Good News, Quite Literally (Week 19)

Monday, December 11, 2023    11:40am

Hello my people!! How yall doing? 

Welp, this week has been pretty awesome! Seen the hand of the Lord in the work a ton, got out of my comfort zone, and had a lot of fun! Lemme go ahead and get into it.

So, first off, I'd like to just shout out budgeting, meal planning, and cooking! This last transfer Elder Bain and I did a ton of that, and because of it, I still have about 35% of last month's payment, which is pretty legit and let's me live pretty comfortably now, maybe even splurge a bit?? Lol, it's a great skill that I'm very thankful my amazing mother taught me. And cooking as well, learned a lot from her by example I guess.

Elder Sykes has helped me impove my Castellano a ton! He knows a lot about grammar and Argentine slang, which we don't use a lot but it's helpful to understand when people use them. He's also read a lot of the same books as me and gets a lot of my dumb references, so yeah, he's pretty cool. 

Another thing Elder Sykes has done is pushed me to contact more people in the street! He helped me find a good opening to a street contact and how to go about inviting them to church or whatever we're trying to do that day. Street contacting has definitely been something difficult for me, but with the help of my comp and a lot of confidence in the Lord and the message, it's gotten a lot easier. 

Because of all the contacts we've been trying to do, we have been able to find a ton of new people and a lot of them seem like they're going to progress! Specifically, there's a family that Elder Bain and I had tried to contact a lot, we were never able to have a lesson with them, but somehow, the first time Elder Sykes and I pass by them, the mom comes out of the house super happy to see us, invites us in, and we teach them an amazing lesson! It's not only them either, so many points that I thought didn't have anyone all of a sudden have someone who's actually excited to talk to us! Again, it's definitely the Lord blessing us for our efforts. Super awesome.

Right now we are struggling with getting our amigos in sacrament meetings, but at least they do have a desire to go lol. A lot of them just have a lot of complications in the morning or literally do not get up because they're so deep asleep. Lazy Sunday vibes I guess. 

We did have a lesson that amazed me a little bit ago! It was with Agustin and Jennifer and we were originally just going to talk about fasting, (which we did) but Jennifer's younger brother, named Ivo, was there and he started asking us about the church, which was awesome, but what was even MORE awesome was that Agustin basically taught him the Restoration while we sat back and watched! We were able to explain and give a Book of Mormon to Ivo so hopefully he reads it! I was just very proud of Agustin for how well he explained the Restoration, I love those two very much. 

There wasn't too much else this week, so time for TotS!

This week's talk is He Has Risen With Healing In His Wings by Elder Patrick Kearon, our new apostle!

I love how he starts this tall, speaking about Ernest Shackleton and his expedition. Shackleton and his crew were put into a very difficult survival situation during this expedition and survived. Elder Kearon says that we may think that we couldn't live through a survival situation, but he tells us many of us have. Many members of the church have lived through abuse, violence, oppression, bullying, and many other difficulties placed on them by other people. In those situations, it's very easy to feel alone, like no one sees the situation and even if they could, they could never understand. But Elder Kearon says this is not true. Jesus Christ knows exactly what anyone has felt and knows the exact way to help them through these terrible situations. When we turn to Him, He will heal us. He helps us see our divine identity and helps us see that we are not defined by the things others have done to us. As a child of God, He has given us a way to leave this pain behind and move on, becoming better through the Atonement. This isn't just extended for victims of these actions, but for the truly repentant commiters of these actions as well. It is always possible to leave sin behind and come back to God and receive forgiveness in Him. 

I don't really have an invitation for you all today, but I do want you all to know that I love you very much and so does our older brother and Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that as we turn to Him, He can take away our pain, anguish, and sin and help us become new, better people, better siblings, parents, spouses and friends. Always remember that He's waiting for you to turn to Him, no matter your situation.

Love you all a ton, really. I'm so glad I have so many amazing people that care and have helped me become this missionary I am today.

