HOLLYWOOD!

HELLO EVERYONE!!!!

I AM IN HOLLYWOOD!! Well more like Holly"back"wood. Its a little sketchy here but the people and the ward are awesome!! And we can see the Hollywood sign from our apartment.  ALSO I AM DRIVING!!!!! We have a brand new 2014 Corolla and it only had 77 miles on it. It doesn't even have license plates and yet they give it to me to drive in this crazy place!! Driving is actually fun...parking...not so much!!!

So saying goodbye to everyone was really hard! I miss my district and my teachers so much!!

But besides all that, this week has been amazing! It started out at the airport. We pulled up to the curb and a taxi pulled up and a lady got out and asked us if we were missionaries. We said yes and we established that she would be on the same flight as us going to LA. We checked in and everything worked out fine! Except I had to put my towel in Elder Ross's carry on. We finally got to our gate and the lady that we had meet on the curb was sitting there and so we started talking to her and immediately she asked for a blessing because she has been having health issues and was feeling really sick. Of course our elders agreed and went took a chair and went into the far corner and Elder Ross and Elder Amacher gave her a blessing. It was so cool! Then we finally got on the plane and about halfway home when I woke up. I mustered up the courage to talk to the grandpa sitting next to me. He didn't speak one word of English so that was fun. I shared a lot with him and got his information so that he could get missionaries in his area.

Once we landed we were met by one of the APs, Sister Weidman and Elder Kelly. They walked us to the parking garage and we got to put our suitcases in a truck! That truck was the best thing I had seen in a long time! But unfortunately I didn't get to ride in it. There were 24 missionaries that arrived that day. There were 2 sisters who are waiting for visas to Russia!! It was really cool to talk to them about that. One is going to Rostov and the other one to Saratov (the place where the missionaries got kidnapped). They drove us back to the mission home and we had lunch. Then we each had interviews and stuff.

The biggest part of the day was that they divided us up into groups and sent us out street contacting. It was so awesome!! The first people that would listen to us were Hispanic and they were refurbishing their front door. I talked to them and they gave us their information. The next people I talked to were 2 cousins who were landscaping and one was wearing a John Deere hat and I was like hey my dad works with them. Anyways, they also gave us their information.The last really cool story was that we were walking to the corner and there was a black guy sitting on the bench. We started talking to him and he was like "Don't you guys have another bible or something" So we gave him a Book of Mormon and told him where the church was. It was really awesome!! After that we went back and had dinner at the Weidman's. Then we all shared our day's experiences and then we walked around the temple. You can see our entire mission from in front of the temple. Afterward we went back to the mission home and we stayed the night with members. I stayed with the White Family. He is a counselor in the mission presidency. I was companions with Sister Roding from New Zealand. Her accent is awesome and she is a visitors center sister. She was very sweet. The next morning we went to transfer meeting. That previous night I woke up feeling sick and then we had eggs for breakfast and I was not feeling good at all. As we were waiting for the transfer meeting to start I was feeling awful so I asked Elder Amacher and Elder Ross to give me a blessing. It was the most beautiful blessings I have ever received!!!! I had so much gratitude that I had met all my district at the CCM and that they were willing and able to give me that blessing. The meeting started and they assigned us our companions.

My companion is Hermana Monroy. She is AWESOME!! She only has 2 transfers left so unless they make me train she will be my companion until she goes home. She was born in Mexico but has lived in Fresno since she was 9. She is amazing and I have already learned so much from her. We also had a mini missionary this weekend!! Here they have a program where youth ages 16-21 can sign up for mini missions and they go with missionaries for 3 days. It is a really cool program. Her name was Hermana Valenzuela. She is originally from Lima, Peru.

Another cool thing we do here is teach english classes. Every Wednesday and now Saturdays. It used to be Fridays but not very many people came. But I teach the advanced English. So far I have only had one student and his name is Yarik. He is from Ukraine and is a musician here. He is super awesome but kinda looks like count dracula. Also our apartment has a massage chair and well I pretty much have a date with it every night!

Another crazy thing...we were waiting at the stoplight and all of the sudden some 200 people on bikes go riding by. I guess they are called THE RIDERS and they just go all over town in huge groups. I have never seen anything like that! Only in Hollywood.

