Transfer 14, Week 5 .... March 9, 2015

Dear Family,

Another week on the horse. Nothing super crazy happened this week until yesterday.

The teaching pool continues to cycle around. We taught 3 new potential amis this week, and didn't get to see 3 of our current amis. But we had some cool experiences.

Tuesday we got to teach the lifelong best friend of one of our good member buddies whose name is Franck. He is from Ivory Coast. He invited us to teach a lesson about the family with one of his buddies named Jean marc. He is a really cool guy, and really solid catholic with an awesome family. At the conclusion of our little lesson about the family, he asked us about the foundation of the church, so we had the chance to teach a 15 minute lesson about the Restoration (The Restoration of the truth is still happening and we can play an active part in it!), and gave him a book of Mormon and challenged him to read and pray about it. The Spirit was really strong and I think he felt that there was something different in what we were saying. He accepted it with slight hesitation. We followed up on Franck and apparently Jean Marc was super interested but we have yet to fix a return rdv with him. 

We taught another new ami who is also a student here, but he is from Chad! Not everyday you meet someone from Chad. His name is Marcelin and he is super chill and really smart. We taught him the Restoration and part of the Plan of Salvation and he came to church yesterday. He's doing well and seems to like it all. He is super humble. Excited for his progress.

Thursday we went to Lyon and had district meeting there. Had a fun time, it was a really good, Elder Haws our district leader has come a long way, and has become one of my favorite district leaders on my mission. Its odd how close we become with friends in such a short time.

Friday we took a 2 hour drive up to the big city in our sector, named Moulins, with David a young adult here. He's awesome. (Our sector, or ward boundaries, are ginormous, we probably touch 25 percent of the population in our daily work) We went up there to teach a less active recent convert who is living in a depression clinic at the moment. It was an interesting rdv, but I like going on special missions like this. We as missionaries get called to do so many crazy things, its awesome.

The recent converts name is Christopher and he has some problems to work out, and we'll have to work closely with the bishop to get him ready again.

Sunday was a miracle day. We had only Marcelin with us during our first hour of church, and then during Gospel principles class, we had another young student that we had taught this week named Ismael come and he brought a friend with him named Gino. (They came in as we were listening to a lesson on the temple very inappropriate...Grrr I would go on to have a talk with our ward mission leader to make sure that that doesn't get taught again.) But it was a huge miracle because Gino just came to support his buddy but would later figure out that his aunt is member of the church and she used to attend the church here in Clermont and all the members here know her. He is Peruvian and hit it off with the peruvian freres we have in the ward. We set up a lunch on Tuesday with one of them and Gino. Money. Then Sunday afternoon we had lunch with another Peruvian family, the Estradas and their non member sister and brother in law and their 2 sons. The brother in law's name is Jean michel and he is french french. But super fun. It was a huge success. I felt like dad, being the crowd favorite cracking all these Seinfeld-esque jokes. It was awesome. We shared a bomb message about things of eternal worth, and as we were leaving (final 3 minutes, clutch time) even set up a time to come to their house and show them how to make american cookies (I'll have to prepare for that). But that's kind of one of our strategies, just to find an excuse to see them again, and we pulled it off.

Then we spent the evening eating a crepe dinner with the Castelao family who had an American son in law in town. Really fun really family.

ElT has made huge strides this week in all aspects of his work and energy level, and we are beginning to work with more and more unity which is exciting.

The smell of transfers is in the air, never sure what will happen, but it sure is fun to be with ElT for his first one. I think we'll both stay together. 

The restored Gospel continues to roll forth, what a blast and a blessing to be a part of the Restoration of the truth! 

Much love,

Elder Montgomery

 

 

Elder Sommer and I- one of my favorite German elders in the mission

The sunset from our apt.

Our lunch at Fr. Luisi's home- Tomato farci (?)

Our District meeting lunch in the Institute center in Lyon.

 

 

 

Transfer 14, Week 4 .... March 2, 2015

Dear Family,

What a fun week!

 

We actually spent all week in Clermont and made rather good use of our time. We had some really cool potentials come into the game and are looking forward to this coming week.

First, the weather is getting sunnier is just wonderful. Everybody's happier!

A quick update on the amis:

 

Yao is doing great. He came to church again yesterday, and we taught him after. (we saw him 4 times this week). As we reviewed the scripture we had left with him he told us how he feels peace and joy when he reads it and is even beginning to feel what we've been describing as the Holy Ghost, a warm particular feeling within him. It was awesome! And he's excited to have a calling. Really promising.

We saw Matthew once this week. He's super busy with work. However he read in the Book of Mormon and liked it. He's had a rough past and is still trying to shake some old habits, but tells us constantly that he's been thinking more and more about having a family and how he wants to be a father. Really good, but he has a long way to go to be ready.

 

We weren't able to see Jia this week, she doesn't seem to be progressing too well. She struggles to pray.

 

Decahou is just awesome, comes to church for all 3 hours, participates, has accepted all the commitments. Just still feels to overwhelmed by work and school for baptism.

We got to teach a funny potential this week by the name of Sylvain. He is from the Ivory Coast as well. We gave a tour of the church and he loved it and then suggested that we go to his friends house to have a discussion (it was just next to the church building). We go to this big apt. building and into this apt. where there are two smiley african men watching tv and two woman, one of whom was doing the weave in the other's hair. Elder Tomlinson was a bit thrown off. haha we sat down with them and turned off the tv and taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel. THey are all christian and it was really fun. They weren't totally convinced, but they enjoyed our company and asked plenty of questions. We left them two BOMs. They told us they'd come to church on Sunday seeing as how it was next door, and they said we were always welcome to come back. Haha its always fun to teach multiple people about the Restoration of truth which is still happening on the earth.

