Week 38

This was a good week. Nothing super spectacular. Nothing super hard. Just another good week. We had the chance to meet with some old investigators and also to meet some new ones. But besides that, it was just a missionary work filled week.

We were able to meet with an investigator this morning. His name is David, and he has been meeting with missionaries for a while. He is preparing for his baptism and is supposed to be baptized next week. It will be weird because I already have an RC named David, so I will actually have to call them by their Chinese names. 

The typhoons came this week. The anticipation was pretty high the first couple days of the week. However, the typhoons didn't really hit Taiwan at all. There was one day you could definitely tell there was a typhoon, but it was only light rain and some wind. After that day the weather was pretty much like normal. 

I am really enjoying my time here in Fengyuan. This next week is transfers; however, I don't think I will be moving anytime soon, but I guess you never know. The transfer after this one is a huge transfer, with 30 new missionaries (the huge "right after graduation" wave), so this next transfer will be a "prep" transfer, getting ready to receive all these new missionaries. The next couple of transfers are really going to shift the balance of the mission, we are going to become a really young mission. That means there are going to be two groups of missionaries because of it. One group is the slightly older generations who end up all going senior companions because the mission is so young, and the other group is the slightly younger generation, that, because their generation is so large, will probably stay junior companion for a longer time. I don't know what side I will fall on those two sides, but I think I fall on the slightly older generation side. I guess we will see what that means about my future mission. 

I will let you know what happens next week. I love you all and I am so grateful for this chance to serve a mission. I learned from Alma 26 (last three verses) that the greatest joy in this life is found in helping others receive the gospel and helping them learn and grow. 

Love, 

Elder Quist

Week 37

Miracles and Typhoons Are Coming

This week was a really great week! It was hard at times but we saw a lot of blessings and the weather wasn't super hot so we survived!

This last Tuesday we had zone training meeting so we went to our zone meeting. We have to take a train to Taizhong City and from there we have to get on a bus and continue to a huge chapel in a city which is actually south of Taizhong. It takes about an hour and fifteen minutes in total travel. So we traveled there and had zone meeting, and then right after me and Elder McDougal had to split and we went on exchanges with the zone leaders. I stayed in the zone leaders' area and I was on exchanges with Elder Watson, who trained Elder Millet, my MTC companion. It was a good exchange, but while I was on the exchange I realized how much I like Fengyuan. It is a good city. However, on exchanges we also had a really crazy experience. We were biking up this road in the middle of nowhere, a really narrow road. On both sides of the road were dogs chained up that were trying to kill us when we went past, and as Elder Watson (who was biking ahead of me) made it further up the road, we realized there were a bunch of dogs who were NOT chained up. So all of a sudden I saw Elder Watson stopped at a dead end, surrounded by a bunch of dogs. He told me to bike back as fast as I could, and while I was riding back a dog jumped out of the bushes and tried to bite me! But we ended up getting away uninjured, even though it was pretty freaky.

Then on Thursday we had interviews with President. So we had to travel back to the zone meeting chapel to meet with President. It was a good interview and I learned a lot from it. Then we traveled back to Fengyuan, and from Fengyuan traveled to our secondary area to meet with a great investigator, Wu Dixiong. That day was just full of travel, I was exhausted.

The result of all this travel turned out to be a lack of finding time. So when we got to Sunday morning, we had no new investigators. We were pretty upset about it, and decided to pray for great miracles. So before we went to church on Sunday we said prayers seeking miracles. When we got to church, we saw the miracles come. We had 5 of our investigators come to sacrament meeting and 3 new people show up to sacrament meeting, who we added to meet another time. We ended up with 8 people at church and 3 new investigators, which is crazy and never happens. I realized that the Lord is mindful of everyone and He is a merciful God. I am so grateful for this chance to serve in Fengyuan in the DongFeng branch. This is a great place and I am also so happy I could serve in Taiwan. 

