Simply Sip - Dec 16, 2013

Well hi family!

Sorry it's going to be short today, we don't have a lot of time since where we normally email at is closed for Christmas Break already. i might have time to write more later though. Depends.

HOW IS EVERYONE?! I feel like I don't get a lot of news from y'all. How's Ammon? How's Jed? How's Abby Buck and Larisa Hayden? How are the little kids? Who's going on missions, who's getting married? Who Who Who??

Eh, forget that part. How's everyone's scripture reading been going? We'll get to the meat haha

I've gone a little crazy, can you tell? We had six, SIX investigator families lined up to come to our English and Spanish Branches yesterday and guess how many came...zero. ZERO. I was a little bitter yesterday. Well, actually there was nothing little about it at all. We even went to one of theirs house BEFORE church at 8am to start a fast with them for a divorce to happen. No answer.Then we went again during Sunday School since their sacrament meeting would be last. No answer. We texted we called we had firm commitments in was an awesome Christmas Program and....ZERO. I have never been so bitter about investigators not coming to sacrament meeting. It was kinda a come to church or we have to let them go kinda Sunday, and no one came to Church. I was BITTER and may or may not have been crying in Sacrament meeting. Hermana Pond and I had a nice chat about it and the Natural man and we've decided he's no good. 

It made me think about that quote "The Gospel is here to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable." Ahhhhh! Yesterday was difficult. Bad mood all over the place. And so our goal for this week is to find the elect. To figure out who is read to accept and live the Gospel and who is not. Poor Hermana Pond trying to help me not be so upset about things. At one point she leaned in a said "Did you not tell him they were the Lord's chips?" to which I said something like "Did they not know it was the Lord's day?" Ah. Frustrating mess. Hermana Pond told me that she knew what to do to make me feel better, and she proceeded to quote Nacho Libre and hum the Harry Potter theme the rest of the day. She knows me too well.

We had Zone Meeting on Tuesday, and Hermana Pond and I gave a training on our Purpose as Missionaries. Hermana Pond actually had a sore throat and lost her voice, so I ended up doing a lot of the talking. He first had them stand up to say our Purpose Statement that we say every morning. So everyone started:

 "I have been called of Jesus Christ to serve in the Texas San Antonio Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints. I will Boldly invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel, through faith..." and then we cut them off.

Silence. 

We asked them if they knew what they were saying, or if they were just saying it to say it. We had them sit down, and by this time people were paying attention. We picked out key words in our purpose Statement like Invite, Others, Jesus Christ, Recieve, Faith, Repentence, Baptism, Holy Ghost and Enduring, and talked about each one individually. I shared a lot about learning to have faith again and being humble and becoming like Christ by spending time with him. I felt like I shared some pretty personal things, but I don't really remember what. I don't think it was me talking at that point. I guess someone needed to hear it.

We also had President Interviews this week and a Special Spanish Training in which we were to the qualifications to receive the Spanish Certificate have been changed in our mission. It's a lot more focused on helping us learn Spanish as opposed to just know Spanish. If that makes sense. more on that another time. But it has already helped me a lot with my Spanish.

We had a lesson with a man, Juan, who we haven't seen in about three weeks. When I was companions with Sister Lund, I couldn't understand anything that he said. Nada. It was so difficult. Last night, I understood about 96.8% of what he said. Well what do ya know, I am improving :)

While in my interview with President Slaughter, I told him that I felt like my focus was split. Like I couldn't do, become and be everything that I needed to while on my mission. He told me that we're not expected to be linguists or scriptorians. He told me that if a Fire Hydrant were spraying water at us, sometimes, God expects us to get a straw and simply sip what we can. That's all he expects of us. To Simply sip. Good things to keep in mind. 

Well, time is out. I love you all and what to hear from everyone :) Remember when life Floods you with water, simply sip at it.

Love, 

Hermana Montgomery

It's Christmas Time It's Christmas Time Falalalala lalalaaaaa lalala lala laaaaa! - Dec 9, 2013

Well family, I didn't get ice storms, but I definitely won't be hiking any mountains anytime soon. Eh-eh, nope. Actually there are rumors that it will snow here in Del Rio. Crazy right? That probably only happens like... once in a million years! I am living through history :)

We've had a lot of good things happen this week, and so first thing is first:

WE'RE GONNA HAVE A WEDDING!!!

