Why is is that we Celebrate the New Year??

I would rotate my shoes but the first pair is already destroyed. The quality of the shoes just isn't very good. The tops of the shoes scrape off and the soles come off easily (before the glue). They should last a couple more months and then I'll buy some nice ones. Marzipan is a very nice little kitten. The angle did kind of make it look like I was going to crush it. But I really wasn't! Everyone is sick right now. We only had around half our ward yesterday because a lot of the families got knocked out by some sort of Cedar Fever or some other sickness with a tree in it. No I didn't find it too hard to refocus after our Christmas call. I think with e-mail and stuff it makes it a lot easier to not become unfocused after a call. The girlfriend thing is a different matter. I'd say in over 90% of cases, one shouldn't have a girlfriend while on a mission. Kind of limits the number of letters you get from different people, right? :) But it can be distracting for a lot of missionaries. Not all. But most

For the real message now. Why is it that we celebrate the New Year? I venture to suppose that it is because it's the pinnacle of both wisdom and hope. One may look back at the past year with a complete view at all of the things they have accomplished, learned, and not achieved. Yet at the same time, the New Year offers so much hope. It's the perfect time to look at the past year's successes and then make PLANS on how you can build on it in the coming year. Too often we make New Years Goals or Resolutions without make plans. A goal without a plan is almost guaranteed to be forgotten by February. Make plans on how you can better yourself this coming year. Take something you did well last year and build upon it. Say you read the scriptures once a week this past year. That's a good start! Don't jump into despair because of the other 6 days. Build upon the positive. Make a goal to read the scriptures every day and then make some plans. For example, I will set my alarm 15 minutes earlier and use that time to read the scriptures and start my day off right. I will keep myself accountable by telling everyone about my goal so that they may help me succeed. Plans are the key to success! Make plans to be better missionaries! Beware of the idea that "All is well in Zion." The Lord's work never stops. Not after Sunday, not after your mission, and not after this mortal life. Esfuércese a hacer todo posible! We are the laborers in the allegory of the vineyard in Jacob. Have a very Happy New Years and please be safe/smart.

Les quiero,

Elder Montgomery

Watching Over the Very Flock that Represented their King

My birthday was quite excellent! I have so many goodies right now that I'm dying! It's all so tasty but so fattening! We're making a New Years Resolution to eat a lot better and work out better. I will be calling. Our mission hasn't been approved yet to use Skype or iPads so that probably won't happen until September. Unless, of course, you're out of the country on Mother's Day. We had Christmas conference this past week and it was so awesome! I was able to see Elder G and Elder J and Elder G and Elder L and all those cool guys! It was a great time! 

President Slaughter spent a couple hours just teaching us about some of the events surrounding Christ's birth, including a lot about angels. One thing that really stuck out to me was the background surrounding the shepherds. Luke 2:8 says "And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night." How interesting that there were many shepherds tending to just one flock! The meaning behind this has been proposed to us by modern day leaders, that this very flock was the one in which the sacrificial lambs were being raised. That is why there was more than one shepherd tending to the flock. The lambs of the flock were the one that were going to be used in the temple ceremony as a representation of the Lamb of God. How appropriate that the angel (not an angel, but THE angel probably inferring that it is Gabriel) appeared to the shepherds watching over the very flock that represented their king! No one understood better than them what the birth of the Savior represented! May we all grow to have that understanding and appreciation, especially during this Christmas season! 
Merry Christmas y Feliz Navidad!

Love,

Elder Montgomery

Birthday Week should be Pretty Awesome!

