Zone Conference Week - April 28, 2014

Dear Family,

I don't know how to keep up with time, everything is going so fast and I don't know how to stop it. Our STL (Sister Training Leaders) Leaders asked if they could change our exchange to this week instead of next week, since they just needed a day to work in their area. I totally understand that, I feel like we never have a full day to work, things always come up.

We had Zone Conference this week, it was SO good. We talked a lot about revelation and I wish I had brought my notebook to email so that I could tell you more. We were also asked right at the beginning of the meeting if we would participate in a musical number in the middle...uhhh these things keep happening. So we left lunch a little early with some of the other sisters and practiced in the Chapel. We sang Joseph Smith's First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Fount. We were even able to figure out harmonies and things before, it turned out really nice :) glad I have some talent to pull together.

The last hour or so of zone conference, President Slaughter turned it to the topic of marriage and opened it up to questions from missionaries in the two zones. Interesting...His response to question about his thoughts on getting married quickly after our missions will probably be the talk of the mission for a while. He said, and I quote "from the time that your foot hits the floor off the plane, to the time when your knee hits the alter is the most spiritually dangerous period of your life." Then he asked us how long we wanted that period to be...a lot of things were brought up from dating nonmembers to choices of career and who we wanted to be responsible for raising and teaching our children. it was a good discussion. He also told us to lock our hearts, but to be aware of the future, to be looking for things that we did or didn't want in our future families. I've already be made more aware of that on my mission, it's interesting just how much you can tell about a marriage, family and home life in one dinner appointment with members in the ward or investigators.

Another thing that President Slaughter advised was getting a masters degree no matter what, even if it was career related or not. He said something along the lines of "in a world that is increasing in darkness and competitiveness, we need to be a little more that most people." It reminded me of when Elder Bednar told us in January that at this time " [we] we need to learn faster and with greater intensity than ever before." Food for thought I suppose.

We talked about scripture marking at one point and how we study the scriptures, and President Slaughter said that we wasn't very good at remembering "Book of Mormon stories that [his] teacher told to him" but he was pretty good at remembering "Book of Mormon doctrines that his Savior left for him." He explained to us how we have increased so much in knowledge and light while on our missions, and that if we didn't continue studying for the rest of our lives, we would lose that light. He wanted to dispel the false doctrine that "reading at least one verse a day" would get us through and help us out. We have to continually be studying and increasing our knowledge. It hit home even more when in Relief Society a few days later the Sisters talked about hardly getting the chance or remembering to read their scriptures during their week. One said she normally got to do it at least once a week. Really? Your priority will be where you put it I suppose.

We were asked at our dinner appointment if we were scared about anything about going home having so little time left (Sister Regan and I got our first set of paper work for our flights home this week). I think I'm most afraid of forgetting. I don't want to forget how much everything has meant to me, and how much more the Gospel means to me. I don't want to become complacent or take for granted the work that we have to do as members, because the greatest work that will take place is the work I will do after my mission.

We got to go into the class for the teenagers in our Spanish Branch this Sunday to help with the lesson. Let me just say, God puts a lot of trust in His youth...I think I'd gotten very use to being around missionaries and had forgotten what youth classes were like...

So anyways...I'm not sure what else to write. I guess I'll write more in a bit if I think of more.

Love Y'all

Hermana Montgomery

The Time Has Come To Ice the Bug Bites Again...Ouch - April 21, 2014

Well family, you will not believe some of the things that I am about to tell you, but they are all true.

Every. One. Of. Them.
THIS HAS BEEN THE MOST OUTRAGOUSLY EXHAUSTING WEEK OF MY LIFE!!

