Fwd: Letter #26 - 9/30/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 30, 2013 at 8:26 AM
Subject: Letter #26 - 9/30/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Dear Mom and company,

Vote! (That's the Russian work for "behold"). I've officially hit my 1/3 mark of the mission. Ahh! I'm just glad I still have a year left, though honestly, I have no idea where the last 6 months went. It's a strange phenomenon to be "set apart" -- I feel like I've only ever been a missionary, and any pre- or post-mission thoughts are just like a dream. But anyway, expect me home in about a year. That gives me just enough time to turn into an ice sculpture during the winter months and thaw out in the summer. In case you're wondering what the weather is here, we enjoyed a beautiful autumn the other day, after which we promptly continued into winter. No snow yet, but lots of rain and BRRR it's been cold! But hey, if I can survive a Romanian winter, I can survive a Ukrainian one too.

In other exciting news, transfer info is out! As I expected, I'm staying in Voskresesnky with Sister Cromwell. I don't know if I'm ever gonna leave here haha. I don't mind though, we've got a great ward and some really great investigators. Oh, and here's something new -- I'm Sister Training Leader! Yeah, that'll make for an exciting transfer. That basically means that I'll be doing exchanges every week, going to leadership council meetings every months, and making lots of phone calls to make sure everything is in order in our zone. I'm looking forward to the opportunity to serve the sisters here and improve our mission, and though I'm sure weekly exchanges will be super stressful, I can see them being SUPER fun too. :)

So, what happened this week? ... We have a new mission goal to reach 204 baptisms by the end of the year (currently we have 101), which means that each companionship brings at least two souls unto Christ through baptism by the end of the year. So this week we've been really spreading the word to church members and just trying to do more (and better) of whatever is necessary to reach our goal. We've been opening our mouths more, finding members to fellowship investigators, reaching out to less actives to bring them back into the fold, and so on. It's been a pretty productive week, I'd say.

One of our investigators, Hadya, came to church yesterday, and she's already read up to 1 Nephi 12 in the Book of Mormon, and she's going to a super fun ward activity on Saturday with super awesome ward members her age (she's 22). We've got high hopes for her -- we met her from English and she's just super sweet. We met with Vasile again (middle-aged guy that called me over on the bus about a month ago), and the best way I can describe him and our lesson is that he's like a wild horse -- the lesson was all over the place, he thinks and speaks at about 127 miles per hour, he's yearning for truth but has little patience, and... yeah. Oh man, we've got to learn how to control that man. BUT if he does get baptized (and he really could), then he'd be an awesome member. We also met with Larisa last weekend (the one we magically tracted into) and had a really great first lesson (with lots of commentary from her Muslim sister who was on the lesson too... super interesting family). Never a lame day here in Voskresensky!

Well, that about sums up my week. Hope y'all have a great week! Keep praying for me and the people here -- I know it makes a difference!

Love,

Sister Montgomery

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Fwd: Letter #25 - 9/23/13 (Lena 16)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 23, 2013 at 4:51 AM
Subject: Letter #25 - 9/23/13 (Lena 16)
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Heya fam! I've only got time for one story today, but it's a good one.

Do you remember Lena (age 16)? We spent a lot of time with her back in June -- she's the golden investigator who would already be baptized if it wasn't for her anti-Mormon parents. Anyway, we lost contact with her in July because her phone number changes, but last week I realized that we had part of her address: a street and a building number. Sometime last week we found the building, only to see that it had 400+ apartments and we had no clue which one was hers. Nevertheless, we were determined to find her because, let's be honest, you don't just let a girl like Lena fall off the charts. I told Heavenly Father that night, "If you'd like to give us a hint as to where she is, that would be great. But just know that I will knock on all 400 of those doors in order to find her if I have to." His response was, "Yeah, start with that."

We went back a day or two later, when an all-knowing grandma "happened" to be on her balcony and "happened" to know which stairwell Lena's family lived in when I told her the surname. We started knocking on doors asking where the family lived, and we narrowed it down to a specific floor (4 apartments). Slowly but surely... On Tuesday we went back to the stairwell, hoping to finally find the long-sought-after apartment. We were nervous that Lena's anti-Mormon father would open the door (and then who knows what would happen...), but it was our only hope of finding her. We waited outside the stairwell to sneak in, and finally a man walked by and opened the outside door. We followed behind him and I asked if he happened to know where the ______ family lived. Turns out he was Lena's grandpa, and he invited us outside to have a little chat!

