A New Pehuajomie?!?! (Week 30)

Monday, February 26, 2024   8:24pm

Howdy there folks, what a week it's been! I'll just hop right into it because it's LATE! 

So, transfers just happened, and I lost my comp, Elder Haddock, to the great city of Mar Del Plata, may he work hard and be successful. But that means I have a new comp here in Pehua, and he is *...drum roll...* Elder Norton!! Who was in the other Pico area when I was there! It's pretty dope actually, getting to know him better and see how he works. He's only got four months left in the mission, so I have a lot to learn from him. 

But yeah, the work is going really great right now, it's incredible to see! Just this week, we were able to put two baptismal dates with some friends and have a lot of lessons with members! That's also something we're going to focus on a lot this month, those lessons with members, because a lot of the families here are incomplete, where one family member is baptized but a lot of them aren't. It's also helped me see the love that families have for eachother and has made me remember how grateful I am for my own family. Wouldn't be out here without them! 

Well, it's late, so I'll end here I suppose! I'll have to regale you all with my other escapades next week, but until then, I love you all, stay safe and stay faithful!!

~Elder Montgomery~

Lovely cake to celebrate Marcelo's baptism

Little gift from Elder Haddock 

Cool graffiti in Santa Rosa 

I love all the landscapes in Argentina

New comp in Pehua?!?!

The Branch Grows Stronger (Week 29)

Monday, February 19, 2024   4:23pm

Howdy partners, what a wonderful Pday it is! Always glad for the opportunity to talk to all my favorite people! Hope yalls week went well, mine went GREAT thank you for asking. 

For starters, our main man Marcelo is officially a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! Yuhhh we're very proud of him. His conversion was a very quick one, but one of the strongest I've seen out here. His baptism was awesome, Elder Haddock was able to baptize him, which went perfectly, and then I was able to confirm him. Yeah, thats right, I literally made him a member of the church. Well, through the authority of the priesthood, but still. It was such an awesome experience for everyone, Marcelo in particular told me he felt calmer than he ever had before. I'm excited to see where he goes from here, I'm sure he's going to do a lot of good for the branch here.

Outside of the baptism, there isn't a lot that's gone on work-wise, I'll be honest. Pehuajó remains to be a town with not a lot of people and even less who are interested, but you know that's fine. We have had some pretty good lessons with a couple of amigos and some members, which has been great. It all really just feels like setup for next transfer, which happens this week, might I add. Welp, whoevers still a Pehuajomie by the end of this week will have some good work to do, we'll see what happens!

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to do divisions in the nearby city of Trenque Lauquen, where u was able to teach a lot about the Restoration, which then lead me to want to read Joseph Smith History and then that made me want to read the Saints again, sooo here we are. I loved reading it last time, but it is hitting a little different now. There was something that stuck out to me while I was reading about the Saints moving to Missouri, how he had mentioned that there wasn't a lot of God-fearing people who lived in the Independence area and that made him a bit discouraged at first, but regardless, he knew the work of God had to move forward. I think I've felt a lot of that in Pehuajó, maybe not that people don't fear God (literally everyone is catholic) but that they don't want to learn more about Him. It can feel a little saddening at times, but that doesn't mean I should stop all my efforts to further the work here. There is still someone who needs our message in Pehua, we just need to find them. 

Well, that's honestly about it from me! Hope yall have a great week, stay strong and go with God! Love yall! 

Elder Montgomery~

Minhas fotos, se voce ainda nao aderiu (Thats right, I'm learning Portuguese):

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ipRj22Yfz1ijRUSm9

Happy Valentines or whatever lol

Argentine pizza moment

I FOUND REAL TORTILLAS!! POR FIN UNA QUESADILLA!!!

The finished font lol 

Los capos

Bautismo de Marcelo 

Celebratory baptism tacos

The Elegido (Week 28)

Monday, February 12, 2024   8:09pm

Well howdy there friends! Hope yalls week has gone well! 

I'll be honest, there wasn't a lot that happened this week, but we did have a lot of cool experiences with our amigo Marcelo, who has a baptismal date! I really do love talking about him, he's such an awesome dude, very 'elegido,' or 'elect' in English. He's had something awesome to tell or show us every time we pass by, and he's always so happy and excited to learn more about the gospel. 

Anyways, last time we passed by, we taught him about commandments, which went over really well and he actually brought up some awesome points about Lehi's Dream that I hadn't thought of before (details later), but after we were kind of finishing the lesson, asking if he had any questions and the like. He doesn't have any, but he does tell us that he used to have terrible dreams for the majority of his life, like dreams that felt like evil presences and such, and that he had had a hard time sleeping for as long as he can remember, but ever since the first time he'd met with the missionaries, he's slept fine every single night. He says that at first, he thought it was because he stopped drinking and smoking, but he said that he's noticed a presence of light and holiness in his life protecting him. 