Also one last crazy story!!! We were leaving the bishops house and out of nowhere this cop car comes through the intersections and stops and calls us over. I was so nervous!! He rolled down the window and was like are you guys tracting over here?? We said no. He asked if we had an appointment and we said yes and he was like ok sisters please don't tract over here. Its not safe. He went on to tell us that he served his mission in North Carolina. Anyways he was just being friendly and helpful but I bet my face was priceless.

Ok just a quick review of the people we are teaching. We are teaching un abuelita (a cute little grandma). She is so sweet and she reminds me so much of Grandma Montgomery. She has really bad health and just had surgery to take a vein from her leg to put in her heart. We go over to her house and sing hymns to her and read the Book of Mormon with her and one day her house cleaner sat and listened too. She will be baptized as soon as her leg is better. Then we have un abuelito (a cute little grandpa). He has a baptismal date for Feb. 23. Hopefully he makes it if not March 2. He is really cute and he came to church yesterday so that was really awesome. We also have a sister who should be getting baptized any time now. She is really funny and reminds me a lot of Rocio (my aunt). Also there is a sister in our barrio (neighborhood). She is 25 and wants to go on a mission so she comes with us a lot. She is really sweet and has been a member for 3 years. Then we have una familia . They just got to the US about 3 months ago. We watched the Restoration with them and taught them about how families can be together forever and we found out that they have 2 daughters that they left behind and they are trying to get them here. We told them that we would come by every night at 6:30 to pray with them. They are a really sweet family. After english classes we give tours of the church and the other night we gave one to a couple and they agreed to be baptized!! It was so awesome but then we found out they are in the other elders area so we had to turn them over but they have a lot of potential. The last story...the first day we were walking down the street and on the corner I saw a lady holding a baby boy so we stopped to talk to her. We gave her a flyer for English and then we saw that she had groceries so we offered to help her carry them home. So we did and she let us in and we talked to her and gave her a copy of the family proclamation. She told us that she wanted to learn more but she wanted to talk to her boyfriend first. We called her on the day we had planned to go back and she told us that her boyfriend didn't want to learn so she would wait for him to be ready. It was a really cool experience but sad too because she really wants to change so that she can raise her son with faith in Jesus Christ. So until he is ready we just keep praying for her and calling her to see if we can do service for her.

Anyways the work is going good and I love it here! Thank you for the packages!! They were awesome and I have hearts all over our fridge!! :)

I hope everything is going good at home and at the CCM!

Love,
Hermana Montgomery

Address and Pictures :)

Hermana Montgomery's mission president has sent a few things to share. Her P (writing day) has been changed from Wednesday to Monday. If any of you are wanting to write her a letter, I have put her address below.

Sister Makeesa Shalae Montgomery
1591 East Temple Way
California Los Angeles Mission
Los Angeles, CA 90024-5801

Hermana Montgomery with her mission president and his wife, President and Sister Weidman.

Hermana Montgomery with her new trainer Hermana Monroy.

More to come next week :)

Last week in Mexico!

Hola familia y amigos!!!

On Monday we had our one month anniversary!! We celebrated with some York peppermint patties. Its crazy how fast the time has gone. I leave Monday at 3 in the morning which is 2 your time. I have loved the CCM but I'm excited to go out and experience new things. I think I have grown a lot as a person so far but I still have a long ways to go. I have made such good friends with all of my district! I love them all so much and its going to be really hard to leave them all. Good thing 5 of us are going together and will see each other through out the mission. The worst part is that my bestest friends here are all going  far away. I am going to miss my teachers a lot too. They are seriously the best! They have taught me so much, We have also had super good devotionals here and the last two we have had have been all in Spanish and I understand them completely. This Sunday is going to be super sad. After the Sunday movie we sing “God Be With You Till We Meet Again” and they have a slideshow of all the missionaries leaving. This week that is going to be us. Its so crazy.

I have thought a lot this week on how I can become the missionary that the Lord needs me to be. I have decided that I really do come up short but I know that if I trust Heavenly Father and give my will to him,  he will bless me and help me to become all that I can be.

