Transfer 15, Week 1 .... March 23, 2015

Dear Family,

Lots of fun this week. We've been everywhere and back again. We're currently in Lyon. We got in Saturday evening and we'll be here until tomorrow for the Leadership council we'll be taking part of.

What a week!!! How neat!

We got to Marseille late monday evening. Fun facts about Marseille- its the largest city in our mission, it only has 2 missionaries in it, it used to have its own mission there. Its rather dangerous. Haha as we arrived I had the feeling that I was going into a ghost town. Its also had a mystical air in my eyes. So it was fun to get there and to set up camp in our apt, and tuesday we spent the day with the Marseille elders and having them kind of show us around and give us a break down of the area. We attempted to go to Chateau d'if, but we missed the ferry. Another day.

We spent the rest of the week on the road. Each evening returning home to sleep in Marseille and have regular study schedule the next morning before taking off again. We did an exchange with the zone leaders in Nice and in Aix-en-Provence, and also spent a day with the elders in Antibes. Really fun. It was neat to go back to Nice and see some old members I had known when I was there. I remembered the streets rather well for not having been there in a year and a half.

I spent my exchanges with Elder Andrew in Nice, Elder Nye in Aix, and Elder Martin in Antibes. Great guys. ITs fun having the chance to inspire and hopefully teach others.

One of the great blessings of the week was Saturday. Seeing that we needed to be in Lyon by Saturday night, we decided that we would go spend a few hours with the Elders in Clermont. We also got to attend Yao's baptism. It was such a huge blessing. It was really great closure for my chapter in Clermont. I got to see a lot of my members again and say a proper goodbye, and it was really special to see Yao be baptized by Elder Tomlinson. It was a really proud moment for me to see ElT step up to the plate like that.

Yesterday we attended the Ecully ward with President and his family. We also had our planning meeting for the zone conferences and the mission leadership council this week. It was neat.

My comps are awesome. Both elder palmer and elder huntsman(who is always rocking the sweater vests) are super humble, hardworkers, and really here for the right reasons. Its been so much fun to be with them and to learn from them. We've been having a blast together.

We haven't really been serving as conventional assistants. Our task is really to help train other missionaries, and the current set up is nice for us because we don't have to worry about a lot the little errands and other things the guys in Lyon have to, we just get to go out with missionaries.

I love it. I love serving the Savior. I love helping others feel His love. I love having His Gospel in my life. Its funny how truth feels so real and pure. Its a special thing which I will cherish forever.

I love you!

Elder Montgomery

Elder Martin and I on the coast of Antibes

On the road to Nice

Nice!

After Yao's baptism

Fr. Obrecht and Fr. Villierme -two of my favorite people from Clermont

After Yao's baptism

Transfer 12 Week 2, A week to remember .... November 24, 2014

Dear Family,

Margot got baptized :) Scare after scare and miracle after miracle happened to keep her until her baptism on Saturday and then her confirmation on Sunday. It was an incredible experience and I feel so blessed to have been a part of it.

This week was another busy one. We started by going to Lyon on Monday for Leadership council which was fantastic, and then had zone training on thursday which went really well. And then the baptism on Saturday!

 

It's all been rather stressful as we've had no fridge and have been putting our cold things on our window sill. (we'll be getting a new one today) and we've both been low on our mission money.

Leadership council was wonderful. We had a lot of really good practical solutions to unifying our mission. That has been the big focus of late. We are a team. I feel like as a mission we've progressed a lot in our desire and faith in the past little bit. 

 

Zone Training was awesome. We got to present to our zone the He is the Gift initiative. The church's Christmas program for this year. We are stoked for it. It's going to be awesome.

 

Margot- So we saw wednesday and she was doing great. Thursday the ward council wanted us to make sure that her husband knew and approved of her baptism. It was a bit nervewracking, but friday morning Fr. Cuvelier called us and told us that everything was good to go and that the husband was fine with it. Saturday we had a great crowd, Fr. Cuvelier performed the baptism, I got to give a talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost. It was incredible to see Margot's countenance after her baptism and then again after she was confirmed on Sunday. She was glowing. I had never seen nor felt such happiness coming from her. Its a big deal. Margot is great, but she is tad odd. Her Polish background makes her french a bit choppy, and you can tell that she has had some emotional problems in her life. But after the baptism and confirmation she was a different person. It was odd and both elder bollard and I noticed it. Fr. Cuvelier is the stake patriarch and he is the one who confirmed her as well. The blessing he gave to her was incredible. I felt a lot of real power flowing in that circle as I stood in it. Margot may just surprise us all and be the best member ever. It was a really special moment.

 

A little more info on her: Her Polish name is Malgozata, she has two pHds (one in literature or art, the other in psychology) and has a 21 yr old son and a 17 yr old daughter who is extremely autistic and which takes a large portion of Margot's time.

This coming week we are going to Albi and rodez to do exchanges and district meetings.

 

Our focus will now shift slightly to Marie-Antoinette who has been taught by the missionaries several times in the past 10 years, but now seems like she is really committed to be baptized on the 6th. We had a FHE with a family in the ward yesterday and she loved it. We'll hope and pray she'll hold strong til her date.

I love you!

Elder Montgomery