Monday night, we started to gut our area book again and make plans for how to work around our miles and things better. It ended up being really stressful trying to figure out things. So then Sister Regan packed her things really fast and we got in the car to go and meet up with the Sisters from Garden Ridge to do exchanges. BUT, they couldn't find where we wanted to meet and so we were wondering around the San Antonio free ways looking for a sonic they were stopped at. Twenty minutes and a headache later we found them. We quickly exchanged and headed back to our apartment. Sister Williams, who was in my zone when I was in Austin came with me to Pleasanton, and Sister Regan went with her trainee. SO the next day, we had so many appointments planned, like six, and all but one fell through. And not only that, but our GPS was acting up and so we were on maps. Moral of the story...we drove way to much. It was really frustrating, but we talked a lot, which I think both of us needed a lot. That day she ended up opening up a lot to me about struggles in their area and with training, I started to tell her things that I had learned from training and my areas, that I didn't even know I had learned! Somehow, God just has a perfect plan worked out, one where nobody is left out or forgotten. We didn't even have a dinner appointment that day, so we ate our PB and J in the car with our carrots. It works :)

Wednesday, we had Zone Training Meeting; it was very inspired I felt. And since Sister Regan and I gave a training on how to use and apply our trainings, I took very good notes about what our commitments were, so that I can follow up and remember to do them. We also had a District Leaders meeting that we went to as Sister Training Leaders. I think that was one of the first times that I took so selective notes and only wrote down the things that really stuck out to me.

So then, after weekly planning on Thursday, we went out to our car to go to our appointment and we forgot a DVD we had wanted to use, and so we started to turn around, but when we went for our gate clicker to open our apartment gate, it was gone! When we parked and I started to get out of the car,  also realized that our GPS cord was gone as well, opening our little space between our seats, I found that of our two GPSs were missing. Someone had broken into our locked car, inside a gated apartment complex and stolen our GPSs, our gate clicker with our spare apartment and mail key, AND my sunglasses! I was beside myself. We went into the complex office to talk to them, and the lady barely looked up at us from her screen! She made not that our locks would need to be changed and then went back to her computer screen. By this point, I was a bit put out. But we had a lesson to get to. Luckily I knew the way. Can you believe that??!! They didn't even take a Book of Mormon! Can you tell I'm still a bit upset?

So basically, Sister Ragen and I have gotten pretty boss at reading our maps. Look out world, Cheyenne Montgomery has no training wheels. I've actually be rather impressed with myself with how well I've been able to navigate this south of San Antonio area the size of Africa.

So the next night, we get home, it's about 9:01pm and we get up to our apartment and can't get the door unlocked...turns out, the apartment complex CHANGED OUR LOCKS AND DIDN"T TELL US!!.....so there we are, lock out. Beside myself doesn't really cover how I felt. I described it to Sister Regan like this: "You know in the movies, when someone angry comes in a pins the other guy to the wall by the throat? That's about what level I'm at right now. It's fine" I felt like the HULK. So we get back into the car and called the other Sisters in our district who are across San Antonio, they didn't answer, so we went over anyways. We slept on couch cushions on their floor that night and then went to our apartment office the next morning. It was Pleasant. I woke up and looked at Sister Regan and said, "I think...I'm done." Lucky for them, a different office manger was in and apologized profusely and said he would talk to the staff about it. Got into our apartment and found a note inside that said, "we changed your locks!" .........Thanks a lot!   So, enough about that.

On Friday, we went over to help a Hispanic investigator clear some land for where they're building a house on a ranch. It was rather intense hauling trees and the burning. Ammon would love it. He'll be jealous by the end of my story. We found a copperhead snake under some branches and had to spear it and chop it up. It was quite the struggle with three screaming girls. I let Viridiana and Sister Regan do it, I just took the pictures. Then, we noticed they had a huge pic in a pen by the house, and they told us that it was for the next nights dinner for the Spanish Branch Easter Party. We were looking at our dinner. And it was alive. So after our lesson, we stayed and watched it get slaughtered! After the shotgun, cleaning and shaving, they hung it up by the hind legs in the tree and well...wwhhooopt! It was in half. The neighbors were actually doing it and it was like a party. A pig slaying party. Mariachi music, chips and all! It was all very interesting. Then we ate it the next night. I love Spanish Branch parties! We left about 8:30 pm, but everyone else was there until 12:30 pm! They were all tired in church the next day hahaha!

