Week 88

GOODBYE ELDER REDDING

Well, I have a new companion. His name is Elder Williams and he's from Arizona.  He seems like a really nice guy and I can't wait to get to know him.  We were really surprised when we got the news on Saturday that Elder Redding was going to move. He just got here, but because President doesn't want a bunch of zone leaders to go home the first transfer with Elder Teh, he put in a bunch of new zone leaders.

This last week we met a new family! We have an investigator who has been meeting with missionaries from before I got here and finally he allowed us to go over and visit his entire family. He has a son who is 17 and a daughter who is 14. They were all super cool. When we shared some of our experiences as missionaries, the mom of the family cried. It was such a great miracle.

At 6 o'clock Saturday night we had a lady in our ward get baptized, and Denny Wu, our investigator, was also going to get baptized that day... but he texted us and told us he could not get baptized because of family opposition. It was some sad news!  

But then after the baptism, we had a ward activity. It was a Hawaiian party. We had some Hawaiian pizza and we had a bunch of investigators come. Zi Gang and Sam both came. We also had a new investigator we met on the street come.  He came and he asked us a bunch of questions about missionary work.

The other miracle was a new investigator who came through english class.  After class we had a student come up to me and ask if he could get baptized! So, we met with him and he talked to us of how he regretted a lot of the decisions he made in his life and he really wanted to have a new start. So, we gave him a baptism goal. We hope that he can hit his goal. His name is Peter Chen.

Elder Quist

Ward Activity

Week 87

What a good week! We saw a lot of miracles. It also didn't rain as much! We met a lot of cool people this last week and the best part is some of them were families. This next week is transfers, I hope that President let's me stay here.

The first miracle happened this last Thursday. We originally planned on going a ways away to visit a couple of investigators at a college, but at the last second one of them cancelled, so we decided we would stay closer to our house and contact people. We had nothing going on that whole afternoon. I kind of just thought we should go to the college, because we had nothing better to do. However, I felt like it was the Lord's will that we didn't go. Finally, I found out why we didn't go! We were waiting at a red light, heading off to lunch, when a 16 year old kid biked up to my side. I started talking to him and asked if he wanted to go to lunch at the place we were going. He then told  me that he was planning on going to that place to eat lunch anyway! So we ate together. He told us that he was a christian, so while we were eating we decided to share the restoration with him. He seemed to really agree with all the things we were sharing, so much that he invited us to come and visit his family the very next day. So the next day we went over to his house, and we met his mother. Immediately she was frantic. She started to 罵her son in Taiwanese. However, because she was a nice lady, she decided to let us in anyway. We shared the restoration with her too. At first she was very stubborn and refused to listen. However, the spirit began to soften her heart. It was especially when we shared the first vision with her. Right before we shared the first vision, she kept bringing up these small problems. Then as we began to share the first vision, the room got really quiet. After that, she just listened. In the end of the lesson, she gladly accepted a Book of Mormon and she told us she really would read it because she really wanted to know if it was true. It was such a spiritual lesson. It also made me wonder how many people would accept the gospel if they just gave it a chance. It was such a cool miracle!

Then another great thing that happened was with our investigator 吳.  He is a student at the college and we met him a while ago because a missionary contacted his friend and his friend wrote down his number instead as a joke. But he was super willing and he started coming to church. However, as he was getting ready for baptism, his family came out and antied him getting baptized, so he started to abandon his baptism goal. On Saturday, we invited him to come to church and he said he really didn't want to come, because he didn't want to go against his family. We persisted and even asked if he would fast with us. Finally, he was willing. He came to church and fasted. During sacrament meeting the spirit was strong. The speakers were talking about faith. Finally, he opened up the pamphlet we have about baptism, read through it again, bowed his head, and he prayed. Then he leaned over to me and asked "What do I still have to do in order to get baptized?" We explained it to him and he may just be getting baptized this week! We will have to see though... I know that faith is so important. This gospel is true and anyone willing to live it will be blessed with a way to live it. 1 Nephi 3:7. God will provide a way!

It really was a great week!

