Teaching and Learning

OLA MINHA FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!

como voces estao??? eu amo voces muito! eu estou muto bem no CTM aqui!!! EU AMO sindo UM MISSIONARIO!!!!!!!!!!

 

How are you al doing?? i love you all alot! im so good here at the mtc. I LOVE BBEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!

 

 Mom, first things first ahhahahhha i love you for speaking "portuguese" to me in your emails. i really am thankful for your attempts!:):) i swear! but since here at the mtc the is a bit ofa chasm between spanish and the more refined language of portuguese , i will give you a few tips haha

Good Morning = Bom dia (pronounced bOng)

good afternooon= boa tarde (the de in tarde makes a Gee sound.)

boa noite= goodnight.

eu amo voce is I LOVE YOU!!!!!!

'

EU AMO VOCES!!!!!!!! (you all!!!) hahah anyways. i swear that is purely out of love i wanna save you from spanish.:)

 

 

IM DOING GREAT here at the mtc. really i am. even though the visas are a pain, and i REALLY REALYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY need to go to africa asap, its all in the Lords time and ive gotten some blessings from staying longer: getting to see hunt tomorrow. IM SO FREAKIN EXCITED!!! and gettign to here the prophet or apostles tonight, and also maybe getting to see zack next week!. im so excited. and on top of all that, i have improved my portuguese very much inthe last two weeks or so,. so that good!!! <---- as you can see my english has gone down the drain tho ahahahh

anyways. this week has been good. were teqaching a ton of lessons and learning how to really help the "investigators" feel the spirit. its awesome.

as for the visas, the call daily from salt lake to the angolan consolate and they said the system is still down but as soon as its back up we will be able to get them shipped here ASAP and welll be on our way to africa. but their definitely not gonna reassign us and so were jsut playing the waiting game. they wont re assign us because our visas ARE approved, they jsut havent sent them. so we know wer ARE going ot africa ahah jsut dont know when! Eu estou bem ainda...... WHOA!!!!!!!!!! i just started typing in portuguese and not even realizing it!!!!!!!!! THAT WAS WERID! i meant to say im good still jsut hanging in here. i appreciate all the love sent my way and i know that you are all praying for me. i am for you all as well.

 

there are letters to the whole family in the mail as of monday morning. i hope you all know how much i love you!!!!!!!!

MOM! thank you so much for the pray of the children lyrics! is there any any any way someone could find like piano sheet music and maiil it to me? i think ill still be here haah i wanna sing that in church. if thats ok and anyone could find it ide love that!

 

UGH i have to go. i love you all so much! pray for visas! and then ill be able to email and call again later in the week if i get them! i lvoe tyou all! kiss the grandbabies for me! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THIS CHURH IS TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!! i know with my whole heart. and with my whole heart i love you all!!!

-elder colin Jay MOntgomery

Growing and Being Stretched, Always sharing His Testimony of Great things He is feeling and Learning

Tuesday, June 5, 2012 12:43 PM

ola Minha familia!!!!!!!

como estao??? I love you all so much!!!
mom, I’m glad you got my letter. did dad get his too? I sent one for him last week.

ok so where do I start. This week has been yet another crazy hectic one!@ on Wednesday we received 134 new missionaries to our zone! me and elder Castleton have been busy training =/ babysitting them. they are all going to Cape Verde Africa and Lisbon Portugal. None are form Arizona, but i kid who I have mutual friends with came in to the other Portuguese zone, elder Clifford. He is going to Angola too and he went to mesa high so it was cool to meet him. I can’t believe that it’s been seven full weeks today since I came to the MTC. SO CRAZY! I feel in no way ready to go to Africa, but at the same time, most elders plateau in their leaning about the sixth week, so I have definitely felt that! The only way to learn the language more fully is to be baptized by immersion in it ha-ha. its true trho, it will be a baptism by fire for sure!

DANGIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so mad that I’m gonna miss Zach by two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I WISH HE COULD JUST COME EARLIER!!!!!! BUT ITS OK. ITS ALL IN THE LORDS TIME! OOPS  sorry for the all caps. Anyways. I hope him and hunter get to be here together to bolster each other up and be able to look for strength in eachother.i sure wish I had one of my best friends here because there is times when I do feel very lonely. But then I get an amazing package from my family sister aunt anyone and get bombarded with love. Thank you all so much! Just so you all know though. DONT SEND ANYMORE FOOD PLEASE!!!!!:):):):) I have enough stocked up to end world hu nger in Africa. hha I appreciate every single thing sent but right now I’m a little overstocked:) so I’m good on food:) \

Yes I’ve seen Alex McBride obviously I saw Mitchell and I had six weeks with a buddy of mine form mountain view, elder Sorenson, who is also going to Mozambique, but not Angola. and various others from highland that you guys wouldn’t recognize names of. But it’s been cool to see kids here. Out of all the kids I’ve seen from highland I was here first and am the last to leave basically!
I’m so excited for Taylor to get married. I wish I was there for it!

 I have pday every Tuesdays. Haah that’s how I email. but I started playing a lot of soccer at the beginning, but know I usually play sand volleyball every day. its super fun!!! I love being out there and playing it reminds me of Newport. just with a lot more clothes on here haha:(

   HOLY COW though!!! Beaus legs are getting huge! and he is totally gaining weight like crazy, thanks so much for the pictures! the last few weeks have just been small name speakers from the missionary department, besides one last week, Ronald A Rasband spoke so that was super cool!!! And at the devotional Sunday night three kids sang “come thou fount of every blessing” with the arraignment off of reflections!!!!!!! I was freaking out because that’s one of my very favorites. Mom, did you send my iPod and does it have the reflections of Christ stuff on it?? That would be amazing if your could. i don’t remember if you said you have or not??

anyways, ya all the talks and devotionals have been very touching. I love hearing people testify very powerfully of the book of Mormon.

I wish I could be there with Grammy for the splash pad and stuff like that, but it’s ok! I think hell be the PERFEECT age for Disneyland when I get home :):):):)

I love you all so much and miss you. I will start sending stuff home today. I don’t know what all ill send but ill figure it out. I think when I come home from my mission, if they’re not too ragged, I’m just going to give away every white shirt and pants I have and come home in pday clothes haha I’ve heard about elders doing that a lot in third world countries.:) but enough about coming home, I got two years to plan that haha.

  RIGHT NOW I am preparing to go to Africa!!!!!!!!!! Can you even believe that?????? I am so freaking excited! I know I will be safe and blessed through obedience and love of the Lord. This is HIS work, not mine. This is HIS church, not mine. The people of Angola are HIS people, and it is MY duty to bring them this amazing gospel. I can’t wait to get there and not understand a single thing for six months and then one day just wake up and speak fluent Portuguese. That’s what all my teachers say happens. At the final breaking point where you can’t take it anymore and you are ready to go home one day, you just wake up and speak Portuguese! I’m SO excited for that. my branch president says in every meeting we all have, DO NOT worry about learning Portuguese! worry about learning and speaking the language of the spirit!!!!!!!!!!! WHEN THE LORD NEEDS YOU TO SPEAK PORTUGUESE, YOU WILL SPEAK IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(imagine Bryan weight saying that in his loud voice and there you go you have got president hodges.)

    I love you ALL SO MUCH AND AM SO THANKFUL FOR THE OPPORTUNITY I HAVE TO SERVE THE LORD AND preach this gospel. sorry for the all caps haha. I love you all so much.

Cool spiritual experience of the week. You can share this one on the blog mom,

one of the brand new elders came to me and elder Castleton this week asking for a blessing. On his fourth day here, his grandfather passed away and he got the news about it. he was pretty sad.

we gave him a blessing and he asked me to be the voice. As I gave him a blessing of comfort I did not feel like there were only three people in the room. I could truly feel the presence of someone else standing next to me and giving him comfort through my hands, it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever felt. I could feel his grandfather from the other side of the veil giving him comfort and putting the right words in my mouth. I cannot explain the feeling in any way besides that I can compare it to the way I feel in the temple, when I feel Grandpa Alvin, grandpa Duke, AND Grandpa Ross reaching out to me and give me their love. I KNOW that they love me and I know that this elders grandpa loved him truly.