Now. Buckle up. Thursday we had planned a rdv with a man by the name of Alexandre, and we had planned to meet him in place Jaude, the big open square in the middle of downtown. Well he was late and we were left standing for about 30 min. As we were standing ElT noticed a camera in an upstairs window of an apt overlooking the place and it was pointing at us. AFter standing for a little bit we decided to move, so just as moved about 15 ft. we saw a woman walk right by us and two guys start harrassing her. We didn't know what was happening until they had made it to the tram stop which was about 30 meters away from us. We were on the tips of our toes ready to go stop it if something happened, but other people around them soon broke it up and another camerman ran into the scene. We thought it was a movie at first, but then one of the 'harrassers' ran up to us and asked if we'd seen what had happened and if we'd be willing to answer a few questions about it in front of the camera. Sooooooo we said yes. Just then Alexandre shows up. Haha We figure out it was actually a psychology experiment about how public reacts to others in danger. Well, a big burly professor man comes over and stands by us, and the camera comes out and we get asked a few questions about when did we feel teh danger, what stopped us from acting, etc. Then they zoomed in on our nametags and asked us if our beliefs influenced us in how we would've reacted. AND so we taught them about the love of Christ and our responsability and blessing to love and serve others. (looking back I wish I wouldve taken better advantage of the sitch but my blood was pumping.) After the camera got put away the interviewer tells us this will be a documentary aired on national french public television in 3 weeks. Woahhhhh. 

 

We said thanks and as we walked away I called president to tell what just happened. We figured that there wasn't much we could do, he would later text us saying "hope you didnt embarrass the church :)" hahaha Then we went and taught Alexandre which went well.

Anyways Saturday we had another ping pong session with the young adults and one of them brought a family to tour the church building and play ping pong with us. (This family as well lived just next door to the church but had always thought it was cult so they never entered, but were completely surprised when they took the tour. It was a middle aged man named Christophe, his two sons and his father. Christophe is absolutely hilarious and kept telling us how much he loves American movies. HE is also a super competitive ping ponger. So my reputation preceding me, I got nominated to play against him. It was fun, and I won, and left him feeling excited to come back again next week. But it was a super fun visit and we're excited for their potential to see if we can teach them about the Gospel. What a blessing!

So things keep rolling here. Elder Tomlinson and I are doing well. His french is picking up nicely, still working on teaching unity. The Lord keeps opening up new avenues for us. He is so concious of us because this is His work. Its so wonderful the blessings we receive everyday. Faith precedes the miracle. Its so great to be a missionary.

I love you!

Elder Montgomery

 

We were happy to have the visit from the Assistants, and we got say goodbye to Elder Taylor

Little lunch before our missionary meeting with Fr. Garon.

Ping Pong with Christophe

 

Transfer 14, Week 3 ..... February 23, 2015

Dear Family,

Things keep rolling along. Its surprising how time just doesn't stop.

This week we continued to see lots of fruits of our work, all really exciting stuff.

The biggest news is that we had 3 amis commit to a baptismal date this week!

Yao and Matthew both agreed to the 21st of March, and Jia agreed to the 28th. Very neat! Sunday we had 4 amis come to church. Yao, Decahou, and this super funny couple that we had met last week named Guy and Monica. What a story.

We met Guy and Monica last week at a tram stop. After we said Bonjour as they walked by Guy turned around and exclaimed, Vous etes des Mormons! You are the Mormons! Haha. He is a really funny french man (ex-banker) and Monica(lawyer) is an awesome brazilian lady. They got married about a year ago, and are both in their late 50's. They invited us over for Friday. Guy LOVES speaking english, so we spoke half really slow english, half french. We were a bit scared that it would simply turn into a friend zone relationship, but Monica expressed some really sincere interest in our message, so we explained the Restoration simply and went through the Book of Mormon. They told us they would read together and come to church to see how it goes. Sunday they showed up with about 45 minutes left of Sacrament meeting., but we'll take it. And the members did a great job of loving them. They invited us over to eat lunch with them. We got to talk about our families and the Plan of Happiness God has created for our families to be together forever. Guy, who is the more skeptical one and isn't sure what he believes, got emotional as he talked about his family situation. At the end, Guy decided that instead of watching a movie that night, he was going to read in the Book of Mormon. It was neat. The rdv still took a long time, and we'll have to play our cards right to make sure our meetings are purposeful and effective. Its obvious from what we learned that the Gospel can really help them. Elder Tomlinson's closing prayer left tears in Guy's eyes.

Both Decahou and Yao are on route for baptism. Decahou just wants to wait for later on. Yao is doing super well and has now come to church two weeks in a row and is coming to FHE tonight, adn bringing sushi.

Yao had us over this week for the Chinese New Year with the Sisters, and fed us this really spicy chinese shrimp. Really yummy but hyper spicy.

Wednesday we had an awesome zone conference in Lyon. Talked all about the power of the Spirit of Elijah and the family. We got to watch Meet the Mormons, which was a real treat, and at the end got to hear Elder Taylor's dying testimony, who is one of my really good mission buddies (also trained by Elder Uluave). It was really sad.