Yes. It's a big deal. So in the south side of Del Rio, there are a lot more family problems than there were in the North side where I was last transfer. But Hermana Pond and her last companions have been working with a part-member family for a while. He isn't a member and still needs to get divorced from his first wife and married to the women he is with now, Elsa. But as we were discussing them during weekly planning, we felt like we should set him and their nine-year-old daughter with a Baptism date for the 21st of December. Two and a half weeks away. And set a Wedding date as well. The 21st of December. Two and a half weeks away. So we had a lesson with them, and talked about it. Elsa got super excited, and Noel started thinking things through to get it done. He still needs to come to church 2 more times, since they were going to church in New Jersey before they moved here. We've also set up a time to see them every day of the week. I learned that while on exchanges with Hermana Hopkins in Eagle Pass, leave no room for temptation to get them. The rest  of the night, I couldn't help but smile and do a dance singing "Vamos a tener una boda! Vamos a tener una boda!" I would wave to people out of the car, and Herman Pond and Baumount (who was on exchanges with us) would ask me "who was that person?" I would just say "well I don't know...but we're gonna have a wedding!!" Why not wave at the world?! Isn't this as excited as we should all be about the Gospel in General? "Hey, whatchoo smilin' for?" "Well I don't know...but the Gospel is TRUE! Quick, Tell everyone!" That night we also got to go to a Christmas parade. We were suppose to meet the Elders at a park towards the end of the route to carol, but we got lost on the way in Down town Del Rio...so we walked along the parade and saw all the cool dancers and singers and a real life nativity party :) I saw Mary and Joseph and the Donkey oh wow! It was cool, and we definitaly sang and danced our way up the street while Feliz Navidad was playing :)

Oh yeah, I'm playing the piano in Sacrament Meeting in our Spanish Branch. yeeeeaaaaaaa. It's all kinds of fun. Especially when they change the hymns on you at the last minute before it starts.

Hermana Pond and I have been working a lot on our Spanish lately, especially our Irregular verbs and all of the million tenses for each of them. We'll stand on chairs in the kitchen and memorize them and quiz each other back and forth with them. We're getting a lot better, and it's helping me recognize and use the tenses for other verbs better. So we'll start shouting "Estar!" or "Tener" or the other ones at random and we'll have to say all the tenses for each of them. It uses a lot of brain power. But I'm understanding more. Unless it's super long stories that jump from present and past tense like it's a game. That's how our Lessons with Magdelina go...

Magdelina is a mother of three that we've been teaching for a little while. She talks super fast, and changes tenses a lot, so sometimes it's really hard to follow her. She's working on getting a divorce from her husband because he's been cheating on her for a year, if not longer. Her oldest is in jail, and the second is struggling a lot. Her five-year-old daughter got sick as well and so she couldn't come to church yesterday. Split my heart in two. Last night in our lesson, she broke down for the first time. She doesn't understand why God allows good things to happen to other people, but allows bad things to happen in her life.It wasn't fair. It was a really hard lesson to go through with her. She believes Christ can help her, but she's not quite ready to give everything to him and let him take it. Sounds familiar...

Last transfer, I had a hard time with faith. You think you learn and understand something, and then you come to find you hardly understand any of it. I had no faith. We play a board game with investigators sometimes called the "Plan of Salvation Game" to help them understand some concepts from the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Plan of Salvation lessons together. You land on number spaces on your way through life and can get cards that are faith, repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end, but you have to land on them in that order in order to get each card. And if you land on a certain space, you can lose your faith card, and you can't get anymore cards until you land on another faith space and get your faith card back. Symbolic right? Well, I lost my faith card. What was the point of  stopping by, teaching, and calling the same people, knocking the more doors, talking to more people reading the same things, setting high goals asking members who they know over and over and over again only to have each one fall through over and over and over again? What was the point of having faith, when people will slam doors, throw away cards, go less-active after baptism and overall when they had their own agency and you had like...no control over it anyways? I felt like Hercules in the movie when he slams that shield into the painters face and yells "Phil, what's the point?!" I have been so tired of it. But then some things happened.

