So We Took a Picture

HOLA MI FAMILIAAA!

Dear mother, if you would like your child to return looking like herself, as opposed to looking like a drowned rat, please send rain gear. So y'all remember that cutsie picture I sent you with my umbrella and stuff last week, I think. Well,  I forgot it at our apartment this last Friday, and we were caught in a rainstorm. A really bad thunderlighteningsoakedtothebone storm. All of those storms that were in Oklahoma this last week have moved down to Texas, hitting Dallas and San  Antonio pretty bad. San Antonio got 13 inches in one day and is quite flooded. Cool. We only got rained in for a bit, hanging our soaked letters and books on my niffty twine and clothes pins. So, for those friends of mine who got a crinckled letter from me, that's why.

What else has happened?

How did y'all like my poem? I need so validation.

So, I don't have a whole lot of time, since we're using a memeber's computer, but I thought that I would update you on some pictures. Y'all know how I like those :)

We were taken out to dinner, by the Montgomerys. They unexpectedly got us cotton candy. A lot of it. I don't really care for it, and didn't eat very much of it, but the fluffy pinkness was quite exciting. So we took a picture.

Bob Marley, Piano and Poems

Hola mi Familia! Como Esta?

 

Ummmmm..so okay, it's HOT. We have reached the 100 degree limit, and it's only May. I've started praying for a way to deal with the heat, because come July and August, I will be toast. Literally.

 

It's been a long week. And yet about the shortest week of my life. All in one. So much has happened.

 

One Tuesday, we knocked into an 18-year-old boy, River. He had Bob Marley posters splayed across his walls and had a "cool" disposition towards life. It's took a bit to get the ball rolling into the lesson, since it was really easy for him to get distracted and talking about really-kinda-out-there stuff about his views on God. I was learning a lot about what and how other people view God, and it was a bit interesting but he wasn't learning anything about the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the Restoration, which was why we had knocked on his door.After close to 45 minutes of getting no where, I remembered something that one of my MTC teachers would tell us all the time, he would quote a passage in D&C (which I couldn't find) about being sent forth to teach and not to learn. When He told us about this, I was way confused. I was going to learn and grow and change as a missionary, why would we be told that that wasn't part of our purpose. I realized in that lesson with River that day. I was a missionary. I was there to teach about Christ. It was in the middle of that lesson that the words "Cheyenne, you are here to teach not to be taught, TEACH." came to my mind. Then I started to teach. We talked about Christ and His Atonement, and what made him our Savior, showing him a picture of Christ in the Garden. We talked about Joseph Smith's vision and God having a physical body. River was paying close attention to our words by this point. We went home for dinner after that lesson, and I wrote abou it quickly in my Journal. It reminded me of President Monsons story of when he was in the military, and he didn't join the other churchs but stood in line. "Thomas," he told himself "you are a mormon." "Cheyenne, you are a missionary. Teach." I understand that scripture now. Yes, we are to learn, and to change and to grow, and learn about and listen to others on our missions, but we are called and sent forth to teach.

 

This week, we also made a very long pray list, 27 persons long, of potential investigators. We listed out needs and then prayed for them during weekly planning. One girl, Emeila, didn't have a lot of time, but really wanted to meet with us. We prayed that she would have the time open up to be able to meet with us. We called her the next day and were able to set an appointment to meet with her and her Sister. They are GEMS. They invited us to come over for lunch and then a lesson. We are meeting with them againtomorrow, and they are eating up the feeling that they get when we come by. Emeila, spacifically said that she was somehow able to have free time and was finally able to call us and set up a time. Prayer on Thursday, response on Friday, steller first lesson on Saturday, luck or chance? I think not. God does answer our prayers.  Goodness. Time goes so fast.

 

I played the piano yesterday in Church. In Sacrament meeting. Yes. Freak out moment. We have an electronic piano, and it plays the hymns, so I was just going to push the little play button since I didn't know any of the hymns chosen for the meeting. Go figure I couldn't figure it out at the last minute and had to jump in and play  the songs myself. Good thing my back was turned to the congregation, other wise they'd have been to distracted by my face to sing and of the songs. It was quite the show. When  I stood up with a "okay, well that was fun" smile in place, I looked at our branch president's wife's face, she is a elamentary school music teacher, and she gave me a big smile and a thumbs up, since she knew I was uncomfortable playing hymns I didn't know. I guess it was God's way of forcing me out of my comfort zone when I wasn't willing to leave. So. I wrote a poem about the exprience. Yeah, I know. I don't write poems. It's weird. I hardly even like reading poetry. It's a struggle. But all of a sudden, it was all in my brain, and needed to come out. Weird. Hahah it's laughable. But I wrote it. And it turned out super long. Ish. Here it is. Enjoy!

