Monday, January 27, 2014

Week 15!

Well this week there isnt much to tell, sorry everyone!! haha but what DID happen was wonderful!
Monday I got a Haircut FINALLY! :)  and then we had the Big Lift on Tuesday which is where we were in a 3-some for a day with our sister training leader and that went so well! and then i got sick and was inside for 3 days.... haha it was really great to bond with Sister Wheelock though andTerry QUIT SMOKING!!! She is going to get baptised on the 8th!!! Thank you so much for all of your prayers on our and her behalf!! Also, I had a wonderful opportunity to bear testimony of Joseph Smith this week. A Former told us that Joseph Smith wasnt humble that he was just a stupid farm boy and I got to bear testimony that I KNEW that he was inspired of GOD and that he is the Prophet of the restoration. and I want each and every one of you to know that I know he was a prophet. That he may have been uneducated but he was certainly not stupid and that he was very humble and was pure enough to bring forth this beautiful gospel in the latter days and to be a tool in the hands of the Lord as I pray every day that I might be as well... Also, sadly we missed stake conference Saturday because of my illness but I did get to go Sunday and hear Elder Russell M. Nelson Speak!! He is such a wonderful man and is truly inspired!!
Well thats all for this week everyone! I love you all and keep you in my prayers! Please keep the beautiful city of Cowpens in yours :)


Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Week 14!

Well Hello Everyone!!! :) This has been a good and exciting week!!!! :) Terry Wyatt is doing good and we have full confidence that she will enter the waters of Baptism by Febuary 1st!!!!!! :) I am so excited for her!!! Please pray for her to be able to quit smoking and to make it to baptism!!!! :) also we had specialized training this week and STILL NO IPADS!!!! I AM IN SUCH SUSPENSE!!!!! but we did have exchanges and they went so well! I was with Sister Jackson and I learned so much from her :) Sister Wheelock and I are finally beginning to get the ropes on our area without a GPS and We also had Branch conference this week and Stake conference next week which are so so wonderful!!! :) My favorite thing I learned at Branch Conference was a quote by this sweet sister from the Stake Relief Society and she said " I don't memorize the scriptures because I can't memorize the feelings I get from the Spirit as I read" "The spirit is the true teacher" I love how simple and profound this quote is and I can testify that nothing we do as missionaries is because of our own skill, strength, charm or success... It is all because we have a loving Heavenly Father who CHOOSES to bless us with his spirit as a result of obedience and righteous, hard work. I know that Miracles are out there! Please keep Praying for ALL the missionaries all over the world and know that your prayers are answered not by strength to us in the name tags but by the softening of hearts and the preparing of souls to hear the Gospel through God's Messenger, The Holy Ghost! I love you all!!! Have a wonderful rest of your January!!! Keep to those Resolutions 
~Sister Dominique Montoya





This is a Fawn named Blossom :) she is so sweet and very tame and is so willing to let us pet her!

Monday, January 13, 2014

Week 13!

Hello Family, Friends and Creatures large and small!

                           13 weeks out here! Just over 3 months and I am out of Training!!! woo!This week was really great, though very slow, the frist part of the week was mostly spent with SIster Boyson telling everyone goodbye and packing and then we had transfers and thanks to my amazing mother had a 2nd christmas :) I got a new companion, Sister Wheelock who is so great! I love her to death :) She is a great missionary and we are both super short, balls of fire in the belly missionaries!! :) It was definitely an adventure getting home from transfers though. we were using another missionaries old GPS and it was very slow and froze and basically we drove in a giant cricle around our entire area before we found home haha... but we made it!! and its definitely been good practice for knowing the area well :) Thank all of you so much for your continued prayers for Justin Bearden. Because of that i do believe he will get baptized and he finally believes he has faith!!! :) keep praying for him and also for Grace white, a less active to soften her heart to come to church! I am so grateful for all of your faith, support and love in and for me while I am out here. I miss ya'll but I know this is where I am supposed to be and I am as  happy as I have ever been in my life. :) I hope all of you have a wonderful week! You're in my prayers!!!

~Sister Dominique Sage Montoya, South Carolina Columbia Mission

P.S. OH! and also, it was a crazy fun week and exciting because we had tornato watches, flash flood warnings and severe thunderstorm warnings all over our mission!!! :) But we're safe and it was adventure!!!












members sure like to feed us.... haha :)

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Week 12!