Thursday I went on exchange with Elder Arts, our dutch zone leader who started his mission here. That was fun, then thursday night went back to Lyon to pick back up El T. I hit 10 hours in train this week!

I have been impressed lately in my studies about the cleansing power of the Gospel. Preach my Gospel teaches us that that is the whole purpose of the Gospel, to cleanse us of our sins through Jesus Christ in preparation to live with Heavenly Father after this life. But I've pondered a lot about the Gospel of Jesus Christ can cleanse us of our deepest regrets and our darkest shames. Its wonderful that as we begin to live a life of humility and patience and obedience, our personal power increases.

And our past errors are erased by that power of the Atonement. Its incredible!

I love you so much!

Bonne Semaine!

Elder Montgomery

1. El T and I in front of the Lyon train station

2. IN front of an old catholic church

5. Eating shrimp at Yaos

3. Elder Taylor, Castillo and I- Some of my best friends

4. The late night grind

Tansfer 14, Week 2 ..... February 16, 2015

Dear Family,

This was a great week! We taught a lot this week! It was awesome! Lots of miracles seem to be happening around us, its really neat.

The week Elder Mataalii left we got back in contact with Yao, an old ami who had one point had a baptismal date. Well this week we taught him 4 times! Each one of them was great. And he came to church yesterday. It was fantastic! And he is coming to FHE tonight. He still follows all the commandments and loves it when we teach him. He always asks if we can read the scriptures with him. He knows baptism is important and is on the edge of making that decision. We're really praying he does.

Decahou accepted tithing and fast offerings very well, explaining to us how much he knows the Lord has blessed him in his life and how its nothing to simply to give back to the Lord something that was originally His. However he says that he doesn't want to get baptized until after May, because that is when his studies finish.

We taught both Jia and Lilian this week. They are both progressing slowly. But progressing :)

The word of this week is prayer! This week we've had to repeatedly invite all our amis to pray specifically to know if the Book of Mormon is true. I feel like a broken record. But we know from Preach My Gospel that we can only know spiritual truths through prayer! What an incredible gift we have! Do we use it fully? I know this week we had some challenging lessons and I really had to strengthen my testimony and keep that lifeline between Heavenly Father and myself open by praying often and fervently. Its so awesome how much it helps! And how real it is! If only everyone would simply try...

Elder Tomlinson is doing super well and is adjusting quite nicely. We taught a couple that he contacted this week. They are really protestant and the rdv was really fast paced. Haha it was interesting. How grateful I am for the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the light it brings.

Sunday is always my favorite day of the week. We feel so much love at church, Its like a big family, and we've developed a lot of good relationships in the ward.

 

Every 3rd Sunday of the month we have two young adults go on splits with us and we go street contacting. I got to go with David, who is one of my good buddies. We spent about 30 minutes in Place Jaude- the center of downtown, when we found a man with a guitar and sat down with him and he played for us, then we taught him about a loving Heavenly Father, and the restoration of His plan for us. It was super neat. His name was Guillaime. We left him with a BOM and got his phone number. He told us at the end that what we had taught him made him want to change what he was doing and be better. It was a fun miracle.

I hope you all are doing well and know how much Heavenly Father loves you and wants so badly to bless you!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

Transfer 14, Week 1 In Lyon, with my son. .... February 9, 2015

Dear Family,

I spent nearly the entire week in Lyon. It was a blast. We got in on monday at 9 for Elder Mataalii to leave, returned Friday night with my blue, then left again Saturday afternoon to Lyon for stake conference and got back for good yesterday at 5pm.

Wednesday, we received our blues...(drumroll)...His name is Elder Tomlinson! He is from Medford, Oregon. He is a fun guy about my height, rather quiet and calculating. Really calm and collected. It was so much fun getting the assignment. I'll break it down for you. They set everything up in a way that we don't see the blues until the time that we get assigned. All the trainers get pulled into the chapel with the blues, who open up their first assignment letter and the trainer will then jump up and run over to hug them. Its really intense. But so much fun!

We then had to stay in Lyon until Friday for the blue's legality appt. 

The week was largely spent spending time with other mission buddies and contacting in Lyon. Got to spend lots of great time with Elder Taylor and Castillo.

 

Thursday we got the chance to test out a new questionnaire the mission might be releasing for us to use in our finding, in relation to the new family history push the mission is going to make this transfer. It was cool we spent almost all of Thursday talking to people on the streets about their families and seeing how they reacted...and its incredible! Just getting people to talk about and reflect on their families brings the Spirit into their heart and touches them. So neat!

 

Thursday night, we went to the train station in Lyon (really big) with all the trainers and blues (about 20 of us), and sang. In most bigger train stations they have public pianos that anyone can use. We had one trainer get on their and tickle the ivories while we sang all these hymns about the family, and sunshine. It was funny and neat how much it touched all the busy people stuck in their busy worlds. We had tons of people just stop and listen, and some come up and sing with us, and others talk to us about who we were. Haha 

It was really cold this week...

There are lots of fun 'firsts' for new missionaries that I got to experience with Elder Tomlinson. His first train ride was the 2.5 hour train back to Clermont Friday night. The train station was incredibly busy that evening and Elder T and I had to push our way with his bags over to our track. 

Saturday afternoon at 1230 we left with the famille Blateron, an older couple in the ward who drove us to Lyon. They are funny and we had a good time during the 2 hour drive through the snowy mountains. 