Talk to you all next week, go forth in faith!!

Elder Montgomery

(Some pics from the album this week)

Rain with Elder Siques 

General Pico jajajaja (Pico=Beak en Español)

I've never listened to punk rock no sir I'm a missionary 

Dad Went To Get Milk (Week 18)

 Monday, December 4, 2023    4:24pm

Hey everyone, how's it going? Hope you've all felt blessed and thankful this week! 

So um, yeah, transfers happened. Unfortunately, my dear mission father has left me to be a zone leader in Necochea. Sad, I know, I will miss him, but whatever, the work of God stops for no man. I did receive a new companion though! His name's Elder Sykes, and he's great! He has an awesome drive to do the work and is AMAZING with the guitar! We're gonna work super hard this transfer and I'm excited for what comes next!

Elder Sykes and I did have a very cool experience yesterday. We had visited all the people we planned to that evening and a lot of them weren't there, so we had finished our schedule pretty early. We didn't want to go home just yet, so we stopped and said a prayer asking for guidance. We felt like we should just pick a direction and walk, we did so, and we were able to meet a few people on the street who were interested and wanted to meet with us again! It's just an awesome reminder that when we remember to ask God and put our trust in Him, He will provide for us! 

I feel like I bring it up a lot, but I keep seeing my Español improving every day. It seems like a new word I've never heard before comes up every week! I feel super blessed with the ability I have to understand and speak, and I know I still do fault a lot when it comes to being fully fluent, but I think i can truly say I'm bilingual at this point. The gift of tongues is very real, everyone, I like didn't study a lot of Spanish before this sooooo lol. 

We're still working, as usual, but not a lot has happened this week, so I'll move on to some TotS. 

This week's talk is The Aaronic Priesthood and the Sacrament by Elder Dallin H. Oaks. Elder Oaks begins the talk by telling us about the origins of the Aaronic Priesthood and its purpose in the gospel, describing it as a preparatory priesthood, one that unlocks the keys of the ministering of angels, repentance, and baptism. This lets us know its importance, as it gives us access to the first steps on our covenants paths. President Oaks also mentions the importance and sacredness of the Sacrament, mentioning how it was the last act the Savior performed before his Atonement. He also shows us scriptural evidence of the Sacrament's link to the Gift of the Holy Ghost, a tool that we can not live without in these latter days. With all this sacredness and solemnity surrounding this Priesthood, holders of it should act accordingly, Elder Oaks tells us. They should always be respectful of these ordinances and never do or be something that could distract from the Spirit of them. This caused me to reflect a lot, thinking about my own time as a youth in the Priesthood, thinking about things that maybe I should have stopped or started doing to make the sacrament and other ordinances more important to me, rather than just seeing them as an event that had to be done quickly and effectively. So today, I'd like to invite all of you to try to find a way you can elevate your experience with the Aaronic Priesthood. We partake of the sacrament every week, and it's a great time to reflect and think about what we can be doing to be more respectful of this great blessing and responsibility we are given. 

Well, I guess that's all I have for yall! This week went by really quickly and uneventfully, so I unfortunately don't have any pictures this time, but I'll make up for it next week! 

Hope you all have a great week, go forward with faith!!

Elder Montgomery

Scripture this week: D&C 1:2

(I did grab some photos from his Google drive)

With the family Coria 

Mis Compas 

Elder Bain and Elder Nieto's last night in Pico

Sunday is the best day

Welcome to Pico, Elder Sykes!

