"Nobody here says Crikey"

August 24, 2009

Hey Mom and Family and Friends!

Just want to let you know that everything is good here. Yesterday was a special day. Patience was baptized Sunday, August 23rd. A sweet 20-year-old African girl from Liberia. She is a refugee as there was a horrible civil war that was raging for many years. She lived in a refugee camp somewhere in Africa most of here life, but now is in Australia and getting a good education, and now is baptized. A lot of the members here have done a good job fellowshipping her giving her rides to church and activities. I feel good about her. I am happy to know her and to witness her conversion and baptism.

Neo is coming up next in two weeks. The 4th of September, he is way pumped. His friend Lilly, who was baptized in June, will fly down from Brisbane to see this special moment. It will mean a lot to Neo. A new investigator, a Chinese man named Black came to church today and went to the baptismal service. I feel pretty confident that he will be baptized in three weeks as well as Miles another Chinese friend who also went to Church and witnessed the baptism of Patience. Also we have made contact with like 5 Chinese guys who live in this one house who have been in Australia for less than a month and have never heard about God. It will be exciting to teach them the Gospel and get all these Chinese friends baptized. There is work to do. Never ending, always people to find who have been prepared to hear about the restored gospel. I pray for the Spirit to be with me as I teach these people. Pray for me also. It only would help. Chris is doing great. He is 12 days sober. Once he gets over alcohol he will overcome his addiction to cigarettes and then he will be baptized. He says this all the time when we are with him. This is awesome to hear. He is focused and is doing well, even looking great. If you knew him you could see the difference in him. The blessings of the Word of Wisdom are very apparent with Chris. He sees them too. How much more blessed he will be if he can completely keep his body clean from cigarettes on top of alcohol.

I am happy to be in Australia. I am happy to be a part of this work. I look forward to preaching the Gospel. Its cold today but its going to get hot in the coming months. Thank goodness my area at the moment is all vehicle. Transfers are in two weeks. I hope I stay here. There is work to do! This area is great. People love the American accent. Immigrants can understand me better. Americans pronounce words much more than Australians. Actually Elder Inglis talks in an American accent to investigators so they can understand better. And he is actually losing his Aussie accent Hahahahaha. So funny. Southern Australia is like Americas north. You don’t hear the crazy accents unless you go north in Australia, as it is when you go to the south in America. Just opposite from each other. So the accents are nothing like Steve Irwin. Nobody here says Crikey. Ima go.

Pray for my investigators and me.
-Elder Montgomery