Week 22 - 20%!

Hey all! 

I just finished about 20% of the mission and hit the 5-month mark. Super exciting stuff! This week was really slow. Probably one of the more difficult weeks so far. But then I found a scripture that really helped. 1 Nephi 20:10, "For behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction." Sometimes God gives us trials in life to test us or to learn something because he has chosen us to do something important and wants us to be ready. If we put our trust in God, He will help us!

Monday was super busy. We packed up our house for a few hours, then played basketball and soccer at the church for awhile. I got a haircut too. It's fresh. After a quick lunch, we moved all of our stuff to our new house! This house is the bomb.

Tuesday we only had one lesson, but it was probably one of the best! It was with Mariana and her niece, Angeles. We committed Angeles to baptism, so that was cool.

Wednesday we had interviews with President. They lasted quite a while. We missed 2 appointments. We try to call when we miss an appointment, but half the time this is what happens: we say "Hey sorry about yesterday. We called, but the number doesn't work." Them: "Oh yeah, I don't pay my phone bill, but I have a number. Just call if you're not going to come, alright?" HUH??? Some people...

Not much on Thursday to report.

Friday we walked so much. We had do something on the computers and while we were on, I watched Jeffrey R. Holland's talk about Peter when he says "Feed my sheep." Cool video!

So this member we ate with on Saturday mentioned like 4 times that I need to visit after my mission and marry his daughter. hahaha Ohhhh Mexico....

Sunday was Sunday. Anyway, that was my week. Super exciting! Y'all need to write me. I'm a lot funnier in personal emails.... :) 

Love and miss you all! 
Elder DQ

My new desk arrangement

(he promises more pics next week!)

Week 21 - Still Haven't Been Robbed (Part 15)

I'm doing great, fam! Still a little sick, but it's ok. I'm livin'. Valle de Chalco is fun! Lots of nice drunk people. I actually saw some guy just fall over in the road because he was so drunk. Good times. OH!... And there was an earthquake last week. It wasn't too near, but we felt it. Still alive though. 

Monday: We played soccer as a zone today and I killed it (just kidding, it was so fun though). We had some really good quesadillas later. Kind of sketchy, but what isn't here? 

Tuesday: Our district meeting was good. Elder Parker taught about having patience. 'Twas a good lesson. Sidenote - Sorry I say "good" a lot in these emails. My english vocabulary has drastically reduced.

Wednesday: We had a multi-zone meeting in Chalco with Elder Pieper, an Area Authority. He said a lot of helpful things, but what I liked the most was, "Revelation is not an explanation. It is a declaration." Lots of good stuff. Super long meeting like 5 hours. 

Thursday: I really like these scriptures. I read during my study time: Mosiah 2:22-24 and 2 Nephi 1:20. The rest of the day was not too fun.

Friday: SUPER exciting day. So we were walking around, contacting people when a guy was like "Hey, where are you from?" And it is usually fun to talk to people that speak english so we talked with him awhile. This guy has LIVED. He knows like 6 languages, has lived/travelled all over the world, super funny guy. Ok dad, here's the best part: He lived in Elko for 10 years. For those of you who don't know what/where that is. It's a town like 3 hours west of Salt Lake in Nevada. Lots of mining. And this guy worked in one. "You know, I really like Americans. Hard workers, even the women. One time I was assigned to work with Matilda. And that's a girl's name, so I was pretty excited. Maybe she was cute? When all the other workers found out, they said, 'You're dancing' with Matilda tonight!' Turns out, Matilda was the name of a jack hammer. I don't like Matilda anymore." Haha!! This guy is hilarious. Anyway, later in the day there was a BIG earthquake in Oaxaca (Wuh-hawk-uh) and we felt it. Our electricity was our for 2 hours. Fun stuff.

Saturday: From study - "If you treat an individual as he is, he will stay as he is. If you treat him as if he were what he could be and ought to be, he will become what he ought to be." Sorry, I don't talk about investigators a lot. We currently have like 30, but none of them have come to church (literally zero).

Sunday: Ward Conference today! We had 145 people come. A new high! Afterwards we negotiated for a new house (it's sick, I love it). We'll be moving tomorrow! We had a zone meeting in the evening. 