What proceeded was a very friendly conversation with Lena's grandfather during which we briefly explained our Christian beliefs and left a very good impression on him. And then as we were talking, Lena showed up! She had just come home from school, and right there she asked her grandpa's permission to spend the evening with us, which he granted. We went to the church and had a great lesson on the commandments, she stayed for English, and then we said goodbye. Oh, and this is the type of girl Lena is: despite not seeing the missionaries for two months, she has read the Book of Mormon and prayed every day, and during our lesson, she sought to understand and agreed to live every commandment we taught her. Absolutely incredible.

Little did I know that it would be a (semi-)final goodbye; we called a few days later and she told us (nearly crying) that her parents said she can't keep meeting with us. :( She thoroughly thanked us for what we've taught her, and I told her to keep living the gospel as best she can right now. It was a pretty hard conversation. However, I thank God for the miraculous turn of events that led us to find her again. It was absolutely the will of God that we had that final lesson with her -- she has now officially received all of the missionary lessons and committed to live all of the commandments, and I had the sweet opportunity of testifying to her of God's love and plan for her. I didn't know that it'd be the last lesson, but it couldn't have been a better one.

The natural man in us had every reason to not seek out Lena: all we had was a building number with 400+ apartment doors, one of them which would most likely be opened by Lena's anti-Mormon parents, and we could have shirked at the task. But we didn't. We tested and saw the literal fulfillment of 3 Nephi 14:7-8, "Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened." Line upon line, precept upon precept, we were led to this amazing daughter of God in the best way possible, and we did for her exactly what her loving Father in Heaven wanted: taught her everything necessary for her to live the restored gospel of Jesus Christ as much as she can during this time of her life. "Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (D&C 18:10). It's our willingness to knock on 400+ doors that allows God to narrow it down to 20; if charity fuels our faith, God can truly work miracles all around us.

Take whatever you need from that story and use it to change your life. Know that great in the sight of God is your soul, and know that everyone around you is just as beloved to their Eternal Father in Heaven. Now go tell/show someone how loved they are! :)

Love you all!

Sister Montgomery

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Fwd: Letter #23 - 9/9/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 9, 2013 at 6:53 AM
Subject: Letter #23 - 9/9/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Dear password-protected family and friends,

New mission rule that public blogs are nelzya (Russian word for prohibited), so if you're reading this, it means you're especially special. Pat yourself on the back, grab yourself a nice hot cup of herbal tea (as I do every night), and enjoy yourself a good ol' Sister Montgomery letter from the ends of the earth of Ukraine.

What went down this week, you might ask? Well, Tuesday was an all-day zone conference that, like every mission meeting, was awesome. We talked a lot about mission culture and creative finding. Since there's gonna be like a ton of missionaries by the end of the year (roughly "50 million" as Mom says), the mission is going more and more in the direction of service, since you can only ask members for referrals so many times. This next week we're gonna see if we can volunteer at a hospital singing for people there, or an orphanage doing laundry or something. We also got a lot of super great creative finding ideas that should work a lot better than dry old street contacting or tracting. I'm excited to try going down some new avenues to find people to teach -- it'll be fun.

Wednesday we had exchanges, so I was with Sister Rassavich (sp?) in Brovary, a small town just east of Kyiv. I had a really good time there -- very pretty, had some great contacting conversations and lessons, and in general exchanges are just plain fun (switches things up, you know?) Good stuff.

By the way, Lena backed out of her baptismal date. :( She just feels like she's not ready right now, and she'd rather wait until she gets back to New Jersey to see how the church is there. It's understandable (support at church is vital for investigators and recent converts), but I was really hoping to be there to watch her make that step in her spiritual progression. But all the same, she's doing great and she's still an amazing woman. We had a really good lesson this morning (I wrote her a song and played it for her... it made her cry), and we're gonna keep texting her verses and spiritual thoughts every day. Her time and place will come, I'm sure.

Other than that, it's been a bunch of the same. Oh, and I discovered something funny about myself: I've got a thing for middle-aged men. Not a weird thing, don't worry -- that's just the group of people that I've found that I'm most comfortable contacting, talking to, and teaching, kind of like my "niche" or something. Strange, huh? I mean, we try to talk to everyone, but give me a crowd full of teens, grandmas, and middle-aged men, and you can be sure who I'll comfortably approach.

Well, that's the gist of my life recently. Things are really quite good right now, and I have high hopes for this week. I'd like to leave you with a spiritual thought, but I'm out of time... how bout I just include the lyrics I wrote for Lena? Go find someone who speaks Russian (or Mr. Google...) and take what you will from it.

