Transfer 12, Week 3...Thanksgiving and travelling .... November 24, 2014

Chére famille,

A great week. We had to do an exchange yesterday and so are taking our P-day today.

We started off with lots of travel. We went up to Albi on Tuesday to do an exchange with the Elders up there and I was with Elder Poll and Elder Otteson. We spent the night there, then stayed for the Rodez district meeting, and then went up to Rodez and did an exchange with the Elders there. I was with Elder Smith, a blue missionary from Dallas, Texas. It was a long 2 days but incredibly fun and miracle filled. 

Thursday morning we arrived at the Rodez train station at 730am to take our train back to Toulouse only to find that there had a been asurprise strike and we had to take a travel bus from Rodez to Toulouse...a 4 hour ride. That was a long start to our day. But it was great because we got to share Thanksgiving dinner with the VanTonder family. Sr. VT is from Utah, and Fr. VT is from South Africa, but grew in France. We had another American couple with us, the Turley family, and the Van Tonder's neighbors Christina (spanish) and Peter (German) and their baby boy. It was such a fun time. We ate so much food!!!! It was a legit Thanksgiving dinner. And we had wonderful time explaining the strategies for eating as much food as possible to Peter and Christina. They are way cool. They asked a ton of questions about us and our missios. At the end we shared Because of HIm and He is the Gift with them and the spirit was so strong. It was a wonderful evening. I don't think it could've been better.

We did another exchange Friday, I was with my good friend Elder Mattinson. It was a blast. Friday night I did the baptismal interview for DanYan, a chinese ami. He passed and will be getting baptized on saturday. Really great. With his baptism our entire district will have had a baptism this transfer!

Church was so great. Sadly and a bit annoying because of all the travel we hadnt been able to see Margot until Sunday at church. It was so great to see her. She was railing off some great answers in Sunday school, then would look at us and say that she went to a good school. So funny.

In other news, Pierre Fourtina, my buddy from Lormont (RM from Ogden mission) who is doing his studies here in Toulouse was called as our new DMP on Sunday. Its going to be a blast.

Today we just came here from eating a raqluette lunch with the Cuveliers, Margot and mami. It was a huge meal and lots of laughing. I love these people so much. Just my favorite group. What a wonderful blessing to be here. 

The transfer calls are coming on Friday. Nervous for what will happen. I want so much to stay here for Christmas, but we never know where the Lord will need me. 

We already have a ton of stuff planned out for this Christmas month. For those of you haven't gotten on the He is the Gift train. Get on! Its what we are doing as missionaries is going to every member and inviting them to #sharethegift with all their friends. This is going to be to great! I'm so excited for Christmas! Only 3 weeks!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

 

 

Thanksgiving table

The turkey

Our Raclette lunch!

 

 

Thanksgiving in Perigueux France! .... December 2, 2013

Chére Famille,

Our week was fun. We had a lot of cool things happen.

First, Thanksgiving here was a bit surreal. There was no football. But we got invited over to a Portuguese members home who invited friends and celebrated thanksgiving with us 4 American Elders. It was a lot of fun. And the food was really good. It was even cooler to have the opportunity to share a celebration like that, with people who dont normally celebrate it. It made me really realize how grateful I am for all that I have.

We went to the Branch blacklight dance this past week for 30 minutes to say hi to everyone. It was super awesome! Our branch president so cool! He is a on the side DJ and ran it all. He is also an ex-baller.  We have a Samedi Sportif with him and all the young men in our ward. He goes pretty hard in the paint. (we have 15 young men!)

I'll share one cool experience from this week. Saturday evening we went out in search of a part member family that has been inactive for years. They live a good while away from us. We took a bus to a very rural area to rolling hills of typical southern France. We walked for a while down gravel roads and knocked on the door of the address. We were invited in by the 18 year old son, who we talked with and answered a lot of religious questions he had, until his mom and older brother showed up about 30 minutes later, and they invited us to stay for dinner...yes of course. The two brothers love America, so we talked about that for a while. When we left with a spiritual message, they really ate it up. You could really tell that this family was just spiritually starving. After the closing prayer, one of the brothers was in tears, and we got invited back for just before Christmas. Sister Geurin, who is the member along with her children (her husband is not, he is away in Africa on business for 3 months) was soooo happy to have us. She greeted us like she already knew us and was more than happy to feed us. The last time they've had any contact with the church was over a year ago. But they are such a wonderful family. And it was such a beautiful experience to feel the spirit together as a family, because it is always more powerful when within the bonds of family.

We also visited an old ami yesterday, who is waiting to be baptized until after the custody court case for her 5 children is finished. Literally everything is against her. The judge marked on her file that she is fol (crazy) for taking her kids to church and wanting them to be baptized. Everyone in her family is against her decision to continue learning about the Gospel. And this (the court case) has been going on for 2 years now. (Reminds me of Charles Dicken's Bleak House). She is a rock, her faith is incredible. We encouraged to keep pressing forward and reminded her that is after the black of night that the sun rises.

It is experiences like these that make my time out here so very worth it.

I love you all! I miss you!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder William Montgomery