The Record (Week 39)

Monday, April 29, 2024   3:51pm

How's it hanging yall! We're still going strong down here in Pehua, working hard, walking a lot, having fun too! 

First off, after last week where we dropped pretty much every new person we found within a day, we were able to find some pretty cool news who seem like they have a lot of potential this time around! We were able to place a good amount of LdMs  we actually have none left in the house now lol. Unfortunately none of them came to church yesterday, but waddayagonnado. Just hope we'll be able to have another lesson with them all this week. And that they read the LdMs. 

We were finally able to get some friends in church again. This time it was part of the family we're teaching, specifically the dad, Juan, and their 9 and 11 year olds, Dylan and Santino. We've got some really high hopes that we can get Dylan and Santino baptized, especially now that they've came to church and LOVED IT as well. We asked the Hermana that directs primary how they were and she said that they're super open to learn and were very well behaved, which made me so happy to hear. 

Speaking of church, and like the title of this email says, we made a record last Sunday! Now, for some context, the Pehuajó branch hasn't had more than 23 people in the church since 2018, and yesterday we were able to get 24! Heck freakin yeah we're breaking records here! It was amazing to, because there were a few members who couldn't come for whatever reasons that should be there next week too, so now 26 or 28 is looking very achievable! What can I say, the Lord's work never stops. 

Also speaking of the title, we had a pretty cool discussion about the Book of Mormon in class yesterday. What I really loved about it was a thought that came to my mind while we were talking about Words of Mormon and how King Benjamin received the records. Basically, my thought was that the majority of the Book of Mormon was handed down from someone who was 'born of goodly parents' who then gave the record to his son, who in turn was 'taught in the ways of his father' and so on and so on. I just really love the thought that it was because of the amazing example that Lehi gave that spawned multiple civilizations of people, really reminds me that as a missionary, I need to be showing the best example I can to the friends that I'm teaching (or anyone else that sees the good example of a missionary) so that they can then go on and bless their own families and descendants. Hooray for us that we have a perfect example in Christ to follow as well lol. 

Well anyways, that was pretty much the week, nothing else too crazy happening yet, we'll see though with Zone Conference this week haha. 

Love you all very much! Have a blessed week! 

Elder Montgomery 

Another Wet Pday (Week 38)

Monday, April 22, 2024   5:52pm 

Welp, here we are again, another week gone, and another pday in the rain. At least it's not as bad this week lol. 

Welp, I will be straight up, not a lot happened this week. We've been going out and working, finding news, and everything, but there's not a ton of results at the moment. Sounds discouraging, but honestly, it happens, especially with the mission. Just means we've got to push a bit harder this week. 

One opportunity we did have this week was being able to share the First Vision a lot with a bunch of new people, which is always really cool. Every time that we're able to talk and bear testimony of something, I can feel the Spirit testifying to me of the truthfulness of the things. 

Because we shared the First Vision so much this week, I went ahead and once again read over Joseph Smith History, and it really struck me this time how very aware of Joseph's situation the enemy was. He tried to stop Joseph from doing the things he needed to because he knew that Joseph's actions would distrust his plan. With the bit of a discouraging week we had, it helped a lot to see Joseph's example of faith in God, calling out for Him even when Jospeh felt at his lowest in that moment. That was a lot of what was focused on in General Conference, was the power of prayer and our relationship with Heavenly Father, and it's something that I want to be better with, or at least more mindful about; remembering my divine potential and asking my Father in Heaven for the help and guidance I need to further His work. 

So yeah, I guess I'd also like to invite you all to do the same this week; to see how you can strengthen your relationship with Heavenly Father and to be more mindful and intentional in your prayers. (Motions of a Hidden Fire by Jeffrey R. Holland and Faithful to the End by Andrea Muñoz Spannaus from this last conference are great talks to go over in regards to those things) 

Well um yeah, still loving the mission! Apparently I got my mission call about a year ago, incredible how quickly time has already gone by! Can't wait for what the future holds, it's gonna be awesome! 

