Alrighty, so first of all, I got the coup de fil Friday night, and I'm getting transferred. I'm heading back home to Tahiti, to Mahatma at Papeari. My new companion is Elder Omorodian or something like that, I think he's from France or Africa or something. But I'm not gonna be transferred for like 2 weeks, because I'm stuck at Ua Huka for the time being. It's way sad to be leaving everyone, they're basically my family now after so long here, but I don't have any regrets, I know that I did everything I could, and gave it my all.
On Tuesday I had my Testimony really strengthened about teaching by the spirit. I really focused the whole day on not being afraid to say what I'm prompted to say, and I really focused on relying on the spirit to tell me what to say and what scriptures to share. It was kinda tough, but the spirit was super strong in the lessons, and I found myself saying stuff that like I've never really thought about before, but that were perfect for the investigators, and I know it was from the spirit. Also we had some kinda weird news, Beatrice said she's done taking lessons and wants to stay Catholic, but that she's gonna let her son get baptized, and so he's gonna get baptized soon after we get back.
On Wednesday we headed down to Taipivai. Once again, Fr Ah Scha went on a split with us that lasted like the whole day. He had the idea to go to every house at Hooumi, and just say hi to everyone. Understandably, I was skeptical at first, thinking it was kinda a waste of time. But like halfway through the city, we found someone that was super interested and is really potential. And kinda funny story, in the middle of a lesson, all of a sudden out of no where Fr Ah Scha slapped my face way hard, and I was super surprised and looked over at him, who just had this enormous sincere smile on his face. He showed me his hand, with a dead mosquito on it, and just whispered "I got it".
I got the Valentines package on Thursday, thanks so much everyone for hookin me up fatty. We also got hooked up in this huge Adventist bible bash...Aaaaiiiiaaa
Then on Friday we felt in to Ua Huka, and it's been awesome here so far. Nothing huge has happened yet it's been fairly calm, but we're praying and fasting that we can have some miracles this week that will let us have some baptisms on Saturday. We are gonna do a fast starting tonight, and we're praying for Ronny, Melodie, Vania, Roger, Aldo, and Julie, if anyone wants to join us.
Meeting Vania yesterday was kinda a miracle. I felt prompted to go visit her, and it was someone that we randomly encountered the first time I came here, like 3 months ago. Turns out she had just arrived from Hiva Oa an hour or so earlier. She gladly accepted us, and had a ton of questions. She had taken the lessons in the past, and is basically ready to be baptized already. She said she just needs to get baptized now, she can't wait any longer. And she even said that she's gonna dump all of her coffee today. Cool story.
Alright that's pretty much all for this week, I took some pics but the computers being stubborn so I'll have to send them when we get back. I love you all, passez une bonne semaine!
Elder McQuiston
Tuesday, February 28, 2017
Tuesday, February 21, 2017
Last week before Ua Huka
Kaoha...Man there really isn't a whole lot that happened this week, it was pretty much a blur, it went by so fast.
On Tuesday we had a really good lesson with Ronny, the 10 year old that lives at Ua Huka. We're going to try and baptize him in the next two weeks while we're there, but it isn't fixed yet. We also had three of our investigators tell us that they want to stay Catholic, which is super frustrating. We just have to hope and pray that they'll read the book of mormon and pray about it.
On Wednesday we went to Taipivai as usual. It was a little bit more successful this week, we found a couple potential investigators, Fr. Ah Scha came with us on his bike, and ended up staying with us the whole day which was pretty cool. Some JW's came up to us and tried to bible bash us, and we destroyed them haha pretty funny. Fr Ah Scha was getting so worked up it was kinda funny hahaha. We also started up the english classes again, and we had a pretty good turnout.
Our most potential investigator right now is probably Marie. We had a couple of lessons with her this week, and she started to read the book of Mormon, and is like marking in it and everything. We are hoping to set her baptismal date soon, she just is really hesitant to get married, because it's her 3rd husband.