[START POEM]

 

There was a line I walked upon,it wasn't very wide.  I tipped and tottered on that line,just barely staying on.

At times I'd stop, my toes off the edge, I'd tip and wobble and almost start to giggle, but never would I cross that line, in case of no returning.

 

I skipped and trotted down that line, quite happy where I was, when suddenly, a man stood by, And watched me pluck along.

 

He spake to me, quite kindly,bidding me to cross.  He told me if I did so, my life would find more good.  I answered Him "no thank you", Saying "I'll probably be just fine."

 

It was at this point quite suddenly, I felt a kick on the behind, I'd been booted fast right off that line, and had landed in the dirt.

 

With dust puffing all about my face, I felt like shouting "HEY!" but looking back onto that line, I saw no such kind of thing

 

In it's palce a door stood firm, with a knob bold and bright.  And no matter how I wrenched that knob, It wouldn't budge at all.

 

Some pounding and a sore foot later, I stood, a cross expression set in place.  Softly huffing and with backside throbbing, I set off at last at pace.

 

As I walked along, no path in sight, I felt lost of all my comfort.  With a red nose and a tear stained face, I wondered why it's happend.

 

It wasn't 'til I looked around, that there was beauty to be found.  Although I'd loved my line quite fine, there were things  I couldn't see.

 

Things that sat there waiting, waiting just for me. And if you start to think about it slowly, you start to notice still, that if I'd stayed upon that line, dancing there just fine, those things would be there waiting, waiting there so still.

 

Luckily for me, I had a friendly boot, that kicked me fast right off that line, landing me splat into the dirt.  For it was in the dirt I surely found that there was beauty all around.

 

That man who stood there watching me, he knew me very well.  He knew I'd need a kick head start, to land me way out there.  He had the guts to kick me there, right where He knew it'd probably hurt.

 

And now I see I needed that, for fine is not enough.  There are things far out there waiting, that indeed need me to touch.

 

Now and then I look down again, and notice there's a line, it's at this point I look around, and jump right off that line for now I've gained a greater fear, a fear of getting kicked.

[END OF POEM]

 

Don't judge me if it doesn't rhymn. I'm no pro. And I still don't like poetry. Pero. I wanted to share it.

 

I hope that you're all doing great. I think about you often, and you're always in my prayers. Take care family.

 

Love,

Your Hermana

Soy deciplo de Jesucristo

HELLO HELLO HELLO MI FAMILIA :)

 

Oh, goodness it was so good to hear y'all yesterday! The only thing that would have made it better would have been to add Danika's sparkling personality. Family, I love y'all. I hope you know that.

 

This has been an eventfully uneventful week. Figure that one out. With finals ending at Texas State and mothers day this week as well, we've knocked a lot of empty apartments. It has been an emotionally draining week.

 

Our dear Jennifer, decided this week to support her mother in her church rather than be baptized this coming Saturday. Jennifer was one of the very first investigators Sister Miller and I taught here in San Marcos, and we were devistated. We have been and are still going through the denial and guilt phases. I keep wondering what more we could have done for her. It's heartbreaking. Really. I honestly don't know if I've ever said "heartbreaking" in my life, but if I were to use it to describe anything in the world, having an investigator who has gone through so much, changed and prayed so much for healing, be one week from baptism and then turn around...that would would define heartbreaking pretty well. Everytime you think you've started to get a mission under control, it comes and slaps you in the face, and you have to start all over.

 

But with everything in life, God has a plan and a balance. On Thursday night, we called our dear friend Gilbert, after about a month of no contact. Let me tell you. If I could rewrite Alma 36:21 it would be something like "yea, I say unto you, my family, that there is nothing so exquisite and so bitter as are our pains when we lose an investigator. Yea, and again I say unto you, my family, that on the other hand, there can be nothing so exquisite and sweet as is our joy, when our investigators return." Joy. Joy is eternal, and joy, my family, is what we felt as we called and heard Gilbert express to us that "life is eaiser when God is in it." We are so excited to start teaching him again. Pray for him. He has a long way to go, but he knows now, that it's what he needs to do.

