I have no fun subject line today - April 13, 2015

Yep. That’s my week.

LOL, just kidding!!

Hi, friends! How’s life? Mine’s great. 

So, I have a really cool miracle story from this week, and I'm really excited to share it, so I'm just going to skip to that part of the week, okay?  Good. Because that's what I'm going to do XD

So, last week I told you about the random text we got from Ange last week, right? Well, Sunday, he told us that he had just gotten back from Paris and gave us his new number. Then on Thursday, he texted us again, from a different number. So we saved the second one.  Then, on Friday, we get this random call from Ange, and he's says that he's in the hospital, and that we should come visit him. We were confused. But, nonetheless, we set out to visit him after he sent us the information for the station he's in. So, we get to the hospital, and find a map, and can't find the station. We headed to the information desk. The nurse at the desk pulled out a smaller map and showed us where to go with a marker. We finally made it to his room, and found out that he's been hospitalized simply because of a severe alcohol addiction. While he was telling us this, he also told us several times that he just wants to be done with it. He wants to set a good example for his 5 kids, and not be controlled by alcohol, or other addiction. Sister Bates and I got very excited when we heard that and ended up writing him a little "spiritual prescription" that includes daily prayer twice a day, 5 minutes of daily scripture study, and weekly church attendance. He said that he's going to follow it like he does his medical prescription. Saturday, we went to our next appointment with Ange, and he said that he'd prayed that morning but not the night before (they'd drugged him with sleeping pills and he forgot). But he's been doing really well. He asked us to write down specific chapters for him to read from the Book of Mormon, and Sister Bates, little smarty-pants she is, thought it would be a good idea to give him stories to read instead. So we wrote down several stores, like Nephi and company leaving Jerusalem, and Alma the youngers’ conversion story, and the Sons of Mosiah, and a few others. It was a really powerful couple days.

The rest of the week was relatively uneventful. it was really cool to see Ange have that desire to change. Please pray for him, as well. He's been brought really low, and needs all the help he can get. Prayer rolls would be great, too, if possible.  Thank you!

I love you all, and hope you're having a great time with life. I pray for you often, and love to hear your stories. :D

-Sister Montgomery

WOW! - April 6, 2015

HI!!!!

All I have to say about what has happened the last two weeks is WOW.  

I can't remember a lot of what happened, because I have been so tired the last couple weeks. This letter will probably not be worth much, because I left my planner at home (seems to be a trend come end of transfers. hmm,) but I will do my best.

So, the first couple days of this week were really slow. Not a lot happened. Then, Wednesday after noon, things took off. We had a LA termin, and it was interesting. Appointments with Sister Schwenk (sh-vehnk) are always interesting, because she has had some of the most bizarre experiences. Like seeing her mothers spirit, or praying her cat back to life, and supposedly talking to John the Beloved. Not entirely sure how that one worked out, but, like I said, bizarre.

Thursday way zone training, which was all about the BoM, and how we can use it in our finding and better use it in our teaching. It was really cool. We did a skit on the first 7 chapters, and it was really fun. I got to be the angel and told our District leader, Elder Christiansen, (playing Laman) to shape up and try again. It was really fun (and by that I mean entertaining, and silly).

Friday was the Temple, for which we left at 7:00 practically on the dot. And then drove for 2.5 hours and did an Endowment session (was the only missionary to do it all in English, the other 3 did in in German. the Elders even did the veil in German. I was quite impressed), and had lunch, and then did a ward sealing session. There were 15 of us from Gemeinde Essen. It was spectacular.

Saturday, once again started early, because we decided to do a district breakfast for transfer calls. The only problem was that the missionaries who had been put in charge of food (the Essen elders and Sisters) were the ones who didn't have the cancel to go shopping this week (due to P-day switch for temple). So Sister Bates and I made an emergency run to ALDI ( All-dee =just a grocery store) , and got some pastries, and eggs, and we had scrambled eggs and German pastries for breakfast, as we made transfer predictions and waited for 9:00. Then we learned that we are getting "digital, mobile devices," as President Stoddard called them, on the 24th of April, and that Elder Bednar will be coming that same day to talk about "Missionary work in the digital age." we are all very excited. President said that our stake presidents should be getting an email with information to give to our families, and that we pay for them the same way (though our home ward) as we do tithes and other donations. We are super excited.

Saturday and Sunday were General Conference, and it, as always, was spectacular. I loved the talk about learning to hear the music, and Elder Holland's talk about the brothers, and how the looked out for each other. I got about 7 pages of notes, and it was amazing. We listened to it in English, but the women’s conference, and the Sunday evening sessions were and will be in German because we'll be watching the 5th session in Sunday school, and relief society. 2-hour class. It's gonna be fun.

OH!!! Ange (ange-hard G)came back!! Ange is an eternal investigator from the Ivory Coast, who is constantly dropping off the face of the planet, and losing his phone. He's quite the character. Sunday, between sessions of conference I checked the phone, not expecting anything. We had a text from a random number. It basically said "hey, Sisters, it's Ange. I just got back from Paris. This is my new number. I still want to meet with you." we were flabbergasted, but super excited. We texted back and asked if he had time Tuesday at 4. He said he'd be there. I'm a little apprehensive, but super excited. he seems like a really cool guy, with a lot of potential. Will you pray for him, please?

Also, we heard from one of the members that her friend/one of our other investigators, Manuela (man-you-ella) had prayed this week and recognized her answer. Then today, she randomly texted us and asked for a restoration DVD. We got super excited, and told her of course. She's finally making progress!!! 

So, yeah, it's been a fun absolutely crazy week. Love all and hope to hear from you, soon, 

-Sister Montgomery

P.S. remember to eat your veggies, and get enough sleep!