Bonjour tout le monde, sorry that I'm a little late today. All the missionaries at Tahiti are doing a choir tour around Tahiti next month, and so until then we're going to be practicing every morning at Papeete with all of the missionaries. It was pretty chill, I got to see my buddies that I haven't seen in forever. So for the next little while I'll probably be emailing later than usual.
Alrighty so for this week...
last Monday we din't really do a whole lot, we ended up just chilling with this semi-active member named Frank for like 3 to 4 hours, talking about life and stuff. Not the funnest day activity, but the was really touched and is cleaning up his life, which is awesome and makes it worth it for sure.
On Tuesday i went on a split with Elder Clements, one of our zone leaders. I went to their sector, which is destroyed, they have like no investigators, and their ward doesn't help them at all. We did like no lessons the whole day, they only had 1 planned. But what can you do, I'm glad I don' have to worry about their area haha. They have a car in their sector, which is complement n'importe quoi, missionary work in a car is way too easy. I'm so jealous haha
On Wednesday we saw a bunch of our investigators that are really potential. We have 4 fixed for the month of may for the moment, but we cold easily do 7 if things work out well and we work hard, that's our goal. We also have some excommunicated members that we are working with that are going to get baptized and come back to church next month most likely, which is awesome.
On Thursday my ninth month mark ended with a bang...we teach a 11 year old kid named Heiarii, whose mom is inactive, and dad is protestant. We were teaching him at his grandparents house that are all active, and his protestant grandparents showed up...they food out that he wants to be baptized o his birthday May 6th, and they blew up, yelling in his face that he will never step foot in their house again. Heiarii started crying. When things like that happen it's always super sad...so unchristlike. We're hoping we didn't lose that baptism.
On Friday we had our district meeting, and we had a choir practice with the zone after for our stake tour with the stake presidency. We had some good lessons after that, and found a really potential new investigator as well. We ate sushi and sashimi with this really cool excommunicated member namer M., which was my first time trying sushi, it's actually way good. I shoulda ate it before my mission, I was missing out.
Saturday was Cameron's baptism, which was awesome. The baptism was nice and simple, and the spirit was strong as always. He's a pretty cool kid, he really wanted to be baptized, and comes from New Caledonia, and is stagy with his grandparents who are members.
Sunday was super sweet. We did the first week of our stake tour, an so instead of going to our ward we were at the stake center at Papeari. We sang a couple songs, and the missionaries that were serving in those wards gave a talk.. We got finished in the afternoon, and then came home and did our weekly planning. We headed back to the stake center after that, for the easter fireside. It was super well done, and the spirit was super strong. We had an investigator there named M. who wasn't really potential and we were about to la fair, but she was extremely touched by the fireside, and she said she'll give us the final answer Wednesday if she's gonna get baptized or not.
Alrighty until next week,
Elder McQuiston
The first pic is of the sushi and sashimi-my favorite meal here probably, the second is from Cameron's baptism and the 3rd is a pic from our zone choir tour thing
La ora na tatou,
There wasn't too much that went on this week, it was a pretty calm week. On Monday tho we did something that was super fun....we went with the ZL ma to a beach that's in our area...and at this particular beach the ocean is super shallow, and stays way shallow for a long time. And the rule in our mission is that we can only go knee deep in the ocean, so we waded out in the ocean way far, it was pretty dope. Our recent convert Shirley also cut my hair...she did a pretty good job I'm not complaining, it was a lot better than paying 25 bucks to go tot the haircutters haha.
On Tuesday President Bize did interviews with all of the missionaries in Paea, Papeari, and Taravao. He was running super late, and we ended up waiting 2 hours for him at the chapel....and then when he finally got there we had about a 2 minute interview where he talked about baptisms. We also fixed a baptismal date with an investigator named Vaia, she's a little on thinners side, but she reads the book of mormon a ton which is awesome, and we'll do our best to get that baptism done.
On Wednesday we had a super good coordination meeting, and hopefully that'll motivate our dmp to do a little bit more work. We also met with cameron, this young boy that we are baptizing this week. We were gonna have two, but the other one we had to push back until May 6th because his dad's plane flight got changed.
