17 Again

Hallo, alles!

So, Thursday TRC was great, we talked with the grandmother of one of the sisters in our zone. She is a wonderful lady. We get to Skype with real investigators in Germany this week and next week for TRC (Teaching Resource Center) and our whole district is super excited. The whole zone loves TRC .

Friday was the usual -- long, monotonous, and really hard. Saturday, on the other hand, was the most scrumptious spiritual feast I have ever had in my life. The talks were all fantastic. I learned so much, and got a good 14+ pagers of notes. I loved Lynn G Robbins Talk. I think I got a full page of notes from him alone. It was amazing! That’s the best adjective I can think of.

So, for conference I set the goal of having a question for each session. I got this from something Danika told me in one of her letters: "It helps of you have a [specific] question." So I decided I'd write the question at the top of the first page for the session, and keep it in mind as I took notes, and see what kind of an answer, or answers I got. It was a really neat experience, especially when my first question was answered very strongly in the second talk, the one by President Packer, and then again in Elder Robbins talk. Talk about God hearing and answering our prayers.

The second session was spectacular. Jörg Klebingat's talk really hit me hard, maybe because he's a German, but also because of his presentation style. It really fit my learning style, and I got a lot from his talk, especially his list of things to be a better disciple. I really liked it with some of the 70 giving talks in their native languages, I think it had a lot more power behind it, even more so than when they speak in English. Our entire zone was a little disappointed when President Uchtdorf didn't speak in German, but I quickly got over it when there was so much power in it. It was mind-boggling.

Listening to President Monson's talk Sunday morning was really cool. He answered my session question, and I got a lot more from the spirit than I did with the other speakers. I got more thoughts and impressions of things I should do, and not as many "that's a good quote, I should do that," moments. It's amazing the things you notice when the prophets speaking verses when the area 70 and other apostles are talking.

Sunday night Devotional was really cool. it was an area 70, former BYU football player Vai Stasomi or something like that. I don't remember. He’s Tongan, and he gave a wonderful devotional. He told us to put our notes away, and then just talked about his life, and things he's done to have missionary experiences, told lots of jokes, and it was super cool.

Tuesday devotional was also an area 70, Brent H Nielson, and he gave us one of those "things I wish I'd known at your age" talks. We all thought it would be boring, but it was actually really good. I learned a lot from him. So much, I would need to write a whole other letter.

So, this week was full to overflowing with cool spiritual experiences, and I loved every minute of it.

Keep smiling everyone. I love you and pray for you,

Sister Montgomery.

Week Three at the MTC

Hello, all!

Last Wednesday the temple was beautiful. Sister Johnson and I did Initiatory, which was really cool, especially since I had only done Endowments and Baptisms before. It was really interesting to see the difference between living and dead ordinances.

Thursday we had TRC, which was thrilling because we got to talk to native German speakers. There were a few words I didn't catch, but for the most part, I think I’m getting the German. We’ll see how much I really know in about 3 weeks when we fly out for Deutschland.

So, I don't remember anything from Friday, which may be a common theme, seeing as it's there's nothing interesting going on, and therefore it's "Nicht Tag."

Saturday was also pretty uneventful. Except for when Sister Hill told me I had "Audrey Hepburn eyes."  I wore eyeliner on the bottom of my eye for the first time since being here, and apparently it made my eyes look really big. I'm not sure, but it happened, and I thought it was really funny.

Sunday, we had no choir practice, since the Elders are practicing for conference. They're practicing right now, and holy mackerel! do they sound so amazing. you guys going to the priesthood session  are in for a real treat with this choir. I'm still trying to get a picture of the zone for you, but you'll be able to tell by their tags if they're German or not. I'll see if I can send you a picture of my tag so you know what to look for. It's more than likely I'll know them, because they have all of us going to Germany in one zone.

 

P-day Eve was great, because we had 2/3 day instead of a full day, I got to sing in the choir, and we had a great lesson with our "Investigator." I think I may have finally figured out how to teach with the Spirit. I'm super excited.

Well, I think that's all for this week. Love you all, and miss you. Keep eating those Veggies, and smiling =D

Sister Montgomery

2 in a Row, Beat That!

Yoo-hoo! Hi, Family!!

So, once again, the week has flown by. Nichtstag (Thursday and Friday -- I'll explain in a minute) went by really slow this week, and Late Service Day (will also be explained) wasn't much better.  We did have a little District Bonding Time during additional study, when everyone brought pictures of their family and "introduced"  everyone to them. it was really fun, except that I didn't have any pictures of you. So could you have Cheyenne Dear Elder me some of our beach pictures, please?

Sontag was fabulous as always. We got to watch the Ogdan UT Temple dedication broadcast. it was absolutely AMAZING!!!! Presidents Monson and  Eyring were there as well as Elder Bednar, and several area 70s.  it was so beautiful, especially the video of the temples before the broadcast. Sister Johnson and I had a fun time trying to figure out which temple was which.

