November 17, 2014

Hello familia!

This week has been pretty brutal weather wise. It's been below freezing and I think it's staying that way until April. However, I don't believe I need much winter gear. I really think I'm set. I've been using my winter coat we bought and I'm liking it so no complaints there. I have gloves, scarves, beanies, thermal stuff, and yeah, I think I'm good. I was pretty packed when I moved apartments - 3 full suitcases and a tote. I may have to get rid of some of my stuff before I move apartments again.

I'm liking it here in Westchester so far. Elder Porter is a sweet guy. He's really into boarding - snowboarding, surfboarding, skateboarding, etcetera. Porter has been on a mission for a year, but only been in this area for six weeks, so we're both really new at who to teach and who the members are. Instead of Westchester streets being organized like a grid, it's more organized like a spaghetti bowl... so we get lost sometimes. It's much like Gurnee and Waukegan in that it's more suburban but there's no open cornfields. It's all a concrete jungle here.

We've been doing a lot of tracting since our teaching pool has been low. Probably the coolest member here is Dave Jones. He comes out with us missionaries a few times a week (sometimes several days in a row) and feeds us and helps teach investigators. He's older (served in Vietnam) and says he's addicted to helping us out. What's unique with him, though, is that he is legally blind!  Can't see out of one eye and can see four feet in from of him in the other - but it's really hard to see regardless.

Thank you so much for all you do, and hey, please start a Christmas list! I'd be more than happy to stop by Chicago and get whatever.

Take care and have a great week!

-Elder Montgomery

November 10, 2014

¡Hola familia!

 So this week is transfers again, and I'm moving to a NEW area. I wasn't really expecting on leaving this transfer, but I'm pretty stoked for the new experience. Today I'm scrambling to see all the ward members one last time because yesterday was our stake conference and I wasn't able to see any of them! 

 

I'll be transferred to Westchester 1st Ward on Tuesday and buddy up with Elder Porter, who I believe is from Queen Creek, Arizona. Westchester is part of South Chicago (more like South-Western) but I hear it's one of the better areas. 50% of the Elders have bikes and the other half are designated cars, so there's a coin-flip on whether I will like this transfer or not... just kidding - I'm good either way.

Elder Alvey, my awesome companion, is going to be a Dad! Woohoo! He's going to be raising his firstborn son in the wilderness. In other words, he's training a new Elder. I could only be with Elder Alvey for one transfer, which stinks because he's great, but you know, everything happens for a reason.

We just met some sweet investigators this week! I was so stoked to go teach them more since they were so humbly interested in the gospel, but now I'll miss the opportunity. Two of them are S.K. and his wife, V.

I've been talking about the Phoenix temple a lot to members! I always say that the new temple is opening up, and yeah, we live like two blocks away. Now our Ward is going to have Ward temple night like every month :) I'm fine weather-wise so far. I received your package and been taking advantage of those sweaters - sweet sweaters, by the way. I am not a fan of my winter coat we got at Pomeroy's, unfortunately. I might go to Ross and buy a nice coat for cheap. Elder Alvey got a sweet one for 80 bucks; half off. All I ask is that my personal debit card stay above water... I try to be shop smart though, so don't worry.

Thank you so much for all you do! I am grateful to have such a wonderful family and for my opportunity and privilege to serve a mission! I hope and pray everything will go well this week,

-Elder Montgomery

 

 

 

November 3, 2014

¡Hola familia!

It pains me to read about your 80-90 degree temperatures this week. It snowed here with temperatures 30-40. Yeah, snowed on Halloween, which is funny because lots of natives here claim it's never snowed so early before. We didn't do that much for Halloween, though. We had to report back to the apartment by 7:00 so we just goofed off in our apartment. Oh, but we did have something called Elder's Conference that day! It was the first of its nature, which I got to be apart of, which was pretty cool.

The baptism was awesome! I'll need to attach some photos in another email. A.C. did great. The fact that this was my first time baptizing I don't think really made her too nervous. She always asked "you're not going to drown me, are you Elder Montgomery?" And I would say "only if you don't put up a fight!", lovingly, of course. Haha just kidding :) I honestly had to dunk her three times, which wasn't really embarrassing because the font water level was sooooo low. It was barely above my knees. That's my excuse, anyway. So, for the record, let me explain why I screwed up the first two times. I omitted "of" in the ending part: "and 'of' the Holy Ghost". Her knee came up the second time. She's extra clean, though :)

Hey so we also did something really, really dumb last Monday. You might be disappointed in me, but that's okay because the atonement covers everything - even my lack of wisdom. So my compañero, Elder Alvey,and another missionary, Elder Skablund, partook of a challenge. The 100 chicken nugget challenge! Woohoo! We bought 300 chicken nuggets from BK and decided we would all try to eat as many as we could. Man, that was just too tough. None of us could do it and I was soooo sick. I got to 57 and could NOT eat anything more for several hours. Elder Alvey got to 82, and Skablund got to 62. I lost, but hey, I'm the only one who didn't puke, so that means I kept more down than any of them ;)

Hey, I have a task for you if you're willing. There's a mormon message video, "Enduring Love", that has a piano piece I'd really like to play. Be forewarned though - the video will make you cry (guaranteed). I was just hoping you could somehow find out the song to that video. You can find the video in your gospel library app under videos and under Mormon Messages.

 

I love you all so much! Glad to hear about your Halloween!

 Elder Montgomery's first baptism with Elder Alvey and Elder Robbins

- Elder Montgomery and Elder Alvey made this cake for the baptism.  It's a double layer cake too.  :-)