Fwd: Letter #30 - 10/28/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 28, 2013 at 8:50 AM
Subject: Letter #30 - 10/28/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Hey everyone! Lots happening here in good old Voskresensky! Not so much with investigators (we've got a lot of good potentials though...), but we had a sudden random transfer last week, so I'm no longer companions with Sister Cromwell. But don't worry, I'm still in Voskresensky, and I even snuck "transfo" (transfer information) from President that I'll be in Voskresensky yet again next transfer with a new trainee. In the meantime, I'm companions with Sister Griffiths, BUT it turns out she's leaving this week to go home for health reasons, which means I'll have yet another companion for the rest of this transfer, and I don't know who yet. It'll be my fifth companion in my fourth transfer! I'll miss Sister Cromwell and her funny little quirks, and I've actually gotten pretty close with Sister Griffiths too in the whole four days we've been together. But look at the bright side -- I'll have lots of friends when I go home! :)

You know what I love about being a missionary? Being an official representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, and every day discovering the deeper meaning of that. I've had some powerful experiences this past week teaching by the power of the Spirit. Not only does the Spirit testify along with me as I speak, but He literally puts thoughts into my heart and gives me "in the very moment" what I should say (D&C 100:5-6). I've been so bold and full of love lately that I've even surprised myself.

Just the other night we stopped by a less active, and after making a little bit of small-talk, I got right into the gospel by saying, "I'm not speaking as Sister Montgomery right now. I'm speaking as a representative of Jesus Christ." From that moment on, it was D&C 68:4 at it's finest: "And whatsoever they shall speak when moved upon by the Holy Ghost shall be scripture, shall be the will of the Lord, shall be the mind of the Lord, shall be the word of the Lord, shall be the voice of the Lord, and the power of God unto salvation." I expressed my and Heavenly Father's love for her and desire for her to return, I explained that she's been breaking commandments and I invited her to repent, I expounded pertinent doctrine, I invited her to act, I promised blessings from her loving Father in Heaven, and I warned of sin as the Spirit directed. Her choice was no different by the end of the conversation, but I had done the will of the Lord by bringing the Holy Ghost "unto" her heart (2 Nephi 33:1), and I pray that she'll remember those feelings and let Him in.

I don't relate this story to boast in the least; it's just such an honor and privilege from the Lord to hold this special calling, and it's something I've just barely realized is limited to only 11 more months. I am SO grateful to be here, doing what I'm doing, with the Power by which I'm doing it. Perhaps only those who have served full-time missionaries truly understand what I'm saying, but the rest of you can probably imagine.

We've had some interesting events happen in our ward lately. One young man (in his 20's), who I would describe as being "spiritually on fire" when I met him, chose to completely apostatize from the church because we eat meat, and he's discovered recently how opposed he is to that. He has forsaken the source of all truth because of... meat. I won't dwell here on how sad that makes me (I'm quite close with him and his wife, who has also apostatized with him), but instead, I'll contrast it with a very happy story. I wrote on 6/10/13 about a man named Genadi; he's paralyzed on his left side, his hip is broken, and he's got a hole in his skull where someone hit him with a hammer. (Okay, so far this is NOT a happy story, but hold on a sec...) Anyway, when I met him back in June, I wrote in my journal that his soul seemed as broken as his body, BUT... the Elders have been meeting with him since July, and he is a COMPLETELY changed man. I even went back over there about a month ago, and there was so much light in him. He is willing and totally ready to be baptized, but we're just working through things with his doctor and lawyers because of the risk involved (he still wants to do it though).

Anyway, all this has got me thinking about a passage in Ezekiel (yes, I randomly ponder Ezekiel in my free time... don't you?) It's Ezekiel 18:26-27 and it simply says, "When a righteous man turneth away from his righteousness, and committeth iniquity, and dieth in them; for his iniquity that he hath done shall he die. Again, when the wicked man turneth away from his wickedness that he hath committed, and doeth that which is lawful and right, he shall save his soul alive." That's a mission in a nutshell; while lost souls are finally finding truth in the gospel, seemingly strong members are stepping away from it. One of my favorite verses is 31 in that chapter, "Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby ye have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?" Why will you die?! Why will you cut yourself off from the truth that can fill you and heal you? "For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live ye" (v.32). Turn to God and watch as the Atonement of Christ transforms your heart, spirit, and life.