I got a letter from Danika. She told me that we didn't come on a mission for the experience of it. We came to Preach His Gospel.I thought about that a lot. Not for the experience of it, but to Preach His Gospel.It's kind's like what Elder Holland told Missionaries in the MTC, (paraphrasing) "It wasn't easy for Him, so it's not going to be easy for you...becoming antiquated with the Savior is not a cheap experience. It's suppose to require some of your soul"

I also got a blessing. My companion was sick about two weeks ago and got a blessing, and actually, all four of the Sisters did too.Some of the things that I wrote down afterwards to remember were:

1. I was called specifically to Texas to help specific people, that only I could help.
2. God was pleased with my decision to serve a mission
3. My family was being blessed beyond measure for my service
4. I was to specifically study the Atonement of Jesus Christ
5. I was to specifically study how to have faith
6. To know that God would send his love to me

I only asked for a blessing for comfort. Yet, that was probably the most specific blessing I have ever received. Priesthood Blessings ah.

And so I've been kinda doing physical therapy and going slow regarding learning how to have and use faith again. Studying a lot, trying to take leaps of faith, and pushing aside the fear and doubt that it won't work or isn't going to matter. We set five people with a Baptism date this week. And even though not one of them came to church, we hold on to the hope and the faith that those dates and people were inspired of God. Because "...Hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of man..." (Ether 12:4). I've seen a difference in myself this last week. I'm praying a lot more, and a lot more sincerely. I've been fasting. I'm feeling a greater love for the people around me, and a greater desire to help them come unto Christ and be perfected in Him (Moroni 10:32). Even me. And I've been more full of the Spirit than I have ever  felt before. It's a nice feeling to have faith and to believe that things can happen again. And above all, I haven't felt as alone or discouraged in this work of Salvation. Dad, thanks for helping me not to have a hard heart with your responses.

Part of having that faith is looking forward to the results of our efforts. This week Hermana Pond and I planned out specific lessons and lesson dates and baptism dates for all of our investigators mentally and in the Area Book. Being more focused on the doctrine and the goal has already changed the way that we plan for and teach our investigators. After putting it all on our board on the calendar, we had 77 lessons that we wanted to happen this coming week, including investigators, Part-member families, and Less-actives. "[Doubt] not because ya see not" (Ether 12:6)

 We gave a training on the Restoration and the First Vision in District Meeting last week and it actually went really well. At one point we asked everyone else to think about how they would say the First Vision if it was their own experience they were telling, in Josephs words. Then I said it, as if it were my experience. Oh the emotions that came. Even some of the Elders teared up. The training that followed fit perfectly with it, and it was a powerhouse district meeting. So great, that Hermana Pond and I have been asked to give a training in Zone meeting this week about the Purpose of Missionaries. We both decided we wanted to do this training God's way and have been praying and studying a lot to put together the things that Heavenly Father wants us to learn and teach. To be continued on that one next week...:)

I love you all a lot family, and I'm praying for you a lot. Stay warm in the weather, and remember our reason to rejoice this time of year. It's not just because of pop culture "Jesus loves me" kind of stuff, but it's because we do in reality have a Savior. Someone to lift us up when we can't find our faith, and who will bind up all our wounds. 

I love y'all :) Take care!

Hermana Montgomery

P.S. My favorite Christmas memory

I have two:

1. When I was eight-years-old and we lived in Burbank and all of those families doorbell ditched a nativity set for the twelve days of Christmas. I've always loved the Spirit that Christmas Brings to do good for those around us. I really do wish  the Spirit of Christmas was all year round. This week, Hermana Pond and I bought some groceries for one of our investigators. They are flat lining and yet she always tries to give us food and things. So this week we took them by some things since they were going through a particularly hard trial. If you have it, give it. We're also planning on doing the 12-days of Christmas idea on an investigator family. It's Christmas, why not?

