December 28, 2010
Hello from Palmerston!
It was good to call home on Christmas Day (for you). When I hear everyone you can catch the American Accent. It will be crazy when I am back in the States. I was most surprised by Keaton, maybe it was just how I heard it on the telephone but he has the strongest accent of everyone. I do not believe I have an Aussie accent. I just believe I do not have as strong as of an American accent as I once had. But I will always have an American accent. I like saying my “Rs” in the right places.
We have an investigator named Sara; we went over “The Family, A Proclamation to the world.” After teaching her a few things we committed her to Baptism. We had her pray herself and choose a Baptismal date. She felt that April 17th was the day. At first I thought, “Man that is ages away”. But after pondering on it, I know that that is the correct date. She will need a bit of time to prepare herself for baptism. She has a desire to give up cigarettes and she will have to be married to her partner who she is living with.
We are teaching a man named Scott. He is reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. Our main objective with him is how to recognize the Spirit. His wife is going through Chemotherapy. She is a Less active from Canada. Scott is following the example of Joseph Smith and is asking questions, which is what we want, I love answering questions. The problem sometimes they are questions that have nothing to do with our salvation. So it is very difficult to stick to our planned lessons.
I spent Christmas day at various homes of members. I enjoy Christmas with Families much more than spending it with many missionaries like last year. We had breakfast, lunch and two dinners. I was so full. I just want to thank everyone for the packages they sent me for Christmas. I call down the blessings of heaven to be upon you.
Today we have P-day on Wednesday; it was public holiday on Monday and Tuesday so we decided to proselyte because people were more likely to be home. On Mondays the Laser tag place is closed. But since this week P-day is not on Monday the laser tag facility is available. That is what we will more than likely do today.
Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Tuesday, December 28, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
"Hello from Palmerston, in the Northern Territory!"
December 20, 2010
Hello from Palmerston, in the Northern Territory!
I'm pretty sure i just did one of the longest land transfers in the world. It is about the distance of Detroit to Mexico City. I was in the farthest south area i could get in the mission to now the most North i could get.
Palmerston is a city just outside of Darwin. This place is like a rain forest. There is no summer or winter here, only dry and wet season. Right now we are at the tail end of what they call “The build-up” or suicide season. It is switching from dry season to wet season, so it is very muggy, when I got off the plane it felt like a slap on the face. It has started to rain every other day but it will start raining all of the time. When it does rain it buckets. It doesn’t take long for everything to be flooded, I’m not sure where the water goes but the ground is very thirsty it seems. There are many interesting animals here and bugs, you can’t go near any river or lake and even the ocean because of crocodiles. It is satisfying to be a missionary here because you are drenched from either sweat or rain. It definitely refines you. You get charity from people who pity you; they give us water to drink which creates opportunities to extend a conversation. You can get out of the car and walk to a door and knock and perhaps someone is not home and you walk back to the car and you will find you are sweating already. Needless to say it is very different weather to Mt Gambier and even Yuma. Yuma is hot but it is a dry heat. It will take time for me to acclimate to the weather. Always you can look at the horizon at night and there are flashes of lightning.
The Branch here is awesome. It is the largest congregation in this mission. There is close to 200 active members. We had the Branch Christmas party on Saturday at a local pool. That was fun, we played ultimate Frisbee and I got to meet much of the Branch. The members in Palmerston are awesome. We have to travel about 20 minutes to go to church in Darwin. Church was so different for me. In Mt Gambier I participated in many things at church. I would bless or pass the sacrament, sometimes teach gospel principles class, run the Young men’s sometimes, I was acting as a counsellor in the Elders quorum presidencies. I did this for 9 months and now I didn’t really do anything except fellowship investigators and meet everyone at church. Which is good.
We have a number of investigators. Most of them are young mothers who are living in a De Facto relationship. Typical Australian. They have been taught mostly everything but they need to be married. So that is the dilemma. We just planned a cottage evening with our Branch Mission Leader with the topic as Temples. We will teach everyone about the opportunity of eternal families and baptism for the dead. We had an investigator that was baptised just on Saturday; I had little to nothing to do with her conversion process. We are helping out an ex com brother come back to church. He is hoping to be rebaptised in January.
Darwin and Palmerston are very multicultural, even more so than Adelaide. There are many islanders and Asians, Africans and so forth. My hand has shaken the world easily since I have been on my mission. It is pretty sweet we are allowed to wear “Crocs” instead of church shoes here because it rains so much. Otherwise are shoes would be wrecked. It feels like you are relaxed and yet you are proselyting it is great.
Today for P-day I am just going to get situated, invest in some kind of a hat. I’m not sure what else we do. Just clean the car and flat. Maybe we will drive into Darwin and see the sites this week. I want to see a crocodile- at a park of course.
Love you heaps
Elder Montgomery
Hello from Palmerston, in the Northern Territory!
I'm pretty sure i just did one of the longest land transfers in the world. It is about the distance of Detroit to Mexico City. I was in the farthest south area i could get in the mission to now the most North i could get.
Palmerston is a city just outside of Darwin. This place is like a rain forest. There is no summer or winter here, only dry and wet season. Right now we are at the tail end of what they call “The build-up” or suicide season. It is switching from dry season to wet season, so it is very muggy, when I got off the plane it felt like a slap on the face. It has started to rain every other day but it will start raining all of the time. When it does rain it buckets. It doesn’t take long for everything to be flooded, I’m not sure where the water goes but the ground is very thirsty it seems. There are many interesting animals here and bugs, you can’t go near any river or lake and even the ocean because of crocodiles. It is satisfying to be a missionary here because you are drenched from either sweat or rain. It definitely refines you. You get charity from people who pity you; they give us water to drink which creates opportunities to extend a conversation. You can get out of the car and walk to a door and knock and perhaps someone is not home and you walk back to the car and you will find you are sweating already. Needless to say it is very different weather to Mt Gambier and even Yuma. Yuma is hot but it is a dry heat. It will take time for me to acclimate to the weather. Always you can look at the horizon at night and there are flashes of lightning.
The Branch here is awesome. It is the largest congregation in this mission. There is close to 200 active members. We had the Branch Christmas party on Saturday at a local pool. That was fun, we played ultimate Frisbee and I got to meet much of the Branch. The members in Palmerston are awesome. We have to travel about 20 minutes to go to church in Darwin. Church was so different for me. In Mt Gambier I participated in many things at church. I would bless or pass the sacrament, sometimes teach gospel principles class, run the Young men’s sometimes, I was acting as a counsellor in the Elders quorum presidencies. I did this for 9 months and now I didn’t really do anything except fellowship investigators and meet everyone at church. Which is good.
We have a number of investigators. Most of them are young mothers who are living in a De Facto relationship. Typical Australian. They have been taught mostly everything but they need to be married. So that is the dilemma. We just planned a cottage evening with our Branch Mission Leader with the topic as Temples. We will teach everyone about the opportunity of eternal families and baptism for the dead. We had an investigator that was baptised just on Saturday; I had little to nothing to do with her conversion process. We are helping out an ex com brother come back to church. He is hoping to be rebaptised in January.
Darwin and Palmerston are very multicultural, even more so than Adelaide. There are many islanders and Asians, Africans and so forth. My hand has shaken the world easily since I have been on my mission. It is pretty sweet we are allowed to wear “Crocs” instead of church shoes here because it rains so much. Otherwise are shoes would be wrecked. It feels like you are relaxed and yet you are proselyting it is great.
Today for P-day I am just going to get situated, invest in some kind of a hat. I’m not sure what else we do. Just clean the car and flat. Maybe we will drive into Darwin and see the sites this week. I want to see a crocodile- at a park of course.
Love you heaps
Elder Montgomery
Monday, December 13, 2010
"I am getting transfered to the Northern Territory!"
December 12, 2010
i dont have much time to email today.
I am getting transfered to the Northern Territory!
I am leaving Mt Gambier very soon
Pretty crazy, my companion is being transfered to the Northern Territory as well. We fly up Tuesday morning.
I do not know where exactly i am going in the NT, won't find out till later.
If i get transfered to Darwin, i will have done the longest land transfer in the world, or one of the biggest in the world.
It is a distance from Detroit to Mexico City, but i might go to Alice Springs or anything inbetween.
It is going to be much different than Mt Gambier, it will be very very hot.
Up in Darwin it is very Hot, wet and muggy, and in Alice it is very Hot and dry. Either way it is going to be hot, first i am going to do is invest in a Camel Back.
Looking forward to call home, i still have to buy a card, il do that next P-day.
I am going to go drive to Adelaide today very shortly.
I am more attached to Mt Gambier than i thought. I hope to return to South Australia someday after my mission.
i dont have much time to email today.
I am getting transfered to the Northern Territory!
I am leaving Mt Gambier very soon
Pretty crazy, my companion is being transfered to the Northern Territory as well. We fly up Tuesday morning.
I do not know where exactly i am going in the NT, won't find out till later.
If i get transfered to Darwin, i will have done the longest land transfer in the world, or one of the biggest in the world.
It is a distance from Detroit to Mexico City, but i might go to Alice Springs or anything inbetween.
It is going to be much different than Mt Gambier, it will be very very hot.
Up in Darwin it is very Hot, wet and muggy, and in Alice it is very Hot and dry. Either way it is going to be hot, first i am going to do is invest in a Camel Back.
Looking forward to call home, i still have to buy a card, il do that next P-day.
I am going to go drive to Adelaide today very shortly.
I am more attached to Mt Gambier than i thought. I hope to return to South Australia someday after my mission.
"Transfers are coming up next weekend. There is an 80% chance I am gone. ....I am the Mt. Gambia King."
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
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
"I am grateful for my capacity to serve and help other people grasp this message that is for everyone."
November 28, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Things are going well here. There are just some people you don’t see immediately progressing. It has been a pleasant surprise for some less actives who I thought would never come to church in my short time in Mt Gambier to actually attend. Some very surprising progression in some less actives. Maybe I had little faith in them; I need to work on my perception for everyone. I need to see them as our heavenly father would see them. He would see them with a divine potential we are all capable of becoming. Call it what you want, Charity or something else; it will be a lifelong characteristic I hope to progress in personally throughout my life.
Being on the mission really helps you more fully realize the blessings we have being a member of the church. There is so much knowledge to treasure. Where did we come from? Why are we here on this earth? What happens after we die? Truly if you can’t answer those three questions then you have wasted your time in this life. There really are so many people out there who are looking for the truth but do not know where to find it. The message that we bring to the world helps people find themselves, who they truly are. And what they are capable of becoming. The great obstacle in life is sin, with all its shame and guilt that accompanies it. Never is the message of the Saviour to turn us away from learning the truth, to stop us from receiving heavenly glory. It is always the message of Satan to keep us mouldering in the dark and to settle for our own glory or pride. I think of the Garden of Eden. It was Satan who told Adam and Eve to hide. Jesus Christ says, “Come unto me”. When we realize the objectives of both God and Satan, we can see the cross roads of decisions faced in front of us. Jesus says, “Come unto me”, Satan says, “hide, be ashamed for what you have done, you are not worthy, you are not good enough.” The procrastination of progression is the beginning of misery. Satan wants us all to be miserable like unto himself. When the scriptures say, “damnation” or you are “damned,” it is used in the same usage as if you were to build a damn on a river to stop its flow or to stop its progression. We were sent here to this earth to learn and progress, may we look to the saviour to redeem us. May we come unto him. Repentance, change is available for all of us. Let us be grateful for that. I am grateful for my capacity to serve and help other people grasp this message that is for everyone. God has once again reached out to his children. He has called prophets for our day. The bible didn’t kill god. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Love you heaps
Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Things are going well here. There are just some people you don’t see immediately progressing. It has been a pleasant surprise for some less actives who I thought would never come to church in my short time in Mt Gambier to actually attend. Some very surprising progression in some less actives. Maybe I had little faith in them; I need to work on my perception for everyone. I need to see them as our heavenly father would see them. He would see them with a divine potential we are all capable of becoming. Call it what you want, Charity or something else; it will be a lifelong characteristic I hope to progress in personally throughout my life.
Being on the mission really helps you more fully realize the blessings we have being a member of the church. There is so much knowledge to treasure. Where did we come from? Why are we here on this earth? What happens after we die? Truly if you can’t answer those three questions then you have wasted your time in this life. There really are so many people out there who are looking for the truth but do not know where to find it. The message that we bring to the world helps people find themselves, who they truly are. And what they are capable of becoming. The great obstacle in life is sin, with all its shame and guilt that accompanies it. Never is the message of the Saviour to turn us away from learning the truth, to stop us from receiving heavenly glory. It is always the message of Satan to keep us mouldering in the dark and to settle for our own glory or pride. I think of the Garden of Eden. It was Satan who told Adam and Eve to hide. Jesus Christ says, “Come unto me”. When we realize the objectives of both God and Satan, we can see the cross roads of decisions faced in front of us. Jesus says, “Come unto me”, Satan says, “hide, be ashamed for what you have done, you are not worthy, you are not good enough.” The procrastination of progression is the beginning of misery. Satan wants us all to be miserable like unto himself. When the scriptures say, “damnation” or you are “damned,” it is used in the same usage as if you were to build a damn on a river to stop its flow or to stop its progression. We were sent here to this earth to learn and progress, may we look to the saviour to redeem us. May we come unto him. Repentance, change is available for all of us. Let us be grateful for that. I am grateful for my capacity to serve and help other people grasp this message that is for everyone. God has once again reached out to his children. He has called prophets for our day. The bible didn’t kill god. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
Love you heaps
Elder Montgomery
"Thanksgiving is coming up; a member is having us over for tea that night. But Elder Rea and I bought us a little chicken to cook..."
November 21, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier
Things are ever so progressing over here. We had multiple less actives at church. We have multiple appointments set next week to start teaching people, investigators and less actives. We are bringing members to help us teach every appointment. Invitations are way more effective when it comes from members. It is starting to get very sunny here in Mt Gambier, I am so not acclimated to warm weather, being here during the whole winter has had an effect on me. Mt Gambier is one of the coldest areas in all of Australia and it receives heaps of rain. If I had left this area a couple weeks ago I would have always remembered Mt Gambier has a wet gray place. But it is quite pleasant now.
People are starting to get into the Christmas spirit. The city on the main street is decked out on Christmas decorations. We are giving away heaps of “Joy to the World” pass along cards when we knock on doors, we give them out when they are initially not interested in our message, and we have just been offering them that free DVD. I kind of want to be transferred because I do not want to be in one area for like half of my mission. But if I do get transferred in three weeks into a new area, I will not know anyone during the holidays. It is good to know the members during this special time of year. Thanksgiving is coming up; a member is having us over for tea that night. But Elder Rea and I bought us a little chicken to cook for Lunch on that Holiday. Chicken is close enough to Turkey.
We are going to go Christmas Shopping today. I am quite slack; I need to send it off this week if it is to get to you guys in time for Christmas. Always remember I am a pretty cheap person. I hope I do not forget any nieces or nephews. To tell you the truth I do not know any of the new ones names, these things get past me. I meet too many people on the mission to remember names. I might just get family gifts or something to make it easy. Going to go now Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier
Things are ever so progressing over here. We had multiple less actives at church. We have multiple appointments set next week to start teaching people, investigators and less actives. We are bringing members to help us teach every appointment. Invitations are way more effective when it comes from members. It is starting to get very sunny here in Mt Gambier, I am so not acclimated to warm weather, being here during the whole winter has had an effect on me. Mt Gambier is one of the coldest areas in all of Australia and it receives heaps of rain. If I had left this area a couple weeks ago I would have always remembered Mt Gambier has a wet gray place. But it is quite pleasant now.
People are starting to get into the Christmas spirit. The city on the main street is decked out on Christmas decorations. We are giving away heaps of “Joy to the World” pass along cards when we knock on doors, we give them out when they are initially not interested in our message, and we have just been offering them that free DVD. I kind of want to be transferred because I do not want to be in one area for like half of my mission. But if I do get transferred in three weeks into a new area, I will not know anyone during the holidays. It is good to know the members during this special time of year. Thanksgiving is coming up; a member is having us over for tea that night. But Elder Rea and I bought us a little chicken to cook for Lunch on that Holiday. Chicken is close enough to Turkey.
We are going to go Christmas Shopping today. I am quite slack; I need to send it off this week if it is to get to you guys in time for Christmas. Always remember I am a pretty cheap person. I hope I do not forget any nieces or nephews. To tell you the truth I do not know any of the new ones names, these things get past me. I meet too many people on the mission to remember names. I might just get family gifts or something to make it easy. Going to go now Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Monday, November 15, 2010
"The gospel is like a treadmill, if we are standing still in our progression we are actually moving backwards, away from God."
November 15, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a so-so week. We had most of our appointments fall through with our investigators. That has been dissapointing. We have been going threw the complete list of less actives and lost sheep, members of the church where we do not know where they live. We have met some interesting people on the way. One less active sister is quite promising i believe. Most less actives are connected to nonmembers, it is a great finding technique. In this case this certain sister has a 14 year old son who is not baptised. She just believes she hasn’t had enough time for church for the past 15 years. We will help her be aware that she does have enough time. With something as exciting as baptism she will want to make the sacrifice to come to church. To help them endure to the end we will help them catch the vision of attending the temple as a family. Their progression in this life can never be enough. The gospel is like a treadmill, if we are standing still in our progression we are actually moving backwards, away from God.
