"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