Week 12: You Worry, You Happy

Wednesday, December 25, 2024   9:38pm

Hi! Merry Cristmas! 

I'm very tired today because my Venezuelan neighbors upstairs from me have no concept of courtesy and were partying late into the night. Loud music, karaoke, and the such. The house was shaking from the heavy base. Crazy. 

We had a Christmas devotional about a week ago. It was super awesome, we got cool perspectives on missionary work and Christ's birth, and even had special guests Nathan Pacheco and Jared Halverson speak (or sing) to us. (If you know who those guys are, great, cause I didn't.) 

One interesting thing I learned from our devotional was that the shepards that were keeping watch overnight were there to assist the ewes in giving birth and to identify any lambs that would be able to be used for sacrifices. It's just a neat little symbolism that the first people to see Christ were experienced shepards who would be able to identify the Lamb Of God; the one without blemish, capable of being the sacrifice that would save all of God's children. Uhhhh, yeah. I liked that. 

I was able to go on exchanges with my zone leader Elder Guzman and find a new family that seems likely to be baptized. It was useful to see how a different/more experienced missionary teaches. I'm not sure Elder Haught and I would have gotten very far with that family just because we're both relatively new to the mission. 

This morning my zone had a White Elephant gift exchange. People got some pretty wacky stuff. I ended up with a plush ninja turtle, so I'm pretty happy. 

The rest of the day we've pretty much just been hanging out in matching pajamas, playing 9 square, and doing other various activities that the sister missionaries came up with. 

It's felt pretty weird having Christmas without all my family and our traditions. It doesn't feel at all like it should be Christmas. But it's been a fun day. At least it's never boring with the other missionaries. Especially in a district with only sisters, there's always something different going on. It helps that it's easier to get along with other people that are united in the same purpose of gathering Israel. A lot of missionaries are the kind of person I would have avoided spending time with at home, but here I don't have any trouble with them. Most of the time.  

I've really grown to appreciate that we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ during Christmas. Before, I kinda thought it was silly that people go all in celebrating His birth, when it's the Atonement that actually matters. And while the Atonement is the reason His birth is significant, it's also a wonderful event that demonstrates the power, majesty, and wisdom of God. It helps us to remember to humble, because the Lord of all was born in such circumstances; and though He has the right to be prideful, to boast, He still is perfectly humble. He saw people not as their outwardly appearance, but He saw their heart. He knew their divine potential as literal sons and daughters of God and never failed to treat others accordingly. 

I would like to invite you guys to intentfully  study the attributes of Christ, prayerfully choose one that you can improve in. I promise you that as you focus on becoming more Cristlike, you will feel happier, and will have greater access to joy in your lives. 

I love all you guys, Merry Christmas! 

💋💋💋 (besos para ustedes)

Wait... that's not legal...

We're taking it back to our workshop, my dear.

Idk who this guy is, but he definitely doesn't speak Spanish

We closed the fridge, Utah should stop getting colder now

He was fully awake 30 seconds ago and now he's literally snoring

Recieved buñuelos with Elder Guzman

Mission Christmas Devotional

(Nathan Pacheco)

(President and Sister Watson with Jared Halverson)

The only picture I found Eric in is this one, where I assume he’s waiting in line for his food. 

And then these ones of the whole mission. 

 

Week 11: Today I Was a Tiger

Monday, December 16, 2024    10:55pm

Hey, mijn vrienden. 

My district is all sisters so we had a spa day today. No better way to prepare yourself for another week in the Lord’s vineyard. Your body is a temple, yknow. 

I'd like to think that this past week, my Spanish has improved a lot. I understand close to probably a generous 70% on a really good day. One of the members said I 'look' like I understand more Spanish, (???) So that's cool. Another lady said I look like Harry Potter, and another one keeps calling me 'Guapo.' So I'm pretty much just confused as ever right now. 

We had all kinds of meetings this week, including zone conference, so we didn't get to do a whole lot of missionary work, but we still met most of our goals. Heck yeah. How can you lose when God is on your side? (Trick question, in case you were wondering)

Zone conference was super cool; a general authority Elder Kevin W. Pearson came to speak to us. Another talk on missionary work. But this time, it was much more applicable! Since I'm actually serving now it was easy to see how I could become better, and Elder Pearson knew what our zone needed to work on, and what could help us, so I learned a lot! 

