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

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 #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

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 #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"

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 #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. :)

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 #21 - 8/26/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery <elizabeth.montgomery@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Aug 26, 2013 at 8:46 AM
Subject: Letter #21 - 8/26/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>

Hey hey hey! This week was pretty exciting -- transfer week, which always throws off the groove of the work for a day or two, but things are back to normal now in the great land of Voskresensky. By the way, after a few more days, I'll have been in Ukraine longer than I was in Romania last year. Woohoo!

Well, I went out and got myself a new companion: Sister Cromwell, 24 years old, from Rexburg, Idaho, graduated from BYU-I in horticulture, worked in Nauvoo for a bit, and now on a mission with me! She's pleasant, quiet, and still a bit jet-lagged. :) It's my first time with someone who doesn't know a lot of Russian yet (unless you count looking in the mirror three months ago...), so it's been super interesting. I'm grateful I had native companions to help with my language for so long, because now I can basically communicate anything I want and understand almost everything people say. It's been awhile since I've said it, but I LOVE Russian. It's candy to my brain, no joke. But anyway, Sister Cromwell is great, and we're gonna have a great transfer together!

This week has been interesting with investigators. We picked up a few investigators that I had a few months ago -- Tanya with the three disabled daughters and Lena from New Jersey (she's back in Kyiv for a month). Tanya seems a lot more interested than she was back when we first met her, and Lena is as wonderful as ever. The Elders have actually been teaching her brother Genadi, and I think he's gonna get baptized soon if they can find a way to get him to church (he's paralyzed and very heavy). I wouldn't be surprised if Lena wants to get baptized while she's here too -- she is so receptive to the Holy Ghost, it's amazing.

Dang, I'm almost out of time to write. As a short recap, we had quite a lot of rude rejection this week BUT we also had a lot of encounters with very kind people who were genuinely interested in our message. Very up and down, but that's mission life. By the way, prayer still works -- one night we sincerely prayed on our knees to be led to those who would accept our message, and that night we found three legitimate potential investigators who I am very excited to meet with.

Also, though rejection has been rampant, I'm grateful it has at least been met with equally good experiences. To me, it's been a fulfillment of Ether 12:26: "My grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness." Unfortunately, that gives the un-meek plenty of rein to take advantage of our weakness, but at least I have the comfort of knowing that the grace of God, combined with our elementary Russian and whatever few skills we have, is enough to find, teach, and baptize the meek. The rejection is hard, but what else can I expect while wearing my name next to the name of Him who was rejected more than anyone? "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps" (1 Pet. 2:21).

I hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,

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 #20 - 8/19/13

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elizabeth Montgomery
Date: Monday, August 19, 2013
Subject: Letter #20 - 8/19/13
To: Christine Montgomery <chrismont9@gmail.com>


Woooooo! What a week! I'm pretty sure it's been the best week of my mission, not even kidding you. SO good!
First off, another six-week transfer has come and gone, and we got word about what's going down next transfer. I am staying once again in Voskresensky AND training again! Her name is Sister Cromwell and... that's all I know so far. Sister Zaretskaia is also going to be training elsewhere in Kyiv, making me a grandma by my third transfer! Didn't I tell you I was gonna have a lot of posterity by the end of this thing? :) I'm super excited to train again -- there's just something really neat about having the privilege to introduce someone to how amazing being a missionary is. However, I'm really gonna miss Sister Zaretskaia (just like I said I was gonna miss Sister Filipovska after last transfer...). :( This week especially we'd had a ridiculous amount of fun (and spiritual experiences) together, and we work so well together. And then right when we're in the groove of everything, we get split up! Oh well -- I'll just have to restart the groove with Sister Cromwell.
So why was this week so awesome? Well, for one, we doubled our investigator pool, from five to ten! Holy cow! Actually, I should say "Holy Ghost," because that's exactly how we did it. Ever since last Sunday, we've been obeying SO exactly and praying SO diligently, and we have been guided by the Spirit like never before. My testimony of prayer has grown so much, and we've really experienced what the Bible Dictionary says about it: "The object of prayer is... to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings."
Those blessings were poured out upon us day after day as we went about seeking to do God's will -- we found receptive people, we taught with the power of the Spirit, and we knew where to go, who to focus on, and what to say. It was SO amazing. Our investigators are slowly but very surely progressing, and I'm nearly positive that we'll see at least one baptism this next transfer -- this area is just surging right now. Oh, and I get to rub it in Sister Z's face that I'll be able to stick around to see it while she's over in Svatoshinsky. :)
Well, I'll leave you with just one of the miracle stories from this week. I shall call it, "The Village Elect." I just wrote this to President, so here's the copied and pasted format...
Thursday night, Sister Zaretskaia and I planned to contact in the village area just west of our apartment. When we first got into the village, I felt the Spirit EXTREMELY strong. I was looking around for people to talk to or houses to knock at, but we didn't find anyone. We only had a little bit of time there before a lesson coming up, but as we were leaving, the Spirit just flat out told me, "There's an elect here." Pretty blunt, right? A little while later, I told Sister Zaretskaia about it, and we planned to go back the next day.That night, I was talking to Heavenly Father about it in my prayer, and I wanted to confirm it with Him. I asked, "So... is there really an elect in the selo [Russian for village...]?" He replied, "Yeah." I said, "Great... where?" And He replied (totally nonchalantly), "I'll show you." The conversation was in Russian, and I can still remember those nonchalant words... "Я покажу тебе." Hey, if God wants to lead us right to an elect, I'm not gonna complain. :) In my planner, in my list of investigators, I wrote: __________ (celo), having the faith that I'd be able to fill the name out soon.
The next evening we headed out to the village, but first read a passage of scripture together and said a VERY heartfelt prayer to find who God had in mind for us. I could tell God was as excited as we were, and I also got the feeling from Him, "You deserve this," because of our recent diligence in being exactly obedient. We headed to the village, talking to everyone along our path, and then in the exact spot where I felt the Spirit the strongest the day before, we found an older woman (Svetlana) and her young granddaughter (Vlada) sitting on an old tire in the field there. We went over to them, had pretty much half of the first lesson, gave them and taught them about the Book of Mormon, prayed with them (the little 8-year-old girl said such a precious prayer, AND in the name of Jesus Christ), and set an appointment for the next day. It was incredible. As soon as Sister Zaretskaia and I got far enough away, we got back down on our knees and thanked the Lord for that miraculous turn of events. (Oh, and later that night, I can't even tell you how good it felt to be able to fill out that blank line in my planner with the names "Svetlana" and "Vlada." :) )
We went back the next day for our appointment, but they weren't able to make it. Instead, we met the mother in the family (Svetlana's daughter and Vlada's mother), who is SUPER nice. The day after that, we had a first lesson at their house with the grandma and granddaughter, and they had already read the intro to the Book of Mormon. They're not ready to act right this instance, but I really feel like the more we meet with them, the more they'll feel the Holy Ghost testify to them of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. They live by so many true and wonderful principles already, and I can't wait to give them even more!
Case in point: miracles happen, God lives, the church is true. :)
Alright, family and friends, have a wonderful week! Don't forget about the miraculous power of prayer! Love you all!
Love,
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.