la ora na!
This week was transfer week, and my first week here in Raiatea. On Tuesday I took the early morning boat over there to Raiatea, and my companion came to pick me up in Kelly. Kelly is so nice, the nicest car in the mission, super lucky. But let me tell you, when they handed me the keys in the middle of the city after 16 months of not driving a car, I was pretty scared. Luckily it is the only automatic car in the mission as well, but I still took some adjusting to get back my driving skills. Luckily there were no accidents, and me and my companion are still alive haha.
Like I said last week my new companion is Elder Omorodion, and this is the second time that we have served together. It's nice to be with him again, because we already know each other's teaching styles and stuff, and there's no really adjusting to do. The sector here is super sweet, it's super pretty here at Raiatea, probably just under Tahaa. Our sector is huge, but that's no problem in a car. Missionary work in the car is the best, sooo much better than on a bike. I am way worried about getting fat though now with no more exercise during the day...we'll hope and pray for the best.
On Wednesday we took the plane to Tahiti, for a leadership council that we had on Thursday. It was super great to go back to Tahiti for a couple of days and see some of my bros from the MTC and from past areas. The leadership council was awesome as well, I learned some great stuff, and it was really uplifting.
The work here at the moment is pretty slow, there isn't a lot of investigators that the missionaries here were teaching, and the relationship with the ward and the branch was terrible. There is a lot of work to be done here, hopefully we can get the work going. It is a little bit tough because we have a ton of stuff that we have to do for the zone, like go pick up things from the airport and the boat, go help the sisters change their propane, do baptismal interviews all over, fly to Tahiti, etc. but we'll figure out how to make things work.
I love you all, have a great week!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
1-A pic of Kelly- my new car
2-A pic inside Kelly
3-A pic inside the plane to Tahiti
4-A pic from the house we stayed at in Faaa
Dear brothers and sisters, investigators, la ora na tatou,
I had a super awesome week this week, had some way good times. As you can see I got transferred...I'm super sad about it, I love it here at Tahaa so much, I really don't want to leave. But yes I'm getting transferred to Raiatea, the island right next to the one that I'm on. This area has probably been my favorite, and I have to leave my posterity here all alone...but I guess all good things come to an end eventually, and I am excited to serve the people in my next area.
For the week...
Tuesday- I went on a split with Elder Taylor because Elder Arrington had some back pain, and we fixed a baptism for Saturday, which ended up going great. We committed the fam to come back to church. On the way home though, a bee flew in my sleeve or something and got wedged in my back. It stung my back a bunch, and I flew to a stop and made some weird noises while ripping my shirt out of my pants...for those who don't know, I HATE bees. It was kind of embarrassing though, because after my little episode I looked up and there were a bunch of people staring at me, including the old man selling taro on the side of the road....I just waved to everyone and got back on my bike hahaha, shoot!
Wednesday- there wasn't a ton of noteworthy stuff, other than going to help bishop in his Faaapu (plantation), who just got back from being in Tahiti for a month. I did my best on the weed wacker, but man that thing was a beast. It was like twice as big as any weed wacker I've seen.
Thursday was the Hawaiki Nui, which was so cool. We spent a few hours there, all 6 elders from Tahaa. While waiting for the vaas, we split up and gave away all the brochures and stuff that we had on us to all the people that were there. And then all the rammers come in, and there were sooo many boats, like more than I've ever seen in the same place at the same time. And also I'm pretty sure we made it on television haha. I'm so glad I was here to see that.
Friday was my birthday, but we didn't really do anything special, we had some lessons as usual. A member did order me a huge cake though, and after we got home for the night, we had a little cake and ice cream party while playing some Yahtzee while we waiting for transfer calls.
Saturday was the Hipu Elders baptism, and then we pretty much spend all day Saturday and Sunday saying goodbye to everybody, and that's pretty much the rundown.
I love you all! Jean Paul, you are my hero!
Elder McQuiston
Pics: The first is from the Hawaiki Nui, but this pic doesn't even do it justice.
The second is me saying goodbye to a homeless guy that I love
The third is me at the feast with all of the tourists and the members
The fourth is me and my son, sad that I'm leaving
and the last one is a pic with my fam here at Tahaa
la ora na,
First of all I would like to apologize for not having any time to write last week, but quite frankly there wasn't really anything big that went down last week, so no big deal. Except we had this huge fireside last Sunday, and someone threw me under the bus, and made me play the piano. Pretty much all the members on Tahaa were there, as well as the old stake president and temple president...it went alright, but I was definitely practicing every day last week. Also I'd like to give a belated birthday shoutout to pops, sorry for not being on top of that last week.
We had a super good week this week, which started out with a split on Tuesday in Raiatea with Kelly, the only brand new 4 wheel drive truck in the mission, which was super sweet. The split was with Elder Rybin, one of our zone leaders. We had some good times over there in Raiatea. Then Wednesday morning I took the boat to go back to Tahaa, and when I hopped on the boat solo, DMP happened to be there decked out in his BYU gear, what a man! We had some good times together heading back home.
We definitely had a ton of miracles this week, I don't know what we did to deserve so many blessings, but whatever we were dong we should probably keep up. Every day this week starting with Wednesday, at least one of our investigators accepted the invitation to be baptized. On Wednesday Ahutiare accepted the invitation, a super cute 11 year old girl. And she wanted to be baptized this Sunday! Super crazy, but it was awesome!
So yeah the work is definitely picking up here a ton at Tahaa, our sector has a ton of potential for this next transfer, I sure hope that I'll stay, with transfer calls this Friday. Also, the Hawaiki Nui Va'a 2017 is this Thursday and Friday, one of the biggest international rowing events, and it's here in our sector. I'm pretty sure it's on national television, so look out for me haha!
