Traveling Light (March 24, 2014)

Good Morning Family! And what a week it has been.

Last week, I wrote about how Sister Staker and I had cleaned our whole white board and started over looking for new investigators. Things have been struggling a lot the last couple of weeks, and we felt like no one was progressing, or even wanting to progress. The stress and frustrations have really taken a toll on Sister Staker and I and we've had to be working a lot to stay positive. So we had been revamping and re-planning and reevaluating our goals and plans and our focus was finding new investigators this week.

We started by going on exchanges with the Sister Training Leader APs on Tuesday, I went up to their area with Sister King, and Sister Hill came down to Pleasanton with Sister Staker. They're teaching a lot of really prepared people, and it was neat to see how they are all actually getting ready to be baptized. Pretty sure every lesson I walked out of my jaw was on the floor. Prepared investigators, prepared members. Sister King and I were talking on the way back to meet up with the other Sisters, and she mentioned something about binding the Lord to His promises, talking about how if we do all we can do, then the Lord has to keep is promises to us. So I've been pondering on that a lot, ways that I can do my part to bind the Lord to his promises.

And promises have been kept this week. As Sister Staker and I have been changing our efforts, we have seen the Lord's blessings come. We found eight new investigators and other investigators that we had have started to progress. It's been interesting to me to see how things have kind'a just fallen into place as we've started to talk to more people. In about August, the mission started to move away from knocking and was focusing more on member work and other ways to find, since more people get baptized if a member introduces them rather than missionaries knocking on their door. Since then, there has almost been a bad taste in the mouth of the mission when it comes to spending our time knocking. Sister Staker and I have been trying to knock a few more doors than normal as we stop by formers, and walk down the street when lessons fall through and talk to people who are outside rather than just getting back in the car and trying the next former or less active on our lists. It's been really interesting to see the difference. I haven't been out contacting a lot since my first area working at Texas State University in San Marcos knocking the apartment complexes, so I'm a little rusty, but it's coming back.

We've also cut down on the amount of things that we carry, traveling more light. We've been asked to use the resources that we have more, going back to using the pamphlets and things provided for us, rather than other things. So now, I just carry my scripture case with my Quad, a little Book of Mormon to give away with Pamphlets and pass along cards in the pocket. It's a lot nicer to carry instead of my big bag (it was getting a bit torn anyway from use). I think it has also helped me to teach more simply and focus on the point rather then the teaching. It's been a bit of a paradigm shift week.

I gave my training in district meeting this week about distressing from the work, fitting eh? Sister Staker had me change right before I left because I needed to be more happy and bright colored if I was giving a training on stress, it's not always people tell me that.

The training went well, I felt a little scattered brained, but I think that was mostly because I felt like I was giving a training on coping with something I didn't know how to cope with myself. I guess that's usually how God teaches us right? I used the new adjusting to missionary life booklet which gives a lot of ways to handle stress positively. I'm sure the booklet has been helpful to a lot of missionaries. Sister Staker's training on "Companionships: how to have one like Sister Staker and Sister Montgomery's!" went really well too, I learned from it :)

Thursday evening we headed up to North East San Antonio to do an exchange with the Garden Ridge Sisters, Sister Morrell and her trainee Sister Swenson (Sister Morrell was the first Sister I did exchanges with and was trained by Sister Wright as well). They are in a bike/car share area right now, and that day they had been on bikes. We got a text when we were almost there that said Sister Morrell had crashed going down hill and had hurt her arm. When we got there they were getting there as well after getting a ride with some members. She couldn't move her right arm, and her left wrist hurt too. At first, we changed plans and decided that Sister Morrell would come with me to Pleasanton instead of Sister Swenson since she couldn't ride her bike, but she wasn't doing very well and so we decided to postpone the exchange and instead call Sister Slaughter and figure out what we needed to do medical wise.

We ended up driving them to the emergency room and spending the night there since no one in their district had a car that week. Sister Swenson went with Sister Morrell to do all the ex-rays and get her arm wrapped while Sister Staker and I slept and were entertained by Disney Channel in the waiting room. It was a long night. And we looked like trash. Since it was a weekly planning day we hadn't really done our make up and our hair was in ponytails and buns, and we were both in maxi dresses. We were quite the sight...Sister Staker said we looked like hobos with tags. Yessss...We finally got back to their apartment around 2:30am and crashed on the couch since our apartment was a half an hour drive south. Sister Morrell had a fractured elbow and will get a cast today, she's a trooper. They are both good Missionaries and we had a good time together despite the broken bones haha.

While teaching a part member family this week, we were going over the Plan of Salvation. For some reason, we got really focused on the Atonement, and as we were talking Fred (the non-member husband) interrupted us. He asked us what we meant by the suffering of Christ during the Atonement, he said that he didn't remember that in the Bible. His wife, who has been less active, turned to us and said "isn't that where He bled?" it kind'a set the tone for the rest of the lesson. We turned to Luke 22 where it describes Christ's experience saying "... being in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." and talked about not only did Christ suffer for our sins, but He suffered for our trails and heartaches. We read Alma 7:11-12 talking about how "he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people...and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities." He was dumbfounded. Astonished. He literally was speechless when we asked what he thought. It was neat to share how the Atonement related to him more personally, and how to Book of Mormon supported and expounded upon the doctrine in the Bible. All of a sudden I gave him an assignment to read some parts in the Book of Mormon, we closed the lesson and we left very quickly. I think the sudden end let him keep his thoughts focused on what we had been talking about rather than small talk or the rest of the Plan of Salvation. It was a really neat lesson.

