"I love working with the members!"

September 21, 2011

Today for P-Day I bought a new backpack. The shoulder bag that we bought has outlived its usefulness. It's been leaving giant brown splotches on my clothes. Not too noticeable, but it still needs to go. I'll keep it in one of my bags until further notice.

This week has been amazing! But definitely the highlight was our family home evening on Monday! We had baptized the Vijay Massey family on Sunday, and we wanted to do something special for them to celebrate. So, we asked the Douglas family (another recent convert family) and the Sunny family (long-time members, friends of the Massey family) to get together at the Sunny family’s home for a nice get-together! It was amazing! Elder Sade cooked up some chicken sandwiches, I cut vegetables, and we brought them with us. We started with a short video about the Savior’s ministry in America, played a nice game that involved the children, and then served dinner. Some relatives of the Sunny family were also present; nonmembers that had their first taste of LDS lifestyle. We’re going to arrange a visit to their home soon, if possible. Monday was an amazing day! It took a lot of planning, but it all paid off in the end! I love working with the members!

I baptized the daughter, while Elder Sade baptized the son. Elder Bunga, who had taught them for the first three months before getting transferred, baptized the father and mother. They are a wonderful family! The children are persistently trying to teach me Hindi, but it's a slow process. It's fun though! I enjoy our "conversations."

Being District Leader is interesting. I am Leader over 3 other Missionaries (one of whom is Zone Leader, who is in charge of my and 2 other Districts). The Zone Leader is Elder Varada, my former trainer. Basically I set the agenda for District Meetings for this Transfer. I ask one of the Elders to give a training, and then I also give a training. i.e. A missionary that has been in the field for 4 months is training Elders that have been in the field for almost 24 months. More than 20, anyway. I also do follow-ups, which means that I gather Elder Varada's number of lessons, baptismal dates, and status of investigators. I add those numbers to mine and then give it to my Zone Leader (i.e. back to him). hahaha. All in all, I don't let it get to me head. I'm not better than any of them. More often than not, I'm asking for their help - especially concerning follow-ups. Since Elder Varada was Zone Leader and District Leader for my first two transfers, I've been having a lot of trouble figuring out how it all works. I'm getting better, though. And that's what matters.

We're planning a karaoke night next Saturday. We're gathering members that are interested in singing. It's going to be tons of fun!

Disneyland stuff? Not interested in any candy (unless you REALLY want to send me some). If you do find any pennies that I haven't found yet, I'd prefer that they stay in America until I return. Unfortunately, it's kind of almost impossible for you to know which pennies I do or don't have. I have a list on the compute under "Jarom's Stuff". You can check that. But, I suggest that you look around the exit of Pirates. There's usually a Quarter crusher with a Nightmare Before Christmas theme. Should be close enough to Halloween that they'll have it there. If not, it's fine. Disneyland pennies just don't seem as important on this side of the world.

I'm sorry to hear about the Broncos' loss. Interestingly enough, I found a shirt in the apartment. It is a "Glendale High School Broncos" T-Shirt. And it's orange and blue. It looks as if someone had used bleach on it and it got ruined. So they left it here. I'll send it to one of you for Christmas or something. ;D

Happy birthday Brittni! I hope that your children are doing well! It's great to hear the Matthew is enjoying Kindergarten!

INDIA HAS SKITTLES!!! Unfortunately, they cost 70 rupees for a small bag- about 2/3 of one of the bags that you sent me. 70 rupees can buy me an okay lunch. It's too expensive for a missionary budget. I want to buy one bag, though, because it has Hindi writing on it. Just to have the bag. I may send you one (eye for an eye status). But I've seen worse deals. Today we went to the DLF Mall in Vasant Kunj. After getting my backpack, we decided to eat lunch. I saw that one store was selling pancakes. I went over and saw that it was 120 rupees for one pancake. With butter and maple syrup added, of course. I went over to the Subway. I bought 160-rupee foot long. Ham with cheese, lettuce, and tomato (the ham is made of chicken, not pork). Which do you think is the better deal? That's why I choose Subway! hahaha.

We just got two new American missionaries! They should have arrived last night. They'd be in Lajpat Nagar right now. I'm going to get to meet them on Friday for a Specialized Training under President Jackson to the Missionaries (Pakistani Elders excluded). At the end of this transfer, when we receive 5 more South Indian Missionaries, 1 out of every 3 missionaries will be less than 6 months old. Can you imagine how powerful we will become in 2 years' time? That's all that I hear President Jackson say anymore. "We're on the upswing! We are only going up from here!" Speaking of which, this last Sunday, Malviyah Nagar made a new record in total Sacrament Attendance: 96! We are so close to 100! It is an amazing time to be in Delhi right now!
Love you all!
Elder Montgomery