12 weeks are up and i am noooooow not a trainee!!!!! I am so excited for this!!! I get a new companion on wednesday, still staying here in Cowpens though but I feel bad for her because she is coming here to -5 degree weather and biting winds haha... but its fun :) I love my area!!!! PLEASE keep praying for justing too everyone!!! We have made such big progress with him the last two weeks and I know that a lot of it is your prayers :) SO i finally got a Boot that i can wear so i am not on crutches anymore!!!! I feel so spoiled that i get to wear it and actually walk haha... its so awesome :) We had a great New Years Eve and came in at 8pm and got to study and have some extra time to go to bed early :) We also had so many miracles.... With Justin, we were teaching him on friday and we have been struggling so hard with him because he cant really feel anything (love, hate, happiness etc..) and so we have had a hard time helping him feel the spirit. And finally we decided to teach him about the spirit and he opening up and said that he was hearing voices that would answer his prayers and asked if he was crazy and after asking him a lot of questions and understaning more we know that he was having basically a nephi moment!!!! it was so amaizing and it only started to happen this last week after 2 things, 1: that he committed to live the word of wisdom and 2: that I asked alll of you to pray for him and we asked members to pray for him!!! it was such a wonderful miracle!!! :) Also, anothe miracle that happened was that a Part-member family the Moody-Clobes family, had a miracle. the father, Richard has been very closed off to religion at all for the whole 6 months missionaraies have been seeing them and he is finally opening up a little and being nicer and inviting us in and this week a member (Brother Ronson) went over and saw Richard, hair fumbled, and looking warn tearing apart their van in search of something and when he asked him what he was looking for Richard said it was the diamond ring he bought for his wife that she had lost 3 days before and they couldn't find. so all Brother Ronson said was "I pray you will find it" and Richard leaned down. and touched a piece of the siding on the floor and the ring popped out!!! Richard has been talking about that experience all week and now has accepted to read out of the book of mormon and is encouraging his kids to listen to the message we share. Also, at zone training when all of us reported our month we all had 0 on date and 0 baptisms.... and that night because of the training that pumped us up, every companionship in the zone got someone on date!!!! :)

Well sorry for the Long letter but I love you all!!!!
~Sister Dominique Sage Montoya





Week 11!

Merry POST Christmas!!!!! This week has been so wonderful! Hard again being on my sprained ankle but i know its making me stronger!!! :) Also, it was soooo wonderful to Facetime and call my family!!! It was so good to hear their voices and see their faces :) That night we also ate lasagna at out Branch Presidents and had Pho at a Less actives house heck yes!!!! it had cow stomach, beef, crab, and shrimp in it it  and also a dessert called Nava that looked like worms but was rice noodles and coconut milk died green. it was so yummy and very authentic haha,,, Also, Justin is doing so well thanks so much for your prayers!!! I appreciate it so much!! Sunday we sang "I believe in Christ" in Sacrament and had a wonderful combined priesthood and RS meeting that covered addiction recovery! BUT the highlight of the week was that we went and saw a less active Sunday and she had said that a woman she went to High school with had posted on Facebook that she had seen us December 2 and wrote about it that night. she wrote 
"Tonight when we got home, there were what appeared to be two young girls walking on our road...our street has 5 houses so we know everyone...keith tells me to get in the house so of course, I dont do that.I walked down the road and asked the ladies if i could help them. They were Mormons. They proceeded to tell me that they had to be out preaching until 9, spreading the word... but my biggest concern was their safety..."its just not safe for two women to be walking the street in the dark alone." They told me about their safety precautions and I still expressed "its just not safe" one of the young women then looked at me and said "God will protect us" 4 words. I shut up. After all, they said exactly what I'd been taught. God will protect! I'm baptist, But tonight those two girls gave me the biggest and most beautiful sermon in 4 simple words. Regardless of the belief, those words are always true. They are welcome in my driveway anytime." 
After we knew what was happened we realized the obvious miracle in it :) But later that night, we found from the other sisters in the district that one of their less actives had seen the post and it gave her hope that her husband would join the church because she saw that people of other faiths were thinking better of the church. 4 simple words could change lives everywhere. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE!!!!
We also had a sleepover with those sisters last night :) so fun!!! :) and i get my boot on Wednesday!!! Hope alls well!! love ya! :) 

~Sister Dominique Sage Montoya



























Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Update!

Hi, this is Jeffrey, and I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry that I'm behind! Between the holidays and the enormous amount of pictures I've been getting (which is awesome!) I haven't gotten this or last week's post up yet, but they most definitely WILL be all up by tonight! So... tell all your friends!