We also finally got in contact with a less active member, James May and his girlfriend Jackie. The Sister's before us had taught them once, and told me all about them, but we had only met once. We got to have dinner with them and talk about things. They're both very sweet people and we have a return appointment set up. We're excited! Area 51 got brought up again, poor Sister Staker.

One house we knocked on this week, we were setting up a return appointment and exchanging information and then the girl stopped and was like "oh! y'all were at my sister's house this week!" And sure enough we were...we had contacted both of them in Pleasanton, totally different days in different parts of the city. We had even briefly met her at her sister's house. And we had only knocked on about four doors in between. Chance? Probably not.

Viridiana, our investigator in the Spanish Branch texted us Sunday morning between meetings and said that she didn't want to meet with us anymore, since she wasn't feeling anything. I was okay for a little while, but then as I was playing prelude music for the Spanish Branch sacrament meeting, things exploded. My heart just felt a little bit like it would never be okay. I felt like I could have done more. I could have spoken Spanish better. I could have answered her questions better. I don't know. I know she felt the spirit in our lessons, and that it was making a difference to her. But it was her choice. And I bawled. The only thing that really comforted me was that the lesson before we had given her all of the pamphlets for the lessons. She has the apps on her phone, she has the pamphlets and she has a Book of Mormon, and I know that she will be able to find her way back to the truth someday. She will get baptized, and it will be okay. We gave her the tools to come back and the feeling will be familiar. She'll remember.

While thinking everything during sacrament meeting, I started to think about how this is some part of how God must feel when his children wonder. A lot more that's have been going through my mind lately about our relationship to our Heavenly Father, maybe my thoughts will be more collected next week and I can explain them better. Until then, it's been a really good week. We've seen a lot of miracles, and been blessed. And I've learned a lot.

I love you family, and hope that you have a good week!

Love,

Hermana Cheyenne Montgomery

Flat Tire Take 2 - March 17, 2014

Good Morning Family!

 

I feel like I don't have much to talk about this week, but I'm sure I'll whip up another lengthy letter. I always seem to find more to write about than I thought I would.

 

I'm glad to hear about all of your fun trips to Idaho and Time out for Women. There was a Time out for Women in Austin in the fall and we got a flyer for it, I wanted to  go pretty bad, they sound Awesome. And Hilary Weeks is one of my favorite LDS artists mom, her music is very good. Kimber Hayden introduced me to her in high school when she gave me a book for my Birthday by her, it's called "Believe in what you are doing, Believe in who you are" or something like that. Watch the music video for A Beautiful Heart Break by her, it'll make you cry, that song actually helped me while being out on my mission.

 

Soccer and Track sounds fun, I hope everyone is taking pictures for me so I can catch up when I come home...

 

So this week, we had basically an awful weekly planning session. We wiped the board clean and are going to focus all our work on more on finding. We've been working with the ward council trying to find information about people on the ward roster for the past 9 weeks and we haven't been finding very many new investigators. It was a nasty day, but I feel good about our plans now. We've set the goal to have at least 1 member present, 1 other lesson and one RCLA (Recent Convert/Less Active) every day this week. I'll tell you how it goes. We're also pulling out the bikes again, we're going to drive to some of the towns and then bike around so that we can meet more people outside while we're on our way to lessons and things. We'll see...

 

On Wednesday, we stopped by a part member family to get to know them and they were just leaving to go and feed their horses, so they told us to jump in the car and come with them. Sister Staker was in heaven since she's a rodeo girl and has horses, I was in heaven since the lighting was perfect and got to take pictures.

 

The biggest part of this week was when we did our second exchange on Friday with the Converse Sisters. Sister Staker served in Converse in the beginning of her mission so she went there this time and I stayed in Pleasanton and Sister Johnston came with me for the day. So I first saw Sister Johnston at Transfer meetings, and I kid you not, she looked just like a friend of mine from high school, Chessa Staley. So when we got to th exchange I asked if she was related to any Staleys, she said no but her old neighbors  in Utah use to be Staleys, turns out it was the same family and she knew who I was talking about. It's a small world after all...

 

So as we're driving to the gas stations to meet the Converse Sisters Thursday night, Sister Staker says "I think we have another flat tire...stick your head out the window and look." We then proceeded to try and stick out heads out our windows to se which tire it was. Turns out, we had driven over  BOLT, not even a sharp one. So At the gas station, we can hear the air wheezing out of it, and as Sister Staker pulls out the bold, we watched the whole tire deflate and the car tip. Great. Luckily, there where some Elders in the area, and this time I watched them fix it a little better.  Next time, I might be able to change the tire myself. And thus started out exchange.

 

Sister Johnston is English called, so go figure all of our Spanish lessons would end up the day of the exchange because going into the day we had...3-4 lessons in Spanish planned and dinner with members in our Spanish Branch. Flying solo that day, but Sister Johnston was awesome, she even learned how to bare her testimony in Spanish and Shared it in a few lessons. I think I learned the most in my Spanish study that day than I have my whole mission, because I needed to know how to say very darn thing by myself. It turned out good though.