Thursday was a super busy day, we didn't even have a single lesson cancelled. We had two really good lessons with excommunicated members, both of who came to church on Sunday. We also had a lesson with an investigator who looked up anti mormon stuff and tried to bible bash us and stuff...always my favorite lessons. We also ate way good sashimi for dinner, one of my favorite meals here.
On Saturday we had a big training for our bishops and DMPs at the stake center, done by the stake president. And then after it was done we went to the beach and ate some food to start off our fast for our stake. Also on Saturday by a miracle we found this investigator named noise by some miracle while we were on our way to a plan B, and fixed a lesson with him Tuesday, hopefully he shows up.
Sunday was pretty good, we had a lot of investigators at church. But really sad, one of our investigators that we just fixed a baptism with went and talked with her husband about the marriage and baptism, and he freaked out and kicked her out of the house. Super sad, she's super cool too. We're thinking we might go and try and talk with the husband with our bishop or something, we'll see what goes down.
Alright that's about it for the week, have a great week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
The first two are from when we went wading in the ocean, and the second two are of my zone at the beach.
La ora na tout le monde! I'm pretty sure like every missionary in the world put that as their subject so I had to conform hahah. we had a pretty good week this week, and I learned a lot from conference.
On Monday after we emailed we were planning on going to the beach, but it was pouring, so we had to use plan B and we went to the chapel and played ping pong and little games with the zone.
On Tuesday morning we had a service project, cutting some manioc plants at a members house. Something crazy happened, while I was cutting the plants with a machete the machete slipped on the plant and hit directly into my leg. It was super sharp, and should have sliced my leg open, it really hit my leg hard. But by miracle when I looked down at my leg, there was nothing there. I know that it was God protecting me, and I'm super lucky and grateful that I didn't have to go to the hospital. And don't worry mom and Emerie, I'll be more careful next time haha. We ended that service project with some baseball with nonis haha kinda funny, nobody had ever seen or played baseball before.
On Wednesday we had a multilane conference, with the zones of Paea and Taravao. It took pretty much the whole day, but it was really good, I learned a ton. And the trainings that President and Sr Bize and the assistants did were awesome. Except on thing kind of frustrating, some sister missionaries got caught at the church doing emails at 730 at night after being there for over 5 hours...so now President Bize cracked down not the email time, so if everyone could shorten their emails down a tad that would be much appreciated hahah.
On Thursday we had a pretty good day, we did a bunch of really good lessons with some of our baptism potential investigators, and found a couple new investigators as well. We also had a coordination meeting at the bishops house...which was not productive at all. Bishop just talked the whole time haha we might need to change things up a little and do it somewhere else. But our DMP is a super cool guy, I really like him. And then kinda funny, we got a call fro the dzs that we live with that the assistants are coming, so to hurry and clean up the house. We cleaned the house super clean, except the other elders room hahah where we messed everything up super bad hahah. And then when the assistants went in their room they were like "what in the world is going on in here" haha kinda funny we had a good laugh.
On Friday we had a lesson with an inactive member who wants to quit smoking, an she said he's going to stop next week. We offered to fast with him, and then he gave us this super guilty look and was like "uhh...well no maybe in May or June." haha, I get the feeling the "next week" might have been a little...half hearted haha.
On Saturday we had General conference which was awesome, I learned so much. I really like President Nelsons talk about standing up for whats right, as well as Elder Cordon's talk about languages and preventing the gospel from bing lost in the home. I also really liked President Uchtdorf's talk about being a good leader/follower. We had a bunch of investigators there, and a ton of our investigators are really potential, and are doing awesome. This sector is super great, we have a lot of work to do here, a lot of people that are ready for baptism.