Early Service Day was hard, but we got a hoot out of Elder Crittenden's MTC calendar which he drew on the board during Additional Study. it is as follows: Sunday-Sontag (the German word for Sunday); Monday-Early Service Day-- we have service on Mondays at 6:15 a.m. and Saturdays at 8:30 a.m., so Mondays are "Early service day." Tuesday - P-day eve Featuring Devotional; Wednesdays - P-day!; Thursday and Friday are Nichtstag- 48 hours long because nothing happens and they always go slow, then we have Late Service Day, and we're back to Sontag. Oh, and Months are not important. it was super funny. I'll try soon to send you pictures of The Gang (District E).

P-Day Eve FT Devotional was absolutely phenomenal. We had M Russell Ballard come for devotional, which was broadcast to all the other MTC's (yes, 2nd week in a row, it was pretty cool).  The Choir sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer," a very beautiful rendition, and I kind of got a mini solo for a really high note on a chord towards the end. Brother Eggart (the choir director) asked for "a music major, 1st soprano diva." I know that's not really what I am, But I was the only one who raised my hand, and didn't know that until he said "oops, there she is," and Pointed at me. it was a little frightening, until the sister in front of me, Sister Jackson, who is in my zone/ branch, turned around and said "i'll hit it with you." Then I knew I could do it with confidence, because I wasn’t carrying it by myself. Anyway, President Ballard talked about his mission, and I got 4 pages of notes from him. He is a wonderful man, and he and his wife are so cute. When they were leaving, He said "bye," waved to us all, and then went over and shook some of his family's hand. it was so cute, and I almost started crying because they were both so sincere.

Oh! Speaking of Conference: the MTC Elders are the special choir in Conference for the Priesthood session, and Elder Hansen (Elder Crittenden's companion) is in the coir as well as most of the other Elders in our zone. I'll see if I can get a zone picture before conference so you can identify all the German Elders XD

Brother Clark (Branch Presidency) said that our zone is "A singing zone if I ever heard one," which was really cool. He told us about the zone before us and how they'd do a zone closing song and prayer after devotional discussion on P-day Eve FT Devotional, and we've decided we want to do it as well. 

I am happy and all is going well, my companion is great, my district is great, my zone is great and super fun. Life is good. I am right where I'm meant to be when I need to be here. I'm so excited for the very live mission of Frankfurt Germany. only 5 More weeks and we will be flying out.

I love you, and wish I could talk to you more. keep smiling and eating your veggies. Tell the Twins if they want to get as tall as Ammon, they need to eat their Broccoli. That's what I told The Gang, about how he got so tall. it was a very interesting conversation. 

Tschau, tschau all. (pronounced "ciao") Ich liebe sie alles. (I love you all).

Sister Montgomery

One Week Down, 71 To Go

This week was really busy. it was really spiritual. there was a lot that happened. My district is really small, 2 sister companionship's, and an Elder companionship. My companion, Sister Johnson, is a super sweet girl from Minnesota, St Paul, area. She want to USU for a year, and is really good at learning languages. She took  years of sign language, and NO German, but she's picking it up really fast. Sisters Godwin and Terry are both super sweet and funny. Sister Godwin is from Georgia, and Sister Terry is from, what do you know, San Antonio Texas. Neither of them really has an accent, though, mostly just saying "y'all" a lot when referring to a group. it's super funny, and reminds me of Cheyenne a lot. Elders Hansen and Crittenden are both recent high school graduates, but they're really funny. they were both really quiet for the first couple days, but now we're all getting to know each other, we can talk freely about most any subject.

On Wednesday, all of the Sisters in my district were confused that our name tags said "Sister" and not "Schwester." Our teacher, Brother Liddle, said that "Schwester" is often associated with Catholic nuns, and we didn't have "Schwester" because we don't want to be mistaken for nuns.

The language is coming good, I'm able to pick up most of what Brother Liddle, and our Investigator, Lukas, say, but there are still some words I don't know. I'm not worried, though. I know that as I can continue to work on learning, I will learn and know what to say as the moment requires. Dictionaries are a great help for that.

Um. I had a mild allergic reaction on Sunday. We had shrimp, and I remembered that Jared and Shenandoah both have seafood allergies, so I was really hesitant to try it. But I did anyway. I didn't go into Anaphylaxis, but I did start having a little trouble breathing. Please don't worry, mom. I caught it pretty fast, and sister Johnson and I went to the Information Desk immediately. they called the Doctor, and he prescribed an Antihistamine to stop the reaction. So, nothing happened, I just now know to avoid shrimp, and Sister Johnson and I need to go pick up an EpiPen that the Doctor prescribed Monday when he called me in to the health clinic to check that I was doing okay. it will only cost $10 because I'm a missionary.

Oh, random fact, I saw Tyler Holman on Sunday when we went on our temple walk after Sacrament meeting. It was really weird to see him. He's been here about a month, and is going to California, San Fransisco area I believe, Croatian speaking, which is really cool.

well, I guess that't all for this week. I loved getting letters in the mail, so if you want to send something snail mail o Dear Elder, my address is as follows.

Sister Jubilee Montgomery

Provo MTC Mission

Unit 197, Departure Date October28

Germany-Frankfurt

2005 North 900 East

Provo UT 84604-1793