63 Weeks in Angola / 80 on His Mission

Watching General Conf this week at the church building

Imbomdero Tree

Elder Montgomery and Tingey with a new convert 

Baptised Saturday, Colin taught her in Cassequel 

New Convert  with Elder Montgomery, Dunkley, and Francisco 

( Francisco ok he's new I have never heard of him, any Moms have any info on him?) 

63 Weeks in Angola    80 in the Mission                                            Oct 28, 2013

ola minha familia!!!!

Love you all and hope everyone’s week was the best. This will be a short one, Just because nothing at all happened with me this week haah

 here are the transfer changes....

If that means anything to anyone besides mom I don’t know ahah but there it is. To answer questions really quick, mom, I got the package this week! Thanks I loved the letters and the exercise band and I loved love love the quote book. thank you!

Mom, I have to approval to do college app stuff any pday I need to, president said that’s ok. just let me know when you need me to do stuff ahead of time. I don’t know if I can really write essays...... my writing is horrible as you all know.

KATE!!! I won’t and can’t forget you don’t you worry!

Graham, your on for the game on April 19th buddy!!!!

Sorry that this email is super short. We had two day of no work this week because we had interviews with president, that was good, just took us out of work for a day, and then with general conference we had another two days out, so we didn’t get to do much work this week. We found out one of our recent converts isn’t married to her husband, because he was in Angola when she was in Portugal when she was baptized, so it’s the elders fault in Portugal that she is not know worthy..... a little frustrating. She was embarrassed and wanted to stop coming to church. but were working with her. We will probably have three baptisms this week, a family we are waiting to get married decided the kids wanna get baptized now so cross our fingers and pray that happens this week!!!! 

Anyway, that’s all for me, and Elder Merkley are stoked for another transfer together. It will be fun. We’ve got lots of work to do with the members in our branch. 

I love you all. Hope that you all have good weeks. I’ll get you my Christmas list next week mom. loves!!! 

com muito amor,

Elder Montgomery

62 Weeks in Angola

Photos' via Elder Petersen :

Pday Elder Rigby , Montgomery, McAllister

Sunset over Luanda (Benfica Area)

HaHa American 

IF I was a sister missionary,    ( the way this Elder thinks is funny- Tammy ) 

                                                                            

If I was a Sister MissionaryJ - wow, cannot believe I’m already done with my mission! It was such an amazing experience and I’m so excited to see you all in a few days!!! Its been a long year and a half in the making!!!

love,SISTER montgomery   

( for those of you that dont know sister missionaries only serve 18 months so if he was a Sister Missionary he'd be coming home , get it - Tammy)

 hope you all get the joke.

ola mina familia!!!!!                                                                                       Oct 21, 2013

  Anyways, I love you all, and I am very sad to say, but i finished my sister mission this week, now it’s time to buck up and be a real missionary. I am very very excited to see what this next sis months has to offer. It will fly by too fast, so  I’m gonna make the best of it, and that started this week!

  Me and Elder Merkley had a really really good week. To show for it, we have no pictures. At least I don’t . Sorry! but that meant we were working our tails off, just like we should! it seems crazy to think about, but I’ve already been here in Benfica for a transfer, and next Monday me an Elder Merk get transfer emails, but I’m pretty sure we’ll stay the same. I’m really excited though. You never know what can happen with transfers.

  This week was amazing. First off we met this 15 year old kid and his sister 13, Silvio and Telma. They live right next door to one of our big hitter families that is just waiting on marriage, so that’s a huge help. We taught them the restoration, and then they both read the book of mormon and both felt like the spirit was telling them t was true. We’re gonna set baptismal dates with them this week, and I have a really good feeling about it all! I’m so excited. Finally after the whole transfer of work work work were hopefully gonna get in the water!

   Then we had another really cool family we found. Their names are Daniel, Mima, and Daniel, father, mother and son. They are really cool and the dad and son already came to church three times. In brazil that is enough to baptize them, haha but here we have to work with people a lot more because the church is so small, we have to make sure people really are established with their own testimonies and everything because they have to swim on their own a little.

  This week was good. I’m in a race to finish the book of mormon in Portuguese before the end of the year, and so that occupies any spare time I have if any at all. That was one of my 2013 goals so I’m trying to finish it. I’m in Alma 5 right now. I got a little ways to go, I got it all timed out so ill get it.

