Your brain gets smart but your head gets dumb

Hey fam!

This week kind of cruised by, it went by super fast and I don't even really know what to write about.  I couldn't even think of a funny story to throw in, what a failure.  So if you decided to read this just for something funny you might as well give up now.

This week we cranked out our Tuesday and Wednesday,  we had a really full schedule and came out exhausted.  We were able to find a couple new investigators and made some big progress with a couple of our investigators.  T. is doing so well...someone who literally came from level 0, deep in heavy drugs.  But now he is becoming more and more normal, and just last night we helped him write an essay question/response about why we have a Savior, and about how he can benefit from the atonement.  Man he is super intelligent, easily the most intelligent person that I have ever taught on my mission.  It's a good thing that I have Elder Tomasini as my companion, because he is really intelligent as well, and I have never seen him get stumped by a question.

Thursday was our leadership council.  Leadership council is the best, we always have a great time and always come out on turbo ready to work haha.  It was kind of sad, Elder Omorodion bore his last testimony, I'm gonna miss him. 

Friday we had our splits with the assistants.  I went with Elder Ugbah in the assistant's area.  They are in Papeete, in an extremely poor area.  It was fun to spend the day with Elder Ugbah, and I was able to learn a few things.  Man, the assistants are crazy busy and they have so much to worry about.

I am super excited for conference this week!  I love conference so much, and I am going to prepare a few questions.  We should have a bunch of investigators there as well, and I hope that they will be touched.  Several of my converts decided to be baptized because of general conference, those men are inspired and called by God, I know that it's true.  And I know that if we listen to them and do our best to apply their counsel, we will be blessed.

I love you all!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:

1-some money sashimi that we had, sooo good

2-Had to take a family with the couple too, not to be rude but kinda failed whoops

3-A pic from leadership council

4-Our investigator named T. such a funny guy

5-Live pic of my companion who looks like he's sick of waiting

The car's gonna start smoking

Good evening everyone!

Man this week was one crazy week...it's  nice to be pday and have some time to relax a little bit, because this week we hit the grind.  But I'm starting to get my feet under me and get used to the area. Before talking about anything else this week I better talk about the car.  I can't remember if I mentioned last week but our car here is a manual, and I'm driving!  And let me tell you, it is super hard to learn how to drive stick in a busy city, with a mountain smack dab in the middle.  I can't even count how many times I stalled this baby, but luckily I have avoided any damage or death so far.  I'm a little worried about the car making it out alive, but as we say here, "Haere mua"  (move forward)

My new area here in Arue is fairly small, and like I said is in the city.  The ward seems really strong, which is definitely a nice relief from some of the wards that I have served in recently.  We are in a fairly rich area, I've seen more French people here than my whole mission combined.  We have a decent amount of investigators, and several of them are fairly potential. We are teaching a family that is kind of famous here in our mission, a couple named L. and T.  T. is half French, and is super funny, and really unique.  He was deep into cocaine and ice when the missionaries found him 8ish months ago.  He has been fighting hard to get off of his addiction, and has gone 2 months without consuming.  We teach them every evening, and I already love them.

I really appreciate my new companion as well, Elder Tomasini.  Like I said he is really old, the oldest missionary in the mission (27).  He is really mature, and a very very talented teacher.  He is really smart as well, and already has his college degree.  He is from France, but did his studies in England and speaks really good English.  We get along great, and I know that I am going to learn a ton from him. 

This last Monday for our pday activity we did some carving with our DMP for my last pday at Raiatea.  I'm gonna miss him, we had some great times together.  On Tuesday I went and said last goodbyes to everyone... That's always the hardest day.  On Wednesday we took the plane back to Tahiti and had a layover in Bora Bora.  That'll be the tenth island that I have been to on my mission!

It's a lot different being back here at Tahiti...i've already seen a bunch of my mission buddies, and there are sooo many more people.  I'm not going to tell you how I know, but the water is definitely more drinkable here.  The work is a lot better here as well, members give good referrals and there are a lot more people to teach.  I am excited to work here!

I love you all!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:

1-my branch president is on the left, and my dmp on the right
2-The Charles family
3-Vehiarii
4-Hanivai and her family
5-My two sons
6-Bora 

I'm going on a trip, in my favorite rocket ship

Hey fam!

What an awesome week this week!  Hanivai got baptized on Saturday!! That was a super cool experience, as with most baptisms.  We found Hanivai a couple months ago, in an inactive part member family.  When I first met Hanivai, she didn't know who God was, or anything about his teachings.  The family has come to church every week now for the past couple of months, and then this Saturday, Hanivai entered into the covenant to serve God and keep his commandments for the rest of her life.  I am so grateful and lucky to be a missionary and be a part of this incredible work!