Love you all! Have a great week!

-Sister Montgomery

Шаг за Шагом

Сестра Монтгомери

У самой воды Чёрмного Моря

Стоял и смотрел Мойсей

С армией за ним, пустыней впереди

Все боялись и желали вернуться

Но Мойсей повысил свой голос, говоря,

"Не бойтесь но стойте и увидите спасение"

     Шаг за шагом, день за днём

     Постепенно постоянно вперёд

     Рядом с тобой будут мир и покой

     Ибо рядом с тобой Искупитель твой

     И день придёт когда Он же скажет,

     "Дай им место в Земле Обетованной

     Вот они шли за Мной

     Шаг за шагом, день за днём"

У самой воды крещения

Стоишь и смотришь ты

С прошлоем за тобой, неизвестностью впереди

Есть сомнения и страхи вокруг тебя

Но есть тоже шёпот Духа, говоря,

"Не бойся но стой и увидишь спасение"

     Шаг за шагом, день за днём

     Постепенно постоянно вперёд

     Рядом с тобой будут мир и покой

     Ибо рядом с тобой Искупитель твой

     И день придёт когда Он же скажет,

     "Дай ей место в Церкви Моей

     Вот она шла за Мной

     Шаг за шагом, день за днём"

У самой Воды Живой

Ты можешь вечно быть

С страхом за тобой, верой впереди

Вступи в воду, вступи в завет

И Господь будет поборать за тебя

И ты будешь спокойна

Будь ты спокойна

     Шаг за шагом, день за днём

     Постепенно постоянно вперёд

     Рядом с тобой будут мир и покой

     Ибо рядом с тобой Искупитель твой

     И день придёт когда Он же скажет,

     "Отец, дай ей место в Царстве Твоём

     Вот она шла за Мной

     Шаг за шагом, день за днём"

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Fwd: Letter #24 - 9/16/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 16, 2013 at 7:48 AM
Subject: Letter #24 - 9/16/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Hey! Fantastic week, I have to say. Lots of neat stories, neat instruction, and neat stories.

For example, you know what's really cool? When we spend all day trying to find people, and then people find US! For example, Tuesday we were dropping off an audio Book of Mormon to a less-active's house, and as we were leaving, a young guy started calling out, "Sisters! Sisters!" We got into a really good gospel conversation, we testified to him of Heavenly Father's love for him, and he wants to get together again to hear our message. He's a bit of a rough fellow (he was kind of on drugs when we met him...), but he wants to change, and it turns out the gospel is a really good recipe for lasting, positive change. It's interesting -- I've been teaching long enough to really tell when I'm teaching "by the Spirit" (D&C 50:17). The words just flow out of my mouth, I'm completely calm and yet bold about what I'm saying, I can see the person with complete charity (who they can become instead of just who they are now), and I truly feel like a representative of my Savior. It's such an incredible feeling to teach by the power of the Spirit, and I get better at it every single day.

Also later that day, a woman (Maria) from the neighboring stairwell in my apartment building stopped us and said, "I want to chat with you girls! Apartment 150!" So we stopped by, had two lessons this week, and she even came to church yesterday! She actually heard about us from the woman who works at our apartment entrance (Klavdia) -- I guess she was saying good things about us, and Maria was interested in getting to know us. That's the power of being an example of Christ at all times and in all places -- if we had ignored Klavdia or left a bad impression, we would have probably never met Maria! Anyway, she's great, very receptive to our message, and I'm excited to keep meeting with her.

One last cool story. Friday night we were on our way to an appointment, but the person cancelled last minute. We were on the trolleybus and decided to just get off and go contacting/tracting/something. Normally that would've been kind of a bummer, but I was actually pretty excited because I was feeling the Spirit unusually strong, and I was completely ready to be led by Him. I even told Sister Cromwell, "I've got a feeling that something good is about to happen..."

We walked in the direction of a big apartment complex, and I had the feeling to tract. We stood outside of one stairwell, waiting for someone to open the door so we could sneak in, but no one came so we tried the next stairwell. Someone went in so we nonchalantly followed them, and we started tracting from the bottom. The first door we knocked, a woman opened it and closed it before we could say much. We kept going, and soon that woman came out again and asked what it was that we wanted. What ensued was at least a 30 minute, very delightful conversation with that actually incredibly kind and positive woman (Larisa) about life and family and faith. She has a husband, son, and daughter, no religious background, and a lot of questions about God. We taught her the basics of what we believe, prayed with her, and we should be going back this weekend to teach her and her family. I can hardly wait! :)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot! We had mission conference on Saturday! Everyone in the mission was there, and we were blessed to have three hours of awesome instruction from Elder David F. Evans, the head of the missionary department (general authority, rubs shoulders with apostles and prophets... kind of a big deal). MAN was it incredible. I walked away corrected, instructed, inspired, and excited to step up all aspects of my missionary work. I love this constant process of change and improvement... it feels so good to always be making progress in whatever it is I'm doing.

