Hello fam!
We had a super crazy week this past week! We had a carnival, splits with the assistants, training meetings, zone conferences, and zone pday, which we do once a transfer and which was today. We did a 6 or 7 hour hike, and saw a flower that is about to go into extinction. We saw the very last plant that exists, so I guess that's kinda cool. But in consequence, I have almost no time to write today, so I'll tell you more about the week next week. I love you all, have an awesome week!!
Elder McQuiston
Wednesday, February 28, 2018
Monday, February 19, 2018
Fries til I dies
I had a great week this week, although we had a lot of things that kept us from the field. but we did everything we could, and the Lord blessed us with success!
The first big issue we had this week happened Tuesday morning. We realized in the pouring rain that water was leaking into our truck. We had to head back to the house, and tape up the car. And then we had to cancel some lessons that we had fixed and go to the city to get the car repaired. They did a...thing I don't know how to say in English and told us to come back on Wednesday. So Wednesday we took it back in and spent the majority of the day running errands with our ward clerk, delivering stuff to the other missionaries, fixing the phone, etc. Good news is that we now have a functioning phone and a waterproof car!
Man I am sick of steak and fries, we had that like 4 days this week. I miss American steak.
We also did three training meetings this week with the ward council member for the dmps and the ward missionaries. One of those was a Tahaa Saturday morning, so we left Friday afternoon on the boat for Tahaa. I was able to go and see a lot of people that I knew over there, members, converts and investigators. I was super cool. I loved that area. Saturday morning after the meeting I got to chat with Bishop and his wife while we waited for the boat, and we ate lunch with them. I love Bishop Samoa so much hahah. Man, that guy makes you laugh.
Our investigators are all doing great, we have 6 that are preparing for baptism. Two of which are W. and T. We have been having awesome lessons with them, they are both progressing great! The spirit is especially strong in every lesson we have with them, and I know that the Lord reaslly needs them to accept the gospel. The problem is that they are in a fairly weak branch, te large mafjority of the members are uneducated, umemployed, speak mostly Tahitian, and have a lot of family issues that they bring to church. W. and T. on the other hand are very well off, educated, and understand about as much Tahitian as I do. I really hope that all will work out in their integration and conversion process.
A cool story form this week happened during a lesson with V. who is doing great by the way. During the openign prayer it came to my mind to bless him sot hat he would do well on his driver's test. It wasn't until after the prayer that I found out that he would be taking his driver's test the upcoming Monday. I had no idea. I know that if we pray sincerly and seek inspiration during our prayers, the Holy Spirit will help us pray for what we need, and I know that the Lord will accord it to us.
I love you all!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1-our broken phone
2-our taped up truck
3-looking for waterfalls
4-mobbing in the truck
5-quick peek at the boat that took us to Tahaa
Monday, February 12, 2018
Happy Valentine's Day
la ora na!
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all had a great week, I sure did! On Saturday we had 2 baptisms, R. & R, a 9 and 10 year old girl in the Fareatai branch. What an awesome experience! There was a slight issue though, R. who is extremely shy, got really nervous after seeing everyone that was at the baptism, and started bawling and wouldn't get in the water. We didn't really know what to do, but I had an impression to have everyone but the family and the witnesses step out of the room. The branch president had it done, and after 5-10 minutes of waiting for her, she stopped crying and got baptized, and the spirit was so strong!
This week was full of broken things. Our cell phone broke the other day, someone broke into the chapel and stole some things, and my hard drive broke last Monday. That was kind of a bummer because I lost a lot of pictures and other things, but nothing I can do about that.
The work is going well in the area, we have some more baptisms fixed and we have found some new investigators. We were forced to do some contacting this week. We contacted one guy that just poked out his head and smiled and said, "It's good", and then went back in. We were super close to following him and sitting down, and saying, "well it's good if we share a message, right?" But decided that probably wasn't the best idea haha. We also found a guy that is pretty potential that studies the bible a ton. I totally used the story that President Nelson shared with us last conference and I quoted him like word for word. He accepted a Book of Mormon and will come to church on Sunday so that's good news.
