Transfer 15, Week 5 .... April 20, 2015

Dear Family,

This week felt really long. We did a lot. Wow.

 

So starting off, monday and tuesday we spent the large portions of the days working on transfers at President's house, which was really a cool experience to see how the Spirit guided it all and helped us find solutions. At first it seemed really based off of logic, but in the end it was a really a spiritual experience. 

 

Now to put this all in context, because there will be a new mission president in 2 months, President needed to choose a really young missionary as another assistant to come in and be the transition guy (all of us are too old). So President had kind of given us free rein on where we wanted to go, he made the final call of course. In my head at first I had Montpellier down as my place, but has things developed I became rather uncomfortable with that idea and it definitely felt wrong. I would end choosing to serve in the Confluence ward (one of the four wards in Lyon). Its kind of the ghetto side of Lyon. I'll be a district leader and I have an awesome district to work with. My companion will be Elder Mauss a funny good missionary in his 6th transfer. The ward is kind of struggling which presents me with a fun challenge.

 

Now its bizarre because Thursday we went on exchange with Elder Mauss and his companion in Confluence. I was with elder Mauss. But of course the rest of the mission won't find out about transfer calls until Wednesday, so I spent an entire day with my new companion in my new sector but couldn't tell him about it. Haha It will be a grind for 3 months. Its going to take a ton of mental strength to finish the way I want to finish, so I really need your help and your prayers.

 

We spent Saturday in Grenoble, a city in the french alps, really pretty. I went with Elder Hendershot and Quinn. Elder Hendershot was also trained by Elder Uluave which is a fun connection to have.

 

Yesterday during church President Roney pulled me aside and gave me my final interview with him, which is sad. He's given me so much great advice and is really good at making others feel good. He's so awesome, and I'm terribly sad to not have my dying interview with him.

 

Today we spent the majority of the day at President's house for President's Pday. All of the Lyon missionaries come and spend the afternoon at their home playing bball and volleyball and botchi ball. It was really fun to get some sun.

 

I'm just really exhausted. We've had a weird schedule. This week will be really fun though. We are going down to do an exchange with the Elders of Corsica. Which is super exciting. We'll spend Wednesday and THursday there. Then Saturday the entire mission will be in Lyon for a big conference with Elder Neilson and Elder Kearon of the 70 who are coming to unveil the ipads which we will be receiving the week after I believe. That will be an interesting change of missionary work for the close of my mission.

 

I've had some cool time with President lately and one thing that has really hit me is how he is so committed to the Gospel. We talked about this in my interview. He said nothing he knows of besides the Gospel of Jesus Christ can make anyone categorically happier or give them a better life. The fruits of the Gospel are real and incredible and should really be what we strive to have in our lives.

 

I love you all!

Elder Montgomery

 

Eating tacos with ElT who we saw this week

Some of the action at President's today

Some of the action at President's today

Elder Castillo playing boules

 

Transfer 15, Week 4 .... April 13, 2015

Dear Family,

I emailed you not too long ago, but we had a very fun few days nonetheless. Thursday we were in Lausanne. Friday morning we drove up to Yverdon and had zone conference there and then drove back to Lyon that evening. Saturday we drove to Valence, a city about an hour outside of Lyon, to do an exchange with the Elders there. Yesterday we attended church in Lyon and had a fun surprise visit from the Beyer family, and today we have spent most of the day at President's house working on creating next transfer.

Some interesting notes:

In this role as assistant, I speak much less french, and have found my french struggling significantly. I'll have to readjust things to change that.

Creating transfers is fun, and its cool to spend time with President. His plan right now for the seven assistants is for all of us to choose a sector in the mission where we feel we could have the greatest impact and go be a district leader there. We aren't sure who will be staying on as the assistant. We've been working on choosing a new guy who is young enough to carry on when the new mission president gets here in July. I chose Montpellier. Of course it is not final, just a scenario. The idea is appealing to me. We did a lot of the first round moving around today and will be finalizing moves tomorrow I believe. 

We'll be here until Thursday or Friday then head back to Marseille. Next week we'll be going down to Corsica to do an exchange with the two equipes there.

Really funny coincidence occurred this week. At the end of our exchange in Valence, Elder Holding, the elder I was with, and I were waiting for our companions to meet up with us to end. While waiting we were talking with a young student member named Daniel. He is American and is here for a BYU study abroad. While talking we discussed missions and of course I inquired where he had served his. He told me Southern Cali...I asked which mission...He said San Bernandinho....I told him my brother served there. He looked at my tag again and said yeahhhh! He was my grandfather in the mission. Apparently He was trained by Elder Lawrence (?) who Nate trained. His name is Daniel Manjures, I don't you think you know him, it was just a funny happening.

Thought a lot this week about commitment level and lifelong commitment and longer. Elder Pearson's talk from GenConf was striking. There was an interesting testimony born on Sunday that included this scripture and the speaker gave extra light: 

Ether 6

  8 And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.

 9 And they did sing praises unto the Lord; yea, the brother of Jared did sing praises unto the Lord, and he didthank and praise the Lord all the day long; and when the night came, they did not cease to praise the Lord.