Busy week! 2 to 3 lessons every day. I love y'all. Hope life is treatin' you well! Email me! :)

- Elder Quist

(no pics from our boy this week, but grateful to the Garcia family for sending some!)

Moving Day - The Elder's previous apartment wasn't in their area (10 minute walk to their area). So they found and negotiated a new one in their area. Thanks to the Garcia family who helped them move! 

 Transfer day for Elder McDowell

Week 20 - 13 Baptismal Commitments!

Hey All! Still alive and Mexico is great! Getting a lot of work done. This week was awesome, but ended not so great. (not too bad though - don't worry) 

Monday: We had a zone meeting in Chalco and then played soccer and volleyball with a bunch of other zones. Good stuff.

Tuesday: Incredible day! We went to the temple today with several zones. Super cool. The temple is awesome! Later we had a lesson with a contact and 2 of her daughters. Not the best lesson, but they all committed to baptism! 

Wednesday: Really good study day. I read from Jesus the Christ, New Testament, Book of Mormon, and Preach My Gospel. It was nice. For lunch, we ate with Hermano Beto. Probably my favorite person here after the Garcia's. It was super chill. Later, as we were about to go home, I felt like we should visit this one contact nearby. We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and committed 3 of them to baptism! 

Thursday: Long day. Nothing too exciting, but studies were good though. I like studying.

Friday: Cool day. We met this guy in the street named Pedro. He has been to church before, but it's been 15 years. We taught him a lesson and committed him to a baptismal date! Super cool guy. And his name is Pedro, so that's pretty rad.

Sábado (Saturday): I would give today a 10/10, 5 stars, super cool day! In the morning, we did some service for a ward member that's sick. It was fun! Then we had a lesson and committed 3 people to baptism! Later we helped the other Elders with a baptism. After the baptism, we had another lesson with a contact from almost 3 months ago and committed 3 more people to baptism! 6 in one day!! Really cool day!

Sunday: Not as fun. We had 13 people committed to baptism and 0 came. :( Very sad. I gave another talk in church. It was pretty bomb, not gonna lie. Also, we negotiated for a new house. I got them business skills and them spanish skills. We visited with some other contacts and talked about a lot of things. We committed them to baptism though, so that rocks!

Good week, as you can see. It felt nice to see a bunch of work turn into something. I'll need your prayers though. These peeps gotta get to church.  Love y'all!

- Elder Quist

Week 19 - "Don't Skip your Prayers"

First week out of training! Pretty good week! Worked hard. Half the week was super cold and half was pretty hot.

Monday: Last day with Elder McDowell. We made pancakes with the Garcia's again and then back again that evening we had dinner with them. Fun day!

Tuesday: We woke up early and drove to Amecameca for changes. My new companion is Elder Marin (pronounced Marine). He has been out 13 months and is from Honduras. Cool guy. We taught 3 lessons today. Pretty good day.

Wednesday:  We visited a lot of people today, but didn't teach a lot. We street contacted a bunch though! Busy day.

Thursday: Elder Marin really likes to play chess, so a few times when we were waiting for stuff, we played... He is pro. He beat me in like 10 moves. We chose a companionship scripture which is Hebrews 13:1, "Let brotherly love continue." We contacted a lot today and found some cool people.

Friday: We taught a neighbor of the Garcia's today. Also named the Garcia's (that happens a lot here, literally every other person is a Garcia). Good lesson! I hope they get baptized.

Sunday: No investigators came to church :( , but it was good. I forgot to say my prayers before bed and I woke up a little sick... Don't skip your prayers!! We had a family night with the Garcia's and their neighbor, Sylvia. It was good! Hopefully we can baptize her.

A pretty good week though! Hope all is well!

- Elder Quist

 My new super OCD satisfying desk arrangement

 McDowell and I were pretty sad he was leaving...

 He was more sad than I haha

 My buddy Elder Petersen from Saratoga Springs

 Istlausihautl (it's a volcano, idk how to spell it)

 Goodbye to Elder McDowell

 Me and Elder Marin

 Street Paso de Cortes

Cool panorama