Week 31

Rain

Another good week in Shalu! It rained so much this last week. From Wednesday to this morning, all we saw was rain, all day. However, we seem to have passed that little rain patch and I hope we can have a sunny week ahead.

I don't know if I have told you, but we have one of the youngest districts in the mission. Besides Elder Fox, no one in our district has hit their year mark yet. The two senior companions, besides Elder Fox, are both first-time senior companions, and they are both basically white washing the area, so there has been some stress in our district. However, over the last week we has seen so many miracles in Shalu, including people self-contacting us, asking us if they can come to church, and also people walking into our chapel to see "what kind of activities we have". We have also been receiving calls from less-actives asking us if they could "still come to church." It is basically a land of miracles!

Elder Fox and I have also seen our fair share of miracles in our companionship. We have been teaching a boy by the name of Jonas and it has been a very interesting situation. (I think I told you about him before, maybe?) We met him about a month ago. We were having family home evening with the ward, and after, while we were riding home, we got a call from the sisters. Basically they said they had a stalker, who was hanging out around the apartments where they lived. They told us he was at their house that night and they wanted us to come talk to him. So Elder Fox and I rode out and talked to this "stalker". His name is Jonas, and he is 13 years old. It turns out that he lives in that apartment complex, and he usually just hangs out outside. So we did what any missionary would do- we told him to stop following the sisters and we got his phone number and added him for Saturday! We usually don't teach kids, because we like to focus on getting the whole family involved instead, but we quickly learned that this kid didn't really have much of a family. His mother and father work until about 10 every night, and when they are home they are usually not the best influence on him. However, we were still cautious to teach him, because we didn't just want him to come because we were his friends.  So while teaching him, we asked what his motivation was in meeting with us. He then told us he really desired to change his life.  He (already) had had some really hard trials in his life and he was seeking the help of Jesus Christ. He then told us he wanted us to help him change his reputation, he didn't want to feel like a bad person anymore. So we continued to teach him. We got the ward involved as much as we could, trying to get adults to help us teach him. He is a good kid, with a great heart, but like any 13 year old, he can be pretty loud. We had to teach him to stop punching people in the arms as a joke and also to stop swearing in lessons. We also had to help him become well-behaved in Sacrament Meeting and to treat people with respect. It has been an interesting experience, but he has a spirit that you can just tell is great. Yesterday he came to church again. He doesn't have any church clothes, so this week Elder Fox and I went out and bought him a white shirt and some church pants. So he wore his new church clothes and he actually acted really obedient. Then after church there were a bunch of members who gave him some things, such as ties and shirts, and he had a short meeting with the bishop. He is really changing. It is an awesome privilege to get to work with God in the salvation of souls, especially the salvation of a soul like Jonas!

This is definitely the best thing I have experienced on my mission so far, being able to see the Atonement of Jesus Christ change someone's life.  The joy you feel when you see someone who once had no testimony, changing and trying to be an active member of the church is a feeling that I have never experienced before. 

The mission life is awesome! 

Love you all,

Elder Quist

Week 30

Miracles

This last week was a great week! We had the chance to see some miracles and also get spiritually uplifted by the mission president. 

Last Tuesday we had mission conference again, even though I felt like we just had it.  Time flies here.  (We had to leave the apartment at around 7:30 to get to Taizhong by 9. We got to the bus station and the bus pulled up as soon as we got there, Elder Fox didn't even have time to lock his bike! It was great for us, but the Qingshui Elders were about half a block behind us and they got stuck at a red light at the last minute, so we felt kind of bad as we watched them through the back window of the bus.) The zone conference was really great.  We talked all about becoming a more consecrated missionary. I also had the "opportunity" to give the opening prayer in Chinese. I just made it really short so no one could judge me. 

Then this last week we had an interesting experience with one of our investigators. His name is Prayerstone or Ke xiansheng. He has so much knowledge about the Bible and he really wants to receive the Holy Ghost, something he never got in the Christian church where he usually goes. However, while we were meeting with him last week, he told us he got an answer to his prayer and he believes our church and the other Christian church are the same, both with their own "grace". So the next time we went back we showed him the restoration video in Chinese and after that his whole attitude changed. He said he realized he had to pray for himself to find out if this church really was the only true church and he has to start reading the Book of Mormon more. However he told us he couldn't come to church this week, because he was going to the other Christian church. But on Sunday, while we were in sacrament meeting, we looked back and saw he was sitting in the back! When we asked what happened he told us that after the other church service he felt prompted he should come here. We told him it was the Holy Ghost.

