Hi hi hi!
Sorry I've been slacking at emails lately... In all honesty, I've just had no desire to write one these past few weeks. Out here in good ole Gaithersburg YSA, we are pretty parched. Aka... we've been going through what every area does once in a while which is go through a drought. We had to drop almost everyone in our teaching pool and start from scratch. That is never easy as a missionary. I think it's because you become so invested, both emotionally and spiritually. Seeing these people, who you are working so hard with because you love them like the Savior would, walk away or reject the witnesses and answers they have received is best described as draining. Drop talk after drop talk, door slam after rejection, after no one listening..... it is draining. I was reading in my scriptures one day feeling so tired, emotionally and spiritually, feeling as though I was a failure, especially having the area die and need to be rebuilt while training. So much was heavy on my shoulders, but as I was reading I came across Alma 8:10-15. Alma put his entire heart and soul into teaching these people, because he was so converted and knew with every fiber these things were true. He prayed and prayed and worked and worked... yet it says, "Nevertheless, they hardened their hearts...... reviled him, and spit upon him..." No matter what Alma did, no matter the faith he had or amount of energy he gave, they were not ready to receive his message. That, is not his fault. However, it doesn't make it hurt any less. 14 And it came to pass that while he was journeying thither, being weighed down with sorrow, wading through much tribulation and anguish of soul, because of the wickedness of the people who were in the city of Ammonihah, it came to pass while Alma was thus weighed down with sorrow, behold an angel of the Lord appeared unto him, saying: 15 Blessed art thou, Alma; therefore, lift up thy head and rejoice, for thou hast great cause to rejoice; for thou hast been faithful in keeping the commandments of God from the time which thou receivedst thy first message from him. Behold, I am he that delivered it unto you. At the end of the day, we can give all we have, but God's will is what will be done. Often times, that means we may have to be weighed down with sorrow and anguish of soul, so that we choose to find Him; let Him lift us. I have realized that I do have great cause to rejoice, because "success" is so much more than baptisms. If at the end of the day, I acted on a prompting because I trusted the Lord- that is success. If someone felt loved because of me- that is success. Is someone saw, or felt the love of Christ through me, that is success. And most importantly, if at the end of the day I, Sister Montgomery, didn't give up on my Savior..... that, that is success. My mission is my greatest blessing. I am so grateful I get to experience these 'droughts' so that I can become converted myself. I am so grateful for the miracles that are all around when you open your eyes to them. This week we have started rebuilding our teaching pool and taught some amazing, powerful lessons. Miracles are around the corner; we just need to trust God's timing :) Stay tuned for all of the wonderful people that are being prepared to open their hearts to everlasting Gospel of Jesus Christ 💛 Love you all! Love, Sister McKayla Montgomery 💛 *My MTC teacher payed GYSA a little visit!
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Hello, everyone!” Yes, the title is true.... I officially have my own little Padawon :') She is from San Antonio, Texas. She was a thrower on the track team at BYU and is the daughter of the Mission Presidents in Salt Lake City! Aka, I am so blessed to have the best “baby" ever. Hopefully, I don't wear her out too fast, since I'm still an STL which means we are in a trio and constantly on the go! It's true when they say that greenies bring a special fire! It has been such a sweet experience for me to see how excited and happy she is to be doing anything involving missionary work. Just simply being a missionary. It has brought back so many great, sacred memories and given me an extra boost; reminding me of the joy and love being able to put on a tag with the Savior's name across my heart every morning. We have seen so many sweet, tender mercies this week. I know that the Lord is blessing us so that Sister Spendlove can have a sneak peak of how miraculous and humbling a mission can be. Truly, it is such a privilege to not only be called, but chosen. Her first night, I talked to her about the person she can and will become if she allows herself to become an instrument in the Savior's hands. I read her Alma 17:9-11. 9 And it came to pass that they journeyed many days in the wilderness, and they fasted much and prayed much that the Lord would grant unto them a portion of his Spirit to go with them, and abide with them, that they might be an instrument in the hands of God to bring, if it were possible, their brethren, the Lamanites, to the knowledge of the truth, to the knowledge of the baseness of the traditions of their fathers, which were not correct. 10 And it came to pass that the Lord did visit them with his Spirit, and said unto them: Be comforted. And they were comforted. 11 And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the Lamanites, thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls. I have come to want nothing more than have even a portion of my Savior's love and spirit to be with me. Even the slightest amount changes someone's life. It is so powerful to me how they say, "if it were possible." I have learned that God truly does know best. He may work in mysterious ways, but His timing is always perfect. Sometimes, however, it is not what we hoped or expected. That is why allowing yourself to mold into who He needs you to become, allowing Him to be with and guide you, brings miracles. It brings miracles because it is not easy, but you are allowing your heart to be placed in His hands. Trusting that it is safer with Him than yourself. I love my mission. I love representing my Savior daily and even though at times it is hard... I love knowing that I am becoming who He needs me to be. But most of all, I love trusting that who He helps me become is better than I could have been on my own. Love, Sister McKayla Montgomery Pic 1: Meet padawon 💕 (Sister Spendlove) Pic 2: Sister Sharpe and I Pic 3: This about sums up my mission; I love Washington DC ! ❤️ Pic 4: Oh Victor. What a guy. Pic 5: Alondra is a recent convert ❤️ Alright, here's the sitch... this week was really, really rough.
