I'm Just Hoping He Goes Spanish Speaking!

Alright! Hooray that you think the call is coming this week and happy he has been assigned a call. This will be the LONGEST week of waiting. Opening it Sunday evening sounds like a plan! Since I probably won't be able to be a part of it live, I'd rather wait and watch a video of it on Monday so it feels like I'm there. I'm just hoping he goes Spanish speaking! It always feels weird to see basketball on tv nowadays. Or just tv in general. I've gotten to the point where I just feel like a missionary and I can't imagine anything else. That's sad that Matt already left but it will be great to have so many people tuned in for Zach's Mission Call.
 We actually got a brand new bishopric yesterday. The new bishop is definitely younger than Dad. But he basically did exactly what Bro Frandsen is going to do. He was in the Bishopric for a few months and then he became the new bishop. So make sure you tell him that for me :) My companion is great! Elder Snow is a ton of fun! I've been blessed with really good companions so far! 
 That's very true about the pioneers. When it was cold and rainy and we were on the bikes, I could not figure out how in the world the Pioneers were able to go through the snow. It was just no fun. But they did indeed leave their legacy. They were not fools. They were not blind mice following a false prophet. Some of the most intellectual and noble minds were a part of that group. They were not deceived. They knew exactly what they were doing. The commandments of the Lord override all else. Perhaps people will think we are weird or even maybe crazy. But they would do it all over again in a heart beat. And so would I. I don't think there's any coincidence that the message of 1 Nephi 3:7 in found in the first pages of the Book of Mormon. I will go and do the thing which the Lord commands for he does provide a way. The Lord doth provide. Trust in that promise and keep his commandments.

Love,

Elder Montgomery

Hahaha I do remember feeling the same way. I'm sure glad I'm not in school right now. It does feel like I just graduated, though and I was dressed up all silly with the gloves and whatnot. The CDs in Spanish,It should work. We listen to other talks in the car so I'm sure that one will. Oh I'm excited now!!! Being able to hear and read doctrine in different languages adds so much more to the depth of my understanding. Sometimes it's just expressed better in Spanish.  I'm doing great! I really don't need anything. Just make sure Zach has good, durable stuff. Good shoes, pants, shirts and suits. Especially suits.. I'm super excited for Zach's call! It'll be so much fun! Have a fun week!

Love,

Elder Montgomery

PS Elder Snow his companinion, is much more informative of what they did during the week. You can read it here. http://eldermasonsnow.blogspot.com/2014/04/loving-new-area.html

The Mission is the Ultimate Refiner's Fire.

It's definitely interesting to be back covering the same area. It's like going back to middle school and realizing how much you've changed. I honestly had no idea what I was doing. And I'm sure in 6 months I'll look back and say the exact same thing. The mission is the ultimate refiner's fire and if you're willing to push yourself, you will see tremendous growth. Well since it was conference, there weren't a whole ton of people there at the building, but the ones that were there were pretty surprised to see me again. I can claim to have served in every single ward in that building. Yes we were both surprised that we were being doubled in. They gave us no heads up. But it's okay because the last Elder who was there became a Zone Leader and he had the area super nice and organized for us. It's going well with Elder S. It's really, really weird having a companion younger than me now. I've been the youngest in every single one of my districts since I started. I am very excited to be back in the district. We have some of the nicest apartments in the mission so I cannot complain one bit. Elder G is not still around. He was actually in my zone last transfer. 

General conference was as good as I could have ever hoped for. I honestly can say I loved it more than Christmas! I was just so uplifted by the speakers. One of my favorite would definitely have to be by Elder Uchtdorf about gratitude. Rather than being grateful for things, we must be grateful in things. It is imperative that we have an attitude of gratitude! Rather than drinking from the bottle of bitterness, we should raise up to our lips the goblet of gratitude. No matter what we have or where we are, we should be grateful and cheerful. Nothing will drive out the bitterness like a good dose of thankfulness. Another one of my favorites was Elder Oaks' discourse during the Priesthood session about how we all work under the power and authority of the Priesthood. It is my sincere prayer that we will take what we have learned from Conference and apply it. As Elder Hales said in the October Conference, the greatest blessings come afterwards. If you haven't yet had a chance to see all of conference, I encourage that you do so by going to LDS.org. Soon the talks will be uploaded for both watching and reading. Lives do truly change because of Conference. Have a tremendous Spring Break!