On Sunday I really liked Elder Rasbands talk, about feeling the spirit and acting on promptings the first time, and not second guessing whether it was ourselves or the spirit. I also really like Elder Palmers talk about charity and seeing people how the Lord sees them, and that hearts won't change without love. After church we saw an investigator who's named V. Last week she was like not really potential, a new investigator that wasn't progressing. But then on Saturday out of nowhere she showed up to conference on there own, and stayed for both sessions. Well turns out she read a bunch of the Book of Mormon, and prayed an received an answer that it's true. We read Mosiah 18:8-10 with her, and she wants to get baptized. That lesson was super cool, and the spirit was super strong. I love this work, and I know that it is the work of the Lord. I love my mission so much, and I'm so happy to be able to serve and give back my time for 2 years to the Lord.
Je vous aime!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
The first is what our house looks like from the outside the second is a pic of inside our house, the third is from the conference multizone and the last one is a pic of us with a family from France
Wow lots of stuff happened this week actually. I finally went to the temple, that was super cool, its been so long since I've been. There were no temple trips at Nuku Hiva haha.
Alrighty anyways so last monday...we went and checked out the beach here in our sector. It's a super cool beach, and there are always tons of surfers there because the waves are way good. Pretty dope.
On Tuesday we woke up at 4am to go to the temple...It was super cool to finally go to the temple here. It's super pretty, and super super small. We were super tired the whole day thought as a result haha. Luckily I never fell asleep during any of the lessons and Elder Omorodion only fell asleep during 2.
On Wednesday kinda weird we had a lesson with this kid names A. that we teach, who was super tired and not at all interested during the whole lesson...and then after we taught I asked him if he wanted to be baptized, and he like yelled yes haha, he wanted to so bad and we didn't even know. so we fixed his date for the 8th of April. Then that night we went to see John Y. and G., some investigators that are getting baptized in June because they have to wait for marriage papers. But they forgot about the lesson and had some friends over.. so we ended up playing pactenque haha kinda fun...it's actually way hard tho, I got wrecked.
On Thursday we had a super busy day planned...11 lessons. During one of the lessons we rein activated the investigators in the catholic church...fail haha. And we also fixed the baptism of an 11 year old kid names H., he's a stud.
On Friday we had our district meeting, and then that night there was a huge talent show to boot of the stake conference. For the talent show this bus came and picked up all of the members. The talent show was way cool, all of the wards did a dance from a different archival. The Tahitian culture is so cool, I love it so much!
On Saturday we started off the day with our weekly planning. Then we headed over to one of the investigators house, which is where the fun began. One of her brothers was there, and he was insane. It was kinda sad, cuz I'm pretty sure the reason he was insane is cuz of drugs. He started going crazy on us and was like threatening us and then told us about how his friend died on Sunday and how he was the only witness..and then he told us he drinks and smokes an does weed and injections of who know what....and then he ripped off his shirt and got on his knees and like worshipped us and the grabbed our hands and put them on his head and told us to bless him. So we did our best to explain to him what a blessing is and then he sat on a chair and we did the blessings, and he was bawling the whole time...and then at the end he started talking about how powerful we are and how he could really feel the power...and then he pulled Gordon B Hinckley out of his hat somehow I wonder how he knew his name...and then asked what the new prophets name was, and hauled to find a paper to write his name down and came back with his cigarette pack and told me to write the prophets name on it...yah I didn't, that probably woulda been sacrilegious or something. Anyways yah a super crazy story, probably the weirdest thing thats happened on my mission. Stake conference that night was great, and some of our investigators came which was awesome.
Yesterday we had the last sessions of conference, I really liked the stake president's talk, he talked about how we can't just be average members, we really have to do our best and magnify our callings and stuff. Then after that we had a really cool lesson with a guy and H, a couple that are getting baptized on the 13th of May. They really needed money for their marriage for them to get baptized on the 13th. So they prayed and asked for help, and then the next day when Guy went and grabbed his paycheck, it was for 6 times as much as he makes. He went and talked to his boss to as why, and they didn't know, but said that he can keep the money. That was a super cool miracle, we really are blessed if we try and do our best and pray with faith.
