Week 4. One Month. Five Percent.

 Thu 8/31/2023 5:55pm

Yeah, that's right, everyone. Five Percent. Elder Noall and I did the calculations. Time really do be flying sometimes. This week was....pretty uneventful, but there were still a few highlights. 

My district was assigned a musical number last sacrament meeting. We sung a rendition of 'If You Could Hie To Kolob' that was really pretty. Such an awesome hymn too. 

I started reading the Saints novels(?) this week, and I love it so much. I already blazed through the first book, and am already a fourth of a way through the second. I've always found the stories of the early Saints so much, and learning more about Joseph Smith is always a pleasure. I love that man so much, he inspires me to work harder basically every day. Reading it has also helped me strengthen my testimony of Joseph and just prophets and revelation in general. God really loves and cares for us so much yall.

This morning was pretty nuts, we found a moth that was like the size of a....big moth? I don't know how to describe it. It was brown, I guess. We freaked out trying to get it out of the house, but we did it eventually. We slammed a bucket over it and scooted it out the door. Pretty gnarly. 

We did endowments this morning IN ESPAÑOL. It was pretty cool. It helped me realize how much my Español has been improving again, I had my eyes closed for half of it but I still knew what was going on. Yeah, I'm pretty cool. 

Well, um, yeah, that's kinda it. Again, nothing too nuts, just a lot of small victories this week that made me feel good. It also helps that the Spirit is so strong here.

Anyways, I have only a couple more weeks before I go out to Bahía. That's crazy! It's actually been rumored that we get our final flight plans tomorrow. I hope Argentina's ready for me.

Love you all, stay safe, be happy, remember your Heavenly Father loves you!

Élder Montgomery 

Almost forgot to send pictures this week! 

1: Picture of the moth Elder Noall took

2: Picture of the cryptid I took

3: Bought this shirt in the tienda with my mission cash. Pretty sick

4: Me n Elder Noall

Didn't take too many this week, but whatevs. Talk to yall next week!

Another Testimony Snagged from Facebook

 ¡Hola a todos! Quería compartir una escritura hoy. Está en Doctrina y Convenios 59:23. En esta sección, el Señor les dice a los santos que acababan de mudarse a Misuri cómo deberían comportarse como miembros de Su iglesia. Sé que este versículo es tan cierto ahora como lo era entonces. He sido bendecida con tanta paz aquí en el MCP porque me he centrado en el camino de la rectitud. Sé que a medida que nos esforzamos por guardar Sus mandamientos, Él nos bendecirá con todo lo que necesitemos.

In English:

Hello to you all! Wanted to share a scripture today. It is in Doctrine and Covenants 59:23. In this section, the Lord tells the saints who have just moved to Missouri how they should behave as members of His church. I know this verse is as true now as it was then. I have been blessed with so much peace here at the MCP because I have focused on the path of righteousness. I know that as we strive to keep His commandments, He will bless us with everything we need.

Birthday Wish for Kassie

Apparently the missionaries are allowed to send their siblings a video message on their birthdays. Kassie was super excited to get this message from her big brother on her 6th birthday!

 

It's that time again. Week 3

Thu 8/24/2023 6:34pm 

Hello errebody! Back at it again at the CCM!

So, yall, there's this thing called the Spanish Help Desk and it is wonderful. Elder Noall and I have visited it a couple times over the last few weeks, and I'm feeling so great about my Spanish now. I know I won't be completely ready by the time I leave, but I know I'll be okay. 

I feel so thankful this week, I started reading a ton of general conference over the last few days, and a lot of the ones I've been drawn to are about parenthood, which sounds a bit odd, but I feel like it relates to missionary work pretty well, as we're supposed to help people grow in the gospel and nurture them in their spiritual journeys toward the covenant path. AnYWayS they've helped a ton, and I feel super focused on the work. I'll be honest, this week hasn't been super eventful, I've just been having a lot of small successes that have helped me have a good attitude about everything. 

I have had some pretty cool spiritual moments throughout the week though, and a lot of it has involved my Patriarchal Blessing. I've been able to see a lot of things promised coming to fruition, especially during the last week. I won't go into specific details, but it mentions that I will love studying the Book of Mormon, and that has really become true during this CCM time. 

We did some cool music things as a district a little bit this week. I don't have any of the videos we took, but you can check out my comp on facebook for a little sample. (His name's Cody Noall)

Alright, more pictures

1: Me and the Mexico temple this morning.

2: The flower beds around the CCM are GORGEOUS. Wish I knew what they are lol.

3: We get some pretty cool cloud action in the mornings.

