Week 97

Well this one was a great week for me as a missionary! The best part was Huang Pin Yi 黃品逸getting baptized!  I don't know if you remember how we met him or what his story is, but I'll give you a little review...

We met him about a month ago. We went to a 7-11 to make calls one night and we sat down and called for about an hour, not seeing much success. Finally, it was time for us to go to our next lesson. So, I got up and I saw a guy buying a drink. I decided I should go up and talk to him. I gave him a tract and asked if he could come some time and meet with us. He said he could, but he didn't seem like the most golden investigator. That was on a Friday. The next Monday we met with him at the church. The lesson started off pretty average. He seemed more interested in being in a room with a couple of white guys than coming to learn about Jesus Christ, but we still had hope. We invited him to begin to pray on his own. The next day I was able to call him and ask how his prayer went. He then told me over the phone that he had had a dream. He wouldn't tell us what it was, but he said that he had been praying a lot since we met with him. That started his conversion process. We kept meeting with him and he kept progressing. He missed the first week of church after we found him, but since that Sunday he has not missed once (including the time we went over to the stake center and had a conference). He is also currently reading in Alma. Originally, his baptism date was set for September 9th, but since we felt he was doing really well, we moved his baptismal date up two weeks. I had the opportunity to baptize him. After he was baptized, he was given the chance to go up and share his testimony. During his testimony he shared about the many experiences he has had over the last month that have caused him to want to come closer with God. That's why he wanted to get baptized in the end, because he believed it could bring him closer with Jesus Christ, a person he said he had come to love over the last few weeks.

Then we saw another really cool miracle this week. While contacting on a road, Elder Williams saw a street and had the impression that we should come back another day and tract out that street. So only a few days later, we returned and started tracting. We tracted only about four houses when we got to a house with a young man sitting at the computer. Upon seeing us, he ran upstairs. About a minute later, the young man's dad came down the stairs and invited us in. He told us that his son was deaf and was probably just nervous about the communication issue. So, we began teaching the dad and I had an impression that we should talk to the son. So, I began praying that the son would be prompted to come back down the stairs. However, after about 10 minutes he still hadn't come down. Finally, I had a thought. Why was I waiting for the Lord to compel him to come downstairs when I could just ask him down? So, I talked to the dad and asked if the son would be interested in talking with us. He said he would go and ask. A little bit later the son and the dad walked down the stairs. The son seemed really interested to talk to us and immediately sat down and began talking to me. I learned that he had been praying to Jesus for a long time in his life (because when he was young he had attended a church once). He then told me he had always wanted to ask God why God had allowed him to be deaf. I was amazed at the faith of this young guy, who has had very little exposure to any sort of christianity, but has undeniable faith in Jesus Christ. He set up for us to go visit him again. We are planning to go back tonight (and Huang Pin Yi is going to come and fellowship him too). 

Gwen is progressing really well lately. She always comes to sacrament meeting now.  She still refuses to accept a baptismal goal, but I think it really helped that she was able to attend Pin Yi's baptism. We will keep working with her.

This last week we were also able to spend half the week with another elder in our zone. He and his companion had been struggling lately, so President sent him to live with us until today, when he moved to a different area in the mission. His name is Elder Hongvilai and he is from Thailand. He is a super awesome missionary! He had to learn both English and Chinese when he came here. It is kind of lonely for us now that he is gone. I will make sure to send you a picture of us with him.

There are a lot of miracles happening here! Everything is going well.

Love you all!

Elder Quist

Week 96

TEACH REPENTANCE

This last week was really busy!  We had two days where we were gone all day. Thursday we had a meeting up in Taizhong. We got on a train pretty early in the morning so we could get there early enough to make it to a meeting with Elder Evans of the Seventy. He used to be the head of the missionary department. He talked to us about teaching repentance and baptizing converts. He talked about how important it was for us missionaries to teach all the people we meet about repentance and teach them what it means to truly repent. After which, it is so important for the investigator to have their own experience with repentance. As we do this, these are the people who are going to be changed because of the gospel, really these are the people who are going to stay faithful for their whole lives.  So, we as missionaries need to do better to help our investigators have experiences like Alma and Enos. He also talked about finding new investigators.  We should not do anything that distracts us from our purpose as missionaries, regardless of how good of an activity it is.

Then on Friday we had the opportunity to go to Youth Conference. There was a youth conference for the entire country this last week and it was all happening in Jiayi, which is the city right above Tainan. So, on Friday at noon we headed up to Jiayi and once we got there we took a bus to a college. Once there we practiced singing. We sang "We'll Bring the World His Truth" and "As Sisters in Zion" medley in Chinese. While we sang it we were dressed up like the Sons of Helaman. Apparently it was a big hit. We talked to some of the youth who went and they said they were really moved. A lot of them decided that they were going to go on a mission.