One funny story this week, the other day there was an alarm that went off in my dream, so I woke up and said my prayers. I got out of bed and turned on the lights and opened the blinds, and noticed that it was pitch dark outside. My companion was looking at me really confused having just gotten woke up. I looked at the clock to realized it was 3am. Whoops!
I love you all! Have a nice week!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1&2- someone broke into the chapel and stole the TV and juice, but left the computer. Typical Tahitian
3-5-Pic's from the baptisms
6-Some waterfalls
Happy Valentine's Day everyone! I hope you all had a great week, I sure did! On Saturday we had 2 baptisms, R. & R, a 9 and 10 year old girl in the Fareatai branch. What an awesome experience! There was a slight issue though, R. who is extremely shy, got really nervous after seeing everyone that was at the baptism, and started bawling and wouldn't get in the water. We didn't really know what to do, but I had an impression to have everyone but the family and the witnesses step out of the room. The branch president had it done, and after 5-10 minutes of waiting for her, she stopped crying and got baptized, and the spirit was so strong!
This week was full of broken things. Our cell phone broke the other day, someone broke into the chapel and stole some things, and my hard drive broke last Monday. That was kind of a bummer because I lost a lot of pictures and other things, but nothing I can do about that.
The work is going well in the area, we have some more baptisms fixed and we have found some new investigators. We were forced to do some contacting this week. We contacted one guy that just poked out his head and smiled and said, "It's good", and then went back in. We were super close to following him and sitting down, and saying, "well it's good if we share a message, right?" But decided that probably wasn't the best idea haha. We also found a guy that is pretty potential that studies the bible a ton. I totally used the story that President Nelson shared with us last conference and I quoted him like word for word. He accepted a Book of Mormon and will come to church on Sunday so that's good news.
One funny story this week, the other day there was an alarm that went off in my dream, so I woke up and said my prayers. I got out of bed and turned on the lights and opened the blinds, and noticed that it was pitch dark outside. My companion was looking at me really confused having just gotten woke up. I looked at the clock to realized it was 3am. Whoops!
I love you all! Have a nice week!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1&2- someone broke into the chapel and stole the TV and juice, but left the computer. Typical Tahitian
3-5-Pic's from the baptisms
6-Some waterfalls
Monday, February 5, 2018
defense wins championships
la ora na utuafare ma!
We had another great week out here! Elder F. and I are putting in some good work. It is super fun serving with a Tahitian, but definitely different. They don't really understand sarcasm, but we find ways to have fun and laugh anyway. He has a super easy time connecting with the people, hopefully, I'll be able to pick up on that. It doesn't help as well that he has made a family connection with almost every single person we've talked to, he has a little unfair advantage. I was feeling a lot more confident about my Tahitian before he got here, but he has shattered that haha. We do a lot more lessons in Tahitian now, and man I get lost so easy it's like I'm back at the beginning of the mission. At least I won't get bored!
The work is going great out here, we are actually seeing some big improvements. We had an amazing week this week in terms of working with the ward leaders. We had an incredible ward council meeting on missionary work, and the ward was able to put together a ward mission plan, which is the first time I've succeeded with that on my entire mission. The branch is doing a lot better as well, we are making progress! We have a few potential new investigators that we found recently and we should have two baptisms in March if all goes well.
We were also able to do a lot of service projects for the ward leaders this week, which really helped us to build up some trust with the members. One morning we woke up and heard the weed wacker going, and we went outside to find 7 or 8 members in their 60's out cleaning up the yard of the chapel. We helped them out for a couple hours, but man those papis are in shape!