 

We had a lesson with Viridiana that day, and I had known she could speak a little English, but I didn't realize how much until we taught her in English while on our exchange. Learned a lot of things that day about what was holding her back. She wants to get married in the Temple, but she doesn't understand why she has to be rebaptized. We talked a lot, and tried to set her with a date for April 12 for Baptism and she said it was too soon. Her idea of a good time was July. Pretty sure my mouth dropped to the ground. JULY?! I would be old and married by then...not really...still a missionary...but JULY?! She laughed at me and told me I needed to have patience with her, and remember that I said I wouldn't push her. I ate my own words and she laughed. I love Viridiana so much, we almost were going to stop meeting with her since she had cancelled so many lessons and we hadn't met in almost a month. I wanted to cry, I just keep praying she will get her answer, and that I'll actually be here. I've had a really hard time having patience with being moved around so much and missing things.

 

Earlier in the day on exchanges, we met with a less active women who has been struggling with her health and therefore not been coming to church. She brought us 32 oz glass mugs full of water at the beginning of the lesson and then she went in the back room to change, Sister Johnston and I may or may not have sneeked pictures holding those huge mugs. Then I dared her to drink it all before the end of the lesson...anyways. At the end of the lesson she took us to a room and started pulling out clothes to give to us, they were...really nice clothes from the 80's with puffed sleeves and among them was a really fine floor length floral shirt and skirt set...stylin. it gives on a headache if you look at it too long. Anyways, we took them and I thought that maybe Sister Staker would like the skirt at least if you didn't wear it with the shirt. She laughed at me when I showed them to her and we had to wash them once or twice to get the smell out of them. As she was trying on the skirt, I had the idea that I should wear the shirt and she should wear the skirt that day and we could be all matchy...it was an awfully brilliant idea. So we did it, and we made them look good haha we got a lot of questions from people. We also went to get our tire fixed wearing them, we felt like a circus walking around, we probably looked like one too. We're so cool.

 

Well family, that's all for now. I've been thinking of y'all a lot, I'm really hungry for what everyone has been doing.

 

Love,

Hermana Montgomery

Old Friends and Leadership Trainings - March 10, 2014

Hello dear family,

Sharlan you look good in your new outfit, I approve. And your hair is super dark, have you been dying it? Thanks for the email :) I always love hearing from everyone! And I am proud of you for staying in that interview, and look how well you did! You go, kid :)

This week has been pretty chalk full of...emotional stress. Okay, maybe not. But a lot of things happened this week.

I had my first exchange as an Sister Training Leader, and where did I go? I went to the Palo Alto singles branch and the Lackland air force base! I got to for to both FHE with the singles ward and FHE on the base. When I got there and was talking to the Branch President's wife, she hugged me and said "welcome home" and it did feel like home. Screaming, shouting, hugs. It was good to see everyone. My old mission leader is married now. Weird. I was with Sister Iverson who has been there for as long as I have been in Pleasanton, she and her companion were doubled into the area after a Sister went home for back surgery.

 

Sister Iverson and I were awake talking about things for a while. I talked about how it had been opening Palo Alto and how much I cried. The first Sunday at church we had about 15 people. My first transfer we had one baptism, the only baptism I've been there for on my mission. Lackland was a "planting ground for planting seeds of the Gospel." They now have the about 65 people consistently coming to the Palo Alto branch and the goal is now 75. We were screaming excited when we got up to 40 people one week! It was interesting to see how different it was. Things that Sister Young and I had started the week I left were put into play, and the area is exploding now. The Sisters there are working with President Slaughter to get permission to Baptize on base now, things are exciting! I think it really helped me to realize how much we really did do there. The beginnings were hard, and I was even asked after my first transfer there if I thought the area should be closed. But it wasn't closed, and now look at it :)

Sister Iverson told me that they are having success now because of those who went before them. It was a good experience to go back and see all the work start to pay off.

I also got to have a lesson with Conner Mitchell, the one who was baptized right after I left the area and who I saw and Stake Conference. We talked about preparing for a mission and set goals and plans for him to go out and work with  the Sisters in Palo Alto as well as studying Preach My Gospel. He said that all of the little hints that Sister Young and I gave about serving a mission while we were teaching him were coming full circle as he was going to start his mission papers this month. What is it Danika Says? HUZZAH! He'll go through the Temple in the fall. I'm so excited for him!

Que mas?

After exchanges and district meeting, Sister Staker and I may have had a break down and just stopped and took pictures on the side of the road (see the sunny ones below). It's my therapy. I miss my camera sometimes.

We then went to dinner with a new member in our Spanish branch who just moved in and she talked a lot about family members who are not members. We got the address for them and stopped by after dinner, we actually found a street full of potentials for our Spanish Branch and we're excited to go back.

I've been learning a lot about asking others who they know who would benefit from the Gospel, last week we had upwards of eleven referrals to contact simply because we were asking everyone. So let me clear something up.  When missionaries ask that, they are specifically inviting us to participate in the greatest work in...ever. If we are serious about this work, God is twice as serious. IF you pray for the opportunity to specifically invite someone to learn more about the church, THEN God will help you. I promise.

