Bold As A Lyon - Prov 28:1

To Nice and back again ... June 16, 2014

Dear family,

Its weird to think about all that we've done in the past week. Just the vast quantity of things we've accomplished. As we walked home last night, Elder Castillo and I were both marveling that we hadn't fainted from exhaustion yet.

This week was filled with incredible experiences for better or for worse.

First, I'll briefly tell you about our experience presenting to the stake. It didn't necessarily go as planned. We really wanted to impress upon the leadership just how powerful Preach my Gospel is, how much it can help them and the families of their wards improve their testimonies and missionary work and to emphasize the invitation from Elder Ballard in general conference (an apostle of the Lord). We were told that we were going to have 15 minutes to present which really isn't a ton of time to cover the important subject we had. As these meetings often go, after sideways comments and questions, we ended up only having 5 minutes to present. We got up and speedily hit some of the big points that we wanted to, then really bore our testimonies about it. Unfortunately as we discussed missionary work with just us vs. missionary work with members and missionaries as a team, we kind of got some kick back from the certain people, which was sad and annoying. We felt like a lot of the good energy that was building up at the beginning of the meeting really fell apart as we were up there and we left with our testimonies of missionary work and PMG, but we left in a rather tense atmosphere. Like I said we were both sad and frustrated. We really felt like this was the venue to coordinate with the stake leadership, and get them on the same page as us. (The current set up of the current ward structure doesn't give us a lot of leeway to coordinate with the leadership- which we've found is a big problem for missionary work.) But we'll have to continue to push. Thats really our task here is to help everyone (train them, teach them, encourage them, love them) do missionary work, not just us. It goes a lot better when 125 people are doing it than just 2.

The better side of the email period was our trip to Nice. Really just a wonderful miracle that everything went smoothly. Elder Castillo and I were really pleased at how well we all behaved and how well the hotel situation went and everything. We were on a bus all day monday. Left BDX at 830 and got to Nice way early at 630 (Gerald our bus driver was the man). Tuesday we had the conference. It was an odd mixture of emotions all day. Seeing Nice again during the day brought back a lot of memories. I got to see some of my good young adult friends from the Nice ward who were helping out with translating. The conference itself was just incredible.

We heard from President and Sister Roney, Elder and Sister Kearon, and Elder and Sister Andersen. Elder Andersen served here as a missionary and mission president. He actually started his mission in Perigueux- that was fun to hear). The entire 2 hours were just an magnificent spiritual experience. Elder Castillo and I couldn't talk for 30 minutes afterwards, we both felt really spiritually overwhelmed. It was wonderful. We really absolutely loved hearing from the Kearons, they have quickly moved up our favorites list. They were both just so powerful.

The major message of the day was faith. haha very simple. Elder Andersen got a mike and walked through the crowd teaching us from the scriptures and answering questions. The cool quote he gave us, "Building the church in France is interesting, however this mission is not more difficult than others- in fact no mission is more difficult than others, they just have different challenges. However you do need more faith to serve in France than you do in most other missions." I really liked that. He really expressed his love and the love of all the brethren, and strongly admonished us to generate more faith and find more success, that it is possible. Really really great experience.

And just like that we returned. Wednesday afternoon we helped all the missionaries grab their trains despite the 3day strike that was going on. And we returned to our apartment pooped from the past two weeks.

But we can never stop. Because the work will never stop, the Lord will always need us. Everyone needs to at least know that Jesus is the Christ and that through this great plan of happiness we can find peace and direction. This quest is not a quest of two weeks or of two years but of lifetimes and eternities. To loosely quote Elder Andersen and to more accurately quote my great movie hero Maximus,

"What we do in life, echoes in eternity."

I love you all! Have a great week!

Beacoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

Elder Montgomery and Elder Castilla at Neil A Anderson Training

A tired bus of Missionaries returning from Nice

Un Peu Partout ... June 7, 2014

Dear Family,

We were everywhere this week.

