Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb

Hey fam!

This week kind of cruised by, it went by super fast and I don't even really know what to write about.  I couldn't even think of a funny story to throw in, what a failure.  So if you decided to read this just for something funny you might as well give up now.

This week we cranked out our Tuesday and Wednesday,  we had a really full schedule and came out exhausted.  We were able to find a couple new investigators and made some big progress with a couple of our investigators.  T. is doing so well...someone who literally came from level 0, deep in heavy drugs.  But now he is becoming more and more normal, and just last night we helped him write an essay question/response about why we have a Savior, and about how he can benefit from the atonement.  Man he is super intelligent, easily the most intelligent person that I have ever taught on my mission.  It's a good thing that I have Elder Tomasini as my companion, because he is really intelligent as well, and I have never seen him get stumped by a question.

Thursday was our leadership council.  Leadership council is the best, we always have a great time and always come out on turbo ready to work haha.  It was kind of sad, Elder Omorodion bore his last testimony, I'm gonna miss him. 

Friday we had our splits with the assistants.  I went with Elder Ugbah in the assistant's area.  They are in Papeete, in an extremely poor area.  It was fun to spend the day with Elder Ugbah, and I was able to learn a few things.  Man, the assistants are crazy busy and they have so much to worry about.

I am super excited for conference this week!  I love conference so much, and I am going to prepare a few questions.  We should have a bunch of investigators there as well, and I hope that they will be touched.  Several of my converts decided to be baptized because of general conference, those men are inspired and called by God, I know that it's true.  And I know that if we listen to them and do our best to apply their counsel, we will be blessed.

I love you all!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:

1-some money sashimi that we had, sooo good

2-Had to take a family with the couple too, not to be rude but kinda failed whoops

3-A pic from leadership council

4-Our investigator named T. such a funny guy

5-Live pic of my companion who looks like he's sick of waiting

The car's gonna start smoking

Good evening everyone!

Man this week was one crazy week...it's  nice to be pday and have some time to relax a little bit, because this week we hit the grind.  But I'm starting to get my feet under me and get used to the area. Before talking about anything else this week I better talk about the car.  I can't remember if I mentioned last week but our car here is a manual, and I'm driving!  And let me tell you, it is super hard to learn how to drive stick in a busy city, with a mountain smack dab in the middle.  I can't even count how many times I stalled this baby, but luckily I have avoided any damage or death so far.  I'm a little worried about the car making it out alive, but as we say here, "Haere mua"  (move forward)

My new area here in Arue is fairly small, and like I said is in the city.  The ward seems really strong, which is definitely a nice relief from some of the wards that I have served in recently.  We are in a fairly rich area, I've seen more French people here than my whole mission combined.  We have a decent amount of investigators, and several of them are fairly potential. We are teaching a family that is kind of famous here in our mission, a couple named L. and T.  T. is half French, and is super funny, and really unique.  He was deep into cocaine and ice when the missionaries found him 8ish months ago.  He has been fighting hard to get off of his addiction, and has gone 2 months without consuming.  We teach them every evening, and I already love them.

I really appreciate my new companion as well, Elder Tomasini.  Like I said he is really old, the oldest missionary in the mission (27).  He is really mature, and a very very talented teacher.  He is really smart as well, and already has his college degree.  He is from France, but did his studies in England and speaks really good English.  We get along great, and I know that I am going to learn a ton from him. 

This last Monday for our pday activity we did some carving with our DMP for my last pday at Raiatea.  I'm gonna miss him, we had some great times together.  On Tuesday I went and said last goodbyes to everyone... That's always the hardest day.  On Wednesday we took the plane back to Tahiti and had a layover in Bora Bora.  That'll be the tenth island that I have been to on my mission!

It's a lot different being back here at Tahiti...i've already seen a bunch of my mission buddies, and there are sooo many more people.  I'm not going to tell you how I know, but the water is definitely more drinkable here.  The work is a lot better here as well, members give good referrals and there are a lot more people to teach.  I am excited to work here!

I love you all!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:

1-my branch president is on the left, and my dmp on the right
2-The Charles family
3-Vehiarii
4-Hanivai and her family
5-My two sons
6-Bora 

I'm going on a trip, in my favorite rocket ship

Hey fam!

What an awesome week this week!  Hanivai got baptized on Saturday!! That was a super cool experience, as with most baptisms.  We found Hanivai a couple months ago, in an inactive part member family.  When I first met Hanivai, she didn't know who God was, or anything about his teachings.  The family has come to church every week now for the past couple of months, and then this Saturday, Hanivai entered into the covenant to serve God and keep his commandments for the rest of her life.  I am so grateful and lucky to be a missionary and be a part of this incredible work!