It down poured a few times this week.

While studying about how to Hasten the Work of Salvation in my Book of Mormon, I read the story about when Nephi Breaks his bow and the Liahona has new writing and a bunch of other things. The story was a Gold mine for Principles of Hastening the Work. Let me share some :)

-As we are keeping the commandments, the Lord strengthens us. It doesn't come while we are sitting waiting for it to happen (1 Nephi 16:23 "I, Nephi, did make out of wood a bow, and out of a straight stick, an arrow...and I said unto my father: whither shall I go to obtain food?"). So for example, when Elder Bednar was here he told us to quite just praying for those less active to come back and to start going out and doing the work to bringing them back.

 

-Sometimes the Lord will deliver a Liahona on our "tent step" or He will teach us how to build a ship (1 Nephi 16:10compare to 1 Nephi 17:8-9; also compare Mosiah 24:17-20 to Mosiah 22:10-12). I've often been thinking about the way that the Lord works. He didn't command Nephi to build the Liahona first and then make it work, He just gave it to them. But, they didn't just wake up one morning and find a boat outside the tent. They had to build it. Sometimes the Lord gives us what we need, and sometimes we teaches us how to get what we need. Kind'a like what Elder Bednar said in this last conference, I've quoted it before, I just love it "the blessing that comes to us through heavenly windows may be greater capacity to change our own circumstances rather than expecting our circumstances to be changed by someone or something else."

One of the last things that Nephi taught me this week was that even if no one else comes with us, we should move forward in the work. This was probably the most profound one to me. listen.

 1 Nephi 16:30 "And it came to pass that I, Nephi, did go forth up into the top of the mountain, according to the directions which were given upon the ball."

Nephi's brothers didn't go with him after he was instructed where to go. No one else made a bow. No one helped him or went with him. Could you imagine how he might have felt, leaving alone, no one coming with him or helping him? I think sometimes we get discouraged because others, others who even know to some extent the importance of what we are doing, don't come with us, or even make a move to help us. But Nephi still left. He still went to find food and he moved forward. I think that will be a characteristic many of us will need to develop in the times coming towards us, we need to be independently worthy and working, even if we feel we are doing it alone.

Ummm also, did you know there are like 15 blank pages in the back of the Book of Mormon? Like the ones in the front where people write their testimonies, only more...in the back. I didn't. But I'm using them to write down all of the things I learn about Hastening the Work of Salvation. It's like a mini study journal :)

I also got to go to my first MLC (Missionary Leadership Training) with all the Zone Leaders Sister Training Leaders and President Slaughter. I learned a lot. I was overwhelmed a lot. I can hardly get my own life in control, and now I'm suppose to be able to help others with theirs as well. God sure does pick 'em. Our Zone Leaders also told us they hardly stress about things while we were driving back. And if they do, they just put on their "no stress sunglasses" and then they're fine. What the heck...it's really not fair.

We also had been given a training on all of the different kinds of plates that go into the Book of Mormon, ya know Nephi's plates, the small plates, the large plates the plates of brass...well come to find out, most of the missionaries didn't know that almost the whole thing is abridged by Mormon and what all the plates were. I knew, and I knew a lot of the things that President Slaughter talked to us about it. We got in the car afterwards and were talking about it, and Sister Staker turned to me and said "I had no idea! Did you?!" And I was like "yeah...I did." I had thought most people did, and then one of our zone leaders turned around and was like "how did you know that?" and I said something along the lines of talking to my dad and family before since we read the scriptures every night together. Then my Zone leader said "Well, we don't all have dads like yours." Nope. Nobody's got a dad like mine. Except my ten siblings...hahaha

Well, I'm not sure what else to write. Adios!

Hermana Montgomery

Broken necks, Swallowed bugs, and Area 51

FAMMMMMILLLLLLYYYYYYY!

 

This has been probably one of the most ridiculous weeks of my life. Period.

 

Lessons Cancelled. Lots of driving. And quite a few referral's.

 

So after our flat tire incident last week we had to take the car in to get the tire fixed. We didn't plan things out very well though and after handing over our keys, we realized that we had no way to get back to our apartment five miles away, and our car would be in the shop for about the next two and a half hours.

 

We walked across a field-which last week was a Mexican Circus...literally...you think I'm probably making that up but I'm not. It smelled of Elephant poo and still had some trailers around that we were sure had Zebras and Lions...but anyway. We walked across this field to Wal-Mart where Sister Staker printed some pictures that she had forgotten, and I sat close looking through a wedding/photography magazine. We then realized that it was passed lunch and we still had no car. So after eating at a McDonalds in Wal-Mart, we 're sitting there talking, and Sister Stake gasps and unfolds MY empty wrapper to revile a tiny little...bug. In my wrapper. It looked like a tiny cochroach. I may have thrown up. So then we tromped back through the Circus field with weak stomachs to go and wait for out car. We felt a little bit like hobbits walking through a wasted land. But that might have just been us. But anyways...

 

We get our car back and we start driving to a less active members house on our list, when the phone starts ringing. The person calling was actually the member we were going to see...only we didn't have an appointment, we were just going to stop by. After a confused half a second I realized that we had called her while going through our 600 contacts in our phone and she was just returning our call. But anyways...

