I had an awesome week this week, and it was topped off talking to you guys. I'm so glad that everyone is doing great, and it was a lot of fun seeing you guys and talking to you all!
Alrighty, so there isn't a whole lot to say about this week, but I'll share some of the cool experiences that we had.
So it was pouring the whole week, so being soaked from head to toe all day was pretty fun. But I came out victorious, because the storm has passed and I'm not sick, so that's good news. On Tuesday we had a really cool experience. We headed out on our bikes for our first lesson, which was at the opposite end of the sector, in the pouring rain and super strong wind. And then we finally get there, and there was nobody at the house...we were kinda disappointed, must as we were leaving that neighborhood, some lady called us over and asked us to meet with her. Turns out she went to a baptism like three weeks ago and felt the spirit super strong, and ever since she has been thinking about that. And she is super interested about our church, and before we even said anything she told us she believes our church is true and wants to be baptized.
Friday was also a great day, we had our interviews with President, which was easily the best interview that I've had with him so far. It was really uplifting, and he told me how much he trusts in me, which was cool. And then that same day K. and T. passed their baptismal interview, so everything is good for their baptism on Saturday.
And then Saturday was the marriage and baptism of Guy. It was an awesome experience, the spirit was so strong the whole day, and they were both so happy. He's one of my favorite converts, he's such a cool guy, and has such a strong testimony.
Alright that's the rundown for this week, have a great week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: The baptism and the wedding
La ora na mes etres chers,
Well this week ended up being an awesome week, even though we had a lot of trials. It was a big testimony builder that we need to be patient through trials and trust in the Lord, because if we do what we have been asked to do the Lord will always take care of things at the end of the day. I really like the quote by President Hinckley, "perseverez, Croyez. Soyuz heureux. Ne vice decouragez pas. Les choses finiront par s'arranger." I have a firm testimony that everything will always end up right, we just need to endure with patience our trials, and always be happy.
So for the week, Tuesday was super tough...we had 7 lessons planned, and a lot of them were important, for our baptism Saturday and next Saturday. And all of our lessons were cancelled. Super stressful. So we decided to relieve the stress by picking coconuts off some coconut trees..a coco fell off and wrecked Elder O's finger, but hey no problem.
On Wednesday we had some decent lessons, also kinda funny, we were looking for someone in a neighborhood, and we asked this guy who said he had no idea who he was, he'd lived there for 40 years and had never heard of him before. Turns out it was his next door neighbor haha. We also fixed 2 baptisms with these two little girls that I really like. One that is 9 and the other 10, their family is awesome, we are over a their house like almost every day.
Thursday we also fixed a baptism with K., a 14 yr. old boy that we've been doing lessons with for a couple weeks. We did our coordination meeting with Bishop, because our DMP has worked a lot lately and has abandoned us. And then Miri took us to a way nice restaurant at Paea for dinner.
On Saturday was Are's baptism. It was a miracle that everything went well, without a DMP and with all the stuff that came up. But everything went smoothly, and I am super happy that he is finally baptized, he's an awesome kid. We also had a miracle with G., our investigator that will get baptized next Saturday. We couldn't see him at all this week, and we had a great lesson with him, and ended up doing his baptismal interview, and he passed, everything is good! We were super worried about that, but the Lord took care of things, a huge blessing. G. is super awesome, one of my favorite investigators, and the most sincerely repentant investigator that I've taught.
That's about if for this week, I'm excited for Mother's day on Sunday! Je vous aime!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: the beach right outside our house, a pic of our street, me with Are and another one from the baptism
Bonjour tout le monde!
Not too bad of a week this week. On Tuesday we had a multilane conference all day with president Bize and the assistants. It was awesome, there was a lot of really edifying things that were discussed, and there were some good ideas about how to improve the missionary work here. We also ate with Miri, who took us out to eat once again, that makes 4 weeks in a row.
On Thursday we had kind of a weird day...all of our lessons before 2:00 got cancelled....kinda null but none of them were super potential, so not too big of a deal. But way good news, Maiana FINALLY fixed her baptismal date! I love that family so much, and I'm way pumped that she finally fixed her date. Oh also kind of a funny story...after one of our lessons during the evening both of us really needed to relieve ourselves, so we pulled onto this tiny side road and started peeing in the bushes. And then what do you know, some lady comes riding by on her bike...she caught us right in the act, and there was nothing we could do, so I just turned my head around, and just said "Bonsoir!" Haha kinda funny we had a good laugh.
On Saturday we found a miracle new investigator named R., Who is super cool, and is super ready to be baptized, she has been ready for 5 months, but she moved and lost contact with the missionaries for a while. We also did a big service project with the Tehaamatahais, moving dirt around and helping them build their new home. Then Bishop took us out to eat for dinner...we're spoiled haha
Yesterday I gave a talk in sacrament meeting on the atonement and grace. It went pretty good, I talked for around 10 minutes. Then Elder O was supposed to speak after me for the same amount of time, followed by the stake president. But he ended up speaking for 25 minutes haha, and the stake president didn't even get up to speak because there was not time. Pretty funny, classic Farani haha
Today we did a way dope hike that took us 2 hours up and 2 hours back with the zone of Paea. It was super super pretty, and way fun, I got to talk with Elder Dayton, my buddy from my promotion. At the end of the hike was a waterfall, with a way cool natural water slide...it was the worst, all of us wanted to get in so bad...we better come back after the mission, right dad?
Alrighty have a good week everyone, I love you all!
Pic's: Our gospel principles class and pic's from the hike
Elder McQuiston
today we were at the city almost the whole day, I had to get my bike fixed, and we had to run a bunch of errands as well, so we got back super late....so I don't have like any time today. But everything is going well, nothing too big happened this week...our investigators are progressing well, and the work is going well here. We helped an investigator build a house this week for his daughter and son in law. It only took 4 days to finish it, a lot different than back home. That's about it for this week, hopefully next week I'll have a little bit more time. I love you all, and the church is true.
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: a pic with Are, us at Beach Burger, and us with our zone leaders, a party we went to next to our bishops house, me with a recent convert with a nasty fish he caught, me hanging out the window holding a mattress to help some sisters move
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