Going to go now. If we have time today we might drive to Port Macdonald. The weather is bit crazy, we haven’t had spring, it switches from summer to winter every other day. It’s been a long winter, pretty much as long as i have been in Mt Gambier, which is 8 months. Sorry i don’t have much time to write today.
Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a so-so week. We had most of our appointments fall through with our investigators. That has been dissapointing. We have been going threw the complete list of less actives and lost sheep, members of the church where we do not know where they live. We have met some interesting people on the way. One less active sister is quite promising i believe. Most less actives are connected to nonmembers, it is a great finding technique. In this case this certain sister has a 14 year old son who is not baptised. She just believes she hasn’t had enough time for church for the past 15 years. We will help her be aware that she does have enough time. With something as exciting as baptism she will want to make the sacrifice to come to church. To help them endure to the end we will help them catch the vision of attending the temple as a family. Their progression in this life can never be enough. The gospel is like a treadmill, if we are standing still in our progression we are actually moving backwards, away from God.
Going to go now. If we have time today we might drive to Port Macdonald. The weather is bit crazy, we haven’t had spring, it switches from summer to winter every other day. It’s been a long winter, pretty much as long as i have been in Mt Gambier, which is 8 months. Sorry i don’t have much time to write today.
Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Sunday, November 7, 2010
"...if we are obedient and diligent, a miracle will happen."
November 8, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
My new companion is Elder Rea. He is from Queensland. If I ever visit Australia again I will be set if I stay in Queensland, I have had 4 companions from that state. He actually was trained here about 10 months ago in Mt Gambier but now he has returned. Elder Clark and I had knocked on a door and found a potential investigator about two weeks ago. Elder Rea 10 months ago had also knocked on this same door and this same family were potential investigators. We finally set an appointment with them with the intentions of having a discussion. The wife has some questions that she wants to ask us. We certainly love answering questions. That is one of my favourite things being a missionary is being able to help people by answering their questions, revealing to them the truth. This couples name is Irene and Nick. Irene is from Holland, Nick is Aussie.
This week we struggled to have teaching opportunities with our potential investigators to progress them. Hopefully this week will be different. We have been Co-ordinating with our Ward Mission Leader to attach them to members as soon as possible.
If we do everything right, if we are obedient and diligent, a miracle will happen. Abraham was completely obedient, he did not know what to expect, God commanded him to prepare an altar for a sacrifice and then sacrifice his only son. Isaac inquired to his father, where is the lamb for the slaughter? Abraham replied, “The Lord will himself provide for a lamb”. It wasn’t until Abraham was about to slay his son through obedience that an angel came down and saved the lad. And then they saw a ram caught in a thicket and proceeded to sacrifice it instead of Isaac. I have a testimony that if I am obedient, I wake up on time, I study, I go finding consistently and I say my prayers. God will trust me with one of his elect who are prepared to receive the restored gospel. God will provide for me a lamb to teach. God will provide a lamb for me to invite to be baptised. I have seen it on my mission. I haven’t been able to do anything the Lord hasn’t provided for me. Most recently this was the Morris Family. Sister Morris for the first time in her life, 30 years in the church, (past 11 years she was less active, 4 years lost sheep) got up on fast and testimony meeting and said she finally has a testimony that the church is true. God’s hand is in this work. I just have to patient to receive what he wants me to receive. Obedience cannot be compromised.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
My new companion is Elder Rea. He is from Queensland. If I ever visit Australia again I will be set if I stay in Queensland, I have had 4 companions from that state. He actually was trained here about 10 months ago in Mt Gambier but now he has returned. Elder Clark and I had knocked on a door and found a potential investigator about two weeks ago. Elder Rea 10 months ago had also knocked on this same door and this same family were potential investigators. We finally set an appointment with them with the intentions of having a discussion. The wife has some questions that she wants to ask us. We certainly love answering questions. That is one of my favourite things being a missionary is being able to help people by answering their questions, revealing to them the truth. This couples name is Irene and Nick. Irene is from Holland, Nick is Aussie.
This week we struggled to have teaching opportunities with our potential investigators to progress them. Hopefully this week will be different. We have been Co-ordinating with our Ward Mission Leader to attach them to members as soon as possible.
If we do everything right, if we are obedient and diligent, a miracle will happen. Abraham was completely obedient, he did not know what to expect, God commanded him to prepare an altar for a sacrifice and then sacrifice his only son. Isaac inquired to his father, where is the lamb for the slaughter? Abraham replied, “The Lord will himself provide for a lamb”. It wasn’t until Abraham was about to slay his son through obedience that an angel came down and saved the lad. And then they saw a ram caught in a thicket and proceeded to sacrifice it instead of Isaac. I have a testimony that if I am obedient, I wake up on time, I study, I go finding consistently and I say my prayers. God will trust me with one of his elect who are prepared to receive the restored gospel. God will provide for me a lamb to teach. God will provide a lamb for me to invite to be baptised. I have seen it on my mission. I haven’t been able to do anything the Lord hasn’t provided for me. Most recently this was the Morris Family. Sister Morris for the first time in her life, 30 years in the church, (past 11 years she was less active, 4 years lost sheep) got up on fast and testimony meeting and said she finally has a testimony that the church is true. God’s hand is in this work. I just have to patient to receive what he wants me to receive. Obedience cannot be compromised.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"We have quite a few investigators, my objective is to attract them to members as quickly as possible."
November 1, 2010
Mom you didnt email me this week.
Or it didnt come through.
Anyways, we found out last night that Elder Clark is being transfered. I am staying yet again. I have had many companions in Mt Gambier which is unusual, typically they leave both missionaries here for like 4 1/2 months together and then one leaves.
We have quite a few investigators, my objective is to attact them to members as quickly as possible. The area has something to reload, lets see if we can't pull the trigger.
The Morris Family feeds us once a week, we will read two to three chapters of the book of mormon with them, get them into the habit of holding onto the iron rod. The members of the Ward will teach Shaylee the new member discussions, which is great. The transition from us to the members will be complete.
What do you guys all want for Christmas?
Please send me a brief list, and i might get them for you. Who received a kangarroo scripture case last Christmas?
Mom you didnt email me this week.
Or it didnt come through.
Anyways, we found out last night that Elder Clark is being transfered. I am staying yet again. I have had many companions in Mt Gambier which is unusual, typically they leave both missionaries here for like 4 1/2 months together and then one leaves.
We have quite a few investigators, my objective is to attact them to members as quickly as possible. The area has something to reload, lets see if we can't pull the trigger.
The Morris Family feeds us once a week, we will read two to three chapters of the book of mormon with them, get them into the habit of holding onto the iron rod. The members of the Ward will teach Shaylee the new member discussions, which is great. The transition from us to the members will be complete.
What do you guys all want for Christmas?
Please send me a brief list, and i might get them for you. Who received a kangarroo scripture case last Christmas?
Sunday, October 24, 2010
"This is nothing short of a miracle."
October 24, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Shaylee Morris was baptised on Saturday! We had Brother June, our ward mission leader perform the baptism. Elder Clark and I both said talks. I spoke on the Holy Ghost and he spoke on Baptism. It was a nice little service. Shaylee was a bit shy so it was invite only to the baptism. The Morris family invited friends of theirs to the Baptism. Funny enough this same family was connected to us. When i was in Adelaide last week a Sister gave me a referal to visit a family living in Mt Gambier. This Sister gave us a letter to hand deliver to the family to break the ice. The ice is certainly broken, we gave it to them at the baptismal service, we already got them into the church! The letter contained an invitation to hear a spiritual message from us. This is nothing short of a miracle. Perhaps this family needed multiple signs to humble them. We will see if they choose their agency wisely, we will call in some time this week. This new family’s name is Amanda and Scott Ware. They have 7 kids, but not all are living at home.
We had a good turnout at church on Sunday. We had 7 Less actives at church. 3 of those 7 came for the first time since i have been in the area. I have been in Mt Gambier for 7 months now. Shaylee was confirmed by our high priest group leader, it was an epic confirmation. It was like a miny Patriarchical blessing. She received great blessings, her mom wrote them down. We also had one non member at church, but he is not currently investigating. He lives in Portland, Victoria.
We found out from a member living in Victoria that there is 30 less actives in a city named Heywood, Victoria. They are all Maori’s, or native New Zealanders. They are all hiding because there is no church near there. Mt Gambier is the nearest congregation to them at about an hour away. We will get permission to leave the Mission Boundaries and probably tract as much of Heywood as possible and find these lost sheep. The member who gave us this information says one is a former Bishop in New Zealand. They all moved here so they can shear sheep.
Today for P-day we are going over to the Morris’s property and tackle some sheep and cut their tails off. And we will have this one gun thing and shoot medicine into their mouths. It is going to be a messy day today. Working on the farm. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Shaylee Morris was baptised on Saturday! We had Brother June, our ward mission leader perform the baptism. Elder Clark and I both said talks. I spoke on the Holy Ghost and he spoke on Baptism. It was a nice little service. Shaylee was a bit shy so it was invite only to the baptism. The Morris family invited friends of theirs to the Baptism. Funny enough this same family was connected to us. When i was in Adelaide last week a Sister gave me a referal to visit a family living in Mt Gambier. This Sister gave us a letter to hand deliver to the family to break the ice. The ice is certainly broken, we gave it to them at the baptismal service, we already got them into the church! The letter contained an invitation to hear a spiritual message from us. This is nothing short of a miracle. Perhaps this family needed multiple signs to humble them. We will see if they choose their agency wisely, we will call in some time this week. This new family’s name is Amanda and Scott Ware. They have 7 kids, but not all are living at home.
We had a good turnout at church on Sunday. We had 7 Less actives at church. 3 of those 7 came for the first time since i have been in the area. I have been in Mt Gambier for 7 months now. Shaylee was confirmed by our high priest group leader, it was an epic confirmation. It was like a miny Patriarchical blessing. She received great blessings, her mom wrote them down. We also had one non member at church, but he is not currently investigating. He lives in Portland, Victoria.
We found out from a member living in Victoria that there is 30 less actives in a city named Heywood, Victoria. They are all Maori’s, or native New Zealanders. They are all hiding because there is no church near there. Mt Gambier is the nearest congregation to them at about an hour away. We will get permission to leave the Mission Boundaries and probably tract as much of Heywood as possible and find these lost sheep. The member who gave us this information says one is a former Bishop in New Zealand. They all moved here so they can shear sheep.
Today for P-day we are going over to the Morris’s property and tackle some sheep and cut their tails off. And we will have this one gun thing and shoot medicine into their mouths. It is going to be a messy day today. Working on the farm. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Sunday, October 17, 2010
"This whole week has pretty much been in Adelaide. We had a two day training during the week in Adelaide. And then on Sunday was Stake Conference."
October 17, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Shaylee passed her baptism interveiw! She is set for the 23rd of October.This whole week has pretty much been in Adelaide. We had a two day training during the week in Adelaide. And then on Sunday was Stake Conference. It was fun seeing all of the missionaries and blitzing thier areas.
In Murray Bridge area we had tea at a members home and then we had a family home evening with my two recent converts, Kevin and Bart. Also two nonmembers were there. They are friends of Kevin. The two nonmembers are named Tony and Joe. We taught them about the Atonement and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We committed them to baptism for the first week of December. Joe since then has finished reading the Book of Mormon. I also visited some of my old investigators in Murray Bridge.
In Mt Barker area i taught a 23 year old woman named Fiona who was going to be baptised in 2 days. Her best friend was also there sitting in. Multiple principles were taught in this lesson. I taught Fiona about the Law of the Fast, Temples, Covenants, Book of Mormon, Tithing and about the Holy Ghost. So we pretty much just went over heaps of different things, wherever the conversation led. She did end up being baptised on the Saturday.
In the Marion area i had tea at a members home with investigators from Liberia. Thier names were Daniel and Korpo. They are going to be baptised the same weekend as Shaylee in Mt Gambier. They are married with two young children. We taught about the Baptismal Covenants and enduring to the end.
In Happy Valley area we did heaps of finding. I was with an Elder that is from Ireland, he was baptised a year and a half ago. This is his first transfer. We ended up finding three new investigators that day.
Stake Conference was excellent, we had a General Authority address us as well as President Poulton, my mission President. So it was a good week, set some baptism dates as well as strenghten some other baptismal dates for other missionaries. I was indeed homesick for Mt Gambier though. I am glad to be back and progress people in my area.
On our way home just today. Elder Clark and I went to the “Naracoorte Caves”. It is a World Heritage site. It is the only one in South Australia. We went into some long caves and looked at fossils. It was pretty cool. Well we are going to prepare for the rest of this week. Happy Birthday to Keaton! I apologize for not keeping track of other peoples birthdays, but im busy.
Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Shaylee passed her baptism interveiw! She is set for the 23rd of October.This whole week has pretty much been in Adelaide. We had a two day training during the week in Adelaide. And then on Sunday was Stake Conference. It was fun seeing all of the missionaries and blitzing thier areas.
In Murray Bridge area we had tea at a members home and then we had a family home evening with my two recent converts, Kevin and Bart. Also two nonmembers were there. They are friends of Kevin. The two nonmembers are named Tony and Joe. We taught them about the Atonement and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We committed them to baptism for the first week of December. Joe since then has finished reading the Book of Mormon. I also visited some of my old investigators in Murray Bridge.
In Mt Barker area i taught a 23 year old woman named Fiona who was going to be baptised in 2 days. Her best friend was also there sitting in. Multiple principles were taught in this lesson. I taught Fiona about the Law of the Fast, Temples, Covenants, Book of Mormon, Tithing and about the Holy Ghost. So we pretty much just went over heaps of different things, wherever the conversation led. She did end up being baptised on the Saturday.
In the Marion area i had tea at a members home with investigators from Liberia. Thier names were Daniel and Korpo. They are going to be baptised the same weekend as Shaylee in Mt Gambier. They are married with two young children. We taught about the Baptismal Covenants and enduring to the end.
In Happy Valley area we did heaps of finding. I was with an Elder that is from Ireland, he was baptised a year and a half ago. This is his first transfer. We ended up finding three new investigators that day.
Stake Conference was excellent, we had a General Authority address us as well as President Poulton, my mission President. So it was a good week, set some baptism dates as well as strenghten some other baptismal dates for other missionaries. I was indeed homesick for Mt Gambier though. I am glad to be back and progress people in my area.
On our way home just today. Elder Clark and I went to the “Naracoorte Caves”. It is a World Heritage site. It is the only one in South Australia. We went into some long caves and looked at fossils. It was pretty cool. Well we are going to prepare for the rest of this week. Happy Birthday to Keaton! I apologize for not keeping track of other peoples birthdays, but im busy.
Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Monday, October 11, 2010
"It is good to hear from a prophets voice."
October 12, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Things have been well this week. I really enjoyed General Conference last Sunday. I remember before my mission I needed to excercise great effort to stay awake during conference. But now i just take it all in. It is good to hear from a prophets voice. We have Stake Conference this coming Sunday in Adelaide. Also this week we have Zone Conference, we are going to be in Adelaide the whole week. On Monday, Elder Clark and I decided to work on Monday, so thats why i am emailing you today. I am just going to email you today and then we are going to take off to Adelaide. This week we have been visiting people and making sure things are in order for when we are absent from the area.
This week we have finished teaching Shaylee all she needs to know for baptism. We went “The Commandments” like Tithing, the Ten Commandments, and the Word of Wisdom. We even did a practice run for her baptismal interveiw. She will be interveiwed tonight by Bishop. The Morris family enjoyed Conference. One of the daughters did admit it was hard to follow at some point, at least thier honest, after being less active for 11 years it would be difficult to jump right into it. General Conference is good for Mt Gambier, the church is small here but when we watch that world wide broadcast it makes you feel like you are apart of something big and great.
We are going to take off now. Maybe we will take slight detours as we make our way towards Adelaide. Unfortunately it is a bit of a drippy day. Hopefully it will clear up so we can have nice conditions as we travel for 5 hours. Thanks to all who are keeping in touch with me.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Things have been well this week. I really enjoyed General Conference last Sunday. I remember before my mission I needed to excercise great effort to stay awake during conference. But now i just take it all in. It is good to hear from a prophets voice. We have Stake Conference this coming Sunday in Adelaide. Also this week we have Zone Conference, we are going to be in Adelaide the whole week. On Monday, Elder Clark and I decided to work on Monday, so thats why i am emailing you today. I am just going to email you today and then we are going to take off to Adelaide. This week we have been visiting people and making sure things are in order for when we are absent from the area.
This week we have finished teaching Shaylee all she needs to know for baptism. We went “The Commandments” like Tithing, the Ten Commandments, and the Word of Wisdom. We even did a practice run for her baptismal interveiw. She will be interveiwed tonight by Bishop. The Morris family enjoyed Conference. One of the daughters did admit it was hard to follow at some point, at least thier honest, after being less active for 11 years it would be difficult to jump right into it. General Conference is good for Mt Gambier, the church is small here but when we watch that world wide broadcast it makes you feel like you are apart of something big and great.