Monday and Tuesday in Lyon which was a blur- we ate with an american member family, the Heras family and the dad was super impressed that I had done IB, very funny to see that following me to Europe.

We woke up at 4am to catch our flight home on Wednesday. We taught Mama Recordeau again about the Plan of Salvation wednesday afternoon. (she is the old lady in the nursing home I told you about last week).

Then we spent much of Wednesday and Thursday setting up, preparing for, and planning zone training, which was all in preparation for the Elder Andersen conference. This will be a really intereesting trip, seeing that both Bordeaux zones are going on the same bus and its only us 4 zone leaders there as supervision on our 13 hour ride to Nice. I really really want it to reach its potential and be a wonderful experience for all of the missionaries.

And this afternoon Elder Castillo and I are going to present to the Stake leaders of the Southwest of France about the importance of PMG! I think this might be one of those events that I will remember for the rest of my life. We are both very excited for it. and nervous.

We set off for Nice Monday morning. We wont be writing emails until next monday. I hope you all had a wonderful week and have one again this week. The work will move on, its simply a matter of whether we want to push it forward or not.

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

the castle by the vineyard...where we had our missionary meeting with our Ward mission leader (he lives just next to it)

Look who I saw at Zone training (he is in the other Bordeaux zone)

Need to put an accent on certain things ... June 2, 2014

Chere famille,

We're back in Lyon for Leadership conference today and tomorrow! Flew in this morning, still odd to fly.

The week was fun! As a mission we're getting ready for our journey to Nice next week to hear from Elder Andersen and Elder Kearon. Its really exciting!

Before that however on Saturday, Elder Castillo and I have been asked by the Stake Presidency to present in the Bordeaux Stake leadership on Preach my Gospel, and using it in the home. Which is a great topic because both Elder Castillo and I have these huge testimonies of Preach my Gospel being scripture, and if everybody knew PMG, sharing the gospel with others would be so much easier, and false doctrine would be completely weeded out in the church. We're really stoked for it because we think its a great opportunity to get the members on track to do the work of the Lord.

This week we taught primary for the 4th week in a row. The primary kids are harsh on my accent haha, but they absolutely love having us teach them. The ward is great!

We are currently teaching (we taught her for the second time on monday) the 93 year old mother of a recent convert living in a nursing home, completely french and rather hard of hearing, and she really struggles with our accents as well. Well mostly mine, Elder Castillo's is really good. The french accent is really difficult, it takes a lot of muscle memory change, but it makes for some good laughs as well.

On Saturday we were asked to go help with a stakewide primary acitivity, with a bunch of families from our stake including the Denadiers from Perigueux and Sr. Denadier was stoked to see Elder McBeth and I.

And on Thursday I did my first baptismal interview for the Elders in talence. I interviewed a 20ish yr old woman and she was great and everything went well, and she was baptized on Saturday after the primary activity.

We've got Leadership council, Zone Training, Stake Leadership meeting, then the Elder Andersen conference here in the next week. Its going to be really quite busy and exciting. I'm just so ready to hear from Elder Andersen.

I love being out and having the opportunity to help these people. Elder Castillo and I talk about this frequently, but as PMG declares, the gospel is really just the universal cure for the world. France needs it so much. Its an honor, but such a big responsibility to be called to share the Gospel with the world.

i read this in my personal study this week,

"But behold, I, Nephi, will show unto you that the tender mercies of the Lord are over all those whom he hath chosen, because of their faith, to make them mighty even unto the power of deliverance."

The Lord "chooses" us as we show our faith in Him unto obedience and then He GIVES US Power to deliver to ourselves. He wants us badly for each of us find this deliverance. Keep putting your faith in the Lord and being obedient, and find this deliverance! The world needs this so badly!

I love you all,

Elder Will

We got to see Sr. Denadier from Perigueux at a stake primary activity this week!! We were too excited!

dinner with our Cameroonian member on sunday!

