Bonjour tout le monde!
As you guys can tell by the subject, Elder Omorodion is getting transferred. He is going to Bora Bora...I'm a little envious. My new companion is Eder Thorpe. He's coming later today, so I'll tell you about him next week. I had an awesome time serving with Elder Omorodion, we had some great times together, and had a lot of laughs. And now he's leaving on vacay...I'm going to be the senior companion this transfer, as well as the district leader.
We had a pretty decent week this week, in terms of missionary work. We have a few investigators with their baptismal date fixed, and a few others that are potential. After last month we are in the rebuilding stage, working on expanding our teaching pool and finding some new potential investigators, as well as helping the few that we have enter into the waters of baptism.
Last Monday we went on a super sweet hike, and there was a super cool waterfall/pond at the end, super tough not to swim haha. There are hundreds of super cool hikes here that lead to waterfalls, I'm pretty sure if you lived here you could never get sick of the hikes, so dope.
On Tuesday we didn't get to do a whole lot of missionary work, because we had our multizone conference. It was the last one that I'll have with President Bize, kinda crazy. It was a great conference, there were some great messages shared.
On Wednesday one of our investigators names V. said that she doesn't wanna get baptized, because she "isn't ready to get married". After 8 or so years of being together. Tahitians kill me! We taught all of our young recent converts after that....man teaching kids is rough, I could not make it as an elementary school teacher. We also had a lesson with M., one of our investigators with her baptismal date fixed. I really like teaching her, she understands really well what we teach. It is so rare here to find people that 1. understand what you teach, or 2 accept what you teach them. When you find someone with both of the two, it's sooo nice haha.
On Thursday we headed out early to do a service project, helping one of our investigators make news. I thought we were doing pretty good, I was liking how my nems were looking. But apparently the ladies that we were helping didn't really think so... because they politely told us that they'd finish the rest...we should probably avoid those kind of service projects going forward haha. We also contacted these kids that were playing Yu Gi Oh, who weren't so happy that we interrupted their Yu Gi Oh game, but who accepted us to come back another day...we'll see if they'll actually be there haha.
Friday we did splits with the Zone leaders. Elder McLelland came to our sector, and my companion went to theirs. We had a pretty good day, we did a lesson with Guy, who is doing great. We also taught G. who talked our ears off, but who accepted the lesson and made the decision to from that point onward would never break the word of wisdom again, which was awesome.
Did we have Saturday this week?
Sunday was super cool, Guy blessed the sacrament for the first time, which was super cool to see. We did the missionary concert at Mahina after that, which was dope because it allowed us to do the tour of Tahiti, which was the first time that I've done that.
Thanks for your love and support, have a good week!
Elder McQuiston
Alrighty for the pics...
The first one is our gospel principles class
The second and third are me with some lobsters, Lobster is sooo good
The fourth an fifth was our goodbye for Elder McLelland, one of our zone leaders who is going to Raiatea
And then the last one is us with the Palmer family
E aha tera mea i te mau fenua, no te utuafare i te reo faaineine. Ua faarue au i te reo Tahiti!
Alrighty so last week:
Thursday- we went to do the first lesson with one of our new investigators, Gaspard, at a members house. When we got there, we found out that his wife had just barely died of cancer a few hours earlier. We talked to him about the plan of salvation, and he was super touched, the spirit was super strong and he was in tears. He said that he really wants to be baptized, so we fixed his baptism for the 24th. It was such a miracle that we found him, and I know that the Lord was preparing him for us.
Saturday-We also fixed a baptism on Saturday for the 8th of July, with one of our investigators names Raf. She is super ready for her baptism, and comes to church every Sunday, she just needs to get married, so we're really hoping that everything will go well for her to be married and baptized the 8th.
Wednesday-Yeah nothing notable happened on Wednesday. Sorry Wednesday.
Monday-After we did our mail on Monday we headed to Puunauia with all the Elders from Puunauia and Paea to play basketball. It was way fun, but holy I am so out of shape, we were all so dead. Gotta get back to real exercising...