We are going to take off now. Maybe we will take slight detours as we make our way towards Adelaide. Unfortunately it is a bit of a drippy day. Hopefully it will clear up so we can have nice conditions as we travel for 5 hours. Thanks to all who are keeping in touch with me.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Monday, October 4, 2010
"My new companion is Elder Clark, he is from Utah."
October 5, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Monday here was Australian Labor Day and the Library was closed so we switched Preparation Day to Tuesday. My new companion is Elder Clark, he is from Utah. He has been out in the mission about 20 months. This is my first American companion since October last year when i first got transfered to Murray Bridge. So its been a long while. We have taught the Morris family this week about covenants, obedience, commandments in general, Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chasity. We have also watched “The Lamb of god” and “The Restoration”. They are progressing quite nicely. The baptism is still set for October 23rd. We want to teach her everything and be completely prepared before next week. Next week we are going to Adelaide for 5 days for a big training and we are going to stay during the weekend for Stake Conference the following day. This last weekend was the Footy Grand Final, which is like the Super Bowl. We had to scramble and visit people who were either from Queensland or who weren’t drunk, there was pretty much no one on the streets, it was the same last year i can remember. Everyone was watching the game. People from Queensland do not like footy, they like rugby. I am looking forward to General Conference this Sunday. We are trying to invite people to listen to a prophets voice. We have been doing a quite a bit of finding and we have a handful of potential investigators that we are going to follow up with tomorrow.
I am going to show Elder Clark the main things to see in this town. We will climb Mt Gambier and i will try and be better at taking photos.
Love you all heaps,
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Monday here was Australian Labor Day and the Library was closed so we switched Preparation Day to Tuesday. My new companion is Elder Clark, he is from Utah. He has been out in the mission about 20 months. This is my first American companion since October last year when i first got transfered to Murray Bridge. So its been a long while. We have taught the Morris family this week about covenants, obedience, commandments in general, Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chasity. We have also watched “The Lamb of god” and “The Restoration”. They are progressing quite nicely. The baptism is still set for October 23rd. We want to teach her everything and be completely prepared before next week. Next week we are going to Adelaide for 5 days for a big training and we are going to stay during the weekend for Stake Conference the following day. This last weekend was the Footy Grand Final, which is like the Super Bowl. We had to scramble and visit people who were either from Queensland or who weren’t drunk, there was pretty much no one on the streets, it was the same last year i can remember. Everyone was watching the game. People from Queensland do not like footy, they like rugby. I am looking forward to General Conference this Sunday. We are trying to invite people to listen to a prophets voice. We have been doing a quite a bit of finding and we have a handful of potential investigators that we are going to follow up with tomorrow.
I am going to show Elder Clark the main things to see in this town. We will climb Mt Gambier and i will try and be better at taking photos.
Love you all heaps,
-Elder Montgomery
"This has been a very different week."
September 26, 2010
Hello from Murray Bridge! Not in Mt Gambier at the moment.
There has been a change of plans! This has been a very different week. The Assistants to the President stuffed up and didn’t call us on Sunday night to tell us that Elder Jensen is packing his bags and is being transfered. We got the call finnally at 10:20 on Monday night and needed to be at transfers meeting 10AM the next morning in Adelaide. Adelaide is a 5 hour drive from Mt Gambier. We were not impressed, Elder Jensen packed immediately and we left early in the morning.
My new companion is and was Elder Ferris, he is from New Zealand. Unfortunately he had thrown out his back playing basketball on the Tuesday Morning before transfer meeting. So we didn’t do much work this week just taking it easy so his back could heal. The spirit has been working on Elder Ferris and he has worked up enough courage and faith in Jesus Christ to reveal a past transgression that hadn’t been confessed. Unfortunately this past transgression is bad enough for him to be sent home. We are on our way to Adelaide to the mission office, we have stopped at the Murray Bridge Library so we could email real quickly since it is P-day. So I am going to have yet another companion. I have no idea who. So yes, it has been a very different week indeed. I went months with total seclusion in Mt Gambier and now I cant seem to get away from Adelaide.
The litle amount of work we were able to do this week was continue to teach and progress Shailee for Baptism. The next time we visit that family we will begin to start teaching the commandments. She is set to be baptised on Saturday the 23rd of October. That date will come up quick.
Well I just wanted to make sure I emailed you all quickly so no one would worry about me. Looking forward to finding out who my new companion will be. We set up multiple appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday and now I have to cancel them. So I am not too excited about that. This has been the longest week in my mission I would say. Better ones to come. Going to go now.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Murray Bridge! Not in Mt Gambier at the moment.
There has been a change of plans! This has been a very different week. The Assistants to the President stuffed up and didn’t call us on Sunday night to tell us that Elder Jensen is packing his bags and is being transfered. We got the call finnally at 10:20 on Monday night and needed to be at transfers meeting 10AM the next morning in Adelaide. Adelaide is a 5 hour drive from Mt Gambier. We were not impressed, Elder Jensen packed immediately and we left early in the morning.
My new companion is and was Elder Ferris, he is from New Zealand. Unfortunately he had thrown out his back playing basketball on the Tuesday Morning before transfer meeting. So we didn’t do much work this week just taking it easy so his back could heal. The spirit has been working on Elder Ferris and he has worked up enough courage and faith in Jesus Christ to reveal a past transgression that hadn’t been confessed. Unfortunately this past transgression is bad enough for him to be sent home. We are on our way to Adelaide to the mission office, we have stopped at the Murray Bridge Library so we could email real quickly since it is P-day. So I am going to have yet another companion. I have no idea who. So yes, it has been a very different week indeed. I went months with total seclusion in Mt Gambier and now I cant seem to get away from Adelaide.
The litle amount of work we were able to do this week was continue to teach and progress Shailee for Baptism. The next time we visit that family we will begin to start teaching the commandments. She is set to be baptised on Saturday the 23rd of October. That date will come up quick.
Well I just wanted to make sure I emailed you all quickly so no one would worry about me. Looking forward to finding out who my new companion will be. We set up multiple appointments on Tuesday and Wednesday and now I have to cancel them. So I am not too excited about that. This has been the longest week in my mission I would say. Better ones to come. Going to go now.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"This is Elder Jensen’s last transfer before he goes home. So I will stick around in Mt Gambier for at least 3 more months."
September 19, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
I think the most exciting thing that has happened this week is that we have a baptism date with Shaylee. We are working towards October 23rd; she has even chosen our Ward Mission Leader to baptize her. Sister Morris is now the 2nd counsellor in the Relief Society. Ashara is attending Young Women’s and Seminary. Shaylee also attends Young women’s even though she is 11. I remember them saying, we don’t want to jump into it all straight away. Their progression is faster than what I am used to. It has been all good since the Morris family came into the scene. Lee, the oldest son, even came to church yesterday. It is funny each week Sister Morris comes to church she has brought one more child with her. First week she brought herself, the 2nd week she brought Shaylee, the next was Shaylee and Ashara and now yesterday all 4 of the Morris family attended church. The Ward has been great fellowshipping; it has brought out the best in the ward. They have been on their best behaviour, relatively. A less active brother has left his wife and ran away to Geelong this week. All I can think of is the scripture that says, “In the last days men’s hearts shall fail them.” That is a bit of drama still developing.
There is a family that is moving to the town of Portland this week in Victoria. It is outside the mission boundaries but they will attend Mt Gambier because it is the closest congregation. We are going to go help them move in. I love going outside the mission boundaries, because we are allowed to on assignment.
We found out transfers yesterday, me and Elder Jensen are staying. This is Elder Jensen’s last transfer before he goes home. So I will stick around in Mt Gambier for at least 3 more months. I do not know what we will do today for Preparation Day. We will run around the blue lake, we are still trying to run it under 20 minutes, we are getting closer.
Going to go now.
Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
I think the most exciting thing that has happened this week is that we have a baptism date with Shaylee. We are working towards October 23rd; she has even chosen our Ward Mission Leader to baptize her. Sister Morris is now the 2nd counsellor in the Relief Society. Ashara is attending Young Women’s and Seminary. Shaylee also attends Young women’s even though she is 11. I remember them saying, we don’t want to jump into it all straight away. Their progression is faster than what I am used to. It has been all good since the Morris family came into the scene. Lee, the oldest son, even came to church yesterday. It is funny each week Sister Morris comes to church she has brought one more child with her. First week she brought herself, the 2nd week she brought Shaylee, the next was Shaylee and Ashara and now yesterday all 4 of the Morris family attended church. The Ward has been great fellowshipping; it has brought out the best in the ward. They have been on their best behaviour, relatively. A less active brother has left his wife and ran away to Geelong this week. All I can think of is the scripture that says, “In the last days men’s hearts shall fail them.” That is a bit of drama still developing.
There is a family that is moving to the town of Portland this week in Victoria. It is outside the mission boundaries but they will attend Mt Gambier because it is the closest congregation. We are going to go help them move in. I love going outside the mission boundaries, because we are allowed to on assignment.
We found out transfers yesterday, me and Elder Jensen are staying. This is Elder Jensen’s last transfer before he goes home. So I will stick around in Mt Gambier for at least 3 more months. I do not know what we will do today for Preparation Day. We will run around the blue lake, we are still trying to run it under 20 minutes, we are getting closer.
Going to go now.
Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Sunday, September 12, 2010
"This Tuesday it is combined young men’s and young women’s and me and Elder Jensen are going to teach them Self Defence."
September 12, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a good week this week. The Morris family came to church again. And Sister Morris got her 16 year old daughter to come to church. Since the first Sunday in the month was Australian Fathers Days, Church yesterday was a fast and testimony meeting and the 16 year old girl named Ashara went and bore her testimony saying the church was true and she was crying. After the meeting was done all the young women did their thing and went up to her and hug her and stuff. It was great; it was her first time at church pretty much since she was baptized when she was 8. Alira is going to pick up Ashara and take her to Seminary in the mornings. All that is left in the Morris Family is the son, aged 23 to come to church now. During the week we went over to their house and taught them the Restoration. Shaily and Ashara took notes. I thought that was brilliant! I have never had anyone I have taught actually take notes. Great idea. We have set up a tea date with them and we will teach them next the Plan of Salvation. Shaily and Ashara went to Young women’s last Tuesday. This Tuesday it is combined young men’s and young women’s and me and Elder Jensen are going to teach them Self Defence. Elder Jensen claims to be a Ninja and I learned some moves at the Marine Corp base once. There are heaps of creepy looking people in this town and consequently heaps of paedophilia in this town as well. So everyone is excited to learn self defence. We will teach them how to defend against someone with a knife and a bat. Thumb holds and wrist holds, and how to get out of situations when someone grabs you and etc. It should be fun, me and Elder Jensen practice on each other. Next week is transfers. Elder Jensen goes home in 7 weeks. If I don’t get transferred next week I will be in this area for a long while I reckon. This next lesson with the Morris Family we are planning on committing Shaily to baptism.
Other than that we are trying to progress some other investigators but progression is slow.
I have no idea what we are going to do today. Last week we went exploring at the beaches and a hill in a small town called Carpenter Rocks but today is a bit gloomy and will probably rain most of the day.
Going to go now.
Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a good week this week. The Morris family came to church again. And Sister Morris got her 16 year old daughter to come to church. Since the first Sunday in the month was Australian Fathers Days, Church yesterday was a fast and testimony meeting and the 16 year old girl named Ashara went and bore her testimony saying the church was true and she was crying. After the meeting was done all the young women did their thing and went up to her and hug her and stuff. It was great; it was her first time at church pretty much since she was baptized when she was 8. Alira is going to pick up Ashara and take her to Seminary in the mornings. All that is left in the Morris Family is the son, aged 23 to come to church now. During the week we went over to their house and taught them the Restoration. Shaily and Ashara took notes. I thought that was brilliant! I have never had anyone I have taught actually take notes. Great idea. We have set up a tea date with them and we will teach them next the Plan of Salvation. Shaily and Ashara went to Young women’s last Tuesday. This Tuesday it is combined young men’s and young women’s and me and Elder Jensen are going to teach them Self Defence. Elder Jensen claims to be a Ninja and I learned some moves at the Marine Corp base once. There are heaps of creepy looking people in this town and consequently heaps of paedophilia in this town as well. So everyone is excited to learn self defence. We will teach them how to defend against someone with a knife and a bat. Thumb holds and wrist holds, and how to get out of situations when someone grabs you and etc. It should be fun, me and Elder Jensen practice on each other. Next week is transfers. Elder Jensen goes home in 7 weeks. If I don’t get transferred next week I will be in this area for a long while I reckon. This next lesson with the Morris Family we are planning on committing Shaily to baptism.
Other than that we are trying to progress some other investigators but progression is slow.
I have no idea what we are going to do today. Last week we went exploring at the beaches and a hill in a small town called Carpenter Rocks but today is a bit gloomy and will probably rain most of the day.
Going to go now.
Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Monday, September 6, 2010
"I have no clue what we are going to do today. I know we will run around the Blue Lake, We are both trying to get fit again."
September 5, 2010
I can say the area has progressed this week. The less active sister of 11 years brought one of her three children to church with her this Sunday. Her 11 year old daughter named Shaily is not baptized, she came to church for the first time in her life yesterday. This family was a "Lost Sheep". On Saturday we had an excellent tea date with them and our Ward Mission Leader's family. We were all laughing and getting to know each other. The 3 kids names and ages are (23) Lee, (16) Ashara and (11) Shaily. Fellowshipping has been excellent. She has been smothered by the members. We set an appointment to start teaching Shaily. And Sister Morris penciled us in for a tea date later on in the month on our tea date roster. We invited Ashara to attend Young Women’s on Tuesdays; she recognizes some of the other Young Women members at School. But she hasn’t met them all. Sister Morris is treating the church with an open view. Like most long-time less actives they aren’t sure if the church is true anymore. She pretty much is an investigator and we will treat her as such. We will be teaching Shaily as much as we are teaching the mother.
We haven’t been able to progress the family from Naracoorte. They would be an easy baptism/reactivation if they weren’t so far away. The distance is proving to hinder their progression.
We had a powerful visit with a less active named Doreen. She is very hard on herself and on others. She doesn’t understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ fully. If she did she would be more merciful on herself and on others. We eventually opened her up to the source of the problems and trials she is facing. She hasn’t forgiven herself for something in the past. The weight of the guilt and shame has been crushing her. We ended the visit by giving her a blessing and we went on our way.
We had a strange church service yesterday. We had only 25 people in Sacrament meeting. Everyone was gone because of Father’s Day. 5 of the 25 people at church were less actives, and one of them was Shaily who is investigating. There was an older couple that swore they would never return to church, everyone was shocked to see them. But they didn’t stay long. So it was a bit upside down yesterday.
I have no clue what we are going to do today. I know we will run around the Blue Lake, We are both trying to get fit again. Going to go now. It is good to hear from everyone.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
I can say the area has progressed this week. The less active sister of 11 years brought one of her three children to church with her this Sunday. Her 11 year old daughter named Shaily is not baptized, she came to church for the first time in her life yesterday. This family was a "Lost Sheep". On Saturday we had an excellent tea date with them and our Ward Mission Leader's family. We were all laughing and getting to know each other. The 3 kids names and ages are (23) Lee, (16) Ashara and (11) Shaily. Fellowshipping has been excellent. She has been smothered by the members. We set an appointment to start teaching Shaily. And Sister Morris penciled us in for a tea date later on in the month on our tea date roster. We invited Ashara to attend Young Women’s on Tuesdays; she recognizes some of the other Young Women members at School. But she hasn’t met them all. Sister Morris is treating the church with an open view. Like most long-time less actives they aren’t sure if the church is true anymore. She pretty much is an investigator and we will treat her as such. We will be teaching Shaily as much as we are teaching the mother.
We haven’t been able to progress the family from Naracoorte. They would be an easy baptism/reactivation if they weren’t so far away. The distance is proving to hinder their progression.
We had a powerful visit with a less active named Doreen. She is very hard on herself and on others. She doesn’t understand the Atonement of Jesus Christ fully. If she did she would be more merciful on herself and on others. We eventually opened her up to the source of the problems and trials she is facing. She hasn’t forgiven herself for something in the past. The weight of the guilt and shame has been crushing her. We ended the visit by giving her a blessing and we went on our way.
We had a strange church service yesterday. We had only 25 people in Sacrament meeting. Everyone was gone because of Father’s Day. 5 of the 25 people at church were less actives, and one of them was Shaily who is investigating. There was an older couple that swore they would never return to church, everyone was shocked to see them. But they didn’t stay long. So it was a bit upside down yesterday.
I have no clue what we are going to do today. I know we will run around the Blue Lake, We are both trying to get fit again. Going to go now. It is good to hear from everyone.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"So we decided for P-day we are going to drive to Naracoorte and see the popular 'Naracoorte Caves'."
August 29, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a fun Ward activity on Saturday. It was based off of the television show “Master Chef”, but since we are not masters we called the activity “Mediocre Chef”. It was fun, we cooked pancakes, fish and prawns in separate rounds. I had to do a pressure test and make a dessert called hedgehog. I’m not going to lie it looked like cow pie but, it tasted the best out of the other three competitors in this test. But i guess in this show the presentation matters so i lost. We even had a celebrity chef. This guest cooked in the Olympics in Sydney back in 2000. She went one on one with a member of the church, Emma Bamford, to cook this meal, the judges didn't know which dish was whose, blind test pretty much. The judges agreed that this dish was better, it was Emma’s! She actually beat the Celebrity chef. We had three non members at the activity and two less actives. So it was a good evening.