 

We had a special zone meeting and President Interviews this week. It was really good. At one point we were doing a Spanish study for the Spanish Missionaries, and we were translating someone giving a talk. So one of us would pretend to be giving a talk and the other would translate it into Spanish. Since being in this Spanish Branch where almost all of the speakers speak English and are from other wards, we have a lot of translating. I have wanted to be the translator so bad, but let's be honest, it terrifies me. But after doing this practice, I felt a lot better about it. Sister Staker and I have been practicing doing it and I have a goal to translate in sacrament meeting at some point on my mission. Our Spanish study went something like this:

 

Sister Staker: "So Joseph Smith went to a grove of trees to pray and ask God which church was true and which he should join." 

 

Me: Entonces Jose Smith fue a un grove of trees para orar y preguntar a Dios cual iglesia fue verdadero y debo reunirse."

 

We've had some laughing fits over our lack of Spanish words when we're put on the spot and are trying to go fast.But anyways...

 

President Slaughter gave an awesome training to us of the "First Visitation" and the four different accounts that the church has from different letters and journals from Joseph. They're always good. He mentioned that the church has a website josephsmithpapers.org where a lot of the documentation and records are. It's on my list of things to read when I come home.

 

Saturday Morning, we had a whole day packed with lessons and things to do, and I woke up and was stretching...and I basically broke my neck. Not really, but it felt like it. Something popped really loud in the left side of my neck and it hurt to move and turn it the rest of the day. I had a sock filled with rice that I have been warming up the last couple of days. I felt like a fool. But it's gotten better. I was just being a cry baby the whole day. All of our appointments fell through and we ended up looking for formers and less actives. We actually had some neat experiences talking to people. We got in finally got in contact with a less active the previous sisters had told me about, James May, and his family was actually in town. His parents told us to keep him at the top of our list. His Girlfriend had just started taking the lessons when I was transferred here, but we lost contacted with him all of last transfer. Miracles.

 

I've also been trying to be better at asking people who they know that would be interested in our message, and it's one of my transfer goals to just ask everyone no matter what. It was awesome to see how many people we contacted who responded with telling us of people they knew.

 

Also on Wednesday, we got out to Pleasanton and after a lesson and getting our feet stuck in the mud from the rain in the morning, we realized that our mud caked shoes wouldn't do, so we ran quickly to the store and got rain boots. But neither of us wanted the boots with a little wedgey heal and a bow, so instead we got like farmer in the field boots. They're pretty stylish. So we tromped around the rest of the day like we owned the town. Sister Staker said she felt like Shrek. I don't blame her.

 

This week while studying in our Mission Study packet "Be Not Moved" we have been studying the Book of Mormon this week. Many of the talks we read emphasized the point that when it comes to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon, there is no grey area. It's either true or it is not. I loved how straightforward it was. Learning through this, I have realized just how much our testimonies have to go through the Restoration in order to get to Christ and his Atonement. We can't believe anything fully in the church unless we have a testimony that Joseph Smith is the Prophet of the Restoration. And if we truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, the truth will point us back to the Book of Mormon and the Restoration. There is no other way. it's like the verse in 2 Nephi which says

 

"...hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good... And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things..." (Nephi 33:10-11). The Gospel just makes sense doesn't it?

 

So the last few days I've learned some interesting things from Sister Staker. She's never heard of Joan of Arc before...and she's been brought up about four times in the last transfer she said. It was a good laugh hahaha I also brought up area 51 for something and she looked at me blankly....she thought I was making it all up. A secret base where an alien space ship landed? Pa-leasseeee. We texted some other missionaries when we got home to take a survey  to see if she was the only one who didn't know what I was talking about. Also as we were talking about area 51 we may or may not have scared ourselves while contacting less actives in the dark. To sum up the experience: she told me "get ready to run at any moment" while at a door, a dog barked, we ran, I wacked my head on the car frame  getting in which hurt my already broken neck even more, one of us peed our skirt, I thought I heard something so naturally I screamed then she screamed louder, then she swallowed a giant bug and throw up out the car window. It was a pretty eventful night. And right before she had to wrestle with her boots to get them on her feet yelling a couple of times "GET IN THERE!" in the raspiest smoker voice you could imagine. She's not a smoker though.

 

Oh, another time...Sister Staker was driving and we were talking about our lesson that we had just had when she suddenly starts screaming and yelling at me to give her a book. Not knowing what the heck was going on, I handed her our ward binder. The she slammed it into the windshield to kill yet another giant gross looking bug. She's holding it still trying to drive, and she's yelling for me to take it, still not knowing what is going on, we pull over and she tries to hand me the binder which ya know naturally I think she's trying to dump the bug onto me, so I scream and she screams and the binder is knocked to the floor of the car. we both jump our screaming and screeching to see where it went. We're stopped at a gas station by this point, and we 're both just kind'a painting there when the car starts rolling forward, Sister Staker hadn't put it in park, so we do the dumb thing and try to stop it by pulling on it, luckily Sister Staker got in and put it in park pretty fast though. I hope no one was watching this.

 

She snores. I snore. We've spent a lot of our nights telling each other to shut up. Or talking to each other in our sleep. It's a toss up.

 

So over all, it's been a pretty eventful week. We're basically laughing all the time.