4: The Boys. We were standing underneath the Argentine flag, but you can't really see that haha.

5: Me n Elder Noall outside the temple.

6: Us with some of the missionaries from our sister district, 1H.

7: Cool view of the temple Elder Noall got

I realized as I was writing that this is my fourth week as a missionary. Just got 100 to go now I suppose. Really not that long

Welp, I love yall, hope your weeks go great! 

Much love from Mexico, 

Elder Montgomery

Our 2nd Video Call

Elder Montgomery was too busy on his P-Day last week to call us, so we were super excited to talk to him this week!

I will try not to screen shot his cute face every time we talk to him.

It's hard not to though!

 

Second week baybeeeeeeee

 Thu 8/17/2023 2:20pm

Hello my people, yes, I have survived another week, go me.

This week was pretty cool for a few reasons: 

First, feeling tons better about my Español. I'm positive now that at the end of my CCM training that I'll have it down. I've definitely struggled, and it's still pretty hard, but I don't mind so much anymore.

Second, we went to the Mexico City Temple this week and it is GORGEOUS as well. It was very Aztec/Incan/Mayan/Whatever in design, and I was all about it. I also got to baptize an Elder in Español AND do confirmations as well. It was all pretty nuts. Their visitors center is also really pretty. Definitely in the top five of temples I've been inside now(I've been inside five temples). 

Third, I actually have PICTURES. The ones I'm sending are from this week as well as last week, but they are as follows(I hope): 

1: First day there; Elder Raines took the photo. The four of us in the front are all in the same district, the Elder to my right isn't, but is also going to Bahía Blanca.

2: The whole district in front of this awesome mural of Moses parting the Red Sea

3: Me and my comp, Elder Noall, before gym

4 and 5: The district at the Visitors Center

6: The Mexico City Temple 

7: Me after waking up

8: My hair finally being mission-appropriate

Fourth, we had an awesome devotional by Elder Bednar that helped all of us in the district self reflect really well. It's super awesome to see how many of us are growing and changing drastic amounts in just one week.

Like I said, the week was pretty awesome and I have a lot to be thankful for. Like, I can see myself like actually gaining muscle. Think six pack. And I've literally only been doing push-ups. I've been doing really well with goals I've set, which I have always been terrible at. I also have a super amazing district who are willing to help me with pretty much anything at pretty much anytime. I just know that I'm being blessed by Heavenly Father and that I'm where He wants me to be. 

I'm also super thankful for all of you, and I appreciate so many of you emailing me. I know I haven't responded to any yet, I'll be working on that more. I just take a while writing one, and I still have lots of things to do every pday. 

BUT I LOVE YALL SO MUCH AND IM SO HAPPY TO BE HERE!!!

Elder Montgomery <3

Elder Ferguson

Elder Montgomery was able to meet up with one of his childhood friends at the CMM!

Elder Christian Ferguson was in our ward throughout Matt's childhood, until his family moved away a few years ago. They were in cub scouts and young men's together for years, so it was pretty cool that they were at the CMM at the same time! He is also going to Argentina (heading out next week, actually!), but it's one of the Buenos Aires missions. 

 

An Invitation from Elder Montgomery

 Just wanted to invite anyone who might see this to read from Alma 32 today. During the last couple weeks, the Book of Mormon, especially Alma, has helped me grow my faith in Christ and His love so much, and I promise it can do the same for you. I know through this Book that Christ lived and died for us and has a perfect love that will never end, and I will always hold it (and especially the Book of Alma) close to my heart.

Missionary Plaque

When we got to church today, we were very excited to see that they got Elder Montgomery's plaque up!

He's stake center hallway official now!

 

Welp.....Week 1 at CCM I guess

Sat 8/12/2023 11:32am

Hello everyone, hola a todos, or whatever language you want me to speak. 

So yeah, been at the Mexico MTC for a week now. It's been pretty great so far, most of the food has tasted great, my district is awesome, and I've been learning Español pretty quickly (not as quickly as I'd like but whatever the Lord willeth I guessahahahaha). Also, immigration? Easy. People made it seem way scarier than it was. Then again, I did only get into Mexico, we'll see how Argentina goes. 

Mexico, by the way, is GORGEOUS. The CCM is surrounded by these not really mountains but like really big hills that have super lush vegetation on some sides and these awesome cliff faces on the other. There's also a giant B made of rocks set into one of the hills. Idk why. It's pretty cool tho. Oh yeah, I was pretty shocked to see that most of the birds here are like lime green. Like, that's when it hit me that I was out of the US. Also, it rained pretty hard, and all these Utah kids were freaking out like 'I've never seen rain like this in my life!' and I was like 'This is legit every other week during summer in NC.' Yeah, guess you could say I'm one of the cool kids. 