2. I LOVE reading though our 25 days of Christmas story books every night. Always a favorite memory. Especially when we would burn the candle down with it. Maybe it was listening to Mom and Dad's voices read, or singing the Christmas Hymns, or maybe it was just the Spirit and messages those stories brought. I love the Red and Green Books we would read together and the doorbell ditching we would do. I love the really good presents, like a Mop for Dad from me, or The book by Elder Bednar for me from Jed. I also love the example that Mom and Dad set by giving us special money instead of gifts to find people to give it to who needed it. I've always wanted to buy someone Christmas like in the stories where someone comes in with a tree and lights and food and presents. I think I most of all just like helping other people feel the peace on earth and the Joy that the Gospel can bring.

It's the Season to Believe - Dec 2, 2013

And it's December. Oh wow!

Your Thanksgiving sounded awesome! I'm glad y'all had a good time.

We got to spend thanksgiving with the Crapo Family, who are actually from Washington, and have family in Kennewick. Looking at a screensaver picture I thought I saw Heidi Bradshaw...in the picture...it's a small world after all...but anyways they were awesome. Sister Crapo served her mission in the Spain Portugal Mission and so she learned both Spanish and Portuguese. She gave us the most useful Spanish tips that I have ever received and it was fun to talk missions with them. The dinner was exceptionally good, and they sent us with left overs. Over all, it was a good day.

On Wednesday, right before the Border Van came to pick up Sister Lund, she and I went to say goodbye to a few of our investigators. While visiting with one, Marilyn, she asked us something along the lines of "girls, you know, I've been saved already, so I was wondering why it is y'all keep coming back here and don't spend your time helping other people who haven't been saved." After a minute of a quick prayer, I asked Marilyn what she thought that our message was for her, that if she could pick one central point, what would it be. She thought about it for a minute, and then she said "well, I guess you came to share the Book of Mormon with me." Sister Lund then asked her what she thought was the message of the Book of Mormon, what was the point of the writers. Marilyn was stumped, she told us that she hadn't read enough of it to know, and so we asked her if she would. She got excited thinking about it and committed to read it with that question in mind: "what is the point of this book?" we'll be going by her again this week, and hopefully be able to read more with her and help her understand. Since that lesson I've been thinking about that question myself, and where we could read in the Book of Mormon with her to find the answer. Hey family, what is the central message of the Book of Mormon?

So since our areas down here have merged, we've had a lot of things to go through and organize. It's incredible the kind of build up and area can have after so many missionaries going through it. So Hermana Pond and I have been decluttering and rearranging and organizing and sketching out and mapping out and making lists and goals and all kinds of head-ache-causing cleverness. In Spanish. We've had to oraganize and get rid of a lot of things, and make room for others. We converted the extra bedroom into our study room and to make more space, we stacked our beds. Yesssss. We both have two box springs and two mattresses now. And sleeping has gone up a few levels. Not that sleeping has been really hard lately since we're both so mentally exhausted by 10:30. We've also attacked our closets. There is a LOT of stuff in those things...on the bright side, we found not one but two small Christmas Trees and lots of decorations. We also made a Christmas count down chain a little while ago. And have been listening to Christmas songs since like October...or earlier... Chrsitmas is in the air!

We figured the most effective way to merge the areas was by complete submersion. Since we have two area books already, we'll be splitting them into our English and Spanish Branches, and adding a few more colors to our map quadrants. We cover all of Del Rio now and the amount of people that we have to go through contact and reengage in coming unto -or back to- Christ is daunting. So what did we do? The Hermana Montgomery thing to do. We got a Texas-big white board. I've been taking pictures of other area's white boards as I've seen them, and have been perfecting the art of organizing an area into useful information. So we were able to have our Branch Mission Leader bring his truck to help us cart it home. But on the way to Home Depot, we took a detour...

So since Hermana Pond and I are still a bit iffy on the area, we were using my GPS to get us there, expect, I must have had it on a strange setting, because it took us to a back road, if you could even call it a road, and then behind the Home Depot Parking lot. Like the very, very back of Home Depot. On the grass on the otherside of the curb. And we had no way of getting into the parking lot without a) jumping the curb, or b) going back the way we came and going to a real road. We chose the latter. After taking pictures :) Oh the adventures you can have when you don't know where you are going!

But anyways, we got the board, and it has turned out quite nice. And, it is the best one I've done if I do say so myself :) we fit both Branches information on it, and lots of room for goals and other important information. It's the BESSSSSST.