Tuesday rolls around, which started the snowball of bad news. Eric, who was on date for Saturday, texted us and said, "I do not want to join the church anymore. Sorry if I've wasted your time." And proceeded to block our number. My heart sank to the bottom of my stomach. "What did I do? What did I NOT do? What could I have done better?" Instantly started running through my mind. So... Friday is Victor's baptism. We prepare, fill up the font, get all our cameras ready, and then Victor arrives. He walks inside, looks at the water and says, "I'm not ready to do this. I don't want to get baptized." Never in the history of my mission have I experienced anything quite like this. I just could not fathom what was happening. Of course, the tears came and my heart began to ache. Why was all of this happening? What did I do wrong? I'm following all of the rules, pushing myself because I'm in the home stretch of my mission... What did I do wrong. In that moment I felt the spirit teach me something very important- Who ever said this was because of you? My entire mission I have been teaching people about agency; the freedom to choose. But this experience taught me first hand such a greater perspective of God's love, and agency truly is just that; a personal choice. I believe that it was Elder Bednar who once taught that we, the instruments of the Savior, simply bring the Gospel 'unto' someone. We cannot put it 'into' someone's heart; that is their own job. My job is to bring it to them, provide them the opportunity to fully partake and receive all of the blessings He has in store. That simple word 'provide' became so powerful to me in that moment. I felt The Spirit witness to me just a small portion of what it must have been like to be the Savior. Even He could not bring it 'into' someone. Look at all of the people He provided the opportunity to know that through Him they could be forgiven and whole, and then personally chose not to accept it. That is not the Savior's fault. He did everything He possibly could to bring this unto His brothers and sisters that He loved so deeply. That's why it stings so much. When you have acted upon your own agency and have truly brought the gospel 'into' your heart, you know the difference that it makes; it is something that you cannot live without. It is the most important thing to me, to have a relationship with my Savior and Father in Heaven. I KNOW that they live. That is why it hurts so deep when I watch the people I love not know the same thing. This weekend, as hard as it may have been, was exactly what I needed. I came to know my Savior on a deeper level, and understand my role as an instrument so profoundly. I gained a witness of just how powerful and personal agency is. We may not get to decide all the ways we fall down, but we do get to decide exactly how to stand back up. And that, my friends, is where the power lies. I am grateful for my mission. It is not easy. In fact, it is mostly thorns. There have been countless times Heavenly Father has asked me to fall down. But I cannot thank Him enough for doing that, because it has given me the opportunity to stand back up. Psalm 46:10 "Be still, and know that I am God" Sister McKayla Montgomery Boy, this week has been jam-packed with busyness! I'm pretty bad at writing about the people we are working with, so I'll give a little update on that for you all. But before we do.....Drum rollllllll..... VICTOR AND ERIC ARE GETTING BAPTIZED THIS WEEK! Ah I want to shout from a mountain top!
Victor was one of the first people I had met in this area, so it has been so cool to work with him these last 5 weeks and see his progression since the first lesson. He is so dang funny.... don't worry we have a quote wall designated solely to his comments so that we never forget them. His baptism will be this Friday so make sure to keep him in your prayers! Eric is awesome! We picked him up about our second week together. One day I felt the biggest impression to go through our former investigators list, so we did and we found Eric as well as a few others! We extended the invitation to be baptized the first lesson with him and he gladly accepted. I am so dang pumped for his baptism on Saturday! One of the miracles this week was Jonathan! Some Elders contacted him on the street and came to find out that his mother is a member! Jonathan said he had been baptized, but hasn't been to church since his mother left years and years ago. So, we met with Jonathan later that day and invited him to game night! (Side note, every Friday night we work with the Senior Couple in our ward and at the Branch President's house we serve dinner and then just have a ball! Games, pool, all sorts of fun stuff! It has been the greatest fellowshipping/finding activity!) He loved game night and all the people there! So, the Branch President goes with him to move his records to the branch and finds out.... there are no records! Only his mother was baptized! Jonathan said, "well I want to be baptized as soon as possible then!" So, he is now on date for the 26th of August :) MIRACLES! Definitely keep him and his progression in your prayers! Herbert is another awesome former investigator that we have been working with who.... Just accepted to be baptized on the 26th as well! I am so psyched about it! He attends John Hopkins University, and is super cool. The Gaithersburg YSA is literally the promised land. I am loving my time here and all the many friendships I am making. Seriously, we see a miracle daily, and I am constantly happy. Even when we get stuck in a torrential downpour :-) Literally, you guys, we had decided to walk that day to a referral that lived about 40 minutes away. So, on our way there, it begins absolutely pouring. Of course, the referral wasn't home, so we began our journey through the tsunami. We were soaked from head to toe within minutes, and quite literally were walking through rivers... Apparently, normal humans that have normal human wifi and internet all had been warned about a huge flash flood that they were shutting down the roads for.... whoops. So not only were we walking through rivers in the streets, we experienced an actual movie scene. The one where someone is standing on the sidewalk and then a car drives past and a wave goes over them... yep! That happened about 5 times, hahaha it was so funny! We had so much fun the entire time though! Missionary work has brought me so much happiness. Every thorn only makes each flower that much more worth it :) Love you all! Thank you for each and every prayer you give! It truly is bringing miracles to DC ❤️ Love, Sister McKayla Montgomery |