"...I am from Arizonar."

September 27, 2009

Hello to my family and friends in the states! I am going to send another voice recording this week. As you can tell I do not have an Aussie accent. But I know how they talk. The way they say their “Rs” are the easiest to pick up. If the letter R is at the end of a word it makes a “uh” sound. Like dinner would be dinnuh in Australia. Or if the next letter after an R is a consonant you wouldn’t make the R sound. Like the word Park would be Puhk. And also I am from Arizonar. In Aussie they put an R at the end of words that make a Uh sound. So Utahr, Californiar and Nevadar would be acceptable pronunciations of those states, as an example. So yeah pretty messed up English haha. Anyways.
Things are going great here. I’ll just start off with the most exciting news. Anthony is committed to be baptized on the 18th of October! It was an interesting lesson in which he was committed. By the end of this lesson Anthony was committed to be baptized! There is work to do. He has a bit to learn in 3 weeks. So that’s plenty of time. They couldn’t make it to church today but they went to an 8 year olds baptism Sunday afternoon. I think that helped Anthony heaps to have that vision; he can see that could be him in 3 weeks. He is progressing.
Also my Chinese friend Jane made it to the Baptism. She is sweet as. I believe she will be next to be committed. Although I think a problem has just come up. She accepted a job that will make her work on Sundays. In my short time being on a mission I have had this problem multiple times. People are desperate for jobs and they will take them. It is hard to find a job, let alone a job that does not require work on Sunday. So investigators will take them. So that is frustrating. But she said she doesn’t have to work every Sunday. So hopefully she will continue to progress. This Saturday we had a ward BBQ that we spearheaded. This ward has not had an activity since Christmas. We were worried our BBQ would be rained on, and then nobody would come. This past week has been bad weather, no dust storm though. Just rainy and cold. So me and Elder Roland prayed for sunshine on Saturday. And sure enough we were blessed with a thin strip of blue sky that went right over us. Everywhere around us rained. So a good number of members came to the BBQ. Along with 4 investigators, so that was really good. It turned out much better than I thought it was going to be. During the Grand Final not many people were on the streets. We visited Africans who do not care about footy.
I actually missed Sacrament this week. I was on trade off with a perspective elder. And we were picking up this 14-year-old African kid from Liberia who is bigger than me to take him to church, he was taught about a year ago. His name is Edwin and he is huge. We woke him up at like 12:30. And waited for him to shower and get dressed. We were 30 minutes late to church. But hey whatever it takes to get a soul to church. I had an interesting conversation with Edwin’s mum. She is a refugee from the War in Liberia and she went off on how much she dislikes Australia. She was angry at the so many racist people. And the stresses that come with this country. My poor companion at the time. This perspective elder hasn’t been around too many Liberians. He doesn’t know that when they talk it sounds like they are yelling. When actually its just the way they talk. I talked with her for about 30 minutes, told her that church is a refuge from the stresses of the world. That by going to our church you can feel peace and comfort, separated from the world and surrounded by caring loving people. So with that promise she should be going to church next Sunday.
Taught the 3 Fijians a good lesson about the Holy Spirit. This is something I need to depend on to soften their hearts. But this coming two weeks is school holiday. So they will have a lot of free time. So we are going to follow up and teach them. See if they are progressing.
I saw Sabrina, my old friend from Firle Ward. She was on fire, a really good member missionary. She has fellowshipped many investigators and recent converts, including Neo who I saw with her. I gave Neo a big hug. I was so happy to see him. So happy to hear he is doing well. Black was baptized, and I think he said Miles is not far behind. So I am happy to hear all those things.
So ya everything is fine here. Me and Bishop have a really good relationship. During PEC he initiated many things he and I had talked about that would help the ward be more missionary focused. So that was really cool.
Sorry I don’t take too many pictures. Its pretty bad, I have taken one picture this transfer, which is half over. I can quote Elder Roland saying he has done bad taking pictures this transfer by only taking 22 pictures. So that must mean I am doing really bad. Perhaps I am too focused. Forgive me. I love you. I have been in Australia two months today! (for you). I am a day ahead of you. Went on trade-offs for 24 hours with Elders in a bike area. That was intense I thought I would die. Wrote that in my journal haha. But, I am here typing you a letter at the library. So everything is good. Yay Disneyland Challenge. You best win. Great hearing from the family. Today for Pday we are going to clean the temple. Hope Dad is Okay. Talk to ya later. Love ya heaps!
-Elder Montgomery