Bold As A Lyon - Prov 28:1

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