That Refiner's Fire .... March 31, 2014

My dear Family,

I love you all so very much. I really do miss you. In our weekly mission email a couple weeks ago, President Roney sent out a message about we should make sure our families and loved ones make us better missionaries. Let me tell you that you motivate me to be better, and I strive every day to become more like the Savior with you my mind, hoping to make you proud.

This week had lots of cool moments. With that being said, I will share a quote from Elder Maxwell,"Moments are the molecules that make up eternity."

I know that time is different (or doesnt exist at all) in the eternities, but its so true that our lives are lived and spent and enjoyed one moment and one decision at a time. And that really affected me this week, as I feel like these past couple weeks have been weeks of great personal change and development.

First we had a big zone conference this week with Elder and Sister Lund of the Quorum of the 70 (and personal friend of President Roney) spoke. And guess where they served as mission presidents from 2002-2005? ATLANTA, Georgia! Shout out! haha That was exciting for me to hear and some of the experiences they shared with us were very familar to me. I said douglasville and they knew exactly where I was from Haha. But Zone conference, was so incredibly inspiring and spiritual. Just fantastic.

On our ami front, its always an adventure. But we have one ami that we found by a miracle my 3rd week in Gex, that we passed this week. Her name is Anne-Marie. The second time we saw her after she "looked us up" on the internet, she looked me right in the eyes and told me, "but you won't convert me." In our last rendezvous, she told us how after reading the Book of Mormon, she felt energized and refreshed, and she has been consistent in her reading. This week she didnt have time for us to teach her, but when we passed she told us that she is really excited to come to church and that she wanted to talk to the member that we had taught with last time, Sr. Aubin (The importance of members cannot be overstated), about fixing a ride and everything. She is busy for the next two weeks because she is singing in the Easter Choir for the city, but after that she is really excited to learn more. That was quite refreshing for me. Her desire to learn more and her eagerness to engage herself were a reminder and inspiration for me to keep going.

Here was a cool quote from president Hinckley that I found today,

"It is not so much the major events as the small day to day decissions that map the course of our living-our lives are, in reality, the sum total of our seemingly unimportant decisions and of our capacity to live by those decisions."

In this talk I read it said something like: when we present ourselves before God, we wont be showing our trophy shelf and business awards, but rather our real heavenly resumes, ourselves! Work to become better!

I love you so much! Make lots of good little decisions this week!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery