MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!! I hope your day was merry and bright!! I heard Utah finally got some snow so that's good to hear that you had a White Christmas!!

This week was really good! We met with that guy who gave me the chicken nugget and wanted to know why we are so happy. He just asked a lot of questions to try and make us question our faith and we haven't really been able to get in contact with him since so that was kind of sad but then we met quite a few more people. We met this lady named Jacky and she was super cool! We met her on the street and she invited us back for the next day. She loved what we said about the Plan of Salvation and about how she can know this for herself! But then we came back the next day, and after like 5 minutes of contentious questions and statements she told us to get out (she hadn't been keeping the word of wisdom either) so that was fun. But we did meet a few more people who we are seeing this week. A few we feel pretty good about so hopefully it will all work out!!

We also had our missionary Christmas social this week!! It was soooo much fun!! Man I loved it!! Sister Pinther and I did a talent for the talent show. We caught skittles in our mouths. It was lit.

Yesterday was Christmas!! Oh man this has been the funniest Christmas I have ever had. Definitely one for the books and one I will never forget😂

Okay so no one from our ward signed up to have us or the elders over for Christmas. But our fearless District Leader, Elder Bailey, said that a member from his ward  invited us over as a district (shoutout to Elder Schmidt because he used to serve in Gateshead) so we spent the day with Brother Bell and the elders in Gateshead! But we had to leave at 4 because Brother Bell was going to his son's house. So then Sister Pinther and I went to the chapel to Skype our families! Definitely a highlight! Then we went to the elders' recent convert's house and spent the rest of the night with them, playing games and eating pancakes. Then the elders took us home. Then just after ten, they call us and say that the North Shields sisters can't find their flat key so they were going to pick them up and bring them to our flat. So that happened. And then this morning we got to sleep in until 8.30 which was really nice! And then this morning we were just chilling and then we noticed that there was a leak in our ceiling! Yay!! And then right after that we hear one of the North Shields sisters yell "YOURE KIDDING. I CHECKED THIS POCKET THREE TIMES LAST NIGHT" as we heard keys jingle in the room they were in😂 so that's been my second Christmas experience as a missionary hahaha. Man it's just been hilarious.

We don't really have plans today either and we aren't proselyting since it's Boxing Day so looks like it's going to be another day spent with just missionaries hahaha. But it will be fun.

Luke 2
8 And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field,
keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the
Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.
10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which
is Christ the Lord.
12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped
in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly
host praising God, and saying,
14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Love you and miss you all!! Have a great week!!

Sister Montgomery

Mission Christmas Social

Christmas Eve

 Christmas Day in Gateshead

 Call home with my family

Hiyer!!!!!!

Good news: Sister Pinther and I are STAYING IN NEWCASTLE TOGETHER. I got to be her first companion and she will be my last!!!! 😊 I am so so lucky!! Unfortunately the trio did come to an end on Friday. Sister Ashcroft moved to Leeds to be in another trio haha. We really miss Sister Ashcroft!! It's weird with it just being us too but we still have fun. :)

As far as missionary work goes this week was pretty alright. We got a few new investigators this week who didn't come to church yesterday. But we'll keep working on it. :) we are seeing a guy named Samuel this week! He's super cool because he gave me a chicken nugget on the metro and then texted us later and said we made his night better by just making him laugh and he was like "Mormons are always the happiest people! There must be something to it so I would love to meet up and learn more!" And we were just like ".........yeah chure go on then." Man we are STOKED for him!!

We have the Christmas social with the missionaries this week and it's going to be lit.

Christmas is next week which I can't even believe.

The ward made us and the elders do a little show for the ward Christmas party on Saturday and it was one of the most embarrassing things I've ever done but it's aight

Anyway, that was pretty much my week! I hope you all have a great week and stay safe and remember who you are! :) TA RA

"Angels, shepherds, and Wise Men sought and found peace from their faith in Jesus Christ. So will you. The Savior’s birth is the gift that makes it possible for the Father to give us “peace in this world, and eternal life in the world to come.” We shouted for joy in the spirit world when we heard of that promise. Peace and joy come to us again when we hear words sung proclaiming that God’s loving promise was kept: "All is calm, all is bright. …Glories stream from heaven afar; Heav’nly hosts sing Alleluia! Christ, the Savior, is born!" -President Henry B. Eyring

Sister Montgomery

Exchange with Sister Tautkus!!

Newcastle District 1.2

South Shields District

When you have to carry the whole team

Juicy Drop Pop Squad!!!!!😎

Herrooooo!!!