We had a good church service as well. We didn’t have any investigators at church but we had some less actives that haven’t come to church in multiple years. One sister came back after a three year absence. And one other sister for the first time in Ten years! I have been high up on the Atonement lately so i taught it in the Gospel Principles class, it was a good lesson.
The Sister who came back to church for the first time in ten years was invited by our Ward Mission Leader to the Fireside later that night, and she came! She even brought her 3 children. They are aged 25, 16, 10. The two youngest might not be baptized. I couldn’t tell you their names but their last name is Morris. They have been invited also by our Ward Mission Leader to have tea with them on Saturday and we will be there as well. This family was a “lost sheep”. They were less active in Brisbane when they moved to Mt Gambier and the church didn't know where they moved to. But the spirit worked on this Sister and she took up the courage to come to church all on her own. So that was pretty cool. The oldest son remembers going to Seminary back in the day.
Today is the last day of the month of August, we are assigned a certain amount of Kilometres a month while traveling in our car. We haven’t gone to Adelaide this whole month so we are loaded. We have like 700 extra Kilometres that will go wasted. So we decided for P-day we are going to drive to Naracoorte and see the popular “Naracoorte Caves”. I suppose this will be once in a life time opportunity so it should be fun.
Going to go now.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a fun Ward activity on Saturday. It was based off of the television show “Master Chef”, but since we are not masters we called the activity “Mediocre Chef”. It was fun, we cooked pancakes, fish and prawns in separate rounds. I had to do a pressure test and make a dessert called hedgehog. I’m not going to lie it looked like cow pie but, it tasted the best out of the other three competitors in this test. But i guess in this show the presentation matters so i lost. We even had a celebrity chef. This guest cooked in the Olympics in Sydney back in 2000. She went one on one with a member of the church, Emma Bamford, to cook this meal, the judges didn't know which dish was whose, blind test pretty much. The judges agreed that this dish was better, it was Emma’s! She actually beat the Celebrity chef. We had three non members at the activity and two less actives. So it was a good evening.
We had a good church service as well. We didn’t have any investigators at church but we had some less actives that haven’t come to church in multiple years. One sister came back after a three year absence. And one other sister for the first time in Ten years! I have been high up on the Atonement lately so i taught it in the Gospel Principles class, it was a good lesson.
The Sister who came back to church for the first time in ten years was invited by our Ward Mission Leader to the Fireside later that night, and she came! She even brought her 3 children. They are aged 25, 16, 10. The two youngest might not be baptized. I couldn’t tell you their names but their last name is Morris. They have been invited also by our Ward Mission Leader to have tea with them on Saturday and we will be there as well. This family was a “lost sheep”. They were less active in Brisbane when they moved to Mt Gambier and the church didn't know where they moved to. But the spirit worked on this Sister and she took up the courage to come to church all on her own. So that was pretty cool. The oldest son remembers going to Seminary back in the day.
Today is the last day of the month of August, we are assigned a certain amount of Kilometres a month while traveling in our car. We haven’t gone to Adelaide this whole month so we are loaded. We have like 700 extra Kilometres that will go wasted. So we decided for P-day we are going to drive to Naracoorte and see the popular “Naracoorte Caves”. I suppose this will be once in a life time opportunity so it should be fun.
Going to go now.
Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"Jesus is knocking at the door, it is up to us to answer."
August 22, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Things are good here. I didn’t go to church yesterday. I went on a priesthood splitoff to take the sacrament to members of the church in outlying areas. My companion stayed in Mt Gambier. I went with a member of the bishopric and his wife. We went to Lucindale and Naracoorte for the members that live quite aways from Mt Gambier, it is difficult for them to travel to come to church. We just bore our testimonies after administering the sacrament and left. While we were traveling we were listening to a man reading a book on the CD in the car. This may be a bit dodgy but i got so much out of it. This CD was all about our salvation, how we are justified to return home to God. I had always looked at the final judgement as a scale weight, with our good deeds on one end and our mistakes and sins on the other counter balancing. Which ever side is in more abundant decides if you get the nod to enter into the kingdom of heaven or to be cast off. It is not that at all! D&C 1:31 states that, God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. If you think you will make it to god’s presence with just a little sin, think again. It was one simple transgression that kicked Adam and Eve from the presence of god. No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of god. This is pretty harsh, it is the law of Justice, to fulfill this law god revealed if the ancient Israelites. In Theory if they obeyed all the commandments rules, which adds up to just over 600 of them, we will become perfect and worthy to return to our heavenly Fathers presence.
This can be compared to a little child, lets say 4 years old, wants to buy a bicycle. The father does not have the income to buy her daughter a bike so he stalls her, hoping she would forget. He promises her that if she saves up all her penny’s she will have enough money to buy a bike. So time goes on, perhaps months. They go to the store to buy a bicycle, they find the perfect bike for her. It is 200 dollars. The little girl had only collected 44 cents. She began to cry, the price was just too much. In Theory she could save enough money to buy this bike. By the time she has accumulated that amount she will start wanting her first car.
Comparing this to our lives, we could keep every single commandment ever revealed and become totally Christlike, become perfect and clean. But we are weak evil and carnal. We do not have that much time in this probation, this life to fulfill that. We cannot make it back to God by our own Merits. No matter how hard we try we cannot obtain perfection on our own. We need an Atonement.
Back to the story the father loves his daughter, realizes she does not have nearly what it takes to receive her gift he says to her, “Daughter give me all that you have and i will pay the rest.” That is not a bad deal, that is mercy. This same deal has been offered to us. Not because we deserve it. It is because of Love. The love that God has for all his children.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus Christ brought the “good news” the “good tidings” or most known as The gospel. The Gospel is a lifestyle that if we follow we will receive a remission of our sins. A way for our sins to be forgiven. The first step of the gospel is Faith in the lord Jesus Christ, 2nd Repentance 3rd Baptism by water 4th Baptism by fire, or by the spirit to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and finally we must endure to the end which means to continue to repent and keep the commandments the rest of our lives.
When we are baptized we are adopted into the House of Israel. In the bible the House of Israel is known as the bride. And Jehovah or Jesus Christ is known as the Bridgegroom. When we enter into the gospel covenant we become married to Jesus Christ. We covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. Just as a wife takes upon her self the name of her husband. When you are married you become One flesh, united. Even united in a bank account for instance. Lets say i am in horrible debt, tens of thousands of dollars in the red. If i were to marry the queen of England theoretically of course, she is a millionaire, our bank accounts become one. And i am now out of dept. The same happens when we are baptized, our sins become Jesus Christs Sins. In the Garden of Gethsemane our Saviour took upon himself the sins of the whole world (Alma chpt 7:11-12). Jesus Christ felt every sickness, affliction and pains we all will ever feel because of the price of Sin. It was so intense that he bled from every pore in anguish. He performed the Atonement, which if you break the word up it says, to make “At One” therefore Atonement. Mankind is fallen we are alienated from our Heavenly Father. But now our dept is paid by Jesus Christ. All we have to do is Come unto him and be baptized. And we will once again be At One with god. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd, he is leading us to eternal life. We are not saved by Faith, we are not saved by works. We are saved threw the Grace of God. It is up to us to finish this great marathon of life, few of us will run threw over the finish line. Others will walk over, many will crawl over. We are all climbing a mountain leading to heaven, everyone is at different levels. At the end of the day if we were true to our gospel covenant, if we tried our hardest with all our efforts, than Jesus Christ will carry us the rest of the way, to the top of the mountain, even to the Celestial Kingdom. I know that if we endure to the end striving to do our best, with all our heart, might, mind and strenght, to do the will of our Father instead of the Will of the world, then is his grace sufficient for us. Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.
This is the grand message of the Book or Mormon. You will come unto Christ stronger and more successfully by this book than by any other. If this book is true than that means the bible is the word of God as well. It is proof that god is the same yesterday, today and forever. He loves us and shows it actively. The heavens are open, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and restored the priesthood authority to administer the ordinances of this great gospel. Revelation is flowing down to his authorized servants, even Thomas S Monson as a latter day prophet for our benefit today. Jesus is knocking at the door, it is up to us to answer. As a missionary I literally represent Jesus Christ physically knocking on a door. I know that this is God’s work and his glory. I know God helps all missionaries to fulfill his purpose because we are one in purpose. We have the divine companionship with us continually. The Holy Ghost truly is the comforter. You can look at it as a down payment from our Father letting us know that we are on the right track towards him. How wonderful that every time we partake of the Sacrament we should be able to feel the spirit, for we are promised he will be with us. I know that this is the true church. This is the Lord’s church. I am grateful for the blessing of technology that allows me to email you this spiritual thought without me having to write it.
I am going to go now. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Things are good here. I didn’t go to church yesterday. I went on a priesthood splitoff to take the sacrament to members of the church in outlying areas. My companion stayed in Mt Gambier. I went with a member of the bishopric and his wife. We went to Lucindale and Naracoorte for the members that live quite aways from Mt Gambier, it is difficult for them to travel to come to church. We just bore our testimonies after administering the sacrament and left. While we were traveling we were listening to a man reading a book on the CD in the car. This may be a bit dodgy but i got so much out of it. This CD was all about our salvation, how we are justified to return home to God. I had always looked at the final judgement as a scale weight, with our good deeds on one end and our mistakes and sins on the other counter balancing. Which ever side is in more abundant decides if you get the nod to enter into the kingdom of heaven or to be cast off. It is not that at all! D&C 1:31 states that, God cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. If you think you will make it to god’s presence with just a little sin, think again. It was one simple transgression that kicked Adam and Eve from the presence of god. No unclean thing can dwell in the presence of god. This is pretty harsh, it is the law of Justice, to fulfill this law god revealed if the ancient Israelites. In Theory if they obeyed all the commandments rules, which adds up to just over 600 of them, we will become perfect and worthy to return to our heavenly Fathers presence.
This can be compared to a little child, lets say 4 years old, wants to buy a bicycle. The father does not have the income to buy her daughter a bike so he stalls her, hoping she would forget. He promises her that if she saves up all her penny’s she will have enough money to buy a bike. So time goes on, perhaps months. They go to the store to buy a bicycle, they find the perfect bike for her. It is 200 dollars. The little girl had only collected 44 cents. She began to cry, the price was just too much. In Theory she could save enough money to buy this bike. By the time she has accumulated that amount she will start wanting her first car.
Comparing this to our lives, we could keep every single commandment ever revealed and become totally Christlike, become perfect and clean. But we are weak evil and carnal. We do not have that much time in this probation, this life to fulfill that. We cannot make it back to God by our own Merits. No matter how hard we try we cannot obtain perfection on our own. We need an Atonement.
Back to the story the father loves his daughter, realizes she does not have nearly what it takes to receive her gift he says to her, “Daughter give me all that you have and i will pay the rest.” That is not a bad deal, that is mercy. This same deal has been offered to us. Not because we deserve it. It is because of Love. The love that God has for all his children.
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever beleiveth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Jesus Christ brought the “good news” the “good tidings” or most known as The gospel. The Gospel is a lifestyle that if we follow we will receive a remission of our sins. A way for our sins to be forgiven. The first step of the gospel is Faith in the lord Jesus Christ, 2nd Repentance 3rd Baptism by water 4th Baptism by fire, or by the spirit to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost and finally we must endure to the end which means to continue to repent and keep the commandments the rest of our lives.
When we are baptized we are adopted into the House of Israel. In the bible the House of Israel is known as the bride. And Jehovah or Jesus Christ is known as the Bridgegroom. When we enter into the gospel covenant we become married to Jesus Christ. We covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Christ. Just as a wife takes upon her self the name of her husband. When you are married you become One flesh, united. Even united in a bank account for instance. Lets say i am in horrible debt, tens of thousands of dollars in the red. If i were to marry the queen of England theoretically of course, she is a millionaire, our bank accounts become one. And i am now out of dept. The same happens when we are baptized, our sins become Jesus Christs Sins. In the Garden of Gethsemane our Saviour took upon himself the sins of the whole world (Alma chpt 7:11-12). Jesus Christ felt every sickness, affliction and pains we all will ever feel because of the price of Sin. It was so intense that he bled from every pore in anguish. He performed the Atonement, which if you break the word up it says, to make “At One” therefore Atonement. Mankind is fallen we are alienated from our Heavenly Father. But now our dept is paid by Jesus Christ. All we have to do is Come unto him and be baptized. And we will once again be At One with god. Jesus Christ is the good shepherd, he is leading us to eternal life. We are not saved by Faith, we are not saved by works. We are saved threw the Grace of God. It is up to us to finish this great marathon of life, few of us will run threw over the finish line. Others will walk over, many will crawl over. We are all climbing a mountain leading to heaven, everyone is at different levels. At the end of the day if we were true to our gospel covenant, if we tried our hardest with all our efforts, than Jesus Christ will carry us the rest of the way, to the top of the mountain, even to the Celestial Kingdom. I know that if we endure to the end striving to do our best, with all our heart, might, mind and strenght, to do the will of our Father instead of the Will of the world, then is his grace sufficient for us. Come unto Christ, and be perfected in him.
This is the grand message of the Book or Mormon. You will come unto Christ stronger and more successfully by this book than by any other. If this book is true than that means the bible is the word of God as well. It is proof that god is the same yesterday, today and forever. He loves us and shows it actively. The heavens are open, Joseph Smith saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and restored the priesthood authority to administer the ordinances of this great gospel. Revelation is flowing down to his authorized servants, even Thomas S Monson as a latter day prophet for our benefit today. Jesus is knocking at the door, it is up to us to answer. As a missionary I literally represent Jesus Christ physically knocking on a door. I know that this is God’s work and his glory. I know God helps all missionaries to fulfill his purpose because we are one in purpose. We have the divine companionship with us continually. The Holy Ghost truly is the comforter. You can look at it as a down payment from our Father letting us know that we are on the right track towards him. How wonderful that every time we partake of the Sacrament we should be able to feel the spirit, for we are promised he will be with us. I know that this is the true church. This is the Lord’s church. I am grateful for the blessing of technology that allows me to email you this spiritual thought without me having to write it.
I am going to go now. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
"It takes discipline to be a disciple, hence disciple is the root word of discipline."
August 15, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a pretty good week. Shannon and Tyson came to church yesterday. But most exciting was that we finally had a visit with Debbie and her family. We wanted to restart with the basics, so we just watched a church movie with them. We didnt want to set a baptism date. We want them making it to church for a few times regularly before they are baptized. That goes for all the kids we are working with. Its one thing to just baptize them. But i do not want to set anyone up for failure. I do not want them to make very important eternal covenants with god. We could teach them the Word of Wisdom and they can go to church and it will be supported but what happens when they go home and they see their mums smoking. That will bring confusion into their lives. Before we baptize any kids we want the full support of the parents that they will sustain the teachings of the church throughout the time the kids are living with them. Will they have family home evening? Will they have family scripture study. Will they make sure they go to activities and to church regularly. To be baptized is not just a social event, its not just a Christening and then having a few beers afterwards. It is not just a number for the church. It is a culture change. People should literally be reborn into something unnatural, they should be reborn a deciple of Jesus Christ. It takes decipline to be a deciple, hence deciple is the root word of decipline. I want to make sure the parents understand this. I will not baptize children who are going to go less active in a couple of months. I will not set them up for failure, they will have a better judgement with the stance that they had no knowlege of the gospel than if they go less active and do not endure to the end. If and when the parents sign that baptism form, this all will be clearly said to them. This is what is expected of them. So we will continue to teach and progress all these investigators of ours.
We had a crazy baptism this week. This young women in the Ward has moved like 20 times around Australia in her lifetime. And the church has lost her membership record. What is not recorded on earth is not recorded in heaven. So she had to be rebaptized. Technically it is a convert baptism, but whether they count it or not i do not really care because we had pretty much nothing to do with her conversion. She is a freebee.
Well i am going to go now.
Talk to you all later. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had a pretty good week. Shannon and Tyson came to church yesterday. But most exciting was that we finally had a visit with Debbie and her family. We wanted to restart with the basics, so we just watched a church movie with them. We didnt want to set a baptism date. We want them making it to church for a few times regularly before they are baptized. That goes for all the kids we are working with. Its one thing to just baptize them. But i do not want to set anyone up for failure. I do not want them to make very important eternal covenants with god. We could teach them the Word of Wisdom and they can go to church and it will be supported but what happens when they go home and they see their mums smoking. That will bring confusion into their lives. Before we baptize any kids we want the full support of the parents that they will sustain the teachings of the church throughout the time the kids are living with them. Will they have family home evening? Will they have family scripture study. Will they make sure they go to activities and to church regularly. To be baptized is not just a social event, its not just a Christening and then having a few beers afterwards. It is not just a number for the church. It is a culture change. People should literally be reborn into something unnatural, they should be reborn a deciple of Jesus Christ. It takes decipline to be a deciple, hence deciple is the root word of decipline. I want to make sure the parents understand this. I will not baptize children who are going to go less active in a couple of months. I will not set them up for failure, they will have a better judgement with the stance that they had no knowlege of the gospel than if they go less active and do not endure to the end. If and when the parents sign that baptism form, this all will be clearly said to them. This is what is expected of them. So we will continue to teach and progress all these investigators of ours.