Love,

Elder Montgomery

I'm Leaving Adams Hill this Week

Drumroll please.

For transfers,

We will start with the Heritage A companionship. Elder Le S is staying and Elder C is leaving. And now for Adams Hill. Elder McM is staying and will be finishing his mission in Adams Hill. Elder Montgomery is....... leaving! Elder McM will be training a new missionary during his last transfer. 

So I'm leaving Adams Hill this week. I've really enjoyed these three months here and I've definitely become a much better missionary and person during this time (Lots of thanks goes to Elder McM for that). I may even say that this has been one of my favorite areas! I've absolutely loved it! Now we'll see where I'll be spending General Conference! 

Guesses for Zach:

Elder McM- Japan Tokyo

Elder Le S- California Arcadia

Elder C- California San Francisco

Me- California Ventura

So it looks like Zach might be going to California. 

It's quite unfortunate to hear about BYU-HI but it will all work out I'm sure. I'd definitely look into Westminster. Other than that, I don't really have any other ideas right now. Sounds like it should be a pretty busy and exciting week! 

It is indeed starting to warm up here in Texas. Thank goodness. I would much rather be on a bike in the summer than in the winter. 

We had a very interesting week. So my shoes were absolutely trashed. I'm sending them home so you can bronze them. But there was more tape than shoe so they weren't very functional. We called the mission office to see what they could do and they could only find one store nearby who had size 16 shoes. The name of the store is Big Shoes and they actually have a site online.  I'd say with Zach's shoes to make sure that you just go ahead and get the super durable name brand shoes and stay as far away as possible from the shoes I had. It's definitely worth it and much cheaper in the long run. On Saturday, I was on exchanges with Elder M in Heritage B. It was great fun! We talked to a lot of people and rode about 20 miles! I did somehow, however, manage to mangle my front rim. It's bent pretty badly but still barely rideable. I'm going to see if I can get it fixed when I go to Transfers. 

I'm so very excited for General Conference this weekend!!! I can honestly say that I look more forward to Conference than I do Christmas. There is so much spiritual nourishment that it takes 6 months to soak it all in! I invite all to listen to and watch conference. Take notes. We have living prophets today so we should make sure we know what they are talking about. What a blessing it is to live in this day and time in which we can instantly hear and see these men and women of God! Soak in Conference for all its worth, and then apply what you learn. 

Love,

Elder Montgomery

To Padre:

Wow! Spring break already! I feel like the school year just started! You definitely need to go do some biking! Just make sure you don't bend your rim like I did this week :)! That would be fun to have them go to some camps during the summer! It can definitely be hard but maybe this is your chance to really learn volleyball, just like you tried to with football and baseball! Oh I'm definitely not the perfect child! Close, but not quite :) I'm sure you'd be interested to know that my English has become gradually worse with the more Spanish I speak. Don't be surprised if I say some funny sounding things. I'll try to remember to do some video diaries. I just lose track of the time sometimes. I can't believe I'm already getting transferred! I'm trying to take more pictures so hopefully that will help me remember. Have a good week and have fun at Smoothie King on Saturday.

Love,

Elder Montgomery

I'm Excited for Zach!!! About the Mission Papers!