So Hermana Pond is pretty good at HSI (Hable su Idioma, or Speak your Language) and so we've been using our Spanish skills a lot more. She's very good at using the different tenses of the words, and so it helps me pick up on it a lot better. I already feel better at it. We've developed a pretty awesome language study plan, and we're pluckin along. Plus, now that I'm also in South Del Rio, I'm speaking/hearing Spanish a lot more. Me encanta Espanol. My tongue actually hurt a lot yesterday, and I thought it was maybe swollen, but I thought it was jsut from lack of water since I was fasting, but then I mentioned it to Hermana Pond and she said it could be speaking Spanish more. In the MTC my mouth did hurt a lot, like literally, from speaking Spanish. Lots of muscles in use now that I don't normally use when I speak English. Ouch.

I've also set the goal to read the whole Book of Mormon in Spanish in December. I challenged a Sister, Anna, whose been struggling, that we've been meeting with to read the Book of Mormon all in Decemeber. She's a reader. Like, Jubilee on steroids. Probably. But anyways, I said I would do it with her. Elder Bednar style. Ya know, I really can't read it any other way now. So she's reading it in English with a question, and Hermana Pond and I are doing it in Spanish. Oh wow. that's about 20 pages a day in the Spanish Book of Mormon. Anyone want to do it with us? Dad, you could do it in Spanish... :) The more I read the Book of Mormon, the more I believe that I can't live without it. It's true, and it changes your life when you take the time to read it. Speaking about believing...

This week I read something interesting in my personal study. It was in Mosiah 26:2-3. It's talking about those who were not members of the Church, and were actually persecuting those who were, como Alma the Young and the Sons of Mosiah. It says:

"They did not believe what had been said concerning the resurrection of the dead, neither did they believe concerning the coming of Christ. And now because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God;and their hearts were hardened."

Sometimes, the people that we meet and teach, simply don't get it. They can comperhend the things that we are saying and how to make a difference. This has always frustrated me, because well, IT'S TRUE! Why wouldn't they get it?! But thinking about what these verses said "because of their unbelief they could not understand the word of God; and their hearts were hardened" sometimes people literally can't understand it because they don't believe it could be true. According to the doctrine of Hermana Montgomery, I think that God is not going to give us new knowledge and understanding, until we are prepared to believe it, accept it, and live it. It's a protection, because if we understand something, and we don't live it, it's sinning against the greater light. Sometimes we don't receive further knowledge and understanding, because we're not ready for it. I think that's why it's so important to have the Spirit in our lessons, because we can talk facts and bible bash and all that junk, but it's not going to help them understand it better, because it's not helping them believe it or even want to believe it. The Spirit has to be in our meetings. It really is the converting power.

Entonces, we had a lesson with a man, Mauro, who had been baptized a few years ago, but now he's not sure what he believes at all, and it's causing him a lot of anxiety and stress in his life. Hermana Pond and I started out a little rough, and almost lost control of the teaching situation. Well I did anyway. I had been working with Mauro for about a month, and not much progress and been made, since he wouldn't really upon up to us, he would say things that he thought we wanted him to say and not really things that he really felt or thought. We didn't know what to do, and he was not really interested in learning more. I'm not even sure how the lesson switched...actually I do. Hermana Pond shared her testimony of faith, and that allowed the Spirit to come. Then we started over at his level, reading Alma 32 and talking about having only a desire to experiment upon the word. Once the Spirit was in the room, I was able to think clearer about what we could do to help him. We talked about how God confirms truth to us by the power of the Holy Ghost and read several scriptures with him, explaining how he could ask God, and know for himself what was really true. Towards the end, he was sharing how he had received a witness from the Holy Ghost once while praying before his baptism, and the Spirit was thick in our lesson. We walked out of the best lesson that we had ever had with Mauro, and he had committed to make changes. He started to believe, and then we was able to understand.

I love this area, and I love my mission. There is no where I would rather be right now than Preaching the Gospel to the people of Del Rio with Hermana Pond. It is the life. I might have a crisis when I go home. Im fact, I had a scare last night. No one in our District got new planners for the Transfer yet, and so we're having to figure out something in the mean time. While trying to plan for today without a planner last night, I was struggling. What am I going to do when I have to go home?! I've watched missionaries go through a crisis here when they go home and don't have a planner. Who'd have thought, Cheyenne learned how to actually use a planner. Yes, yes I did :) I might just take one or two home with me to help me transition.