A sunset with nice boys

(Screenshot of Gracie talking to her Mattyboo today)

I'M MELTINNNNnnngggg (Week 17)

Monday, November 27, 2023    12:30pm

HO LEE SHENAIHA TWAIN PEOPLE, it has been HOT here in General Pico. Upwards of 110° this last weekend and lows of high 80s the entire week. Now take into account that we're wearing pros clothes and it gets a bit much. Like, I hate being cold and can take a lot of heat, and sheesh, I was sweating pretty good. Well, aside from that, I had a pretty awesome week! (Hope yall did as well♡) 

We did a lot of work with inactives members this past week, which has been pretty cool. Some of them left the church pretty soon after joining, so our lessons with them are basically the same as with our investigators, but the lessons with the longtime members are super awesome. They often give some pretty powerful testimony in line with our lesson, as well as actually understanding most the doctrine already. We did have a couple come to church again yesterday too, which felt really cool. Reactivating isn't something that gets us numbers, but you can really see how happy it makes people to be close to their Heavenly Father again. 

Recently we had been having some struggles finding people, which was weighing on us a little bit, so during our weekly planning, we decided to say a prayer specifically for the purpose of help and support with it, and wow yall, God really helps those who remember to ask for it. That day we found a guy who told us he was super happy to see youth like us going out and preaching and that he could tell there was something different about us and asked us to pass by! We still have yet to do that, but it really helped us have a better attitude about the work. 

After that planning, we also had a lot of amigos that we thought weren't progressing very well all of a sudden make awesome leaps of faith and have started taking the lessons really well, especially one of the friends we have on date. We asked her to read the introduction to the LdM, and she ended up reading all the way up to 1st Nephi, telling us that she felt like she couldn't put it down! I just feel so grateful for everything that happened, which was perfect I guess, seeing as thanksgiving was last week lol. 

This week I was able to weigh myself...apparently I've gained like fifteen pounds since getting put here. It's probably because all they eat out here is carbs, but we'll pretend that it's because of all the meat and that I've been hitting a lot of push ups. We do cook a lot of stuff for ourselves, and honestly, Elder Bain and I cook better than most of the people down here. Mostly because it seems like people don't believe in seasoning anything unless it's an asado. 

We do have transfers this week, which is a little bit scary. Elder Bain and I both have the same amount of time in Pico, so it feels pretty up in the air with what could happen. We both hope that we can stay here together another transfer, but if anyone does leave, I personally feel like it's gonna be me. Idk why. We'll see though, everything is according to God's will.

Welp, that's my week! Time for TotS

This week's talk is 'My Heart Pondereth Them Continually' by Brother Devin G. Durant, October 2015. Elder Bain was actually assigned to speak on this talk yesterday, and he did a great job. 

In this talk, Brother Durant gives us two invitations. The first is financially related; to try to save a certain amount of money every week, which is great advice, but it's the second invitation that I want to focus on, which is to 'ponderize' a new scripture every week. 'Ponderizing,' Brother Durant says, is a combination of pondering and memorizing. He says that each week, we should select a verse to try to think about and memorize each week and try to gain a deeper understanding of the doctrine within it. After selecting the verse, he advises us to put the verse somewhere where you will see it often, so it can be in your thoughts often as well. Elder Bain and I started doing this as well, and it honestly has been awesome. My scripture this week is 1 James 2:28, and it's helped me think about how I can increase my faith and confidence in the Lord, which has really been a blessing. So this week, I would also invite you all to follow this invitation. I'm personally going to try to keep it up throughout the whole rest of the mission, but however much time works for you is perfect. 

Welp, I hope yall have a great week! Most of you guys are about to get into winter, make sure you enjoy it for me! 

Tons of love, always!

Elder Montgomery 

Algunos Buenos Fotos:

1: Mac and Cheese once again

2: Dinner with Augustin and Jenifer

3: Our wonderful Thanksgiving lunch

4: Nacho, Raquel's son, sworethat this would get rid of a headache. It didn't.

5: Elder Nieto got me a bracelet♡

6: Lunch today

MILEI GANA!! Also, I'm Legal Now (Week 16)

Monday, November 20, 2023   4:06pm

Wow, what a week this has been! Hope yours were a bit more chill than mine haha! Let's get into it!