I love you all and hope you know that I feel your love prayers and thoughts pouring down on me here at the mtc. I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!!!!

mom, let me know about the iPod and other specific stuff I asked about today if you could:) ill be getting online again today. LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I LOVE YOU Grammy Claire and Beau! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!

Elder Colin Jay Montgomery

Three Weeks left

 Ola minha familia e meus amigos!!!!

Todo bem!!?? (hows it going!?)

this week has been INSANE!!

with my new assignment as zone leader. i have literally ZERO time. its crazy. on that schedule i sent you a couple of weeks ago, where ever it says personal study time or additional study time, that mow means, babysitting, interviewing, checking up on, running around like a chicken with my head cut off, giving blessings, allllll that. My sundays, i feel like dad. i have nonstop meeting till 930 at night. its insane. but i do learn alot, so thats cool.

In onther news, our zone/branch is now only a skinny stick. as of today, we have 10 elders and one sister under our command. haha just kidding. but theirs only 11 in our zone ritht now. so TOMORROW when we get 15 new elders, im gonna freak out!!! i have no time now, i dont even wanna know what next week is gonna be like with almost 30 elders. plus we dont know if were getting brazilian elders till tomorrow the day of, so we could be getting evern more. so ya. im freakin out.

buti know that everything will be ok. the lord is testing me with patience. absolutely!

in the next week, i will really learn how to have patience this next week.

its crazy to think that i only have two and a half weeks left in the USA! i honestly am freaking out. its gone by so fast. but if the next two years goes by this fast, its goona be like i never even left, besides that ill be two years older and much muhc wiser! haha

anywyas, i gotta email grandma and write some letters. ill try to get on an send another letter today. i love you all so much and am so grateful for everythign you do for me and for all the prayers you have for me. i cant wait to hear from you all again.

-mom, i got your pictures of the cabin. ugh i love and miss those babies so much! and thank you for the package! ill hopefully get it today. im goping on my longest dry spell of no mail yet. i havent gotten any since friday haha ya ya i know your all thinking that its no big deal, but it is! it truly can mess us your day when the thing you look forward to the most is not there haha bt its all because of saturday, sunday and memorial day, so im sure illl get lovingly bombarded today:):) anyways, i love you all. im grateful for this opportunity to serve and to be able to preach the gospel to the people of angola! i LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!! im so greatful for all of you and i love you all! graham claire and beau, i love you! more than anything!!

dont forget your uncle colie and dont grow up while im gone! i love you!

Elder Colin Jay mONtgomery

ps. thats so good for kyle. is ther anychance you could give him my email so i can tell him congrats??]

pss i will be sure to find out what kind of specific directions i need as luggage goes. thank you for the advice! i cant believe ill be leaving in 20 days!!!!!!!!!!!!! holy cow. anyways. i love you all! bom dia!!!

May 15, 2012

Ola minha familia e meus amigos!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eu amo voces muito! Eu amo esta un missionario!!!!!!!!!!!

how are you all? how are things today back home and everything? dad i just got your sports update email, thanx!!! i love you all so much!

Mom, to responder to your email, that’s so cool that Meg made you a picture book! how was your mothers day/ there is a letter on its way to you i promise! Im so sorry that we couldn’t call:(

-Im glad Kyle FINALLY GETTING his call. Make sure you let me know or have him email me when he gets it!

-yes i got my suit and cookies THANK YOU SO MUCH! my whole floor now knows who’s mom makes the best sugar cookies in the whole world. they are all addicted!