Saturday and Sunday we had our branch conference. Our district president flew in Friday, and we had a bunch of meetings with him throughout the weekend. On Saturday we had a branch activity all morning, where the Tama's taught us how to make these bag things that are supposedly way big in Tahiti. Saturday night we were in charge of a fireside, which went super well. We had a bunch hot people there, and we watched a few little videos and talked and testified about them, on the theme of the restoration.
Well that's about it for this week, finger's crossed that we'll be able to email next week. Je vous time!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: The first one is me braiding some dried leaf thing that took forever during our activity on Saturday. The second one is an attempt to take a picture with the sunset.
On Tuesday we had a really good lesson with Ronny, the 10 year old that lives at Ua Huka. We're going to try and baptize him in the next two weeks while we're there, but it isn't fixed yet. We also had three of our investigators tell us that they want to stay Catholic, which is super frustrating. We just have to hope and pray that they'll read the book of mormon and pray about it.
On Wednesday we went to Taipivai as usual. It was a little bit more successful this week, we found a couple potential investigators, Fr. Ah Scha came with us on his bike, and ended up staying with us the whole day which was pretty cool. Some JW's came up to us and tried to bible bash us, and we destroyed them haha pretty funny. Fr Ah Scha was getting so worked up it was kinda funny hahaha. We also started up the english classes again, and we had a pretty good turnout.
Our most potential investigator right now is probably Marie. We had a couple of lessons with her this week, and she started to read the book of Mormon, and is like marking in it and everything. We are hoping to set her baptismal date soon, she just is really hesitant to get married, because it's her 3rd husband.
Saturday and Sunday we had our branch conference. Our district president flew in Friday, and we had a bunch of meetings with him throughout the weekend. On Saturday we had a branch activity all morning, where the Tama's taught us how to make these bag things that are supposedly way big in Tahiti. Saturday night we were in charge of a fireside, which went super well. We had a bunch hot people there, and we watched a few little videos and talked and testified about them, on the theme of the restoration.
Well that's about it for this week, finger's crossed that we'll be able to email next week. Je vous time!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: The first one is me braiding some dried leaf thing that took forever during our activity on Saturday. The second one is an attempt to take a picture with the sunset.
Thursday, February 16, 2017
Preaching with a broken ankle
Kaoha everybody!
Alright lets get right into this week,
On Tuesday we had 6 lessons cancelled on us, typical Marquises...but we did have a couple of really good lessons nonetheless. We talked with some Adventist, that said she would read and pray about the book of mormon. We also got to see Marie C., who is here at Nuku Hiva for a couple of weeks to help her dad who's in the hospital, which was cool. We also had a really good lesson with our neighbor Jacob, he's cruising in the Book of Mormon, he's almost to Alma already. Oh that reminds me, our mission president wants us to do a little bit longer of a trip to Ua Huka, so we're gonna be there from the 24th of Feb. to the 7th of March.
On Wednesday we spent the whole day at Taipivai, We found some potential investigators, so we are planning on going to Taipivai every Wednesday to see our investigators regularly.
On Thursday we started off the day with 3 lessons over Skype. Yvonne had a super cool experience, she fasted for her father who was in a coma and had cancer, and the like the next day he came out of the coma and didn't have cancer anymore.
Saturday we almost got killed by this huge dog...Normally it's chained up, but they forgot to chain him up on Saturday. It was like freaking out and it riled up like 4 other dogs, and there weren't any rocks on the ground for us to throw at it. It was like just about to attack us, when the owner came out of the house and nailed it with a huge rock...super lucky haha. We had a missionary activity at 15h, which was super fun and super successful, probably one of the funniest things so far on my mission. We gave a training on how to do missionary work, and how to share with people. We did a role play activity after that, which was hilarious. DMB gave probably one of the worst example's i've every seen, and everyone was dying it was so funny. We then split up into teams, and went out to find some references. I went with the T.'s, and we went and saw one of Sr. T's friends from work. It was super good, and she is extremely potential, she said she's searching for the truth, and she knows that the Catholics and Adventists aren't true.