So first, there was a lot of traveling this week. As I mentioned last time, I was in Bahía getting my paperwork done. That all went along fine and now I'm legally allowed to be in Argentina for the next 21 months. Every new missionary has to get their papers done around the same time, which means that we often get to see people who we came in with, WHICH MEANS that I had the opportunity to hang out with the Elders Belliston, Frost, and Briones for the week, all guys who I came in with, which was super awesome to be able to see them again. Elder Briones was my comp for the week, which was wild, because he's from Ecuador, so we spoke only Spanish the entire time. Which wasn't a problem, and I actually ended up interpreting for him when we talked to a couple people who couldn't speak Español. Super awesome, it really showed me how far I've come with everything. 

I also was able to go on divisions a few times with some of the elders in Bahía, and it was awesome to see some of the parts of the city outside the center. It was also legit to get to know some of the elders that will be around for a while. Wonder if I'll ever get any of them as a comp. 

I got out of Bahía Wednesday evening and then headed for Santa Rosa so Elder Bain and I could go on divisions with our Zone Leaders, which was also a lot of fun. The leaders said that they thought I had like six months in the mission because of how well I spoke and I totally think they were just saying that to be nice, but it was a nice confidence boost. Being in their area was also different, it somehow felt easier to contact random people because I knew I wasn't going to see them again, so I could mess up and not have to look them in their judging eyes another day haha. I did learn a lot about how I could be scheduling my day better and how to construct a lesson in a simpler way, which has already helped a good amount. 

WE HAVE WATER! The people were able to get it fixed while we were away, so now we're living easy. The only thing that isn't working is the hot water for the shower. Which does suck a bit, but I'm just grateful to have it at all. God brings us to the low so that we can appreciate the high, everyone.

Yesterday was the finalization of elections here, and the guy who won, his name's Javier Milei, is actually crazy and I love it. I found a pamphlet of his, cut his picture out of it, and now he's in my journal. But yeah, people were celebrating last night, which got pretty wild and very loud, so it was pretty hard to sleep, but whatever. Pop off Milei supporters I guess. 

The ward had a country, like wild west country activity and it was super fun! The people who set it up asked me and Elder Bain for a good bid of advice, as we actually live in the US, and I'd like to think we were a big part in getting the party set up lol. 

Welp...yeah, that's been my week, onto TotS!

Since this week is Thanksgiving (which isn't celebrated here but whatever) I figured I should go over one about being thankful. Which means that this week's is Consider the Goodness and Greatness of God by Elder Dale G. Renlund. This talk is all about giving thanks towards the things and people that can and have changed our lives. Elder Renlund states that by thinking of these types of things often, we can use their examples and attitudes to constantly better ourselves and show more gratitude in turn. He uses the example of Alma the Younger and his conversion, showing how sharing your gratitude and focusing on the things which you're thankful for, like his parents, friends, and especially the Savior and His Atonement, can change you into a person completely different, someone who is open to the Spirit of the Lord and is willing to work. I really have been seeing this thankfulness working in my mission experience, I can go through a fair amount of disappointment in myself when I mess up even a little bit with something, but thinking about the things that have helped me and why I'm grateful for helps me have a better attitude about everything. It's pretty awesome.

But yeah, hope yalls weeks go well, be blessed, be thankful, eat a ton this Thanksgiving!!

Always grateful for YOU

Elder Montgomery 

I forgot to add pictures...again
1: The Country activity with the ward

2: The Country Boys

3: The Countriest Boy

4: Me and Elder Briones

5: Us in Bahía

6: Us in Bambú, a buffet place

7: View from our balcony

8: Zone Conference

Water: A First World Luxury (Week 15)

Monday, November 13, 2023   10:25am

Hello my friends, how's it going? Happy Pday! I hope you all are doing well.

Soooo this week was pretty interesting. I'll start off with the good stuff before getting to the big sad of the week. 