While we were at Youth Conference I met David Archuleta. I guess I didn't really meet him. When we first got there he was just standing at the door and I just shook hands with him and greeted him. Then later in the night when we were singing he sang with us. Apparently he was sick, though. He is a really nice guy. He also shared about how he deiced to go on a mission even though there were a lot of people who thought it was not the smartest idea.  It was a really fun activity. I saw a lot of people I had met previously in some of my old areas. We also had Elder Evans come and share about some experiences he has had with missions and mission calls. He went to Japan on his mission. 

On Saturday we had a baptism interview for Pin yi. He passed it with no problems! He is super awesome. He has had a lot of experiences lately that have helped him know that the church is true. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and is currently at the end of the book of Mosiah. (We met him last month, so that might make you feel all guilty about how much of the Book of Mormon you've read in the last month!)  Since we have been focusing on teaching repentance lately, we wanted to make sure Pin yi has really repented and is ready for baptism. He shared with us his experiences so far. One of his experiences was a dream he had. While he was struggling to know if he had truly repented of the past sins he has committed, he had a dream. In his dream he was drawing a picture and the picture was a young boy who was on the ground, sad because he had committed sins. However, behind the boy were two hands and it seemed like the hands were protecting him. After waking up he knew that no matter what he had done, or what he will do, God will never forsake him. This Saturday he is going to be baptized!  He asked if I would baptize him, so I am really excited.

I love all you guys!  Here are some shout outs. Congratulations Zac and Nicole on getting married! Happy Birthday Allie! 

Elder Quist

Week 95

WHAT A GOOD WEEK!

On Monday we were able to go to Anping, which is a tourist area in Tainan. It is just a city with an old fortress that used to belong to the Dutch until Zheng Cheng Gong, a Chinese leader, came and kicked the Dutch out of Taiwan. It was really fun. One of my old friends from Zhanghua, Pony, came down to Tainan to visit me!  It was so great to see him again.  I also was able to buy some cool souvenirs.

One other cool thing happened this week. Currently, the Pokemon Go game is super big in Taiwan. So, Elder Williams and I have been going to this park in our area and all we do is sit down in the middle of this big crowd of people playing Pokemon and we are able to constantly talk to people! I love this new game! It has gotten so many people to leave their houses and come outside so we can more easily talk to them.

Then this last week David Archeletta came to Taiwan. The park we talked to people who were playing Pokemon was the same park where he performed.  So since it was our area, the stake president asked us and the missionaries in our district to go and hand out programs to the people entering the concert. Although we weren't able to attend, it was still pretty cool to get to participate in the activity. There were a lot of people we had met on the street before that came to the concert. I didn't get to shake hands with David though...

Our investigators are doing really well.  One of them is 品逸 Pin yi. We were able to meet with him a few times this last week! He had some trials, but through prayer he got all the answers that he needed. He was originally going to get baptized in September, but we changed his goal to August, because he is ready for baptism. He has already been through all the lessons. He has a interview this week, so we will see how it goes.

We also had another investigator progress well this last week. Her name is Gwen and she is an english class student. When I first met her (my first week in Tainan as her english teacher), I asked if she would like to meet with missionaries sometime. At that time she wasn't very interested. However, as time went on and we did a lot of spiritual shares (we always do spiritual shares in english class), her heart began to soften. She now has come to church twice. She is reading the Book of Mormon regularly and she is also praying. This last week we had stake conference and even though our stake center is a little far from where we live, she was still super willing to come and participate! 

We have other investigators that we continue to work with to help them progress.

This next week should be busy. Taiwan is having youth conference for the entire country this Friday and it is happening in the city just north of us, so we have been asked to participate. We will be up there for most of Friday. Also, we will be attending a seminar for zone and sister training leaders up in Taizhong on Thursday all day.

I love you guys.  Pray that we are lead to the chosen vessels of the Lord! 

Elder Quist

Handing out programs at the David Archuletta concert!

Week 94

ANOTHER TRANSFER IN THE LAND OF MILK AND HONEY

Well transfers were today... And as it turns out I am not going to move! I am so happy to stay here with the great people of Tainan!