That's all for this week! Hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Montgomery

PS -- Attached is a nice picture of the Voskresensky gang (Elder Hangen, Elder Romney, yours truly, and Sister Cromwell)

Fwd: Letter #29 - 10/21/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 21, 2013 at 3:52 AM
Subject: Letter #29 - 10/21/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Hey fam. This is gonna be a super quick letter cause I need to go get my hair cut...

Man, I don't even know what happened this week. It went by before I knew it! I had an exchange in Brovary, a small town outside of Kyiv, with Sister Nikogosyan (an awesome missionary) and everything went well. I'm still getting used to the fact that I'm Sister Training Leader and that people now look at me like I know what I'm doing... it sure gives me a reason to always be on my best behavior and "grow" into this leadership position.

We've been having a hard time meeting with investigators recently, so that's been super slow. But the good news is that our Relief Society is really stepping up their missionary game, and we've got a full schedule of visiting members this week and helping them do missionary work. If the message wasn't clear back in June during the worldwide mission broadcast, it became clear this last conference: it's the Lord's way for members and missionaries to work together in this great work of salvation. I hope to see good results from it soon. I have really grown to love this ward, so much so that I don't want to leave. There are so many incredible people here!

And... that's all I have time for. Sorry! Keep praying for me and the people here -- we can always use it!

Love,

Sister Montgomery

Fwd: Letter #28 - 10/14/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 8:02 AM
Subject: Letter #28 - 10/14/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Heya fam! I had a really good week! Tender mercies of the Lord are befalling me left and right. I'll tell you a few of them...

First off, general conference! We finally got to watch it all (or nearly all) this weekend, and it was SO good! Man, almost better than Christmas. :) I especially liked all the emphasis on missionary work; it's so much easier to convince/inspire members to help with missionary work when you've got words of living prophets and apostles at your fingertips. It's interesting being surrounded by people who believe that the idea of prophets died when Christ died, and I just want to raise my voice and be like, "No, seriously, there's a prophet today! Yeah, a prophet, like Moses. And I heard him speak like two hours ago!" I had a hard time just sitting in the church or at home listening to conference for so long because I was so anxious to get outside and share their words with everyone else. And now this week I can. :)

Also, we had an amazing Zone Conference on Friday. Every conference leaves me on a spiritual high, no joke. Besides doing a lot of instructive role-plays, we delved thoroughly into the doctrine of repentance, and I learned so much from it. I feel like I'm better equipped to truly "preach nothing but repentance" (Mosiah 18:20) to this people, a topic which, by the way, is so much more pleasant and glorious than we normally understand it as being. As Elder Scott just said in conference, "Remember, repentance is not punishment. It is the hope-filled path to a more glorious future."

Oh, I have to tell you about our hilarious lesson with Maria Monday night. She's our neighbor that called us out as we were walking and told us to come over, and last Sunday she invited us over again, so we stopped by the next evening. Little did we know that her friend Tamara was visiting, and Tamara really doesn't like Mormons, and she's really vocal about it. We started a pleasant lesson with Maria, and she showed us her marked-up copy of the Book of Mormon through 2 Nephi (umm... amazing!), but it wasn't long until Tamara came into the room and started going off about this and that from the Bible and how stupid we are, not letting us get more than two words in at a time.

We managed to quiet her down long enough to basically say, "We're going to watch this film about the Prophet Joseph Smith. If you don't want to watch it with us, please leave." She finally went to the other room but continued to make commentary about what she was hearing from the film (accompanied by Maria's sweet commentary, "Oh the animals are so cute!"). After we were done watching it (Maria loved it), Tamara came back in and proceeded yelling at us. We managed to sneak in a closing prayer, and as Maria was walking us to the elevator (closing the door on Tamara), she said, "I'm so sorry! Please don't judge me by her... we'll meet again when she's gone!" What a strong woman. Thankfully the member that we had on the lesson thought it was an awesome experience (16-year-old girl whose spiritually on fire), and we just had to laugh all the way home, because I'm pretty sure laughter was the only thing that could get our blood pressure back down haha. Oh man, what a lesson! Good opportunity to practice charity too. ;)