Utah smoked BYU?? That is most excellent news indeed! I'll make sure to let every BYU fan know about it. For real? Rand Rowland is a walk on player at Georgia Tech? Good for him. That's pretty cool. And that's awesome about Eric playing for Creighton. That's an amazing experience to be able to learn from such a great player and coach. I'm glad that G is doing better. That's so unreal that that happened.
That's awesome that you got to be with Elder B and his family! Wichita isn't too bad, I guess. He'll probably be full car for his mission. It's going well with Elder F. I'm guessing that you've talked to his mom a good bit from all of the questions. No we haven't had anymore accidents. I do not think that I'll be able to Skype but I'll ask President in interviews this week. 
It's been pretty slow lately. Most of our appointments have fallen through or something crazy will happen. We should have a lot more to talk about by next week. We are not trialing yet. The rumor is that we won't be getting them until September :/ But I'm sure we'll all get along until then. I did get everything I think. It was pretty stuffed. It's okay about the Christmas tree. Someone in the ward already gave us one. It's okay I really don't need much. Receiving letters is just as good as a present. It is a present! 
Birthday week should be pretty awesome! We're going on exchanges on my birthday and we're eating dinner with a basketball obsessed family. It should be good. And we went on exchanges this past week and I was with Elder B who is our new zone leader. If the name sounds familiar, it's because he was in the district with me over in Mission Creek. We sang in the ward choir yesterday for the Christmas program. It was good and fun! It wasn't Centerville and wasn't the same without Sister Regan directing us, but it was still a great experience! We actually went and saw Handel's Messiah 2 weeks ago. I thought Sister Regan would like to know that. One of the sisters in the stake puts it on every year and it is top notch. Pretty much everyone is trained and has been in some sort of production. There are lots of teachers and there was one who was in Vocal Point for 3 years. It was super awesome! It'll be a nice warm week so no jacket! That's pretty good news. You should hopefully get a picture on my birthday. I'll see what can be arranged. 
I have started reading the Christmas letters. I just read the dime one last night and I have the dime in my pocket right now. 

I've changed my approach to reading the Book of Mormon this transfer. I'm soaking it in verse by verse and learning different, almost random things from each verse. I'm still in chapter 2 of 1 Nephi. I usually only get through around 3 verses. In 1 Nephi 1:20, Nephi says, "But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender ^cmercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of ^ddeliverance." From this simple half verse, we learn that Nephi already knows what he is going to write. These events that he is recounting have already occurred and he's taking the important things to show unto us, the people of the last days. He tells us that he is writing for us and our day. Everything he writes has thought and effort put into it. It's up to us to find out what it is. For one thing, he prefaces the rest of his writings by saying he will show us the tender mercies of the Lord. This will be his focus for the rest of 1 Nephi. We learn how the Lord will always deliver the righteous. We must constantly be on the lookout for examples of this and then learn from them. I testify that Nephi was a prophet here on the American continent and that his account is for us in these last days. We can learn many things from this great prophet including how to trust the Lord even in the darkest of times and severest of trials. 

Love,

Elder Montgomery

The Pioneers were not Simple Minded Followers who gave their Lives for Naught.

Hmmmm I don't know too much about all this "dating" stuff. There seems to be a lot more of it going on since I left. Wow they really beat Towns?!? Is that a reflection of us or of Towns? I had a feeling that with the past couple years that Coach Pete might be leaving. At least it wasn't to a dastardly SEC school like UGA! :) Ha-Ha!
That's awesome about Zach and BYU-HI! You really do have to start all of the mission stuff pronto. That would be awesome if Elder H. Weiler went there as well.
I'm not getting lots of packages and gifts. Yet. I'm still holding out hope. Tis the season..That'll be a good time with Elder B and his family.  The ward is doing well. It's definitely the loudest ward I've ever been in. Soooo many screaming babies it's crazy. It's hard to concentrate.. (mom insert, "no worries son, you aren't the only one".) 
The holidays keep us busy with meetings and other stuff but it's a lot harder to meet with people. I did indeed have to use the cold weather clothes this past week. It was literally below freezing. The coat and gloves did wonders! No more accidents at all. Some close calls but no accidents. :) 