I think the biggest thing I have to offer is my heart. I can understand people, I can see their needs, Like it says in my patriarchal blessing: I have the ability to see people as God sees them, not as they are but as they can become by living the gospel. I might not always be able to express my feelings or explain myself perfectly but I can feel their needs and hopefully through just my spirit and love, I can touch them. I have been reading my patriarchal blessing almost everyday and there is always something in there I need.

I also think another thing I have to offer is that fact that my whole life has been miracle after miracle and blessing after blessing because I am a member of the church. I know that I can show people that God really does bless us for being obedient. I think we have to remind investigators and less-actives that the church is strengthened by everyone who is a part of it. Their story could help someone else. I have always been a little jealous of converts because I feel like their conversions are so much deeper and stronger. “Every soul is great in the sight of God.” (D&C 18:10)  He needs you. He needs all of us to work together.

Yesterday I read a lot in Jacob. I have never realized how powerful and direct he spoke to the people. I was amazed at the boldness of his words, especially towards the men. I loved the last verse of chapter 2. He speaks so directly the priesthood holders.  I also love in that chapter how much it emphasizes that fact that Heavenly Father is aware of the women of the church and always hears their prayers. I have really learned to love the Book of Mormon here. I have learned so much, I have never read the Book of Mormon in the way that we have been shown here. It is really awesome! There is so much more I wish I could talk to you about but there is just not enough time! I love you so much and I am so grateful for your example and your love!
I love you all very much and I pray for you all the time!

Here is a video of the group on the one month anniversary! :)

Love, Hermana Montgomery

Patience and Promptings

This week has been good. I have learned a lot about patience this week. I am starting to get a little stir crazy here. During one class time we went and had to teach solo. The kid I was teaching didn't know any English and it was super frustrating. but I learned to just be patient. Then after we went and taught lessons with a Latino branch and all them were really impressed with my Spanish. But there are some other experiences I want to share that I think are more important than the little things.

We had a really cool experience with one of our investigators. We went to teach him and we could see through the door that he was praying so we gave him so time and we prayed to. We knocked and as we opened the door he look like he was about to cry. We went in and started talking to me and then I gave the opening prayer. It was probably one of the best prayers I have ever prayed. The words just came and then we starting giving our lesson and it was going so smooth. Then we were sharing our testimonies and he told us that he felt like God couldn't forgive him anymore. That he had sinned too many times and he was really upset. I shared a scripture and then one of my companions shared an experience and then I asked if he wanted to pray and he said that he would after we left. I can't describe in words the way I felt. I was finding scriptures like nobody's business. It was incredible. He even started crying in the lesson. After it was all over we said a closing prayer and then we went outside and we were all so in awe about what has just happened. We said a prayer thanking Heavenly Father for helping us and for that experience. I think I experienced a little portion of the love Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ have for us. It was absolutely incredible. One of the best experiences I have had here.

The other one happened today. We went to the visitors center and we took a tour and after we were kinda standing in the foyer and we were like lets go take pictures in the other room. But one elder quickly peeked his head back into the room with the Cristus and we hear Hermana F?? So we all run over there and yelled HERMANA F.!!!!! We ran over and hugged her a she started sobbing. She had just gotten out of class and came to the visitors center to feel better and talk to one of her old companions who is serving there. She hugged us and said you are an answer to my prayers. It was the coolest experience. She took pictures with us and walked around for a while. She took us to the store and I bought a really cool scripture case for 95 pesos. So 9 dollars. It was just so crazy that she was like oh I'll go to the visitors center and we just happened to be there and see her. It was really cool and she was like see you tonight!! I seriously love her so much!!!

There are tons of stories I want to tell you but I don't have time! Maybe I will write them in a letter and send them to you once I get to California. I wish I could just email all day but AIN'T NOBODY GOT TIME FOR THAT!!!

I love you all and thank you for your prayers. Please pray for my investigators.

LOVE HERMANA MONTGOMERY!!

Humility and Blessings :)

It is crazy that I am halfway done here. Time goes so fast!

My Spanish isn't as spectacular as I think it should be but its coming along. Mostly just review. It is pretty hard to explain the gospel in Spanish. There are tons of things I want to say but don't know how. When we teach our investigators we do it in companionship.

