la ora na tatou!
This week was pretty similar to last week, the work is still pretty slow. We spent a lot of time this week preparing for a fireside that we are in charge of next week, in hopes that we will be able to find some new investigators. I have a feeling that this area is going to be tough, which is good, that'll build character.
We did find someone super potential this week. His name is Paul, a 9 year old boy. He is the son of an active mother and an inactive father. He comes to church every week, but wasn't well taught at home, and was not baptized. He is super cool and a great kid.
Side note: I have played the piano SO MUCH on my mission, you wree defintely right mom, I should of practiced more. Just wanted to shoot my pride real quick.
Back to the weekly rapport...oh yah pday last week was so sweet, one of my favorite pdays so far. All the missionaries from Tahaa and Raiatea all came over, and we went out to one of the motu's. On teh motu we had a barbecue and cooked burgers, with chips and soda. The problem was that the barbecue was pretty ghetto and we had to find wood and start a fire on a tiny island of about a 20 yard radius. And on top of that it started raining. Well, this is where my eagle scout skills were supposed to come in...let's just say it was a good thing there were like 8 eagle scouts there because it took a maxium effort out of all of us, half on the assembly line with the burgers and the other half stoking the fire. AFter a couple hours of hard work we finally got our burgers haha. After that we played some volleyball and dodgeball, super fun.
Hmm what else... oh yah funny story, the other day we came by the church and the youth were all playing basketball, so we decided to join them. Our basketball court here is asphault, and one play Elder Omorodion went up for the ball and jumped a little too high, adn came down on his back. He wreked his white shirt, and we had to go home and change. I couldn't give hin any grief though because his team ended up with the win haha.
On a last note we had stake conference this week. It was a pretty good conference, and my favorite talk was given by the stake president on keeping the sabbath day holy. There are a lot of members that choose not to keep this commandment, and/or other commandments that seem small. It is really sad to me, becluase all commandments are for our good, and all are necessary for our eternal progression, as well as to be happy in this life, to have peace of conscience, and have success. I hope you all keep these commandments that might seem small, because I know they make the difference between joy and unhappiness.
I love you all! A faaitoito teie hepetoma!
Elder McQuiston
Pics from our trip to the Motu
la ora na tout le monde!
This week was a little bit rough, at the moment we don't have very many investigators. I have noticed here that the people are really cold against our church and against the members. This week we were very coldly received, and even chased and yelled at. That is not typical at all of Tahitians, I don't really know why but for some reason people here don't like us. Things are moving very slowly as well in the ward, we have a lot of things to put into place, and a lot of work to do. We were able to fix some activities and a fireside with the bishop and DMP, hopefully we'll be able to get things going. In the branch we have a super cool DMP named Rudy, from the Marquises. He is super chill and funny, and is a sculptor for a living. He goes on splits with us, and is involved in the work, which makes a huge difference.
On another note I have some stories from this week. Early this week we went to go and see an inactive family, and a couple of the boys were outside playing their guitars. We jammed a little bit with them, and messed around a little bit trying to freestyle rap, mixing in some reggae shout-outs, and then shared a little message with them. And hey it worked, they came to church yesterday.
We also did a lesson this week with some recent converts that are struggling a little bit. When we went over there the mom started talking to us, and turns out she has been planting and smoking weed...and last Sunday she went and confessed, and then came home and got rid of all the weed. Ever since she has been super on edge, and has been giving her kids a hard time, which is super sad because they are so little and so cute. She is crazy...I was so scared during that whole lesson. It's super sad the effects that that stuff can have on people.
A little more on the spiritual side, me and my companion decided that we needed to help investigators apply the scripture to themselves and really read to understand. In almost all of our lessons this week, we read a chapter of the Book of Mormon, and stopped every couple of verses, and helped the investigators really apply them. It completely changed the way that our investigators look at the Bood of Mormon, and the way that I do as well. If we apply the scriptures to ourselves we learn so much more, and we can feel the spirit much easier.
One last thing is that we had the chance yesterday to watch the face to face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard for the YSA. It was so good, I learned so many things, and found the answers to so many of my questions. There was a great message about finding the balance between using our agency and receiving inspiration, and how that is so important after the mission. There are too many RM's that don't use their agency well after the mission.