 

Yesterday was stake conference, it was awesome. The stake president was released and they called a new one. It was held in a big conference center in downtown Lyon. There was a member of the region 70 presidency there, Elder Dykes, and Elder Buttoile an area 70. I met Elder Buttoile in Gex after a ward conference. After the conference Sunday I got another chance to talk to him, and he actually gave me referral of a family for us to teach in Clermont! 

 

The other miracle of the day is that Decahou came all the way up to Lyon with a few members to attend stake conference! It was great for him to see and everything. We drove back with him, Berengere, and Lisa (2 young adult members), and got back last night.

Needless to say we're happy to be back home. The sun is shining today, even though it is cold. The week should be fun, excited to get back into work mode with Elder Tomlinson.

I love you all!!!

Elder Montgomery

 

Elder Tomlinson and I after contacting in downtown Lyon

Beautiful bridge spotted on the way home

Us in the back seat...poor Elder T was attacked by the time change...

 

 

 

Transfer 13, week 8 ..... February 2, 2015

Dear Family,

What a week. Seriously fantastic.

First things first. I'll be staying in Clermont Ferrand, and training a new missionary. I'm currently in Lyon, sitting next to Elder Castillo, waiting until tomorrow when the new missionaries get in! Very exciting to get a new shot, to start a new life with this missionary. How cool!

I'm so sad to see Elder Mataalii go, he was one of my favorite companions and we did so much great work in Clermont Ferrand. 

This week was a crazy ending. 

Monday. We delivered a BOM to a man who had told us he had lost his in a move a couple years ago. We met him in the mall and after giving him the book he asked if there was anything he could do for us, and naturally we responded, can we have 30 minutes to explain the book. So we sat down with him at a cafe and taught him about the restoration and he was intrigued. He is a converted Jew, also a Free mason, interesting man named Christian. We'll see what happens. Interesting how many free masons I've met on my mission (and the way the shake our hands!). Monday night we had a our FHE with the young adults and we had an ami Matthew come with one of his friends Melyssa. The lesson was on prayer and it was super powerful and the whole experience was wonderful. They both are going to FHE tonight even though we won't be there (matthew just called me and asked if he could bring a cake he made!). And melyssa came up to us after and asked how she could learn more about God and the church and all and we set up a rdv with her right there.

Wednesday, we got a chance to see a less active man from Palestine (born in bethlehem!) who had gotten baptized 5 years ago and struggles to find transport to church. It was cool because we've been trying to get in contact with him for the whole transfer and we finally met him at the end. He was so happy to see us. His family situation is a bit weird, but he is more than happy to have us over again.

Thursday, we met another less active who had been baptized 5 years ago who had been rejecting any contact with the church for years, and then we knocked on his door. He was blown away that it was us and he was so so happy to see us. His new job in security required rough hours and stopped him from coming to church and that led to his following drop off into drugs and alcohol (which was evident on the coffee table). But it was cool that we knocked on his door at the one part of the week where he wasn't elsewhere in the country on a security job. He is now open to us returning!

Wednesday night we had a huge meal with the Beaulieu family, then again Thursday night we had a huge meal with the other Beaulieu family (one of the married sons.) Both awesome families. Anyways. Thursday night was a long one for us as we fell victim to a nasty stomach bug that ended up keeping us in Friday and Saturday. 

Sunday was then huge as we had Decahou, jia, and Lilian come to church to hear Elder Mataalii's goodbye testimony and everything. The members did a great job and they felt so much love. We ended up teaching both of them right after, separately. Jia prayed!!! It didn't result in big things right away but its a huge first step for her. Lilian on the other hand feels the Spirit and knows what we are saying is true, she is just worried to be baptized and then go back to China and forget it all, but told us that is willing to keep meeting with us more regularly. Both huge miracles.

Here I am in Lyon, I've spent the day here seeing old friends, I've had the great pleasure of hanging with Elder Castillo and Elder Higham all day. Two of my favorite friends in the mission. I saw Elder Ambursley who is doing super well and is going to be a zone leader in Geneva. I'm so proud of him. It's been such a blessing to be here. I'm excited to see what the future brings. This transfer is looking way up. We have so many people interested in the Gospel right now! The Lord is blessing us in incredble ways! I will stay in Lyon until Friday to finish the legality of my blue, then head home. Should be a fun week!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

Decahou!

From the top of the cathedral

One of the cathedrals in Clermont made of lava rock!

Transfer 13, Week 7 .... January 26, 2015

Chere famille,

Nothing big happened this week. 

We worked hard, and found a lot of really cool people who are interested in the Gospel. The Lord's work continues to move forward.

On Tuesday we had a day of tracting ahead of us, when we had David text us and told us he was free today to help us, and so we called around and were able to visit a less active member named Sr. Nolot, out in the middle of nowhere countryside of france. She hadn't been able to come to church because of how far away it is and was more than happy to see us. It was about an hour drive. She let us in and talked straight for 2 hours. She loves the gospel so much and told us how much she helped with missionary work before she moved away from the city. It was really funny. 

Thursday we had district meeting here in Clermont, all of our Lyon district came out here, and afterward we had a big exchange. I was with Elder Smith and Haws. IT was a bit odd being the oldest on the exchange, but not being the 'leader'. We had a good time and found a really cool young french couple that had met missionaries when they were younger and are really interested and they both speak great english, their names are Edgar and Juliette (hoping they'll be kingdom builders). We are hoping to see them this week.