  The rest of our week was good. We had 12 investigators at church yesterday, so that was a really good feeling because lately none is doing anything or showing they want to act, but I think this week will change that.

   This week I bought a study notebook and have been writing down all my thoughts and stuff when I study, and I challenge you all to do the same. We learn a lot more when we record what we learn. It’s the same with the scriptures. The prophets wrote it down because it was important, and one day our lives will be important to others. So make sure you all keep journals and stuff, because you never know when someone down the road will come readin about you. You don’t wanna be like some of the guys in the book of mormon, " my name is john and my dad gave me these plates, and today I gave them to my brother, and thus I end my record. " we all need to keep records of our lives. Any way that was kinda random.

   My testimony this week is on prayer. I have been praying so hard to finally have some people keep their commitments and come to church and do what we ask them, and we were having no success because our prayers were concentrated on asking asking asking. So I did a study in preach my gospel about prayer, and I re-learned that prayer isn’t just a wish last to heavenly father, prayer is a conversation with him and we have to listen at times more than we talk. So I did that. I said a humble short prayer of thanks with my questions and needs in mind, then listened to the spirit, and with in minutes I had some answers and ideas about where to go what to teach and how to help our investigators, and what happened, it all worked. sometimes we just have to remember that Heavenly Father is on the other line listening to us, and after we make our order, we have to wait for him to answer, we can’t just hang up the phone, we have to give our Heavenly Father a chance to talk back to us, and answer our prayers. I know that’s true and I challenge all of you to not hang up the phone this week.

   I love you all, and apologize for no pictures, but am so grateful for our love and prayers. I hope you all have an amazing week, and remember to not hang up the phone!

com muito amor,

Elder Montgomery

ps, mom, no package this week, but hopefully next week!:)

BEST WEEK EVER

we're not counting , but he has 6 months left :)

Helping hands after a good hard day of manual labor :)

Elder Merkley walking in front of their housing compound 

the back porch

carport love pretty nice, it is the nicest place Colin has stayed. 

61 weeks in Angola

ola minha familia!!!!!!                                                             Oct 14, 2013

First off, HUNTER HAPPY LATE BDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!! wow I’m forgetting everyone’s bdays this week. Sorry for that! I love you though and hope our bday was sweet and full of felicidades!!!!!

wow, this week was the best ever seriously, I love being a  missionary!

I don’t even know where to start. We had 7 new investigators, lots of teaching, lots of people at church, a whole day mixing and laying concrete, and an awesome pday full of soccer until right now, then awesome emails from yall,. I love you all. Thanks for the love and support.

So this week FLEW by very fast. I honestly can’t even think of everything we did, there was so much work.

We taught one night a family about service, then the next day went to their house and mixed concrete for their roof, and got all nice and dirty. I looked exactly like a day of work at rainforest!! It was fun though, and I impressed Danielson the investigator when I knew already how to mix and lay cement. and as I was breaking up some cement, I was swinging the hammer and thought about what  dad always said, "you gotta know how to swing a hammer like a man." haha I woulda made you proud pops.

We didn’t knock a single door this week, it was awesome, and we received nine references, and had seven new investigators. The people are flowing in for sure. I know it’s a blessing from Heavenly Father because we have been working hard these last few weeks and now were finally reaping some blessings. It’s so fun.

I have felt like an old man this week because Thursday I hit my six months mark! It’s seriously flying by so fast. I have so much more to do this year and six months I don’t know if I’ll have time to do it all, I might have to extend a few transfers...... what d ya’ll think?? haah

One cool experience this week was we met this guy names Alegria (joy) and sat with him in a lesson.  He has no wife or kids (very rare) and he was born with a clubbed foot and only one eye and a cleft pallet, but he taught himself to walk, and sing and play guitar and he’s pretty famous in Angola. He’s been on tv before and all that. He is the most humble guy ever. we told him about how the gospel will bless his life and he said he just want to give himself to god and he knows that is the only way he will one day have happiness. He was so humble and I could feel the spirit working through us to tell him that god loves him and that one day he will be whole and have eternal life. It was such an amazing experience. There are so many humble elect people in Angola. I love them all. Well sorry to cut this off, but my time is out.  Love you all so much and hope you know that.

mom no dont worry no effect from all the mosquitos, I take my malaria medication every day that I remember!:)

Graham, challenge accepted for the soccer game! I can’t wait buddy.

I love you and pray for you all! Have a good week.

My challenge is for everyone to do something nice for someone you don’t know this week. Charity!!!!!!!

com muito amor,

Elder Montgomery

"Threatened Shootings" , nay nay do not start an email like this LOL

General Conference at President and Sister Merrill's Home

Front and Center Fanta LOL,  front row l-r Elder Wilhelm, Castleton,Sister and Pres Merrill's,Chatwin, Hansen, Hannay. back l-r Elder Dredge, Garn, Hyde, Chandler, Banta, 

behind Stewart, Hobbs, Fonatine, Petersen, Rigby.

Elder Money, Montgomery, Tingey

Colins new house pet Lagarto "Frank"

Elder Merkley and Montgomery made Banana Bread:) good job , Elders

by the way never start an email with these words 

'THREATENED SHOOTINGS" 

61 weeks in Angola                                                                            Oct 7, 2013

OLA MINHA FAMILIA!!!!

First off, Isaac, I am so sorry I missed your b-day in my email last week I hadn’t flipped over my calendar yet and didn’t see your b-day was the third till Tuesday, but I can guess with conference and BYU spankin Utah State it was a good bday, so happy late bday brother i love you!!!

As for everyones favorite elder in Africa, I am doing awesome. This week was fast and full of work and blessings!

We have the best branch in Angola for sure here in Benfica. All the big hitters in our branch are the leaders and they help us out so much. for example, in our PEC meeting this week the branch president made us all bring three families names and  then they assigned all the auxiliary presidencies and their spouses to look after each of the families, and to visit them at least once a month, and to go on group dates with the parents to help them work towards marriage. 

It’s so cool. It’s the most organized branch I’ve ever seen, and it’s the smallest in Luanda. 

 The week was good though. We got a lot of work done and tons of new people. 

  One funny story, we had a lesson with two ladies sisters in law, and it was an amazing lesson they loved it and both accepted baptism. The next day we were calling to confirm our appointment with them for the next day and the husband and brother called us back, an told us we should never be calling woman this late at night (8:30 haha) and that his wife was forever catholic, and that if we came to his house he would shoot us. He said that three times then hung up. So what did we do? Early the next morning we knocked on his door to meet him before he went to work! He needed to know who we were so he would let us teach his wife. He wasn’t there, but we went back the next day, and after praying to soften his heart, he opened the door to us, apologized, asked our forgiveness, and invited us to come back and teach his wife whenever we wanted. Talk about the Lord answering prayers.

I may seem brave from that story, until I tell you that both times we knocked his door my knees were SHAKIN and my armpits were very sweaty. Prayer works!!!!

   Sorry this is so short but time is low, so just before I forget, I had the coolest study this week about the atonement. I was reading in Corinthians and read chap 7 vs 23 "you were bought with a good price" it got me thinking about the price that the Savior really bought us with, and  I am so thankful for him and his sacrifice for us. I can’t explain all I know about it, or how grateful I am, but I do know that it was infinite for each of us, and I am eternally indebted to him. I love our Savior and his eternal sacrifice for me and all of you. Love you all and hope for a good week!   com muito amor, Elder Montgomery

ps dad tell someone from Mont. ward to tell the football team good job!  That’s the most we’ve ever beaten Gilbert since I was a sophomore! WOOHOO!!!!! Meg,,,,,,, not sorry at all! 

BE CONDUITS

One of these things is not like the other, sweet babies :)

75 bites on one arm (I hope he is taking his malaria meds) 

GET A NET !!!

Elder Chatwin and Montgomery, 2 Mesa boys. 

Elder Chatwin's dad was Colin's Seminary teacher @ HHS

60 Weeks in Angola                                                                                        Sept 30, 2013

Ola Minha Familia!!

So this week flew by, let me see if I can remember anything. 

I think just the cool thing that happens is that me and Elder Merkley have been having small little cool miracles every day. Like we’ll make a cool contact and forget to get his number or name , and then they’ll call us back, or we’ll be looking for a house in a area we don’t know and the first random door we knock is that right person. Its just amazing the miracles that make every day worthwhile, and one of our families who are waiting on marriage finally the dad got a job this week, he’s been unemployed, since January and this week he got a really good oil platform job. So that’s really cool. 

Other than that I can’t really think of any specific things that happened to us this week. We were out of power and our generator didn’t work all week so we had to sleep with the doors open and all the mosquitoes loved my blood. Over 75 mosquito bits just on my left arm,,, I didn’t have a net over my bed, but it’s ok because we have energy now. 

We had an awesome zone conference this week with all the zones combined and got a ton of really cool training from our zone leaders. All about less active and new convert work. That’s a lot of what Merkley and I do. Small growing branch!

But ya one of the quote I loved was from President Merrill talking about sometimes as missionaries we just plant seeds to be harvested later by other elders with baptisms, but he said, " some plant, and some harvest, but we ALL reap the blessings in heaven." I loved that. No matter where we go or what we do we always have to be missionaries and set a good example as a seed, you never know when it will be harvested for salvation!

We got to go to the orphanage today and it was amazing I sent pictures. I love African babies/kids!!

Hope you all have amazing weeks. Let your light’s so shine!!! but remember, we are not the light! Only the conduits that the lord shines through! SO GO BE CONDUITS!!!!!!!!!!! love you all

have a good week! 

com muito amor e beijos,

elder montgomery

ps dad and mom just before I forget make sure you take pictures of the fhe tomorrow so I can see next week! I wanna see who I recognize. 

Slow as a Turtle

Elder Montgomery, Antonio, Elder Merkley

President and Sister Merrill with Elder Montgomery

 "I love them so much"

Sunset at the beach with kids playing soccer at the dump. 

59 Weeks                                                                                                        Sept 23,2013

Slower than a Turtle

Ola Minha Familia!!!!!!

Hope your all doin well and know that I love yall!

This week was veereeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ssssssssssssslllllllllllloooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. I feel like it’s been a month since I had a pday! Not a bad week, just really slow. 

so not much had changed for me, I’m still here in Benfica, and loving it. Me and Elder Merkley’s area is huge, and we don’t have many people, so we spend a lot of time finding new people, and it’s really hard. I feel like you could compare Benfica perfectly with Queen Creek! Out side the city, lots of nice houses, and a lot more space and growing like crazy. 

 So the news for the week was that we got to have a baptism! Antonio was baptized on Saturday and it was awesome. He is very strong and has a really cool testimony. He was baptized Saturday, but not confirmed because we had district conference Sunday (stake conference) it was in a really really nice conference center in Luanda and the conference was beautiful and very spiritual. It was nice to be able to see some of my old investigators from Cassequal and stuff. I realized I loved them a lot after I left!

 The week was so slow because our area is huge, and we don’t have very many people so we had to do a lot of finding, and neither of us know the area very well so it was long days! but I’m happy here and I know the area will grow and it will be fun. I think too I have some separation anxiety from Cassequal. I love the confusion therr believe it or not. Planes flying 50 feet over our head and thirty million people in the street 24 hours a day. I liked the fast pace, but I’ll get used to things here in Benfica.

We had an awesome district meeting and it was very spiritual, we talked about obedience, and we all needed to hear it. I used that quote that mom always put on the fridge, "when obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power.”  It’s so true! and especially as missionaries, sorry I never got it in my head mom!

  TO ANSWER QUEStions,,,,,,,

I’ll have pictures next week, but we don’t have an apartment, we have a house, and it’s really really nice, I have a bigger closet than mom and dad’s hah it’s sweet! and me and Elder Merkley have our own bathroom in our room with two sinks hah I’m livin like a king! I still am in the city and we get to see all the missionaries every week at soccer, so I don’t have any separation anxiety from the boys. Elder Merkley is very quiet . We get along fine, I’m trying to give him alot of the responsibility so he can grow, because that’s what helps me grow the most is responsibility. Its way funner living with six elders, the nights and working out is a blast, which I have been doing every day. I’m dedicated! The only thing is the house and dishes get dirty super fast, so that’s not fun. I washed the dished three times in the last three days,,,, it’s pretty much me alone haha service!! Our area has all the main grocery store chains here in Angola too so we get to shop close to home its nice. This is the first nice house I’ve lived in  my mission. It sure takes a lot of stress away!

  But yea, this week was good. Not much news, just the day in day out of missionary life. I’ll send pics of the house next week, and hope you all know I love you and miss you! Have awesome weeks. Much love,

Elder Colin Jay Montgomery

Transfers ....

Elder Montgomery, J, M , , P, Elder Tingey

Elder Montgomery last weeks Safari and 

the beautiful green view of Africa

58 Weeks in Angola  transferred

seven month suprise transfers!                                       6 hours ago Sept 16,2013

Ola minha familia!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love you all!

wow, so much news this week, I’ll try to fit it all in. but first,

ELDER  ZACHARY WYATT FIGGINS!!!

PARA BENS A VOCE, 

NESTA DATA QERIDA, 

MUITA FELICIDADE,

MUITOS ANOS DA VIDA!!!!!!

Translation: CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU,

WANTED THIS DATE,

MUCH HAPPINESS,

MANY YEARS OF LIFE!!!

HAPPY BDAY BROTHER! LOVE YOU!

and DAD,,, or should I say, BISHOP MONTGOMERY! wow,

I am super excited to hear about your calling as bishop of the

singles ward, (as if I didn’t know  a few weeks,,, ) but still, para

bens, vais ser um bispo maravilhoso!!!translation: Congratulations,

 you'll be a wonderful bishop

So wow, this week was full of changes. 

First off the week was running normal and me and Elder Tingey were

working hard and preparing M. to be baptised, and then Wednesday

night, I get a very random phone call from President Merrill, and he told

 me that since he was going to Huambo for a phone conference, he was

 doing transfers. So he told me that Thursday morning I would be transferred

a week early to BENFICA (an area still in Luanda the Capital city of

6 mil. people) and be companions with Elder Jacob Merkley! I was very

 very suprised, but excited too. so for five days now I have already been

in a new area and had a new companion, and am district leader in the

Benfica district, with Elder Ferguson and Elder Rigby( arrives Wednesday)

Elder Mariquele, and Elder Wilhelm (the Assistants.) so there was a lot of

 changes this week! i was kind a sad because I didn’t get to say good bye

to any of my investigators or recent converts in Cassequel, but i know

I’ll be able to see them again. 

So I officially have seven months left tomorrow! So crazy. i did five

transfers in Lubango, five in Cassequel, and now I have five left! I’m

sure time will fly by. 

So with my new area, I came into 13 new baptismal dates, some really

 cool youth, some really prepared families waiting for marriage. The

works, me and Elder Merkley are really excited to do work! 

I haven’t really settled in yet, so i can’t really give tons of details on

investigators and lessons because I’ve only met  few of them, but I

 know the area is a good one, and I’m excited to be here. 

Saturday, I had the chance to baptize Marisa! Me and Elder Dunkley

started teaching her, then me and Elder Tingey prepped her for baptism

 and I got to do it, it was only my second one so I was super excited. it’s

 the most amazing feeling to help someone partake of salvation. No other

feeling in the world besides kind of what we feel in the temple.

I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!

One cool experience though was about two weeks ago. Me and

 Elder Tingey were helping M. get ready for her baptismal interview,

and we went over the questions and she just didn’t seem ready. We were

 kinda discouraged and decided to pray to know what Heavenly Father

would have us do, whether to postpone the baptism or go through with it.

So Elder Tingey and I kneeled in our apartment and said a prayer specifically

asking for Heavenly Father to open our minds and tell us what he wanted

us to do. Then we both sat in silence trying to listen to the spirit and read in

 Preach My Gospel, then I started telling Elder Tingey what I thought, and

he said he had received the exact same answer, so we knelt in prayer and

thanked Heavenly Father and then the next day had her interview, and she

 passed just fine, and now is a member of the Lords True Church ! So

amazing and cool to be able to help people towards their salvation and

 to help the Lord hasten his work!

I know this gospel is true, and I love being a missionary. Dad, I’m so

 excited for your new calling and for you to have the opportunity to help

those whom you’re called to lead. There’s no better job than a bishop right?

I love you all and pray constantly for you all! Have a good week, and

know that someone in Africa loves you!

com muito amor,

Elder Colin Montgomery

ps Zach, your an old man!