This week was way good!! We went on exchange with the Sister Training Leader Trainers. Sister Pinther and I went with Sister Farnsworth which was fun! Sister Farnsworth is such a spiritual power house! She just amazes me! We met so many cool people!

We also went on exchange with the Sisters in North Shields. I was with Sister Keung and she is just about the cutest thing! I loved being with her! We went to tea with the Dicolla's which is an Italian family! So of course I loved the food they gave me. :) I was absolutely stuffed! It was nice to actually be full after a tea appointment haha.

We got a new investigator named Steven! He is so cool! He has been through so much and he is so prepared to receive the Gospel!! He came to church yesterday! So did Lawrence! It was a miracle! We also had another lady at church named Susan. She was a proper miracle! Sister Pinther and I found her when we were on exchange at the beginning of the transfer. We got in contact with her again and taught her at the church on Thursday and it was one of the most spiritual lessons I have ever taught! It was so amazing! She even came to church and the members were ACE at fellowshipping her!! But...She wouldn't accept a baptismal date and she doesn't want to meet with us anymore. Like she felt the spirit on high voltage, she felt hope that she would see her mom again, we told her to pray about her struggle with work and she did and she said it helped, she had the most VIP experience at church and she doesn't want to meet anymore. Like uh........why not? I divent na

But it was still a good week! We went to Bambrugh Castle (no idea if that's how it's spelled) today and wow!! It was so pretty! Plus we went to the beach and it was snowing😊

Transfers are this week!! Can you believe it?? I will be finding out where I will be spending the rest of my mission! I would LOVE to stay in Newcastle but I've already spent two transfers here and we all know that's long enough for me.

Anyway, hope yous have a great week!! Love you all!!

Sister Montgomery

I didn't know she was taking a picture...

snow angels!!!

the castle (we met a guy from Salt Lake named Gus here)

The closest I get to Snowboarding

Good news. President called us on Thursday morning and told us that Sister Pinther will be staying with us until the end of the transfer!!!!! YES!! And let me tell you we are having the time of our lives!! Because we are finding so much joy in working hard!!

But this week has been pretty good. All of our investigators have decided to harden their hearts. 😒  but it's okay because all three of us can feel something good coming!! Just as long as we keep going and keep working hard we will see success. :)

We went to MLC on Friday which way fun!! It was a Christmas MLC which made it even better. And my companions and I got matching Christmas jumpers which made it even BETTER.

It snowed SO MUCH this week!!!!!!! Well, actually it only snowed on Thursday. BUT. It was like proper snow. It didn't stay. But we had fun for like 2-3 hours man it was great. We had a snow ball fight and built a snowman. :)

Today we went to a place called Holy Island! It's so pretty! It was so much fun!! England is so beautiful!!!!

D&C 18:10-16
10 Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God;
11 For, behold, the Lord your Redeemer suffered death in the flesh;
wherefore he suffered the pain of all men, that all men might repent
and come unto him.
12 And he hath risen again from the dead, that he might bring all men
unto him, on conditions of repentance.
13 And how great is his joy in the soul that repenteth!
14 Wherefore, you are called to cry repentance unto this people.
15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying
repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me,
how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!
16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have
brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your
joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

I love you and miss you all!! Make sure to light the world everyday!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sister Montgomery

SNOW ❄️

Our snowman Jamie

We are

MLC

Sunderland Zone Leadership (Sister Pinther, me, Sister Ashcroft,

Elder Schmidt, Elder Kull)

Holy Island!!!

K so we had Zone Conference on Tuesday which was a lot of fun! President Turvey talked a lot about how we are going to have a "white Christmas" this year because of all the baptisms we will see! We talked about how we can treat our investigators as sacred gifts so they really feel the love that comes from the Gospel!

Wednesday...We got a call from President saying we needed to go down to Sunderland because one of the sisters was going to the office to stay there for a bit so that meant that we needed to be with Sister Pinther. So you know what that meant?! I got to be companions with Sister Pinther again for a week!!!! Man it was so much fun to be in a trio with Sister Ashcroft and Sister Pinther. It was seriously one of the funniest weeks of my mission! Unfortunately the three amigos are being split because President told Sister Pinther yesterday that she will be moving down to Pontefract to help out some sisters. Bless her, it's only the third week and she is moving to her third area of the transfer haha. But I'm super excited for her because I love Pontefract!!

Thursday was good because it was Thanksgiving. But it was sad because England doesn't celebrate. But I did get fed so that was good. We also went on exchange with the Chinese sisters! I was with Sister Huang and she is the cutest! She is such a stellar missionary!

