FECHITAAAA!!! (Week 99)

Monday, June 23, 2025   5:28pm

Hi yall, how's it going? 

Alright, this week, it was honestly really good even though we didn't find a lot of people, because a ton of our progressing friends have made a ton of good progress.

For example, Tamara and Horacio, the couple we found a couple weeks ago accepted a baptismal date! We had an awesome lesson with them where we went over the questions in the baptismal interview, and both of them are very ready to be baptized on the 29th, this Sunday!! We're really happy for them and super grateful to have helped them make this decision in their lives. My experience with them has honestly showed a lot of the value of enduring to the end, that even though I have quite a long time in the mission and also a very long time without baptisms, the Lord is still blessing me for the efforts I am making. He is amazing, isn't He? 

We also set another baptismal date with Noah, the chic we got as a reference from some hermanas! Noah is so cool, she's already read a lot of the LdM and understands the story really well. She's also started praying every day and is loving the peace she is feeling from the Spirit. We've invited her to be baptised the 6th of July, which will probably also be my last day in San Martin, wild to think about but I am more than happy if she is my last baptism. 

The ward has helped us out a ton with these wonderful individuals and I couldn't thank them enough. The amount of growth I've seen here in the last few months is astonishing, not only in a numerical sense but in a spiritual sense too, so many of the members here have been sharing some amazing testimonies in Sacrament meeting, in our lunches, in our lessons with our friends, and dang, it's very satisfying to see. 

A couple of members in the ward got married this week!! We helped out with a few preparations for their reception Friday evening and had quite a fun time chatting with all the members and their friends! The power also went out about halfway through the thing, but didn't matter much, the emergency lights were on in the church and a member had a Bluetooth speaker and everything, so the show went on! Really happy for the couple, one of them was a recent convert and she's also progressed a ton, hopefully they can make it to the temple this year too! 

This Sunday, one of the speakers for Sacrament meeting didn't show up, so the bishop asked one of us to give a talk instead, and as I had just finished Jesus the Christ the night before (go read it), I offered to speak. It was quite honestly a blessing in disguise, preparing that talk in about ten minutes really helped me realize what is most important to me about my Savior and also just how much my testimony of Him and His sacrifice and love has grown. Out of everything I've done in the mission I am honestly the most appreciative of this growth that I've had, and while I still lack a lot, I know that this relationship I have with Him now will help me receive exactly what I need. 

Welp, I'm getting pretty close to the end now so today was spent doing some last minute shopping for some gifts and souvenirs and such. I've got too many siblings to keep happy I guess. It was rainy all day though and now I'm pretty tired, so I'm gonna check out and hit the sack. Hope yall have a great week though! I'm praying for yall always! Much love,

-Elder Montgomery 

This is Noah!!

Helping out with a wedding

Brillante

🤩

Did some movie impressions, this is Shrek

Cars

Lion King

Beauty and the Beast

Frozen

Elder Robertsito🥰🍦

 

Last Word *With President* (Week 98)

Monday, June 16, 2025   9:21pm 

Hey everyone, buenas noches/tardes wherever you might be in the world.

This week was an interesting one, full of a lot of probably last words with a lot of people because...

Had my last interview with President Antuña! Well, kinda, he'll be doing a temple recommend interview with me the day before I leave, but as with the normal interviews, it was my last. It was chill, we mostly talked about what my plans are for after the mission, making sure I'm not going to go inactive once I'm home. I'm not, don't worry. So yeah, quite the abnormal interview, but makes sense lol. 

Also had my last Zone Conference, and that was a bit more of a gut punch in my feelings side, mostly because someone had the bright idea to put all us old missionaries in the middle of a circle and sing 'God Be With You Til We Meet Again.' Ouch, this already hurts enough yall. It was a great conference though, learned a lot about prayer and about the Holy Spirit, how well connected they are as well as how to make my prayers a lot more meaningful. There's also a really good talk about that by Elder Bednar called Pray Always from the October '08 conference btw. Had to say some more or less final goodbyes to some very dear friends of mine, take quite a few pictures, eat some good empanadas, the whole lot. Gonna miss them conferences.

Well! Outside of the day of my reckoning encroaching ever closer, San Martin has been going really well!

We got a reference from the missionaries and a member from a pueblo called Punta Alta (visited while I was in Monte lol) for a chic named Noah, who had visited a friend there and went to church with him and enjoyed it a lot. We met with her during the week and gave her a tour of the church with the bishop of the ward and she loved it a lot, but especially the baptismal font. A very good sign, that. But yeah, had a great lesson about the Restoration, invited her to church, and she came! Heck freakin yeah! We'll be meeting with her again tomorrow to talk a little about baptism and the gospel of Christ, hopefully put a baptismal date, who knows. 

Also visited with the husband of the Aguirre family that we've been helping reactivate. Just that day the members were going on a temple trip, so he had some questions about what happens on the trip and in the temple, so we explained and he though it was pretty cool lol. We also asked if he had though about baptism recently, to which he said no, but also would like to take his time to think about. So not a straight up no, but definitely going to happen when I'm out of here. 

Our friend Tamara and her family also showed up this Sunday, we weren't able to get a lesson in with them this week though. We're currently planning when we might be able to pass by, because Tamara apparently has a lot of questions and we have a lot of answers. Should be a good week all in all.

