Week 27

Monumental Baptism

I had the great opportunity to have a pretty unique baptism this week. His name is David and we had been teaching him for a while. He was having problems with praying and reading everyday, and because of that he just wasn't progressing all that well. Finally, after teaching him again and again about the importance of reading and praying he finally got it down! He read and prayed for a couple weeks and we told him we wanted to reestablish his baptism goal. We asked him if we could set it for the first week of May and he responded by saying the last week in April sounds better. So we were super excited about it!

I was able to baptize David last Friday. I was a little nervous because I had to say the words perfectly, but everything worked out. Afterwards, we realized he would be going to the newly-formed QingShui Branch while we would be staying in the Shalu Ward.  Which means he is the first person to be baptized in the new QingShui branch! So MY FIRST baptism is also the FIRST baptism in the QingShui branch!  Pretty cool, right?

Then this weekend we also had our stake split. We had stake conference on Saturday and Sunday and we had two stakes participating because we were going to make those two stakes into three. Since we were creating a new stake, we had Elder Gong from the Asian area presidency come and his counselor, Elder Funk. And while we were waiting for conference to start on Saturday night, Elder Gong came up to us and shook hands with each of us. It was a neat experience to get to meet him. 

So we got to hear from Elder Gong and Elder Funk and our stake was changed from the Bei Taizhong stake (North Taizhong) to the Xi Taizhong stake (West Taizhong stake). And it turns out that David is actually also the first baptism in the new Xi Taizhong stake! Crazy!

We have a lot of good investigators right now! We have 2 good families we are working with, and 2 more who have good potential. That is really rare, families are hard to find on missions, you usually just teach individuals. But we are teaching a good family from Longjing who came to church last week and really enjoyed it. (I'm including a picture of them.)

I also had an unfortunate experience this week. We were playing basketball with investigators when I broke my favorite glasses. Besides that, the week was a good one!

Thanks for all your love and support,

Elder Quist

P.S. 

Happy Birthday Elin! You will be 3 when I get back, that's crazy! 

Congratulations Josh on graduating!

Week 26

Goodbye Qingshui, or Shalu..‏ 

This week was a nice week on the island. Last Monday we had some down time to just play ping pong and relax. Then that night we had family home evening, which was pretty fun. Tonight we have family home evening again and we are in charge of the game so I guess we will see how it goes. The weather was also really nice last week! It wasn't too hot and it wasn't too cold. 

So last Tuesday we were doing companionship study, when we got a call from the Office Operation Elders. They called and were asking Elder Fox a thousand different questions about our apartment, and the reason for that is because our apartment is becoming a 4 man! Our stake is splitting this week, and because of that our ward is splitting also. So we are getting 2 new Elders to take over the half of our ward we do not take. That means we are losing half of our area, members, and investigators! We have investigators in both areas, but the majority is on the Shalu side, which is the side more south. I think that's the ward we are being assigned to, but I am still not sure. I guess next week I will have to tell you about it, and about all the new Elders in our apartment.

 

Then last Thursday me and Elder Fox went out on an adventure. We (as of right now) have 8 separate districts in our area. We usually are in Qingshui, Shalu, or Wuqi, but sometimes we go to Longjing or Dajia. We also have Waipu and Dadu, we've been there a few times but we don't go there very often. Then there is Da'an.. I have never been to Da'an. We currently have no formers from Da'an and only 5 less-active members. So last Thursday me and Elder Fox took huge water bottles and biked out to Da'an. It took us about an hour and the way there was a beautiful bike ride. On one side of the road was green rice fields and green mountains in the distance, and on the other side was the coast. I wish I took pictures! Then we got to Da'an and realized why we have no formers there. It was a small village by the coast with one 7-11 and some houses. Everyone there speaks Taiwanese (so their Chinese has a huge accent) and is either Buddhist or Taoist. We left 3 hours later defeated by the people of Da'an.

 

On Sunday we had a family come to church! It was the family we met in Longjing and played basketball with, the kids names are Peggy, Alex, and Borrus, and the dad's name is Lin Jin Lai. They are super willing to learn more and had a great time at church. Also at church we had a rep. from the stake presidency come over and split the ward. We saw which members would go to the Shalu ward and which members would go to the Qingshui branch, and after looking at how the wards were split we decided we definitely wanted Shalu Ward, but I guess we will see.

 

And the last bit of news, we have another investigator getting baptized! His name is David and we decided that I would be the one to baptize him! So I am kind of nervous, and I need to practice the words in Chinese, but I am also excited. He is going to get baptized this Friday.

 

David taught me a great lesson. At first, he was not progressing. We urged him again and again to read and pray, but he just wouldn't. Finally he told us he started to read and pray on his own. After that his testimony just took off. He no longer had problems with any commandments or any other issues. It helped me realize if we are reading and praying everyday we don't need to worry so much about our testimony, because through this our relationship with our Heavenly Father will strengthen.

 

Love, 

Elder Quist

Week 25

Was General Conference Always This Good?