Something interesting I read recently by President Benson was about the timeline of the Restoration and the Book of Mormon. The first thing that happened was the First Vision and in it, God revealed to Joseph Smith the nature of the Godhead and also the important work he had to do. But the very next grand event was the translation of the Book of Mormon. Before the priesthood was restored, before the Church was organized, before temples, the Book of Mormon was translated and published. Does this not reveal to us the importance that God places on the Book of Mormon? Should we not also regard this book in the same light? The Book of Mormon is the keystone to our religion. Those who escudrinar the Book of Mormon and then pray with real intent will come to know of its divine origins. The pioneers were not simple minded followers who gave their lives for naught. Yet if we continue to set the Book of Mormon aside, we will trample the value of these honorable men and women. I give my testimony that the Book of Mormon is true. Put my name to it and my very soul. To quote Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, "I want it absolutely clear when I stand before the judgment bar of God that I declared to the world, in the most straightforward language I could summon, that the Book of Mormon is true." No tengo ninguna duda. En el nombre de Jesus Cristo, Amen.

Con amor,

Elder Montgomery 

The Light of the Sun, Moon, and Stars, Come Directly from Christ

My companion's name is Elder F. He is from Kaysville, Utah. He has been out close to 14 months. He is about 5'10" ish or so? We get along well. I do miss Elder J. He went over to Randolph to be the East ZL. I'm not sore any more from the bike crash but I still have a couple of bruises.

Thank you very much for the package. As luck would have it, it's been too warm to use anything since I got it. I'm sure I'll put it all to good use once January and February rolls around. The gloves do fit so no worries there. We do have the Christmas scent in and it's a welcome relief. Our apartment usually would smell like weed so Christmas is a welcome smell. No word yet on calls or skyping yet. We can pretty much call anytime of the day so I'll let you know the Monday before Christmas what time I'll be calling. 

Oh goodness gracious Ben is singing @ Candlelight? They've created a monster! What do I need for Christmas? I honestly don't really need anything. I can always eat treats. I guess I'll try to think of something I could use but right now I don't know. 

So as we all know, it was transfer meeting this past week. What people don't know though, is that I had to go to the pulpit and do a Book of Mormon share in front of all the missionaries in San Antonio. It was probably about 45 seconds and I talked about Thanksgiving. I was so nervous. Craziness! Thanksgiving was fun! I didn't remember to have anyone take and send a picture but I'll try and do that sometime this week. 

I'm teaching seminary tomorrow. Originally, Elder J was going to teach but he left so now I have to teach about his training. So this stuff is not an Elder Montgomery original. The question came to Elder J's mind about Abinadi. What makes it so that Abinadi glows/shines? There are a few other examples where this happens including Moses, Nephi and Lehi the sons of Helaman, and of course, Christ. We read in Doctrine and Covenants 88 that all light and power, including the light of the sun, moon, and stars, come directly from Christ and his acts. Christ even declares that he is "the light of the world." All light in the entire universe comes directly because of Christ. One other thing we know is that every person is born with the light of Christ (Moroni 7:18). Everyone is inherently light at birth. So it is established that any light, whether the sun or a human, comes directly from God. What then determines how much light is in a person and gives the appearance of shining? Luke 11:34 gives us the answer to this. "The light of the body is the eye: therefore, when thine eye is single (to the glory of God), thy whole body also is full of light." The old adage "The eye is the window to the soul" is the absolute truth. Lift up thine eyes to the glory of God and do the things which he has asked us. When keeping the commandments, one is glorifying God and also submitting themselves to him. Their eyes look up and have not cast down their gaze to darkness. Continue to look up to God and keep his commandments.

This light is not something made up. People can physically tell the difference of somebody who has the light of Christ radiating from within themselves and those that don't. I share an example Elder J and I had a few weeks ago. We were knocking doors when this one guy opened the door. Before anyone could say anything, we both knew that he was a member keeping the commandments. There was a certain light in him that we were able to discern. People see this light in us. Maybe they don't understand it but they certainly recognize something different. Do not be ashamed of it. It is the light of Christ burning within! Have a good start to December!

Love,

Elder Montgomery