Joyeus Noel!

Merry Christmas everyone!  It was super fun to see all of you, and I'm so glad that everyone's doing great!  It was nice seeing a little bit of Christmas spirit haha cuz there's like none here.  And dad, don't worry the pinapo is on it's way.

Dylan's baptism was on Saturday, which was super cool.  He was confirmed yesterday, as well as ordained to the office of priest.  He's awesome, and it's really cool to see someone come into the fold.  Two more investigators fixed their baptismal dates this week, which was dope, if you're obedient blessings come.

We did a little bit of a secret santa that I told you all about yesterday, which was also really cool.  The smiles that lit up the people's faces made me so happy.  The people here don't have a lot, and they didn't have any other Christmas gifts for their kids.  Giving is what Christmas is all about, and it was really fun to spread some happiness.

We tried the hike again this morning, but this time we brought our guide, to make sure we didn't get lost.  His name is Teahi, a super funny 11 year old.  He talked nonstop the entire hike haha funny kid.  It was a sweet hike, and the view at the top was way pretty.

I don't have too much else to say this week, so happy new year!

Elder McQuiston

Pictures:  Dylan's baptism, with our branch president, and branch mission leader
some pictures with the kids we gave present to
Some pics from the hike

week: weird Marquisien relationships

Kaoha mes chères amis et ma famille bien-aime haha.

Merry Christmas everyone!  This week was my busiest week on the mission by far... We have a ton of investigators and teach them all like 3 times a week, and they're all progressing fairly quickly for the most part.

Hmm k Tuesday I finally finished the huge French study book they gave us at the MTC, so I've moved on to start studying Marquisien and Tahitian.  We had some solid lessons as well, and met a guy that is the brother of one of our members.  He is all wrapped up and in tons of pain, because  he was climbing some coconut tree and then the bottom of the tree caught on fire, and he caught on fire before jumping off and breaking his wrist and some ribs....Super sad.

Wednesday we couldn't find a ride over to Hooumi, so we had someone take us and our bikes up to the top of the mountain in between Taiohae and Hooumi.  It was a super fun ride down, we were flying...Probably not the safest thing but what can you do.  After our split at Hooumi with a newly reactivated member we headed back chez nous to the chapel.  We had a lesson with Carla, a 16 year old investigator at Ua Huka over Skype.  She's super cool, and had a super cool experience.  She prayed to find out if the Book of Mormon is true, and felt the spirit super strong, even brought her to tears.  She wants to be baptized, the only problem is that she's living with someone...at 16 years old!! That's the first weird relationship.

The other day...Friday I think we were playing soccer in the backyard with a member, just juggling and such.  Then his mom came out and we started chatting with her... which is when we found out the second weird relationship.  When she was 17 her husband had a kid with someone "very close to her", and then he left that person and got married to her.  Then she told us who the first person was...her sister!  What in the world...and turns out her sister is one of our investigators!  The relationships here are so messed up...and the kid is now 16 and is pregnant living with someone who is 21.  Weird stuff.

Well normally we have a baptism this weekend, but he's not sure if he wants to make the decision to follow the parole de sages, so we're hoping all goes well and he'll get baptized Saturday.  But we'll see.  That's pretty much all for this week...I love you all, until next week!

Elder McQuiston

Pic's:  A pic of me from a viewpoint on the way down to Hooumi, I love my helmet...Also if you look really close you can see some houses in the background...yep that's Hooumi.  And you can actually see the house we went to, if I was there I'd probably show you which one,  Hmm what was the third one... A pic of Taiohae I'm guessing?  The fourth was us with one of our dope Marquisien friends.

Beloved loved ones in a far far away land

Bonjour tout le monde!

We had a dope week this semaine, fixed two baptismal dates and almost died on some hike that turns out wasn't a hike and we found ourselves lost in some thick plants that were like head height way in the mountains this morning.

Alright d'abord Tuesday...actually I changed my mind I don't want to do a day by day.  Well sometime during the week we found two of our ancient amis and had a super good lesson with them both.  We talked about their goals, and then talked about what we can do and what they need to do to accomplish those goals, and they both recommitted themselves to keep their commitments and read the book of mormon.

