Happy New Years!

Hello Everyone!

It's been a while since last time since I didn't write last week, so I've got a lot to tell you all!  Itw as so awesome to see everyone last week!  Everyone looks like they are doing great and man, Brin is getting so tall, super crazy!  Its also weird to think that I will only be skyping you guys one more time...time goes by too fast!

Ok, so for the rundown of these last two weeks.  We had some huge miracles in the missionary work this week!  With Paul we were super guided by the spirit, and teh Lord helped us to find out what was keepign him from getting baptized.  And he's going to be getting baptized this Sunday morning!

Vehiarii is super sweet, and he'll be getting baptized Saturday morning.  These will be my first two baptisms here at Raiatea, I'm super pumped.  We aslo had three other investigators that acepted the baptismal invitation, and will be getting bakptized in the next coupe of months, if all goes well.

We had a pretty crazy week last week, with Christmas and taransfers.  Last Wednesday we had to spend all day at the city, drivng people around, waiting for delayed airplanes, running errands for the Christmas party, etc.  We fit 7 people in the tiny missionary house at Uturoa Wednesday night, with all the mattresses there was literally no walking space. haha good times.  Thursday was our zone Christmas party, which was super fun.  We played a lot of games, did a gift exchange, ate pizza, shared some messages and watched Moana, which was super good!

We also did a lot of caroling this Christmas.  On Friday after our district meeting we went around all of Raiatea and went caroling to all of the investigators in the district.  On Christmas day we went to the hospital and sang to the sick people that were hospitalized for Christmas.  It was so cool to see the joy on all of these people's faces as we sang about Christ, the light of the World!

Random good news, I got my Christmas package the other day!  It was super great!  Thank you all so much!  Also some other good news, I got a 424 in Yahtzers, Christmas miracle!

A few funny stories from these past weeks:  One mornign we were studying and an inactive member called us outside.  We went out and started talking with him, and he amem over to stash his backpack in our house.  We were understandably a little hesitant, and he then proceeded to tell us that he was goig to go beat up his daughters boyfriend and that there were gonna be cops there so he needed to keep his backpack full of weed, which was all he had to survive.  We told him that there was no way we were stashing weed in the misisonary house...watch out for backpack stashers!

We also got attacked by a dog that was nursing some puppies the other day.  It came savagely runnning at us  What does my companion do?  He grabs me and pushes me as bait to the dog while screaming and hiding behind me hahahah.  Luckily I sacared it off with some savageness of my own and no one got hurt.

Last one, we went over to an investigators house, and the husband came out, super drunk.  Luckily he wasn't the violent drunkard, but more of the hippie kind.  He was saying the funniest things, and would not leave us alone...he then sat on the couch behind us and took us in a interview one by one hahahah.  He started crying in my companions interview and I snatched a quick pic.  Don't drink kids.

I love you all so much, have a good week!

Elder McQuiston

Pics: Random pics, Zone Christmas party,Mobbing in the truck, Hymn book gave my away, a pic of caroling and some nature.  

Christmas Skype!

It was so great to talk with Elder McQuiston!  He is doing so good.  It was neat to hear his fun personality that we all miss!  He shared some of the top things he has learned on his mission which was super touching to his mom.  He also shared his sweet testimony in French which was awesome!  We sure love this missionary and miss him so much.  We are grateful for his love of the gospel and the people he is teaching.  We love you Elder McQuiston!

Night before Christmas

la Ora na homa!

Transfer calls were this week and...there aren't any changes, we're together again for the next 6 weeks.  That will make 6 months with Elder Omorodion, a fourth of my mission will be spent serving with him.  Luckily we have a good time together, and we work really well together as well.

We had a really cool week this week, we were able o see some really cool miracles take place.  The first miracle is our fireside that we did here at Vaiaau.  We did it last Monday night, and it was awesome, there were a lot of people that came, and several investigators.  The only problem was that we had some serious technical difficulties with the lack of a HDMI cable, as well as the fact that our DMP who was leading it and one of our speakers didn't show up.  We had some serious last-minute scrambling, but miraculously all went well and we had a really good smooth fireside.

On Tuesday, we did a split with the district leader at Tahaa, and Elder Madsen came to work in my sector with me.  We had a really difficult day, NO ONE was home.  But at the very end of the day, our last lesson was with Veihiarii.  And during that lesson, we fixed his baptism!  He is our champion, he is so sincere, and his parents support his baptism, which is a miracle because the only time we met them they yelled at us and kicked us off their property very rudely.  That's super cool, I'm so happy we are finally starting to see some fruits here.

We also had another miracle with Paul, the 9 year boy that we found a while ago.  He wanted to get baptized, but his parents wouldn't let him.  His dad is a returned missionary and was excommunicated.  We went over to their house and had a really inspired discussion with the father.  He was touched by the spirit and said that he changed his mind about Paul.  We're hoping and praying that everything will turn out right for his baptism. 