Then we also met a super cool person last week. We were actually traveling to Ke's house and we stopped to get drinks and this lady who worked there told us she lived right next to our church. So we told her we could visit her sometime and show her our church. However, over the next few days she didn't answer her phone and we couldn't get a hold of her. It wasn't until we were biking yesterday in Longjing to visit a member, that we heard someone on the side of the road yell at us. We pulled over and realized it was her! She told us she wanted us to visit her family that night. So we went back over and met her husband and her kids! It was a miracle. 

Some of our other investigators progressing are Chen Jun Hong, a really good guy who just had his baptism interview and Liu DiDi. He is 13 years old and needs a lot of work before baptism... he needs to grow up a little bit.

That's about it for me this week. Love you all! Congrats Nate on graduating! 

Love,

Elder Quist

Week 29

Happy Mother's Day!

This week was another exhausting but great week. We had a lot of great experiences! Like last Tuesday we were able to go back to the hospital to visit our investigators there. However, we were having a problem with teaching him. The problem was we would go and teach him in his hospital bed, but it was really hard for him to interact with us in the lessons, because it is very painful for him to speak. We would teach him, but there was no way for him to interact in the lessons. Me and Elder Fox talked about it, and Elder Fox said he thought we should focus our lesson on his wife instead of him. So next lesson we focused on his wife, and it was a miracle! Originally we thought that she wasn't interested at all, and had absolutely no faith, but as we directed the lesson on her, and asked her questions, we realized that she had being reading the Book of Mormon and praying every night, and she also said that she had a little bit of faith, and she was really interested in increasing her faith. It really helped me see that we don't know who is ready for the gospel. Our job is to follow the Spirit and to invite others to come unto Christ.

This last week we also had Mother's day and my birthday! We had church and we had three investigators come, which was a great birthday gift. Then after church we had a feast for mother's day at the church. The men in the church were responsible for the food, so we had some pizzas and ice cream. It was nice to have some American food on my birthday! 

Then later that night we had dinner at a member's house, the Cai family. Sister Cai fed us so much great food and played some sort of Taiwanese instrument for us. Then we had cake that Elder Fox bought. It was a really great birthday and also a great mother's day! We also got to Skype our families this morning! All in all it was one of the best weeks of my mission! I can't believe I have been out for 7 months! Time flies!

Love,

Elder Quist

Week 28

First week in the new Shalu

So, this week was an interesting week, because we had the first week with our area split. On Monday we went down and picked up Elder Lin and Elder Nipper (the new QingShui branch Elders) at the bus stop, and we took them to the apartment. Elder Nipper is from Oklahoma and he is the senior companion. He is an awesome missionary and he is white washing, even though he has only been out for about 9 months. He is the first convert in his family, but his mom also got baptized after him. He is a great missionary. Then Elder Lin, he is from Taipei, and he is native Taiwanese, even though his English is awesome. He is a really chill missionary, but he is also very diligent and willing to talk with everyone. It's really fun to have an apartment with 4 elders! We are going out all together for PDAY. 

Last Wednesday we got a great referral from a lady in our ward, Sister Cai. She called us and asked if we could come with her to visit her older sister and her husband.  So we went up with her to visit them. The husband said we could come back sometime and teach him and his wife, so it was great. However, on Thursday, Sister Cai called and said he drank and got alcohol poisoning and is currently in the hospital, so went and visited him there. We taught him about the importance of prayer, and the power of it. We told him we would pray for him, and taught him how to pray for himself. Then we went back on Sunday and showed him the Easter video for the church. The spirit was really strong. Then today Sister Cai called and told us he wants a priesthood blessing from us, and apparently he really trusts us now, and wants to hear more about the message! So we are going to go back and teach him more about our church.

We also met a kid named Jonas this week. He is a 13 year old kid who lives alone and already works because he dropped out of school. He has a tough life and a close relationship with Jesus Christ.

We have been able to give Lin Jin Lai a baptism goal! He is the father of the family who lives in Longjing, the one we play basketball with. His kids are Peggy, Alex, and Borrus. He came to church this week and he is a really great father to his children. He wants a good life for them and we promised that through the gospel they could have a great life!

We saw a lot of miracles this first week in the new Shalu Ward and we can't wait to see more! 

Love you all! And Happy Mother's Day! (and my birthday!)

Love, 

Elder Quist