I have a couple funny stories real quick for this week before I finish. We have an investigator that is pretty far out there, and pretty difficult to teach because she doesn't want to accept anything that we teach. But we kind of have to teach her anyway because her husband is a member and her daughter is really potential and going to get baptized soon. In the lesson we had with her this week, we asked her to do the closing prayer for us. After teaching her multiple times how to pray, she once again starts off her prayer by addressing the Holy Ghost. But this time, during her prayer she started raising her voice little by little, and then all of a sudden she starts shouting and cites a verse in Psalms, and then closes her prayer. It took everything I had not to bust a smile after that haha.
The other one is that we had to go and pick up the Uturoa Elders from a lesson because we had to drop off some stuff at the boat. They gave us some directions on how to get there, but considering there aren't road names or addresses here, it can get kind of tricky. We ended up taking the wrong road, and it got a little sketchy towards the end, but there wasn't anywhere that we could go but forward. We ended up on this mountain in the small driveway of a fairly nice home, with dogs all around the car barking up a storm. We spent a few minutes trying to turn the car around, while the family I'm sure was super confused. Sorry guys!
There's the rundown for the week, I wish you all the best!
Je vous aime!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1-Boat ride ont he way to Tahaa
2-Just a nice blurry pic of a faatamaaraa
3-Took a quick stop for a pic of the view
4-the truck that takes us to church on Sunday when we go to Vaiaau
5-my new companion at a faatamaaraa
6-the Protestant church
We had another great week out here! Elder F. and I are putting in some good work. It is super fun serving with a Tahitian, but definitely different. They don't really understand sarcasm, but we find ways to have fun and laugh anyway. He has a super easy time connecting with the people, hopefully, I'll be able to pick up on that. It doesn't help as well that he has made a family connection with almost every single person we've talked to, he has a little unfair advantage. I was feeling a lot more confident about my Tahitian before he got here, but he has shattered that haha. We do a lot more lessons in Tahitian now, and man I get lost so easy it's like I'm back at the beginning of the mission. At least I won't get bored!
The work is going great out here, we are actually seeing some big improvements. We had an amazing week this week in terms of working with the ward leaders. We had an incredible ward council meeting on missionary work, and the ward was able to put together a ward mission plan, which is the first time I've succeeded with that on my entire mission. The branch is doing a lot better as well, we are making progress! We have a few potential new investigators that we found recently and we should have two baptisms in March if all goes well.
We were also able to do a lot of service projects for the ward leaders this week, which really helped us to build up some trust with the members. One morning we woke up and heard the weed wacker going, and we went outside to find 7 or 8 members in their 60's out cleaning up the yard of the chapel. We helped them out for a couple hours, but man those papis are in shape!
I have a couple funny stories real quick for this week before I finish. We have an investigator that is pretty far out there, and pretty difficult to teach because she doesn't want to accept anything that we teach. But we kind of have to teach her anyway because her husband is a member and her daughter is really potential and going to get baptized soon. In the lesson we had with her this week, we asked her to do the closing prayer for us. After teaching her multiple times how to pray, she once again starts off her prayer by addressing the Holy Ghost. But this time, during her prayer she started raising her voice little by little, and then all of a sudden she starts shouting and cites a verse in Psalms, and then closes her prayer. It took everything I had not to bust a smile after that haha.
The other one is that we had to go and pick up the Uturoa Elders from a lesson because we had to drop off some stuff at the boat. They gave us some directions on how to get there, but considering there aren't road names or addresses here, it can get kind of tricky. We ended up taking the wrong road, and it got a little sketchy towards the end, but there wasn't anywhere that we could go but forward. We ended up on this mountain in the small driveway of a fairly nice home, with dogs all around the car barking up a storm. We spent a few minutes trying to turn the car around, while the family I'm sure was super confused. Sorry guys!
There's the rundown for the week, I wish you all the best!
Je vous aime!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1-Boat ride ont he way to Tahaa
2-Just a nice blurry pic of a faatamaaraa
3-Took a quick stop for a pic of the view
4-the truck that takes us to church on Sunday when we go to Vaiaau
5-my new companion at a faatamaaraa
6-the Protestant church
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)