I got some letters this week. It made me really happy. I still am really sick. I don't have a stuffy nose or cough anymore but my throat and ears hurt a lot but I'm on some antibiotics right now so I should be good soon.

So the 5 of us going to Cali leaving on Monday the 3rd and then some elders leave on the fourth and my companions leave on the 5th. This week is going to hard. Our volleyball friends are leaving this week and every Sunday we sing God Be With You Till We Meet Again and they put all the people who are leaving pictures up and so we are all going to be balling. They are seriously our only friends here.

This week has been so humbling. I have really realized how much I have taken for granted in my life. We were discussing as a district going to conference and everyone was like oh I've been 2 times or once. Some have never been. I just thought of how many times I havent been. Then we talked about prophets and I felt so lucky that I was there when Thomas S Monson was sustained and to sit with him in the temple and to be part of building and dedicating a temple. It just seems like everything this week has reminded me of how blessed I have been. We learned about the book of mormon and why the book of mormon is so crucial to our conversion. I realize that I really never appreciated it in my life. I have had so many blessings and I am just now realizing that I really am grateful for them.

I love you all and I am having a good time here. It isn't always easy but it is worth it.

Love,
Hermana Montgomery

Hometown Hick!

I don't want to try the papaya again!

The lessons with our investigator went really well. The second one wasnt so great. I had a hard time explaining the preisthood to her in spanish. I kind of got frusterated with myself because I couldnt get the words out right. But I think she still got the point. The next lesson we taught her was on the Plan of Salvation. It was amazing. I was able to explain everything and I basically have been teaching the lessons all by myself with little injections from my companions every once in a while.The lesson was incredible and I was able to bear to her my testimony that I know that I will see my loved ones again and that families can be together forever. Everyday I am here I appreciate that more and more.

This week I have had to deal with some stuff that has been especially hard with my companions and I just realize how much I appreciate and love my family and my Egbert family as well.  I have also learned that there is a reason we have priesthood in the church to take care of things we cant deal with ourselves. So after the third lesson with our investigator, we found out that she is actually one of our teachers. She is amazing. She is like the only consistent teacher we have here. She is so sweet and goes above and beyond for us. So how investigators work here is teachers pick someone in their life that they know really well and represent them. They have noticed changes in the lives of the real people. It is really cool. So now we are teaching her again but as her other friend. But this week she is bringing real nonmember friends. So thats a little nervewracking. We also have another investigator. Our first lesson with him was ok but it wasn't super great, sometimes are easier than others.

So all the elders in my disctrict think I that I wear overalls and ring a bell for dinner like in 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. They all talk to me in a hick accent and it is hilarious. They also think I am so funny. They are always laughing at what I say and it makes me feel good.

Here is a picture of my zone at the Mexico City Temple!

So I have to clarify on the weather. It is usually warm outside but the classrooms are freezing. They are cinder block and there is no central heating and they leave the doors open at night so they turn into little freezers. I wear my winter coat everyday and leggings under my skirts. This is the coldest I have ever been in my life. Like right now my fingers are like icicles. Also morning and nights here are freezing because of the humidity. I hate humidity. It makes you so cold and my hair is always frizzing.

The other night we had tamales and they were the best tamales I have ever had in my whole life!!! They were so delicious. They also feed us Costco pizza once a week. Its awesome.

O|H MY GOSH!!!!! I have to mention this!! So the whole time we have been here I have been so upset that there is no ice here. Everything is lukewarm. Then one night there was a tub of ice next to the juice machine and I almost started crying becuase I was so happy. I even said thank you for the ice in my dinner prayer. I carried around a cup of it for the rest of the night and just sucked on it. Then the elders informed me that they usually have ice but I think they were lying. But they have had it a couple times since and I have been so happy.

Bad news, I have been sick all week. I have had the worst sore throat and cough and stuffy. It has been mostly tolerable but it has made this week kinda rough. One day I barely had a voice at all.