I'm doing great Family! I love y'all and wish you a Merry Christmas!

PS. Did y'all check out the Hastening the Work of Salvation Wed site yet?! If not, make it a family home evening :)

All Ya Need is a Deck of Cards, Extra Tights and Preach My Gospel :) - Nov 25, 2013

Sounds like everyone is doing so good! I love y'alls letters. Hearing the details of the hearing and the tree cutting and the zoo trip was fun.

This has been a freeeeezing cold week. Biking in Tempuratures of freezing is not a favorite. But before I tell y'all about that...

We went to San Antonio for a Zone Conference with Elder Golden from the seventy. If I could compare myself to Moses of Enoch, I would say that I had a bit of a "see everything from the beginning to the end" experience. The meeting wasn't specifically planned out, and mostly what was talked about was what our leaders felt impressed to talk about. What was mostly said was about living up to our fullest potential, raising our vision, and taking advantage of this surge in missionaries.

He told us that if we were looking at a line graph of the influx of missionaries, there would be a huge BUMP at this point in time and would eventually go down again. It would never go down to what it was originally, but it would in time go down. "Elders and Sisters" he said "we have to take advantage of this surge and make the very most out of this BUMP in time."

I think that day I realized yet again, how much bigger everything is. It's not just a religion or another church on the corner. This is God's whole point in having us come to the earth. If we don't act accordingly, what is the point? This work we are involved in, not just missionary work, but family history, Temple, Family Home Evening, Church callings etc...this is all kinda a big deal, and will impact us for eternity.

With that in mind, Sister Lund and I have been using/watching the Hastening the Work of Salvation Web site a lot more. The Church put it out in June with the New Mission President's Broadcast, if you haven't heard of it yet, the address ishttp://www.lds.org/training/wwlt/2013/hastening and you should go and check it out! It will change your world. Every time Sister Lund and I would watch one, we'd be so pumped up to go and find people, and be a little more proud of the badge that we get to wear :)

So after our Zone conference ended, we got to go the Temple that evening. We actually had to get quite the permission to be able to go, since originally we had said we would drive back to Del Rio from 9pm-12am, and it took a lot of prayers and fasting actually before we figured it out and got permission. But it worked out. So after the Conference, before we got  to the Temple, everything that could possibly go wrong did. Sister Lund had left her Temple Recommend at the apartment, and we couldn't find the Sisters who lived there so that they could unlock it. We also got something to eat right before, which was spicy and burned my mouth way more than it should have. Then we couldn't find the other Sisters at the church. President Slaughter was there though and he told us to have them look it up and call him if they needed to.

 As we pulled up, I couldn't find my wallet in the back seat with my recommend, and I started to get really frustrated. Sister Lund had to keep telling me it would be alright. So we went back to the Temple and as they were looking it up we got down to 10 mins until the session would start, and we were still in the waiting room waiting for the Temple President who was in a meeting. Panic attack ensued. I had been waiting to go back to the Temple for just long enough to be hungry for it, and Sister Lund hadn't been at all since we had come out nine months ago. We made it though. Whew. Fastest changing job I'd ever done. It was bliss once inside. I may or may not have cried in the dressing room after thinking about not being able to come back for a while since I was three hours away, and had used my two times on my mission up. As we were walking back to our car, I thought a little bit about how it was like life. We rush and rush and panic and cry and everything goes wrong, but then we make it and it's okay. I'll probably be one to come screeching into Heaven, puffing and red faced screaming "WE MADE IT!"

The weather here has taken a turn to the cold, and it now finally feels like Winter with winds, chills and rain at 34 degrees. While out biking, I've been wearing two sets of tights, an undershirt, a longsleeved shirt, a cardigan, a coat and a scarf. Why doesn't it snow here?? It's cold enough. It might have a little on Saturday, just little whispy stuff though. I'm still deciding about a coat Mom, I'll let you know when I come to a conclusion though. I've gotten pretty good at biking now, especially the part where I have to lift up one of my legs really high and bike one footed because a tiny dog is chasing me and snapping at my foot. Little devils. Sister Lund said it's like a bear chasing someone, you don't have to out run the bear, just the person with you. Shouldn't have said that, because now I just whiz passed her whenever a dog is trailing us.