 10 And thus they were driven forth; and no monster of the sea could break them, neither whale that could mar them; and they did have light continually, whether it was above the water or under the water.

 11 And thus they were driven forth, three hundred and forty and four days upon the water.

 12 And they did land upon the shore of the promised land. And when they had set their feet upon the shores of the promised land they bowed themselves down upon the face of the land, and did humble themselves before the Lord, and did shed tears of joy before the Lord, because of the multitude of his tender mercies over them.

Lots of times, I've found myself amidst whatever trials, and have felt kind of like I'm going at it alone and not getting anywhere. This is a awesome example of how as long as we are showing our faith and recognizing the Lord's hand and staying humble the Lord will keep pushing us the right way and now monster or storm shall beat us and the light of the Gospel will continue with us. What has been one of the great scriptural discoveries of my mission that I will use in future talks is the symbolism of the promised land in the BOM with the kingdom of God and usually the wilderness or in this case the great deep is life in mortality. And the BOM was designed to give us a clearer purpose of our life and the reality of the Savior and His Gospel. And it does so with power. I love it.

I now kind of feel like I'm prepping up for the final two transfers here. I'm excited to set my battle plan and go for it. Leave it all on the field.

Love you all!

Elder Montgomery

At President's house today

 

Going out for dinner in Lausanne

Transfer 15, Week 2 .... March 30, 2015

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.

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.

Tuesday we had Mission Leadership conference in which President had us do a pretend gameshow to do roleplays. For the first time ever We had all of the district leaders in the mission there along with the Sister Training leaders and Zone Leaders (Total of 78 people). I was nominated by my companions to be the "gameshow host". So I ran this gameshow, throwing back to my announcer days at DCHS, narrating the roleplays of different missionary situations.

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?)

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

The team in Marseille

The Bordeaux crew at Leadership conference

AFter District meeting in lyon at Master Tacos

Driving through the french alps

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 14, week 6 A big change... March 16, 2015

Dear Family,

What a week! On Wednesday, we got a call around 1pm from President, not expecting our transfer calls until Friday. He's asked me to be the next assistant! We packed up all my stuff and were in Lyon by Wednesday night, and I only got to say goodbye to a few people in Clermont.

So the mission is in an interesting situation at the moment. We've been doing a huge push on finding with family history, and this theme has been called Project Elijah. To really push this new project President called 6 assistants for a short time with one companionship in each of the old mission headquarters (when there used to be 3 missions here). So in my call with President he told me it was expected that I'd have this assignment for only one transfer after which I'd be a district leader. In our meeting at President's house on Thursday I got assigned with Elder Palmer (easily the best missionary in the mission and one who came into the mission with me) to go to serve over what was the old Marseille mission!

 

So we'll be living in Marseille and will be serving 4 zones of about 22 missionaries each. Including Nice, Aix, and the two Lyon zones.

 

Because neither Elder Palmer nor myself are legal to drive in France, we have a third man with us in our equipe, Elder Huntsman, he's in his 5th transfer. He'll be with us to work with us and drive and do exchanges with other missionaries. Really fun!

 

The other assistants are Elder Castillo and Dupre, and Elder Higham and Davis. I took Elder Taylor's spot.

 

It was great to see Elder Castillo again. Man its so much fun to be with him. He sends his love to you guys and is quite excited to meet you. I've got him going on all our humor.

Aside from that I am sad to have left Clermont so quickly without even being able to say goodbye to the members on Sunday (I attended one of the Lyon wards for church on Sunday). Yao's baptism is fixed for this Saturday. I'm trying to find a way for us to be working in the area at the time to go to see it. What a bummer to have left so early, especially right before his baptism!

 

I really count myself lucky and blessed to have served in Clermont. I think I really did my best missionary work there and although I didn't accomplish all the goals I had set, I think I made a difference. I began to reach my potential there, it was a huge blessing and in retrospect an answer to many prayers. The work is really accelerating there and we were seeing miracles daily!

 

I was also sad to leave Elder Tomlinson. I never thought that this week would turn out like it did. He is a great man, and I'm excited to see what he does in the future. The elder coming into to replace me was an assistant about 4 transfers ago, and so I know he'll take good care of ElT and Clermont.

We are in Lyon right now and will take off for Marseille today after we finish our emails. An exciting new life of travelling and exchanges awaits. We'll seeing and serving lots of different people which will be lots of fun. What a challenge and a blessing it will be for this next transfer!

New Address:

La mission francaise de Lyon

Lyon Business Centre

59 rue de L'Abondance

Lyon France 69000

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

 

Goodbye to Yao

David came to see me off at the gare!

Final Goodbye to ElT

At a members home in Lyon for dinner

The new team-E. Palmer, me, E. Huntsman

 

Gotta get those apples