Bold As A Lyon - Prov 28:1: Seventh Area Marseille

Dear Family,

Another week that seemed like there was so much included in it. We literally went all over and it was incredibly stressful.

We came back to Marseille Tuesday and packed up all our stuff and headed to Toulon that night, waiting to board the ship to Corsica only to discover that there had been a mix up with our tickets and we would have to wait until Wednesday night to go. It was a major bummer.

We wake up wednesday morning in Marseille only to find out that our car had been towed because it was parked in a poorly marked area, next to a outdoor market. bummer again. Wednesday after several trials of faith haha we made it on to the boat to Corsica. They often say ferry when describing the boat to Corsica, but it was definitely a full on cruise ship. We boarded wed night at 8 and slept on the boat and disembarked thursday morning at 7am. It was so pretty, and a really fun experience. I've got plenty of pictures for you don't worry :)

We spent all of Thursday in Corsica. Really, really pretty. It has beaches like Florida and ski resorts like Utah going all at the same time. Its incredible. We only got to do an exchange with one of the two equipes there because of our ticket mix up. There is one equipe on the southern side in Ajaccio and the northern side in the city of Bastia. We spent our day in Ajaccio. Elder Huntsman had just been serving here last transfer so it was a fun return for him. We spent our time with Elder Powell, who was one of the elders who picked me up at the curb at the MTC. He's the man and our exchange was really fun.

We got back Friday morning and made our way up to Lyon by Friday evening to meet the entire mission at the Ecully Chapel. It was a blast to see everyone.

Saturday was the day of the big mission conference. Elder and Sister Kearon of the 70 came along with Elder and Sister Neilson of the 70 (who just spoke in GenConf). They unrolled the ipad doctrine and vision and it was really neat and there was an awesome spirit there. And it will be really neat to get work on the ipads in our everyday missionary work. We will have facebook to do missionary work on. However we have yet to actually receive them. So we'll see when they actually get here.

The Kearon's might be some of my favorite people. They've come now 3 times during my mission. Every time they blow me away. I think Sr. Kearon was my favorite speaker from her brief 5 min testimony. She's incredible. They are overflowing with goodness and light every time we see them. E. Kearon was tearing up just shaking all of our hands, and he is such a powerful speaker. The spirit they bring is almost tangible. I can see so much of the Savior in them, its incredible. It was such a huge blessing. I would love to be like that one day.

Saturday was the end of the transfer. I went home with Elder Mauss that night and we went to church in the Confluence ward yesterday. Really interesting transition, felt odd mostly because of the abrupt transition from car life and exchanges to settling down and working in one ward. However a familiar flame returned that reminded me of how much I like taking on these challenges that the Lord asks us to face. I'm super excited to go to work with this ward. And I'll be a district leader for the first time ever and after calling every district member last night, I'm feeling really blessed. I'll be working with 4 équipes outside of ours, 3 Elders and one Sisters. They are all awesome and I'm excited to help them all. I'm working on strategies to use to create a sense of team and team effort and such. Even more so I want our team to be special, I feel like that always gives a fun motivation to work harder. Thats something I have on the to-do list.

Today also E. Castillo returns home which is sad. It was sad to say goodbye to him on Saturday.

A brief bio on Elder Mauss- He is hilarious. He is from Cypres CA and is the youngest of 3. My age. Has been out for about 10 months. Good man and good heart. I'm excited to push us this transfer to see what we can accomplish.

Moving back to the grind!

I love you all!

Elder Montgomery

Pics from The trip to Corsica!

Dear Family,

I am emailing from the chapel in Lausanne, Switzerland. Our adventures continue. I realize now that it has been a week and a half since I last updated you.

Lots has happened!

We started off last monday in Marseille and would go on to do exchanges with the Elders in Avignon, Manosque, and Vitrolles. Then Friday we had our zone conference in Nice. It was such a huge blessing for me to go back to Nice. I got to see the old chapel and some of my favorite friends from the ward there. It was really fun and was interesting to see these people that I knew from over a year and a half ago who still knew me and were excited to see me. I was really grateful.

We continued on Saturday to do another Zone Conference in Aix en Provence. At these zone conferences, usually President will present, then Sr Roney, then Sr Povar (the mission nurse), then we'll have lunch and after lunch we'll present to the zones. We taught about trust in our calling as missionaries and the impact of the Atonement in our missionary work. Right after conference on Saturday we left Aix for Lyon and we arrived at the Ecully Chapel in Lyon at 6 just in time for the Saturday morning session of General conference. General conference was wonderful as always, Elder Hollands talk at the end was classic. We just recently got the chance to watch the last session and I think that was my favorite.

Monday and Tuesday we did two more zone conferences with the zones in Lyon. The Monday one was probably the best one. There was a great spirit there. We had missionaries share some great experiences with the Atonement and it was clear that the message of the gospel is really "good tidings of great joy" worth sharing with everyone possible.

Monday as well I got to see Elder Tomlinson, who is doing well in Clermont. Such a funny guy.

We were planning on staying in Lyon to do exchanges with the missionaries there, but got asked to come along and assist in the Switzerland zone conferences- there are three Swiss zones. So Wednesday we were in Geneva, and today we are in Lausanne. This is the chapel I came to for zone conferences when I was in Gex. Tonight we'll be driving up to Yverdon for the last zone conference.

Yesterday in Geneva we ran into a member I knew from Gex, and she recognized right off the bat which was surprising to me. It was awesome to see her; but cooler to know that I had a good influence in people's lives and that they remembered that.

Its been fun to go around the mission and see so many mission friends and see different parts of the country. But Its really great to have the chance to share the testimony the Lord has given me and to have these awesome real spiritual experiences many days in a row.

During these adventures I got to have interesting conversations with the Lyon stake president (whom I ate lunch next to) and the Geneva stake President whom we talked to after the conference. I LOVE these opportunities and its always awesome to hear the perspectives of these people who have sacrificed a lot and to hear how inspired they are.

This transfer is flying by as expected. The excitement is mounting already for where I'll end up next transfer. We'll be doing transfers next week which I'm really excited for.

I love feeling the Holy Ghost. And its great to recognize the fact that Heavenly Father is speaking to me. That has happened a lot recently and it makes me really grateful to know that its real. That this is all real and its worth it.

I'm excited to hear your take on conference. What a blessing to have the Gospel!

I love you!

Elder Montgomery