Rain on the Change Parade (Week 65)

Monday, October 28, 2024    8:35pm

Hey yall, how's it hanging? Yup, another week down, means that we're at about 15 months now. Wild, isn't it? 

Anyways, this week was a bit wet. It rained a little Sunday morning before we left for church, but stopped right as we were leaving the house, luckily. Unfortunately it wasn't enough rain to cool everything down, so the next couple days were quite hot, but you know, just gotta make sure you stay hydrated on days like that and the work will go fine. 

On Wednesday, however, we received probably the heaviest rainfall I've had in a while. It wasn't too bad in the morning, so we went out and worked a bit and had lunch with a member, but, unlike Sunday, as we left, the heavens began to fall. On that walk home, we got soaked to the bone, it even penetrated my waterproof boots. The streets ended up flooding pretty bad, so we decided to stay inside and just send a bunch of messages that afternoon. 

Turns out that sending a lot of messages to people can work out sometimes, because during that time we spent inside, we found a lady who is going through some pretty tough times and wants to get her and her three kids closer to God. We'll be trying to work with them this week and seeing where us and the members can help them out. 

This week we also got news about transfers!! Yaaay! And it turns out, I'll be staying in Azul! Yaaay! Elder Senador will be leaving me though, and I'll be getting a newer missionary named Elder Roundy. I'm pretty sure he's from the States, but we'll see what's up here in a few days. Azul will also be receiving another companionship of Elders, they're really trying to make this place a ward by the end of the year, and I'm sure with the combined efforts of so many Elders, we'll be able to get it done. I'll still be district leader as well, so it's my responsibility they're all happy, health, safe, and, most importantly, working. It'll be quite a bit of work, but with a bit of enthusiasm, it'll be alright. 

Well! That's pretty much my week. Hopefully I have a bit more to say next email with all the changes. But yeah, I love yall, hope your weeks go well! Make sure to share a piece of the sunshine in your soul with everyone you meet! 

Bye for now!

Elder Montgomery

My photos, I've meant to put this here again for a while but just forgot :p

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

Give and Receive, Also Conference (Weeks 63 & 64)

Monday, October 21, 2024    6:01pm

Hi there everyone, yes, I am in fact still alive, apologies for not getting the weekly out last Monday, it was a bit of a wild day haha. 

Well, the last couple weeks have been alright, everything is starting to warm up a bit more, you can definitely tell we're heading towards summer. It has an interesting effect on the work, it means there's a lot more people outside enjoying the nicer weather, but puts a damper on us because we have to walk around in pants, shirt, and tie. Doesn't mean the work stops though! 

Nothing too wild the 63rd week or whatever you'd like to call it, what I really enjoyed about the week was going over all the General Conference talks in English, my favorite thus far being God's Favorite, given by Elder Karl D. Hurst. The whole talk was basically about how we can find our personal worth in Christ, and how through that worth and knowledge of our heritage, we can more easily overcome the trials of this world and at the same time appreciate joyful moments much more deeply. It's a lovely message and definitely something I've been trying to transmit in our lessons and contacts. 

Last Pday I didn't have a lot of time because we had our Zone Pday, where all the missionaries in the Zone get together to hang out, do activities, what have you. A lot of the missionaries here are fresh out of the MTC, so it was a lot of fun getting to know them and sharing my own mission experiences with them as well. They're a great group and I'm sure they'll take great care of the mission once all us old guys are out of here haha. Anyways, we were all in a beautiful park for the Pday, so Elder Senador and I took advantage of the moment to take some fun photos of everything there. It had been a while since I'd seen a park so nice, it was quite refreshing! 

The next day, we had our Zone Conference, which was great, President Antuña and the APs spoke a lot about different ways we can find people in the mission, especially working through the members. What he has invited us to do is help the members pick one of the many videos from the Gospel Library to share with their friends and be able to invite them to a lesson or church through those means. We're still working with a few families in that regard, but a lot of companionships are already seeing the fruits of that labor! 