We got transfer calls this week, and I am going to be leaving the islands, after 7 months.  I am transferred back to Tahiti, the area of Taharaa in the Arue zone.  I will be serving as a zone leader again with Elder Tomasini.  Elder Tomasini is from France, and is 2 transfers younger than me in the mission, but is 6 or 7 years older than me in real life.  He's the oldest missionary in the mission.  My companion is staying here to finish his mission, with Elder Raveneau from France, my replacement.  I'll be taking the airplane Wednesday to Tahiti.

I have loved serving here at Raiatea, it is so beautiful here and I love the islands.  I love this zone as well, and I have made so many unforgettable memories here...and although the members here were a lot tougher than the other wards I have served in, I have grown to love them so much and I'm gonna miss it here.  But I am excited for this new area, which possible is my last one, with 3 transfers left.  I have promised God that I am going to give these last few transfers everything I've got, I'm going to let down at all.  I'm not about that walking through the finish line life.

Last Monday we had an interesting experience at our family night.  We were invited to a family night at an investigators house.  Well, when we pulled up, we were surprised to see about fifty people seated in chairs waiting for us.  Wow! We definitely weren't ready for that, but we prayed for some help.  We taught the plan of salvation, and we were able to find some new investigators, I'd say it was a success!

We had the opportunity this week to go the Huahine, the third island that is in our zone.  Our stake president asked us to give training about missionary work for the members over there.  So Friday we took the plane and did 2 different trainings, one for the ward missionaries and ward mission leaders and the other for the ward councils from 3:30 until 7:00.  It went pretty well, we got a lot of participation and I really hope that the members will get more involved in missionary work at Huahine.  We were able to do a little sightseeing with the first counselor in the stake presidency before he dropped us off at the airport Saturday morning and man Huahine is beautiful!

I love you all, have a great pday!  ;)

Pics:  

1- Me with a huge sack of rambutans, a way good fruit here
2- Me with our new ward mission leader Manu
3-Classic Tahiti food, raw fish on the left, then fafaru, miti hue, some lagoon fish in a pot, taro and sweet potatoes
4-The family Tsiong Tsing
5-Our stake president and his wife
6-The Tehuiotoa family, our stake second counselor
7, 8 & 9-Pictures of some landscape
10 & 11-From the Huahine airport
12-the mountain a Huahine called Fiti, the mountain that Moana is based off of
13, 14 & 15 are pics from a dope lookout at Huahine, and my failed hang loose
16 & 17-Some pics from Hanivai's baptism

Still can't find a new pen

Sorry for the short letter last week!  Hopefully I can make up for it this week, fill in a few gaps.  All in all, there isn't a whole lot to say, but I'll give some updates on our investigators.

Ok, to start off, last week I was able to go on a split with Elder Kerr, my son, because his companion is the district leader at Tahaa.  It was nice to be with an American again, and nice to catch up with him.  We had a pretty good day together, everyone actually understood his French!  I'm so proud of my son! :)

We had a pretty cool experience last Sunday.  We were supposed to give the sacrament talks at Vaiaau, but when we went out to start the ar that morning, the battery was dead.  We went out searching for someone that had jumper cables, but we were out of luck.  We had about five minutes left before it would be too late to drive to Vaiaau.  So I decided to say a prayer and give it one last try.  I got back in the car, and turned the key and...yah, no luck.  Still didn't work.  So I decided my faith must be too small and pulled out the phone to call the branch president.  But just as I was dialing a car pulled up next to ours and asked us if we needed jumper cables.  We were able to get to church on time.  I know that the Lord answers our prayers and that we can always put our trust in him and he will never let us down.

We had our carnival activity as I mentioned, which was awesome, a big success.  We had to spend most of Friday preparing for it with the young men.  We cut the bamboo and stuff.  We had 20ish investigators that came!  We did an open house right before the carnival and hopefully, that got them interested in the church.

An update on some of our potential investigators, first off there's Hanvai.  Hanivai is 12 years old and we've been teaching her for a couple of months.  Last Sunday, she finally accepted the invitation to get baptized.  We did the program and the interview this past week and she is going to be getting baptized this Saturday.

Terii and Bettina are planning on getting married and baptized next month.  They left for Bora for a month to work, and just got home yesterday, so we'll pick the lessons back up tomorrow.

We got some super sad news from the S. family last night.  They had seen some bad examples and offensive comments from members and decided that they don't want to join our church and asked to stop the lessons.  That really bummed me out, I love that family.  But I trust the Lord, and I know that he wanted us to be there and that he has a plan for them.  And I know that there will come another time for them.  but man that's gotta be one of the hardest things on a mission.

I love you all, have a great week!!

Elder McQuiston

pics:
1.  a pic of my son with the famous apetahi plant
2.  my son and I decided to take the lead but got lost
3.  Chillin on the edge of a cliff
4.  DMP Rudy with my whale...always been drawn to those
5.  the S. couple
6.  Me hittin the bamboo

Busy week!