We also had a baptismal service yesterday! Tu Dixiong, an investigator who has been investigating since March, got baptized yesterday! Elder McDougal baptized him and it was a great baptism. I forgot my camera though! So I need Elder McDougal to send me his pictures and then I will send them to you guys. All in all, it was a great week in Fengyuan and I learned that no matter where you serve, you end up loving the are where you serve!

Love you,

Elder Quist

PS This week there are suppose to be three typhoons coming to Taiwan. Two are going to likely just pass by and might not even affect us, but one of them is supposed to focus on Taiwan. So it will probably be really stormy and rainy this week.

Week 36

Moving Up In The World

This week was a really good week! We got the chance to move to a bigger and better apartment. It may not be super high with a really nice view like our last apartment, but we are not as cramped here  and we have AC in our study room now. I actually really like it.

Last Monday we were able to go bowling for PDAY and I did the best I have ever done in bowling! I have never been good at bowling, but one of the Elders in our apartment used to work at a bowling alley, so he showed me how to bowl correctly. So we played yesterday and I won the first game and got second the next game! I bowled a 136 my first game and a 141 the second game!

Then throughout the week we cleaned and prepared our apartment to move. We had to clean hardcore, because our apartment had gotten dirty over the last few weeks. But we got it all done! We moved on Friday, the APs and the Office Elders came and transported all our stuff from our apartment to the sisters' apartment. 

This week we also saw a few great miracles. An investigator who had almost reached baptism about 2 months ago reappeared. She was gone because she had had a death in the family and now she wants to continue learning. She really wants to get baptized and she even came to church yesterday. It helped me realize that the people who are ready to hear the gospel and accept baptism will find it and get there eventually, and even when we feel some people are "lost between the cracks" we can be confident that the Lord is in control and He knows what He is doing. 

Then we also had another cool miracle. We were tracting and we came to this one house. Inside there were two young girls watching TV (spongebob) and a dad and a mom. They saw us and immediately let us in; they even turned off the TV (which in Taiwan means they mean business). So we talked to them for a while and taught them about prayer and how our church can help their family. They invited us back and we are going back tonight to try to teach them more. It was great! I had never tracted into a family like that before!

I have come to love finding more and more. At the beginning of my mission, like most missionaries, finding scared me so much, and I would much rather avoid it. But as I have been able to communicate better and better and my desire has grown, I have really come to enjoy finding. I love when you find cool people on the streets or in a house, and then you actually get to teach them! It is such a good feeling and it just makes teaching them so much better! Even though I am yet to baptize someone I found from my own efforts, I look forward to when that day does come!

Things are good here in Taiwan. It is hot and humid, but things are great. Taiwan is such a great, beautiful place. I can't wait to get to see more of it! 

Thanks and love you all. HAPPY USA DAY!

Love, 

Elder Quist

Week 35

This week was a great week in Taiwan! It is getting hotter and hotter, but everyone tells me it isn't even that hot up in Fengyuan compared to down south on the island. I am getting more and more used to this area and my companion... Things are going better and better. We have a lot of great people in our area and everyday we are seeing more and more miracles. 

This last week for PDAY we went out and went bowling and played pool with the rest of the Elders in our apartment. It was a good time and I think I finally learned how to bowl! Then I went out and got a new camera so I could show you some good pictures of our area. 

On Tuesday we got some interesting news. We learned that we now get a whole hour to eat dinner (we used to only get 30 minutes, because we can just eat out on the go). It is a weird change to the rules, and if we ever actually use the full hour we usually just do some extra language study. I also went on exchanges with the other Elders in our apartment. I went out with Elder Varvel, a great missionary from Connecticut. We saw a lot of miracles together, including a new investigator named Gavin! We met him on the side of the road and he has started meeting with us.

Wednesday we had some more English classes. I am teaching the kid class again and it is super crazy! They can never focus, but it is still fun.

Thursday we got to go out to our secondary area, Dongshi. It is a really beautiful bike ride there, so I took some pictures this time and I will make sure to send them out. When we were out there we had a member give us a great referral. The referral is a good guy and is really interested in learning more. He will probably get baptized because he is a member referral, and all member referrals get baptized! So make sure you are always good to missionaries in your town!