Saturday was a fun day, we had our ward Christmas party here at the chapel.  For Tahitians, ward Christmas party is code for maa Tahiti (Tahitian food, consisting of all the traditional food here, including a pig cooked in a pit as with a luau).  The whole ward including a lot of investigators and inactive members came to the church, and we all ate together and talked.  After the Christmas party we went to the airport to say goodbye to a sister that was finishing her mission, and then we went to a parade in the city and ate at the roulette.

That's the rundown of the week, I'll send the pics a little bit later.  I love you all!

Elder McQuiston

Pics: me cooking up some fish, our ward Christmas party, the going away for Soeur Turina, our zone t-shirts and random pics.

8 churus

Churu gin

This pday rolled around so quickly, it feels almost like it wasn't a full week since the last time I talked to you all...  There hasn't been a ton that went down since Wednesday, I'll just give you a few updates and stories.

The work actually picked up a lot this past week, we were able to find several really potential investigators!  One of them is named V.  He is the little brother of our elders quorum president, and is 18 years old.  We found him thanks to our fireside, and started the lessons with him.  He is super sincere and has such a big desire to do what is right.  He asked us some really good questions, and wants to get baptized.  He came to church yesterday and loved it, I really think that he's gonna get baptized.

We had a pretty fun day on Friday, Elder Omorodion's birthday.  We had our district meeting, and then went to the sister's house, because the grandma that they live with made us some food for his birthday.  We did a little split after that with the city elders, and then went to a fireside over on the other side of the island.  We ate there and then ended up having a sleepover with the other elders because it was too late to drive home.

I came up with a new motto for the rest of my mission, "Je ne crains personne", which means "I don't fear anyone".  I have decided that I am going to do everything possible to preach the gospel to as many people as I can, I'm gonna open my mouth and talk with everyone.  Kinda funny we were driving and I saw a white couple reading, so I pulled over and went to give them a book of mormon.  Apparently, French people aren't like Tahitians, because they gave us a cold greeting, packed up their bags and left on their scooter...a mission would be so hard in France hahaha.

A funny story that happened on Wednesday, we were at the city buying our groceries, when a drunk guy spotted us.  He started yelling out Jehovahs Witnesses!  You are Satan!  And followed us around everywhere we went.  I expected to get persecuted on my mission, but not by drunk people and for the wrong religion...we got a pretty good laugh out of that.

Je vous aime, churu maitai partout!

Elder McQuiston

Pics: 
 1.  A pic from the lunch at the sisters house
 2.  a pic from an activity with the young single adults

Zone Conference

la ora na famille ma!

At long last pday is here.  That totally threw off my schedule, I was like so tired yesterday and the day before...partly because we had to wake up a little early a couple of times, but who knew how just changing the pday can mess with you after a year and a half.  This past week went pretty smoothly, not a ton of news on the work front though.  We were able to find a few new investigators last week, the most part of which came from our fireside, so that's sweet!  Things are slowly getting better here. Besides that we had a ton of stuff we had to plan for this week, with a tour of the stake that we are going to be doing this next week, and a fireside in every ward.  We also had to plan for zone conference and stuff, so it's nice to have all of that over with.

On Saturday we did a reference harvest, which was a big success.  All of the ward council came to the chapel with the district.  We split into 8 teams, and went to all the member's homes.  We were able to get over 30 references, which was great.  Super funny story, me and Fr. Charles were talking to a family kinda far from the main road, and then started heading back to the road.  We were on a super skinny dirt road, and as we got closer to the exit we saw some people in reflective vests waving us forward.  As we got closer, it turns out that they were really waving us backwards.  We started backing up, and all of a sudden a huge pack of 50 or so runners rounded the corner in front of us, running towards the car.  We hurried in reverse, and I was forced to fly into the ditch on the side of the road...on the side of the road we cheered on all the runners and I made sure to invite them all to church hahaha.  Luckily the truck is 4 wheel drive and we got out of the ditch no problem.  Turns out there was a major race and the family we were talking to lives right in the path of the race...what luck!  Haha

On Sunday the fireside went awesome, we had a great turnout, and we were able to fix lessons with five investigators that came.  I had the easy part, I just had to do the introduction and conduct  I also sang two songs, one with all the missionaries and the other was in a trio.  They both went pretty well, I tried to sing quietly because well...you know.  We all ate dinner at DMP's house after that, and had some good laughs.

Monday was the splits with the assistants, Elder Crandall from Spanish Fork and Elder Donadier form France.  We had some good laughs with the assistants, there was one guy that told u about how he was disappointed in Mary for putting Jesus in a basket on the Nile.  Also during a lesson it started pouring, and when we went to put our shoes on they were literally filled to the brim with water.  We also ate the most money meal, some freshly caught fried lagoon fish, with a creamy vanilla sauce made with real Raiatea vanilla,  mmmmm.