One of our new investigators, Pin yi (品逸), is doing really well lately. I think I talked about him a little bit last week. Well, this week we saw a lot of miracles with him. He is the type of investigator who is super willing to keep all commitments, but we just had the problem of getting him to have his own spiritual experiences. So, this last week we had a lesson where we followed up on his scripture reading and we asked that as he read the Book of Mormon if he would highlight the scriptures he liked and be prepared to share with us why he liked them. Well, he shared with us one of the scriptures he liked and we started talking to him about it. He then told us he suddenly had a weird feeling. He said it was like a feeling he had never felt before, a feeling that made him so happy he almost wanted to cry. It was such a spiritual lesson with him. Since that lesson he has been progressing even faster. Then it got to the weekend and he was really excited for church. However, on Friday morning his boss told him and the rest of the workers that they would have to work that Sunday. He called and told us he wouldn't be able to come to church anymore. Elder Williams and I decided that we would give him a chance to strengthen his faith, so we read with him about "ask and ye shall receive, knock and it shall be opened unto you." We shared with him that if he really wanted to go to church, and had enough faith, the Lord would hear and answer his prayers. So, during his work break he went and prayed and asked God to provide him a way to go to church on Sunday. Later in the afternoon, the boss asked all the workers in for a meeting. During the meeting the boss decided that maybe they wouldn't work on Sunday after all. Pin yi was so surprised. He was amazed that the Lord really answered his prayer. After it happened, he sent us a text and told us that he knows that the Lord hears and answers prayers. He then came to church on Sunday in the white shirt and tie that he had bought the day before!

Then a few kind of sad things happened with a couple of other investigators we have. One of them was Brother Xue. He is doing really well still, but we realized that he lives on the border of our area and the other elders' area and he is actually on their side, not ours. It is a little sad, but it's okay because he is still willing to come and meet with missionaries.

This same thing happened again last week with a different investigator. This investigator is named Carter and he is super cool. He is going to BYU Hawaii next semester and he wants to get baptized before he goes. However, he too lives on the border and he too just so happens to live on the other elders' side.  It's okay though.. I know that it's all the Lord's will and there is obviously a reason they don't live in our area. I know that everything the Lord gives us is a blessing, so we are definitely going to see miracles by doing it the Lord's way.

We continue to meet good people here and see miracles!  This last week we were a little busier than usual, but I am excited to go out and find some cool new people this next week. I have only two more transfers and I am going to make them the best two of my mission!

I love you guys!

Elder Quist

Week 93

THAT WAS QUITE THE WEEK

This last week was a really special week. It was full of disappointments and miracles. I think that at one point we had about 40 lessons scheduled for the week (investigators and new potentials that we had met on the street). However, at least 20 of those lessons stood us up or cancelled. I remember we got to Saturday and I was just mad. I just didn't understand why people could not understand how important this message we are sharing is. I just didn't understand why everyone refused to give us a chance. I felt that there we were talking to so many people, but nobody was willing to hear. Isn't this the most precious and important message in the world? Why did nobody understand?

I still don't know all the answers to those questions, but yesterday the Lord gave me some answers. I realized that timing is important to Him. Not everyone is ready right now. I also learned that if one thing was true, it was that the Lord will never abandon anyone and nobody is a "lost cause" to the Lord. So, even though most people are lost, the Lord will be there as soon as they are ready to accept Him. 

I also had an experience that taught me charity. Last night we had a family home evening activity and our recent convert brought his friend. His friend is a very active christian in a different church. After family home evening, I went over to talk to him to see if he would be willing to meet sometime. He immediately asked me if we read the bible as a church. After which he told me how he had never heard of the Book of Mormon and that he was used to reading the bible. He then proceeded to ask me if I read the bible regularly and he then pulled out a bible scripture on a piece of paper from his wallet and asked me if I could tell him what it meant. I felt attacked during the whole thing. I felt he didn't really like our church, and I felt the way he was going about it all was very prideful. He then proceeded to tell me that he believed our church felt different than most christian churches, and the way he said it just made me feel offended.

So, we met with him this morning. He was going to return to school in Taibei, so he asked if we could meet this morning before he went back. We brought out bibles and we were ready to "open the scriptures" to him. Then the lesson we had with him changed my attitude. As we began to meet with him, I realized that he was actually really interested in our church and that also he had asked me all those questions about the bible and the Book of Mormon because he was genuinely interested in learning more. He turned out to be golden. A lost soul looking for the truth. I realized that I was offended during the conversation I had with him the night before because I was so used to be rejected and called out by other Christians that I immediately assumed his questions and his comments were all an attempt to attack. I assumed he was just another prideful Christian from another church, but then realized that maybe it was me who was being prideful. I learned that I need charity, for charity is essential in helping anyone accept this gospel. We will not build anyone's faith in this church by tearing down their faith in their own church. 

Another miracle we saw was getting seven people to church on Sunday! Our investigators are progressing now! The Wang family is doing really well and our new investigator 品逸is doing really well too. Next week is transfers. I hope I stay.

I love you guys! 

Elder Quist