Sunday was a super funny day. We went to go see one of our investigators but he wasn't in so we went and talked to a bunch of guys cleaning leaves outside his flat complex. We showed them the Light the World video and they all loved it! It was hilarious! We got three return appointments with them! One of them, his name is Kevin, we saw him yesterday and scheduled him for baptism! It's going to be a white Christmas for him!❄️ we also got stopped by this guy who just started preaching to us but it was hard to focus because he had snot dripping from his nose the whole time. Then he asked us what new information we learned from him and we told him nothing. So we taught him some things.

We had interviews yesterday so that's why I'm emailing today but interviews were really good! I always really enjoy talking to President and Sister Turvey!

Also I have a cold again.

Hope yous have a great week! Love you all!

Sister Montgomery

Zone Thanksgiving Dinner

Zone Conference

 The start of the legendary trio

We stole the Zone Leaders car

Hey hey hey it's Sister Monty!!

K. Wow. This might be a littler longer email. Sorry. Not really. Because it's going to be a good email!

So I'll start with Saturday!! WE GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE. Oh wow it was the most amazing experience!! It was so special to see Amanda do baptisms for those who have passed on. She absolutely loved it! I had a special experience of my own as well! I was able to be baptized for someone who I KNOW accepted the Gospel on the other side. What a neat feeling that was! The Spirit of Elijah is so precious! We got to just sit in the temple for a long time which was amazing as well! I just soaked it all in because I missed it so much! It was so fun to go back to Preston and see the MTC as well! I can't believe how time has flown! When we left I gave the temple a hug.

Then that night we got TRANSFER CALLS. I'm STAYING WITH SISTER ASHCROFT IN NEWCASTLE 🎉 We were so happy!! Also, GREAT NEWS. Sister Pinther came to the Zone!!!!!!!!!!! I was SO excited when they announced that! We haven't served around each other since I trained her!

We had to go on a three day exchange with her and her companion though this week because there was a lot going on in their companionship. Oh bless it was the craziest week. But it was so fun to spend time with her and to be her companion again!! We had so much fun reminiscing about the good ol days in Grimsby!!!!

Yesterday Lawrence was able to come to church which was SO GOOD. Rachel moved to North Shields so she is no longer in our area but we know the North Shield sisters will talk great care of her! :) plus she is still in the stake so we can go on exchange and see her so it's alright. :)

This week is THANKSGIVING. We are having a thanksgiving dinner today for p day and I'm stoked! A member is having us over on Thursday but I don't know if she remembered it's Thanksgiving but hey at least I won't have to cook. :)

Alma 26:12
12 Yea, I know that I am nothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will not boast of myself, but I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

Hope yous all have a fantastic week!!!!!!!! :)

Sister Montgomery

The temple with Amanda and the Stobbs!!💕

transfer day😭

some things never change

Hello!!!!!!!

Wow today is going to be the BEST DAY. Imma be dusting off my temple recommend today because Sister Ashcroft and I got permission to go with our recent convert Amanda to the TEMPLE.😆😆😆😍😍 This is why I am emailing today because we had to take it as our P day. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am!! It's going to be fun because that's also where the MTC is so it's going to be fun going back there as well!! Ah I'm so stoked!!!!!!!!!!!😁😁😁😁 Amanda is also so excited!! She hasn't stopped talking about it!! We will also be getting transfer calls today. So I probably won't be able to tell you what happens with that until like the next Monday.🙃sorry.

This week has been good though. Pretty uneventful besides today. We are still teaching Lawrence and Rachel. Both still slowly progressing. But not much to update yous on. We found a new investigator Kevin a few days ago. Sister Ashcroft and Sister Schwendiman found him on splits. I haven't met him yet but he seems really cool!!

That's really about it for this week. The next time I get to email will probably have a lot more to tell you!

Enos 1:4
4 And my soul hungered; and I kneeled down before my Maker, and I cried unto him in mighty prayer and supplication for mine own soul; and all the day long did I cry unto him; yea, and when the night came I did still raise my voice high that it reached the heavens.

Hope yous have a great week!!!

Sister Montgomery

Newcastle District!!!!!!!

Splits with Sister Tautkus!!!!!!

Sister Ashcroft: *shivering uncontrollably because it's the tundra

outside* Sister Montgomery, I dare you to get ice cream

Me: okay

Dear friends and family,

HELLOOOOO. How was your week?!? I would love to hear about it!!! I'll tell you about mine!!

So we went on exchange with the Sunderland Sisters at the beginning of this week! Sister Swartz and I helped an old couple squish down the rubbish in their bin!!! I jumped on top of it and they couldn't get over the fact that I did that in a dress.😂😂 The old man called us angels and told us he would never forget us it was the cutest thing!!