-that’s crazy about the freak rainstorm! i wish i was there!
I’m gonna run out of time responding to your letter, so i would just tell you all little about my well. pretty uneventful besides the fact that i gained a testimony turly of the Book of Mormon. no big deal,,,, just kidding IT WAS A Huge Deal. Monday morning i was reading and I finished Moroni. That was my first time ever reading it all the way through all by myself. I could feel the spirit so strong when i finished it so i went somewhere semi alone and kneeled down to pray,. the words i planned on saying had been something like "Heavenly Father , i have a testimony that this is true, please confirm it in my heart or give me a sure sign that it is true, BUT the words that actually came out was i started crying, and I just bore my testimony to Heavenly father and said, I KNOW THIS BOOK IS TRUE. I love it and I have a true testimony of it. I truly truly gained a testimony of the Book of Mormon yesterday. I Love studying and reading it.

ughh Im super sorry that I have to go! I will fly out of SJC about midnight tonight to NYC and then I have no idea when il becoming back. but I hope I will be able to take some pictures and show you all. I love you all with all my heart and i am so thankful for your prayers and love. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I KNOW THAT this is where I belong right now. give the babies all my love and kisses. I love you alll!

Love,

Elder Colin Jay Montgomery

Part 2

ok so this is my last word before i leave to New York! We just had a fire side with L TOM PERRY !!! so cool! Ill write you a letter about it. I love you so much ,,,, and crazy news,,, I just got made a ZONE LEADER! I was not expecting it at all! Ill write you a letter this week and explain more! i love you all so much and you’ll hear from me later this week in a letter! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!!!

Elder Colie

First Week at the MTC 4/24/12

The Dynamic Portuguese Speaking Duo 

 Elder Castleton and Montgomery MTC Companions both going to Angola

 I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY !!!!~ ELDER MONTGOMERY

 MTC Group ~ Provo Temple

 Elder Platamore, Montgomery, and Tucci-(from Australia). Elder P. and T. are going to Portugal.

They left the MTC today.  

This is Who I am and Who I represent for the next 2 years. 

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

#3 Email

Date: Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 8:49 AM

OLA MIHNA FAMILIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Eu amo voces muito!!! i love you all so much!!!!

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!!!!!

Fist to answer your questions mom,

-Yes having elder castleton speak better helps me alot,  but i am not submerged in it haha he stil speaks better english than me to,. hes not that far ahead of me on the portuguese lately tho! ive been learning a ton!

-Im so sad to hear the granbabies are sick. tell graham and claire that uncle collie love them so much!

-i miss father and sons, make sure greg and dad have a fun time .

 -yes i finally did get dads letter! tell him thank you and i love him so much. i will write him back today when i get a second:)

-thank you so much for sending the suit and sandals,. i cant wait to get them! i need them for when i go play sandvolley ball for gym because they are so much easier to take onn and off :)

- i usually play soccer everyday for gym. its the best workout, and allows me to get all the energy out from sitting allllll day long haha but i do really good and always score, so its fun. thats all thanks to my indoor soccer team. SHOUT OUT TO DIRTY DASH AND THE BOYZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I be reppin you in provo!!!

-mom, if possible i would love some of you sugart cookies and homeade frosting, just so i can prove to the other elders that you truly are the best baker in the world@!!

- Elder Platamone and Tucci are going to serve in Lisbon Portugal. They are my absolute favorite. me and tucci are seriously so bonded, its wierd. we have the exact same mindset and experiences, except he is an auzzie and im an AZ. i plan on either going to visit him on australia or meeting halfway in hawaii after our missdions! they leave today. i am super super sdad, BUT i know they are gonna be such sick missionaries. i love them both.

-i did get the envelopwe about angola and all that. it was amazing! thank you so much! i love hearing about the people i am going to serve.

-i love gettign chandlers emails, please keep forwarding them:)

-that so cool mitch is gonna be here tomorrow! are his family dropping him off??? im gonna request to be his escort for sure!!! when you get this today shoot me a quick email so i know if its his family, what car their driving, ect. i really wanna be his escort

-I still cant believe kyle hasnt gotten his call yet. i really hope it comes soon. could you get me his address so i can write to him?

-I love the book of mormon,. The rule is at the mtc, in order to learn to teach it, you are only allowed to read three books. the BOM, the white bible/ missionary handbook, and preach my gospel. so i have LOVED reading the boook of mormon. i just started helaman this morning. ITS amazing. and of course i loved alma with all the war stories, but truly the best part is about the 2060 stripling warriors. how the were EXACTLY obedient and that is how theyhad the strenght to not have any harm come upon them, and even whn they passed out because of loss of blood, not a single one of them perished. i love that

 i love being a missionary. i am coninuting to multiply and expound my portuguese skills, for time i wont type any haha but just trust me!!. i love all of you at home so much. i cant wait to get to angola and serve the people there. i love them so much already!!!

mom im so so sorry, but they mision president told us to email home and truly apologize to our mothers because the in the mtc we cant call home for mothers day, BUT in a few weeks when i GO TO NEW YORK to get my visa, i will be able to call then!!!!!! THE only Angolan embassy is in new york city! so we get a day and fly to NYC and go to the embazzy to pick up our visas. im so freakin pumped hahahhahahaahahha i will call you when i get it and write a letter before then that explains more. but wilhelm and hansn and tillley all did the same things. they said it was a fun ""day off"" from the MTC. and since two elders in our district went home the first week,  now me and elder castleton are the only two going to angola from our group. so anyways i promise to write more about it when i find out. 

DAD- one of the elders form my district who went home the second week, guerss where he was from!!!!!!!!! Palmer alaska! he said he has been to a miners game before, but that their pretty much just a old guy beer leaguwe now ahahaha anyways i gotta wrap this up. i love you all with all my heart. thank you for your love any prayers. i Definityel feel tham lifting me up daily. i love you all! give my kissed to grahambo claire and beau! i love them and all of you so much! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!

your son friend and elder, 

Love 

Elder Colin Jay Montgomery

 

   We heard from colin again this after noon he is going to NYC tuesday to get his visa, crazy.

we've never heard of that happening. A one day trip from Provo to NYC and back.

#2 Email

#2 Email

Tuesday, May 1, 2012, 12:10 PM
OLA minha familia!!!

Mom to answer your questions first:

- Yes I get exercise and gym every day:)

-There is a general authority every week, but not always an apostle.

-My debit card has no picture but it doesn't expire till 2016 so were good there

-My branch is 54 districts J

Yes and no about Portuguese it’s a bit like Spanish but it’s hard to explain because there’s different accent and stuff. it’s like Portugal Portuguese not Brazilian Elder Castleton is a great guy. He loves hiking and rock climbing and is super good at Portuguese ( his mom is Brazilian) Yes he is going to Angola too. We have a super good relationship and get along great. I'm sending pictures on a cd today for you to see.

I have no idea about my visa tho,  They said  as soon as they know I’ll know. but it won’t delay me at all.

Yes I got that package with garments and such. thank you SOOOOO much! I love you

 That is super cool about dad’s grandparents though. I’m glad someone is doing their temple work .
   That’s so cool what Chandler said too. I’ve definitely felt uplifted by advice from others. My branch president said as long as they are supportive and not distracting, it’s ok. And both of those are true, my work doesn't suffer at all and I am all good:)

That's crazy that Kyles call hasn’t come yet!!! I hope it does soon. make sure to have him write or email me!!

I can bear testimony and say all my prayers in Portuguese along with the first vision, and the missionary purpose and baptismal prayer all memorized in Portuguese. The gift of tongues is REAL!! I've felt it help me so much.

Heavenly father understands what we are trying to say and helps us, especially when were praying in port.

I love this gospel so so much. It is amazing to know that even out here; I still know the church is true. That I have MY OWN testimony and don’t rely on others.

 Soooo in other news, I got letter s from all the Jones! and one from Austin Hancock. super cool! and this morning I got an email from Hayden!!! that totally made my day!

So if you all haven’t picked up yet from my letters, my mission theme is I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!, I try to say it as much as possible because it’s so so true. I miss you all with every ounce of my heart, but I love this gospel and love being a missionary. I can’t wait to teach the people of Angola and bring them the blessings of the gospel. I have to go now but I want you all to know I love you!!! Give those grandbabies a kiss from me and tell grahammy I said I can’t wait to NACHO him in 23.5 months! I love you all! thank you for your prayers, I feel them all. I’ll write more in other letters. I love you!

Elder Colin Jay Montgomery

PS the reason I write so short is because I type so slow. I’m so sorry! I will write more I pr0mise! love you!!!