My district (really only one Elder lol) has this goal for us to collectively do 1000 push ups a night, and we've been getting pretty close. Me and the Elder who started it are carrying pretty hard though, everyone else does like 25-30, while he and I do 40-50 in a given night. It's honestly helped me a lot, I have a personal goal right now to do 120 push ups a day for the foreseeable future, and I feel great about it. I still have like no stamina though, we all played futbol with another district and I had to sit out after like ten minutes lol. I'll work on that. 

I can tell my Español is improving, but it's not at the rate I want it to be. Most of the other elders think I'm really good at it as well, which doesn't help very much when I don't feel super confident with it. It still is the first week though, I'm sure I'll get there eventually. At least I can read and understand most everything, which has definitely been a blessing.

Well.....yeah, there hasn't been too much else to write home about, so I'll leave it here I guess.

I love and miss yall a ton, and I'm super glad to have so many great people who have my back like this. Oh, and if you all have any questions for me, email me pleaaaaase, I'd love to answer. 

¡Vaya con Dios, mi amigos!

Èlder Montgomery

(P.S. my PDays from now on are Thursdays, so I'll be able to get back to everyone then <3. Also, I can't messenger people outside of my immediate family until I get out to the field, hope yall are okay with waiting four weeks for that lol)

 

Our First Video Call!

We got to talk to our missionary AND see his handsome face too!

For over an hour!

He was walking around the CCM campus while he was talking to us and we could hear birds squawking in the background. He says there are a lot of lime green parrots there. 

He sounds great and says things are going great too! 

After we got done with our call, he messaged me a few pictures!

This is his district. The elders all live in 5-6 bedroom houses with 4 elders per room. 

The hermanas live in apartments. They had a pair of hermanas in their district to begin with, but plans changed for them, so now their district is all elders.

Matt and Elder Wilcock, who was on the way to get a haircut.

La Tienda on the CMM campus is well-stocked with Dr. Pepper!

He loves the landscape and climate there and said it was pretty cool driving through the huge, sprawling, Mexico City as they traveled by van from the airport. 

Heading to the CCM

We left our house just after 2am on Tuesday, August 8th to drive Elder Montgomery to the airport. 

He had a long day ahead of him. First he would fly up to St. Paul, MN, and then straight down to Mexico City, arriving there at nearly 3pm our time. 

(The 3rd flight for later in September from Mexico to Miami is one that they will cancel eventually. They are just required to have a returning ticket before being allowed to enter into Mexico.)

We got to the airport, got his 2 pieces of luggage checked, and then it was time for those very last hugs. You might be able to tell that I was trying to smile through all of the tears and emotion. Matt was excited to finally be on his way though.

We watched him at security until he was completely through and we could no longer see him. And then I was taking deep breaths and trying not to totally break down right there in the airport. 

It's such a crazy mix of emotions because I knew he was doing exactly what he was supposed to. We'd spent the last 19. 3 year raising him to do this! So I was so intensely proud of him, but man are we going to miss him! I can't imagine sending him off 20 years ago when we'd only get to talk to him twice a year and would have to wait for letters through the mail! We'll get to see his face on video calls every week! I don't think he'll need that, but I'm grateful for it!!

So we came back home and got some sleep.

And I checked my phone all day to see updates on his flights. 

His 2nd flight was a little delayed. He did have another elder from our stake on both flights with him, and then they met up with a sister in St. Paul. So at least he wasn't alone!

The flight status said they'd landed around 3:30 our time, so we just had to hope and pray that everything went well with both flights and with customs and all of that. 

Finally around 8:30 that night, I got this short but sweet email update from him:

And then I could sleep soundly that night. 

Last Day at Home

Monday, August 7th was Elder Montgomery's final day at home. He only had to be in his online classes for part of the day, so his cousin James came to hang out. 

They played some games with the other kids. 

He requested chicken-fried chicken for his final meal. 

Then we all went to Scoops on Main to get ice cream for FHE. 

After that, we played a round of Telestrations for our FHE activity. 

Matt did our bedtime scripture read-aloud. 

Then it was hugs all-around because he would be gone to the airport and headed out on his first flight before they woke up in the morning!

Group hugs!

Last picture of all my babes together for over 3 years, since Eric will head out on his mission before Matt gets back!

Individual hugs!

Then it was time to finally get his bags packed!

We had to leave for the airport at 2am, so Michael and I just stayed up with him and helped him get ready.