We also did like 10 lessons over Skype this week with our amis on the other island, and we fixed the baptismal date for one of them!  So we're in the process of planning our next trip over there, which we hope will be the 3rd to the 10th of January.

Our other baptismal date was with the older brother of Kua, our recent convert.  He's 16, and was super touched by his sisters baptism.  When we had our first lesson with him, we found out that he had already fixed his baptism date for the 24th, which is tp we didn't have to do like anything, merci Seigneur.

We also did a split with our recently activated member Fr. Ah-Scha at Hooumi, a little valley like 45 minutes away by car.  It went super well, he used to be a ward mission leader a t Tahiti, and knew what he was doing.  He kept going off in Marquisien, and got all the amis we saw to promise they'd read the book or mormon and pray about it.

On Wednesday we found a new investigator names Steven, the nephew of one of the  members, who has 19 years.  He is way cool and our lesson went super well, and he said he already knows that it's true.  But that's just a side note.  The real story is he made us take a bunch of peppers off of their pepper plant.  When we got home I decided to pop one in my mouth, and turns out it's extremely hot and it destroyed my mouth, esophagus, and eventually my stomach.  45 minutes later I was still sweating and in burning pain laying on the tile.  I decided I'm gonna try and build a tolerance for them, eat one every week until they don't effect me anymore.

Sunday I played the piano and got wrecked, Sweet of prayer was my only saving grace.  But all the members were like astonished because nobody plays the piano on like the whole island, and there's like hardly anyone that knows how to read music either.  So yah they're making play every week from now on.

D'accord bon semaine tout le monde, je vous aime!

Elder McQuiston

Pictures:  The first one is probably the weirdest thing I've ever seen, we saw a horse on some shortcut we were on, and it was wearing a flip flop hahaha.  And then some pictures from our hike this morning, and a rock.

Watch out, I gotta deadly weapon!

Alright first of all thanks so much for the Christmas packageQ  That was a super nice surprise on Tuesday, and yep I couldn't wait for Christmas so I opened it a month in advance haha.  Thanks so much for the cards from everyone, and thanks mom and Emerie for the gifts, you guys are the best.  We got the news that me and Elder Isabell will be staying here for the next transfer at least, so I'll be here at Nuku Hiva for Christmas.

This week we put our new plan of really focusing on the members into action, with lots of success!  Already we have a few really solid investigators, and we had a baptism on Saturday!  We also reactivated a few members, and we've started to work with other members.

The baptism was super top, Kua is awesome and I'm impressed with her strength, in a town where she is one of the only members, at 14 years old.  She was confirmed on Sunday by Elder Isabell.  We found out 5 minutes before primary that we were going to be teaching it, which was a big surprise.  The kids are insane, and man do I feel for the primary teachers, I was fearing for my life at the end of church.  After church we had another lesson with Kua, and while we were there our DMB found his pain keyboard and gave it to us, so looks like I'm the new ward pianist, and I'm going to be practicing a ton at the house this week.

Today we had a super crazy day, which is why I don't have a ton of time, sorry everyone.  But I did find a super dope cassette, which I had to buy.  I'll send the pics.  We also gave a benediction to Roland, a man here that is paralyzed from a  car accident, who has a ton of faith and wants to be healed.  We gave him a blessing, which was a super cool experience, and the spirit was super strong.  By the end of the blessing, he began to be abel to move both of his eyes and see close up, and his mouth was working a lot better.   I know that the priesthood is the power of God, and that by our faith we can accomplish miracles.

I love you all, talk to you next week!

Elder McQuiston

This is the cassette I bought (bread-head), probably the dopest thing I've ever seen, and a huge part of the culture here, they were the weapons of the natives.  I had to buy it because it was the best priced cassette I've seen, and it was a pap I know who made it....Anyways yah watch out I got a deadly weapon 

 Pictures from the baptism

 A bellevedaire

Me with some water behind me