That's all for this week...this morning we stopped at Papara Pneu, this miracle clothing store int he middle of nowhere haha. Somehow they get extremely nice brand new brand name clothes from the US, and sell it for NOTHING. They got a brand new shipment this morning, and I got 300 dollars worth of clothes for 60 bucks. I decided I better do all of my after the mission shopping while I'm here in Papara, because this place is money hahaha, I love Papara Pneu. And then later today we have a zone activity at the beach, which should be fun. Ok ya,
I love you everyone!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: The first two are from the beach in our sector, the third one is some dope glasses I've been checkin out for a while, the fourth is us on the bus on the way to the talent show and the fifth is us with some sisters in our ward
Hey la ora na tout le monde! I made it here to Mahaiatea! I'm loving it here, I really like my new companion Elder Omorodion, and there is so much work to do here, we are super super busy and have a ton of progressing investigators, we average like 11 investigators at the church. There is a ton of potential for baptism, and I feel like we are going to have a lot of success here if we work super hard an stay obedient. We had a baptism on Saturday of someone named Shirley, the daughter of our Elder's quorum president, that has been an investigator for like 2 years. I'm not gonna take any credit for that one cuz I really didn't do anything haha, but it was awesome to see it and to be there.
So yah my companion is Elder Omorodion, he was born in Nigeria, but moved to France when he was 6. He speaks super good english and speaks it all the time, he loves american culture. He also loves rap music, he sings like all day and knows every single song haha kinda funny. We get along really good together, and we teach really well together. He's only been here for one transfer, so I hope that we'll have a couple transfers together. We are in the same house with the ZLs of Paea, which is Elder Prete and then Elder Murdock, who went to Davis haha kinda funny what are the odds.
So yah on Monday my companion and the ZLs of Paea were there at the airport to pick me up, and we headed back to the house. We stopped at Carrefour on the way, their equivalent of walmart. It was so crazy, so big and so much food...It's weird being back in civilization hahah. The house is pretty nice, it's pretty big...but so messy haha there's so much work to be done...I spent like 2 hours this morning just cleaning the kitchen.
The Tahitians are also a lot different than the Marquisiens, it's kinda hard to explain, but there are just a ton of things they do different and stuff...and the fact that it's a complete different language that they speak haha. And not gonna lie the people are just so much more open here, open to new ideas and are more willing to listen to us and to accept us as servants of the Lord.
We had a lot of really cool experiences this week, and saw a lot of miracles. One of those happened during a lesson we had with a young couple named guy and H. They are a reference from a member, which was a couple weeks ago. They came to church this week, which makes the third time in a row. During the lesson, we asked them if they wanted to get baptized, and they said that they do, they just need to get married first, and they need to save up some money, so they decided on November. Well me and Elder Omorodion immediately decided that that wasn't gonna cut it, so I whipped out Alma 34, and then my companion asked them if they'd be baptized on the 15th of April haha. They looked like dumbfounded and then said they're gonna need money for the marriage, and then Elder Omo told him "no you don't all you need to do is sign a paper at the town hall" hahaha kinda funny, then we talked about how the real marriage is at the temple, and that it can only come after baptism. They were really touched and they accepted the invitation, and decided that they would be baptized on the 15th super cool.
Well that's about it for this week, thanks for all the prayers and have a great week everyone, nana!
Elder McQuiston
Pics: The four of us that were at Nuku Hiva together the second is a pic of Tahiti from the airplane, the third and fourth are from the baptism.
Haha my last time saying kasha...from now on its gonna be la ora na haha weird...its gonna be super different. Today marks the 1/3 mark for my mission, which is super super weird, it does not seem like I've been out that long. And after 1/3 of my mission I've only had 1 area, kinda crazy. I'm basically a marquisien by now.
So this week was super crazy, tons of stuff went down. And it was awesome spending a few days with president and his wife, they're super cool and he's a great leader. The conference was awesome, and I learned a ton.
So Tuesday we almost got stranded at Ua Huka, because there was this huge storm. But the tiny plane eventually ended up making it, just super delayed. We had like a 10 minute layover at Ua Pou, which was way sketchy the runway is right next to the ocean and super small haha. When we finally arrived we came to the chapel and had a meeting with President Bize and Elder Sinjoux of the 70 and the four sisters from Ua Huka about sending missionaries to Ua Huka. And we finally convinced him!! He promised to send missionaries there next transfer. Too bad it won't be me, but at least there will be some there which was on of my big goals here. Elder Sinjoux did a fireside that night, which was great.