We had a crazy baptism this week. This young women in the Ward has moved like 20 times around Australia in her lifetime. And the church has lost her membership record. What is not recorded on earth is not recorded in heaven. So she had to be rebaptized. Technically it is a convert baptism, but whether they count it or not i do not really care because we had pretty much nothing to do with her conversion. She is a freebee.
Well i am going to go now.
Talk to you all later. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Sunday, August 8, 2010
"I ask you all for your prayers that God will provide a way for these kids to progress and come unto Christ."
August 8, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Me and Elder Jensen are staying in Mt Gambier. By the end of this coming Transfer i will have done 6 months in Mt Gambier, the same amount of time i was in Murray Bridge.
Things are going well. The children we are teaching are progressing at the same amount of time. We have started to teach them. They are all at the same level. We are teaching them all the same lessons. We started off by building their foundation on Jesus Christ. We watched the movie, “Finding Faith in Christ”. They each have their own circumstances and challenges we will have to work with. One group of kid’s mother doesn't want her kids baptized unless they can feel and recognize the spirit. We are dealing with Shannon and Tyson who are 8 year old male twins who are usually off the walls. Nevertheless this can be achieved. Taila and Daishun’s challenge is the distance, its hard for us to get there and for them to come to church. Jordan we only teach when we are at her Grandma’a house. Her mom lives at her boyfriends 90% of the time and she will not tell us where that house is. Another kid we are teaching named Zion lives part time with his mother, the mother is too young for us to visit alone so we go to his Grandma’s house, the grandma is an excommunicated Aboriginal Elder but believes the church is true, she just felt guilty because she is unable to keep the Word of Wisdom and asked for her name removed, the father of Zion has joint custody. So those are the main dilemmas that we are working with. Some are easier than others. I ask you all for your prayers that God will provide a way for these kids to progress and come unto Christ.
Got to go. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Me and Elder Jensen are staying in Mt Gambier. By the end of this coming Transfer i will have done 6 months in Mt Gambier, the same amount of time i was in Murray Bridge.
Things are going well. The children we are teaching are progressing at the same amount of time. We have started to teach them. They are all at the same level. We are teaching them all the same lessons. We started off by building their foundation on Jesus Christ. We watched the movie, “Finding Faith in Christ”. They each have their own circumstances and challenges we will have to work with. One group of kid’s mother doesn't want her kids baptized unless they can feel and recognize the spirit. We are dealing with Shannon and Tyson who are 8 year old male twins who are usually off the walls. Nevertheless this can be achieved. Taila and Daishun’s challenge is the distance, its hard for us to get there and for them to come to church. Jordan we only teach when we are at her Grandma’a house. Her mom lives at her boyfriends 90% of the time and she will not tell us where that house is. Another kid we are teaching named Zion lives part time with his mother, the mother is too young for us to visit alone so we go to his Grandma’s house, the grandma is an excommunicated Aboriginal Elder but believes the church is true, she just felt guilty because she is unable to keep the Word of Wisdom and asked for her name removed, the father of Zion has joint custody. So those are the main dilemmas that we are working with. Some are easier than others. I ask you all for your prayers that God will provide a way for these kids to progress and come unto Christ.
Got to go. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"We have alot of children that we are working with, this transfer can be described as 'waiting for the dust to settle'."
August 1, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We finally got in contact with Debbie and her family! They just decided to do a random two week holiday to New Zealand. I was so relieved when she picked up the phone. I was just calling the house everyday. I was beginning to not even expect an answer. My companion was holding the mobile phone on loud speaker while i was driving and then she picked up. I quickly pulled over and took the phone, Debbie doesn't even know Elder Jensen so i grabbed it. We have an appointment with her this Thursday, we are going to get them on track.
We have alot of children that we are working with, this transfer can be described as “waiting for the dust to settle”. We have just been setting up things. We have return appointments this week for all of the 7 children we are working with. They are all at the same level and we are going to start teaching them with the same thing. We haven't begun to start teaching them but we will this week. We are going to just start off with a movie. Probably “finding faith in Christ”, or “The Testaments”. Probably will depend on how much time we have to spend with them. Children learn best by visuals and movies are incredible with keeping their attention. The parents, the bishopric, and us the missionaries want to make sure that these kids are truly converted, as much as children can be converted. We are not just going to baptize them just because they want to be baptized. Our job is to make sure they feel and recognize the spirit. So they can establish their faith and hold onto the iron rod. The older generations may be apostate, but there is still hope for the rising one.
Elder Jensen is a funny guy, he is from Queensland. He wants to go into the film industry. He wants to make movies. It is great because i feel like i can give some meaningful criticism and feedback on certain movies and philosophies. So now that i know him i can email him in the future and say, “what the heck are you doing!?”.
I was in contact with my two male adult recent converts from Murray Bridge recently. Bart and Kevin, they are still active and they will receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in November.
I have to go now. I reckon we will look at the “Cave Gardens” here in town. It is a collapsed cave or a sinkhole and they just made it into a garden. And maybe climb Mt Gambier to this lookout tower thing. I am lucky to be in an area where there are things to look at. Otherwise there wouldn't be much to do on P-days since they are no missionaries nearby. Got to go. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We finally got in contact with Debbie and her family! They just decided to do a random two week holiday to New Zealand. I was so relieved when she picked up the phone. I was just calling the house everyday. I was beginning to not even expect an answer. My companion was holding the mobile phone on loud speaker while i was driving and then she picked up. I quickly pulled over and took the phone, Debbie doesn't even know Elder Jensen so i grabbed it. We have an appointment with her this Thursday, we are going to get them on track.
We have alot of children that we are working with, this transfer can be described as “waiting for the dust to settle”. We have just been setting up things. We have return appointments this week for all of the 7 children we are working with. They are all at the same level and we are going to start teaching them with the same thing. We haven't begun to start teaching them but we will this week. We are going to just start off with a movie. Probably “finding faith in Christ”, or “The Testaments”. Probably will depend on how much time we have to spend with them. Children learn best by visuals and movies are incredible with keeping their attention. The parents, the bishopric, and us the missionaries want to make sure that these kids are truly converted, as much as children can be converted. We are not just going to baptize them just because they want to be baptized. Our job is to make sure they feel and recognize the spirit. So they can establish their faith and hold onto the iron rod. The older generations may be apostate, but there is still hope for the rising one.
Elder Jensen is a funny guy, he is from Queensland. He wants to go into the film industry. He wants to make movies. It is great because i feel like i can give some meaningful criticism and feedback on certain movies and philosophies. So now that i know him i can email him in the future and say, “what the heck are you doing!?”.
I was in contact with my two male adult recent converts from Murray Bridge recently. Bart and Kevin, they are still active and they will receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in November.
I have to go now. I reckon we will look at the “Cave Gardens” here in town. It is a collapsed cave or a sinkhole and they just made it into a garden. And maybe climb Mt Gambier to this lookout tower thing. I am lucky to be in an area where there are things to look at. Otherwise there wouldn't be much to do on P-days since they are no missionaries nearby. Got to go. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Sunday, July 25, 2010
"We are going to continue to work and try and progress this area of the Lord's vineyard."
July 25, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier
Things are good, we had a couple of unfamilar faces at church so that was exciting. We got two less actives at church who had not been to church ever since i have been in this town. Emma Bamford brought along her cousin Kristy to church, she has been twice since i have been here. One of the new less actives was great with her, she told a core experience of hers about prayer, she was a less active member even 20 years ago. She prayed to know which church she should get her children baptized in. The very next day the missionaries knocked on her door for the first time in years. She was living out in the country and missionaries never went by there. Until her answer to her prayer. Also she said she remembers her baptism and felt an actual "reborn" experience. She was baptized into a different church some years later and didnt feel a thing. It was good for this less active sister to share those experiences in class to Kristy who is investigating the church.
I am not sure what has happened to Debbie and her family. They have dissapeared off the face of the earth. I havent been able to get in contact with them for some time. Me and Elder Jensen did a quick run to Naracoorte to catch them but the house was dark and nobody home. They could be dead or something. Or on a extended holiday. I am worried about them. Keep them in your prayers.
We are going to continue to work and try and progress this area of the Lord's vineyard.
Sorry this is a short email but i got to go. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier
Things are good, we had a couple of unfamilar faces at church so that was exciting. We got two less actives at church who had not been to church ever since i have been in this town. Emma Bamford brought along her cousin Kristy to church, she has been twice since i have been here. One of the new less actives was great with her, she told a core experience of hers about prayer, she was a less active member even 20 years ago. She prayed to know which church she should get her children baptized in. The very next day the missionaries knocked on her door for the first time in years. She was living out in the country and missionaries never went by there. Until her answer to her prayer. Also she said she remembers her baptism and felt an actual "reborn" experience. She was baptized into a different church some years later and didnt feel a thing. It was good for this less active sister to share those experiences in class to Kristy who is investigating the church.
I am not sure what has happened to Debbie and her family. They have dissapeared off the face of the earth. I havent been able to get in contact with them for some time. Me and Elder Jensen did a quick run to Naracoorte to catch them but the house was dark and nobody home. They could be dead or something. Or on a extended holiday. I am worried about them. Keep them in your prayers.
We are going to continue to work and try and progress this area of the Lord's vineyard.
Sorry this is a short email but i got to go. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"One of my companions Elder Lowry, from the Cook Islands is going home in two days."
July 18, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had four investigators at church yesterday. 3 of Mitchel’s cousins came to church. They all enjoyed it. During the week we went and visited thier Mother, Emma. She had suffered a brain Aneurism and just about almost died. She was touched about how many people fasted and prayed for her. She even is aware that her name was put forward to the temple so the saints can pray for her. She hasn’t smoked in 5 weeks. She has not been to church in 15 years. She would of came yesterday but she still needs to rest. But it is good that her three children were able to come to church. When we visited them during the week we committed the children to the missionary discussions.
The other nonmember that came to church was invited by a member. We do not know the level of her interest but we will look into it. We are going to try and start teaching a ten year old boy named Zion. Mt Gambier is too small of a town. Everyone is related to each other. Zion’s mother is a less active sister. The Father of Zion, i found out this week, and his seperate family are all forever investigators. Teaching Zion might be the key to finnally progressing his family. His Father has 6 kids. The main obstable is Zion plays Aussie Rules Football every Sunday. So after much planning and contemplating me and my companions decided to break his ankle so he could obey the Sabbath day and come to church. J/k, but it certainly would help. I do not know what we will do, perhaps just wait till the Season ends.
One of my companions Elder Lowry, from the Cook Islands is going home in two days. So it will be just me and Elder Jensen. Back to the normal two missionaries for a companionship. Right now i am high on “Mormon Messages”, we have a DVD of a couple choice videos. There are some very powerful ones that we are showing to members. The Naracoorte Family did not go to church yesterday. We havent been able to get ahold of them. I think they are on vacation during these school Holidays. We are going to call them today. We will most likely push the baptism date back from August 1st.
Today for P-day we are going to do a bit of shopping and make sure Elder Lowry is ready to go. He will be transfered to the Cook Islands without a companion. He will be looking for a eternal companion. It is good to hear from you all.
Got to go. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had four investigators at church yesterday. 3 of Mitchel’s cousins came to church. They all enjoyed it. During the week we went and visited thier Mother, Emma. She had suffered a brain Aneurism and just about almost died. She was touched about how many people fasted and prayed for her. She even is aware that her name was put forward to the temple so the saints can pray for her. She hasn’t smoked in 5 weeks. She has not been to church in 15 years. She would of came yesterday but she still needs to rest. But it is good that her three children were able to come to church. When we visited them during the week we committed the children to the missionary discussions.
The other nonmember that came to church was invited by a member. We do not know the level of her interest but we will look into it. We are going to try and start teaching a ten year old boy named Zion. Mt Gambier is too small of a town. Everyone is related to each other. Zion’s mother is a less active sister. The Father of Zion, i found out this week, and his seperate family are all forever investigators. Teaching Zion might be the key to finnally progressing his family. His Father has 6 kids. The main obstable is Zion plays Aussie Rules Football every Sunday. So after much planning and contemplating me and my companions decided to break his ankle so he could obey the Sabbath day and come to church. J/k, but it certainly would help. I do not know what we will do, perhaps just wait till the Season ends.
One of my companions Elder Lowry, from the Cook Islands is going home in two days. So it will be just me and Elder Jensen. Back to the normal two missionaries for a companionship. Right now i am high on “Mormon Messages”, we have a DVD of a couple choice videos. There are some very powerful ones that we are showing to members. The Naracoorte Family did not go to church yesterday. We havent been able to get ahold of them. I think they are on vacation during these school Holidays. We are going to call them today. We will most likely push the baptism date back from August 1st.
Today for P-day we are going to do a bit of shopping and make sure Elder Lowry is ready to go. He will be transfered to the Cook Islands without a companion. He will be looking for a eternal companion. It is good to hear from you all.
Got to go. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
"I saw the largest Red kangarroo jump in front of the road as I was driving."
July 11, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Elder Lowry has 9 days before he goes home. Even with our trio companionship we are being fed very well by the members. I am writing to you from Murray Bridge. We have a zone conference this week so we drove down on Sunday after church. I saw the largest Red kangarroo jump in front of the road as I was driving. It took like three jumps across the road and it was gone, it was quick as. It definitely made me drive more cautiously the whole way there so no worries. I am going to try and visit some of my old investigators and recent converts today.
Not much update on the woman named Emma who had a brain aneaurysm. I know she received a preisthood blessing from her cousin who is an Elders quorm president in a congregation in Adelaide. Her three children are potential baptisms. Their names are Shannon, Tyson and Sharie. They are all under the age of 12.
Because it is school holidays we havent been able to visit Debbie and her family. If they do not come to church this next Sunday we will postpone the proposed baptism on August first to another later date. They must show a commitment to come to church. It is no use in baptizing someone if they will not make a habit of worshipping god. We are going to pop in on the way home to Mt Gambier later this week and give them the run down. If they are not ready to keep commitments they are not ready to make covenants.
It seems our top prospects for baptism is children at the moment. We found other children of less active members and ex communicated members that are not baptized. The worth of every soul is great in the sight of god. An investigator named Collen is going in for surgery on her knee soon. So that will delay her progression for while.
Also Sister Jones broke her foot. So that might delay her progression as well. Also a reactivated Sister who recently moved to Whyalla suffered a brain aneaurysm. I have known multiple people now who have suffered threw those afflictions. Smoking is terrible in this country. But fortunately the price of tobacco is increasing very quickly. Everyone is trying to quit smoking, it is amazing, people just cant afford it. There is this medication going around which is the real deal. It is called “Champix” and it destroys your crazing for nicotene. Heaps of people are on it. Threwout my time as a missionary I have commited many people to take that medication to quit smoking.
Man I am in the last half of my mission. This mission will be very different in four and half months. Like half the mission will go home. The mission is very old. We will have big as missionary intakes I reckon when they leave to replace them, everyone will be training!
Well I am going to go. We are going to go bowling and play Aussie rules football. So it should be a fun day. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Elder Lowry has 9 days before he goes home. Even with our trio companionship we are being fed very well by the members. I am writing to you from Murray Bridge. We have a zone conference this week so we drove down on Sunday after church. I saw the largest Red kangarroo jump in front of the road as I was driving. It took like three jumps across the road and it was gone, it was quick as. It definitely made me drive more cautiously the whole way there so no worries. I am going to try and visit some of my old investigators and recent converts today.
Not much update on the woman named Emma who had a brain aneaurysm. I know she received a preisthood blessing from her cousin who is an Elders quorm president in a congregation in Adelaide. Her three children are potential baptisms. Their names are Shannon, Tyson and Sharie. They are all under the age of 12.
Because it is school holidays we havent been able to visit Debbie and her family. If they do not come to church this next Sunday we will postpone the proposed baptism on August first to another later date. They must show a commitment to come to church. It is no use in baptizing someone if they will not make a habit of worshipping god. We are going to pop in on the way home to Mt Gambier later this week and give them the run down. If they are not ready to keep commitments they are not ready to make covenants.
It seems our top prospects for baptism is children at the moment. We found other children of less active members and ex communicated members that are not baptized. The worth of every soul is great in the sight of god. An investigator named Collen is going in for surgery on her knee soon. So that will delay her progression for while.
Also Sister Jones broke her foot. So that might delay her progression as well. Also a reactivated Sister who recently moved to Whyalla suffered a brain aneaurysm. I have known multiple people now who have suffered threw those afflictions. Smoking is terrible in this country. But fortunately the price of tobacco is increasing very quickly. Everyone is trying to quit smoking, it is amazing, people just cant afford it. There is this medication going around which is the real deal. It is called “Champix” and it destroys your crazing for nicotene. Heaps of people are on it. Threwout my time as a missionary I have commited many people to take that medication to quit smoking.
Man I am in the last half of my mission. This mission will be very different in four and half months. Like half the mission will go home. The mission is very old. We will have big as missionary intakes I reckon when they leave to replace them, everyone will be training!