Muchos exitos capos!! Les quiero mucho!!

Elder Montgomery 

We made a cake because why not

Ooo barbecue chicken empanadas 

Loaded fries

April Showers...(Week 37)

Monday, April 15, 2024  5:31pm

...bring May ice storms down here on the other side of the Earth. Wild, how the Earth really do be round like that. 

Hello everyone, yeah, it's me again, lucky you. If yall couldn't tell, it has been raining something awful for the last three days, and if yall know me, you know I hate being wet, but still went out and worked this week, so there's my testimony about the work right there. Haha, I'm mostly kidding, and this week was pretty cool igual. 

So, this last week we've started to fill the primary. We recently have been finding a lot of families with younger kids, usually over the age of eight as well, and the families are super into it. 

One family we found was a guy named Luis, his pareja, Lucrecia, and their daughter, Luisilla. Luis is so awesome, the first time we ran into him, we actually didn't know he existed and we were looking for Lucrecia (who we still havent met tbh). He lives in like the backyard of another house, so normally we wouldn't have looked back there for someone, but luckily he was out front talking with a friend. We were able to ask if Lucrecia was there, and he was like, 'no, but if you guys want to talk with me, I'd be happy to get to know you!' So we go in, have a great lesson about basically everything, give him a Book of Mormon, we come back a couple day later, and he tells us that the first time we talked, he felt a peace like he'd never felt before, so we were totally like 'Heck yeah, that's the Holy Ghost!' He's doing really well, we also got to talk to Luisilla about Jesus for a little bit, which was fun. He's got a busy schedule, so hopefully we can find some way to get them into church. 

Another family we've been working with, the parents are named Juan and Daniela, were able to make it to church a couple weeks ago, and they loved it, they told us they'd want to go every Sunday, it's just difficult to remember to because it's not routine yet, which is very fair. They're doing really well though, all their kids actually sit and participate in the lessons, so kudos to them. 

Unfortunately this last Sunday, it was raining pretty hard, and when the majority of people get to church on motorcycle.....needless to say it was not a great week for asistencias. But the grind goes on lol. 

There wasn't too much else this week, so I'll go ahead and leave it here, but before I do, just wanted to shout out one of my favorite talks from Conference, which is Pillars and Rays, by Alexander Dushkhu. Great talk, absolutely loved it. Also, the new temple announced for Argentina is not in my mission, but it isn't too far away from Pehuajó, so that's pretty legit. 

Anyways, love you all, hope yall have a great, non rainy week!

Elder Montgomery

Another one' -DJ Khaled

It's fall, but some plants haven't lost their flowers

Mmmm empanadas

BAUTISMO DE LUCIA!!

A lovely gnocchi with a 'biscuits and gravy' type sauce 

Rainin

We finally passed by the lake in Pehua

It's very pretty 

Mmm homemade pizza, just like mama used to make 

Roast beef tacos, que rico che

Another Great Baptism!! ft. General Conference (Week 36)

Monday, April 7, 2024    6:04pm

Well hello once again everyone, happy Monday! Hope yalls weeks have gone well.

Alright, first off, transfers happened last week and, surprise surprise, I've stayed in Pehuajó with Elder Norton! It's quite a bit of time that I have in this zone now, but I don't mind at all, especially because it meant I got to be here for Lucia's baptism! 

And on that note, Lucia's baptism!! It was so awesome, we were able to have it yesterday in-between General Conference sessions, and goodness, the Spirit everyone was feeling that day was incredible! I was also able to give a message about the Gift of the Holy Ghost before her confirmation, and Elder Norton confirmed her as well. Lucia's going to be an awesome member, she already understands so much about the gospel and is so psyched to be able to someday do work for her family in the temple, I'm so happy and impressed with her progress. 

General Conference happened as well! It's interesting going back to back from Easter to Conference, basically going from talking all about Jesus to talking all about our prophets, it's a big testimony builder being able to focus on one thing the whole week. Conference was also super awesome, and I particularly liked the Saturday eveningsession. I'm gonna need the talks to come out on Gospel Library so I can go over them all again though, I can hardly remember the names of anyone who spoke haha. 