Church yesterday was awesome, I gave a talk on how to make the sacrament more meaningful. I was pretty nervous, but it went pretty we'll, I ended up speaking for like 20 minutes. And then our lesson in Sunday school was super funny, everyone was loving it, our investigators included.
Well that's pretty much everything that I can think of this week, have a good week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's, picking Mango's with the neighbors
Alright lets get right into this week,
On Tuesday we had 6 lessons cancelled on us, typical Marquises...but we did have a couple of really good lessons nonetheless. We talked with some Adventist, that said she would read and pray about the book of mormon. We also got to see Marie C., who is here at Nuku Hiva for a couple of weeks to help her dad who's in the hospital, which was cool. We also had a really good lesson with our neighbor Jacob, he's cruising in the Book of Mormon, he's almost to Alma already. Oh that reminds me, our mission president wants us to do a little bit longer of a trip to Ua Huka, so we're gonna be there from the 24th of Feb. to the 7th of March.
On Wednesday we spent the whole day at Taipivai, We found some potential investigators, so we are planning on going to Taipivai every Wednesday to see our investigators regularly.
On Thursday we started off the day with 3 lessons over Skype. Yvonne had a super cool experience, she fasted for her father who was in a coma and had cancer, and the like the next day he came out of the coma and didn't have cancer anymore.
Saturday we almost got killed by this huge dog...Normally it's chained up, but they forgot to chain him up on Saturday. It was like freaking out and it riled up like 4 other dogs, and there weren't any rocks on the ground for us to throw at it. It was like just about to attack us, when the owner came out of the house and nailed it with a huge rock...super lucky haha. We had a missionary activity at 15h, which was super fun and super successful, probably one of the funniest things so far on my mission. We gave a training on how to do missionary work, and how to share with people. We did a role play activity after that, which was hilarious. DMB gave probably one of the worst example's i've every seen, and everyone was dying it was so funny. We then split up into teams, and went out to find some references. I went with the T.'s, and we went and saw one of Sr. T's friends from work. It was super good, and she is extremely potential, she said she's searching for the truth, and she knows that the Catholics and Adventists aren't true.
Church yesterday was awesome, I gave a talk on how to make the sacrament more meaningful. I was pretty nervous, but it went pretty we'll, I ended up speaking for like 20 minutes. And then our lesson in Sunday school was super funny, everyone was loving it, our investigators included.
Well that's pretty much everything that I can think of this week, have a good week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's, picking Mango's with the neighbors
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
Kaoha tatou!
We had a pretty good week this week. We found some really potential investigators, and a couple of our investigators are progressing pretty quickly towards their baptism.
So before I give the run down of this week we had something pretty funny that happened. The other day I was getting ready for the day and when I came out of the bathroom to my surprise there was a chicken in our room. It was going crazy, and we both tried to get it to go out the door, but it simple refused, running all over the place. So I grabbed my casse-tete, and nailed the chicken against the wall...which seemed to do the trick, it got the idea we didn't wanna have chickens as pets, and flew outside.
We started doing lessons with Ronny, the son of Marie Chantal. He's 10 years old an is way smart, and we're planning on baptizing him our next trip to Ua Huka, we're gonna try to fix his baptism this week.
On Monday we did a neighborhood family night at DMB's house. I'm pretty sure that all of the Adventists on the island were there haha...we watched Meet the Mormons, and there were a bunch of people;e that were super touched, and the DMB was so happy haha he was like giddy...I love the DMB. And then of course there was the crazy Adventist mami that had to bash on the film afterwards...But what can you do.
We had a super cool experience the other day too. We felt prompted to go up and see this family that we know. We went up there, and turns out it was his birthday. The conversation was pretty normal at first, and then he started asking some questions he had about our church. We taught him the story of Joseph Smith, and he was super touched. He's had a lot of cool stories in his life, and it's clear that the Lord has been preparing him for our message.