Quick spiritual thought from Elder Evans. He talked about two different types of faith. First is the general find -- faith and hope in the future, the faith that keeps us going every day, the faith that is found in many people throughout the world. The second is a very rare type of faith that he described as, "The faith to actually cause things to happen." I've thought about that a lot in my work here: do I have a general sense of hope that things will go well here in my area and with my investigators, or do I actually have the faith to bring about the purposes that I and the Lord desire? Do I have the faith to work in such a way to actually steer the course of what's happening here? Faith is a principle of power, and I'm going to really strive to develop this second kind of faith so that I can bring about miracles here. I know that you too can develop that kind of faith, and it can very literally change your life.

Alright, have a great week! Hope the rain lets up in Colorado soon. Maybe if Grandpa Montgomery flies in, him and Dad could just spend a day or two conversing with each other -- there would probably be enough "dry humor" there to dry the state out. :)

Love you!
Sister Montgomery

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Fwd: Letter #22 - 9/2/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Sep 2, 2013 at 8:00 AM
Subject: Letter #22 - 9/2/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Very exciting week to tell you about... :D

Lena is getting baptized! On September 14th! Ahhhh! She came to church last Sunday, we had a lesson with her about the Plan of Salvation, we met again Tuesday and talked about the gospel of Christ and invited her to be baptized, and she said yes! I can't even tell you how amazing of a woman she is... she's such an example to me. We still have a lot to teach her before next Saturday, but she's receptive to everything and she wants to embrace the fullness of the gospel of Christ, starting with baptism. I'll let you know how things progress... I'm so excited for her. :)

Also, we had a rockin awesome lesson with a man named Vasile. We met him on a bus (he actually called me over to him to chat -- doesn't happen too often here), and we met later outside and taught him about the Restoration. He's not the most receptive right now, but I could tell that he's really searching (even yearning) for truth, and I know that the gospel can help him find answers to the questions of his soul. He wasn't able to come to church yesterday because he was sick, but he wants to come, and he wants to know more. I loved that lesson with him... I think I just liked hearing all these soul-searching questions and knowing that, thanks to the restored gospel, all of them could be answered and satisfied.

We had kind of a cool experience Tuesday night. We planned to meet with a less active but our lesson fell through, and all we had as a back-up plan was contacting in our area on our way home. Neither Sister Cromwell or I were very excited about it because, for whatever reason, the area where we live is not very "fruitful" for contacting as opposed to different places in our area. But instead of wallowing in our own self-fulfilling prophecy of failure, we got down on our knees and pleaded for God's help to know where to go and what to do.

As Sister Cromwell was offering the prayer, I thought of a specific street in our area, so afterward we headed there and had a great conversation with a young father who, though closed at first, asked for our brochure by the end of our conversation. Later we contacted a man on a bench who gave us his number and was interested in coming to church. As we were getting home, I laughed and said, "So what was that about this area not being fruitful?" Looks like it just needed a little watering from heaven. :) I love how God teaches us as missionaries the exact same thing we teach our investigators: blessings come from obedience and diligence. "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you" (3 Nephi 18:20). Trust in the promises of the Lord, "for he will fulfill all his promises which he shall make unto you, for he has fulfilled his promises which he has made unto our fathers" (Alma 27:17).

Lastly, if I could give y'all any kind of commitment or invitation or whatever, it would be this: go find somebody in your ward who might be struggling and befriend them. Recent converts especially need support, and those who are less active obviously need that support too. We as missionaries try to help these people, but it's really the responsibility of the members to support the other members. "Remember, the worth of souls is great in the sight of God" (D&C 18:10). Do your home and visiting teaching, and look above and beyond to seek out those who need your friendship or service. I promise that blessings will come to both them and you! God wants His children to be taken care of, so please, do whatever you can, wherever you are, to make that happen.

*K, stepping off my soapbox... ahem* Have a wonderful week! I really do appreciate all your support and prayers and everything. Love you!

-Sister Montgomery

PS -- Here's a pic of Sister Cromwell and I in case you'd like to imagine the person I'm with 24/7 for this transfer. She's great. :)

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