Her name is Sr. Founkeu! And this is Fr. Aura who always comes and helps us out!

A little Bordeaux beauty

The Perks ... May 19, 2014

Dear Family,

This week was super packed with stuff. We found very little time to work.

A quick overview:

-Two exchanges: one in Pau and one in Bayonne (two dream cities of southern France)

-Two baptisms in our district that we attended, one from the Agen srs and the other here in Lormont

and

-A wonderful District meeting

It was rather full. Both Pau and Bayonne are 2 hours away from BDX by train. So we had lots of travel time in there as well.

Its been fun to see baptisms though. There was another one in our ward last week for a man being taught by the other Elders equipe here in Lormont. So things are definitely moving along.

Summer has definitely come. It is blazing hot yesterday and these seasonal allergies are killing me.

We have been struggling to find people to teach which is rather frustrating. The bomb family that I told you about last week, was busy all week and is kinda giving us a cold shoulderish feel, which is no good. We need to be more creative with our finding techniques and more effective with our time.

The continuous battle.

I think my favorite part of the week after the baptisms was going to Bayonne. I was with Elder Thackeray who is just an awesome guy, and a wonderful missionary, super humble. We went out to Biarritz to work which is along the coast, where I saw the atlantic for 23 seconds as we walked. Just a super beautiful area, among the most beautiful i've been to. Unfortunately, lots of tourists at this time and not a lot of people wanted to talk with us. Interesting cultural note: its a Basque city, the basque are a tribe/culture from the Pyrenees area. (the basque people and arabs do not get along very well so there were practically no arabs there) All the road signs were in basque and french, which was cool.

Everybody spoke french though.

Its so wonderful to travel and see and talk with people from so many different backgrounds and having the opportunity to influence them for good. One of the great perks of being a missionary.

I reflected a lot on personal courage and integrity this week and how central it is and I thought i'd leave you with a quote from President Monson's conference talk who quoted Robert Louis Stevenson,

"Everyday courage has few witnesses. But yours is no less noble because no drum beats for you and no crowd shouts your name."

I love you so much Make it a great week!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

Elder CAstillo and I with our two favorite members -Fr Monclin and Fr Charles. just hilarious.

The Bordeaux St jean train station

Bayonne, just a beautiful french city

The atlantic ocean that I caught a glimpse of in Bayonne

Staying in Bordeaux! .... May 26, 2014

Dear Family,

Another week in the books. Another transfer in the books. Transfer 7 gone, Transfer 8 on deck. Elder Castillo and I are staying together here in Lormont, which I am very excited about. This is the first time Elder Castillo will have a companion for more than one transfer. And he and I are working really well together.

This week was one of the weeks where everything fell apart, appointments fell through, and it rained a lot as well. Frustration set in. Not necessarily with the work (but a little), but moreso with my self just not being as effective and dedicated as I need to be.

But it is moments like that these that we are given to really change ourselves, prove who we are, and act and become more like the Christ.

Elder Castillo and I had a lot of fun with it anyways, which is part of what makes a great companion. We have great gospel discussions and fun minigames we play while tracting. We went to Pau for district meeting which was great.

We had one really fun moment yesterday as we went and saw an ami in the area book that we had already passed 3 times, but this time they let us in and we had a fun time getting to know this retired couple and their children and their neighbors. What a cool opportunity. We sat and talked with them and drank orange juice with them on their backyard deck. Classic southern france. They were completely perplexed as to why we would leave our homes for two years to be "missionaries". But they just thought we were so cool anyways. Poor Elder McBeth who was with us for it because his comp left already, had an allergic reaction in the middle of all this and his right eye was swollen and juicy. He had about a millimeter of usage out of that eye. It was sad and funny. But he pushed through, classic Elder MCBeth, and just enjoyed the moment.(But dont worry Brother McBeth, he's fine now). The family quickly searched for some allergy medicine to help him out. These people we had never met just let us in to chat and have a good time. They admitted that it wasn't very french to do that. But they aren't your average french family. Jean Paul, the husband and dad, is just great and the only one of the group with good potential. Really funny, open, and the only member of his family that believes in God. He is retired military, we are planning on going back and seeing him this week.