 

That's about all. Enjoy our stories :)

 

Hermanas Montgomery and Staker

Flat Tire, New Companions, Miracles and Making Haste - Feb 24, 2014

FAMILY. What a good week.

My companion is Sister Staker from Loomis California (in the California Roseville Mission!). She was going to school at BYU-I before her mission and wants to be a high school Spanish Teacher. She and I came out at the same time and have served around each other down on the border (me in Del Rio and Her in Eagle Pass, she was my STL), and now we're companions! I was a little terrified of transfers, because I was worried I would have an English Companion since that has happened before in this area, but we may or may not have shouted and done a few fist pumps when it was announced we would be companions together. I  think we've lived together for years. But that just might be behind the veil. She loves Harry Potter as well, and she listens to me talk away. She jumps in the air to get into bed, throws things everything over her shoulder into the back of the car when she's not using it anymore. She also enjoys singing really loud. We get along well :) We might need a babysitter haha toooo muuuccchhh funnnnn!

So Sister Rodriguez and I spent our last few days together and then we made the trip to north San Antonio where I took the Spanish test for hopefully the last time at 7:15am and then went into our Transfer Meeting. Lots of changes, lots of excitement. We went to the bookstore afterwards, and I...bought new scriptures...mine have been falling apart (literally) and have been well worn, so I've struggled taking them to lessons since it distracts people sometimes, and also I have too many markings to think while I read. So I got the new burgundy 2013 Quad. And Hermana C. Montgomery put on it. Sister Staker and I have had a good time comparing some slight changes in fonts or intros and things between our copies. I'm afraid  to mark anything.

On our way back home to our apartment after transfers, we received a phone call from a number we didn't know. I thought it would just be some missionaries that we didn't have in our contacts, but when I answered it, the person on the other side asked if he could talk to Sister Huerne and Sister Ferguson. After some bustled confusion he told us that he had been taught a few years ago by those Sisters, and he would like to know if we could come by again and talk. Wahhhhhh? Jaw drop moment. We got information from him and set up an appointment and when we hung up, Sister Staker and I looked at each other flabbergasted. It's gonna be a good Transfer.

We've been making our way through the list of people we don't know in our ward directory, and surprisingly, we've been setting up a lot of return appointments with Part Member families. It's been really interesting. God's hand is in this work.

So, we've been doing this Study packet "Be Not Moved" from our Mission President, studying the Restoration (Joseph Smith, Book of Mormon, Jesus Christ, The Lord's Church) as a mission. I love studying something in personal study and then getting to talk about it in companionship study. It's the best. But at one point, I'm not really remembering what I had been studying, but I had this thought. If, some areas in the world open up for missionary work in the coming years, would they ask return missionaries who were not married to serve a second mission? It was an interesting thought to think about. This is in Elder Perry's words "the most remarkable era in the history of the church." The Hastening. If asked, would I serve a second mission so that there would be more missionaries to carry the message of the Restoration to the world? I don't think I would even blink. It would be so exciting to continue to be part of that phase of the Hastening of the Work.

So it's already been interesting being an STL, lots of things going on behind stage that I had no idea about. We're going to be doing four exchanges this transfer-three with companionship's that we cover, and then one with the Traveling Sisters who cover us. I'm excited!

Do y'all remember those pictures I took  to explain the plan of Salvation? Well, I finally used them. I know, I should have used them sooner than a year into my mission, but…I never felt like I should before. We did a quick review with the Plan of Salvation with the Hopp family, and then I showed them the pictures, Robert was listening very closely. The daughter should have finished the Book of Mormon Yesterday, so we need to follow up and see how it went. At our lesson on Tuesday, she and I were talking before dinner about what she was learning, she picked the topic of virtue and was already in 2nd Nephi. She asked if she had to highlight as she read, because she knew she could go fast if she didn't have to highlight, and i told her that I knew she could easily read it in a week, but we had wanted her to learn something while doing it. It'll be interesting to see how she did!

I really loved the experience you shared with the vacuum dad. Thank you! I loved the part where you said " Cry unto him over our fields and about our flocks, or even our carpet and how we feel about where we live." This week we had a lesson with a woman named Laura, I'm not sure if I've mentioned her before. we've taught her a couple of times, normally after lunch with a member in our ward, and she has gotten aggressive sometimes with the things that come up. All of her family is members, and she is just not gonna hear about how she should change or why anymore. But anyways, I had a lot of fear going into this lesson with her on Tuesday, and I was praying a lot that we would just be able to bring the spirit to her heart, testify and leave without getting into a bashing rant. Praying a lot. And…the conversation just flowed perfectly into what we had wanted to talk about. We didn't end up using the things that we had planned to use, but still talked about what we had planned on talking about, prayer actually haha the irony. I shared a scripture and then an experience I had had counseling with the Lord while on my mission, and without prompting, Laura said "There has been only one time in my life, that I feel like I have gotten a big bolded answer to my prayers." Then she shared an experience with her two daughters. It softened and and changed my views that I had of her. We were also able to go and help her clean up after she had been painting for a few weeks. She talked about building houses and things while she re-grouted part of the wall (She majored in construction design), and I even told her bit about your laundry room project dad :) 

Another event of the week was I got my first flat tire in the mission. Pooo. We think it might have been from driving over part of a cactus while our GPS took us off roading to find a house. We were able to find the spare tire, but in the end, we had to call the Elders to come and help us with it. As much as we would have liked to fix it ourselves, the Elder's will have to take credit for this one. I'll have to take a page out of Shar's book and pay attention a little more when it comes to cars. It made for an interesting night to say the least.

