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
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
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
Kaoha les gars! Sooo yep companion number two! His name is Elder Boyd, he went to Lone Peak High school, lived in Alpine, and have been on mission for 17 months. He plays baseball and likes downhill mountain biking. He's served at Bora Bora and as a ZL at Arue at Tahiti. He's a super good missionary and has a way good Tahitian accent and speaks French really well...There's a lot I'll be able to learn from him.
Tuesday morning we headed up early with President Chu to the airport. Elder Boyd and Elder Ugbah arrived at like 1030 (Elder Ugbah got transferred to Hiva Oa), and then Elder Isabell got on the plane with Elder Ugbah and they left like 30 minutes later.
Elder Boyd definitely has a different style of doing things. We're super super busy all the time, which is great. But gosh dang it he makes me run every morning...I hate running so much hahaha. But I do feel way good after...and that'll help me from getting too fat haha.
I don't have a ton of stories or new this week...we are just teaching tons of lessons, and seeing a lot of progression. But we were asked by president to find out how to explode the Marquises, so we're doing our best to find out the best way to do that.
Thanks for all the prayers and support!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: Us with Kaha and Lisette before elder Isabell left...and then pics with Elder Boyd
Well this week we got the news that Elder Isabell is being transferred to Faaa, he's gong to be the new zone leader there. This week was an enormous transfer, they balanced out the elders and sisters in all of the zones, which means that like a third of the areas were whitewashed. And at least half of the zone leaders were transferred as well. My new companion is Elder Boyd, he was the zone leader of Arue at Tahiti. He started his mission at the same time as Elder Isabell, and is from Highland Utah I believe. The transfer is tomorrow, so early tomorrow morning we'll head over to the airport, to send off Elder Isabell and pick up Elder Boyd. It'll be super weird changing things up around here, but I'm excited for the things that I'll learn from my new companion.
This week was a little bit slow because Elder Isabell was still sick the beginning of the week, and the last couple days we went and said bye to everyone and took pictures with them, but we had a decent week despite all that.
Wednesday: We did a lot of planning, and tried to fix some lessons for the next few days. We also had a lesson with Karen, which was super annoying... She straight up said she knows the story of Joseph Smith and the book of Mormon are true, but she says our church is "just another church"...
Thursday: Nothing really noteworthy...besides a little lesson we learned hahaha. So we were a the chapel, which as you're leaving there's a little corner and then a little hill. We were a little late for our dinner appointment, and we were getting ready to leave. I was putting on my helmet, meanwhile Elder Isabell was already ready. He said, "we're late we gotta go!" And head doff before I was ready. I hopped on my bike and headed after him, and when I rounded the corner he was laying on the ground...hahaha pretty funny i rode up and asked him if he was tired or something...luckily he didn't get hurt or anything. But lesson learned, don't leave before your companion haha.
Friday: We fixed Melodie's baptismal date...She's also at Ua Huka, and so we will just baptize her whenever we finally plan the trip for, as well as all of our other investigators who have their baptisms fixed at Ua Huka. As of right now, there are five over there. I'm a little scared that the trip won't be until after I get transferred...But I guess what happens happens, and at least they'll be baptized anyways, which is what is important.
Saturday and Sunday were our goodbye days, we went around and saw all of our friends here at Nuku Hiva. We had 40 people at church on Sunday, which was awesome, especially because they were almost all members. The branch is really starting to pick up, a lot of people have become worthy enough to get callings, and we have a lot of inactive members that are coming to church every week now. But there is definitely still more work to be done.
That's if for this week! Thanks for all your prayers! I love you all, et simon, until next week.
Elder McQuiston
Pics: The family Butcher, us with the boys, the family Ah Scha and the family Ellis
Bonjour la famille! Sorry I'm a day late, but we got permission to move our day back a day because we didn't get back from Ua Huka until this morning.
So first things first, my neck got absolutely destroyed when we went fishing last week, and it erupted the next day into blisters, which was way painful. I got permission from Sr. Bize to leave my top button undone for a few days, because if not I'm pretty sure I woulda lost all the skin on my neck. We had to go on a hunt for some special lotion that is supposed to help it on Wednesday, and finally found it at some little pharmacy. Not super fun...so message of the story is, wear your sunscreen when going fishing haha.
Side not on Tuesday we also had a lesson with a JW, and he kept ranting off about stuff during the whole lesson...so we ended up just having to kind of throw the lesson and bear our testimonies and leave. And then during the middle of Elder Isabell's testimony the JW cut him off and starting going off about Atlantis, so we just said screw it and got out of there haha. I wonder where that comes from.