Wednesday and Thursday we spent the majority of the day with president and his wife. We talked a lot about our sector, and went and saw some inactive and investigators. And then that night conference started at 4, and didn't get over until 8:30 haha super long. But it was way good and I learned a lot, and it really motivated the branch too. I miss good leaders haha...Thursday morning we stayed with president at the church, and we had an interview with him. He got me super pumped about my new area, supposedly they were one of the best areas last year. And then Thursday night was super cool, they finally changed the branch presidency haha. But right before the conference started, all the men (us included) got up and did this marquise dance called the danse de cocoon, or the pig dance haha it was super funny, I really got my marquisien on.
And then Friday and Saturday I spent the day packing and saying goodbye to everyone. And then Sunday the elders from Hiva Oa came, and we spent the night with them, super fun haha way weird being with other missionaries. In about an hour I leave for the airport, and then I land at around 3-4 at Tahiti, and hopefully there will be someone there to pick us up haha.
That's pretty much all of this week, goodbye Nuku Hiva! Talk to you next week from Tahiti!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's:The first two are us with a casse-cou, the third is just a pretty pic form Ua Huka the 4th is us with DMB and his wife, as well as Sr. Ellis and the fifth is the Ua Huka sisters, and the last one is us mid haka
Sooo sadly no baptisms this week...but we did see a ton of miracles, and a bunch of people committed to being baptized in April. So yah a bummer that I won't get to see them be baptized, but as long as they get baptized, that's what's important.
Ronny's dad wouldn't let him get baptized this week, but he gave him permission to be baptized in April. Aldo, progressed a TON and had a ton of super cool experiences with the holy ghost, and he says that he knows that our church is true, which is awesome. He committed to be baptized in April too, which would be soo cool, that would mean that I would be able to go to their sealing, if I'm still at Tahiti a year from then. Tania also is going to get baptized the 15th of April, as well as Parina. so yah we didn't do a baptism, but we had a ton of success here and set up the next trip, which was our goal. We also found a bunch of potential investigators that will continue to do lessons over Skype. So thanks for all of the prayers and those who joined us in fasting, we had an awesome week.
I have a super strong testimony of the priesthood. I had a lot of really cool experiences this week. We gave around 5 or 6 blessings this week, and every single blessing brought the person to tears. The priesthood is so powerful and so real, and it really can work miracles.
Kinda funny about that tho, we were giving everyone blessings, and this kinda handicapped lady asked us for one too. She is like super creepy and we had been warned multiple times not to talk too much with her, or else she won't leave us alone and will try and find us and stuff. But we gave her the blessing, and afterwards she was like bawling. Then like 15 minutes later I'm talking to Elder Boyd and all of a sudden she comes out of nowhere and embraces me...super awkward haha we had to haul out of there...Hopefully she won't show up at the window or anything, I'll have to sleep with an eye open haha.
This week was super awesome and I learned a ton. I love all of the members here so much, and all of my converts are doing so well, they bore their testimonies on Sunday and it was awesome the spirit was so strong, I'm so impressed with how we'll they are doing, even without the church really being established here yet. They have so much faith.
This next week is gonna be pretty crazy. Tomorrow we get on the plane to head back to Nuku Hiva, where we will wait for President Bize, who arrives 20 minutes after us. He's coming for the district conference, which is Wednesday and Thursday, so we'll probably spend a lot of time with him before he leaves on Friday. Then Sunday Elder Ugbah and Fareata from Hiva Oa arrive on airplane, so we're going to have to go and pick them up. Then Monday morning me and Elder Fareata are getting on the plane to head back to Tahiti. I'm kinda nervous to spend a few days with President, but I'm excited too, it should be pretty edifying, and I hope I learn some things.
Well that wraps up this week, sorry again that I can't sent pics, but if all goes well they'll come tomorrow. I love you all!
Elder McQuiston
