Hay Viene El Frio (Week 86)

Monday, March 24, 2025   8:38pm

 

Hola chicos y chicas, que tal, como están todos ustedes? 

Bueno, this one's gonna be a bit quick, because it's late and this week was kinda uneventful, but let's go, aguante el Señor.

We've been focusing more on members this week, which has been pretty fruitful. We got in contact with a recent convert that hadn't come to church in a couple weeks and we've found some inactives as well, a few aren't interested like at all, but one was like, 'A while ago, I was giving you guys lunch, can you add me back to the Relief Society chat so I can do that again?' Absolutely the heck we can. And did. Hopefully lunch happens soon.

Anyways we also passed by active members to share just a little scripture and spiritual thought, and that has gone great. We've gotten a few references and some church related tasks to help out with callings, but the best part to me is getting to know the members here better. They're all so nice and willing to help, I wanna be like them when I grow up. 

We did divisions with the Zone Leaders, and I had the privilege to work San Martin with Elder Jenkins. It was great, we passed by a few active members, found some awesome people, and got to have a pretty deep discussion about prayer and scripture. I also enjoyed learning Elder Jenkins' manner of contacting, which in comparison to mine is a lot more about showing love to people than finding problems to fix, which is something I'd like to apply better to my own work. 

It rained a lot this week. Well, maybe not a lot, but there was a constant mist in the air so everything was just...wet. Mosquitoes also started coming out because of that, and fun fact, vanilla extract works pretty well as bug repellent. I had heard rumors about it a while ago, gave it a try, and hey, no bites! Smells a lot better than the canned stuff too. It's also a lot colder now, like it's easily gone from a usual 80°F to a 65°F normal. My poor Peruvian comp is dying, and autumn basically hasn't even started yet. He's gonna love winter. 

Well, that's it from me for now, I've gotta cook something because the boys in this house are hungry and I have the chef title. 

Love you all tons! Til next week!

-Elder Montgomery

Familia Valenzuela

Ta yobiendo

Did some scripture story reenactments

Madrid shirt Roque gifted me

Comida Peruana 🇵🇪

Green Day, Not-So-Green Week (Week 85)

Monday, March 17, 2025   8:54pm 

Good evening, Lads and Lassies, Happy Day of Saint Patrick's to ya! I dont have anything exactly green to wear, but luckily only places that celebrate St Patrick's here are bars, and we don't really set foot in those.

Well! Another week in the mission gone, and not a lot happened with this one tbh. 

There wasn't a lot of progressing amigos when I got here, so we've been mostly trying to find new people, but that hasn't gone all that well, I'm starting to get reminded of the stories my dad has told me about his mission in France...anyways, we talked a bit with our mission leader about it on Sunday, and we all think it'll be best for us this week to focus more on the inactive/newer members and help them out, and hey, I'm sure the Lord will throw some miracles our way as we do. 

And speaking of the members, they're all pretty cool. We get lunch pretty much every day here, so I've gotten to know a few of them, and they're all really willing to lend a hand with missionary work as well as have some awesome testimonies. One of my favorites I met was a family with 12 kids, few of which were recently baptized. With so many little people and so much noise in the house, I felt right at home! 

I've recently felt blessed with how well I've been able to learn the area. Leaving the house without our phones means that we don't really have maps or anything. So you know, have to just memorize all the streets and stuff, which I mean, I had done before, but after like two transfers, but by the grace of the Lord I have the majority of the place memorized already! I can get wherever I want with more or less ease, which means I can pay more attention to contacting people, how perfect. 

With how the week went, it would be pretty easy to feel kinda down, but I've been able to find a lot of solace in the New Testament, especially in the second chapter of James. If faith is shown through the works we do, us as missionaries show a lot of faith, going out every day, even with all the rejection and opposition we face. James also teaches us that through our works, our faith can be made perfect, and I can definitely say that's true, not that I have perfect faith or anything, but my testimony has grown and is growing our here, every single day, and I can say with all my heart and soul that I know that this is the Lord's work because of it. And while that might not be perfect now, it will be someday.

But anyways, I love you all very much, I'm glad to still be writing after all this time, it always gives me a chance to reflect and see how far I've come, even just in a week, so thanks to yall for being here for it! 

Good night to all, may the luck of the Irish be with ye!

-Elder Montgomery

Llovio un poquito lol

Obligatory glasses steal

Que rico el helado acá

Flia Riquelme

I'm your 007, your Secret Service'

Trying to figure out why the other apartment doesn't have power in my pjs

La única cosa con verde que tengo (gracias Hermana Fisher)

Sun is bright, idk if yall know

Oh yeah, we got changed to a new district lol

Streets of Rage (Week 84)

Monday, March 10, 2025     8:54pm 

WOAH what's up yall, what a absolutely  wild, weird, and wonderful week it's been!!

Alright alright, let's start with Tuesday. I was able to do exchange with my MTC comp-turned-DL Elder Noall, and we were able to make some pretty cool contacts with a handful of good people, which I'm sure are being taken great care of or have already blocked the missionaries, whatever works. 

Wednesday was Elder Larsen's último día in Balcarce, and we spent most of it inside packing, because that's when the office decided to send an hermano to our pension to fix more things, like a door that was falling off it's hinges, some glass that (not so) mysteriously had a hole in it, and of course, the everything that was leaking in the bathroom. Lovely, so glad the Hermanas will be able to live comfortably. We did some last visits before the night fell, the bus passed by the church, and my dear compa was sent to his new area. 

Thursday, we were a trio; Me, Elder Noall, and Elder Rivera. I really enjoyed seeing how those two worked together, I'm always really impressed with how well people can handle themselves after just a transfer of training, and Elder Rivera was no exception. We had to move all their things to the new pension they got because they had been missing a lot of necessary thing until literally a few days before, and Hermanas were going to be in the old house that night, so a moving we went. And then my time came, the bus once again passed by the church, and me fui. I really loved my time in Balcarce, as short as it was; I hope the Hermanas there have as much fun as I did and hopefully can work even harder haha. 

So I get to Mar del Plata Friday morning at 2am, meet Elder Roque, my new comp, in the church, and off we go to the pension. It's a good pension, not gonna lie, it's a bit far out of our area, but that's chill, just means we get a get more exercise than everyone else. We didn't really get to go out that day though, because that day the skies decided to open. Ladies and Gentlemen, the rains really came down and the floods truly came up, especially in poor Bahía Blanca. 

On a bit more serious note, Bahía is actually in a really bad state, the storm we had on Friday was massive and flooded almost all of Bahía. There are a ton of people that have lost personal possessions, cars, houses, and a few their lives. We're lucky enough that all the missionaries there are safe and accounted for, but everyone please, keep the city in your prayers, it'll be going through a very tough time for the next while. Miracles did happen though, the unfinished temple there was somehow untouched by the raging flood water, even though the entire area around it was utterly wasted at the storms coming. Pretty cool, no? 

The rain did give us a chance to do some service Saturday morning, because it somehow uncovered this massive, and I mean massive, like five meter deep and two meter diameter hole in the front yard of a recent convert of ours in San Martin. So we teamed up with the Elder's quorum to try our best and fill the thing up with dust, dirt, and debris so that if someone were to fall in, they would just be seriously injured instead of dead. We did a pretty good job, but sheesh, my shoulders are still tired from carrying so many buckets of stuff around. 

I got to meet the other half of the wars on Sunday, and I think I'm gonna like San Martin a lot. The members here are super friendly, willing to talk, and are excited and already working in la obra misional. Even though this area is kinda...crazy, as in I have to leave my phone at home and work with notepad and pen, I am absolutely psyched to start the work here. 

And this email has gotten long, just like the week, this next one might not be as exciting (I hope), but thanks for bring here and reading my...splurge of words anyways. 

Read the New Testament. It's good.

-Elder Montgomery

Running it back with Elder Noall

Que tormenta

Que músculos

El sombrero

Familia Pardo!!

Último día en Balcarce

Tacos en la nueva pensión

Shirtless dude with a lawn mower is the best part

First day in San Martin!

Mi compito

Mar del Plata is the promised land and I need a haircut

Dis fountain nasty lol

Siempre estoy rodeado de peruanos

Comida venezolana 🤑

They would have definitely messed up my name if I didn't use Mateo

Estarbies supongo