First, Zone Conference! It was the first one I had in person, which meant they brought us food. Exciting, I know, they had these American style fried chicken sandwiches, and dang, did it make me miss American cuisine. I also had the opportunity to give a small discourse on a conference talk, Eternal Truth by Elder Pingree, or should I say VERDAD ETERNA POR EL ÉLDER PINGREE. That's right, gave it in Español. With only 2 hours of preparation on a bus. Yuhhhh. Anyways, I learned a ton during the conference, mostly about how we should be having member lessons and thinking about our amigos in a more eternal perspective. Powerful stuff. It was also fun to finally meet all the Elders in my zone, they're all super cool and a lot of them only have a few more transfers than me, so we'll be hanging out quite a bit. Probably. 

After the conference, we're supposed to have interviews with President, but any busses back to Pico would have left before we got our interviews, so President and Hermana Marsden drove us four Pico elders back home in their car and had pur interviews in our pension. It was actually so wild. It was a fun drive, and it was really cool to get to know our presidency a little better, but gosh, President was HAULING. The speedometer didn't go below 140 kph pretty much the whole time. For all of you in the Imperial system, that's about 90mph. Poor Elder Nieto was next to me for it and got my fingernails dug into his thigh whenever there was a mildly large bump.

The work has gone well! We've had a lot of great lessons this week and we were  even able to put a couple of amigos on date! Unfortunately, we didn't have anyone come to church yesterday, but they all had some pretty good excuses, i.e. someone got bit by a dog and needed medical treatment. But we have high hopes and high faith, so now it's just gotta be the Lord's timing! 

I've really enjoyed getting to know the members recently. They're all super nice and way funny, especially the old dudes. A lot of the younger guys in the ward have served missions as well and have some really cool stories and advice for us, and some of them are pretty good with English as well, having learned from their American comps. Basically all of them find my last name hard to say tho, I've almost had to give everyone a lesson on it, but they got it now. Kinda. 

DISTRICT WARS!! So our zone started this thing called 'district wars' TM Elder Bain. Basically, every week for the rest of the transfer, we have been challenged to meet a certain quota with something, something like finding new people, having lessons with members, cualquier cosa, and there's extra little challenges, like 'share this scripture with someone new today!' or 'teach someone about the Holy Ghost!' It's been fun times, and everyone in the zone has been killing it. Elder Bain says he's not losing a game he invented though, so we've been going really hard with it. Go us, slay, pop off kings.

Okay, time for the big sad. We have pretty much no agua. No idea what happened. To describe a little bit of the situation, any and all cold water has stopped running, and the hot water has very VERY low pressure. Oh, and the shower isn't running at all. (We used the other elders' pension to shower thus far, so we dont stank worse than normal) But yeah, super annoying to wash dishes, takes forever for us to manually fill the tank to flush the toilet, and i can barely wash my hands well enough to feel comfortable touching anything. The funny thing is that we got a bunch of stuff in the pension fixed a couple weeks ago, including getting hot water running to places it wasn't before. So legit, hopefully we can get that fixed. Appreciate what you have before you lose it, everyone. 

At least I'm not gonna be in Pico for the majority of the week. That's right, I'm actually in Bahía rn so I can get my documentation done and be here ☆legally☆ and ☆not as a tourist☆ anymore. So yeah, that process takes a couple days, and the zone leaders want us to do divisions with them in Santa Rosa on Thursday. Gonna be a pretty interesting week again, but I'm excited! Maybe I'll be able to get Mickey D's in Bahía. That'd be cool. 

Alrighty, now that all my week is out of the way, it's time for my Talk of the Week, or Talk of the Semana, acronymed 'TotS' and as which SHALL HENCEFORTH BE KNOWN. 

This week's is 'All Thy Children Shall Be Taught,' by Sister Colleen K. Menlove, April 2005. 