We got transfer calls this week, and I am going to be leaving the islands, after 7 months.  I am transferred back to Tahiti, the area of Taharaa in the Arue zone.  I will be serving as a zone leader again with Elder Tomasini.  Elder Tomasini is from France, and is 2 transfers younger than me in the mission, but is 6 or 7 years older than me in real life.  He's the oldest missionary in the mission.  My companion is staying here to finish his mission, with Elder Raveneau from France, my replacement.  I'll be taking the airplane Wednesday to Tahiti.

I have loved serving here at Raiatea, it is so beautiful here and I love the islands.  I love this zone as well, and I have made so many unforgettable memories here...and although the members here were a lot tougher than the other wards I have served in, I have grown to love them so much and I'm gonna miss it here.  But I am excited for this new area, which possible is my last one, with 3 transfers left.  I have promised God that I am going to give these last few transfers everything I've got, I'm going to let down at all.  I'm not about that walking through the finish line life.

Last Monday we had an interesting experience at our family night.  We were invited to a family night at an investigators house.  Well, when we pulled up, we were surprised to see about fifty people seated in chairs waiting for us.  Wow! We definitely weren't ready for that, but we prayed for some help.  We taught the plan of salvation, and we were able to find some new investigators, I'd say it was a success!

We had the opportunity this week to go the Huahine, the third island that is in our zone.  Our stake president asked us to give training about missionary work for the members over there.  So Friday we took the plane and did 2 different trainings, one for the ward missionaries and ward mission leaders and the other for the ward councils from 3:30 until 7:00.  It went pretty well, we got a lot of participation and I really hope that the members will get more involved in missionary work at Huahine.  We were able to do a little sightseeing with the first counselor in the stake presidency before he dropped us off at the airport Saturday morning and man Huahine is beautiful!

I love you all, have a great pday!  ;)

Pics:  

1- Me with a huge sack of rambutans, a way good fruit here
2- Me with our new ward mission leader Manu
3-Classic Tahiti food, raw fish on the left, then fafaru, miti hue, some lagoon fish in a pot, taro and sweet potatoes
4-The family Tsiong Tsing
5-Our stake president and his wife
6-The Tehuiotoa family, our stake second counselor
7, 8 & 9-Pictures of some landscape
10 & 11-From the Huahine airport
12-the mountain a Huahine called Fiti, the mountain that Moana is based off of
13, 14 & 15 are pics from a dope lookout at Huahine, and my failed hang loose
16 & 17-Some pics from Hanivai's baptism

Still can't find a new pen

Sorry for the short letter last week!  Hopefully I can make up for it this week, fill in a few gaps.  All in all, there isn't a whole lot to say, but I'll give some updates on our investigators.

Ok, to start off, last week I was able to go on a split with Elder Kerr, my son, because his companion is the district leader at Tahaa.  It was nice to be with an American again, and nice to catch up with him.  We had a pretty good day together, everyone actually understood his French!  I'm so proud of my son! :)

We had a pretty cool experience last Sunday.  We were supposed to give the sacrament talks at Vaiaau, but when we went out to start the ar that morning, the battery was dead.  We went out searching for someone that had jumper cables, but we were out of luck.  We had about five minutes left before it would be too late to drive to Vaiaau.  So I decided to say a prayer and give it one last try.  I got back in the car, and turned the key and...yah, no luck.  Still didn't work.  So I decided my faith must be too small and pulled out the phone to call the branch president.  But just as I was dialing a car pulled up next to ours and asked us if we needed jumper cables.  We were able to get to church on time.  I know that the Lord answers our prayers and that we can always put our trust in him and he will never let us down.

We had our carnival activity as I mentioned, which was awesome, a big success.  We had to spend most of Friday preparing for it with the young men.  We cut the bamboo and stuff.  We had 20ish investigators that came!  We did an open house right before the carnival and hopefully, that got them interested in the church.

An update on some of our potential investigators, first off there's Hanvai.  Hanivai is 12 years old and we've been teaching her for a couple of months.  Last Sunday, she finally accepted the invitation to get baptized.  We did the program and the interview this past week and she is going to be getting baptized this Saturday.

Terii and Bettina are planning on getting married and baptized next month.  They left for Bora for a month to work, and just got home yesterday, so we'll pick the lessons back up tomorrow.

We got some super sad news from the S. family last night.  They had seen some bad examples and offensive comments from members and decided that they don't want to join our church and asked to stop the lessons.  That really bummed me out, I love that family.  But I trust the Lord, and I know that he wanted us to be there and that he has a plan for them.  And I know that there will come another time for them.  but man that's gotta be one of the hardest things on a mission.

I love you all, have a great week!!

Elder McQuiston

pics:
1.  a pic of my son with the famous apetahi plant
2.  my son and I decided to take the lead but got lost
3.  Chillin on the edge of a cliff
4.  DMP Rudy with my whale...always been drawn to those
5.  the S. couple
6.  Me hittin the bamboo