Well I am going to go. We are going to go bowling and play Aussie rules football. So it should be a fun day. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Thursday, July 8, 2010
Anniversary
July 8, 2010
Note from Mom: One year ago today Braden left for his mission. I remember all too well watching and helping him pack up his luggage, checking the lists, ironing his freshly washed and dried brand new white shirt. Watching him put on his Australian tie that Brother Groggett (who served in this same mission almost 20 years earlier) let him borrow. I watched my boy say his goodbyes, with tears in his eyes, to his nieces and nephews as well as to his siblings. I heard him call his friends for the last time to tell them goodbye. I watched him turn off his cell phone and hand it to me. I watched him gather his books and supplies and pack them neatly in his luggage. We checked the list again. Made sure he had his passport, his flight itinerary, his immunization record all in his suit pocket for easy access. I remember hugging him again and again and just looking at him trying to memorize his face, his walk, and his laugh. We went over his flight itinerary and asked him to call us, if possible, to let us know he had arrived safely in Utah. I remember our family prayer before we left for the airport. I remember Braden telling our dog, Martha, goodbye, and she just wagged her tail and loved him like nothing was any different. I remember how ready Braden was for this new adventure in his life, the opportunity to serve a mission and to serve our Heavenly Father. He was excited and ready to go.
When we arrived at the "Braden International Airport" in Yuma, we made sure to make him stand underneath the word, "Braden" with his luggage and took a picture -- we thought that was kind of cool. He always liked that the airport was "named after him." I remember looking at all the people arriving from their flight and seeing them hug their loved ones. I was about to tell my son good-bye for 2 years and he was about to leave for one of the most memorable and amazing 2 years of his life. It almost seemed surreal. Darryl helped Braden get checked in and get in line. I saw a friend, Sara Rosevear, who was flying out to see her daughter in Utah. I was there to send my son on his mission and she was so excited for him.
Then it was time for the good-bye. He was in line and people were behind him. Darryl and the boys hugged him first. Darryl let me be the final one to say my good-bye. I think he was worried that I might take too long and he wouldn't have a chance! I really couldn't take too long, but I hugged him as long as I could with tears streaming and told him how much I loved him and how proud I was. He was smiling and excited! The only tears were mine, and I knew right then that my boy was ready. I let him go and we all watched him walk onto his airplane. We waited to see his airplane take off and right then, his mission began, one year ago today.
Note from Mom: One year ago today Braden left for his mission. I remember all too well watching and helping him pack up his luggage, checking the lists, ironing his freshly washed and dried brand new white shirt. Watching him put on his Australian tie that Brother Groggett (who served in this same mission almost 20 years earlier) let him borrow. I watched my boy say his goodbyes, with tears in his eyes, to his nieces and nephews as well as to his siblings. I heard him call his friends for the last time to tell them goodbye. I watched him turn off his cell phone and hand it to me. I watched him gather his books and supplies and pack them neatly in his luggage. We checked the list again. Made sure he had his passport, his flight itinerary, his immunization record all in his suit pocket for easy access. I remember hugging him again and again and just looking at him trying to memorize his face, his walk, and his laugh. We went over his flight itinerary and asked him to call us, if possible, to let us know he had arrived safely in Utah. I remember our family prayer before we left for the airport. I remember Braden telling our dog, Martha, goodbye, and she just wagged her tail and loved him like nothing was any different. I remember how ready Braden was for this new adventure in his life, the opportunity to serve a mission and to serve our Heavenly Father. He was excited and ready to go.
When we arrived at the "Braden International Airport" in Yuma, we made sure to make him stand underneath the word, "Braden" with his luggage and took a picture -- we thought that was kind of cool. He always liked that the airport was "named after him." I remember looking at all the people arriving from their flight and seeing them hug their loved ones. I was about to tell my son good-bye for 2 years and he was about to leave for one of the most memorable and amazing 2 years of his life. It almost seemed surreal. Darryl helped Braden get checked in and get in line. I saw a friend, Sara Rosevear, who was flying out to see her daughter in Utah. I was there to send my son on his mission and she was so excited for him.
Then it was time for the good-bye. He was in line and people were behind him. Darryl and the boys hugged him first. Darryl let me be the final one to say my good-bye. I think he was worried that I might take too long and he wouldn't have a chance! I really couldn't take too long, but I hugged him as long as I could with tears streaming and told him how much I loved him and how proud I was. He was smiling and excited! The only tears were mine, and I knew right then that my boy was ready. I let him go and we all watched him walk onto his airplane. We waited to see his airplane take off and right then, his mission began, one year ago today.
"Charity never faileth and it really is the pure love of Christ."
July 5, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
My previous companion Elder Williams has been transfered to Broken Hill in New South Wales. I am now in a trio in a surprising turn of events. There is an odd number of missionaries in the field, because an American was having Visa problems and got delayed. So Mt Gambier got the lucky odd number of missionaries. I have Elder Lowrie from the Cook islands, he is also part Canadian blood. He goes home in two weeks. Also i have Elder Jensen from Brisbane, Queensland. He has about 4 months left in his mission. President Poulton must really want to keep a close eye on me or something. This is not the first time I have been in a trio, my first transfer I had Elder Munk emergency transfered into my companionship. I have had ten companions so far in my mission all from around the world. Two Austrailians, a Samoan, Tongan, Maori, Canadian/Cook islander and Americans. It is a bit ackward going into peoples houses, it is like a mob of us coming in since there is three of us. We seem to be getting fed more as well and people giving us more food. For that reason I like being in a trio. But otherwise I rather just be in a regular companionship.
This week i have been showing my companions around town meeting everyone. The members, less actives, and potential investigators and etc. We had a good planning session the other day. What this area needs is more charity. The members here at the moment are a bit disunified. We are going to teach some member missionary lessons focused on charity. We will commit them to doing two secret acts of service a week. One to someone in the ward. And the other act of service to someone outside the ward. Charity never faileth and it really is the pure love of Christ. It may be the uplifting ingredient these members need. We do not want to commit them because they feel oblidged because we told them to do it. We want them to commit because of their love for their Brothers and Sisters. We will commence these member lessons this week.
We had two investigators at church this week. A girl named Serena June came again. She can only progress as much as her Mom will allow her to progress. Which isn’t much at all unfortunately. Also a (Adam)member’s girlfriend (Eve) came to church for the first time this year. She was taught one lesson by the missionary previous to me in this area last months ago. He was a bit too full on and pushed her interests in the church the wrong direction. So we have to be careful with her. But it was good to see her. Her name is Eve, I like how her boyfriend’s name is Adam. I was talking to Adam a bit at church and he is thinking of proposing marriage to her.
Debbie and her family couldn’t make it to church this week. The baptism is still scheduled for August 1st. Which is a while away but at the same time it is not. The 3 potenial investigator’s, who are cousins to Mitchell, Mother had a brain aneurysm this week. I really hope she pulls through. How grateful I am for the Word of Wisdom.
We got another handful of less actives at church yesterday, i imagine if they come again next week they will no longer be considered less active. Nobody mentioned the 4th of July to me yesterday at church, afterall Australia is part of the commonwealth. That is not the most exciting holiday for them. But my companions sang me the American National Anthem yesterday and America the beautiful. So that was nice. Well i am going to go show my companions the lakes today and other things around town. Maybe play some frisbee and clean the flat. Good to hear from you all, thank you for the packages. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
My previous companion Elder Williams has been transfered to Broken Hill in New South Wales. I am now in a trio in a surprising turn of events. There is an odd number of missionaries in the field, because an American was having Visa problems and got delayed. So Mt Gambier got the lucky odd number of missionaries. I have Elder Lowrie from the Cook islands, he is also part Canadian blood. He goes home in two weeks. Also i have Elder Jensen from Brisbane, Queensland. He has about 4 months left in his mission. President Poulton must really want to keep a close eye on me or something. This is not the first time I have been in a trio, my first transfer I had Elder Munk emergency transfered into my companionship. I have had ten companions so far in my mission all from around the world. Two Austrailians, a Samoan, Tongan, Maori, Canadian/Cook islander and Americans. It is a bit ackward going into peoples houses, it is like a mob of us coming in since there is three of us. We seem to be getting fed more as well and people giving us more food. For that reason I like being in a trio. But otherwise I rather just be in a regular companionship.
This week i have been showing my companions around town meeting everyone. The members, less actives, and potential investigators and etc. We had a good planning session the other day. What this area needs is more charity. The members here at the moment are a bit disunified. We are going to teach some member missionary lessons focused on charity. We will commit them to doing two secret acts of service a week. One to someone in the ward. And the other act of service to someone outside the ward. Charity never faileth and it really is the pure love of Christ. It may be the uplifting ingredient these members need. We do not want to commit them because they feel oblidged because we told them to do it. We want them to commit because of their love for their Brothers and Sisters. We will commence these member lessons this week.
We had two investigators at church this week. A girl named Serena June came again. She can only progress as much as her Mom will allow her to progress. Which isn’t much at all unfortunately. Also a (Adam)member’s girlfriend (Eve) came to church for the first time this year. She was taught one lesson by the missionary previous to me in this area last months ago. He was a bit too full on and pushed her interests in the church the wrong direction. So we have to be careful with her. But it was good to see her. Her name is Eve, I like how her boyfriend’s name is Adam. I was talking to Adam a bit at church and he is thinking of proposing marriage to her.
Debbie and her family couldn’t make it to church this week. The baptism is still scheduled for August 1st. Which is a while away but at the same time it is not. The 3 potenial investigator’s, who are cousins to Mitchell, Mother had a brain aneurysm this week. I really hope she pulls through. How grateful I am for the Word of Wisdom.
We got another handful of less actives at church yesterday, i imagine if they come again next week they will no longer be considered less active. Nobody mentioned the 4th of July to me yesterday at church, afterall Australia is part of the commonwealth. That is not the most exciting holiday for them. But my companions sang me the American National Anthem yesterday and America the beautiful. So that was nice. Well i am going to go show my companions the lakes today and other things around town. Maybe play some frisbee and clean the flat. Good to hear from you all, thank you for the packages. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Monday, June 28, 2010
"My Companion, Elder Williams is being transfered. I am taking over the area."
June 28, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
My Companion, Elder Williams is being transfered. I am taking over the area. We will be driving back to Adelaide for Transfer meeting this Tuesday. Today Elder Williams is going to pack, and i am going to clean the flat. I do not want to come home to a dirty flat.
Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week is we finnally set a baptism date with the two kids from Naracoorte. Daishun and Taila will be baptized on August 1st. They want thier grandma who lives in Perth to be at the baptisms. We pretty much went threw all of the commandments again. Hopefully we can help out their mom Debbie with her smoking. And also get her married to her partner Rewi.
Mitchell was unable to go to church this week as expected because his great grandmother is on holiday. I am working with our Ward Mission Leader to see if we can organize someone to pickup Mitchell for church so he is not so dependent on his Great Grandmother. She will not be here forever. It is a good thing that this town is small enough that our Ward Mission Leader knows Mitchell’s dad so they have a bit of a foundation we can work with.
We got a handful of Less Actives at church yesterday. Three from what I can recollect were first timers since i have been here. So that was good to see them at church. We only got one nonmember to church this Sunday, her name was Serena. She is living with her Father for School holidays, she lives with her Less active Mother in Melbourne, she is not keen to allow her daughter to be baptized so we can not do much in teaching and committing her to anything.
It is good to hear from you. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
My Companion, Elder Williams is being transfered. I am taking over the area. We will be driving back to Adelaide for Transfer meeting this Tuesday. Today Elder Williams is going to pack, and i am going to clean the flat. I do not want to come home to a dirty flat.
Probably the most exciting thing that happened this week is we finnally set a baptism date with the two kids from Naracoorte. Daishun and Taila will be baptized on August 1st. They want thier grandma who lives in Perth to be at the baptisms. We pretty much went threw all of the commandments again. Hopefully we can help out their mom Debbie with her smoking. And also get her married to her partner Rewi.
Mitchell was unable to go to church this week as expected because his great grandmother is on holiday. I am working with our Ward Mission Leader to see if we can organize someone to pickup Mitchell for church so he is not so dependent on his Great Grandmother. She will not be here forever. It is a good thing that this town is small enough that our Ward Mission Leader knows Mitchell’s dad so they have a bit of a foundation we can work with.
We got a handful of Less Actives at church yesterday. Three from what I can recollect were first timers since i have been here. So that was good to see them at church. We only got one nonmember to church this Sunday, her name was Serena. She is living with her Father for School holidays, she lives with her Less active Mother in Melbourne, she is not keen to allow her daughter to be baptized so we can not do much in teaching and committing her to anything.
It is good to hear from you. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
"Mitchell was baptized yesterday!"
June 21, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Mitchell was baptized yesterday! It was a really good service. His two non-member cousins came to church. And Mitchell’s father came to the luncheon after church and attended the baptism. A Sister in the primary presidency gave a talk on baptism and rocked the house. She wasn’t an eloquent speaker but what she was saying was authentic and sincere. Then I and Elder Williams showed some “Mormon Messages” while Mitchell was getting dressed. Those are excellent two minute videos you can find on the internet either on YouTube or LDS.org. We just burned some videos onto a DVD. We had a councillor in the stake presidency here in MT Gambier so he was quite pleased as he stuck around to witness the baptism. Those two cousins that came to church yesterday will probably be baptized. I and Elder Williams will not have to do much but to just teach those two cousins of Mitchells. But neither of their parents are members so they will be convert baptisms.
We have taught Tayla and Dayshun, the New Zealander family’s kids from Naracoorte every lesson they need to know to be baptized. They will be interviewed for their baptism next Sunday when they come to church. Probably on the Fast-Sunday they will be baptized. Debbie really enjoyed church when they went last week. But because of the distance they live in they will come to church every two weeks.
There is only one more week this transfer. This past transfer has gone by twice as fast as the previous one. Last transfer seemed to take awhile. We will find out who stays or leaves this coming weekend.
We have no plans for P-day today. We were going to play golf with our Ward Mission Leader but he had to cancel. But we will come up with something. It is good to hear from you all. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Mitchell was baptized yesterday! It was a really good service. His two non-member cousins came to church. And Mitchell’s father came to the luncheon after church and attended the baptism. A Sister in the primary presidency gave a talk on baptism and rocked the house. She wasn’t an eloquent speaker but what she was saying was authentic and sincere. Then I and Elder Williams showed some “Mormon Messages” while Mitchell was getting dressed. Those are excellent two minute videos you can find on the internet either on YouTube or LDS.org. We just burned some videos onto a DVD. We had a councillor in the stake presidency here in MT Gambier so he was quite pleased as he stuck around to witness the baptism. Those two cousins that came to church yesterday will probably be baptized. I and Elder Williams will not have to do much but to just teach those two cousins of Mitchells. But neither of their parents are members so they will be convert baptisms.
We have taught Tayla and Dayshun, the New Zealander family’s kids from Naracoorte every lesson they need to know to be baptized. They will be interviewed for their baptism next Sunday when they come to church. Probably on the Fast-Sunday they will be baptized. Debbie really enjoyed church when they went last week. But because of the distance they live in they will come to church every two weeks.
There is only one more week this transfer. This past transfer has gone by twice as fast as the previous one. Last transfer seemed to take awhile. We will find out who stays or leaves this coming weekend.
We have no plans for P-day today. We were going to play golf with our Ward Mission Leader but he had to cancel. But we will come up with something. It is good to hear from you all. Love you all heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
"I can't believe I am almost out one year..."
June 15, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had our most successful day on Sunday at church the other day. We had 5 less actives at church as well as 4 investigators. We set a baptism date this last week with Mitchel for the 20th of June so that is very exciting. Also something exciting is that the family from Naracoorte attended church for the first time since they have been in contact with missionaries. The two kids Dayshun and Tayla want to be baptized, i reckon in two weeks at the end of this transfer, we have taught them everything except the Law of Tithing. We taught a lesson in the gosple principles class and i can quote Debbie, the less active mother from Naracoorte saying after class, “Thanks Elder that gave me a lot to think about, i need to come to church more often.” I am really glad they enjoyed church, they had to travel one hour to church, they only know us and one other family, and they were even away this long weekend in Geelong. It took a lot of courage and faith for them to come to church, a good sacrifice. Also the bishops 14 year old daughter brought her best friend Niki to church.
I can't beleive I am almost out one year, I think back what I was doing two years ago today and it feels like that wasn’t too long ago. At first sacrificing two years to do missionary work seemed daunting. But now that i am in full force engaged to it, it is going by too fast! This is nothing, but everything. It really is the climax of my life.
Have to go now. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We had our most successful day on Sunday at church the other day. We had 5 less actives at church as well as 4 investigators. We set a baptism date this last week with Mitchel for the 20th of June so that is very exciting. Also something exciting is that the family from Naracoorte attended church for the first time since they have been in contact with missionaries. The two kids Dayshun and Tayla want to be baptized, i reckon in two weeks at the end of this transfer, we have taught them everything except the Law of Tithing. We taught a lesson in the gosple principles class and i can quote Debbie, the less active mother from Naracoorte saying after class, “Thanks Elder that gave me a lot to think about, i need to come to church more often.” I am really glad they enjoyed church, they had to travel one hour to church, they only know us and one other family, and they were even away this long weekend in Geelong. It took a lot of courage and faith for them to come to church, a good sacrifice. Also the bishops 14 year old daughter brought her best friend Niki to church.