 

We also started teaching a young man named Luis (you MUST pronounce it in Spanish. LOO-ESS say it with me. we Sister Miller and I learned that the hard way). He is steller. We have spent more that 12 hours with him this week teaching him. We had to try and cram in as much as we could since he'll be leaving for home this week since school is out. He had so many good questions, and he said that as soon as we mentioned Jesus outside his partment complex last Saturday, he wanted to know more. We've had some incredibly POWERFUL lessons. There is nothing so cool in this world, at this point in my life, as being able to move your mouth and speak, and know that those are not your own words coming out. Truely, God's hand is in this work.

 

My Spanish is struggling. I need to speak it more. But with being in an English area, and only speaking it with a few members in my ward and with my companions, I'm worried about it. We were able to speak to a man on the street in Spanish for a few minutes this week and gave him a Spanish Book of Mormon. As I explained the importance of the Book of Mormon and Jospeh Smith breifly in Broken Spanish, I could tell that I was a Spanish called missionary. It felt so good and right to testify in Spanish. President Jones promised his missionaries that we would be able to learn Spanish just as well as any missionary who served in a forigen country Spanish speaking. I believe him. If he has been called as our mission President, and gave us that promise, I believe it. However, when I took the TSAM (Texas San Antonio Mission) Spanish Test, I got by trashed kicked a bit. And by a bit I mean A LOT. PERO. Heavenly Father has promised us that our weeknesses can become strengths (Ether 12:27) and if he can make the Nephites "mighty in writing" He can make me mighty in Spanish. But if not,  I am still un "deciplo de Jesucristo, el Hijo de Dios. He sido llamado por el, para daclarar su palabra, entre los de su pueblo al fin de que alcancan la vida eterna" (3 Nephi5:13). That was without my Spanish Book of Mormon incase you were wondering...so you Spanish speakers excuse the spelling errors if there are any. I have been blessed with the ability to understand it pretty well, it's the speaking it that is difficult. Because I read by sight and not by pronouncng words in English in my head when I read, I've had to start reteaching myself how to read properly and out loud in Spanish so that my mouth will learn to form the words. It's tricky, but I've already been able to see myself progress. I hope to be finishing 2nd Nephi by the end of this transfer, and I'm almost done with 1st Nephi now, so hopefully I can make it. I read a lot slower in Spanish than I do in English. It drives me nuts sometimes how much easier it is to just speak in English, PERO. God didn't intend for us to come to earth to be in our comfort zone. He wants us to expand, and so expand in the Spanish language I shall. But a shout out to any Spanish speakers who want to write to me in Spanish, have at it. Or non- Spanish speakers who want to try and write me in Spanish (Sharlan). Any and all help is welcome :)

 

Pues, mi familia. No tengo mas tiempo.

 

I love y'all. Take care. Adios.

 

Hermana Montgomery

The Bitter with the Sweet

HELLO FAMILY!

 

Well. This week has been eventful. And yet I have almost no memory or it.

 

Transfers happened. I dear Hermana Wright left us to open a new area closer to Austen and train a new missionary as well as becoming a new sister leader trainer person. I miss her dearly, pero(translation: "but"), we had some good laughs and we know it's not the last time we'll see her. For sure.

 

Sister Leavitt, is our new trainer, and get this, she's from Kennewick Washington. What the random?!?! So yeah, she graduated in '08 from Kennewick High and is in the Kennewick East Stake. Small world. It is a very, very small world. Her dad is the institute director in Kennewick, and when she saw a picture of Jed on my wall, she was like "oh, I do know your brother" from way back when he went to institute there for a bit. Weird. Crazy, random. Small world. So, if you ever wanted to contact a Spence (hahah our dads even have the same name...weird.) and Jannie Leavitt in the Cascade ward, your daughters are serving together in Texas.  Small world.