We've been teaching a young man, he's actually a son of a part-member family. He's about 22 years old, and has been doing drugs since he was 9 years old. Rips my heart out. Blaine's mom's greatest hope is for him to join the church. He's been in and out of rehab for the last three months or more and does drugs to keep his depression and anxiety back. He's been struggling a lot. I've felt like we needed to teach him since I got to Pleasanton, but I never had the guts to ask him. The first time Sister Regan was there when he sat in on a lesson, it finally popped out of my mouth and I invited him to let us come and work with him. He said sure, but he apologized up front and said it wasn't going to be easy for us. I got a blessing when I was in Del Rio that told me I was called to Texas to teach specific people, people that only I could teach. I've often had a hard time believing that, feeling that there was always someone else that would come and do more or better than me. One night though, as Blaine's mom talked about him in and out of rehab, I had the distinct impression that Blaine was one of the people that I was called here to teach, and to remember that.

So, we've taught him three times now...the gospel changes people! It's basically like teaching a ten year old...with 22-year-old problems. Sister Williams went with me on exchanges to teach him, and she sat with her mouth open the whole time, not knowing how to work with him. He's so contradictory, and lost. But I've never been so sure in my life that the Gospel changes people. When people talk about the "Nobel and Great Ones" I've never felt like it was talking about me, or people like me, they're talking about people like Blaine. I'm so positive that Blaine fought for agency before this life and for the chance to come to earth, and now he's trapped in this drug-addicted body. He does have his agency here, and he is going to change. Already, just little things, he's changed. Made his bed, clipped his cocaine nails, started playing the guitar again, put up his GED certificate on his wall and other certificates, and reading verses in the Book of Mormon even though its hard since doing so much LSD has basically made him dyslexic and read in circles. After we taught him the plan of Salvation in about twenty minutes since he was being so ornery, I asked if we could end with a prayer he was like "Wait, you're leaving so fast?!" Then I was like "Well, would you like us to stay and talk more?" and he sat back for a minute and said "Do as you please." So we sat back down and read Alma 5 with him...harsh, but he understood more than he was going to admit. He really was paying attention to the part in the Plan of Salvation about the Resurrection, as I explained that our bodies would be made perfect, mentally, emotionally, and physically. I have learned so much about God's plan for us through teaching Blaine this week. Blaine has taught me a lot. Even though he drank a half a bottle of vodka right before our lesson...I've never known so well that the Gospel can change people. He really is a funny person, Sister Regan and I have started a "Blaine quote wall" for all of the things that he says, and I have to control myself a lot not to laugh in lessons cause his reasoning is so skewed. I'm sure you'll be hearing more about him in letters to come.

Sister Regan and I were up talking one night, about...well, just about everything. But the conversation came to the Atonement at one point, and I started to think about some things that I had never thought about before. So the next day, with four days before Easter, I started a Gospels study. So for each of the four gospels (Matt Mark Luke John) I've read from the Garden of Gethsemane to the end of the Book, one book a day and studying other things about the Atonement, Crucifixion and Resurrection. A member also gave me a CD a few weeks back that is kinda like a play. It has scripture text from the Bible for the last week of the Savior's life, and then songs that go with it. We've been listening and crying to it for the last week while driving. It has really brought the Spirit of Easter more into my life. Someone actually brought up the Easter Bunny to us, and I was confused,  I didn't even connect it to what this weekend brought. We actually passed someone selling Easter baskets with fake bunnies on the side of the highway and Sister Regan was startled when I yelled over the music "WHO EVEN CARES ABOUT BUNNIES??!!".

 My testimony has been enriched by this week and  I have learned so much about God's plan. I have so much greater and deeper understanding, respect and love for our Savior after this week. I also got to play the hymns from "To Satisfy the Law" that Sharlan sent me for Christmas, it was so fitting to practice them on Sunday for a little bit. Thanks Shar!

So anyways, it's been a week to remember. Hope yours was as well!
I love y'all

Hermana Montgomery

The Days are Long and the Weeks are Short

Welcome home Danika! I definitely had a moment in the middle of eating my burrito after district meeting on Wednesday where I stopped and then said "She's HOME!"