Then this last Friday we had yet another miracle day! We were able to meet with 6 people. It was a great day, because everyone we met with was super great and really progressing toward baptism.

And on Sunday we saw the biggest miracle of all. We only had one investigator at church, which was great and we were so happy, but as a mission we shoot to get 2 investigators at church every week. So I prayed SO HARD to get at least one of our other investigators to come to church. Then we saw our miracle! One of our investigators, who wasn't originally going to come, showed up for sacrament meeting! Her name is Ke Jiemei and she is super great! So we hit our mission standards this week and I learned that, as long as we do all that we can, the Lord is really willing to bless us!

Happy Father's Day, Dad! Thank you so much for being such a great father to me! You are the world's best father!

Love you all,

Elder Quist

Week 34

First Week in Fengyuan

Well, I completed my first week in Fengyuan today and it was an interesting week!  It was kind of crazy and kind of hard to adjust to the new ward and everything, but I got through it. I am currently serving in the DongFeng branch, which is a huge area up by the mountains North of Taizhong. The main part of our area is a big city on the base of the mountains, but we have a few really mountainous secondary areas. We don't usually go to the secondary areas, because they are so far away and so high in the mountains.  But there is one secondary area we visit once a week. It is named Dongshi (That is the Dong in DongFeng). Dongshi is up in the mountains, and apparently has some of the cheapest and best fruit in Taiwan. They used to have missionaries up there, but because of the lack of missionaries lately, we are the only ones who ever go there now. 

We live on the 16th floor of an apartment building.  We have a super good view. I would take a picture and send you the view of it, but that leads me to another part of my week last week. Somewhere on my travels from Shalu to Fengyuan, I lost my camera. For the first half of last week we ran around looking for it, but we couldn't find it. I was pretty upset about it for a while, but I think I have come to peace with it.  It is pretty sad since the only pictures that are saved are pictures I have sent home or to my friends. I also had a lot of pictures of the baptism with Chen Jun Hong and of me leaving Shalu. And now those are all gone with the camera. Hopefully, some of my old companions can send me some that I have lost. 

We also had the chance to go up to the temple this last week. It was a great chance to have some peace and rest from my hectic week. It was also a super beautiful day when we drove up, so I got to see a lot of Taibei and the Taiwan country side.

Then I also got to meet a lot of cool new people this week. We are the only missionaries in our branch, so we get to teach anyone in our area (male or female). Right now we have a lot of good investigators, but some have been disappearing, so I think we will spend some good time finding new people. As my Chinese and people skills grow, finding new investigators becomes more and more fun. I used to hate contacting, but now I can go out and talk to everyone I see on the streets. It is just a great experience to meet that one person on the street who wants to talk to you. And then when you actually meet with them, it's a kind of happiness that is just super awesome.

Shalu was hard to say goodbye to. I had a lot of good friends in Shalu and it was sad to say goodbye to Elder Fox. I can still email them though, so it's okay. Oh and when we move we use a company to move all our stuff around. So I lived out of a suitcase for a few days and I used a bike with no seat. It was a rough couple of days, went by really slowly. 

This week was a lot of new and challenging experiences. I am excited and nervous for this new chance to serve in the DongFeng branch. My new companion is pretty quiet, so I have had the chance to go out and talk to a lot of people and open my mouth a lot more than I usually would have. This is a growing experience and I can't wait to see what I learn from it. 

It's hard, but I can do this. 

Love you all, 

Elder Quist

PS Happy Birthday Nate! You are almost 30 years old.. Wow you will be 30 when I get back.. Good luck 

Week 33

Believe it or not, I am going north

Wow! Pretty crazy, because I am not in Shalu right now! Rather, I am in Fengyuan, which is on the other side of Taizhong. And I know I told you all that Shalu was the most northern part of the mission, but this new area, the DongFeng branch, is actually technically more north, and it is even bigger than my old area. However, I cover a lot of mountains and far away places that we will likely never go to. My companion says we stay mainly in Fengyuan, a place that is a little more city than Shalu.  And I moved east towards the mountains and away from the beach. We live on the 16th floor of our apartment and if you look out you can see a bunch of beautiful mountains. I am excited for the chance to serve over in this new area!