We found a deck of cards in our closet two weeks ago, and so games of scum and Egyption Rats have been put into play whenever we have a few extra minutes during Lunch or at night after planning. Anyone can guess who is king most of the time while playing Scum :) they want me to tell them all my secrets. I have two ingredients :1) 15 people in our family and 2) holidays. Make sure you play some scum and settlers in mine and Danika's honor this Holiday Season!

One of our investigators, Rosie, has finally gotten into the Book of Mormon. She and her Husband were the ones we showed the move The Testaments to. She has now read 3 Nephi 1-15 (and reread parts of it) and has taken several pages of notes! She was so excited to tell us about the things that she had learned. Whenever we teach her something, she goes and teaches it to her children's class in her Methodist church. When we met with her, we reviewed the Plan of Salvation with the Pictures Sharlan had sent me. I drew it out for her to keep as well, and as she took it she said "oh this will make a great presentation!" She's going to teach her class about the Plan of Salvation haha! She's a missionary and she doesn't even know it :)

We have another investigator, Imelda, I think I have mentioned her before, who we had a lesson with. Our Member with us, Sister Manuele brought her a Conference Ensign and Imelda has been reading it while at work as a dispature for the hospital. She's progressing a lot, we just wish we could get her to come to church. Keep her in your prayers!

Transfer Calls came last night. Sister Lund is leaving Del Rio and I am staying. Our area is actually going to merge with the other Sisters area here in Del Rio and become one area. Sister Pond and I will be companions and cover all of Del Rio. This means that I will 1) be in a full car area, but have the option of biking and 2) get to speak more Spanish since I'll be in the South side of Del Rio 3) be with one of the best Sister Missionaries I have known. Sister Pond and I were in the same MTC district together, and we would always dream about being companions. Well, what do ya know, dreams do come true. Transfers happen on Thanksgiving day, and so now we do have double dinners, since both of our areas had had dinner appointments before we found out they were merging. Bring on the Turkey...

I've been trying to read through all of Preach My Gospel again in the last two weeks before transfers, I'm right in track to Finish on Sunday. I love studying the simple doctrine in it, and relearning how to be a good teacher. I'm tellin ya, if you want to know the Gospel, use Preach My Gospel :) and I ditto Danika's suggestion last week. Ask the Missionaries in your home ward what you can do to help your investigators and others they're working with. They're not just the missionaries responsibility, and you will see the blessing come to your life and theirs. Good things all around!

I'm doing good family. The work is going to Explode here. I can feel it. I have a good feeling about being with Sister Pond in Del Rio and I'm excited to "kill it" in dad's words :)

Happy Birthday Danika!

I love and think of y'all! So many of the people back home are constantly in my prayers :) Have a good thanksgiving week!

Love,

Hermana Montgomery

Bikes, Piano and the Border of Mexico - Nov 18, 2013

HEY FAM :)

How's everyone doing?!

So we've had quite a few mishaps with the bikes this week. Four tires, and three trips to Wal-Mart to exchange tires later, I'd like to say that we solved the problem. Pero, no. After I got my tire tube all fixed and replaced, it got a hole in it within a day and was trashed again. By the end of this transfer, I should be a pro at fixing bike tires. We'll see. Currently we've decided we might need to have "bike study" as much as we need "Language Study" during the day. Learning skills that will last us our life.

It's also gotten a little chillier...and by that I might mean that I've just become more of a baby to the cold. Or maybe it's the biking at night. Anyhow, It can get cold riding. So after experiencing this Wednesday, I decided to get smart and wear a coat on Thursday. I hate riding my bike in my red coat. It's not a favorite. Plus, It's not quite that cold to wear a coat like that, so I might be be looking into some lighter jackets. But anyway, Thursday  I wore the coat, and it turned out I didn't have to. So instead  I just sweated in it an stuff. "Wear a coat!" everyone told us. "You'll regret it if you don't" they said. HA!

