out that we had been texting the wrong Adrian all week!! Turns out he used to talk to missionaries but then lost contact with them. He said that when he got our text message he thought it was a sign from God that he needed to get back into religion. As we asked him to give the closing prayer and were explaining about prayer he said "Well how will I know if God is answering me?" We told him it would be how he felt. We invited and taught him how to pray. He said a very heartfelt prayer and then just stood there silently and then smiled and said "My whole back just relaxed, not only my mind but my whole body!" It was a super cool experience. The Lord works in mysterious ways!

We also had another miracle. Hiro had an appointment with us and just before he text us and told us he would be late because he was bringing his friend Nate. Nate is a non-member that came to his baptism. We had a really good lesson with Nate and he gave us permission to refer him to the Gardena missionaries.

But the miracles don't end there!! This week we received a referral from the Santa Monica YSA. We called the referral and set up an appointment with him. When we showed up at the church for our appointment he was already there. He was super polite and really interested in our message. We invited him to be baptized and he said "The other sisters already asked me but I wasn't sure but with everything I've seen this week- I think I'll say yes!" He is so prepared. His one concern is that he wanted to read the whole Book of Mormon first. I bore my testimony that you don't have to read the whole thing to know if its true. Then we read 1 Nephi Chapter 1 with him. At the end we asked what he thought and he said "I think you are right! I don't need to read the whole thing. I already feel like its speaking to me!" The whole lesson he kept saying "It just feels good and right" He also came to the departing missionary fireside and loved it!! He said that he felt everyone was talking to him. And then randomly President Larson walked up and asked who he was and what ward he was in and Victor said "That was another sign! He didn't talk to anyone but me!" We introduced him my friend Chris, a member from the Hollywood ward and he shared his conversion story with him and it was amazing! Afterward, Victor said "I think he is right, I just need to take the leap of faith and get baptized!" Then at about 9:30 we got a text message asking if we could talk. We called and he told us that he had gone home and talked to his parents about getting baptism and that he didn't get the response he was hoping for. They weren't very happy with him and tried to convince him to stay in the Catholic church. He was very confused because his family said one thing but his heart was saying another. And then I gained a testimony of reading the Book of Mormon during personal study. I had just read a similar story in Alma 20. So we invited him to read it and he said "Ok I will and I will keep praying that my parents will understand" We told him how proud we were of him and he thanked us for calling.

This week has been amazing and what I have written doesn't even scratch the surface!!

Also this week we moved apartments! Our new apartment is one of the best in the mission. There is carpet, tile, working plumbing, overhead light fixtures, air conditioning, and NO ANTS!!!! And our managers last name is Montgomery :)

Also I am realizing that Heavenly Father has answered my prayers in a different way! I prayed that I would get sent far away to another place for my mission but instead he brought the world to me! :)  I have had a companion from Mexico and I met someone from almost all the Central American countries. Then I had a Tongan companion. And then a French one. And then I moved to a place where I met people from all over the Middle East. Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Pakistan, Georgia, Jordan, etc.... Then I got a companion from Idaho but there are a few stray countries here. And now I am going to have a companion from Brazil. She is a sister from the Visitors Center. But she is taking her turn out! I will be staying here in the YSA and I'm super happy!!

Yesterday was the departing missionary fireside! It was so good!!! And I was able to see a lot of people from Hollywood which made me super duper happy!! And I did see a few from Torrance. I love going to those because the spirit is super strong and its like a big reunion!! There are 26 missionaries going home and there were 1,000 people there!!! It's awesome!!

Also for those of you who are wondering- I didn't make it into the musical performance :( I was a little bummed but it is okay. There will be more opportunities. I think they gave it people who go home sooner than me.

Anyways I am doing great!! I hope you all are doing good and that everything is going well. I encourage you all to either listen or read the talk from April Conference "Your 4 Minutes" I read it this week and it really touched me and then they gave a talk on it at church! Check it out if you get a chance!!

I love you all!
Hermana Montgomery

Adventures of a Singles Branch!

Hello everyone!!
This week has been amazing!!! I love it here in the singles branch!!!

I have seen so many miracles here. We had Hiro's baptism last week and confirmation this week and I also got to see him receive the priesthood. I have never seen that before so it was really special for me! Hiro is doing so good! He gave a Book of Mormon to his friend and they are racing to read it. It is so awesome!