This last week the weather had another unexpected change, taking me from extreme heat to rain and wind. Although the rain isn't too bad, and I can stay dry for the most part, the people of Taiwan hate the rain. When the rain comes out, they stay in. People refuse to come to church or meet with you  unless it's at their house when it rains.

Last P-DAY we had the chance to go out to a famous beach in our area. It's called the wetlands, and it's basically a beach with water that only goes up to your ankles. So we went out there and got to see the sunset.

Then this last Wednesday we had the chance to do a lot of finding. Because we lacked some lessons that day, we spent about 4 hours trying to find new people to teach. The night before I prayed and asked God to help us see miracles. As the day went on, however, we did not see many miracles. I remember promises that if we do our part, and really try our best, then the Lord will provide people for you. However, I felt I was doing my part, and the Lord was lacking on His part. I kept going and going, but it seemed no one was too interested in hearing our message. Well, that night was English class, so proselyting was done for the day. I was a little discouraged, but I kept a smile during English class anyway. However, as the night began to end, the miracles began to occur. The first was a family who went to English class that day, who came up to us after class and told us they wanted to start meeting with us. She has had some miraculous experiences in her life with God. And as the night went on, I continued to see more and more miracles, including being able to get in contact with 3 investigators that we haven't been able to talk to for about a week. I realized through that experience that when we do what we are supposed to, God really does give us miracles. They may not be the way we want them or even the way we expect, but they do come.

Also, last Thursday we got the chance to do missionary follow up training in a city called Jiayi. It is about 2 hours train ride from our area, so it basically took up the whole day for us. But it was a great experience to see some old faces and talk about our first 6 weeks in Taiwan.

Then this last weekend we got the chance to watch Conference! I loved it! I remember Conference talks being a little boring before I came on my mission, but now I realize that when you actually listen, the talks are so uplifting and interesting. 

I am doing well! Everyday my Chinese gets better and I love the people more and more. I can't believe I have already been out for 6 months! It's crazy. 

Love you all.

Elder Quist

Week 24

Happy Easter! And Also Happy Er Tong Jie!

This week was exciting and also exhausting! It was really hot and I got my first sunburn of the year.

Last Tuesday we went with a member back to the buffet where you can cook any meat in your hotpot. This time was a lot better because I could actually use my chopsticks and I liked the food more. I basically just ran out of time, but there was so much good food I could have kept going! 

Then on Thursday we went on exchanges with one of the assistants. He really helped us to get pumped up about missionary work, and he was a great example about talking with everyone. While contacting, I personally contacted a guy named Phillip, and I gave him a "Because He Lives" card and asked him to watch the video (the Because He Lives thing is pretty big out here, and everyone should watch it and share it with others). 

Then later that night we were on our way to WuQi, one of our areas which is about 15 or 20 minutes by bike and Elder Fox's bike got a flat tire. So we had to walk the rest of the way to WuQi. While in WuQi, though, we met a bunch of Filipinos who live in one giant apartment. They were all really willing to listen to us, and they all spoke English. Hopefully we can teach a lot of them, but there are about 50 so we will see how it goes.

Then on Friday we got to go on exchanges again, but this time I went with the zone leader. His name was Elder Ensign, and he asked if I was willing to lead the area. So for exchanges, Elder Fox went to the zone leaders' area and I had the chance to lead my area. I was a little nervous, but in the end it all worked out well! We had a really good day.  We even tracted into a house and had a great lesson with a lady and her son. 

Then that night while we were about to go home, Elder Ensign got a call telling him that in the morning we would have the chance to go Sao Mu, because this weekend was Er Tong Jie for the Taiwanese people. They don't celebrate Easter, but they had a celebration (Er Tong Jie) that is similar to Memorial Day in America. Part of it is going to the cemetery and cleaning the graves of your ancestors, that is called Sao Mu. So on Saturday morning, we woke up at 6 and rode a bus to Daya (the zone leaders' area). Then we biked from there to the place we were going to Sao Mu. However, since we rode a bus we didn't have enough bikes, so we had to take turns jogging next to the bikes! It was pretty exhausting.

Later that day we met with the investigator I met on the street on Thursday, Phillip! He was really nice and said he was willing to pray about God. We invited him to church on Sunday. However, he wasn't at church when we got there. And we waited till 9:30 and he still wasn't there. Then I went outside and called him, and when he answered it was really hard for me to hear him. One reason because he was speaking Chinese, but another reason was because all I could hear was a bunch of "Hallelujahs!" and we realized he was at the wrong Christian church! So we went and met him at a street corner and lead him to the church. It was so cool to see the person I contacted at church! We also taught him about the Restoration and scheduled to meet with him next week. 

Then we rode our bikes 40 minutes to meet with 3 kids who live in LongJing. They come to English class and said they would also come to church, Alex, Peggy and Borrus. We taught them about prayer and invited them to pray everyday together.

A pretty hot and exhausting week, but also a really good one! 

Love you all,

Elder Quist