We went to MLC this Friday which was a lot of fun. It was actually a really good MLC! We talked more about vision and how we can get the missionaries to have visions of what they want to become!! Nothing exciting happened in our travels unfortunately.

Rachel had her interview this week. We feel like she still needs a bit more time to sort things out. We do feel like this is best though. We really want to make sure she is ready for it!!

Lawrence is still progressing. He fasted yesterday! He said he was really hungry by the end haha. But we were proud of him for doing it!!

That's really about it for this week.

Mosiah 23:10
10 Nevertheless, after much tribulation, the Lord did hear my cries, and did answer my prayers, and has made me an instrument in his hands in bringing so many of you to a knowledge of his truth.

Love you and miss you all!!!!!!!

Sister Montgomery

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

MLC

Breakfast at Starbucks this morning!

HERROOOOO!!!!!!!

This week FLEW BY. We kept busy all week it was great!

We went on exchange in South Shields with Sister Tautkus and Sister Schwendiman. They are such amazing missionaries and great examples of diligence and hard work and keeping positive even things don't seem to be working out!! :)

So we taught Lawrence this week and he is SO prepared! He is scheduled for the 18 November and he is progressing so nicely! And Amanda is being great at helping him to read his scriptures and pray everyday! He came to church yesterday and the ward was so welcoming to him!

Rachel also came to church yesterday and it was SO GOOD. She was talking more about her baptism with members and she seemed a lot more confident talking about it! She is doing so great!!

We found a few more cool people who we will be seeing this week which I will keep you updated about. :)

FRIDAY WAS THE MOST HILARIOUS DAY. So Elder Foster of the Seventy came to our mission for a mission tour. The South of the mission met with him on Friday and the North met with him on Saturday. I'm in the North but he wanted to have a leadership meeting in Huddersfield after the tour on Friday. So we took a train in the morning to get there for 2 but we BARELY missed the train we were supposed to catch with the conductor staring at us cynically the whole way out the station😑 so we found an alternate route that would get us to Huddersfield at the same time the other train would have. We had to change trains in York (❤️) but as we were heading to Leeds there was a fight that broke out on the train. So when we got to Leeds the police had to come and sort it out which delayed us quite a bit! But we managed to somehow make it to the meeting with 8 minutes to spare! The meeting was supposed to be 2 hours long but hen ended up only being an hour🙂But then on the way back!!!!!!!!!! Good heavens. We got the train with Elder Zeck and Elder Holyoak back to Newcastle and I don't think we could have fit any more people on that train. It made for a real awkward 2 hours as we were trying our best to still be as far away from the Elders as we could😂 bless our hearts.

Then Saturday we had our mission tour and it was really good! We had it in York (❤️) and I got to see Dylan!! But it was a really good meeting! We talked a lot about having a vision about what we want to become. He talked about how it's more about what we become than what we do! Heavenly Father has a vision for us and he sees our potential but it's up to us to let him mold us into who he wants us to be!

So a lot of travelling this week but Heavenly Father still blessed us with so many miracles! Love you all and hope yous have a champion week!!

Sister Montgomery

2 hour train ride with the elders and our friend Ellie who we gave

a Book of Mormon to

Sister Ashcroft's badge got pooped on by a bird!!!!!!😭

Hiya!!

Wow what a week full of miracles!!

It was a bit of a slower week to start off with but then towards the end of the week we saw so many miracles!! Friday we had interviews with President Turvey which is always a joy! I love speaking to him and Sister Turvey! After interviews President and Sister Turvey came teaching with us to a lesson with Amanda! It was fun to teach with them and it was a great experience for Amanda!

Saturday we realized we hadn't printed out the programs yet and there weren't any print shops open that was close to us so we had to go to Gateshead which took up most the day. We barely got back in time to have enough time to fill the font!! But we got it. :) everything else went smoothly though!! She brought four of her friends!! All of which now have a Book of Mormon each. :) and we are teaching one of them on Wednesday!!

Sunday was good! Rachel kind of bailed on her baptismal interview so after church we went over to her house to see what was up and we caught her just as she was about to go out to the shops. We asked if we could see her instead and she said yes. We then found out why she was going to the shops and let me tell you she was not about to choose the right. But we got her just in time! And she recognized that that was not a coincidence and that it was an answer from God telling her to keep working towards baptism!! It was such a huge miracle!!

That's about it for this week!! Hope yous have a good one!! Love you!!

Sister Montgomery

We got Shawarma!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!😍

After our lesson with Amanda and President and Sister Turvey!!

Amanda's Baptism💙

NEWCASTLE UNITED🏰