Anyway, this week was just full of the Spirit. He's been guiding our plans, He's been working in the hearts of people that I love, He's been leading the elect to us and vice versa, and He's been guiding my words as I speak and testify. We had exchanges on Wednesday (I was in Voskresensky with Sister Wallace) and we were met all day with receptive people. One woman, Valentina, even wrote down all her information and gave it to us, including when she's available to meet (basically set up an appointment all by herself). A few days later we stopped by, and we were surprised to find that the address she gave us was a business, and we walked into what looked like a business meeting with six women. Sister Cromwell and a member from the ward were with me, and later they both told me they were thinking, "What did Sister Montgomery get us into?" We were worried there were going to try to sell us something, but they were actually interested in a gospel discussion (once we led it in that direction), and we basically gave the whole first lesson to six women at one time, including bold and powerful testimonies and a prayer at the end. The Spirit was so strong in that room, and we left with two fewer Books of Mormon and three interested potential investigators. I'm so grateful to have had a part in such an awesome miracle from God. :)

Alright, I still gotta go report to President so I'll call it quits there. Hope you have a fabulous week!

Love,

Sister Montgomery

PS -- Hey Addi, do you know a Lindsey Staley? She's a new sister in my zone and went to BYU-I before, and when I asked if she knows any Montgomery's, she mentioned you. Sweet! (As a pure-blooded Montgomery, I just couldn't help myself from making one of those infamous "small world" connections.) :)

Fwd: Letter #27 - 10/7/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 8:09 AM
Subject: Letter #27 - 10/7/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Dear family,

I'm attempting to multi-task right now -- write this letter while listening to general conference -- so we'll see how this goes. I just couldn't wait until this weekend (when it'll be in Russian/Ukrainian) for the spiritual feast of prophetic counsel... I love conference! :)

I don't have too much to write actually. I got to jam a lot on guitar this week to advertise our English class. That was fun. We also went to the nursing home and played hymns for the old people there; they're super nice and humble, and we almost got a new investigator from it (still waiting to meet with her again). Also, we got a new investigator, Pyoter (err... "Peter" if you so desire). We tracted into him the other week and invited him to church, and he actually came! He really liked it and wants to see general conference, and it turns out he and our bishop are old friends -- how perfect is that? He's got a super interesting story too; for example, he served in the military and was wanted by the Ukrainian government in the early 1990's because he was anti-communist. Super nice guy too. Looking forward to teaching him!

Well, I guess I can leave you with a spiritual thought (I've acquired a whole closet full of them during my time here). Here it is: the Lord is in control. In Mosiah 26, there was a lot of discord in the church, and the responsibility to solve it landed on Alma. His Spirit was troubled (v.13) and he poured out his soul to God (v.14). Think about the stress he was feeling -- he had just been converted and just reestablished the church in the land, and now there was apostasy left and right (including of his own son). I bet he thought at one point, "I have no idea what I'm doing," and he probably felt a huge burden for the salvation of those around him.

But check out the Lord's response from verse 15 to 32: besides assuring Alma of his and his people's faithfulness, He uses the word "my" 18 times and "I" 17 times. What do you think the message was? "Behold, this is my church" (v.22). Do your best, follow My instructions, but ultimately know that these are My sheep and they are in My hands. Don't worry unnecesarrily. Don't take a burden upon you that's not yours to take. Fulfill your duty, direct the church like I direct My Kingdom, but don't judge yourself if things don't work out as you hope. I am in control here. "Rejoice, the Lord is King... The Lord, the Savior, reigns... His kingdom cannot fail; He rules o'er earth and heav'n."

It applies to missionary work, it applies to church callings, and it applies to parenthood. It applies whenever we're concerned with the salvation of another. We need to have the trust and the spiritual witness that the Lord really is is control, and that all will be right in the end. We do our duty, we work in the field of salvation, but we always leave the harvest to the Lord of the harvest.

Well, hope y'all have a great week! Hopefully I'll have some fun miracles stories to share next time. :)

Love,

Sister Montgomery