My new companion is a missionary by the name of Elder McDougal. He has been out for a little while now, about 15 months. I am his first junior companion, and he says he is a little worried because this is the first time he is in a leadership position. But we will get to work hard together and we will work miracles. 

It was sad to leave Shalu this last week. I took a lot of pictures with a lot of people and I ate dinner twice on Sunday, because all the members wanted to feed me the last night. It was also a great ending to Shalu, because on Saturday I was able to baptize Chen Jun Hong. He was so ready for baptism and he is such an awesome guy. After his baptism he took us to the all you can eat, cook it yourself restaurant.

We also had the chance to go to a Japanese church concert with a couple of our investigators on Saturday. It was at the stake center and it was an award ceremony for a lot of famous people in Taiwan and also a concert where some famous Japanese members of the church, called Serenity, sang a bunch of Japanese songs. It was a great time, but also kind of boring.

I have more to say, but not enough time. We are going to the temple this Wednesday, so I only have an hour to email today, and probably an hour to email on Wednesday, but we will see. I also have a lot of pictures to send. I will make sure to send them as soon as I can. 

I love you all,

Elder Quist

Week 32

Last week in Shalu?
Another great week in Shalu! We had a lot of miracles this week, including the rain stopping (for themost part). Apparently the rain has been pretty strong lately, most people in my mission said it doesn't usually rain this much. I think it might be because we are up north, and the north is pretty rainy (the Taibei area). I hope it slows down and doesn't come back too much.. but I guess we will see.

This is the last week of the transfer! Kind of crazy that I have been in Shalu for 14 weeks! I have been here for a month longer that I ever was in Washington. It's crazy to think that.. If I had to guess I would say the time feels pretty equal.. Maybe even a little longer in Washington. But I think it's just because time is going faster and faster.. I have been out for almost a third of my mission... My mind is blown when I think about that. So the transfer is ending, that means I will almost definitely be switching things up next week. Either Elder Fox will leave or I will. We aren't really sure who is moving.  Elder Fox has been here for about 6 months, and any longer than 6 months in one area is pretty long, but at the same time he is going home after next transfer, and he really wants to stay in Shalu. So he has been trying to drop some hints to President Blickentstaff, and also the two APs in the office right now came to Taiwan with him, so he is really pushing to stay for his last transfer. I am pretty open to anything, so I guess we will see what happens.

I hear all great things about the new Payson Temple coming. Everyone tells me it is a really beautiful temple and people are coming from everywhere to see it. I feel bad for the people working at Dairy Queen for the last few weeks! DQ must be killing it lately. The dedication is next week, so you guys will all have to tell me how that is. I will make sure going there is one of the first things I do when I get back. 

Also, I heard about Elder Perry passing away. That is a sad thing, but at the same time I feel like Heaven must be pretty nice for an Apostle...I still remember when I met Elder Perry on Temple Square those years ago. I always thought that he would be the prophet one day. Besides President Hinckely, this is the first time I remember an apostle passing away, all the other ones I was too young to remember. So it is a weird thing for me. Do they just have 11 Apostles until the next conference? Or do they call one earlier and we sustain them in church?

We are having a baptism this week! It is for Charles (Or Chen Jun Hong, our investigator who's girlfriend is a member). I am nervous, because he said I could baptize him... I guess we will see how it goes. We also might have Jonas get baptized, but he still needs his parents signature, so I'm not sure.

This last week we had a cool bowling activity for the ward. We invited a bunch of less-actives and investigators, but only a few people came. It was still fun though. I didn't do so well... But I actually bowled a 106 my second time, which isn't bad for me!

Things are going well here and I am glad I get to serve in Shalu! I hope if I do move I don't go to far south, because apparently the south gets pretty hot and humid in the summer. 

Love you all!

Elder Quist

PS Congrats on the new baby Josh and Allie! Ember Grace Quist! I can't wait to meet her in a couple years!