I've been pondering a lot more about the experience I shared last week from going through the book of baptismal records and finding so many less-actives. I think it was a real life changing experience for me. This morning, while reading in Alma 26 about the work of the Sons of Mosiah and their converts I read:

6.Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.

 7. But behold, they are in the hands of the Lord of the harvest, and they are his; and he will braise them up at the last day.

I thought it was so fitting for my thoughts towards the people that I have been teaching. I don't want to convert them for a season, and then when the storm comes and the wind blows, the fall away. I want them to fit this description. I want to fit that description. I want to be unmovable in my Testimony of the Lord's Gospel, His Restoration, and His Hastening. Really converted.

Yesterday, we had a member from the ward high counsel come to our Spanish Branch to speak, and his and his wife's topics were "Hastening the Work of Salvation." He listed 6 ways that we can hasten the work and I wanted to share them with y'all.

1. Broaden your circle of friends (we've been told before to choose friends who will lift us up, and now maybe is the time to be the friend who will lift others up).
2. Invite others into the light of the Gospel, by inviting them into your life (so this is not only being their friend, but letting them see a part of what your life really is. A lot of time the fact that people are Mormons is very blatant, let them see the pictures on your walls of phone, talk about families, talk about church etc...let them see how the Gospel has blessed your family).
3. Smile (this is a happy work, act like it :D)
4. This wasn't his exact wording but I wrote it down as "act like it's normal, others will be excited as well." Sometimes, we fear that others will judge us, because we are kind'a judging ourselves...just let the normal flow of your life and words leak into theirs....if that made any sense.
5. Invite people to enjoy your everyday experiences with you (when you're doing and enjoying something, ask yourself "who would enjoy doing this with me?" it builds relationships to simply invite others to do things with you. Try it, you'll like it).
6. Make a plan (my personal favorite. Make a goal to get to know five new families and become friends over the summer, or to give away a Book of Mormon once a month or to carry pass along cards in your purse or wallet and give one away everyday. Things will only progress as we set goals and make plans and carry through).

I wish that this High Councilman could go around the whole mission he was so good at getting people's attention and making realistic suggestions to Hasten the Work. I learned something.

I might have mentioned this last week, but our Stake Relief Society President asked our Relief Society last week "what are 10 ways to Hasten the Work?" then she asked "What are 10 things your ward is doing to Hasten the Work?" When I got home and was thinking about it that evening, I decided to make 10 transfer goals for what I was going to do to Hasten the Work. What are 10 ways you're helping to Hasten the Work?

We met with our Elder's Quorum President last night to discuss a plan to reactivate and find members on our lists, we're meeting again on Wednesday. We have a lot of really good leaders here in our area, i'm excited to see where things will go. 

Sister Staker and I are hoping to finish here together. That would make five transfers for me, and four for her. High hopes.It's possible...but if I stay here for even one other transfer it'll be a first on my mission. So right now we'll live it up and work hard. 

Well Fam, that's been my week. Enjoy. Love y'all!

Hermana C. Montgomery

There's Change in the Air - Feb 17, 2014

Hello family.

I just read the email from my Mission President, a lot of changes are going to be taking place in our mission, and now...I'm a little stumped as to what I should write...my mind is full.

A lot went on this week. We had zone training meeting, and almost everyone gave training in one way or another. One of our traveling assistants was there and talked a bit about raising the bar and the vision for our mission. One of the things that struck me was that he said "where is the urgency in what we are doing?" If we really feel the way we express, shouldn't we be pushing a little more and running instead of moseying along? It really hit me about what I could be showing a little more urgency with. Ya gotta walk the walk if you're gonna talk the talk.

Also this week Sister Rodriguez and I were invited to participate in mutual for our Spanish Branch, talking about missions and how to gain our own testimony or how we decided to serve a mission, ya know, that kind of stuff. We got some good feedback from the Branch President and Young Men's President in Branch Counsel afterwards. Both of their 17-year-old daughters were there and said that it impacted them. I really do love teaching.

Also a couple of weeks back we met a women in the ward. She had had several challenges and at this point didn't have her children with her. As she went to get her scriptures out of her room I looked at Sister Rodriguez and said "we have to help her more." Sister Rodriguez looked at me and said "como?"  alluding to the fact that we couldn't get involved in stuff. I turned back to her and said we can help her, the gospel can bless her family through her as she lives it. She's looking for a job now, and the branch has gotten involved to help her out. We're also going to be trying to teach her parents tonight. She didn't have a copy of the Book of Mormon before, but since we gave her one, she has been reading all the time. It's the only way to make it she said.

