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
Sunday, October 24, 2010
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
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