Thursday morning we headed out with our neighbor Jacob, and picked a bunch of mangoes, as well as cracked coconuts. He taught me how to do it, which was way tough at first but I got the hang of it eventually. Fresh coconuts are SO GOOD I love them. And now we have a fridge full heck yah.
And then yesterday we headed out with DMB, his wife, and Sr. Ellis for Aakapa right after sacrament meeting. It was super fun, and super successful as well. We saw all three families in Aakapa that are members, even tho two of the families said they wouldn't be there.
That's pretty much the run down for this week. I love you all, I know that the church is true! And I know that if we keep doing everything that we are asked to do; keep the commandments, read our scriptures, say our prayers, and go to church, we will be prepared by the Lord to fulfill our role in this life and in the life to come. I know that the Lord will never allow us to have trials that are too much for us, and that in doing our best to follow his gospel, we will find peace in our lives and He will always be there to help us.
I love you all, until next week!
Elder McQuiston
Pictures: me with Aakapa in the background, me with my tiki bros, Us with Hatiheu in the background, me mid backflip cliff diving
So before I give the run down of this week we had something pretty funny that happened. The other day I was getting ready for the day and when I came out of the bathroom to my surprise there was a chicken in our room. It was going crazy, and we both tried to get it to go out the door, but it simple refused, running all over the place. So I grabbed my casse-tete, and nailed the chicken against the wall...which seemed to do the trick, it got the idea we didn't wanna have chickens as pets, and flew outside.
We started doing lessons with Ronny, the son of Marie Chantal. He's 10 years old an is way smart, and we're planning on baptizing him our next trip to Ua Huka, we're gonna try to fix his baptism this week.
On Monday we did a neighborhood family night at DMB's house. I'm pretty sure that all of the Adventists on the island were there haha...we watched Meet the Mormons, and there were a bunch of people;e that were super touched, and the DMB was so happy haha he was like giddy...I love the DMB. And then of course there was the crazy Adventist mami that had to bash on the film afterwards...But what can you do.
We had a super cool experience the other day too. We felt prompted to go up and see this family that we know. We went up there, and turns out it was his birthday. The conversation was pretty normal at first, and then he started asking some questions he had about our church. We taught him the story of Joseph Smith, and he was super touched. He's had a lot of cool stories in his life, and it's clear that the Lord has been preparing him for our message.
Thursday morning we headed out with our neighbor Jacob, and picked a bunch of mangoes, as well as cracked coconuts. He taught me how to do it, which was way tough at first but I got the hang of it eventually. Fresh coconuts are SO GOOD I love them. And now we have a fridge full heck yah.
And then yesterday we headed out with DMB, his wife, and Sr. Ellis for Aakapa right after sacrament meeting. It was super fun, and super successful as well. We saw all three families in Aakapa that are members, even tho two of the families said they wouldn't be there.
That's pretty much the run down for this week. I love you all, I know that the church is true! And I know that if we keep doing everything that we are asked to do; keep the commandments, read our scriptures, say our prayers, and go to church, we will be prepared by the Lord to fulfill our role in this life and in the life to come. I know that the Lord will never allow us to have trials that are too much for us, and that in doing our best to follow his gospel, we will find peace in our lives and He will always be there to help us.
I love you all, until next week!
Elder McQuiston
Pictures: me with Aakapa in the background, me with my tiki bros, Us with Hatiheu in the background, me mid backflip cliff diving
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
Ups and Downs
Kasha everyone! We kinda had a more difficult week this week...Some sad choices that some of our investigators made :/ But at the end of the day they all have agency, and they can chose what they want to do. But we also saw some miracles and had some blessings this week as well, which was cool to see.
On Tuesday it as pouring rain like all day, so we were all decked out in rain gear. We had some lessons cancelled on us Tuesday morning, so we did a little bit of contacting. We found this crazy Jehovah's witness, and he started going crazy drawing this big diagram on the ground about the amount of Muslims in the world... I have no idea where he was trying to go with that haha. And then after that we had a lesson with Steven, who was like an hour late. And he cancelled his baptismal date, he said he wants to make the most out of his youth. Kinda sad, but we're not given up on him.