Saturday we got visit one of the Peruvian families in our ward, the Estradas, they are hilarious, but their half french half spanish can be hard to follow sometime- guess I'll need to learn spanish when I get home. We just spent an hour with them, but they gladly caught on to our idea to have a lunch with their less active sister and non member brother in law. Really fun!

Afterwards we had Samedi sportif, our saturday sports session with the young adults and their friends, Elder Montgomery went 7-0 on the ping pong table. #stillgotit #MCC2015

Yesterday was an interesting day. The first two hours of church were dedicated to discussing how to avoid and protect aganst pornagraphy. We discussed the principles and the doctrinal importance of chastity and it was super intriguing.

We ended up teaching two lessons in the evening one to David an old investigator who is still hanging around and Jia. (which was somewhat of a miracle seeing has how lessons are somewhat hard to come by at the moment). She understands everything we are teaching her but just won't pray to ask. All of our lessons go back to how praying is the key to knowing all spiritual truths.

THis is the last week of the transfer. We're shooting to have a ' monster week', where we just go all out, exciting. Not sure what the transfer roulette has in store for me, have a weird feeling I'm leaving...

Love you all! Remember how much the Lord loves you and how much He values you!!!

A few gems from President Benson's teachings: 'A sad face has never won a battle in war or in love.' 'We must learn again and again that it is only in accepting and living the Gospel of love as the Master taught it, and by doing His will that we can break the cords of ignorance and doubt that hinder us.'

Elder Montgomery

Transfer 13, Week 6 ..... January 19, 2015

Dear Family,

This week just flew by. Lots of interesting stuff happened.

 

On Tuesday, We ran into the man who was one of the founders of the Euro project- those who created the money. He took us to a road side cafe and talked to us for 30 min, but wasn't super interested in learning more about the restored Gospel. He was really neat though.

 

We got invited by a potential ami to the opening of his restaurant on Friday. It turned out being more of a high school hangout, with some of him and his friends, with karoake and alcohol. So we made the best of the situation and became good friends with some of his friends and two of them want to meet with us. After that we bailed on the party politely as to avoid any uncomely behavior. Haha. 

We taught Decahou twice this week. Once with a member family here- the Rapinats. They are a cute older small couple, both very smart and rather french. They just ate up Decahou and we had a great night with them and taught about the Plan of Salvation. On Saturday we taught him again with Franck a young Ivorian member here. We finished teaching the Plan of salvation. We had drawn it up on the chalkboard for him to see. He understood it all and at the end told us, "I've never seen this before, it is new to me, but just by seeing this I know how much God loves me." It was a great moment and he is making great progression. He came to church for the 3rd time yesterday and came to the Sisters' baptism on Saturday. He just is hesitant to accept a baptismal date...

President Roney's daughter moved into our ward last week with her husband, and yesterday we taught Jia with them. Jia is super outgoing and loud and funny and they became quick friends. We spent our entire lesson talking about prayer and how to pray and the importance of prayer. Its been her biggest block, because she reads the BOM and asks really good questions and really wants to know the truth but has just been struggling to pray. But she commited yesterday to pray this week which is exciting. 

As far as the ward goes, we've been doing a great job of building trust. Its been fantastic. I feel like for the first time I'm doing everything we should do to build confidence and to bless the ward. We got to teach the lesson in Priesthood yesterday on Prayer again. It went really well and Fr. Obrecht, Elders quorum president was really grateful. The Elders quorum averages about 15 on Sunday. 

There were equally a lot of downs this week as always. We had a couple days where 2 or 3 rdvs fell through and lots of cool potential amis didn't show up. Grrr, but the work moves forward. Miracles still happen and God still loves us! God wants the best of us, and expects us to do all we can, but He knows that 'all we can' never means perfection. Sometimes we just need to trust Him and keep going and be happy. I'm so grateful for the Savior, if we follow what He says we'll be happier. Thats all there is to it. It suffices to try! How wonderful!

I love you all!!

Elder Montgomery

our trip up the Puy de dome. With David an awesome recent convert.

our trip up the Puy de dome. With David an awesome recent convert.

Elder Mataalii with our dear Fr. Saez, a 90 yr old member from Espana!

Transfer 13, Week 5 ..... January 12, 2015

Chére famille,

This week went well. 

About the terrorist attacks, Don't worry we're doing fine. I had a lady yell at me in the tram the other day because of the terrorist attacks but thats it. Yesterday there was a huge march in hommage to the deaths here in Clermont Ferrand. Over 70,000 people marched with signs and everything. It was cool and sad!

Another week in the service of the Lord.

We taught Decahou this week our Ivorian ami, and he is awesome, totally down to keep Learning and commit to the Church and the gospel, thus far. He came to Church for a second time yesterday and really liked it. He told us he knows baptism is important and he will get baptized soon, but doesnt want to set a date yet.

We taught Jia again yesterday and had a wonderful lesson with her and David a recent convert here in Clermont. It was long. But really powerful I think. And last night we got a text from Jia asking about peace we recieve from the gospel and about what we receive in Heaven. She is still struggling to prayer. She says its too ceremonial for her, she doesn't feel like she's able. But hey we can only know spiritual truths through prayer. I'm just really glad that her interest level is still there and that she is asking questions, that means she's thinking about it all.

