Elder Matthew Montgomery : You Know, Temples Are Pretty Cool (Week 13)

Monday, October 30, 2023 12:25pm

*sits down, cracks knuckles, tries to think of a clever way to start the email*

Nope, I got nothing.

Hi yall, how you been?

This week was pretty great! We taught a lot, ate a lot, and, as always, walked a lot. Some big events were the confirmation of Raquel yesterday, the moving of the other companionship into a different pension in the city, and the learning of how to make bread. So yeah, pretty cool stuff.

So first off, we baptized Raquel a couple Saturdays ago, but we couldn't get her confirmed that Sunday because of Stake Conference, so it happened yesterday, but still, she is now a fully fledged member of the Church. Yayyyy.

The other companionship moved to another part of town, so now Elder Bain and I have a pretty big pension to ourselves, which gives us a lot more flexibility with how and when and what we eat. It's been awesome, we've made some great food like Mac and Cheese, Brazilian Hot Dogs, Pan Relleno, and wow, it's been delicious.

Speaking of Pan Relleno, an Hermana in the ward taught us how to make it, it's basically a pizza wrap. Flipping amazing, but the dough itself can be used to make basically anything, so yeah, we probably have some good food to come.

We've had some pretty awesome lessons recently, specifically with a couple who aren't married but live together. We told them about the temple and about sealings, and they were about ready to be baptized right there. Gotta get them married first tho.

Um yeah, idk if yall know this, but General Pico is a really chill area where basically nothing happens, so apologies if I don't have any exciting stories yet. The craziest thing that happened this week was this guy who asked us a bunch of uncomfortable questions about the law of chastity and then said that he did whatever makes him feel good. And then said he wanted us to come back. So that's fun. Maybe at some point, I'll have an area where I get knives pulled on me. That might be more welcome.

Alrighty, I know I forgot it last week, but I do have a conference talk for today. It's called 'Beware the Evil Behind the Smiling Eyes' by Elder Neil L. Andersen in April 2005. To begin, he tells an awesome story about his friend who worked for the FBI where basically, he was doing a drug bust and let his guard down around a suspect who looked harmless because he was smiling. Right as he was about to turn his attention to someone else, the Spirit told him to "Beware the Evil Behind the Smiling Eyes." The FBI agent looked at the suspect again and realized he had his hand on a gun in his pocket. He would have died if he hadn't listened to the Spirit. We have a lot of similar things in our world today, and many things that seem harmless can severely harm us, both physically and spiritually. I've realized that a lot out here, as there can be people who are interested in talking to you, but don't care about learning the gospel, and then waste your time or try to make you question your mission, morals, or the gospel itself. We have to be aware of these kinds of people or things in our lives, and the only way we can do that is live worthily of the Spirit. I would just invite you all this week to take a look at some of your interests, activities, friends, whatever, and evaluate with the help of the Spirit if they are things of God.

Well um yeah, that's pretty much it this week, hope yalls weeks go well, Go with God, make Him proud!!

Elder Montgomery

Pictures

1: Pan Relleno