Elder Montague's Mission

December 16th, 2018 1 year, 6 months Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague@myldsmail.net These brief few days have passed by so quickly! Thursday was just a normal day, since no one in our house was transferring. It was also probably my most productive Transfer Day, as we had decent things scheduled all day. We have been helping one of the people we teach, Top, clean up his house. I think I have mentioned about this service activity before. We've already put in close to 50 man hours cleaning his house and it is nowhere near finished. This most recent time we went and  attacked the second floor, containing his untouched-for-5-months Mom's room and the adjourning hallway. We did our very best to try to help, but WOW it really hasn't been touched (there was fruit and food laying about). There is a change happening within Top as well; he is now more willing to throw things out or donate them, and he didn't keep any of the stuff we cleaned out! And his ma...

December 11th, 2018 1 year, 6 months Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague@myldsmail.net Wow hello friends and family. This is greetings from Thonburi, Thailand where I will be staying for the next transfer (I'm here for another 6 weeks)! We had our transfer calls this last evening and only 1 person is moving out of our district. 5 of us are staying. I was pretty sure my companion and I would be staying together, because we haven't been having any problems and the area has been going great. I wasn't expecting that the rest of the district not to change though 555. I love change and I guess this is a change from normal. Because we are all staying together again. The Lord certainly has lessons in store for me! This past week and a half as a district we have really put a big focus on serving. We have gone to members houses and gone caroling to their neighbors with them. One of the people learning with us, Top, has a very messy house. He has kinda put his life ...

December 2nd, 2018 1 year, 6 months Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague@myldsmail.net So we've been meeting with this Cambodian security guard who we came across on accident when we went back to find one of his coworkers. But this person is actually very interested and has been praying since day one and has recognized help that has come as a result of those times he has prayed! Any time we teach him anything, without asking he will teach it back to us and relate it to concepts he already knows and translate it into Khmer. Shoutout to google translate for helping us share some new concepts and my friend from the MTC( Elder Daniel Blaine Tuft) who is in Cambodia and sent us how to actually pray in Khmer. We have now finished with our massive English training, and now it is up to us to implement the practices we learned. It is not easy to change how I plan English class and it has helped me understand the feelings and thought processes of those that I teach, as I h...

November 26, 2018 1 year, 6 months Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague@myldsmail.net This week was amazing. We had so many miracles! We have a few people that we're teaching that came to church last week and they came to church yesterday.  A few of them are really excited about the gospel and  have expressed interest in being baptized so in the following weeks we're gonna work with them to make that happen!  English training We went in to Aso ke for another English meeting, this time with all of the missionaries of Bangkok to further learn the new process. Thanksgiving was an attempt at being American, followed by ลอยกระทง. We went to Wat arun and it was cool to see it. I went on switch offs with Elder Mcwhorter, my MTC น้อง who also had the same trainee as I do. It was super fun and had time to catch up on our experiences in Thailand.  I'm sorry I literally don't have anything else to say.  Thanksgivin...

November 19th, 2018 1 year, 5 months, 4th week Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague @myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you) During District Council this past week, one of the sisters made a profound statement. In discussing zone conference from the previous Saturday, Sister Christensen said that we can't truthfully love missionary work without loving all of the aspects of missionary work. One of the least desirable parts of being a missionary is going out and inviting or tracking for large periods of time. To us, it is highly ineffective, it is physically draining, emotionally trying, we face much rejection and we often do hours of it at a single time. How fortunate that we were able to try out loving the part for a 5 hour block on Wednesday 555. With a   determination to love it, I went out to make that chuck of time a fun and positive chunk of time. We made up a list of almost 50 different goals of things to say or do to start a conversation. We made i...

November 12th, 2018 1 year, 5 months, 3rd week Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague @myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you) Miracles have been happening here in ธนบุรี! Last Monday we did not have a FHE planned so we decided to go inviting. We tried calling a member, but then I moved away from where the map said that they were. We decided to still go inviting in that area anyways. On our way there, we served, we kept walking, and then we started talking to this gentlemen. At his request, we ended up following him to his house and teaching him. It was alright. But we stayed in this hidden little neighborhood talking and trying to teach everyone. On our way out we passed by someone we had asked earlier. He said that his family was chill with us going to their house and teaching. We did. And we taught him and the 8 others that were his friends and brothers. They all are really young and smoke but we have already met again with them and there are a few gems that ar...

November 4th, 2018 1 year, 5 months, 2nd week Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague @myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you) My new companion is coming from my first area, bangnaa. His name is Cole James Halverson and before his mission he's moved around a little bit including spending time in Texas, Florida, California (which he calls home), Utah as a student, and his family has since settled in Los Angeles. He bonded with his dad by going golfing together on the weekends. He has blue eyes that really contrast his often red face. We got back from transfers very quickly - much much faster than I was expecting to. We were able to scramble together a few appointments for the next few days, cuz there wasn't really anything. We made some good progress with a lot of our investigators. The big family that we've been teaching has gotten bigger, and we have made baptismal goals with most of them. That was a big blessing when we did. The same day we did that we ...

October 31st, 2018 1 year, 5 months and 1 week Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague @myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you) What an exciting week this has been! Sunday So we had talked this Sunday service to so many different people.  We were really trying to get as many people that are learning with us and members to come to Sacrament this week. We had a special missionary devotional, which had lots of musical numbers intermixed with short talks about different aspects of our faith and of being a member missionary. We ourselves performed a song, an arrangement of I Know That My Redeemer Lives. We were practicing it during Saturday night in the chapel. We were using the microphones and what a coincidence that sports night, which was happening at the same time, moved itself to the upstairs portion. It's the cultural hall, but it's also the overflow so it is also equipped with speakers. So all of the people that went to sports night heard us practicing...

October 22nd, 2018 16th month,  4th week Thailand, Bangkok, Thonburi Ward samuel.montague @myldsmail.net (I would love to hear from you)    Last Monday we didn't have any Family Home Evening plans, so we decided to go to an area where a few of the people we teach live. We contacted a surprising good amount of them and after we finished we were starting to go home.  It is a half hour bus ride back and I was feeling sick. After we got off the bus, we took a path that was further back to invite on the way, but I wasn't really feeling it. We started walking by a small home where the mom was operating a small drink stand (common here), and I felt like I should go back and invite them. It turned out amazing. This is one of the only times on my mission when I've asked to enter somebody's home upon first meeting them, and being invited in and being able to teach the whole family that's present. We don't go knocking on doors in Thailand so we do a lot of ...