When we taught her about the Atonement, she asked, "He did that for everyone? Is that possible? Everyone in the whole world? I don't know if I can believe it." After it sunk in though it was really cool. She was really quiet and reflective. A lot of the challenge is just teaching her everything, even all the little détails that usually christian people know.

I gave my talk yesterday in Church and it went really well. I was really pleased. I talked about choosing first to obey God and what He asks us to do, but then we must be proactive in creating our future by our choices today. It was really fun, I love giving talks.

We had zone interviews this Thursday in Lyon. I had my favorite interview yet with President. It was weird when he asked me about what I was planning to do after my mission. I never thought that question would come. We had a great discussion about changing the world in Clermont and laying a foundation of work that future missionaries could build off of. He is so cool.

I told this to President, and he told me it was a good idea. I'm considering changing my major to math/economics instead of Polisci/economics. What do you think?

Today we are going to hike the Puy de Dome, the big volcano that overlooks the valley. Have a great week!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

We got a little bit of snow

Zone Conference last one for Elder Beyer and Elder Crawley

Some Ping pong with the Young adults and their friends

The big march yesterday - because of the Paris Shootings

Transfer 13, Week 4 A week of quiet diligence sprinkled with miracles .... January 05, 2015

Dear Family,

This week we saw a lot of progress! We have found so many people to teach! Its incredible how much the Lord is guiding us to find people to teach. We have a lot of potential right now. This week was a good start to the New Year.

We taught Jia twice. Its moving really slowly with her. Who knew teaching faith would be so difficult? We taught from Alma 32 and it answered a lot of her questions and she seems to be keeping her interest. Although it is hard for her to believe or to picture God. The conclusion was that she had to pray, and she accepted the invitation to do so.

Lilian, her friend, has been much simpler to teach. She has an incredible faith already. We taught about the doctrine of Christ, at the end when we invited her to baptism she responded, "how could I deny an offer like that?" Haha we asked ourselves...does that mean yes? She is super down to read and learn and act.

These two weeks will be difficult for both Jia and Lilian because exams are starting this week at the universities, so we're hoping to be able to see them still.

We had a super great experience this week. Tuesday morning we called Loris, this young journalist here in Clermont which we had met the week before who is super interested by "the mormons" and he happily agreed to have us over that night. We showed up at his apt at 630 like planned and I think he forgot, because as we walked in he said to us in english, "sorry we're smoking" and we entered to the dimly lighted apt where him and another guy and girl were smoking some suspicious substances and there was beer and wine on the table. It was a bit alarming at first, but as we started talking the three seemed to be all sober so it was fine. They were impressed that we just came in and were willing to talk even in the environment and be chill. They asked questions of course and it turned out to be awesome. None of the three were really believing at all, but we taught the Restoration of the gospel in 5 minutes and had the chance to testify of the love of our Heavenly Father. And they were just blown away. The conversation turned to how cool it was to be believing and what a good thing it was. Even in the circumstances the Spirit seemed to touch their hearts, and Loris wants to introduce us to his gf who is believing. Afterwards we talked about there was almost a tangible light coming from us in the dark room. We could feel in their eyes the difference.

On New Years eve we taught an Ivorian man named Decahou, who is here studying and comes from a Evangelical background. We had given him a BOM on the tram when we met him and he came to our rdv having read to 1 Nephi 5 and corrected Elder Mataalii when he misspoke and said Mormon was the last prophet in the BOM. It was awesome. He accepted the baptismal invitation, and came to church on yesterday and really liked it.

We spent New Year's eve in Lyon, because we had a district meeting the next day.

The bishop pulled us into his office yesterday and assigned me to give a talk next week on moral agency. We had this great 40 min convo with him about the direction of the missionary work in CLermont and how the goal is to have a stake here eventually. The idea right now is to make church more attractive and just to get our name out there! Advertise the truth! It was neat and I felt like it was definitely a boost in trust between the bishop and us.

We have our interviews with President this week. Excited for it. We're making January the month of miracles. I have all these goals flying around in my head. Its weird to be setting goals for this year knowing that I'll be home before the end of this year.

Have you set your New Year goals???

I love you so very much!

Elder Montgomery

Transfer 13, Week 3 "We're all still single..." ..... December 29, 2014

Dear family,

Wow what a week! So many miracles! And I got to talk with you! 

 

A special shoutout to Ran who's one liner from Skype is the subject line today. It was so much fun talking to you all and both bizarre and relieving to know that next Christmas I'll be with you again!

Well last week within all the people we had found, we managed to teach one of them. Her name is Jia, she is a chinese student, who has been in France for two years now. She agreed to meet with us because she had no knowledge about God and it intrigued her to know more. She is really fun and smiley, but also skeptical. We taught her on Tuesday last week, in a park. During the lesson a Young man sitting nearby asked if he could join our conversation. We let him but after a while he wouldn't stop talking so E. mataalii decided to go teach him and let me teach Jia by myself #clutchmove. The lesson with Jia went well enough, the Young arab guy didnt really lead to much. We got to see Jia again on Friday and she brought a friend with her named Lilian, also Chinese and also interested but who speaks much better English than chinese. So we taught both of them in the park again. E. Mataalii taught Lilian and I taught Jia. And both are super interested. They both should be coming to FHE tonight. Its interesting teaching them, because they have no Christian or religious background really, so we start from scratch. Teaching prayer has been difficult. But it was cool because on Friday I had to teach Jia who the Savior was and why He is important. She had trouble believing it, but will come around I think. She later asked about the Bible and how we knew which Church to join if there are so many Christian churches. That of course is a great door for our message. It struck me that I was getting a chance to just teach pure Christianity! Thats what I was teaching and thats what Jia was understanding it as. So often we're known as the Mormon missionaries or the mormons, for better or for worse. It was just a cool moment to realize that we were getting to teach the restored Gospel of Christ from ground 0.

