"Didn't I have a principal by that name?"

My comps did not come and get me at the airport. Imagine my surprise to see President Slaughter standing there waiting for me as I left the plane. I was able to spend the whole day with President and the new missionaries. I spent a decent amount of time riding in his car, just the two of us, and I was able to pick his brain on some things. He asked about what I had observed in the Atlanta mission and I was able to pick up some good study ideas. I was with the Assistants to help pick up the missionaries and I went to the Alamo and helped them pass out copies of the Book of Mormon. I even got to test my Spanish with a man who was from Chile! We ate dinner at the mission home and had some absolutely delicious brisket. Of course, the reason that I stayed with the Assistants all day was because I MADE IT UP TO AUSTIN!!! I'm in the city of Round Rock in the Brushy Creek ward. I can already tell this will probably be a great area. The members are super missionary minded and accountable to the goals they set. It's a fairly well off ward, similar to ours without most of the Shiloh area. I had In n Out for the first time and it was soooo good!!! My companions are Elder H and Elder H and they are both ballers. Elder H is probably the next best player and Elder H is pretty good, too. Elder H goes home on January 3rd. We have too much fun together! 

Our apartment is fairly nice. Nothing too crazy. We have access to perhaps the best gym in the mission because there's a member who's a personal trainer who lives in the apartment complex next to us. We also play basketball with a bunch of church members and their friends every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. I'm getting lots of exercise in. We're being fed every day. In fact, my first dinner, a member took us out to a great wings place called Pluckers. He's from Idaho Falls and he asked what your family name was and so I said Holtom. Then he looked at me and said, "Didn't I have a principal by that name?" His name is Doug A. 

Good to hear Katie played some good minutes. If she keeps working, she'll be able to play a lot. I did hear about the games, in pretty decent detail actually. There are a lot of Utes fans here and one of them even googled me before I met him. I was flattered. The Bishop here is super cool and he said he was in the MUSS before it was even famous. So I've got the hook up there. 

Our party is this Wednesday. We have a great investigator named B. He's super close to getting baptized. He came to a baptism and ward Christmas party on Saturday and church yesterday. He is the man! Our party is on Wednesday. I love being a missionary again!!! It's tremendous that I get to preach, speak, and teach of Jesus Christ, especially during this wonderful season of Christmas. There really is nothing else I'd rather be doing!

Love,

Elder Montgomery

10 feet isn't enough room and BOOOM!!!

Warning! Before you embark on reading this, you must promise not to cry, call President Slaughter, get worried, or doing anything else crazy. 

No I actually didn't ruin any pants or shirts thankfully. It wasn't too bad of a crash. That's good Katie is doing well. Hopefully she'll start enjoying it more. She can be pretty good. 

Time for transfer news! Dum dum dum. I will be..... staying another transfer here in Timber Ridge. Elder J will be

 leaving and going Zone Leader, just like I called. Hahaha that's funny about Elder H. Elder T sounds like a pretty funny guy.  We have transfers on Thanksgiving and them I'm sure I'll gain 20 lbs from eating so much. It's pretty much just party hopping when you're a missionary during the holidays. I'll see if they can take a picture. That's awesome about the U! They're going to be really good in a couple of years for sure. Packages are left in the apartment office and they have to be signed out. Warm clothing includes gloves, beanies, ear warmers, heavy duty jacket, scarfs, etc. Any of the above would be great since I'll probably be on bike for another 3 months during the winter. 

Wait hold up!  Madeline can't go on dates until I'm back. Elder J was telling me about how much his sister has changed since he left and it's crazy. It's not allowed! 

Okay time for the craziness.  So Tuesday night we were biking down the main road to get to baptismal interview that Elder J had to do. It's pretty smooth sailing like usual until we hit a little traffic. The traffic was sitting at a red light and we were just going down the bike line to get to the light. A car starts to pull out of a restaurant to merge into the lane right as Elder J goes by but it stops and Elder J avoids it. I'm probably about 30 feet behind Elder J at this point and I'm thinking to myself that was a close one. About 10 feet away from the car, it starts pulling out again even after it almost hit Elder J and I was right behind him. I slam the brakes on as hard as I can and try to maneuver out of the way but 10 feet isn't enough room and BOOOM!!! I hit his front hood and fly over the corner of his hood. So yes, I can now say that I've been hit by a car. It was as low impact as it can get but I can nevertheless say that I've been hit. The moral of the story is that when we see obstacles coming up, we shouldn't just assume that we'll be able to swerve around them and dodge them in traffic. We should be cautious and rely on the Lord to help us get through them. Obstacles are very dangerous. Thankfully, I only came out with two bruised knees, a sore shoulder and triceps, and a decently scraped up elbow. My bike's chain came off but it's fixed and there was hardly a scratch on the car. So it's been a pretty good week besides the freezing and the rain. Being on the bike in this weather is no fun at all but we did a good amount of teaching. Stay safe in Georgia.

Love,

Elder Montgomery

I cut it too sharp and BOOM!

I had a good week like always. We have mission conference with Elder Golden tomorrow. He's the General Authority from South Africa.  We ate dinner last night at the B's and he served Spanish speaking in Boston and guess who his mission president was? Dale Murphy of course! That's definitely interesting about Zach's ACL being split into two. Crazy how that kind of stuff in the bodyworks. He had visitors all weekend? I could hardly get any visitors for getting my wisdom teeth out. I guess I'm just not cool enough like him. That's good that Katie's achilles is getting better. At least someone was playing in Meet the Lions to keep the tradition alive. Sounds like Katie's team is stacked.  Following in the footsteps of her other big brother. McDermott, my boy! What a stud! And that's awesome about Jabari. I hope he's able to get some good missionary opportunities out of it. . Well I am the Golden Child after all! Usually! Sometimes! Occasionally! On a good day, at least. 

I thought you'd be interested to hear that I had my first crash on Monday. We were in a hurry to an appointment about 8 o clock and we were going down a huge hill and had to turn right onto a street. I got a little cocky and barely touched the brakes. When I turned the corner, I cut it too sharp and BOOM! My bike and I started tumbling and flipping. Of course, knowing my athletic prowess, I landed on my feet. That part isn't even a joke. You can do some crazy things when adrenaline is going like that. Luckily, I only had a couple of scrapes, nothing bad at all. I was so mad, though that I took off my helmet and threw it on the ground. I was convinced that I was going to make it the whole transfer without a crash.We always have to remember to stay humble or else we'll crash and fall. We have trials to humble us and not get cocky.It was pretty funny. I also think you'd like to know that my bike seat is as high as it goes right now. It's a miracle worker! Keep biking in Georgia or I'll come back and be able to get up Everest faster than you! (dad)

Love,

Elder Montgomery

One Hour to Pack

"It will only take me one hour to pack"... Austin Montgomery..

"For two years? Sure it will! "....Mom

Sunbeams to Missionary's

These three future missionary's have been buds since Sunbeams!

Gino (middle) has been called to Brazil he leaves in two days May 29

Stephen (left) has been called to Peru, he leaves June 5

and Austin, who leaves June 12th.

How cool that they all may end up in the MTC together.

Gino and Stephen were originally called to report to MTC's outside of the USA, but you know how Visa's can cause a disruption in plans sometimes.

Our little ward in the South, will have 8 missionaries out!

How cool is that?