Thursday morning we set out super early for Ua Huka. The boat left at 5:30 in the morning, because supposedly the ocean is calmer in the morning. Au contraire. The ocean was crazy and the waves were huge and we were in this tiny fishing boat...it was so dope. The boat ride was about 2 and a half hours, we got there around 8ish.
It turns out that there was a ton of opposition at Ua Huka. The Catholic priest got way scared because of the baptism that we did the last trip, and dedicated a mass to bashing our church. He told the people a ton of lies, for example that we pay people to get baptized and stuff like that, to try and scare people away from talking to us. All of the active Catholic's believed hi, and tried their best to make it difficult on us. All the inactive Catholics were curious why they did that, and basically flocked to us, we were like celebrities there, everyone talked to us and we did a ton of lessons, and even fixed a few more baptisms, which was incredible. Those people literally know nothing other than the Catholic religion, which is super corrupt over there. We tried to talk to one of the deacons, but he wouldn't talk with us because he was too scared that he "couldn't answer our questions, because he doesn't know the bible well enough".
Church went super well as well. We had almost 40 people there, on an island with only 4 members. We had our district leader there with us, as well as one of the branch presidency members, and they were in charge of the meeting luckily haha. They gave callings to all of the sisters, and did some baby blessings as well. We did a fast and testimony meeting, and the spirit was super strong, the people were really touched.
Well there's a lot more that happened this week, but frankly I'm done writing so I'll just leave it that. Until next week
Elder McQuiston
Pic's of the baptism in Ua Huka and the boat ride over.
Bonjour tout le monde,
Sorry I'm so late today, we went fishing this morning and it took pretty much the whole day. It was super fun and we caught a ton of fish, even though they were all tiny. Which was probably cuz we were fishing with a bamboo stick and a string just as long.
So first of all my new mission president got called, and this is the information President Bize sent us about him: To avoid the rumors of Radio Cocotree and for your information, the new mission president who will come in July has been called. They are Steven R. Fox and his wife Debra L. Fox. They live in Provo, Utah. Steve R. Fox teaches at BYU and has been Director of the Entrepreneurship and Technology program for two years. Previously, he spent 18 years with Microsoft in Seattle. President Fox served a full-time mission in the French mission of Paris from 1979 to 1981. He has a license from BYU and an MBA from Harvard. They have 5 adult children.
And just so you all know we're headed out on Thursday for Ua Huka on boat. We have had a ton of struggles planning this trip, but we're hoping that everything is good and we'll make it there and back haha.
Funny story of the week...so last week I told you a little bit about Teahi, the 11 year old member that is super cool, one of my amis here. He's a little out of shape as I think I mentioned. On our way back from the hike we were on bike, and just as we got to the top of this hill we look back and to our surprise Teahi was still at the bottom, walking his bike up. We rode back down and when we got down to him, he told us, panting, "when I am a missionary, it's by foot for me." Hahaha guess we worked him a little bit.
We had some trials this week. The first one I kinda mentioned, planning for our trip. It's been super rough, we've had multiple 15 minute phone calls and having to go visit people making sure everything will go well, and people lying to us blatantly...Super unnecessary and frustrating that we have to do all that. We also had a problem with skype, we had to cancel all of our lessons over skype Tuesday and Wednesday because a member of the branch presidency said he had important branch business to do. come to find out we forgot something at the church, and when we showed up he was playing video games on the computer...
Also this is kind of a trial but morso just funny. One of us locked the bathroom door, but never shut it. And then later in the day, the wind blew it closed, locking it. We tried carding/breaking into our bathroom unsuccessfully for like half an hour, and man I needed to go. We ended up having to call our land owner to come bring us the keys and let me out of my misery haha.
On the brighter side, we fixed a baptismal date of an investigator names Steven this week, for the 18th of Fevrier. He's super cool, is 19, and wants to be baptized before he heads out to join the army.
We also had a branch party this week, for kind of a Christmas/New Years mix. It went super good, we ended up having more investigators there than members. We played a lot of games, and ate super well like always.
Well I think that about sums up this week...Hopefully I get the chance to email next week, it might end up being Tuesday instead, we'll see. Love you all!
Elder McQuiston
Pic: There's some of the branch party, some of fishing and also a pic of my way hot keen tanned feet
