July 8, 2014

July 8, 2014

Hey Mom,

I am writing to you with my new iPad mini, which is really neat, but man, I type way slower than if I were typing on a keyboard. Plus I just deleted the letter I was writing to you because I double tapped the whole thing and typed on accident... replacing my exquisite, well-thought-out, and poetic paragraphs with the letter "N".

It wasn't much, though :) so my training companion is Elder Robbins, and he's been serving for a year and a half here in Chicago. You'll see him in the pictures I attached. He seems great and has lots of energy.

Currently we're serving within the Buffalo Grove stake which is north of Chicago. I'm not there yet; I'm writing in the mission office at the moment only having had my iPad for a few hours.

So we arrived in Chicago yesterday afternoon, and were met by President Woodbury and two elders - Elder Jacobs and Elder Johnson. What I didn't know was that there were also some new Spanish speaking missionaries along with me and Elder Bateman. You'll see them in that one picture. We took a tour around Chicago, saw "The Bean" which is that reflective bean-looking sculpture downtown. I love the place, but it's pretty warm! I also love the Woodbury's; they're kind and well in-tune with the spirit. President Woodbury said he prayed more about who will be our training companions than he has ever before. He even admitted they had over twenty new missionaries at a time but did not pray as fervently or for so long for the four of us. It's humbling.

Rode the train in Chicago as well, and were challenged to talk to others and hand out BoMs and pass-along cards. I did just fine, even gave away a BoM to a lovely elderly woman and gave a few pass-alongs to several people while talking to them. I'm very relaxed about talking to others, more than I thought.

Elder Robbins and I have some appointments tonight, so I must be going. We're going to teach a family from the Philippines with a member - xxxxx.

Love you, -Elder Montgomery