Another family we've been working with has been pretty difficult. For extenuating circumstances, neither will be able to be baptized until May, and with it so far out, it's been difficult to help them progress. They do the reading and things, but things don't change. The Gospel is suppose to change people. It's been a struggle all transfer to know what to do to help them actually make progress, and actually to even feel the spirit in their home. Well, we had a lesson with them last Saturday, and something was different. I couldn't put my finger on it. We watched the Restoration video, and afterwards the husband basically shared his testimony about how Joseph Smith was prepared to be the prophet and we talked about keys and authority. It was actually really good. We also challenged the 12-year-old daughter who is less-active to do the Elder Bednar Book of Mormon Challenge...in a week. She is a READER. Think Jubilee. Then multpile...by SIX. So I challenged her to read it all in a week. She's accepted and has until Sunday night, she even stated thinking about a topic to study. It'll be changing for her.

On Thursday and Friday, we were in Danika's words "grounded" to the house. Sister Rodriguez had not been feeling well for a few days and Thursday it knocked her out (Oh, and she broke her finger playing volleyball last Monday, we've had to stop and get ice at gas stations and Subway a few times this week). So anyways, both of those knocked her down. So while she slept it off, I went through our binder full of baptism records with their teaching records attached. That was some mission lingo I guess, basically all of the notes missionaries made while teaching investigators who got baptized and are on our ward records. I went through it. Page by page, three times. And, out of maybe 50+ members who got baptized since 2005, about 5-8 are active still. Whhhaaaat? It really ripped my heart out a little sitting there reading record after record of baptism success, only to look up information and realize that not even a year later, they were not active or had gone back to their church. It was more difficult going through that binder than going through the area book where so many
people were almost baptized but something came up. These were people who had made it to baptism, and then lost something. 

Please Help the Missionaries find these people and bring them back.

After that, a few days later I was reading in 1 Nephi about Lehi's vision and read in verses 25-28 of Chapter 9:

"And it came to pass that I beheld others pressing forward, and they came forth and caught hold of the end of the rod of iron; and they did press forward through the mist of darkness, clinging to the rod of iron, even until they did come forth and partake of the fruit of the tree.And after they had partaken of the fruit of the tree they did cast their eyes about as if they were ashamed...And after they had tasted of the fruit they were ashamed, because of those that were scoffing at them; and they fell away into forbidden paths and were lost."

I never want the people that I come in contact with to fall away. It's like President Hinckley said, it is no use to teach and baptize only to have people fall away from the church.

I want to assist the Lord in converting people forever, not just a year of two. I want to learn to be a missionary forever, not just for a year or two. Because it's suppose to change everything.

On Saturday, while stopped at a stop sign, I looked over towards a cemetery and saw and elderly women walking. Something about her struck me and made me look twice, but the feeling was already gone. About four minutes later, as we were driving away I told Sister Rodriguez we needed to go back to the cemetery. As we pulled in, Sister Rodriguez wasn't sure. "Hermana, why are we here?" she said. "We need to look for those who are living, not those who are dead." Just come with me, I told her giving her a "humor me" look. We got out, and were walking for a little bit, not really sure what we were looking for. I gave up and we started to head back to our car, but as we got there, we saw a man rearranging flowers by a grave plot a little ways away. We both stopped and looked at each other. We decided to go over and talk to him. In Spanish, he explained to us that the next day would mark one year since the passing of his wife.He cried as he told us how alone he was and had no one since she left. Her grave was covered with many many flowers and scripture bricks. We explained that we had a message about God's plan for us and how he would be able to see his wife again, and how how his family could be together forever. We exchanged phone numbers and made plans to contact him again, leaving him with the Plan of Salvation Pamphlet. As we walked back to the car, I looked at my companion and said back to her, "could you humor me?" Elder Bednar told us in Stake Conference that "God prepares points of intersection for his children." I believe it.

Yesterday in church I was playing prelude music before Relief Society started. The Sister who usually plays the piano came in and got excited, sitting down next to me and softly humming the hymns I was playing. She then asked if I could play the hymns for Relief Society. I got nervous and responded by saying that I didn't really know those hymns, and was sure that she could play them much better than I could, no matter how good my sight reading has gotten here. She said that even if I could only play right hand it would be good, because it would be so nice to have someone else who could play the piano instead of her all the time. Knowing how she felt, after she said that, I stopped and turned to her and said "I can do that." The other Sister ended up coming in who would be playing and she played instead, but I think I needed that experience. I have never played the piano for one of the English wards before really, since there are usually more people who can play, and so one it was unusual for me to be playing prelude at all. God was teaching me something. Sometimes, we're not going to be the perfect of the best at things, but God doesn't ask us to be. He asks us to stand up and volunteer. He needs more people to stand up and say, "I can do that." 

Along with the changes that are being made in our mission came transfer calls. Sister Rodriguez is being transferred to a new area, and I will be staying here. I've also been asked to be a Sister Training Leader, and I will be getting another Sister Training Leader as a Companion this Thursday. A Sister training leader is like the Sister version of a Zone Leader, so I'll work with the Zone Leaders and other Sisters more as well as attend Missionary Leadership Training, coordinating exchanges and training in Zone meetings. Interesting how intimidated I am by this. But if the Lord asks, I can do that.

Anything else? Looking at a picture, my Branch President told me my father is very young. I then explained my dad was older than he was. He was a little shocked haha his 12-year-old son also reminds me of Ammon, I can't figure out why.

Well family, that's about all! I love you much!

Love, Hermana Montgomery