Nothing Toulouse! .... August 25, 2014

Dear Family,

This week as just been incredible. Lots of differences between here and Lormont. I'll briefly give you a rundown.

In Toulouse there are 2 wards- Capitole and Concorde. We are in the Capitole ward along with 4 other missionaries (including a Chinese companionship and a team of sisters). And there are 6 missionaries in the Concorde ward. (This means half of our zone is in our city)

The Capitole sector is much better than the Concorde sector. It includes almost all of downtown Toulouse, the Young Adult center and the chapel.

This is where the Toulouse France mission was once based.

There is a lot going on as far as missionary work here. We have 5 people currently committed to baptism (4 of which were already committed before I arrived). We taught tons of lessons this week. We had ward council, the ward leadership is great. We operate on an incredible energy level here. We BIKE here. We use the public bike system. Which makes things really fun and I feel like a retro missionary. haha we also use the metro system a lot. And thats probably where we talk to the most people.

My comp Elder Moeller is fantastic. He and I get along really well. He has incredible missionary skills, and is super efficient and organized. He being such a great missionary causes me to rise to a new level. This challenge makes missionary work fun. We talk and say hi and smile at everyone. And we have already seen so many miracles in just 1 week. Maybe the thing I admire most about him is this is his last transfer in the mission. But he his push harder and has more desire to do good and become better and find people to teach than any dying missionary I've ever met.

The ward is great. We went and visited the Stake President, Fr. Depuydt, thursday and he invited us to play tennis with him. He smoked us. But the visit was great. More members I get the chance to meet and understand and love. The first step is learning all their names....which can be tough...

Our apartment is big, used to house 4 Elders. We live in a good area, better than Lormont. Toulouse is beautiful, but downtown is rather sketchy and busy as is the case with all big cities.

Our goal is to make this transfer the best transfer of both of our missions. To do more and find more success. We committed our 5th person to baptism this week. His name is Henrique. He is a tall, dark, Portugeuse man. Was taught by the missionaries 10 months ago and then lost contact, but we got him back and he came to church on sunday! Very exciting.

Although I walked into this sector and there was already tons of success going on, I'm excited to see what difference I'll be able to make with the help of the Lord.

Although this week was full of stress and anxiety (and some fear) I felt the Holy Ghost pushing me on and helping me fulfill my tasks as I strived to play catch up in city I didnt know (which was tough on the exchange we did this week). I knew I was on the Lord's errand, as everything turned out alright.

I know why I'm here. And I'm so grateful to be here. Because of Him

Here's to the best 10 months of my mission.

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgmery