MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

This week, by far, was the absolute week!!! Wednesday we had a Christmas party with the missionaries in the south zone. It was SO FUN. I loved it because I got to see a lot of my friends from my previous area and catch up with them. We played some games, listened to the Michael Buble Christmas album (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!), watched (and participated in) a talent show, had a nativity program, and ate a lot of amazing food!!! In the talent show, Sister Lundahl and I did a gingerbread house decorating tutorial. Sister Lundahl was my arms while I was the eyes. Everyone seemed to really enjoy it! It was also really weird because we got to travel in our trousers so it was so weird to wear trousers in public but it was also fun!

We spent a lot of the days singing Christmas carols to people which really made us and the people we were singing to really happy!! We also visited Albert again. He said he really admires our faith but he just doesn't think he can gain his own faith. But he said "I hope nothing bad ever happens to you girls to make you lose your faith because I just think it's amazing" it was really nice of him to say
that.

On Friday it POURED rain on us!!! We were absolutely soaking wet by the end of the night. We stopped to see Mary and she was like *gasp* "Get by the fire!!!! Here's a hot drink!!!! Give me your coats and sweaters and I'll hang them up by the heater you are NOT going back out there like that!!!" It was really funny.

Then on Saturday we basically went by former investigators all day so we were quite exhausted by the end of the day because of how much we walked. Then we had Christmas Eve dinner with a member which was GREAT. Oh and also earlier that day SANTA CAME!!! (Time difference I guess...)

And yesterday was Christmas!!! We were allowed to sleep until 8:30 but we were up by 7:45 haha. We opened our packages from our friends and family and then went to church which was amazing!! And Michael (our investigator) came to church!!! It was a Christmas miracle!! We had Christmas dinner with a member which was delicious and then we went to our Bishop's house and got to Skype our families!! It was so good to talk to my family and see their faces!! Then we just went home and relaxed the rest of the night so it was a really solid day.

I hope all of your Christmases were amazing and full of fun and joy!! I absolutely loved being a missionary in the Christmas season. I also love you all and miss you like crazy. Party hard this weekend for me because I'll be in bed by 10:30 on New Year's Eve...

LOVE YOU xx

Sister Montgomery

Making our Gingerbread house

The end result of our masterpiece

Billingham homies reunited (Elder Verrieras, Elder Christensen, Elder Stahl, Sister Wood)

Yeah, I'm not really sure what is happening in this one.

I hung out with my best friend again

Our Christmas "tree"

CHRISTMAS EVE IN MY SHERLOCK ONESIE

Christmas outfit

My favourite part of Christmas

We did face masks

Hello friends and family!!

This week was a bit crazy!! Tuesday we stayed the night in Hull because Wednesday morning we had to wake up early to go to Huddersfield for a conference. Elder Kearon, the Europe area president, came and spoke to us basically the whole day. It was amazing and he gave me a lot of motivation!! He talked a lot about how we need to stop worrying and just go to work. We each got to shake his
hand before the meeting and I introduced myself and he said "thank you for your service" and, yes, he said that to almost all of the other missionaries BUT it was still amazing to hear him say that to me!

Then Thursday was a pretty normal day but then that night Sister Lundahl and I both were up all night going back and forth to the toilet with food poisoning. (Talk about companionship unity) so we stayed in all Friday. Which was really sad because we were planning on seeing Albert that day AND the ward Christmas Party was also that day. BUT we got to sleep in which was nice! A member was awesome and brought us medicine and some drinks. It was weird to have a day of doing nothing. It was incredibly boring. Then Saturday we felt well enough to go out so we went knocking. We both still felt pretty weak but we were well enough and I said a little prayer before that we would get let in just so we could sit down (and so we could teach the gospel, of course). I knew we would get let in in the street we picked but I figured it would be a "fourth floor, last door" type of thing but good news!! It was the fourth door we knocked on!! BLESSINGS. It was this sweet lady named Mary who used to have the elders come over about two years ago. She is really in to sewing and vintage decorations so her house was so cool!! We are going to start teaching her this week! It was such a blessing to find her and how quickly we found her! Heavenly Father really watches out for us and wants us to
be happy and to have joy! I am so grateful for everything he does. :)

I hope you all have such a great week this week! CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!! I know I'm going to have a great week! :) I definitely will be missing you all just a little bit more this week though. But I am so PUMPED about this week!! Remember to think of the greatest gift of all our Saviour Jesus Christ. :)

I love you all so so much and miss you as well!! xx

Love,
Sister Montgomery

We made some Saffron Buns ( a Swedish treat) Guess which one is mine.

Heading to Huddersfield BRIGHT AND EARLY

Chilling on a bouncy castle for P day

 This week was a crazy one. We went on exchange which a lot of fun! We met some crazy people in Hull but they were great! And then we had weekly planning with Sister Blair and I kind of broke down during it because it's been a rough last few weeks. I wasn't planning on doing that but then we were talking about success as a missionary and how Heavenly Father pushes us because He wants us to grow. She said some things to try to make me feel better but it just wasn't doing anything for me. That night I prayed to Heavenly Father about how He felt I was doing as a missionary. The next day we went knocking with a member who is preparing for her mission. We let her pick the street and we were not having any luck. We got to the other side of the street and we knocked on this door and an old man opened the door and said "Hello ladies! Are you Mormon?" We said yes and he said "Right. Come on in. I don't promise I'll convert but you can come in and rest for a bit" I asked if we could share a message as well and he said yes. We introduced ourselves and found out that his name is Albert and he is 91! I asked if we could say a prayer with him and he said yes. So I said it and then he started to tell some stories about his children and he got really emotional and said "I'm sorry. That prayer really did me good. I can just tell you that your day was not wasted at all." And I started crying too! It's amazing how fast Heavenly Fatheranswered my prayer! It's amazing how my mission is shaping me. It's been quite the roller coaster of emotions but it's only making me stronger. To quote Augustus Waters "I'm on a roller coaster that only goes up, my friends!"

We also had transfer calls this week but I am still staying in Grimsby with Sister Lundahl!

I hope you all have a great week and remember the reason for the season!! xx

Love,
Sister Montgomery

Sister Lundal's mom sent us some advent calendars

The Sisters of the Hull zone

The Grimsby District

Exchange with Sister Blair and Sister Eschgfäller!

A member's dog decided he wanted to cuddle with us!

Hello!!!

We still haven't taught anyone yet BUT remember Darius and Pzremek?? Okay so we lost contact with them which made us SO sad but yesterday we were walking home and I saw this guy who looked like Pzremek but I thought "nah it's too good to be true" BUT IT WAS HIM. So we talked to
him and he let us know he had to change his number. But he didn't have his phone with him so he said he will text us to give us his new number! He hasn't done that yet...But I know he will! Ah it was so amazing though!! Sister Lundahl did a major happy dance when he couldn't see us anymore! I hope you all have fantastic weeks! 

Love you all!
xx

Sister Montgomery

Grimsby's fish and chips are HEAVENLY!

Companions who have cute Christmas sweaters together, stay together.

Hello friends and family!!

This week, again, was a lot of finding and visiting members. We are finding our way around beautiful Grimsby a lot better now which is good! We taught these two Polish guys named Darius and Pzremek! They struggle a little bit with English but we make it work. (I may have been called to England but I feel like I have been called to every country in the world with all the foreigners I have been teaching. AND I LOVE IT.) they are a lot of fun to teach because they are so animated! And they kept making fun of me because I say "way cool" a lot (haha silly American). We had quite a long lesson with them because they had so many good questions! But it was really good and they are going to read the Book of Mormon!

GOOD NEWS: I can speak a sentence of Swedish. Sister Lundahl taught it to me. It's a line in a song. She sings the whole song but then there is one sentence that I get to sing and man I give it my all! It's "jag väntar vad Herren sänt" which means something like "I wait what the Lord sent".

Today we are having a thanksgiving dinner with our whole zone! I am STOKED. We were in charge of making the stuffing and let me tell you the stuffing here is nothing compared to America's stuffing. But it's the thought that counts I guess. So if everyone could eat some American stuffing in my behalf I would really appreciate it. I hope you all have a great week and that you eat a lot of turkey and watch a lot of American football. And remember to give thanks to the two people who matter the most: our Saviour Jesus Christ and loving Father in Heaven.

I love you all so much and miss you as well! xx

Love,
Sister Montgomery

We had a Toy Story themed Zone Training! I LOVED IT!

Zone Sisters

Zone Thanksgiving.

Hello!

Man what a crazy week it has been. I moved to my new area on Tuesday! It was weird because I was by myself for about an hour. It was kind of scary to be honest. I didn't know what to do! But don't worry I made it. Then I met my new companion Sister Lundahl. She is from Sweden! Ah man I already love her so much! She is so cute and funny. Basically this week we have just been meeting members and trying by less actives and trying to find people to teach basically. The sisters in the area before we came were teaching one investigator named Michael. We met him this week. He absolutely loves the church! He says that Joseph Smith is his hero and he loves reading the Book of Mormon especially about Nephi. The only problem is that his family is really against him joining the church. Which is really sad because he's like 70 so he should be able to make his own decisions. But we're still working with him and trying to get that sorted. Hopefully soon! We have quite a few lessons lined up this week with people we have met so we're pretty excited about it. The ward here is amazing! They are all so kind and thoughtful. They really take good care of missionaries here. I already really love this area. People are so nice and so open to hear about the gospel. It's amazing!

Cool Experience: we were walking to a member's house for tea the other day and we saw a guy that was carrying a lot of groceries by himself and we asked if he needed help and he looked a bit shocked that we offered to help him and he accepted our offer. We took some of his bags and started walking with him. We introduced ourselves and he saw our name badges and he was like "oh I'm not religious at all and I'm not really interested in religion" and so, jokingly, I said "ah man well never mind then. Here are your groceries back" and he was a bit confused at first but then he realised I was joking and so he laughed and I think that made him feel more comfortable to talk to us. We all had a really good chat and he kept saying how grateful he was for our help because the bags were very heavy and he had quite a way to walk home. He told us he was going to post about this on Facebook saying how grateful he was for Mormon missionaries! We gave him our card when we got to his house and told him to call us if he ever needed help with anything else. Then we received a text from him thanking us again! It was really nice and hopefully, if anything, we planted a good seed in him. :)
I hope all of your weeks were good and I love you and miss you all so much!! 

xx

Sister Montgomery

We had to climb a wall to get to a member's house.

Do you know the muffin man?

Hello!!

Okay so I think I may have accidentally moved to the Antarctic this week because I am FREEZING. The problem with England is that it's wet so the cold goes to your bones and it's just miserable. But it's okay, I have the light of Christ to keep me warm😎

So I'm being transferred to a place called Grimsby. It's a little more south so maybe it will be a few degrees warmer at least...My companion's name is Sister Lundhal (I'm not sure if I'm spelling that right) and she is from Sweden! I'm way excited to meet her tomorrow! We are taking over an elders area so we won't know anyone and no one will know us so it should be an adventure! Sister Koepf is staying in Billingham and will be training again! I'm a bit sad though because we found a lot of good people this week that I was really excited to teach.

We found this guy Pierrot who is from Africa and he is so great! He really wants to learn about our church and eventually be baptised! He used to be taught by previous sisters but then stopped. We are still teaching Dave and he is still loving it!! A member gave us a few referrals yesterday and we taught them and the member bore a powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon!! It was so amazing.

I'm excited to take this new step in my mission! I miss you all so much and love you like crazy!

xx

Sister Montgomery

The Hamilton's featuring my fuzzy socks because it is WAY too cold in this country!

Jamie- the guy with 44 cats and like 8 dogs

May. She is from the Philippines! She is a member we received a few referrals from.

The McCabe's

Hello everyone!!

Man this week flew by. It was so fantastic though!! We saw so many miracles and saw the light of Christ touch so many people! We found this guy Dave who we met on the streets a few weeks ago. We went by his house and got to know him and found out that he has been through so much in his life but he has such strong faith in God. It was amazing to see his example in enduring through trials. He wants to be baptised so we are way excited for him! Then, later that night we bumped into a girl who we lost contact with and she told us she just got her phone taken away but she still really wants to learn more about the gospel!! Heavenly Father really listens to prayers and answers them. It may not be in the way we want or expect but he does. Because he loves ALL of us!! This is the last week of the transfer and of my training (woohoo!) I'm excited to see what else the Lord has in store for me! 

I'm finally starting to really enjoy being here and it seriously is the best thing I could be doing with my time! I love all of you and miss you like crazy! Have a great week! xx

Sister Montgomery

We went on an exchange with the sister training leaders and Sister Wood and I tried to take a cute leaf throwing picture but it failed....

The sister training leaders got me a cake to celebrate my 3 month mark!!!

We accidentally broke a member's drapes...

Hello friends and family!!

This week was amazing! It was such an uplifting week! I had my first interview with President Turvey since I came into the field. It was really good and he gave me some great advice on how to be more authentic with people when I talk to them on the street or on the bus. I also had the chance to talk to Sister Turvey while Sister Koepf was talking to President. Ah man she is great! She is so funny and I absolutely love her! I told her about the huge spider I had to kill when I first came into the field and I told her that I said a prayer first before I killed it and she thought that was the funniest thing she ever heard.

AND THEN!!!! Saturday came!!!! Okay but first, the night before, we had 10 sisters staying in our flat because we had to meet at the chapel at FIVE A.M. THE NEXT MORNING. It was crazy because we only have four beds and two couches...So it was an adventure. So we got up at 3:30 IN THE MORNING. For anybody who knows me, knows I am not a morning person so I was not a happy Sister Montgomery when the alarm went off. But it was SO WORTH IT BECAUSE WE WERE GOING TO HEAR FROM PRESIDENT NELSON. We all had the chance to shake hands with him so when it came to my turn, he shook my hand and said "good morning Sister Montgomery" and all I could think was "good heavens an apostle just said my name". I was absolutely speechless. All I could do was smile back at him. Elder Donald L. Hallstrom of the Presidency of the Seventy, Bishop Gerald Causse, Presiding Bishop, Elder Patrick Kearon, Europe Area President, Elder Gary B. Sabin of the Europe Area Presidency and all of their wives were there as well so we went down the line shaking all of their hands. I managed to start saying good morning to all of them. Bishop Causse was the last one in the line and he shook my hand and said "good morning Sister Montgomery. It is so lovely to have you here with us" I could not stop smiling after that. Wow it was so amazing. They all then spoke to us about being disciples of Christ. Except for President Nelson. He basically just turned to some scriptures and we just had a big scripture study with him. It was SO AMAZING. And at the beginning he told us he was excited for us to be able to email home and tell everyone we heard from 5 general authorities. So here it is! My email back home about how I heard from 5 general authorities! And it was SWEET. It was such a marvellous opportunity and I will never forget it. I love you and miss you all!

Thank you for all your love and support!! xx

Love,
Sister Katie Montgomery

This is how we determine if we have lost weight or not. We fit perfectly in the bus stop benches.

We went to a Harry Potter event at Preston Park today

"Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin."

We found the weirdest costumes

I didn't quite make it

Hey so this week was great!!

This week has definitely been my favourite so far! First, I'll explain the subject line. There is a less active member who recently started coming back to church. His name is Keith and he looks and sounds very similar to Sylvester Stallone! He invited us over for tea at the beginning of the week and it was so good! We had a beef stew and potatoes and he told us all about how he used to be a boxer and everyone called him "Rocky". And he told us a lot of stories about how he used to be a fisherman as well! It was so fun!! He has invited us over again this week and he is going to cook us salmon! I am pretty stoked about it!

Okay, next story. We were heading home from what was supposed to be an appointment (but they didn't show up) and we were on the bus. I was sitting in the back and there were two chavs (a chav is basically a wanna be gangster who always wears Adidas track suits and is usually vaping or smoking) right behind me. I turned around and asked them a question and then one of them (Ben) said, reading my name badge, "Sister Montgomery" and I said "yeah! Have you seen many people with these name badges around?" And they were like "yeah yeah. What religion is it again?" And I said "Mormons" and they said "oh yeah! No drinking, no smoking.." And I said "yeah! Exactly!" And at this point,
there was a guy who was across from me (Taz) who started to listen when Ben said that. Then I asked them if they were religious or believed in God and they said no. Then we got on the topic of the
after life. Then the guy across from me finally spoke up and said "where are you from?" And I told him America and I asked if he was religious and he said no and Ben and his friend were like "yeah!
Thumbs up, mate!" and he asked what religion I was and I told him Mormon and he asked what that was so Ben said again "no drinking, no smoking." And he said "oh I don't like drinking" and I said "yeah! See? Now I can give him a thumbs up!" And they laughed at that. Then we all were talking about God and the after life and then Taz mentioned that he used to be Muslim and Ben was like "ah the Koran!" And Taz said yes. Then Ben's friend said "so you have the Koran, and then there's the bible" and then I grabbed a Book of Mormon from my bag and said "and we have the Book of Mormon!" And they all looked at me confused so I asked if they had ever seen it and they said no so I
started to explain what the Book of Mormon is and then I said "but I only have one so you'll have to fight over it" and Ben and his friend were like "oh we don't want it" and Taz said "actually, can I have
it?" And I said "yeah of course!" And then at this point, the girl in front of Taz started to listen and we got on the topic of God and the after life AGAIN. But this time, the girl in front of Taz started to
give her input as well and she was on my side! So I'm basically teaching the whole back of the bus at this point. But, unfortunately my stop came so I gave them all Mormon.org cards and told Ben "no
drunk phone calls". And then, because I'm Katie, as I was getting off the bus and saying goodbye to my new friends I rammed into the pole that people use to hold onto when they are standing on the bus and THEN I got stuck on the door as I was stepping off the bus. They all started laughing at me and as I walked passed the window they were all waving and laughing so I just waved back. Then Sister Koepf was like "Sister Montgomery!!" And I said "what just happened?" And she was like "the whole bus was listening to you guys! I was trying to talk to a guy but we both just wanted to listen to you so we stopped talking and just listened to you" It was really fun!! Anyways, those were the
highlights of my week!

I love you and miss you all! xx

Love
Sister Montgomery

This is Keith or "Rocky" (this picture doesn't do it justice. He really looks

like Sylvester)

This is Keith or "Rocky". This picture doesn't do him justice, he really does look like Sylvester Stalone.

 

We found a cute little pathway

Look, mom! I learned how to crochet!