Now to share with you some of the Christmas festivities: We ate so much food. Too much.

We spent Christmas eve with the Garon family (fr Garon is the ward mission leader and has so much respect for us missionaries) We had escargo (snail) and salmon and turkey and cheese and foie gras. They had some non member family over which was really fun.

Christmas Day we spent the afternoon with the Begani's and ate raclette (the cheese and potato dish I explained to you over Skype). We then went to the Beaulieu's home the evening and skyped :) then ate Gratinee- french onion soup, really good and lots of foie gras and escargos

Then Friday at noon we ate with the Castelao's who fed us jumbo shrimp and frog legs!

It was so good. Escargos (snail), Foie gras(liver fat from a duck usually on bread with a Jelly), and cuisses de grenouilles (frog legs) are the classic french Christmas dishes.

Yesterday we saw the first snow of the year! Just a lot of flurries. It was really cold and the heating system in the Church building was broken so all three hours of Church was spent in one room with two box heaters and the 50 members who came. 

Now with Christmas passed us, we're trying to put our focus back on the new year and really doing more, especially has I come around the six month turn here pretty soon. This month of January is going to be huge. I'm stoked to see what happens.

I love you so much! Enjoy the pictures! Happy new years!

Remember the spiritual thought I shared and make some new year's résolutions!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

 

With Fr. Garon during the Christmas eve taboo game

Escargo for dinner!

These cheese plate- this happens at every meal not just Christmas

Christmas morning!

Escargo for dinner!

 

Christmas Day Skype! ...... December 25, 2014

Mom gets her kiss!

Transfer 13, Week 2 David Archuletta and miracles... December 22, 2014

Dear Fam,

What a week! After a slow week last week we really stepped it up this week and saw a ton of miracles and had all sorts of adventures.

I'll start by talking about our trips to Lyon. We went to Lyon twice this week. Once on Thursday and again on Saturday. Its a 2.5 hour trip on train. We leave at 626am.

Thursday we were there with 5 zones and David Archuletta. It was really spectacular. We each had the chance to shake his hand and meet him. He's shorter than I'd imagined, but really cool and genuine. He sung several Christmas numbers including a french one, and shared some thoughts on Christmas and his testimony and experience on his mission. It was really spiritual and moving.

Saturday we had zone training. Really fun, felt a bit odd not giving it, but thinking about all the preparation it takes to prepare them I was grateful it wasn't me presenting.

Other than that we were on our grind. We talked to an abnormal amount of people and found an abnormal amount of people willing to talk to us. It was crazy the people we found that had clearly been prepared to talk to us. Tuesday was really the big day. We fasted. And even though we had 2 rdvs fall through we talked to everyone around us and at the end of the day found 6 potential amis, and a recently baptized man from Canada that had lost contact with the church. Everywhere we turned we found people in some way prepared for us.

Elder Mataalii and I are really clicking together. He is so humble and fun. Its been a fun time already with him. He is so humble that we can be super open with each other and bring out the best each other by expressing our worries or ideas or goals. Its been fun. This week has been one of the most effective weeks of my mission.

One of my favorite miracles was last night. We didnt have any rdvs. After the ward meal, we were asked to go with a recent convert, David to go and administer the sacrament to a sick member unable to come to church. She lived an hour away by car out in the middle of the french countryside, super beautiful. Her name is sister Hughes shes from England and her husband is not a member but really cool. They were happy to have us. She has been unable to come church due to stomach problems for 9 weeks. We administered the sacrament in english and after she just started crying. She told us how she felt so cleansed and purified by the sacrament and how different she felt after taking it. The Spirit was there, it felt really sweet. She told us how people always say you need to go to church cause it makes a difference, that you cant just stay at home and read your scriptures. She told us how she had come to realize how true this was.

 

 How true it is the scripture: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, as I said unto my disciples, where two or three are gathered together in my name, as touching one thing, behold, there will I be in the midst of them—even so am I in the midst of you." 

 

We shared with her Alma 7: 10-13 which she told us was the perfect scripture for her considering the fact that it was her bowels giving her problems haha. We talked about the immense love and perfection of the Lord for us. The Spirit was almost tangible, it felt wonderful. And we then got to teach Arthur her husband. It was just a fantastic way to spend our day. I felt assured that we had done the will of the Lord.

I'm so excited to see you this Thursday! I can't wait! It should be around 6pm my time, 12 your time. Stay ready!

Merry Christmas! I love you!

Elder Montgomery

Transfer 13, Week 1 .... December 15, 2014

Chère famille,

What a week!

After getting in Tuesday to Clermont, we spent the entire day Wednesday cleaning the apartment and rearranging. It was in a really bad state. But it feels really good now and is super organized and ready for the transfer.

Because the last transfer was 4 weeks long, this one will be 8 weeks long, so will end in February. We have some extra time to pump up the work here. After doing a complete redo of the apartment, we did an analysis of the area book, what tools we had, and what amis we were currently working with. We'll be starting from almost ground 0. The good news is that the ward is awesome. We have members who really love us and a Ward mission leader who is really gung ho. Plus quite a few awesome young adults. So we have a good base and a bunch of old investigators.