How weird! How strange! Only Three months away...okay, enough about that.

This week has easily been one of the busiest weeks of my mission. Zone P-day Monday, Missionary Leadership Council meeting Tuesday, District meeting and coordination Wednesday, Zone Conference for East Zone Thursday, Exchanges on Friday, Finally weekly planning and a Baptism in our district Saturday, and six hours of church on Sunday. Not to mention starting teaching new people, picking up old ones again and setting goals as a district to accomplish before the end of the transfer (May 14th), correlative reports to the zone leaders, preparing a training for our Zone meeting this week and hardly any dinners since it was a conference weekend and our calendar wasn't passed around. Then again, we worked through a couple of dinner hours since we didn't have enough hours in the day  to meet with investigators with all of our meetings and exchanges and reports and things. Whew. I'm exhausted just thinking about it. But, I'd rather be busy and doing things than not, so it's a good thing.

We had a lesson with a Hispanic women that Sister Staker contacted while she was on exchanges with our STL Leader last transfer, and we finally were able to sit down and meet with her again. We think she might have Alzheimer since she didn't remember meeting with them at all. She was a pretty funny lady giving us water and ginger cookies and telling us all about how her catholic church totally believes in Joseph Smith. She can't read, and she can't write, but she was excited to learn that our church time on Sunday didn't overlap with her church time on Sunday so that she  could go. Her favorite thing to say was "Mmmiirrrraaaa!" as she was surprised by everything we talked about ("Mira" here would be in my words "oh wow"). She also was surprised at how good Sister Regan's Spanish was, but she wasn't surprised at mine, because she thought I was Mexican, so of course I could speak Spanish. After I told her I wasn't Mexican she was impressed and another round of "Mmmmiirrrrraaaaa" began hahaha! We got in the car and I asked Sister Regan if I looked Hispanic she said "well, more than I do!"

In MLC (Missionary Leadership Council) this week, we had four missionaries who had been released as Zone Leaders and Traveling Assistants and Sister Training Leaders last transfer and been trainers and district leaders the last six weeks come back to talk about things after not being on the Council. They were kind'a like the moles telling us if we were doing our job as leaders in passing information and training and leading. It was interesting and the most common comment was that there just wasn't enough communication and trust between Missionaries and leaders. It was really interesting and to me it was a paramount life changing meeting. I felt like we were actually getting to the gritty part of what is it going to take as a mission to raise the vision and push a little higher. We talked a lot about districts and district leaders and the role of Sister Training Leaders.

The next day we had district meeting and set goals as a district for what we could accomplish. It was a really good meeting, and I feel like we became more unified as a district. I'm excited for what the next five weeks hold for us together. One thing our district leader told us was "God has placed us in the areas where we are for a reason and in a district together for a reason" then he said "Let's go find out why." I was the scribe writing our goals and plans on the board, it was really good. Sister Regan and I are giving a training on "Applying our Trainings" in Zone Meeting this week, I've gotten a little bit passionate about it. We'll see how it goes!

Anyways, sorry it's a bit short today, I hope everyone is doing well. Keep kissing those babies for me!

Love,

Hermana Cheyenne Montgomery

What's Worse than Hurding Cats? Washing Cats

In case you were wondering, we actually did wash cats this weekend. Six of them to be exact. We asked the Hopp family we've been working with if there was anything we could do to help them, and then they invited us to help them wash their flea infested cats. So we said yes. Weed whacking in a skirt one week, cat washing the next. Pleasanton never gets dull...

So we were told to wear flannel or multiple shirts so that if the cats dug their claws into us we wouldn't get hurt. Luckily I was assigned to be "The Towel Lady" and just had to wrap them up nicely in a towel and hold them like a baby. I even got to rock them in the rocking chair for a bit. It wasn't as bad as they made it sound it would be, but maybe that was because I was actually doing the scrubbing. I did have to jump in and grab a couple as they when over Sister Hopps shoulder and down her back to get out of the water. An exciting evening to say the least. But anyways...