Last P-day we went hiked a mountain...actually...it was a hill. There are no such things as mountains in Texas. It was  the San Felipe hill, and it as a nice climb up. Coming down however, I felt like I might die. We made it though and it made for a fun P-day activity. While at the top, we found this...basin? eh, sure, a basin with cement and so Sister Lund and Sister Clark climbed down it and played. Sister Pond and I chose to stay at the top. We took the pictures for them :)

I don't know if I mentioned, but we are starting a piano class in the Spanish Branch. Basically only Sister Lund, Sister Clark and  I can play the piano, and so we always play for church and things. Sos we're teaching other people, and inviting everyone, hoping to find new people to teach as well. So the first Tuesday that we did it, we had a whopping two people come. Yes, two. Pero, one of the mwas a girl named Patty. She is a convert of about 2 years and is preparing to go on a mission now. She told us that she had just been trying to figure out how to take piano lessons and learn when it was annouced in church that we would be teaching a class. She was STOKED :) and so we taught her and out Branch Mission Leader that night. We're using a Piano course that the Church has put out, and it get's you involved in the hymns super fast. So by the end of the night, Patty would finger through a simplified version of There Is A Green Hill Far Away, and we all sang along. She was grinning ear to ear. It was really neat to see how God can answer prayers in ways that we  totally didn't expect before. He Opens our eyes :)

I also got roped into playing the piano at a baptism yesterday. Sister Lund was going to play, and I was just doing prelude, and then they told me we were starting and handed me the hymns we were going to sing. Luckily I could play those ones, so it turned out fine. 

We also got in touch again with an investigator, Imelda, that Sister Lund had been teaching before I came, but she's been really busy lately and I hadn't really met her. Imelda's dog has been very sick lately and her two dogs are really all she has here since she's so far from family. We met with her and talked more about the Book of Mormon, at the end we had a few more minutes before we had to leave, so we had her flip open her Book of Mormon at random and we started reading. She opened up to 3 Nephi chapter 1 talking about when the unbelievers are going to kill all of the believers if the sign of Samuel the Lemanite doesn't take place. We talked about Nephi's prayer that night and how the Lord told him that that night the sign would be given. We related it to her about how sometimes we can't see the bigger picture, but if we have faith, God has things waiting for us just around the corner. She asked me afterward, looking at my marked and somewhat crinkled Book of Mormon, "you really read that book a lot, huh?" I think she could tell how much I love the Book of Mormon, just by looking at mine. I wish I could express in more sincere word just how much the Book of Mormon has impacted my life. If everyone could feel what I've felt while reading it, they would want to know about it too. I guess that's why I'm a missionary. So I can share that with others.

I got to go to Eagle Pass this week and do exchanges with Herman Hopkins, my MTC companion. We had a ball! We actually knocked into a women who Sister Wright had taught while she served in Eagle Pass, the women even had a picture of herself with Sister Wright and her companion on her bookshelf. I was kind'a fun to try and go find the people that Sister Wright had told me stories about. I hope I get to go back there again. While looking at the map to find where we were, Herman Hopkins said "Sister Montgomery, we are here...and Mexico is here..." and then she pointed straight down the road. Couldn't have been more that like three miles. SOOOO CLOOOOSSSSEEEE. And yet so darn far!

We had a talent show and a Thanksgiving dinner in our Spanish Branch on Saturday night. Holy Cow. I LOVE this culture. The singing and the dancing...SO FUN! Just picture the movie Thumbalina, and those latino frogs dancing and singing, because they got it pretty darn accurate! The eight missionaries in the branch sang the EFY medley together in Spanish for it as well. We had wanted to do a knocking skit, but we didn't end up having time to plan it. When we all sat back down, one of the Sister's in the Branch leaned over to me and said "ohhhh, I was just up in the sky while you were singing!" It was a cool experience to sing together. I love this Branch, their laughing and somewhat craziness is nice to be around. Everyone is just good humored and happy and somewhat dramatic :) 

We have a Conference in San Antonio tomorrow with Elder Golden from the seventy, so we're heading up tonight and will be there until Wednesday Morning. We also are going to the Temple Tuesday night. I'M SOOO EXCITEDDDD!!!! It's  gonna be a good day :)

I hope that everyone is doing well. I miss y'all and hope you have a good week!

Take Luck,

Hermana Montgomery