We are currently working with only one investigator. I should say were working with. His name is Yao. He is a young chinese student, who had a baptismal date and has already been taught everything and wants to be baptized, but his work prevents him from coming to church, and he lives with his girlfriend. We saw him twice this past week and he is a really cool and sincere guy. We addressed the problems I just stated on Saturday night and he took them well, but then Saturday night he sent us a text telling us that he thinks we should pause our meetings for a while and never responded after that. So bummer there.

The brightside of all this is Elder Mataalii. I don't know if I've had a companion yet with as much faith and humilityand desire to do good as he has. This transfer will be quite miraculous because of him. We set really good goals and decided that we both want to go all out this transfer. Which sounds normal, but its funny how even as missionaries we find the tiniest reasons or ways to not do things the way we should. We decided openly to each other that we are going to everything the right way, or give our best trying, and smile and spread Christmas cheer the whole way. It's been really fun just being in a normal equipe working and focusing on straight missionary work. 

The city definitely has a different feel than Toulouse. It feels smaller and a bit less busy (one tramline our main transport), but with Christmas time in the air, everybody seems in a hustle and bustle anyways.

The Toulouse Capitole ward is one of the "big" wards in France, lots of well known families and names. Clermont Ferrand is just barely a ward (attendance wise) and has a lot more of a small town feel to it. I translated yesterday in Sacrament meeting for the American family we have in our ward. When people ask I now just say I've been on my mission for a year and a half, which seems really weird and I never thought I'd be saying that.

On Saturday was the ward Christmas Party. It went really well turn out of about 40 people and was a good chance for me to meet everyone, and its clear that the missionaries in this ward are really well loved. Just before 9 oclock they had us 4 missionaries come up to the front, and they presented each companionship (us and the sisters) with a tub of wrapped gifts from the ward members. It was really sweet. ITs been really easy to become friends with everybody. After one week I feel well accepted and good friends with most the ward.

This week went well, we talked to a bunch of people and found a couple solid potentials. Last night on our way home, we became quick friends with a classy African man named Bruno who LOVES the USA. haha it was funny, and he's christian. He quickly agreed to come to our english class on Saturday. That was a fun 4th quarter miracle.

I'm really excited for Christmas skype! I'm not sure on the schedule yet, I'll let you know next monday.

Very excited for this coming week. Christmas miracles are coming!!

"It's a Festivus miracle!"

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

Les Missionnaires

34 rue Niel 

clermont ferrand, France

63000

The Clermont centreville set up

This is what the tram looks like that we take (mom asked a while ago)

The view from our Apt.

Add caption

Elder Mataalii waiting impatiently for the tram Sunday morning. (Its a 30 minute tram ride to the chapel from our apt.

Transfer 12, Week 4...The next turn in the mission story ... December 9, 2014

Dear Fam,

Never thought I'd be here!

I got transferred to Clermont-Ferrand, a medium sized city west of Lyon, close to the geographical center of France. It sits in a valley of dormant volcanoes, and is known for its black cathedral made molten rock. Quite cool!

I'm serving with Elder Mataalii, a young missionary in his 5th transfer. He is from diamondbar, CA. His mom is from ecuador and his dad from Samoa. I actually did an exchange with him in my first transfer in Toulouse. He is really great. Super willing to work and very non assuming. Just excited to be here, and is really quite cheerful. Super Humble. innocent in a good way, doesn't really care who you are or where you're from just wants to be nice to you. He isn't super skilled or competent but has a huge heart, and its fun to be around him.

It was crazy to get the call, super sad to leave behind all the friends and potential in toulouse. It'll be particularly fun to be serving in just a normal equipe. Elder M and I will just get to buckle down and work. This transfer gives me the opportunity to be the best missionary I've yet to be on my missionary and to do a lot of great missionary work. I'm really quite excited. A new adventure!

We did two exchanges last week, both in Toulouse. We had the baptism of a chinese ami named DanYan, the one that I did the interview for, on Saturday. He asked me to give both talks in the service, and thus I gave two talks in the service. haha

We got a chance to see lots of the families I loved this past week. Including the family Serrano-Milone, the fam Janda, the fam Pichon and of course Sunday we spent the evening with the Cuveliers and Margot. We had a super special and spiritual moment with them. It was incredible. In fast and testimony meeting, after Elder Bollard and I had both already born our testimonies, Fr. Cuvelier got up and basically bore his testimony about his experience with us and what smart and impressive men we are. It was really sweet. He also said that he knew we were specifically called to teach Margot. IT's crazy the miracle that she is. As we were parting ways Sunday evening, we were trying to explain to Mami (Sr Cuvelier's mom) what was happening. Margot said, "he's leaving, thats what happens in missionary work, its not vacation, it's work!" Haha it was great and made me really happy, that she gets it. She gets the gospel and she lives, and because she lives she has been seeing incredible miracles in her life. Incredibly sad to leave but it will make for a very happy reunion one day with that group.

I left Monday afternoon and spent the night in Lyon and Elder Mataalii and I just got in along with the sisters at 2 this afternoon. 

I'm stoked to be here. Time to turn up!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

Us and the Family Serrano-Milone

Bishop Janda and I

The crew after our Sunday evening crepes :)

Elder Bollard and I in the train station on monday