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were dismal days to say the least getting ready to have Sister Staker transferred, may or may not have cried over it...but Thursday came and with it Transfers. We had to get up by 4am to get ready, loaded and drive up the Stone Oak building in North San Antonio for the Spanish test starting at 7:15am. It was an exhausting day, transfer days are always the longest days in the shortest week.

Sister Emily Regan is my new companion, she is from New Mexico. She came out when I did, so that makes her the fifth companion I've had who came out and goes home the same time as I do. She likes to sing in the car with me, and hates unpacking as well. We're excited for the transfer.

Wasn't General Conference Great?! I think it might have been the best one I've been to, or at least the one I learned the most from. We were at the chapel in Pleasanton for three of the four sessions, hoping investigators would be there, but no one ended up coming. I've spent almost all weekend trying to think of ways we can get people to church better. Our Bishop and his wife took us out for lunch on Saturday between sessions and I just have to share how they met. Ahem: She was less active, he was a non-member in 1980. She was getting off work at a restaurant around 7pm and walking by a gas station. He was out with his buddy riding motorcycles. He yelled at her "Hey blondie! Want to go for a ride?" she responded, "Do I know you?" Thinking he had said her name, Janie. He flipped up the mask on his hamlet and said "You do now!" and thus began their courtship. She got on the bike with him....whaaaaat?! They ended up dating for four years, got married and she reactivated herself in 1997 and he was baptized in 1998. Then he was called as Bishop in 2006 and has been Bishop for eight years plus. That's a long time. Anyway, thought you'd just like that little story. Mine and Sister Regan's jaws were on the floor.

Back to General Conference. I took so many notes. I  think my favorite part was at the very beginning when President Monson was talking about the Temple Dedication theme for the Temple in Arizona "Live True to the Faith" and then he paused and said "think about that." Live True to the Faith. And if you did think about it, you'd realize that that turned out to be the theme for the whole conference. I was really interesting to me how much related to "letting your faith show" and having the courage to stand up for what we believe, even when we are alone. Not only that, but actually living what we profess to believe. Elder Holland set the tone pretty well and when it was announced he would be the first speaker I leaned over to SIster Ragen and whispered, "Starting early." Many of the talks were much more boldly worded and boldly given. Elder Nelson's statement "what are you tied to? A bouncing ball or to God?" gave me goose bumps after he talked about watching sporting events on Sunday. Kind'a puts it into perspective for us.  I also really liked Gary Stevenson's "Four minute performance" analogy a lot and how he used of what Elder Bednar had taught about writing the names of people in our families and then writing the ordinance they would need next, and the action that would be taken to prepare them for it. Goals and Plans make the world go round huh? I really liked that Linda Reeves pointed out that Family Prayer, Family Scripture study and Family Home Evening were not the things that added stress into our life, but lessened the stress in our life, when other sisters told her that telling them to do those things stresses them out. The Gospel does bless our homes, if we let it.

Elder Bednar's talks are always favorites for me. I had been pondering a lot about why we, or I guess why I had had some specific challenges and experiences, especially some on my mission. Some of those were hard. Why did I have to experience that? Did it really help me grow? the idea of "It was the load" from Elder Bednar's talk helped to answer some of those questions that had been going through me mind. What’s interesting, those questions were not in my list of "questions and thoughts for General Conference" that I had made this week. God does look of the heart. I'm excited to be able to study these talks in more detail. How lucky we are to be able to have them printed and online for us to study and use after. Think of the difference of our notes and study if we only had one chance to listen to what our Prophets had to say. There is reason to be grateful. And like Elder Cook said we finally have the doctrine, the temples and the technology to really hasten the work. We do live in the fullest of times.

Well,  I can't think of much more to say.  We'll have five exchanges in six weeks this transfer. Things will go fast. Hug Danika for me. Take a million pictures for me at graduation and visits and things. Enjoy the Temple. Keep helping the Missionaries :) and Live True to the Faith.