Well, other than that, the week wasn't too crazy. We've been working a lot with inactive members and incomplete families, and we're honestly starting to see a lot of progress, which is nice. It does make me a little sad sometimes to see people who honestly have a great testimony of parts of the church have a block from returning because of something small they can't let go of. Or they're just lazy, that also makes me sad to see. Just reminds me though, can't ever stop doing the simple, primary stuff, i.e. pray, read scriptures, go to church. If we're not moving forward, we're going backwards, I think someone cool said that I just don't know who. 

Anyways, love you all, I'm glad every day to be out here serving the Lord. I hope you all can look for your own ways to serve Him throughout your week as well! 

Go forth with faith!

Elder Montgomery 

(We actually didn’t get to talk to him today because we were at the zoo all day. But Eric held up a picture of Matt on our phone when we took our traditional zoo pic with all of the kids sitting on a stone hippo, so he was with us in heart ❤️)

And just a couple pics added to his google account this week…

Gnocchis, gnocchis everywhere

We made a freakton of gnocchis

Definitely one of the companionships of all time

Ancestors

Last Friday, I sent Matt this message because my heart was so full and I just had to tell him about what I had just heard on the Follow Him podcast…

Then when we talked to him this week, he mentioned that it was super interesting that I sent him a message about that because for the last few weeks he has been really feeling his heart turn towards our ancestors and studying our family tree a whole bunch. 

He said he had especially felt a connection to my great grandmother, Della Sophia Godfrey, and Michael’s great grandfather, Joseph Stratton Willis. And he started making a list of family names he might like to use as middle names for his future children. 

Pretty cool that we were both feeling that connection to our ancestors!
 

Spread the Good Word (Week 35)

Monday, April 1, 2024   5:40pm 

Hello everyone, me again, back with another week of mission work under my belt. 

Welp, happy Easter, Pascua, or whatever you may call it! Here in Pehuajó, we had a great Semana Santa full of miracles, the first of which being a nearly record breaking overall attendance for sacrament meeting, and secondly, an actually record breaking attendance of amigos for me! So it turns out hard work does pay off sometimes! 

Our week was also really cool, we were able to have a lot of lessons with quite a few of the families we've been teaching, all of them very focused of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice and love for us. I'll tell you, the Spirit really gets to you after bearing your testimony so much during the week! I really do love having our lessons though, teaching is easily my favorite part of the mission thus far, and my comp, Elder Norton, has taught me a lot about how I can teach better. Very honored to be his companion in these last few months he has left. 

One lesson we had stood out in particular to me, one with a mom named Vanesa and her daughter Milagros. Vanesa really loves God and has a lot of faith, but she hasn't found a church she likes. Vanesa herself has been baptized in some other church that I can't remember, but she didn't have her daughter baptized because she wanted it to be her choice, which is pretty dope in my opinion. We had a really good lesson about baptism with them and it left me thinking about how blessed we are to have the actual authority to not only baptize, but perform all works of God here on the Earth. The amount of stability and hope that the church and it's authority brings to our lives is incredible, and it's such a cool experience to help people find that out for themselves. 

I'm honestly a little short on time, so I'll end with this: I know Jesus Christ lives. I've reflected and read a ton about the life, death, and resurrection of Christ this week, and I know, with a surety and as a representative of Him, that He has suffered for our sins and overcome death, all so that we could live in peace and joy forever. He is the perfect example of love, patience, effort, and faith, and I know that as each of us align our lives with His, we will be able to help others do so as well. 

I LOVE YOU ALL, HAPPY EASTER!!! 

Elder Montgomery

(No new pics this week, and Michael & I were out test driving used cars all day because we needed to replace our old minivan, Lil Blue, so we didn’t get to talk to Matt until later that night. We actually had just started FHE when he called, so he taught our lesson on General Conference coming up this weekend and bore such a beautiful testimony. It’s amazing that he can still be so involved in our lives while he’s on his mission!)