It's also late. I'm tired. I played volleyball today and that was really fun. Also talked with my mom. Shout out to her  she's awesome. OH FREAK AND TO MY DAD, HAPPY FATHER'S DAY YALL!! I've got a lot of great father figures and examples of good men in my life, but my dad is my favorite. I've had a lot of moments recently where I mention some principle to someone and they asked how I learned that and I realize that my dad taught me about it. Thanks dad, wouldn't be a great missionary without you. And of course to the best Dad of all, my Heavenly Father. He's blessed me a lot during my time here  and I'm excited to continue my life as a disciple of His Son. 

Anyways love you guys a ton! I've got a few more emails left, just hang on for a little bit more and I promise I'll stop annoying you soon haha. Have a great night!

Pray your heart out

-Elder Montgomery 

My brother!!'

Love ya Smith

Gonna miss my California bro

Made it🫡

VIVA CHILE🇨🇱

📕

In front of a sushi restaurant

お父さん、いつ日本に行くの

Best alfajores in the world they say. They were right

Alfajor of Miracles (Weeks 96 & 97)

Monday, June 9, 2025

How do you get Elder Montgomery to send his weekly early? Make him miss the week before.

Yeah sorry about that yall, ran out of mobile data and I couldn't sent anything last Lunes, so today is a double feature of the last two weeks. Hooray.

Well then, these last few weeks were pretty cool, found a few people that seem nice, had some lessons with inactive members, ate some good lunches, shared some good lessons. Pretty normal for San Martin jaja. But there were some highlighs:

A few weeks ago we found a lady named Tamara because my comp got hungry. Yup, you heard me, Elder Morán wanted a snack, so we stopped by a kiosk to grab something. We walk in, and almost immediately a lady gets curious and starts asking us who we are and where we're from and stuff. After explaining that we're missionaries, she goes 'Oh cool! I've been looking for a church that starts in the morning that's closer to my house, do you guys know one?' More like THE one, am I right? 

Basically the church was exactly what she was looking for from a schedule standpoint, so on Saturday we explained the Restoration to her and her husband and on Sunday they and two of their daughters showed up to church. Heck freakin yeah. All the members were really excited and helpful too, and it being fast Sunday, a ton of people got up and bore testimony about their baptisms. Not planned at all, but very welcome. 

They were really busy this whole last week so we couldn't have a lesson, but we did pass by to give them the BoM/D&C/PoGP triple combo which they appreciated, enough to show up to church again yesterday. Yup, two weeks in a row yall, I couldn't be happier. The ward was also having the baptism of an eight year old named Avril and they were able to stay for it and enjoyed it a lot! I'm really excited for this family, they're making a lot of amazing progress and we're connecting really well with them, hopefully we can get a date set before I leave then :p

We talked with an inactive member named Lucas who has been in active for a really long time, like since he was a kid, and has passed through a few churches since falling away. He doesn't quite remember the doctrine of the church, but is more than willing to learn and talk with us about it, so we had a great lesson about the Plan of Salvation, explaining the differences in beliefs between our church and others. While he's still kind of investigating a lot of churches, he's really nice and understands that we're there to be his friends and help him out, so we chillin with Lucas for now. 

Had a lesson with the Aguirre family, a family that's been inactive for a hot minute but has come to church the last few weeks. We went over the Restoration and they seemed to remember it well! It's been cool meeting with them though, Elder Morán and I have both noticed the difference in their attitudes and countenances since they started coming back to church and I just love it so much. This work is so good yall. 

Also got to have a lesson with an inactive hermana (bit of a theme here) named Noelia, her nine year old daughter, Paz, and the hermana's boyfriend and his son. It was a bomb lesson, Paz remembers a ton from the missionaries that had passed by before and is basically ready to get baptized, she just needs to decide a date! The coolest part about the lesson though was the boyfriend, Matias, who said at first that he didn't understand much, but wanted his son, Loán, to listen, but ended up saying that he would want to be baptized at some point by the end of the lesson. Santos Cangrejos bro, que freakin milagro. We're gonna be following up with them this Wednesday to see if they've thought of a day. 

Talked with our friend Guillermo as well, and while we didn't have a ton of time, he told us he's been reading the LdM we gave him and has been liking it a lot! He tends to not respond all that much to our texts during the week, which always makes me nervous that someone has lost interest, but Guillermo has been progressing a ton, even from the small interactions we've been having with him. 

Pretty much it I think for the last few weeks. Oh yeah, we also had a cooking competition last Monday with the Riquelme family, I got second place with Barbecue Chicken Mac n Cheese, and Elder Morán won with Arroz de Frijoles con Coco, which might be one of my favorite foods now.

 We should have Zone Conference this Friday, so that should be awesome, it'll be my last one though, so kinda bittersweet. Can't believe we're already so close to the end. It's fine, we're fine, I'm fine T_T

Hope yall have a great week. Keep studying your scriptures. Oh yeah and also fun fact, the last teaching Christ gave to His apostles was to love one another as He had loved them. Pretty important, that love, isn't it? 

Speaking of which, love yall, cya next time!

Memento Mori

-Elder Montgomery 

Hermano Scollo!!

Un poquito se servicio viste

Weow big cliff in Punta Mogotes

Cleanin out the font

Nobody freak out, it's the ward's baptism (es del barrio)

Together even in Duolingo💪🏿

I freakin love naval ports

Screenagers

Que facha

Con los Elderes de Puerto

It's not Christ, it's San Salvador, patron of fishermen

Lovingly called 'Black Jesus' by the Elders (don't ask I don't know)

Mmm hamburguesa con anana