The conference went great yesterday as well, I was a little bit nervous driving President and his wife around, but they are so awesome, I love them!  My interview with President went great as well, all in all it was a really edifying day.

I love you all, and talk to you in not too long!

Elder McQuiston

Pics: Me and Katarina, the missionaries at Raiatea at our DMP's house, DMP is in the back standing up, the sunset yesterday and our zone at zone conference.

One siki down two up

la ora na tatou!

This week was pretty similar to last week, the work is still pretty slow.  We spent a lot of time this week preparing for a fireside that we are in charge of next week, in hopes that we will be able to find some new investigators.  I have a feeling that this area is going to be tough, which is good, that'll build character.

We did find someone super potential this week.  His name is Paul, a 9 year old boy.  He is the son of an active mother and an inactive father.  He comes to church every week, but wasn't well taught at home, and was not baptized.  He is super cool and a great kid.

Side note:  I have played the piano SO MUCH on my mission, you wree defintely right mom, I should of practiced more.  Just wanted to shoot my pride real quick.

Back to the weekly rapport...oh yah pday last week was so sweet, one of my favorite pdays so far.  All the missionaries from Tahaa and Raiatea all came over, and we went out to one of the motu's.  On teh motu we had a barbecue and cooked burgers, with chips and soda.   The problem was that the barbecue was pretty ghetto and we had to find wood and start a fire on a tiny island of about a 20 yard radius.  And on top of that it started raining.   Well, this is where my eagle scout skills were supposed to come in...let's just say it was a good thing there were like 8 eagle scouts there because it took a maxium effort out of all of us, half on the assembly line with the burgers and the other half stoking the fire.  AFter a couple hours of hard work we finally got our burgers haha.  After that we played some volleyball and dodgeball, super fun.

Hmm what else... oh yah funny story, the other day we came by the church and the youth were all playing basketball, so we decided to join them.  Our basketball court here is asphault, and one play Elder Omorodion went up for the ball and jumped a little too high, adn came down on his back.  He wreked his white shirt, and we had to go home and change.  I couldn't give hin any grief though because his team ended up with the win haha.

On a last note we had stake conference this week.  It was a pretty good conference, and my favorite talk was given by the stake president on keeping the sabbath day holy.  There are a lot of members that choose not to keep this commandment, and/or other commandments that seem small.  It is really sad to me, becluase all commandments are for our good, and all are necessary for our eternal progression, as well as to be happy in this life, to have peace of conscience, and have success.  I hope you all keep these commandments that might seem small, because I know they make the difference between joy and unhappiness.

I love you all!  A faaitoito teie hepetoma!

Elder McQuiston

Pics from our trip to the Motu

Cherry Suckers

la ora na tout le monde!

This week was a little bit rough, at the moment we don't have very many investigators.  I have noticed here that the people are really cold against our church and against the members.  This week we were very coldly received, and even chased and yelled at.  That is not typical at all of Tahitians, I don't really know why but for some reason people here don't like us.  Things are moving very slowly as well in the ward, we have a lot of things to put into place, and a lot of work to do.  We were able to fix some activities and a fireside with the bishop and DMP, hopefully we'll be able to get things going.  In the branch we have a super cool DMP named Rudy, from the Marquises.  He is super chill and funny, and is a sculptor for a living.  He goes on splits with us, and is involved in the work, which makes a huge difference.

On another note I have some stories from this week.  Early this week we went to go and see an inactive family, and a couple of the boys were outside playing their guitars.  We jammed a little bit with them, and messed around a little bit trying to freestyle rap, mixing in some reggae shout-outs, and then shared a little message with them.  And hey it worked, they came to church yesterday.

We also did a lesson this week with some recent converts that are struggling a little bit.  When we went over there the mom started talking to us, and turns out she has been planting and smoking weed...and last Sunday she went and confessed, and then came home and got rid of all the weed.  Ever since she has been super on edge, and has been giving her kids a hard time, which is super sad because they are so little and so cute.  She is crazy...I was so scared during that whole lesson.  It's super sad the effects that that stuff can have on people.

A little more on the spiritual side, me and my companion decided that we needed to help investigators apply the scripture to themselves and really read to understand.  In almost all of our lessons this week, we read a chapter of the Book of Mormon, and stopped every couple of verses, and helped the investigators really apply them.  It completely changed the way that our investigators look at the Bood of Mormon, and the way that I do as well. If we apply the scriptures to ourselves we learn so much more, and we can feel the spirit much easier. 

One last thing is that we had the chance yesterday to watch the face to face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard for the YSA.  It was so good, I learned so many things, and found the answers to so many of my questions.  There was a great message about finding the balance between using our agency and receiving inspiration, and how that is so important after the mission.  There are too many RM's that don't use their agency well after the mission.

I love you all, have a good week!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:

1- a marae we went to last week (sacrificial grounds)
2- our guitar bros
3- A pic of where we do our coordination meetings
4-a pic of me with DMP