Cool story!! We have a service project every Tuesday and this week we started out in the giant laundry room and I learned how to properly fold fitted sheets. Something I never expected to learn here. But after a few minutes we were called out to go help another lady so we went and she told us that we would be cleaning a house and we were like ugh not again. We did that last week and it wasn't too bad but this week we were scrubbing walls and the elders where scrapping black mold off of the ceilings in the bathrooms. It was absolutley disgusting. The one bathroom was so nasty and she said that she had already been cleaning in there for 4 hours. When we were almost done she gathered us up for a picture and was just thanking us for helping her and she started crying. She said that what we did in 90 minutes would have taken her 4 days and she was so grateful for our help. It was so sweet. I learned a lot about cleanliness and serving others. On the way she said to us SERVICE OPENS DOORS. That is so true.

This week we had a class on the Book of Mormon and it was really awesome. We only read a few versus from chapter one of first Nephi but the way we did it and discussed it, I learned more in the 30 minutes that I did reading the whole Book of Mormon. It was really cool and so in personal study time I applied it and I got so much more out of it.

This week has been great and challenging all at the same time. I have learned a lot of patience and a lot about myself. I love you all and am grateful for all the examples I have had in my life. I love you all.

Love,
Hermana Montgomery

Week 1!

Happy New Year!

There are cannons that go off here all the time. They are supposedly fireworks but we never see them. New Years night was crazy!! We could hardly sleep it was so loud.

My district is amazing!! There are 9 of us and 5 of us are going to LA. Our co-district leaders are Elder M. and Elder S.-he is hilarious!!! Then we have some really fun elders in my zone. I am in a tripanionship. My companions are Hermana C. from Carnation, Washington and Hermana L. from Utah. They are the only ones in the CCM (MTC in Spanish)  going to Independence, Missouri. They are very different but we are having a good time. Except day 3. Hermana C. cried all day and we were all really frustrated with each other. But we are all good now.

So our third day here the entire other district in our zone left so we are the only ones left in our zone. Some new missionaries got here yesterday but so far none of them are in our zone.

On our third day we had to teach our new investigator. She is 29, divorced, works at a factory making wet suits, and her sister is on a mission, and all of her family are members. We taught her about the atonement and the spirit was so strong. I just started bearing my testimony and words were just coming out of my mouth so fast and I wasn't even thinking about it. It was so awesome and she started crying. All four of us were crying. Then yesterday we taught her again about Joseph Smith and baptism and she accepted the offer to be baptized. I struggled a little more in that lesson because I was trying to answer her questions about the priesthood but I couldn't really convey what i wanted to say because I didn't know the words in Spanish and she speaks no English. It is really awesome to teach her, She is so sweet and I already love her so much.

We get to play beach volleyball everyday and its super fun. There is an elder here from Ririe. I recognized him the first day and I knew he was a wrestler but we cant figure out where we have met before so we just have this unspoken connection that we cant figure out. He is short and tiny but super funny. He reminds me of the Satyers in Chronciles of Narnia. There is also an elder here and he laughs just like Jacob Meiers. Its kinda creepy how similar it is but it makes me feel at home. So much has happened here already and there isn't enough time to talk about everything.

The food here is pretty good. They have a menu at the door but it doesn't help much. A lot of it looks pretty weird but it tastes good. And the tortillas here are the best! They also have cereal and nutella available for breakfast and lunch. But a quick story....Edgar told me the best fruit is in Mexico so one day at lunch I decided to try some new fruit. The one I had tasted like honeydew and was ok. The other one I got was like a sunset orange color. I brought it up to my mouth and it smelt kinda weird but I took a bite anyways. WORST IDEA EVER!!!!! IT TASTED LIKE VOMIT. Like I had just thrown up. It was absolutely disgusting!! I found out the next day it is Papaya. Yep never again!!

Today we got to go to the temple. It was so big and beautiful. There are escalators that take you up and down floors. Everything was plated in gold and the chandelier in the Celestial room had 13 layers and each layer looked like a 8 pointed star. It was so pretty and there were so many angles and stuff it was really cool. The only weird thing was that you stayed in the same room the whole time.

The bus ride to the temple was crazy!! Grandma was right about the traffic here. You just go. We almost killed a couple motorcyclists. the town is so colorful and lively and there are street vendors everywhere. It was awesome. They are shutting down the temple this Saturday for a year and a half so we just made it. But we get to go back to the visitors center in 2 weeks.

Well I'm almost out of time but things are going great here and the weather is nice. We got sunburns yesterday.

Love you
Hermana Montgomery