Oh I knew Duncan would go to Arizona!!! He'll do great! I'm excited for Zach!!! About the mission papers! And who knows about BYU-H? Maybe it will end up being for the best? I'll send you back the National Merit thing but the biggest problem right now is that I still don't know which semester I'll start. I'll leave the month up for you to decide so you can choose whichever one would be easiest to change. I am definitely still planning on going to Utah. The baptism went tremendous and I sent some photos. Nothing too interesting this week except I went to the temple!!! Tremendous experience to say the least!!! The biking is still going, that's for sure. We had good dinners. I'm out of time today but I'll let you know about transfer news next week. Who knows! And don't worry about the bracket. That'll distract me a little more than I'd like, unfortunately. :)

Love,

Elder Montgomery

Dad,

I'm doing great! I'm not eating as well and not working out as well but I could tell I was starting to burn myself out so I'm taking it slowly. There's more important things. My scripture study is going fantastic as usual! I finally finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish this week! Now I'm reading it out loud for pronunciation practice during Spanish study. In my regular studies, I stopped the close examining, because of course, I got burned out on it. I've switched to the New Testament so that I can focus on the life of Christ. I started with John because I'd always get stuck in Mark but I've finished John and am now in Matthew. Interesting order, right? I plan on reading the Doctrine and Covenants afterwards and then the New Testament in conjunction with Jesus the Christ. It ended up not costing too much and right now I have two elders in the district who are extremely handy with bikes. We did have a rash of flat tires this week, though. Bike repairs sure do cost a lot of money in the long run. I did make a trip up to UC though and did meet the famous Howard. Turns out he's not a member but he knows more about what's going on in the mission than I think even mom does :) He's a super cool guy and was telling me about how Schwinn made a custom size bike for Artis Gilmore. My Spanish is definitely improving and no... I still can't roll my r's. I'm a lot closer than before but I'm trying to move out of the "Chewbacca" sound. I probably won't be able to talk to you until Mother's day but even then, that's in less than 2 months. Have a tremendous week!

Love,

Elder Montgomery

There is Definitely no Cafe Rio in Texas.

I did get the St. Patricks day gift. Thank you very much. Hahaha I'd guess there's only one person who would Shamrock you that wasn't at church with you. Maybe a neighbor across the street or someone.  Of course it would be a Hawaiian girl that asked Zach to prom. Does that mean he's not asking anyone else? It seems really soon for all this to be happening. It's already been a year since that was me. Crazy. 
We just had 2 of the 3 this week investigators at church yesterday. J is getting baptized Sat.y So we have a lot to do to make sure everything is prepared. He's 10 years old so I guess that my next baptism will be an 11 year old jajaja. Nothing too interesting happened this week.
Transfers are coming up,  I think I'll probably leave but I don't know. Elder M finishes next transfer so if I stay, then I'm almost guaranteed to stay another one. 
There is definitely no Cafe Rio in Texas. Still car sharing. The bike is doing great as far as I can tell. Just logging the miles. Elder L knows about bikes so he's making sure mine stays in good shape. We studied about knowing the Church is true this past week and it was great. Some of the talks we read included Come, Join with Us by President Uchtdorf, The Caravan Moves On by Elder Bruce McConkie, and Knowing what we Know by Douglas Callister. The most important thing we should do is find out if the church is true. Once we know that we know, there are no bounds. Stay true to the church. The caravan is the church and only those on the caravan will reach Zion. We are lead today by inspired leaders, prophets and apostles. Have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Montgomery

To his Padre..

I can definitely understand the tiredness. It's been hitting me pretty hard lately. Something just always comes up right as we try to make that break through. Well as long as Ben only balked once hahaha That's good that he pitched the first little bit though. That's the most important part anyways :) 

 I can't believe it's been 9 months already either! Interestingly enough, one of the biggest pet peeves I have is that people don't say Yes Sir and Yes Ma'am. That may have been the most frustrating part with all those Western people in the MTC :) The locals use Ma'am and Sir, not Yeah, Huh and What?  What some fail to see is that Sir and Ma'am go a LONG way down here. Time goes by very strangely on the mission. The days are very long. The weeks are shorter. Sometimes it's long. It all depends on what your focus is. There's nothing that I can ask of you guys right now. I love you so much!