I love you all, have a good week!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
The first is a pic of the transport boat between Tahaa and Raiatea
The second is a pic with DMP, what a great man
The third is a pic from Ahutiare's baptism
The fourth is a bat house that I made to get rid of our mosquito problem, there currently are not bats a Tahiti but I thought might as well just in case
Hey everyone!
I had a way good week this week! But this morning we did an enormous hike that took the entire day, so I literally have no time to write. But I love you and I'm alive!
Elder McQuiston
Hello everyone, elder Makinsane dropping in for a quick update from Tahaa. We had a pretty good week today, it started out a little rough but ended up coming around great at the end.
Most important things first, I'll give you a quick update on my good friend Jean Claude. He's probably my favorite investigator that I've taught, he has enormous faith. He told us that if he prays and talks to God face to face he would change religions, but wouldn't in any other case. I really am inspired by his unconditional trust and love. In his words, "we cannot trust the spirit, because the earth is spinning on an axis, and we are on the earth, and there are evil and good spirits spinning around our hearts constantly." What profound counsel. I would like all of you to ponder about that quote, and if anyone could interpret it I'd like to know what it means.
I decided I love training, it's so fun. The funniest things happen like everyday. For example, yesterday during our faatamaaraa, we were with a family of like 6. For some reason the family was trying to explain the words to slap and to hit in Tahitian to Elder Kerr. He wasn't understanding anything. So they all started acting it out and talking at the same time, and Elder Kerr was so scared just looking around at everyone with no understanding. I probably should have bailed him out, but I was laughing too hard it was too funny.
On a more serious note, we did see some miracles this week. I'd like to bring the family Mousing of 6 back up. We had another lesson this week, the first one for a couple of weeks Fr. Mousing wasn't really interested in our message, but a few days ago her had a feeling come over him to pick up the book of mormon. He started reading it in the evening, and was so enthralled in the book that he didn't see the time pass, and read all the way through the night until dawn. He had a list full of questions for us, and was super interested in our message. He wants us to stop by as frequent as possible. Yesterday part of the family came to church for the first time, and loved it. That was a super cool experience, one that you like find in the Liahona. I have a super big testimony of the book of mormon, and we need to read that book every day to be able to combat the difficulties of our life and to always have the spirit with us.
I love you all! Have a great week, hold to the iron rod!
Elder McQuiston
Pics:
A wild pig we found wandering around not tied up, a pic of the protestant church, the marriage that we went to, the chapel 10 minutes after our meeting was suppose to start and a pic of our chapel.
I had a pretty good week this week. Tuesday I went on a split with Elder Taylor, which was way fun we had some way good times, and some good laughs. Kinda funny, we were contacting a reference and I was sharing the first vision, and then I asked Elder Taylor to explain what Jesus responded to Joseph Smith, and turns out he was zoning out and said, "uhhh...idk" hahaha pretty funny, not the response I was expecting. We had some pretty good lessons tho, and Elder Taylor didn't have his bike yet so he was on this bright pink beach cruiser and almost went down a few times, funny stuff.
We started teaching this family of 6, and they are progressing nicely, yesterday they went and took their names out of the protestant church. I think that I might ask president to let me stay another transfer if they keep progressing, they are pretty cool.
Thursday we had a way funny lesson with this Adventist named Jean Claude. He is like the most sincere lesson, and the lesson went way good actually, the spirit was way strong and he was loving it. It came to the prayer, which I gave. All of a sudden during the prayer I hear this "mmmmmm, aaaamen." I resisted any laughter and continued, and then it came out again. and again. He amened my prayer 6 times haha, so funny. I love Jean Claude. But yah that was pretty much our joke for the week at the house.
I'll skip to Sunday where I was asked to help with the genealogy fireside for Tahaa. Luckily the Lord had me serve as a consultant before the mission, that way I was able to help those people who haven't mentioned family history for years apparently.
This Morning we went to the Motu with Fr. Tehiva, which was so much fun. He took us on a tour of a huge villa that a Canadian billionaire is building, the owner of one of the hotels here. So pretty...
I love you all!
Elder McQuiston
pic's: a picture of our fridge and a Tahitian interpretation of my name haha, picture of Motu with Fr. Tehiva, and more pictures of cuz Tahiti is dope.
la ora na home!
I had such a good week this week, between the super good conference, and the new son and grandson.
So last Monday we spent pretty much the whole day rearranging the house to make room for two more elders, getting them beds and somewhere to put their clothes and stuff. I also worked for a while on my bike, that thing has definitely seen some better days, it is barely rolling. And then Tuesday we just had a fairly normal day, we went and saw a bunch of investigators.
On Wednesday we headed over to the boat to pick up the new elders. My new companion is Elder Kerr from Bountiful, Utah, he's pretty sweet and I'm excited to raise him here in Cumorah. Elder Arrington's new companion is Elder Taylor, Braxton Taylor from K-town. Before the mission I knew him pretty well, and we definitely went on a bunch of double dates and stuff. It is super weird to be in the same house with him, but it's way chill, houses with four are the best.
I worked my new companion pretty hard this week, we had a ton of success. We found a ton of new investigators, and were able to get a lot of investigators to come to conference. Conference was so great, I felt a little bad for the other three though, because we had to watch it in French and they understood like nothing and were definitely nodding off the whole time. I got a ton out of this conference, I went in with a few questions, and I got the answers for all of them. My favorite talk was probably elder Cook's talk, I have really been working on becoming more humble, and his talk was awesome. All of our investigators that came loved conference as well, they really felt the spirit and found answers to their prayers as well. I have such a strong testimony that those men are called of God, and that this is really his church.
That's pretty much it for this week, I love you all and I'll talk to you next week!
Elder McQuiston
Pic's: with our new district here on Tahaa