I love you all, have a good week!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1- a marae we went to last week (sacrificial grounds)
2- our guitar bros
3- A pic of where we do our coordination meetings
4-a pic of me with DMP
la ora na!
This week was transfer week, and my first week here in Raiatea. On Tuesday I took the early morning boat over there to Raiatea, and my companion came to pick me up in Kelly. Kelly is so nice, the nicest car in the mission, super lucky. But let me tell you, when they handed me the keys in the middle of the city after 16 months of not driving a car, I was pretty scared. Luckily it is the only automatic car in the mission as well, but I still took some adjusting to get back my driving skills. Luckily there were no accidents, and me and my companion are still alive haha.
Like I said last week my new companion is Elder Omorodion, and this is the second time that we have served together. It's nice to be with him again, because we already know each other's teaching styles and stuff, and there's no really adjusting to do. The sector here is super sweet, it's super pretty here at Raiatea, probably just under Tahaa. Our sector is huge, but that's no problem in a car. Missionary work in the car is the best, sooo much better than on a bike. I am way worried about getting fat though now with no more exercise during the day...we'll hope and pray for the best.
On Wednesday we took the plane to Tahiti, for a leadership council that we had on Thursday. It was super great to go back to Tahiti for a couple of days and see some of my bros from the MTC and from past areas. The leadership council was awesome as well, I learned some great stuff, and it was really uplifting.
The work here at the moment is pretty slow, there isn't a lot of investigators that the missionaries here were teaching, and the relationship with the ward and the branch was terrible. There is a lot of work to be done here, hopefully we can get the work going. It is a little bit tough because we have a ton of stuff that we have to do for the zone, like go pick up things from the airport and the boat, go help the sisters change their propane, do baptismal interviews all over, fly to Tahiti, etc. but we'll figure out how to make things work.
I love you all, have a great week!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1-A pic of Kelly- my new car
2-A pic inside Kelly
3-A pic inside the plane to Tahiti
4-A pic from the house we stayed at in Faaa
Dear brothers and sisters, investigators, la ora na tatou,
I had a super awesome week this week, had some way good times. As you can see I got transferred...I'm super sad about it, I love it here at Tahaa so much, I really don't want to leave. But yes I'm getting transferred to Raiatea, the island right next to the one that I'm on. This area has probably been my favorite, and I have to leave my posterity here all alone...but I guess all good things come to an end eventually, and I am excited to serve the people in my next area.
For the week...
Tuesday- I went on a split with Elder Taylor because Elder Arrington had some back pain, and we fixed a baptism for Saturday, which ended up going great. We committed the fam to come back to church. On the way home though, a bee flew in my sleeve or something and got wedged in my back. It stung my back a bunch, and I flew to a stop and made some weird noises while ripping my shirt out of my pants...for those who don't know, I HATE bees. It was kind of embarrassing though, because after my little episode I looked up and there were a bunch of people staring at me, including the old man selling taro on the side of the road....I just waved to everyone and got back on my bike hahaha, shoot!
Wednesday- there wasn't a ton of noteworthy stuff, other than going to help bishop in his Faaapu (plantation), who just got back from being in Tahiti for a month. I did my best on the weed wacker, but man that thing was a beast. It was like twice as big as any weed wacker I've seen.
Thursday was the Hawaiki Nui, which was so cool. We spent a few hours there, all 6 elders from Tahaa. While waiting for the vaas, we split up and gave away all the brochures and stuff that we had on us to all the people that were there. And then all the rammers come in, and there were sooo many boats, like more than I've ever seen in the same place at the same time. And also I'm pretty sure we made it on television haha. I'm so glad I was here to see that.
Friday was my birthday, but we didn't really do anything special, we had some lessons as usual. A member did order me a huge cake though, and after we got home for the night, we had a little cake and ice cream party while playing some Yahtzee while we waiting for transfer calls.
Saturday was the Hipu Elders baptism, and then we pretty much spend all day Saturday and Sunday saying goodbye to everybody, and that's pretty much the rundown.
I love you all! Jean Paul, you are my hero!
Elder McQuiston
Pics: The first is from the Hawaiki Nui, but this pic doesn't even do it justice.
The second is me saying goodbye to a homeless guy that I love
The third is me at the feast with all of the tourists and the members
The fourth is me and my son, sad that I'm leaving
and the last one is a pic with my fam here at Tahaa