Until Next week,

Hermana Cheyenne Montgomery

Going on Three (March 31, 2014)

Hi family,

I don't really have much to write about this week. Things have been kind of hit and miss.

We had exchanges again this week with the Palo Alto Sisters, so I got to go back to Palo Alto and see people again. Things have been difficult the last transfer with the Sisters there, and so Sister Staker and I felt like we should do another exchange with them. It was a really good exchange and a lot of good things came out of it. I realized how important personal study and preparation are to receiving personal revelation, as I went into the exchange not knowing what to do. I continue to pray that things will be okay there.

We contacted a referral this week from mormon.org, who we had been trying to contact for a couple of weeks now. Joyce just had her second back surgery since her first one went wrong, and her brother asked her to have Elders come and give her a blessing while she was in the hospital. She told us that her three daughters were all baptized in the 90's but for whatever reason, she was not. She told us that her number one thing on her bucket list was to be baptized! The only thing is she has a long healing period and won't be actually bake to be immersed in the water for almost a year. But we do have another appointment with her tomorrow and are going to be teaching her, seeing if there is another way that she could be lowered into the water. I'll keep y'all posted.

We also contacted another referral from mormon.org that day, Vivian. She has had a difficult childhood and is overcoming a lot of things still. She told us that she is looking for something that is "real." She explained how when she was a little girl and would pray when she was all-alone, she knew someone was listening to her, and she's looking for that feeling again. We're really excited to start teaching her.

Friday was a mess in itself. We had all our appointments fall through, and things just kind'a melted emotionally. We ended up parking the car and going through our area books and member records looking for things we could do the next day in Pleasanton. It's been really difficult working here, because there have been a lot of good Sisters here in the passed, and everyone just compares you to them. I feel like a lot of the former investigators that we meet just talk on and on about how great the missionaries were that taught them. Well, sorry. I am not a tall blonde bubbly Sister Missionary that has no problem talking to people and laughs at everything. I've felt a lot that a lot of people were converted to the other Sisters personalities, and well, I don't have that personality. And Sister Staker doesn't either.

So we basically were stressed out, hot and tired. I almost asked if we could cancel out dinner appointment, just because I really wasn't in the mood for putting on a face. But we went anyway, and God knew we needed to. Sister Hinds is about 22 years old and she was our dinner appointment. We'd met her before and she's been really sweet to us. She ended up showing us her wedding pictures from a year and a half ago and talking about things. The photography aspect was very relaxing. It was a needed break. At the end we were talking about the Book of Mormon in our message and how we all had gained a testimony on if, and afterwards, Sister Hinds thanked us for being who we were. She told us that she liked that we weren't "out there" personalities, and she could tell how much the Gospel meant to us. I don't even know how she knew exactly what we needed to hear, but she did. As she said the closing prayer, she prayed for us by name specifically, things Sister Staker need and things I needed. It was almost like getting a blessing. I realized again, right then, how much of a difference it is to use names and needs of people specifically. I know that she has touched my life, and I'm very grateful for the tender mercy Heavenly Father gave us that day.

The women's broadcast on Saturday night was something I've been looking forward too all week. It had a homey feeling thinking that all of the women I love were watching it at the same time as me. I thought that it was beautifully done, especially with the added videos and things. I heard a lot of things that I needed to hear. I excited for General Conference next week. Before the Broadcast, there was a dessert social, and Viridiana came! It took me by surprise since she said that she didn't want to meet with us anymore. I explained to her the broadcast and general conference and modern day prophets. I keep praying she will feel the Spirit and have a change of heart about baptism.

Well, the only other news I have is that transfer calls came late last night. For the first time on my mission, I will be staying a third transfer. The hard part is, it won't be with Sister Staker. She's being transferred after only one transfer together and she will be finishing the training of a new Sister. I will be getting a new Sister Training Leader companion on Thursday.

Angelina's notes from church really helped me today. In fact, I 'm going to put them above my desk where I study so I can remember them.

  

I love you all. Hug Danika extra tight for me.

Hermana Montgomery