One week down...

Well i'm already done with one week :(

So i'm sure you guys have already heard the huge news about the buy students' findings in S America.      

They found super convincing evidence that they found Zarahemla the other day.  They found remains of medical technology that is more advanced than our technology for knee surgery.  So I guess that means they must've had a lot of Knee-Fights hahahaha sorry that was bad I know.

The MTC is so cool.  I love my district so much, they're so funny.  Especially my district leader Elder Claflin.  He's from Wyoming I think.  But he's the funniest guy, his story telling kills me every time.  A super funny story, in the middle of the night Elder Cottle (he's in a tripanionship with Elder Claflin and Elder Dayton) starts talking super loud and wakes up Elder Claflin, and starts saying "Elder Claflin, Elder Claflin wake up I can't find Elder Dayton anywhere, he just left and I can't find him"  Almost in tears hahaha. so Elder Claflin went over to Elder Dayton, who was sleeping and says, "he's right here" but Elder Cottle was already back asleep.  Hahaha so that's kinda been our joke for this first week, he's gotten so much crap from that.

Well we taught our first investigator this week, and his name was Vai.  He only spoke French the whole time, so it was pretty tough.  I'm super glad I took so much French, because we had 5-20 minute lessons, and my companion was not very much help in the French department.  Especially at the beginning, he got better but he end.  But on the second lesson, I think it was, he had like some sort of stress/nervous reaction and couldn't stop chuckling.  I taught my first part, looked over at him, and just chuckles.  So I did his part and my second part, looked over, just chuckles.  I ended up giving the entire 20 minute lesson on likely fourth day here haha thanks Elder Bradshaw...

Yah everything is pretty much going good here, I memorized the first vision and the baptismal invitation and Moroni 10:4-5 in french as well as all the basic core because I already knew all the conjugations and stuff that everyone was learning about, and that really paid off in the lessons.  I'd highly recommend that, because they mean a lot more and the spirit is stronger when it's from memory instead of off a script.  But there is still so much French to learn.  I've gotten three tenses down, mostly before I got here, but there's probably 10 or 12 different tenses i'm going to have to learn to conjugate the verbs right, so yah that's gonna be tough.  I've started reading le livre de mormon en Francais tho, so hopefully that'll help.  

And for everyone that's asked me, the food isn't bad here.  There's a lot of different stuff to choose from, so it works for pretty much everyone.   From salads to straight ice cream.  (which I might've done one time).  I mean it's definitely not a chick fil a or cafe rio but it's not too bad.

Cya next week!

Elder McQuiston

The guys in my district

Me and my comp. Elder Bradshaw

Me and a Friend from High School

My district

I'm alive and well!

We were surprised to wake up and see an email from Tanner this morning.  He was able to send a quick, short email to let us know that things are well and when his p-day will be.  What a sweet surprise that was!

Hey guys I don't have too much time to write, our zone leaders just gave us a few minutes to write our families and tell them we're safe and everything is going well.  My day is tomorrow so luckily i'll be able to write you tomorrow and I can write more then.  My companion is Elder Bradshaw, he's a pretty funny guy, and I like him a lot besides the fact that he walks super slow everywhere and makes us late...I'll work on him haha.


First day was pretty much as expected, our teacher just talked to us in french the whole time and everything else was just orientation stuff with all the other new elders and sisters.  We had a huge group of people come in, like 680 or something like that, so we had to use more than one room for all the meetings. 

I like my district a lot, we have 9 elders and 3 sisters all going to Tahiti, and everyone is super chill and we're getting tight.  Our zone is sweet, we are all of the French speaking missionaries in the mtc, going to France, Canada, Tahiti, Madagascar, Washington DC and some other places.  Every night all of the French Elders get together in the bottom floor of the Elders residence and we sing a french hymn at the top of our lungs, so i'm sure all the other elders hate us haha but it's fun.  There's an elder in my zone that's going to Tahiti that went to Davis and was in some of my French classes, and he was one of the only 2 elders going to Tahiti before we got here.  He's pretty sick and is someone to talk to while i'm with my zone.  I'm excited for when Lij and my Canada friends all get here cuz they'll be in my zone and we can go to the temple and stuff together so that'll be chill.

For today that's pretty much all, but i'll talk to you tomorrow.

Elder McQuiston

And he's off...

What an emotional, bittersweet day.  It was hard to say goodbye, but no where else we'd rather him be.  We met Zach and Megan in Provo, had lunch at Cafe Rio, took pictures at the Provo Temple and then said goodbye.  He was so ready to go!  We will miss the fun personality he brings to our family, but I'm sure it will come through in his letters.  Good Luck Elder McQuiston!  We love you!

Setting apart and First Companion

Elder McQuiston was set apart by President Hancock on July 12th at 10:15 pm.  Yep 10:15 pm!  Dad had meetings in Chicago and was suppose to arrive home at 7:30 so he could be set apart at 8:30pm.  But he missed his flight by 3 minutes and didn't arrive home until 9:30pm.  Luckily we were able to wait and  have everyone together for his setting apart.  What a sweet experience that was.  We were able to share some thoughts and a Testimony with him and then he shared his Testimony with us.  Dad became his first companion!

Saying goodbye to "the Dad's"

What a great group of guys that are an awesome influence on Tanner.  All of them have their mission calls.  There were a few missing from this picture that couldn't make it over.  It was sweet to hear their goodbyes.  They will all make great missionaries!

His departing talk...

Elder McQuiston spoke in sacrament mtg. on July 10th.  He did a great job sharing the things he did, the experiences he had and the people that helped  prepare him to serve a mission.  He ended with his Testimony of the Scriptures.  Afterwards family and friends came to share the day and say goodbye.  He sounded ready to go!