Sunday, February 27, 2011

"We are going to continue to recycle through people, finding and teaching and discerning whether they are ready to receive the restored gospel."

Hello from Adelaide!



We had a pretty good week. We are only allotted a certain amount of Kilometres per month in the car. Elder Latu and I smashed them, we drove too much. To save Ks we went biking most of this week. It is definitely the most biking I have done on my mission in a short period of time. In the smaller towns of Murray Bridge and Mt Gambier I would mostly walk and seldom ride the bike. But we rode all week. There are 3 hilly suburbs in our area. We cover Salisbury Heights, Gulf view heights and Para Hills. Salisbury East is pretty flat. My former Companion Elder Taufa is going home next week. We are going to an all you can eat buffet today and celebrate.

This week we caught up with our investigators. We dropped a few of them who are not progressing. We are seeking for some more quality investigators. We are going to continue to recycle through people, finding and teaching and discerning whether they are ready to receive the restored gospel. There are people out there who are prepared. I have found them before. We are going to emphasize seeking for referrals from members to help us find new people to teach. We feel we can do better.

Even missionaries that are going to serve here in Australia are struggling to get visas to come into the country. They serve temporary missions somewhere in the states and then they fly out. Well I am going to go now.

Love you heaps.

-Elder Montgomery

Sunday, February 20, 2011

".....my mind is just on Jarom. I can’t believe he is where I was at just a short time ago."

February 20, 2011

Hello from Adelaide!

I am so excited to hear about Jarom! India will become a great nation in the future I reckon, especially as the Restored Gospel is expanding. Indians do make some good food. Nice spicy Curry. I am going to tell all my Indian and Nepali friends. I am sure they will be just as excited. They are such nice people. I will ask heaps more about the Culture and what Jarom should expect as a missionary.

We had a pretty good week. We found a few quality investigators this week. I am looking forward to continue teaching them. We will see how they progress.

It is hard for me to email my mind is just on Jarom. I can’t believe he is where I was at just a short time ago. I remember opening my letter; I remember dancing with you in the Living Room. I remember looking up on the internet everything about Australia. I remember calling pretty much everyone. I can’t believe so much time has passed. I will surely miss him; I won’t see him until 2013.

Today for P-day we are going to play sport at the Chapel. Clean the flat and the car. And do other P-day activities.

Darwin got hit by a Cyclone. Adelaide is very cool. We are wearing our jackets almost everyday; we have to when it is below 28 Celsius. This translates to about 80Fahrenheit. It is nice weather. No Danger here in Adelaide. No flooding here either. No wild fires. I am in the safest place in the country it seems.

Mom, I can't remember, in your Patriarichal blessing did it say something like your influence or name or something will be known around the world? If that is the case than certainly Dan in Honduras, Me in Australia and Jarom in India are fulfilling that blessing. Not to mention the Millenium for my other siblings who didn't serve missions, they will help fulfill as well.
Love you heaps

-Elder Montgomery

Sunday, February 13, 2011

"We had Stake Conference this Sunday. It was a live broadcast from Salt Lake City to all of Australia."

February 13, 2011

Hello from Brahma Lodge!

We had a good week this week. We taught more lessons this week than we had our first two weeks in the area. Things are starting to roll. We have a handful of investigators now that we are teaching. There will be more investigators more to come. We go out finding heaps. Maybe more so than at any other point in my mission. We have used our Area Book and we have contacted most of the potential investigators, we have gone through many of the former investigators. We have also knocked on a couple of choice streets. One thing I think I could work on is receiving referrals from members of the church, or really anyone. I will try and do that more often. Referrals are usually the best investigators because they have that foundation of trust with their relationship with the member.

At the beginning of my mission I learned how to speak Chinese and Swahili phrases and other languages. I have forgotten them and if I did forget them, my pronunciation is incorrect. Now that I am back in Adelaide it is like refreshing my memory. Maybe when I go home I can show off the entire lingo I have picked up. Really I could just something up and you wouldn’t know the difference, same with Australian slang.

Yes that is the units of my flat. Adelaide is actually a bit green at the moment. More alive than that Google earth photo. I remember last year by December everything was dead, or at least everything in Murray Bridge was dead. We are having a more cool summer. Some days have reached over 100 but not many. I reckon today it will be around 80.

My area is quite small so there isn’t much sight seeing. Murray Bridge, Mt Gambier and Palmerston were all regional areas and were ridiculously huge and there were things to see. But I am in the middle of the city.

We had Stake Conference this Sunday. It was a live broadcast from Salt Lake City to all of Australia. That was pretty cool, we heard from Richard G Scott and President Utchdorf (sp?). It was cool to see the old members from Modbury Ward. Some Sisters were pregnant when I was in the area but now the babes are well and truly crawling, it is crazy. I also went on tradeoff in my old area of Modbury Ward. I visited some old converts, Tammy, Anthony and Robert. I hadn’t seen them in over a year; they had gone less active a couple of months ago. After visiting with them we helped them get a vision of having an eternal family. I invited them to Stake Conference and they came! They also spoke to the Modbury Bishop and they will receive help preparing to go the temple. The invitation from me shouldn’t have gotten them back to church. They will need to receive a strong enough testimony to endure to the end. As we all do.

I am going to now. It is good to hear from you mom. Glad to hear everyone is alive and generally healthy, kind of. Remember to tell me even the sad news, you have done well. I want to come home rejoicing and not in grievance. Yes I would like to know any information on any of my friends, especially Moroni. I believe Jarom will receive his mission call this Thursday as well. I can’t wait to find out. Where ever he is called to go, I know there is a purpose behind it.

I received the package of the SD cards. Thank you. I will probably send a small package home pretty soon. I have collected a few things that I wish to send to you guys.

It didn’t even faze me it was Valentines Day. It is just another day; well it is P-day.

I think we are just going to play sport at the chapel today. I need to loose weight.

Love you heaps

-Elder Montgomery

"We are mostly working with people who are from Africa and Nepal."

February 9, 2011

Hello from Brahma Lodge!



This week we have been definitely finding new people to teach. At the moment we are networking with heaps with people. We have found people who were once taught by missionaries, we didn’t even use the Area book. They just fell into our paths. We are mostly working with people who are from Africa and Nepal. We have few Aussies that we are working with. I think I am scared for life, we visited this one family from Nepal and they were watching this 48 hour long DVD, yes 48 hours and it was a religious DVD from the 1960s, with 1960 special effects, and to top it off it is not American standards but Nepali standards. Hindu is a very interesting religion.

I met someone who remembers Brother Groggett! Brother Groggett must have served in this area. Their names are Brother and Sister Hunt. I wish I knew all the area’s Brother Groggett served in.

The members and leadership in the Ward are very missionary focused. There are two brothers in the ward that were in my first area in the mission that remember me. So that was cool to catch up with them. It seems like such a long time ago that I served in Firle Ward but yet it doesn’t seem too long ago. I live on number 113 Winchester Ave in Salisbury East in the set of flats there. I have not been asked to help in the clean up process in Queensland. Nor has anyone in this mission as far as I am aware of. Poor Queensland has been hammered; it got hit by a Cyclone last week. Queensland was a pretty dodgy state.

I do not remember Aunt Harriet, I remember we had some kind of family reunion in California, she must have been there. How was she related to us?

I do intend to live with you guys in Phoenix for a while but I do not intend to stay for long.

I am excited for Jarom. I can’t wait to hear where he is going. I remember the anticipation of finding out just two years ago. Two years ago I got my call to Australia. Hard to believe.

How is everyone from back home, no news of my friends? Moroni?

I am going to go now.

Elder Montgomery