I can't beleive I am almost out one year, I think back what I was doing two years ago today and it feels like that wasn’t too long ago. At first sacrificing two years to do missionary work seemed daunting. But now that i am in full force engaged to it, it is going by too fast! This is nothing, but everything. It really is the climax of my life.
Have to go now. Love you all heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Tuesday, June 8, 2010
"It will not be long before Mitchel is in the water."
June 7, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
It is good to hear from you all. Things are good hear. We had fast and testimony meeting this week, It was good we had a man who was less active go up and bear his testimony. He has never been to the temple and now he is feeling prompted to prepare to go there. That was probably the highlight of church.
We taught a New Zealander Family in the city of Naracoorte the Word of Wisdom. The two kids Tayla and Dayshun are not baptized but they both want to be. Because they live an hour away from church it is difficult to get them there. That is the only thing keeping them from progressing. Hopefully they will be able to make it to church this Sunday. A member has offered the family of four their home to stay the Saturday night before church. In due time they will be members of the church.
We have another appointment today with Mitchel, we have now taught him everything. All what needs to happen is for Mitchel’s father, who is not a member to talk to Mitchel’s great grandma, who is a member of the church, about a baptism date. It will not be long before Mitchel is in the water.
Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
It is good to hear from you all. Things are good hear. We had fast and testimony meeting this week, It was good we had a man who was less active go up and bear his testimony. He has never been to the temple and now he is feeling prompted to prepare to go there. That was probably the highlight of church.
We taught a New Zealander Family in the city of Naracoorte the Word of Wisdom. The two kids Tayla and Dayshun are not baptized but they both want to be. Because they live an hour away from church it is difficult to get them there. That is the only thing keeping them from progressing. Hopefully they will be able to make it to church this Sunday. A member has offered the family of four their home to stay the Saturday night before church. In due time they will be members of the church.
We have another appointment today with Mitchel, we have now taught him everything. All what needs to happen is for Mitchel’s father, who is not a member to talk to Mitchel’s great grandma, who is a member of the church, about a baptism date. It will not be long before Mitchel is in the water.
Love you all heaps
Elder Montgomery
Sunday, May 30, 2010
"We are teaching a ten year old boy named Mitchel."
May 30, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Sorry for not mass emailing you all last week, I didn’t have time. We are teaching a ten year old boy named Mitchel. We have taught him the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus of Christ. He has read all of the “Book of Mormon Reader” which is the Book of Mormon with pictures. He loves the stories in them especially when Nephi zaps his brothers when they tried to beat him up. He told us, “If god is real, zap my dad!” Funny kid he is, his Dad is not a member but he gave the green light to have his son baptized. I have not met the mother, they are obviously separated. We have an appointment with Mitchel today, we are going to teach him some commandments and set the actual baptism date. I gave a talk today in church as well as Jarom this week. My talk was on the gifts of the spirit. It was a pretty good talk.
We had two former investigators at church today. A 26 year old girl named Kristy. She went to church for three years when she was young women’s age. Then some missionaries were a bit pushy so she stopped coming to church. So it was her first time back to church in a long time, except for a Funeral in between. I heard that the first counsellor in the bishopric was talking to her about Baptism at church yesterday. I really hope that didn’t mess up her progression, she has been back one time and she might be felt rushed. I was talking to the Sister that invited her back to church and she said everything is okay, no damage done. The other former investigator named Penny stopped investigating about a year ago when she was asked to give a prayer in the gospel principles class when it was the first time ever she had stepped into a church, she has never prayed. So that turned her off and made her feel uncomfortable. Not the best decisions those missionaries have ever done. But we are working with them. All the recent converts from 2009 went less active in a matter of months after their baptisms. I am happy to report they are once again active.
It is good to hear from you all. Love you heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Sorry for not mass emailing you all last week, I didn’t have time. We are teaching a ten year old boy named Mitchel. We have taught him the Restoration, Plan of Salvation and the Gospel of Jesus of Christ. He has read all of the “Book of Mormon Reader” which is the Book of Mormon with pictures. He loves the stories in them especially when Nephi zaps his brothers when they tried to beat him up. He told us, “If god is real, zap my dad!” Funny kid he is, his Dad is not a member but he gave the green light to have his son baptized. I have not met the mother, they are obviously separated. We have an appointment with Mitchel today, we are going to teach him some commandments and set the actual baptism date. I gave a talk today in church as well as Jarom this week. My talk was on the gifts of the spirit. It was a pretty good talk.
We had two former investigators at church today. A 26 year old girl named Kristy. She went to church for three years when she was young women’s age. Then some missionaries were a bit pushy so she stopped coming to church. So it was her first time back to church in a long time, except for a Funeral in between. I heard that the first counsellor in the bishopric was talking to her about Baptism at church yesterday. I really hope that didn’t mess up her progression, she has been back one time and she might be felt rushed. I was talking to the Sister that invited her back to church and she said everything is okay, no damage done. The other former investigator named Penny stopped investigating about a year ago when she was asked to give a prayer in the gospel principles class when it was the first time ever she had stepped into a church, she has never prayed. So that turned her off and made her feel uncomfortable. Not the best decisions those missionaries have ever done. But we are working with them. All the recent converts from 2009 went less active in a matter of months after their baptisms. I am happy to report they are once again active.
It is good to hear from you all. Love you heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Monday, May 24, 2010
Pictures from Mt. Gambier
May 23, 2010
Eating one of his three birthday cakes!
Visiting one of the beautiful lakes in Mt. Gambier on his Pday
Eating one of his three birthday cakes!
Visiting one of the beautiful lakes in Mt. Gambier on his Pday
Monday, May 17, 2010
"We had a big primary activity on Saturday...I acted as Joseph Smith..."
May 17, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier
This week was transfers and neither I nor Elder Williams is being transferred. We are both staying. We had a pretty good turnout for church yesterday. We got three investigators to church yesterday. One is a ten year old boy named Mitchell; his younger brother was baptized a couple months ago. We also got a 17 year old young woman named Sara to church. And also we brought a woman named Colleen to church. On top of that we also got 4 less actives to church. So it was a good day yesterday.
We had a big primary activity on Saturday, the chapel was decorated, and each room was a dispensation in Joseph Smiths life. I acted as Joseph Smith in alot of these presentations, Hill Cumorah, translation of the Book of Mormon, organization of the church, the children acted as a mob and threw me into jail. We even played stick pull. The next day at church all the primary kids called me Joseph Smith. Silly kids but they are cute.
We will continue to work and help progress this area in the lord’s vineyard. We are organizing a missionary fireside in the near future we are pushing it back from this week. The fireside will be about the Restoration. We are getting less actives to participate in the Fireside and have them speak. Some of these people haven’t said a talk in church in years. We pray this will ease them in and hopefully their testimony will grow from participating in this fireside.
Since we don’t have to go to Adelaide for Transfers we will have extra Kilometres to work in the outskirt surrounding areas of Mt Gambier. Planning with the bishopric we are going to invite some members to travel to a city about an hour north of here to have a side sacrament meeting in Naracoorte and inviting all the less actives to come and partake, most of their excuses is the distance of going to church. Most of them have a testimony they just need to be fellowshipped and then they will sacrifice to drive the distance to come to church. Even if it is twice a month it is so much better than not going to church at all.
I have to go; it is good to hear from you all.
Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier
This week was transfers and neither I nor Elder Williams is being transferred. We are both staying. We had a pretty good turnout for church yesterday. We got three investigators to church yesterday. One is a ten year old boy named Mitchell; his younger brother was baptized a couple months ago. We also got a 17 year old young woman named Sara to church. And also we brought a woman named Colleen to church. On top of that we also got 4 less actives to church. So it was a good day yesterday.
We had a big primary activity on Saturday, the chapel was decorated, and each room was a dispensation in Joseph Smiths life. I acted as Joseph Smith in alot of these presentations, Hill Cumorah, translation of the Book of Mormon, organization of the church, the children acted as a mob and threw me into jail. We even played stick pull. The next day at church all the primary kids called me Joseph Smith. Silly kids but they are cute.
We will continue to work and help progress this area in the lord’s vineyard. We are organizing a missionary fireside in the near future we are pushing it back from this week. The fireside will be about the Restoration. We are getting less actives to participate in the Fireside and have them speak. Some of these people haven’t said a talk in church in years. We pray this will ease them in and hopefully their testimony will grow from participating in this fireside.
Since we don’t have to go to Adelaide for Transfers we will have extra Kilometres to work in the outskirt surrounding areas of Mt Gambier. Planning with the bishopric we are going to invite some members to travel to a city about an hour north of here to have a side sacrament meeting in Naracoorte and inviting all the less actives to come and partake, most of their excuses is the distance of going to church. Most of them have a testimony they just need to be fellowshipped and then they will sacrifice to drive the distance to come to church. Even if it is twice a month it is so much better than not going to church at all.
I have to go; it is good to hear from you all.
Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Monday, May 10, 2010
"This pack of cigarettes is now in our flat serving as a trophy to remind us of the power of the Holy spirit."
May 2, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
This has been the first time in a long time since i have missed church. This Sunday was stake conference in Adelaide. We didnt have the kilometres to spare to go all that distance to Adelaide so we just stayed in Mt Gambier. So me and Elder Williams organized a quick get together activity at the park in front of Valley Lake, which is just a big lake near the city. We made a barbie and fed them whatever was in our freezer, which was sausages and chicken patties. It was fun, just a little something for the members that couldnt afford to make the 5 hour drive to adelaide.
We went into this members home this week and we immediately smelled cigarettes. This member was going through alot of stress and trials. He regressed back to smoking to receive comfort. We asked him if he felt the divine companionship of the holy spirit at this time. He said no. We explained that to feel the spirit you have to replace the bad with the good. We asked him if he wanted us to help him purge out the bad feelings in his heart, he said yes. We then sung him his favorite hymn. And we read Mosiah chapter 18 out of the Book of Mormon with him. This is an excellent chapter, it talks about love, charity and unity. We then said a prayer with him. We did the basics, but they are the most powerful ways we can all obtain the greater comforter or the Holy spirit. By the end he was strongly prompted to threw us the pack of ciggarettes, he shed a bit of tears and we left him with a hug. This pack of cigarettes is now in our flat serving as a trophy to remind us of the power of the Holy spirit.
We have 6 committments from less actives that they will come to church on Mothers day. And we should have two investigators at church as well. I am looking forward to next Sunday so the area can begin to progress. I received 3 cakes for my birthday from members. I was very spoiled. It is good to hear from you all. I will call home for Mothers day so that is exciting, feels like just a while ago i called home for Christmas. got to go
Love you heaps
-Elder M ontgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
This has been the first time in a long time since i have missed church. This Sunday was stake conference in Adelaide. We didnt have the kilometres to spare to go all that distance to Adelaide so we just stayed in Mt Gambier. So me and Elder Williams organized a quick get together activity at the park in front of Valley Lake, which is just a big lake near the city. We made a barbie and fed them whatever was in our freezer, which was sausages and chicken patties. It was fun, just a little something for the members that couldnt afford to make the 5 hour drive to adelaide.
We went into this members home this week and we immediately smelled cigarettes. This member was going through alot of stress and trials. He regressed back to smoking to receive comfort. We asked him if he felt the divine companionship of the holy spirit at this time. He said no. We explained that to feel the spirit you have to replace the bad with the good. We asked him if he wanted us to help him purge out the bad feelings in his heart, he said yes. We then sung him his favorite hymn. And we read Mosiah chapter 18 out of the Book of Mormon with him. This is an excellent chapter, it talks about love, charity and unity. We then said a prayer with him. We did the basics, but they are the most powerful ways we can all obtain the greater comforter or the Holy spirit. By the end he was strongly prompted to threw us the pack of ciggarettes, he shed a bit of tears and we left him with a hug. This pack of cigarettes is now in our flat serving as a trophy to remind us of the power of the Holy spirit.
We have 6 committments from less actives that they will come to church on Mothers day. And we should have two investigators at church as well. I am looking forward to next Sunday so the area can begin to progress. I received 3 cakes for my birthday from members. I was very spoiled. It is good to hear from you all. I will call home for Mothers day so that is exciting, feels like just a while ago i called home for Christmas. got to go
Love you heaps
-Elder M ontgomery
Monday, April 26, 2010
"Today is my birthday for everyone in America."
April 26, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Today is my birthday for everyone in America. I celebrated my birthday yesterday since I am a day ahead of you all. We had a big family home evening at a member’s home. We had two non-members there, a recent convert and a less active as well as some active members. They surprised me with a cake which I did not see coming. We had two investigators at church this Sunday. One forever investigator named Hilda Kelly, the ward thought she was going to be baptized, and she is even on the ward role. But her partner came home from prison is not a very humble person. He will not allow her to be baptized. She hadn’t come to church in months so it was good to see her there. I wish this Sunday wasn’t stake conference for us. Some less actives were willing to come to church this coming Sunday but the big meeting in Adelaide ruins it. Heaps of people should be coming back to church on the 9th of May if they walk the talk. We shall see. We are organizing a missionary fireside for the 24th of May. We are getting members to speak. It is in planning but I have been told numerous times on my mission that I look like Joseph Smith; we are going to do a narration and me acting out the first vision as Joseph Smith. I think they say that because I am also American. This should be an interesting.
The focus I am teaching for the people in Mt Gambier is the temple. We are planning a big temple trip at the end of July. We are going to rent a bus and travel to Adelaide. This is excellent because sometimes people need a date that they can see and work towards. This will be the best way to increase spirituality in the ward. They need to be more constant at attending the temple but because they are 5 hours away from the temple that makes it difficult for many people. This is what the ward needs. This helps us out with recent converts and less actives. All principles of the gospel lead them to the temple. We will motivate them to grasp the blessings that Heavenly Father has for them and their family. We will teach people to prepare them for the temple.
Since yesterday was ANZAC day and everyone is home we are going to have P-day today. And i have no idea what we are going to do. I have seen the Blue Lake, yes it is a big lake that is very blue. And also Valley lake. But i have not been to any of the caves. There is like an under city in Mt Gambier with tunnels and caves underneath. Maybe we will go see some today. Got to go. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
Today is my birthday for everyone in America. I celebrated my birthday yesterday since I am a day ahead of you all. We had a big family home evening at a member’s home. We had two non-members there, a recent convert and a less active as well as some active members. They surprised me with a cake which I did not see coming. We had two investigators at church this Sunday. One forever investigator named Hilda Kelly, the ward thought she was going to be baptized, and she is even on the ward role. But her partner came home from prison is not a very humble person. He will not allow her to be baptized. She hadn’t come to church in months so it was good to see her there. I wish this Sunday wasn’t stake conference for us. Some less actives were willing to come to church this coming Sunday but the big meeting in Adelaide ruins it. Heaps of people should be coming back to church on the 9th of May if they walk the talk. We shall see. We are organizing a missionary fireside for the 24th of May. We are getting members to speak. It is in planning but I have been told numerous times on my mission that I look like Joseph Smith; we are going to do a narration and me acting out the first vision as Joseph Smith. I think they say that because I am also American. This should be an interesting.
The focus I am teaching for the people in Mt Gambier is the temple. We are planning a big temple trip at the end of July. We are going to rent a bus and travel to Adelaide. This is excellent because sometimes people need a date that they can see and work towards. This will be the best way to increase spirituality in the ward. They need to be more constant at attending the temple but because they are 5 hours away from the temple that makes it difficult for many people. This is what the ward needs. This helps us out with recent converts and less actives. All principles of the gospel lead them to the temple. We will motivate them to grasp the blessings that Heavenly Father has for them and their family. We will teach people to prepare them for the temple.
Since yesterday was ANZAC day and everyone is home we are going to have P-day today. And i have no idea what we are going to do. I have seen the Blue Lake, yes it is a big lake that is very blue. And also Valley lake. But i have not been to any of the caves. There is like an under city in Mt Gambier with tunnels and caves underneath. Maybe we will go see some today. Got to go. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
"We are here to serve the people here in Mt Gambier, all they need to do is love."
Hello from Mt Gambier!
I can’t beleive I only have 7 days left as a teenager. I always enjoyed when I told people that I was only 19 years old. Supposedly I look years older. I think it is just the tie. But being 20 years old is still young. We are working heaps with people who should be at church more often but they are not. We are laboring and showing love to these people. We had six less actives committed to come to church this week. But then satan and the spirit of contention worked threw this particular member of the church and pushed these less actives away and they didnt keep their committment. Quite frustrating since this confrontation happened just on the Saturday before church. We are here to serve the people here in Mt Gambier, all they need to do is love. Sad to report but after a weeks worth of tracting we didnt find anyone of real potential. I think part of my repentance process is that i will start to testify at every doorstep. That gives them the clear opportunity to either accept or deny the church, i will ask a committment to learn more. I am sick of hearing, “sorry guys but i am busy at the moment” when i have tried the casual approach and made small conversation with them, it is no good. I gave a talk in church this Sunday. It was on Forgivness, i tied in the Atonement and how Jesus Christ forgave all of our sins, i told of the parable of the unmerciful servant found in the bible. The Lord in the parable forgave this unmerciful servant so much of his dept but the unmerciful servant couldnt forgive a man on just a tiny bit of a dept he owed to him. The end story is we must forgive everyone no matter what, because Jesus suffered all so he could forgive all. Except blashepmy against the holy spirit, but that is seperate and doesnt apply right now. That unmerciful servant was presented to the lord after what he had done and was thrown into prison. My companion Elder Williams is a Maori and has been out 19 months. We were in the same district in my short time in Modbury Ward. The Bishop here in Mt Gambier was baptized 8 years ago and is a good man. His wife has M.S.