One of my favorite things he said was, "It's  the Beattitudes, not the Doattitudes." Meaning it doesn't matter for ourselves the things we do if we don't change because of it. One of the reasons that I wanted to serve a mission in the first place was because I knew that it could make me into the person that I wanted to be. It could make me more like Christ. So if I don't serve with love and sincerity, the same way my Savior did, it doesn't help me. I'll return the same as when I left. 

2 Nephi 26:30 The Lord God hath given a commandment that all men should have charity, which charity is love. And except they should have charity they were nothing. 

I'm so glad to be giving this part of my life to the Lord, and I'll keep trying to be more devoted to the work. It's awesome that changing lives changes me, too. 

Keep praying, 

        Elder Montgomery 

Temple Square is cool

Elder Rodriguez goes back to his original mission in Mexico 🥲

Grandma sent me a... refrigerator magnet? Cool.

It's beginning to look a lot like... Utah

Pshh, I was just resting my eyes...

"They're grrrreat!"

December Zone Conference

 

Week 10: Level Completed (3% Completion)

Monday, December 9, 2024   8:44pm

Whoa, another week. That was fast. 

We set a goal to knock every door in one part of our area, whether we had knocked it previously or not. We got a few people who had seemed interested, but we only had one new person attending church this week, and we had never talked to that guy before. 🤨 

In case you thought different, not a lot of the people here are members of the church. I think out of that area specifically, there are one or two active members. So there's a lot potential, but... yeah. A lot of the people have already heard about us and formed an opinion, and I bet it's much worse for the English missionaries. 

Had a few weird things happen this week, mostly on Tuesday. 

We knocked on one door and heard a lady ask through the door, "Who is?!" In a very latino accent. Then she proceeded to respond to us once in Spanish, and try to speak broken English to us, all through her door, and none of it very relevant to what we were asking her. We came back later, and after she screams "Who is?!" again, a black dude answers the door. It was very strange. 

We had a Catholic Grandma invite us in and laugh at us pray, then she showed us the real way to pray. Loved that. 

A guy in our area who works as a trucker occasionally gives away extra food that doesn't sell gave us small Christmas trees and potted plants. 

We got followed by a truck at night. We turned right 4 times in a row, so we ended up where we started, and they were still tailing us, right up to our bumper. They sped past us, infront of us, and got out of their car. We didn't recognize them, and they didn't do anything to indicate they wanted to just talk to us by like waving or something. We were able to turn in to a small parking lot for a convince store before we had to find out what they wanted. We encountered them a couple more times that night, one of those times we were coming from opposite directions and when they realized we passed them, they started to turn around. Freaky. 😬

Anyways, it's been a decent week; not boring at the very least. I like that as long as we are trying the best we can as missionaries, we are fulfilling our purpose, but it is sad to see people give up what they don't know they want more than anything in exchange for satisfaction of a worldly desire. 

The Gospel takes work. But the blessings are worth it. 

I read a lot in Helaman this week, when the prophet Nephi calls the people of Zarahemla to repentance. 

Verse 20 says,

O, how could you have forgotten your God in the very day that he has delivered you?

I know that our lives are very busy, and that none of us are perfect. It can be very easy to go an entire day without giving some time to God, or when we do, we are insincere. God should be the most important thing in our lives, and Satan tries to tell us otherwise. Please try your hardest to not put anything before God, because He doesn't put anything before you. 

If there is anything you feel like you should be doing, something He is asking you to do, please don't put it off. 

I know that this Gospel is the truth. God is the source of all joy, every good thing. It does not matter the challenges I face, or the hard things I have to go through, because I know that Jesus Christ is with me, and He is my foundation. He inviteth all to come unto Him. I am here to help others receive that invitation, and there's nothing else I'd rather be doing. 

Okay, uh, that's all for this week. My leg hurts from soccer this morning. 

Love you guys!

Les amo mucho! 

Ik houd jullie veel van! 

Élder Montgomery 

Cheering up the apartment

Martin and Chris

Fog makin me feel at home

Our lights to go with the tree

Our tree doesn't obey the word of wisdom