On Wednesday we had the worldwide missionary broadcast...which was supposed to take 2 hours, but because of the connection it ended up taking 5 haha. But it was a super good broadcast, and they made some pretty big changes, both to our schedule and they took away a lot of key indicators, which is huge.
On Thursday we went on a split with DMB and Sr. Ellis, and had a lesson with their sister. it was a super good lesson, and she's really potential, which is awesome. Her name is Anne-Marie, and she's looking for a change in her life. We also had a super good lesson with Julie on Thursday. We felt prompted to read a chapter, and it turned out to be the answer to her prayer, the last verse of 2 Nephi 31. She realized that our church is the only way to eternal life, and left everything behind with the Catholic church. Now the only thing that she needs is to convince her boyfriend to let them get married.
On Friday we had a lesson with a potential investigator, who turned out to not really be interested. We had our district meeting after that, then went to eat lunch at an investigators house. We had this weird curry stuff, but instead of meant the made this flour glutton stuff that was super nasty haha. And for diner we ate with Celestine, who was going like crazy...dropping so many swear words and calling her daughter a prostitute and stuff...the spirit wasn't there at all, and it was super uncomfy.
Saturday we also had a good day. We had a really good lesson with Cynthia, a 20 year investigator. She finally told us what has been blocking her for these 20 years. And we committed her to fix it, and the spirit was super strong.
Yesterday Beatrice didn't come to church sadly, so we headed up to her house. She was super drunk, and was trying to like hug us and stuff...so we just got outta there. Super sad, she's one of our most potential investigators at Nuku Hiva, but she keeps doing stuff like that that let's the devil hold her back.
That's pretty much everything for this week....Oh and I got my inhaler this morning, so we're all good thanks dad. Have a good week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
On Tuesday it as pouring rain like all day, so we were all decked out in rain gear. We had some lessons cancelled on us Tuesday morning, so we did a little bit of contacting. We found this crazy Jehovah's witness, and he started going crazy drawing this big diagram on the ground about the amount of Muslims in the world... I have no idea where he was trying to go with that haha. And then after that we had a lesson with Steven, who was like an hour late. And he cancelled his baptismal date, he said he wants to make the most out of his youth. Kinda sad, but we're not given up on him.
On Wednesday we had the worldwide missionary broadcast...which was supposed to take 2 hours, but because of the connection it ended up taking 5 haha. But it was a super good broadcast, and they made some pretty big changes, both to our schedule and they took away a lot of key indicators, which is huge.
On Thursday we went on a split with DMB and Sr. Ellis, and had a lesson with their sister. it was a super good lesson, and she's really potential, which is awesome. Her name is Anne-Marie, and she's looking for a change in her life. We also had a super good lesson with Julie on Thursday. We felt prompted to read a chapter, and it turned out to be the answer to her prayer, the last verse of 2 Nephi 31. She realized that our church is the only way to eternal life, and left everything behind with the Catholic church. Now the only thing that she needs is to convince her boyfriend to let them get married.
On Friday we had a lesson with a potential investigator, who turned out to not really be interested. We had our district meeting after that, then went to eat lunch at an investigators house. We had this weird curry stuff, but instead of meant the made this flour glutton stuff that was super nasty haha. And for diner we ate with Celestine, who was going like crazy...dropping so many swear words and calling her daughter a prostitute and stuff...the spirit wasn't there at all, and it was super uncomfy.
Saturday we also had a good day. We had a really good lesson with Cynthia, a 20 year investigator. She finally told us what has been blocking her for these 20 years. And we committed her to fix it, and the spirit was super strong.
Yesterday Beatrice didn't come to church sadly, so we headed up to her house. She was super drunk, and was trying to like hug us and stuff...so we just got outta there. Super sad, she's one of our most potential investigators at Nuku Hiva, but she keeps doing stuff like that that let's the devil hold her back.
That's pretty much everything for this week....Oh and I got my inhaler this morning, so we're all good thanks dad. Have a good week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
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