Hello fam!

We had a super crazy week this past week!  We had a carnival, splits with the assistants, training meetings, zone conferences, and zone pday, which we do once a transfer and which was today.  We did a 6 or 7 hour hike, and saw a flower that is about to go into extinction.  We saw the very last plant that exists, so I guess that's kinda cool.  But in consequence, I have almost no time to write today, so I'll tell you more about the week next week.  I love you all, have an awesome week!!

Elder McQuiston 

Fries til I dies

Fam,

I had a great week this week, although we had a lot of things that kept us from the field.  but we did everything we could, and the Lord blessed us with success!

The first big issue we had this week happened Tuesday morning.  We realized in the pouring rain that water was leaking into our truck.  We had to head back to the house, and tape up the car.  And then we had to cancel some lessons that we had fixed and go to the city to get the car repaired.  They did a...thing I don't know how to say in English and told us to come back on Wednesday.  So Wednesday we took it back in and spent the majority of the day running errands with our ward clerk, delivering stuff to the other missionaries, fixing the phone, etc.  Good news is that we now have a functioning phone and a waterproof car!

Man I am sick of steak and fries, we had that like 4 days this week.  I miss American steak.  

We also did three training meetings this week with the ward council member for the dmps and the ward missionaries.  One of those was a Tahaa Saturday morning, so we left Friday afternoon on the boat for Tahaa.  I was able to go and see a lot of people that I knew over there, members, converts and investigators.  I was super cool.  I loved that area.  Saturday morning after the meeting I got to chat with Bishop and his wife while we waited for the boat, and we ate lunch with them.  I love Bishop Samoa so much hahah.  Man, that guy makes you laugh.

Our investigators are all doing great, we have 6 that are preparing for baptism.  Two of which are W. and T.  We have been having awesome lessons with them, they are both progressing great!  The spirit is especially strong in every lesson we have with them, and I know that the Lord reaslly needs them to accept the gospel.  The problem is that they are in a fairly weak branch, te large mafjority of the members are uneducated, umemployed, speak mostly Tahitian, and have a lot of family issues that they bring to church.  W. and T. on the other hand are very well off, educated, and understand about as much Tahitian as I do.  I really hope that all will work out in their integration and conversion process.

A cool story form this week happened during a lesson with V.  who is doing great by the way.  During the openign prayer it came to my mind to bless him sot hat he would do well on his driver's test.  It wasn't until after the prayer that I found out that he would be taking his driver's test the upcoming Monday.  I had no idea.  I know that if we pray sincerly and seek inspiration during our prayers, the Holy Spirit will help us pray for what we need, and I know that the Lord will accord it to us.

I love you all!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:
1-our broken phone
2-our taped up truck
3-looking for waterfalls
4-mobbing in the truck
5-quick peek at the boat that took us to Tahaa

Happy Valentine's Day

la ora na!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  I hope you all had a great week, I sure did!  On Saturday we had 2 baptisms, R. & R, a 9 and 10 year old girl in the Fareatai branch.  What an awesome experience!  There was a slight issue though, R. who is extremely shy, got really nervous after seeing everyone that was at the baptism, and started bawling and wouldn't get in the water.  We didn't really know what to do, but I had an impression to have everyone but the family and the witnesses step out of the room.  The branch president had it done, and after 5-10 minutes of waiting for her, she stopped crying and got baptized, and the spirit was so strong!

This week was full of broken things.  Our cell phone broke the other day, someone broke into the chapel and stole some things, and my hard drive broke last Monday.  That was kind of a bummer because I lost a lot of pictures and other things, but nothing I can do about that.

The work is going well in the area, we have some more baptisms fixed and we have found some new investigators.  We were forced to do some contacting this week.  We contacted one guy that just poked out his head and smiled and said, "It's good", and then went back in.  We were super close to following him and sitting down, and saying, "well it's good if we share a message, right?"  But decided that probably wasn't the best idea haha.  We also found a guy that is pretty potential that studies the bible a ton.  I totally used the story that President Nelson shared with us last conference and I quoted him like word for word.  He accepted a Book of Mormon and will come to church on Sunday so that's good news.

One funny story this week, the other day there was an alarm that went off in my dream, so I woke up and said my prayers.  I got out of bed and turned on the lights and opened the blinds, and noticed that it was pitch dark outside.  My companion was looking at me really confused having just gotten woke up.  I looked at the clock to realized it was 3am.  Whoops!

I love you all!  Have a nice week!

Elder McQuiston

Pics:

1&2- someone broke into the chapel and stole the TV and juice, but left the computer.  Typical Tahitian

3-5-Pic's from the baptisms

6-Some waterfalls