Dear Family,
What a crazy week. This is probably the funnest assignment I've had on my mission.
This week we were in Lyon doing exchanges with 2 equipes until Thursday and then travelled to St. Etienne and Gap on our way back to Marseille doing exchanges with the elders there. The hardest part of this week has probably been parking the car. We lose a lot of time looking for parking. Grrrr.
What a crazy week. This is probably the funnest assignment I've had on my mission.
This week we were in Lyon doing exchanges with 2 equipes until Thursday and then travelled to St. Etienne and Gap on our way back to Marseille doing exchanges with the elders there. The hardest part of this week has probably been parking the car. We lose a lot of time looking for parking. Grrrr.
My companions are great though, Elder Huntsman is like a seasoned veteran in only his 5th transfer, and Elder Palmer is so humble, it makes the whole experience so much more full.
It was really fun.
Thursday was great, we went to a district meeting in Lyon, and afterwards did an exchange with the Zone leaders of lyon. Elder Huntsman and I had Elder Barnes, who is a new zone leader this transfer. We did a long voyage with him to go teach an old ami who lived an hour away in Oyonnax, a tiny industrial city. This is ami whose name is Diana, was taught all the way up to baptism in another city and then left unexpectedly. She is an awesome woman from Honduras who recently had her first child. Our rdv was the first one she had had in 6 weeks. She was so happy to see us. She wants to be baptized very badly and the only thing holding her back is that she lives an hour away from the closest ward. So they'll have to figure that out.
On our way back to Lyon from that rdv we stopped to see a less active member who the elders had met in the train station almost a year ago. Her name is Kelly. She is Tahitian (They are just generally happy and fun people and super sensitive to the Spirit), her whole family are members, but she kind of dropped off the radar after moving to france with her boyfriend. She as well was so so happy to see us and kept telling us. We got to know her then her french boyfriend got home, we quickly became friends with him. We shared a message about obedience to the commandments and how much God loves us. It was awesome. The Spirit was so strong. Kelly sat there testifying to us about how she knows the Gospel is true and that it feels so good to have a BOM back in her hands. She told us that she knows Christ lives and that He loves her. All in front of Vincent her boyfriend who sat there a bit stunned by the environment. By the time we finished there was such a sweet feeling in the room, it seemed to filling each of us. We finished by saying,"this feeling that you are feeling right now is the Spirit of God testifying to us that these things are true". Vincent shuffled uncomfortably. Haha after we said the prayer we asked if the next time we come if we could teach him about what we believe and he excitedly accepted. It was so neat. We left on cloud 9.
Saturday on our way back to Marseille we stopped in Gap to do an exchange. Gap is a valley city in the French Alps on the east side of the country. Among the most beautiful places I've ever seen (I took Pictures), the drive went all the way through the mountains. Incredible. I got a chance to go out with a blue missionary named Elder Romero from Wyoming. We taught a less active man together. Elder Romero is a great, a bit quarky but coming out of his shell nicely. He wasn't active growing up, but decided to come on a mission after his father suggested to him, and he read and prayed over the BOM. Really interesting. It was a fun and successful exchange. We got back to Marseille at 930 that night.
And finally we got to attend church in Marseille. It was a blast. The ward was so happy to have new missionaries. Not that we'll be there very much. But we were able to bear our testimony to the struggling ward. At one point marseille had two wards and was a mission HQ. BUt now is down to an average attendance of 85 people every sunday.
However Marseille is such a beautiful city. Wow. Almost feel like we're living in Hawaii here. Its awesome.
Its been such a blast to be a travelling equipe and to go around meeting so
many different people and bearing our testimony to so many different people. Its
like the disciples of old who travelled to different cities all the time. How
neat! Its been such a huge blessing for me. This week we have 3 exchanges lined
up in 3 days and then will spend Friday and Saturday doing Zone Conferences in
Aix and Nice. Could not be more excited for General conference.
I love you so much! Please take advantage of ALLLLL of General conference! (Why wouldn't we? what could be more important?)
I love you so much! Please take advantage of ALLLLL of General conference! (Why wouldn't we? what could be more important?)
Beaucoup d'amour,
Elder Montgomery
Elder Montgomery
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| The team in Marseille |
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| The Bordeaux crew at Leadership conference |
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| AFter District meeting in lyon at Master Tacos |
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| Driving through the french alps |