We also met Anib's (a recent convert) girlfriend and had a lesson with her. And he gave her a Book of Mormon with his testimony in it. We are going to start teaching her when she gets back from Mexico in a few weeks.

We also were having dinner with a member and he was texting his friend and he was like "Hey Sisters, I'm going to invite my friend and you can sneak a lesson in" so the friend came over and when we started talking about church he was "You set me up" but he was fine with it. He said that is wasn't a question of IF he would get baptized but WHEN. It was really cool and we had a return appointment with him and it went really well and he came to the branch activity. It was really awesome!!!
We also had a lesson with one of our less actives and it went so well!! He is seriously one of the coolest guys I've met so far. He has a full beard, has a road safe dirt bike that he rides around and he installs elevators. He also has a super awesome tattoo of Christ. He has been less active for 4 years and he told us he really wants to change. He has been coming back to church and FHE and he really likes it.

Also one of our investigators birthday was this week and our other appointment fell through so we walked across to his house and we ended helping him and his mom decorate and cut the fruit for his party. It was really nice to meet her and to get to know his family a little more. He has a guy who lives in his back yard in a tent!!! He has a bed, TV, a fan for air conditioning, and a little cooking stove, and the whole works. It is strange but he helps them with household fixes so he lives there for free. Oh LA.....

I also got to leave the mission this week. I went to Anehiem! We drove past Disneyland. Where I went there were missionaries for the Anehiem and Long Beach missions. It was cool to see other missionaries. The weird thing is that my area touches the mission boundaries on 3 sides so we could be seeing these missionaries and not knowing...anyways it was cool. ALSO WIERD THING: We were at the Anehiem Mission Office and there was a senior couple there with the last name Butterfield. It was very ironic...

This week I have been reading in Alma. I hope one day I can be as awesome as Ammon!! He is my hero of the week! He did so much good in the world!!! I encourage you all to read his story starting in Alma 17.

This is Sister Hunsaker. She is our mission home receptionist. She is soooo awesome! I love her!

I hope you all have a great week! Keep up the good work!!! I love you all!
Hermana Montgomery

Changes!

Hello everyone!! These last 2 weeks have been nuts!

I hope you all had a great 4th of July! It didn't really feel much like a holiday here. There were no parades, rodeos, tractor pulls, parties in the park, sidewalk sales....but there were fireworks. We had to be in by 6 and we live in an ally so I only saw like 3 fireworks but its all good. I heard them all night. We did eat at someones house and they had a western themed party so that was really fun!  I also moved on the 4th to a new area! I am now in a singles branch and I love it!! They are so awesome and I'm excited to have FHE again! And last week we had linger longer! I missed that!  Our area is HUGE!! and covers 2 zones. My companion is Sister Rudd. She was in that same ward as me in Hollywood. She is from Boise. We live in what they call Little Mexico. I'm back in the ghetto and that makes me really happy! The ghetto is where you get the best stories and the best people!

I am loving the mission. The weird thing is that when I get moved I feel like I'm in a whole new country. It is really strange. I'm so disoriented. Everything feels so far away. Like now I am only like 30 minutes from Hollywood but it still feels so far away. It is really strange. Sometime I wish I could take a birds eyes view of the mission to see where I am!

We had a baptism yesterday and it was super good!!! He brought 3 non-member friends and his grandma who is a preacher and his mom. It was really cool! I just met him that day but he seems so awesome!

Also there is going to be a special musical presentation in September at the Visitor's center and I got invited to come and audition. There were only a handful of missionaries that got invited to be part of it. It is a big privilege. I really hope I get to be part of it. It is going to be really cool and when it happens other missions are getting invited to it and there might be a special presentation for the members. It is being put together by Shawn King a professional musician. Also in a few weeks the actor from the Russian missionary movie, The Saratov Approach, is coming to do a behind the scenes on his movie "Feed the Sheep". I really hope we get to come! I would love to be there! Having a visitors center is such a blessing!

The mission is an exciting place to be and we can really see the Lord hastening his work! Last month the mission had a goal for 60 baptisms and we were blessed with 67!! It is such a miracle!!

Well I hope you all have a great week and I invite all of you to do at least one act of kindness this week and tell me about it! A little kindness goes a long way!!
Love, Hermana Montgomery