 

So some fun facts of this week:

 

My hair was purple. Well, almost. I had bought hair dye a few weeks ago, and finally got around to doing it last p-day. When  I was doing the whole prep and it was on my gloves, it looked like I had squashed...blueberries and then was smattering them into my hair. I was sort of mortified. "I am a missionary, going to FHE tonight, and transfer meetings later this week, and I am going to have purple hair." Think of Kate Hudsen in Bride Wars screaming "BLUE! I HAVE BLUE HAIR" and that would have been about my state of panic. But once it was all dyed and stuff and blown dry and curled, it didn't look so bad. Don't worry mom. I don't have purple hair as a missionary. You can start breathing again. It looks good. I did feel a little more wild and bold when we went tracting that night though, and was able to talk to people more energetic-like. I told Sister Wright, maybe I should dye my hair "purple" more often if it would help me be more bold.

 

That p-day we also went cowboy boot shopping for Sister Wright. Purple hair and boots. Good P-day.

 

A few weeks ago, we met a really nice girl outside one of the apartment complexes we tract, and she was really excited to see us. Her name was Amelia, and she said that she would text us when her scheduled cleared and she could meet with us. We exchanged numbers, and texted a few days later. She was still really excited to meet and talk with us, but was really busy working everyday and taking her finals for school. And so she told us we would be the first to know when she was free. This weekend, knocking in a different complex, we met a girl. As soon as she opened the door I thought she was familiar to me. And her name was Ameila. No. WAY. What are the chances we'd find her home. We went in and she knew she had met missionaries, but she couldn't remember if we were the ones she had met. Turns out we were. She said  that we couldn't have come a better time in her day. She'd been struggling, having negative thoughts, and we showed up, knocking on her door. We said a prayer with her and she talked with us for a while about some goals and views she has for her laugh. She is SO cool. Although she is still busy and in the middle of finals, she still wants to meet with us maybe next week. God is so smart. He just plans everything out perfectly.

 

We also met, last night Ryan Jirovec. He was on the TV show The Voice, and got second place or something on the show. He's good, look him up. He's done demo's for Andrea Bocheli and JOSH GROBAN. He's now finishing his degree here at Texas State. He had met a few Mormons doing the show, and so talked to us for a little while. Sister Leavitt beign the outgoing missionary she is, asks him if he'll sing a song for us. The deal ended up being that if We sang for him, he would sing for us. Cool. I can't believe we did it. We gathered around Sister Leavitt's tiny hymn book and sang Be Still My Soul. Cool. It took a lot from me to not laugh at our own ridiculousness. He later called his friend Haylee from the show who's a Mormon and told her about these "cute Mormon missionaries who sang a song from their hymn book for him" hahahah typical little Mormon girls. Hahahaha His friend Haylee told him to have us come back and teach him, we'll see if it all pulls together. It was cool though, he sang Awake by Josh Groban for us, and Amazed by Lonestar. He was pretty good too.

 

OH! I forgot. Cockroaches  Nasty little things. And they're in our apartment. GROSS! To the max. One night, Sister Wright was in the shower, and I was in our bedroom, and I heard her yelling some pretty great slang words. I wondered what had happened  maybe the water had turned cold. Nope. She had found two cockroaches  doing some pretty gross things in the shower. But they had scurried away before we could smash 'em. Needless to say, sleep did not come easy that night. In fact, Sister Miller only got about 3 hours of sleep after finding one in the bathroom at 2am. The next morning, we smashed one in the bathroom, and then Sister Miller found one IN THE LIGHT (WHAT??) in our kitchen. I don't handle these stressful situations well. Sister Miller and Sister Wright were going to take the light off, while I stood ready with hairspray. But, Sister Wright moved to get something for about 30 seconds, and the little (actually it was HUGE, like 3 INCHES) bug started moving down the light and away. I don't know how it happened. But all of a sudden I was screaming. Hysterically  At 6:45 am. And then Sister Miller was screaming. I handed Sister Wright the hairspray and she sprayed it and then smashed it. With a frying pan. We've bleached it several times, and I still can't bring myself to use it. Sister Miller has asked me to never scream again. She described it as "a blood chilling experience." So that was fun. It's still taking some to to recover from the trauma induced. I might need therapy when I return home.

Love Sister Montgomery the Third

Members Matter

Pues, Hola mi familia! Como Esta?  Estoy bien. Siempre :)

 

WHOOOSH. It has been, a big week.  First, we had just about the lesson that we could have with one of our investigators, Jennifer, I've told you a bit about her, she's got some hard things to overcome, but she is so committed to changing and coming unto Christ. This lesson we had with her, was almost a make or break it lesson, because we could tell that something had been bothering her and it was really holding her back. We decided to plan our lesson and have it be about healing from the Atonement. Somehow, I'm still trying to figure it out, everything fit in perfectly. We brought a member with us, who ended up sharing some personal experiences about how she's been able to find healing, in a big way, through the Atonement. It really opened Jennifer up to talking with us about her concerns. She's started going to the addiction recovery program, and going through the book they gave her brought up some really difficult things from her past. Hard things.Raw things.

