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