Mt Gambier is the most southern area in the mission. It is cold, wet and grey. But the scenery here is beautiful, very green compared to Murray Bridge. We will continue to work. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
I can’t beleive I only have 7 days left as a teenager. I always enjoyed when I told people that I was only 19 years old. Supposedly I look years older. I think it is just the tie. But being 20 years old is still young. We are working heaps with people who should be at church more often but they are not. We are laboring and showing love to these people. We had six less actives committed to come to church this week. But then satan and the spirit of contention worked threw this particular member of the church and pushed these less actives away and they didnt keep their committment. Quite frustrating since this confrontation happened just on the Saturday before church. We are here to serve the people here in Mt Gambier, all they need to do is love. Sad to report but after a weeks worth of tracting we didnt find anyone of real potential. I think part of my repentance process is that i will start to testify at every doorstep. That gives them the clear opportunity to either accept or deny the church, i will ask a committment to learn more. I am sick of hearing, “sorry guys but i am busy at the moment” when i have tried the casual approach and made small conversation with them, it is no good. I gave a talk in church this Sunday. It was on Forgivness, i tied in the Atonement and how Jesus Christ forgave all of our sins, i told of the parable of the unmerciful servant found in the bible. The Lord in the parable forgave this unmerciful servant so much of his dept but the unmerciful servant couldnt forgive a man on just a tiny bit of a dept he owed to him. The end story is we must forgive everyone no matter what, because Jesus suffered all so he could forgive all. Except blashepmy against the holy spirit, but that is seperate and doesnt apply right now. That unmerciful servant was presented to the lord after what he had done and was thrown into prison. My companion Elder Williams is a Maori and has been out 19 months. We were in the same district in my short time in Modbury Ward. The Bishop here in Mt Gambier was baptized 8 years ago and is a good man. His wife has M.S.
Mt Gambier is the most southern area in the mission. It is cold, wet and grey. But the scenery here is beautiful, very green compared to Murray Bridge. We will continue to work. Love you heaps
-Elder Montgomery
Sunday, April 11, 2010
"This area needs divine intervention. Not Elder Montgomery intervention."
April 11, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We definitely cannot vacation here. As of now our teaching pool is very slim. The only real investigators live 100 kilometres away in Naracorte. I haven't met them yet. They are a New Zealander family. We have been working heaps with less actives. Many of these people should be active but silly reasons keep them away from church. I found out my purpose of coming here about two days in. I am to be a bandaid for this area. The missionary who i replaced was very bold and pushy and did more damage than good. There are two recent convert families that are less active who we are working closely with. We are going to watch a movie about Joseph Smith with them, have a movie night. I think because missionaries have been here for like 40 years working with the same members that less active members are very comfortable with us. Missionaries are their best friends, they love us but don't necessarily want to come to church. We have to really balance being bold and loving, it seems they have had too much of either extreme. This area needs divine intervention. Not Elder Montgomery intervention. I pray we can be effective instruments of god. We did a bit of tracting but we haven't had success yet. But we will continue to recycle threw people looking for the one person who is prepared to accept the church. We are also teaching the members to build up their faith to invite people to learn more about the church. About 60 people attend church every week, pretty small ward. It is pretty sweet being in the same district as Murray Bridge, i can keep track of my friends there. They got two more baptism dates this week it is now at 9 baptism dates in that area. God’s hand is definitely in that area. I can name 19 names of good potential people that should be baptized within the year. We will get the ball rolling in Mt Gambier it will just take heaps of diligence and faith. This area will make me grow as a missionary for sure.
It is good to hear about Preston! I was wondering when he was going on a mission. In one year it will be Jarom =0 I will be excited to hear where Jarom goes. Preston and Ryan Price are serving very near each other. We had Conference this Sunday it was sweet as. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for emailing me. Love you heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
We definitely cannot vacation here. As of now our teaching pool is very slim. The only real investigators live 100 kilometres away in Naracorte. I haven't met them yet. They are a New Zealander family. We have been working heaps with less actives. Many of these people should be active but silly reasons keep them away from church. I found out my purpose of coming here about two days in. I am to be a bandaid for this area. The missionary who i replaced was very bold and pushy and did more damage than good. There are two recent convert families that are less active who we are working closely with. We are going to watch a movie about Joseph Smith with them, have a movie night. I think because missionaries have been here for like 40 years working with the same members that less active members are very comfortable with us. Missionaries are their best friends, they love us but don't necessarily want to come to church. We have to really balance being bold and loving, it seems they have had too much of either extreme. This area needs divine intervention. Not Elder Montgomery intervention. I pray we can be effective instruments of god. We did a bit of tracting but we haven't had success yet. But we will continue to recycle threw people looking for the one person who is prepared to accept the church. We are also teaching the members to build up their faith to invite people to learn more about the church. About 60 people attend church every week, pretty small ward. It is pretty sweet being in the same district as Murray Bridge, i can keep track of my friends there. They got two more baptism dates this week it is now at 9 baptism dates in that area. God’s hand is definitely in that area. I can name 19 names of good potential people that should be baptized within the year. We will get the ball rolling in Mt Gambier it will just take heaps of diligence and faith. This area will make me grow as a missionary for sure.
It is good to hear about Preston! I was wondering when he was going on a mission. In one year it will be Jarom =0 I will be excited to hear where Jarom goes. Preston and Ryan Price are serving very near each other. We had Conference this Sunday it was sweet as. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for emailing me. Love you heaps.
-Elder Montgomery
Transferred to Mt. Gambier
April 5, 2010
Hello from Mt Gambier!
I have been transfered from Murray Bridge! I served 6 months in that area. It felt like i was leaving home again. I was sad to go, i have fallen in love with the people. There are 7 baptism dates in Murray Bridge at this time with Michael, Lee, Kyrstal, Lily, June, Kirtly Milera, Patrick Hill. There are other people who i know who will be baptised in the future. I was so attached to Murray Bridge, it will have a special place in my heart. I would never want to live in Murray Bridge itself, maybe on the outskirts in the country areas. Great place as a missionary. I am now in the most southern area in the mission. We are 4 hours from the nearest Missionaries in the mission which happen to be the Murray Bridge missionaries. We are a bit isolated. My companion's name is Elder Williams, he is from New Zealand but lives in Brisbane, Queensland. He has been out 19 months and has been in Mt Gambier for just one transfer so far. Mt Gambier is a beautiful place, lots of scenery attractions. Mt Gambier is a ward but it is the size of a medium branch. People have just moved away over the years. There is about 60 people regularly attending. We are going to work with less active members and use those networks of people they are associated with to find people to teach and baptize. I think that will be the most effective way of finding people in this area. Alot of this town is new developments, we have the nicest flat in the mission. I am grateful to be a missionary for our Lord Jesus Christ that i have the opportunity to give just two years full time in proclaiming the good news that he has brung to the whole world. I know this work is prepatory to the 2nd coming of our master. That the kingdom of god is once again established on this earth and it is growing fast. I know my God is a God of order and that he is not the author of confusion. He is a living God and this is a Living Church. Jesus Christ is the head of this church and he leads this church by Revelation. Revelation is nothing new in the eyes of god. For he has revealed his will throughout history of time, for God is the same yesterday today and forever. I know that if we follow the living prophet we will never be led astray. He will direct us how to have true happiness and blessings in this life and even greater blessings and happiness in the next life to come. Even everlasting life with our God in the eternities. How grateful i am for the reasurring Comforter that i feel daily that allows me to know that this church is true. I invite everyone to search, ponder and pray about what this church stands for. That they may know for themselves threw the power of the Holy Ghost what is truth. The Restoration of the gospel is a beautiful thing. I wish for everyone i am acquainted with to know what i know. To feel what i feel. To enjoy what i enjoy.
-Elder Montgomery
Hello from Mt Gambier!
I have been transfered from Murray Bridge! I served 6 months in that area. It felt like i was leaving home again. I was sad to go, i have fallen in love with the people. There are 7 baptism dates in Murray Bridge at this time with Michael, Lee, Kyrstal, Lily, June, Kirtly Milera, Patrick Hill. There are other people who i know who will be baptised in the future. I was so attached to Murray Bridge, it will have a special place in my heart. I would never want to live in Murray Bridge itself, maybe on the outskirts in the country areas. Great place as a missionary. I am now in the most southern area in the mission. We are 4 hours from the nearest Missionaries in the mission which happen to be the Murray Bridge missionaries. We are a bit isolated. My companion's name is Elder Williams, he is from New Zealand but lives in Brisbane, Queensland. He has been out 19 months and has been in Mt Gambier for just one transfer so far. Mt Gambier is a beautiful place, lots of scenery attractions. Mt Gambier is a ward but it is the size of a medium branch. People have just moved away over the years. There is about 60 people regularly attending. We are going to work with less active members and use those networks of people they are associated with to find people to teach and baptize. I think that will be the most effective way of finding people in this area. Alot of this town is new developments, we have the nicest flat in the mission. I am grateful to be a missionary for our Lord Jesus Christ that i have the opportunity to give just two years full time in proclaiming the good news that he has brung to the whole world. I know this work is prepatory to the 2nd coming of our master. That the kingdom of god is once again established on this earth and it is growing fast. I know my God is a God of order and that he is not the author of confusion. He is a living God and this is a Living Church. Jesus Christ is the head of this church and he leads this church by Revelation. Revelation is nothing new in the eyes of god. For he has revealed his will throughout history of time, for God is the same yesterday today and forever. I know that if we follow the living prophet we will never be led astray. He will direct us how to have true happiness and blessings in this life and even greater blessings and happiness in the next life to come. Even everlasting life with our God in the eternities. How grateful i am for the reasurring Comforter that i feel daily that allows me to know that this church is true. I invite everyone to search, ponder and pray about what this church stands for. That they may know for themselves threw the power of the Holy Ghost what is truth. The Restoration of the gospel is a beautiful thing. I wish for everyone i am acquainted with to know what i know. To feel what i feel. To enjoy what i enjoy.
-Elder Montgomery
"...trying to find that individual or family that is prepared to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and accept it."
March 28, 2010
Hello from Murray Bridge!
This has been a good week. We had 5 people come to church today. Michael and Lee couldn’t make it to church though because as it is getting close to their wedding this coming Wednesday they have heaps of family over. Pretty dodgy family as well. We got a less active sister who came to church the first time this millennium with her Partner. Their names are Karmel and TK. Karmel is Rosetta’s daughter. TK has never been to a church in him life, we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he was just about crying. There is a great chance he will be sentenced on the 6th of April and get locked up. He persuaded Karmel to wake up and keep their commitment to go to church. He sincerely wants a change in his life. Perhaps going to prison will humble him even more. We also got 3 other children of Rossetta’s to church. We got (10)Josh, (12)Kenan and (16) kirtly to church. Kurtly wants to get baptized in April. He is a good kid just needs that direction. We taught him the restoration this week along with his mother together and they both cried during the lesson. We are working heaps with this family and there is heaps of potential. He had a court hearing this last Friday. Kurtly stole $15,000 worth of jewellery. But fortunately he will not be locked up. Kurtly has changed ever since his head injury; he doesn’t need to go threw that punishment he wants to end his past lifestyle.
Patrick Hill was in Adelaide all week so we haven’t taught him anything or really got a hold of him since he committed to be baptized. We have a set appointment with him on Wednesday and we will get him back on board and closer to coming unto Christ.
Lily and June should be back anytime now. I fear I might get transferred next week and Miss Lily and June and never see them again. I hope I stay in Murray Bridge. This has been my favourite area. Next week I will have been in Murray Bridge 6 months. I want to stay longer.
We are working heaps with the Aboriginal network. Just recycling threw trying to find that individual or family that is prepared to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and accept it. This will be a crazy week with the wedding and the baptism of Michael and Lee, it will be very eventful.
Have to go now love ya heaps
-Elder Montogmery
Hello from Murray Bridge!
This has been a good week. We had 5 people come to church today. Michael and Lee couldn’t make it to church though because as it is getting close to their wedding this coming Wednesday they have heaps of family over. Pretty dodgy family as well. We got a less active sister who came to church the first time this millennium with her Partner. Their names are Karmel and TK. Karmel is Rosetta’s daughter. TK has never been to a church in him life, we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he was just about crying. There is a great chance he will be sentenced on the 6th of April and get locked up. He persuaded Karmel to wake up and keep their commitment to go to church. He sincerely wants a change in his life. Perhaps going to prison will humble him even more. We also got 3 other children of Rossetta’s to church. We got (10)Josh, (12)Kenan and (16) kirtly to church. Kurtly wants to get baptized in April. He is a good kid just needs that direction. We taught him the restoration this week along with his mother together and they both cried during the lesson. We are working heaps with this family and there is heaps of potential. He had a court hearing this last Friday. Kurtly stole $15,000 worth of jewellery. But fortunately he will not be locked up. Kurtly has changed ever since his head injury; he doesn’t need to go threw that punishment he wants to end his past lifestyle.
Patrick Hill was in Adelaide all week so we haven’t taught him anything or really got a hold of him since he committed to be baptized. We have a set appointment with him on Wednesday and we will get him back on board and closer to coming unto Christ.
Lily and June should be back anytime now. I fear I might get transferred next week and Miss Lily and June and never see them again. I hope I stay in Murray Bridge. This has been my favourite area. Next week I will have been in Murray Bridge 6 months. I want to stay longer.
We are working heaps with the Aboriginal network. Just recycling threw trying to find that individual or family that is prepared to hear the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and accept it. This will be a crazy week with the wedding and the baptism of Michael and Lee, it will be very eventful.
Have to go now love ya heaps
-Elder Montogmery
Sunday, March 21, 2010
"We help people with change...I pray we can help them."
March 22, 2010
Hello from Murray Bridge!
Michael has givien up smoking, Lee and Mike will start paying their tithing this coming sunday. They are set to get married on the 31st of March. Me and Taufa will be the witnesses. Then on Sunday the 4th of April they will be baptized. I will perform the ordinance for Lee. Taufa will baptize little Kyrstal and a member will baptize Mike. In the baptism services i do not like to participate much, i would prefer if the members did everything but it is their decision. They came to church, they are much more comfortable at church now. Lee went to a releif society activity this week. The little girls love learning about Jesus. Before Mike finnally quit smoking i told the girls whenever they see their father smoking to tell him to repent. It was really cute. We got a less active aboriginal sister to church named Rosetta and one of her 4 unbaptized children named Josh also to come to church. She loved it and said she will be back next week. The lesson in class was off the lesson in the gospel principles book "work and family responsibility" i think that is exactly what she needed to learn about. The work ethic of Aboriginals is not the greatest. We are working closesly with her family. Her 14 year old son named Mali will be sentenced this week for stealing $15,000 worth of jewlery. Kirtly the 16 year old has good potential hopefully he doesn't get sentenced as well. But Kirtly was given 3 months to show he has changed, he is a really nice kid he just needs direction. We help people with change. Kenan the 12 year old is a lost kid. Just the other night i know he went out and jumped a fence and stole some alcohol. We are literally saving them before they all screw up their lives. I pray we can help them.
We got another baptism committment out of a man who was a media referel named Patrick Hill. He ordered the Dvd, Lamb of God. The church is doing a big Easter holiday media push and it is working. We taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He has Pentecostal background but is searching for the truth, he has found it with us. We are still continueing to work with the Aboriginal network.
Hello from Murray Bridge!
Michael has givien up smoking, Lee and Mike will start paying their tithing this coming sunday. They are set to get married on the 31st of March. Me and Taufa will be the witnesses. Then on Sunday the 4th of April they will be baptized. I will perform the ordinance for Lee. Taufa will baptize little Kyrstal and a member will baptize Mike. In the baptism services i do not like to participate much, i would prefer if the members did everything but it is their decision. They came to church, they are much more comfortable at church now. Lee went to a releif society activity this week. The little girls love learning about Jesus. Before Mike finnally quit smoking i told the girls whenever they see their father smoking to tell him to repent. It was really cute. We got a less active aboriginal sister to church named Rosetta and one of her 4 unbaptized children named Josh also to come to church. She loved it and said she will be back next week. The lesson in class was off the lesson in the gospel principles book "work and family responsibility" i think that is exactly what she needed to learn about. The work ethic of Aboriginals is not the greatest. We are working closesly with her family. Her 14 year old son named Mali will be sentenced this week for stealing $15,000 worth of jewlery. Kirtly the 16 year old has good potential hopefully he doesn't get sentenced as well. But Kirtly was given 3 months to show he has changed, he is a really nice kid he just needs direction. We help people with change. Kenan the 12 year old is a lost kid. Just the other night i know he went out and jumped a fence and stole some alcohol. We are literally saving them before they all screw up their lives. I pray we can help them.
We got another baptism committment out of a man who was a media referel named Patrick Hill. He ordered the Dvd, Lamb of God. The church is doing a big Easter holiday media push and it is working. We taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. He has Pentecostal background but is searching for the truth, he has found it with us. We are still continueing to work with the Aboriginal network.
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