Love,

Elder Montgomery

Tres Leches Cake

RILES!!! The Condor is back in flight. I repeat, The Condor is back in flight! That's such terrific news! I'm so excited for him. 
I don't have approval to facetime when he opens his call yet but I'm thinking that may have just been an Urban Mission Myth. We'll see, though. I will guess  for Zach's mission , Argentina if he goes foreign and state side I'll say whatever mission Bakersfield, CA is in. Oh wow that's a tremendous stake conference!!! Sounds like my kind of place! 

We had 3 investigators at church yesterday. Elder M is great!!! He's basically one of the top 5 missionaries in the mission (if we ranked missionaries, of course:) We don't ever go on field trips, really. I guess we're just too lazy. Or we want to play basketball. Well we don't actually eat very much dessert but I've had some homemade Tres Leches Cake and it is the best, bar none. Biking is going great! It's been pretty chilly and rainy the best few days but that's okay cause it's for a good cause. Speaking of new shoes... Yeah I need some pretty bad. The sole is essentially completely off and I can touch my toes and heel. The problem is finding size 16's. I think I'll just have to order them online or something. Something that'll last me the rest of my mission and a little longer maybe some Echo's or something of the sort. Well, I'm out of time for today. 

The Gospel is true and so is the church. Read the Book of Mormon. There is power contained therein.

Love,

Elder Montgomery

Uncle Sam is a Ham!

That is indeed excellent news about Miss T and the Book of Mormon. It's the best book in the world! I'm glad that she is getting exciting for Zach as well! 

Jajajaja Ben was Uncle Sam and he had a solo? I wish I could see that. 

Of course they would say that to him, he's a ham! 

That sounds like a great missionary mom lunch! Where is Ileana going? If it's for 9 weeks, then she must be going somewhere exotic! The ward is still the same size. Fluctuating near 100 people every week. There's a pretty decent sized youth program. Probably around 20ish or so with lots of YM preparing for their missions. We get all sorts of things for dinner. Chicken parmesan, taquitos, head from the cow, you name it. My Spanish is getting a lot better! I might just go to the Spanish ward when I get home and skip out of Centerville ;) I haven't been too good about the video log but I'll do another one here pretty soon. I did get that ring. Sterling silver. I'm allergic to silver aren't I? My finger turned green for a week and the ring tarnished or something. So I don't wear it very often. Elder Le S is Elder C's new companion. He's from New Zealand and Bountiful. He's a big boy. Probably about 6'3" and 245. He's been the best competition for basketball so far. The fish is either tilapia or swai. I did get the Valentine's package, thank you! Elder S really enjoyed the candy hearts. 

This week we have been studying the Book of Mormon. President Slaughter gave us a study program called "Be Not Moved" a couple weeks ago. The first week we studied the prophetic role of Joseph Smith and this past week we studied the Book of Mormon. Me encanta el Libro de Mormon! One of the concepts that stuck out most to me came from C.S. Lewis who was quoted by Tad R. Callister. He gist of it was that he was tired of people saying they accepted Christ as a great moral teacher, but not as the Son of God. Christ did not give us that option! He either is the Son of God, or he is nowhere near an instructor of values. He made claims that if proven false, would completely negate all his other teachings. A good fruit cannot come forth from a bad tree and vice versa. It is the exact same with the Book of Mormon. Within the record contained therein, the Book of Mormon claims to be from God. The teachings are magnificent and presented in such a clear and concise way as to essentially magnify the doctrine and principles found in the Bible. There is no middle ground on the Book of Mormon. It either came from God and it is what it claims to be, or it is false and has no capability of teaching us correct morals. I bear my solemn witness that whosoever shall actually read the book, not just Sparknote it or flip the pages, and pray to God with a true desire to know the truthfulness thereof, they will be answered by God. Our message is that God speaks today and he speaks to all of you. I love all of you to a degree that you could not know.

Love,

Elder Montgomery