I also had the chance to have an interview with President and we talked a lot about what he can do to help some of our friend progress towards baptismal dates, which was a bit new to me but still appreciated. I also mentioned to him that my brother (Hi Eric/Elder Montgomery, love you!) was leaving that same day for the MTC and was going to be serving in the Salt Lake City West mission, and to my surprise, he let me know that a member who lives in the Bahía mission was called to that same SLCW mission just the week before! How exciting! The member from here will be leaving morr towards January, so there's a chance I'll be able to meet him before he leaves, but we'll see!

On that note, this week is the last one of the transfer, so we should be receiving the information of where we'll be going sometime this weekend. Everything's pretty up in the air about what could happen, but whatever does, I'm know the Lord wants me wherever I'll be for a reason, and I'll be sure to find it! 

Well! That's just about been the last couple weeks for me, nothing too crazy, as always, but also as always, I'm so glad to be able to serve here in Argentina! I know that every day I'm here, I grow a lot as a person and learn even more, and I'm so happy to be living this mission life! Hope yall know I love and appreciate all of you, you all are amazing and so so so beloved! 

Stay safe and stay cool, yall

Élder Montgomery (the elder) 

No podemos simplimente esperar

Elder Blalock was taking random photos with the chastity pamphlet, so I joined in

Divisions with Elder Blalock

(Week 63)

It was zone conference this week and they had a zone pday, and we didn’t get an email from Matt. But he did upload lots of pictures! And we did get to talk to him too. 

Zone Pday, Elder Senador and I decided to take some photos. He's a pretty good photographer

🗿

🎅🏾

Zona Olavarria💪

It's so foggy...

Zone Conference, Olavarria

El gran AP Elder Gervic

 

Bury the Weapons (Week 62)

Monday,  October 7, 2024   8:22pm

Hey yall, what's up, yet another week has gone by in the mission of Elder Montgomery, but this time conference happened, which was AWESOME. 

Anyways, first off, we got some not very great news about our baptismal dates this week, firstly being that Raul is going to have to wait even longer for all the legal divorce stuff to sort out, so that baptism is probably not happening until almost December, and also, Mariela and Cristian told us they didn't feel comfortable in the church, so they didn't want to talk to or see us anymore. I don't know what happened with them, I didn't think we did anything wrong, but I don't feel too bad, I'm sure in some moment they'll remember how great the church actually is and come back. For now, we just have to search for the next people we can get in the water!

This was a really odd week, work wise, we had quite a few lessons, but nobody that seemed too interested in learning more. There's a lot of people we invited to watch conference that we'll go back and visit this week, but aside from that, everything was very slow. I did have the opportunity to talk with a guy a lot about the definition of faith, and how faith is something we need to loon for and choose to have, but he wasn't really having it and was quoting a lot of modern popes and stuff, so I just invited him to read certain verses the Bible and we'd come back to see what he thinks. 

That also relates a lot to what stood out to me in General Conference this time, especially with the talk Elder Oaks gave. Everything I was hearing was about how we need to 'bury our weapons of war' and try to keep contention out of our hearts, minds, and interactions with other people. As a person who really enjoys debating and proving my points, it's definitely something I need to focus on better, like maybe if instead of proving how my view of faith is correct and not having a very productive discussion, I should try to focus more on the love we can find for Christ and others through our faith. It's not new news exactly, but definitely something we need to focus on more day to day. 

All in all, it was an awesome conference, and the fact I understood everything this time while listening in Spanish is nothing short of miraculous, the gift of tongues is real, yall. 

Anyways, it's once again pretty late, so I'll leave here, hope everyone has a great week, be sure to read over all the talks you might have missed or want to study further, the modern revelation we can receive through our prophets is incredible! 

Love you all!

Elder Montgomery

Divisions with Elder DeKorver

Once again, spring is showing it's beautiful colors

Very Coraline, Very Corpse Bride

I gotta get in there soon

Conferencia!!!

President Holland is looking good!!

BRAD WILCOX!!!! I know him!!