It's always incredible to see how well Marcelo recognizes the Spirit like that. Every time we've taught a lesson, he's known the message to be true. We even taught him about tithing, which is usually where we can lose people, but Marcelo had no doubts and no reservations, he was ready right then and there to become a member. He's an incredible example of faith and trust for all of us, and I really honestly admire him for it. 

Anyways, the cool thought I had about Lehi's Dream. Marcelo has been reading in Come, Follow Me, and in the week about Lehi's Dream, it showed a painting of the vision. Marcelo pointed out that in the picture, the doesn't look very wide, or like it didn't have a lot of water. And I had this thought, that that's how Satan want us to see it, that sin isn't that bad, that there's nothing there, but unknown to us, the depths of it are immense. Luckily, the straight and narrow path is right next to the river, we can get out and get back on the path easily. It was just a really cool thought I had that didn't leave my head, so I wanted to share it I guess lol. 

Well, I suppose that's all this week really! I love yall a lot, hopefully I've got some cool stuff to talk about next week! 

Tchau!

Elder

New Hermanas asked us who we looked like and these were who we agreed on

He's Hades, I'm Zeus. I did these in like two minutes

Love how quick and easy pasta is. Also pear flavor is $$$

(We played with an AI photo generator while watching the Super Bowl last night and these were some of the ones it made of Matt.)

Commandments, Laws, Wisdoms (Week 27)

Monday, February 5, 2024    4:12pm

Holy Shenaiah it's already Pday again?! Sheesh yall, where does the time go? Lol I hope everyone's doing well! I personally am doing a lot better, it's started to cool down the last couple days after being consistently in the 100s the last couple weeks. Makes it a lot easier to do the work when you're not drowning in sweat! 

Anyways, the work goes on, whether it's hot or not, and the work this week was pretty awesome! First off, our amigo Marcelo, I think I've mentioned him a bit, was able to come to church yesterday, finally! We had been trying to get him to come for a while, but he hadn't been able to find the church building haha. He also told us that not only has he stopped drinking, he recently stopped smoking as well! He's making some awesome strides in his faith and preparing himself very well for his baptism, which he's super psyched for. He's such fun dude, it makes me so happy whenever we visit him. 

I was able to go on divisions with one of our Zone Leaders this week, and it was pretty awesome. They have a lot of progressing people in their area, which is more like the center of a bigger city, and it was interesting experience, just bouncing in between a lot of lessons while still contacting people outside and everything. He and I also talked a lot about what we could improve in at the moment, which lead to us talking a lot about optimism. I personally like to try my best to be optimistic in all moments, but it had become a little harder recently because of a culmination of a lot of things, mostly because of the heat lol. It did help me set my focus a lot better on how I can help my area and comp and everything, because I know I've been called here for a reason, I just have work hard and find it.

I was able to talk with an older lady a few days ago about literature and how we can find a lot of types and symbols of Christ throughout a lot of literature. And if any of you know me, you know I led that into a discussion of Shakespeare lol. She brought up an awesome point of how in MacBeth, after he does a lot of bad things, mentions that water can wash away his misdeeds, but it can never clear his soul, like how we can do our best to cover and hide our own sins but we can never fully clean ourselves without the Atonement. Very cool stuff, I was mostly glad I could figure out certain phrases and lines in Spanish without too much effort jaja. 

'Spose I should go over a talk now! One I read this week that I enjoyed a lot was 'Apostacy and Restoration' by President Dallin H. Oaks, April 1995. What I lived about this talk is how well President Oaks addresses some the differences between our church and other Christian denomination. He mainly focuses on the Trinity and our knowledge that they are three separate beings, each with a different role in the Plan of Salvation. We know this through many accounts, foremost among them being the Fist Vision. President Oaks does mention that God, even though we cannot mortally comprehend the full extent of His spirituality and presence, is not a God of confusion, He will not let us flail about in this life. At any time, anyone with a broken heart and a contrite spirit can ask Him and receive a response that applies to their needs. He loves us and will always help us when we turn our hearts, minds, and souls to Him. 

Alrighty, I suppose that's it from me for now! Love you all, have a great week!! 

Elder Montgomery

'I like turtles' -Pehuajó

Very blurry photo with Marcelo

Pineapple pizza to fight the Big Sad

Returning from intercambios on the chetto bus

Pday facturas babyyyy

~Cold enough to wear long-sleeves today~