So it continues. Really exciting though, We will be getting to hear from Elder Andersen of the 12 and Elder Kearon of the 70 in 2 weeks!!! The entire mission will be going by bus to Nice. It will be cool to go back to where it all started.

I love you all! Make it a great week!

Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder Montgomery

District meeting in Pau!

A few pics of downtown Pau

One of the longest shopping strips in France- The Ste. Catherine

"And the time passed away with us..." .... May 12, 2014

Dear family,

Gah it was so great to talk to you yesterday!

As I sat in bed last night thinking about all this I just couldnt even believe or even understand how fast everything is going. Ive mentioned this in like my past 13 emails (and 13 journal entries) but geez its just incredible to think about where I am, what I am doing, what I am trying to do, and where I've been. Times where I get to talk with you are kind of markers in my mission time.

And as I forced myself to stay awake for a couple moments last night to ponder and reconcile myself with this time-space continuim phenomenon that is my life of the past 9 months, it reminded me of a scripture in the Book of Mormon spoken by the prophet Jacob,

"the time passed away with us, and also our lives passed

away like as it were unto us a dream".

Thinking about Gex, Perigueux, Nice, BYU, High school! yeah right, its just incomprehensible that these moments actually seem to go faster.

This week was wonderful! We got to do two exchanges both here in our Lormont area. I got to go with Elder Withers from Spokane Valley on Wednesday and Elder Smith from Ogden, Utah on Friday. Its so cool to get glimpses (really tiny minute perspectives) into their lives, who they are, and who they are preparing to become.

The real highlight of the week was teaching the family Delachambre (of the bedroom- literal translation). Virginie and Gidas are a young couple with a 3 year old daughter. Virginie's mom, Beatrice, is childhood bestfriends with Sister Pittman, of the new senior missionary couple in Bordeaux. On Friday Elder Smith and I got to go teach all 4 of them. They had been so prepared for the message of the restored gospel. They had seen the Pittman's son as a missionary. They don't drink or smoke, and have very very basic beliefs in God (Gidas really didnt have any beliefs), but want to know more. They aren't motivated by any circumstance in their life that is humbling them, but they simple have a desire to make their family happier (eternally so). The lesson was fantastic and fun and full of the Spirit. They ate it up and came to church on Sunday (some iffy doctrine was thrown around #asalways) and we are planning on seeing them again on Friday.

We have some other amis that are in the works:

Victor Hugo our Nigerian friend is on and off, here and there. He is a really funny guy, we just can't quite get a sit down lesson with him.

John is a political refugee from Ghana, 17 yrs old. We taught him this week and he loved it. He is super believeing though. I'm excited to see where he goes.

Maxime our wonderful russian friend still gets in the game every once and awhile, he is hard to get a hold of.

Life is wonderful, especially since I got to talk to you yesterday. You are such a motivation for me. I came out after skyping you and told the Monclins that my family is the best. The mission has made me appreciate and grow in my love for you in just incredible ways.

Have a great week! Beaucoup d'amour,

Elder William Montgomery

Mother's Day Skype Call .... May 11, 2014

On May 11, 2014 we quickly left our church meetings to do a scheduled Skype Call with William at 12noon Eastern time which is 6pm his time. We talked for just over an hour and had a great time. It was so great to talk to him and to see him.

As you can see, Nate and Randa were included from Provo and Rancho Cordova.

Here are some exciting pics from the event:

Mother's Day Skype Call with William, Nate and Miranda - May 11, 2014

Jennifer giving her missionary a Mother's Day kiss