"Children need to know that having faith in the Savior and following Him will help them receive peace in this troubled world." That quote pretty much sums up the topic of this talk. Parents have a responsibility to teach their children about the great love that Jesus Christ has for them and help them gradually come to understand the full meaning, sacrifice, and power of His Atonement. Sister Menlove mentions that one of the best ways parents can do this is through example. Either through showing the fraction of Christ's love to their children through their actions, or through the use of the Atonement themselves, always repenting and becoming better. What I took from this talk as a missionary is how central Christ is to our church. It doesn't matter what age you are, you can have a testimony of Jesus Christ and His love and devotion for you. We really try to emphasize that as missionaries as we try to explain that it's never too late to come back to His fold and become one of His children. We also get to show that great example of repentance as we also better ourselves day by day, whether spiritually, emotionally, linguistically, or what have you. Missionary work is really a blessing, yall, I'm telling you. 

Whew, this is probably my longest one in a while! But yeah, that's pretty much all for this week! I'm so happy to be out here, working in this great gathering of scattered Israel! Thanks a ton for always having my back! Stay safe and trust in your Savior!

Elder Montgomery

(He didn’t include any pictures this week, but I snagged a few from his Google photos…)

Santa Rosa Zone Conference

 

One, Two, Skip a Few... (Week 14)

Monday, November 6, 2023   9:19am

That's right, everyone. If I did my math correctly, which it is very likely I didn't, today should be my 99th day as a missionary. Yaaaaaay! And tomorrow, the supposed 100th day, is also my half birthday. What a coincidence.

Anyways, hope everyone's doing well! This week was pretty great, despite us not being able to leave a few mornings for various reasons, one of which being dudes from the church from Bahía fixing up our pension. These dudes are miracle workers, I swear. They fixed a few sinks that didn't have hot water, straight up replaced multiple leaky pipes, fixed some of the shutters on our windows, and promised us a new oven, washing machine, and blender. I am very excited for all of this lol. 

We got Augustin and Jennifer in church yesterday! They loved it and said they learned a ton! We were also able to visit them afterwards and talk a little about tithing and church funding, which was very cool. 

Español is coming along very well, I estimate to be able to hold my own by the end of this month, but the Lord has a plan, so we'll see what happens. 

Since we stayed in a lot this week, I got a lot of studying done, which includes starting the Old Testament for basically no reason. Genesis was super interesting, but now we're almost finished with Exodus, which means I'm learning how to sacrifice stuff and how to build a tabernacle and how to...build...zzzzzzz

We have Zone Conference this Wednesdayand it'll be the first one I have in person, which is exciting. You never know what to expect from zone conference, but it should be good. 

Played some basketball and futbol with the ward and a few amigos last Saturday, which was actually a lot of fun. If you know me, you know I'm not a huge fan of sports, so I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed it. I guess anything that's different from the norm of teaching and walking is pretty exciting now haha. 

Nothing else really happened this week sooooooo

Onto our Conference Talk for the week! This week's is 'Jesus, the Very Thought of Thee,' by Bishop Keith B. McMullin. 

Bishop McMullin begins by reciting this verse from the titular hymn:

"Jesus, the very thought of thee 

With sweetness fills my breast; 

But sweeter far thy face to see 

And in thy presence rest"

He then goes on to explain what exactly a testimony of Jesus Christ entails and how we can gain and grow our own personal testimonies. He gives four points on how we can do this: Desire to Know, Study to Learn, Live to Merit, and Pray to Receive. I love these points a lot, specifically the Live to Merit. It reminds me of something one of my seminary teachers pressed into my mind, that 'Obedience precedes Faith which precedes Miracles' When we have that Desire to Know, we have to act and live according to the commandments of God and notice the blessings in our lives that come from it. Serving a mission is a great way to grow in faith btw. 

Well, love yall very much! Time has been moving pretty quickly, it's pretty wild that it's Pday again already. 

(No pictures this week, but he did call twice…once around noon, and then again in the evening so he could catch Eric, who had been at Chick-fil-A earlier.)