December 5, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We just got back from a funeral of a member of the church who passed away over a week ago. It was a good service. I have been pretty fortunate in my life so far. From what I can remember this has only been the 4th funeral I have been to in my life, 2nd on my mission. There will definitely be more to come. It is something we can bet on for sure and that is at one point in time we will all have to go through that experience of death. Pending on the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ but that could be yet afar off. It is a scary/exciting experience I imagine. It is like you are in a room completely dark. But in the centre where you are standing there is a pillar of light directly over you. You cannot see anything; your eyes cannot absorb light around you to focus anything past this spot of light. Death is like taking that step into the unknown. It isn’t until we take that step into the dark that we can look behind us and see the light, or in other words we can look back on this life that we experienced. We can see where we came from. Death is a journey, a new chapter in life. Those are some of the things I have been contemplating today after attending the funeral. It’s pretty sweet to have a testimony of the afterlife. Even when I was young boy I would ponder on the stars and outer space. I would ask myself, what if we didn’t exist. What if there was no life. Time would flee away as a dream. When I thought of the nothingness of this imagination I always got a strange sensation. My mind could not grasp it; I would even get a forbidden prompting. It was almost like the thought would be torn away to the realization that there is a Creator, and that there must be a purpose to life.
We have been visiting and teaching people. Committing them in numerous ways to come unto Christ. There is one brother here who should be dead 5 times over. A few years ago he had a motorcycle accident. They couldn’t find his body immediately, they supposed he walked away. As the inspectors were leaving they saw him unconscious hanging by one foot in a huge gum tree. Pretty intense stuff. His wife and he have never been to the temple and are not sealed. They have been members for over two decades. He is pretty much deaf and cannot hear much at church, for this reason he has been semi active for a long time. He is too prideful to invest in hearing aids, plus he enjoys not being able to hear. He is a funny guy. He had a cool experience, he left church after sacrament meeting and went home. When he was at home he had the strongest prompting to get back to church. He came back and sat in on the Gospel Doctrine class. All he could hear every so often was the word, Temple. He recognized it as God trying to reach out to him. He is way focused now to make it to the temple. He and his wife have had 3 temple prep classes over the years but they have never been able to follow through. Hopefully this is the last nudge to push them over the edge to get them to receive all the blessings their father in heaven would have them receive in this life. We are having great discussions with him about principles in the church. He pretty much needs to be retaught everything.
Transfers are coming up next weekend. There is an 80% chance I am gone. So I think. The weather in Mt Gambia changes all the time. It reached 100 degrees on Sunday and later that day it dropped to about 68 with rain. Pretty crazy. I am not sure what we are doing today. We still haven’t decided. Probably do some exploring, I have seen everything in this town, but I go over it again with every new companion. I am the Mt Gambia king. Especially if I stay one more transfer, there hasn’t been a missionary that has been here as long as me for years. It will stink to change areas just before Christmas.
Going to go now
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
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