 

Remember that picture you sent me in my package of the girl with Christ's arms around her? She was blond. Honestly, when I looked at it the day I got it,  I was confused, I wasn't sure why you had thought of me or wanted to send it to me. Now I know. I gave it Jennifer. She didn't have any pictures of Christ, and we were trying to think of one to give her while planning, I thought of it, pulled it out and showed it to Sister Wright. She looked back at me and said "it looks like Jennifer in the picture." And it did.  So we gave it to her. She really liked it at first. But as we were talking more about the Atonement, forgiveness and healing, she got upset. Crying, she shoved the picture away from her and asked "how is THIS possible?" She didn't understand how God could forgive and heal her from things in her life. I'm not sure how we were able to do it. God was able to call things to our memory to share with her, everything we had been studying, preparing for came forward at this point.  A few lesson ago we had planned on sharing a song with her, on my ipod about Christ's Atonement, during that lesson a few weeks ago, I couldn't do it. I wanted to, but it wasn't right. We shared the song with her this time. I am still a little blown away at how smart God is.He knew everything that needed to happen in that specific lesson. And he prepared a way. He even inspired mom and Shar to send me that picture. Weeks before that lesson. He is so smart. She LOVES that picture now. As we talked more about healing, she picked it up again, adoring it. Soaking in the idea of Christ's arms around her. At one point, the member we brought, put her arms around Jennifer and just hugged her.I wanted to take a picture of that moment, and freeze it in my mind. Because through Lara, Christ had put his arms around Jennifer. Just like in the picture. Members matter. More than anything. They are just about the best of friends now, Lara and Jennifer. In just a few short days. And it has changed Jennifer. In order to move God's work forward, the missionaries and the members must join together. There is now other way that the work can progress like it needs to without the members stepping up. As Elder Anderson said in his last talk "paint your [missionary] badge on your heart." 

 

The gospel takes my breath away. I so badly want people to realize that when we are knocking on their door, we're not just another church of religion coming to convert them. We are messangers of God, sent to bring his children back to Him. It's not just a religion. It's something that is a part of us. a part of our devine heritage. If people, members, investigators and contacts alike, could only truly understand what this is, the world would change. Share it. It's not just our church, it's God's plan for us.

 

Transfer calls came last night, and boy oh boy was it a shoutingcryinglaughingsreaming experience when we realized that President Jones was calling us and not just the AP's. Our dear trainer Sister Wright is being transfered, becoming a trainer of one, and a sister leader person (similar to a Zone Leader). Poor Sister Miller and I will be staying in San Marcos and will be getting a new trainer, a stepmother. We joked last night that we could say "you're not my real mom!" when told to do something by our new trainer. Just kidding, you know we'll play nice. But we are sad to see Sister Wright go. Way sad. She has two transfers left on her mission, and so we won't get to see her much after she leaves. She's been great, and this next transfer will be just as good I'm sure.

 

One thing that Sister Wright did teach me was about picking a Christlike attribute each transfer to work on, she was working on patience this last transfer, and so I decided to start that as well. I was praying and studying about it, and came to Hel. 5:26 talking about Lehi and Nephi when they were in prision. It describes how their hearts took courage and the "did stand forth and begin to speak..." Now, I'm not sure you would count this as a "normal" attribute of Christ, but this is what I have decided to work on for this next transfer. I've come to find that I have a hard time talking sometimes to people. "WHHHAATT??!" you may say, "Cheyenne, have trouble talking? IMPOSSIBLE." I know, shocker. But  I do. I have trouble opening my mouth. Sister Wright told me once that sometimes you just got to open it and pray like crazy  that something good and actually profound, or even understandable, comes out. Sometimes you just have to "stand forth and [begin] to speak." and so for the next six weeks, I would like to study this attribute of testifying more and learning how to use it more in my life. We'll see what it can do to me.

 

Pues, familia. No Tango Tiempo.

 

Keep smiling and scootin' on.

 

Love,

Su Hermana Montgomery