I love you guys, 

Elder Quist

Week 86

This last week was a little different. For one thing, it was full of rain... But it is okay, because I feel like I have finally accepted the rain. It took me a while on my mission, but I feel like I can finally say that I actually enjoy it while proselyting. Maybe it is because of the experience I had last week on a rainy day...

We went on exchanges last week. I was with an elder named Elder Graves, from Orem, Utah. As we started our exchange together, I asked him what kind of miracles he would want to see while we were together. We decided that one of our goals was going to be to find someone together who would eventually become baptized. So, we decided to pick out a name. We decided his Chinese name would be Chen and his english name would be Charlie. So, we went out for the day looking for and praying for this guy. After being out for not too long, we came across a guy on the side of the road. This guy was really nice and even invited us over to his cram school across the street. He was about 26 and he is studying to be a bio technical doctor or something, so he had a cram school making little robots. We started talking to him and then he told us his name was Chen! We asked him if he had a english name... and he told us he didn't. HOWEVER, his Chinese name was Changting, which (if you say if correctly) sounds a lot like Charlie! We realized we found the guy we were praying for. He turned out to be super cool and we even scheduled another time to go back and visit him.

Then this last week we also had zone conference. It was great!  I got to see a lot of people from earlier in my mission, including all the elders from zhanghua. They talked to me about how all the baptized investigators are doing, like Sister Lin and Claire. Apparently they are all doing really well! I was so happy to hear that!!

  

I am doing really well lately... I love being out here. Even through all the rain! I do hope the rain stops sometime soon though, so I can go out and 傳教. 

I love you guys!

Elder Quist

Week 85

This was a great week. I am just kind of going.  I love this area just because there are so many people, and even better, there are so many people who are willing to listen and come and learn more. 

We have some great investigators progressing lately. Sabrina is still coming to church. She even came up with a new piano song to play for us. However, apparently she feels really pressured by Elder Redding and I, so she might start meeting with the sisters instead, because sisters are nicer, I guess. They also make food and give it to investigators, so who wouldn't want that.

Then we had a new investigator come to church last week. His english name is Denny. He is a college student at one of the colleges in our area, but he is originally from Zhanghua, the last area I served in! I actually know exactly where his house is in Zhanghua. He came to church this week too and he is really wanting to learn more about Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. 

So, we went to visit and meet with Denny at his college on Saturday. After meeting with him, we went with him and our member to McDonalds and ate lunch with them. After eating with them, we needed to do some calls and studies, so we decided one missionary would do calls while the other missionary just went around and talked to people at the McDonalds. While I was talking to people, I met one kid named Li. I started talking about our purpose in life and he keep asking me really deep questions. If you have ever served in Taiwan, you would realize how unusual this is, because the culture here is to be lectured in school and most people don't feel comfortable asking questions. So, I started to answer his questions and I tried to focus on the basics, but he just kept asking more and more. Finally, I was just like, hey, if you really want to understand more come to church tomorrow. The problem was he doesn't have a scooter. So we asked Denny, who goes to the same college as him, to drive him to church. It was pretty cool to have an investigator take another investigator to church!

Then also this week, I started teaching other people with the same Chinese name as me! I have never been able to meet with and teach anyone who was named Qiu, but yesterday we had two lessons with new investigators and they were both named Qiu!

The other investigators are working towards their goals. Zi Gang and Jia You are both working towards their goals. We are also finding a lot of cool new people. Miracles are everywhere!

Lastly, a story of fasting for you. I fasted yesterday, and I especially fasted that the people we were working with would be able to progress, including coming to church. However, after 30 minutes at church, we only had Sabrina at church. We had set up at least 6 people to come to church that day and I was really disappointed. However, I kept telling myself that I had to be grateful in all circumstances. Finally, after church had already gone for 45 minutes, people started showing up. In the end we had 5 investigators at church that day! I learned while fasting that we, especially as missionaries, must always be grateful in our circumstances. The farther our relationship from God is, the more we feel obligated to receive his blessings; however, the closer we are to him, the more we will understand that all things we have in life are gifts from God and we cannot ever repay him for all the blessings we have. 

Love you guys!

Elder Quist