Friday- About halfway through the day we didn't have anything to do, so we did contacting for the first time in this area. We felt prompted to got to a house, and turns out that at the very first house that we contact, there was a 17 yr old girl that is really good friends with a recent convert in our ward, and she really wants to do the lessons with us. Kinda cool.
Sunday went awesome, it was one of my favorite weeks at church. In our gospel principles class, we had 4 really potential investigators, our dump, and then our recent convert. We had a super good discussion on baptism, and then our recent convert bore his testimony on his baptismal experience. It was super super powerful, all of our investigators were way touched. I'm super proud of him, he is such an awesome guy, and it is so cool to see how happy the gospel has made him. That's what the mission is all about. And then we did our missionary concert at Faaa, which went awesome like last week. There was a member of the 70 there from New Caledonia named Elder Thompson. He gave a message at the end, which was really inspired, you could just feel that he was so close to the Lord,a really touching experience.
Tuesday-nah
Je vous aime!
Elder McQuiston
Pics: The first one is us with the captian of Tahitian national beach soccer team, that just won second in the beach soccer world cup a couple of weeks ago. The second one is an action shot of me building my house on a way dope spot we found, and the third and fourth are selfies from the same spot.
This week was good times, we had some miracles and some good laughs as well.
Last Monday we finally had our last choir practice, so after a month and a half we finally have our days back.
On Tuesday we went and tried to find some inactive, and I felt prompted to go try a house, and turns out it was the inactive we were looking for, and they really needed our help because they were moving these super heavy cement sacks, and the mech was planning one going it all by himself, so we helped them out for a couple of hours.
On Wednesday we really needed some new investigators, so we decided to go and visit some members, and ask them if they know anyone that we could go visit. One of the members just barely got back from France, an she pulled out this super lux expensive box of macarons for us to eat while we were there. Welp turns out they were super good, and by the time we left there weren't any more macarons left...whoops.
Thursday we had a pretty weird day, we started off the day doing a coodination meeting with our dump for the first time in a month or so, and then came back home and said goodbye to Elder Terry and elder Murdock, who left for Raromaitai, Tahaa and Radiate. We did our weekly planning after that, and then headed out to the airport to pick up elder Gilstrap, who was the elder that replaced me at Nuku Hiva, and now he's staying at the house with us.
Friday we had our district meeting, and we have some new missionaries in our zone. The district meeting was in French, and everything flew right over the green's heads, so funny haha those cute little guys, I remember when that was me, the first week in the field.
Saturday my companion skipped his parents for mother's day in the morning, and then the DZ's came and gave us a ride to Faaa to drop off elder Omorodion, who got invited to a baptism of a family that he found and taught. I spend the day with the DZ's, and we managed the tow sectors with their car. elder Omorodion didn't get back until 6:00, 3 hours longer than when hew as supposed to get back, we were pretty worried and the DZ's were not happy.
Then Sunday at church a brother of a member showed up for the first time, already with a desire to be baptized. Such a crazy miracle, idk what we do to deserve these kind of miracles, but I know that the success that we have here in this sector is the Lord's doing, not ours. Right after church we headed to Taravao for the first missionary choir concert. I was really impressed, it was crazy good and the spirit was super super strong. I have no idea how we pulled that off, because the last rehearsal was so bad haha. But super funny, right before the concert we did a little rehearsal, and some guy put a mic like right in front of my face. And then I don't know what happened, but in the middle of one of the songs I accidentally started singing in English, and it played way loud over the speaker hahahah all the 100ish missionaries started dying. whoops!
That's the rundown the week, Je vice time tour, passed un bon semaine!
Pic's: Me and Elder Terry and Elder Murdock before they left, and a picture of Taravoa.
Bonjour tout le monde!
Sadly I have no time today, we had a super long choir practice today that took like all day, and then we had to do a bunch of things for the transfer, and then we got stuck in traffic...so yah sorry about that. But yah so here's a little email to let you all know that I'm still alive...and the baptism was awesome, and neither of us got transferred. That's all I have time for, have a good week everyone!
Elder McQuiston
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
