Week 9 - Dreams, Biscuits and Crickets

Hey there! How's it going? I'm doing great here, just doing the work of the Lord.  I'm starting to like living here a lot more which makes everything easier.  Elder McDowell and I get along really well, so that's good. So fun fact - During the day, all the stray dogs (there are so many) are nice, but at night they are terrifying! But I'm never scared; more exciting, than anything. Haha. So on with my week...

Tuesday: Great day! We had interviews in Chalco with President Zapata. He's so cool! Love him. After, for comp study, we watched the movie, "The Testaments." It's super cool! Everyone, go watch it. Then we went to the cyber cafe and learned about teaching/finding investigators using family history. It was interesting. Later we had a lesson with Solanda, Brinda and Ingrid. Only Brinda accepted a baptismal date, but all 3 are new investigators! Then we met with Enrique Hernandez, who also accepted a baptismal date. So we have 7 investigators now! Kinda insane.

Wednesday: So we haven't notice the Garcia's wearing wedding rings yet and we were nervous that they weren't married (pretty common here). So to find out we just taught them about chastity. Haha. And luckily they are married! Good start to the day. Then the Bishop's wife went around with us and showed us some less actives, some with kids we may be able to baptize. We had lunch with Giovanna. Later, we went to get our clothes which were being washed and found the washer was broken. So we spend 1 1/2 hours hand washing our clothes. That was fun.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving! We woke up early and met 3 other zones in Chalco and played American football. Fun times! Later, we went on splits. I was with Elder Santiz, my district leader. 

Friday: Super interesting day! So we taught the Garcia's about the word of wisdom and we were nervous because Angeles drinks coffee. Well, we taught them and she said that she'll quit coffee because she doesn't love it anyway! Btw, in our ward, the members can't have Coke if they want a temple recommend... ?? Anyway, after our lesson, we helped Christopher in his garden for an hour. We are homies. At lunch, we had a cinnamon Atole, the mexican equivalent of hot chocolate in America. Soooo good! I love it! Later, we visited the Jimenez family (Brinda, Solanda, Ingrid) and well, story time -- The reason Ingrid (she's 10) can't get baptized is because her father doesn't like the church. Well, the night after our 1st lesson with them, he had a dream that Satan was tempting him and tried to pull him into hell. He woke up (worth noting that he says this wasn't a dream) terrified and he promised to go to church. We didn't go in the room because everyone says his room feels evil. But we did bless the house. A first. Weird experience, but cool. 

Saturday: Super slow day. Woke up early and cleaned the church. I'm kinda pro at mopping now! Spent most of the day preparing talks for Sunday. Sadly appointments fell through. So there are these carts that go around all day and night selling biscuits for $3 pesos... super cheap. We heard the biscuit cart (they play jingles) and sprinted out of our apartment and ran down the street. We bought 13 biscuits! Oh sweet mercy, they were good.

Sunday: Gave a talk today. It think it went well. We ate dinner with some members. Then visited with Giovanna later. I tried chapoline (crickets) -- actually not bad, to be honest.

All in all, a great week! I love you all and pray for you!

Elder Quist

Biscuits!

Me and Elder Freitas

with the whole gang - Elders McDowell and Santiz

Week 8 - Happiness is a Choice

Hi All!

Well I'm doing well here. I still can't believe that I've been here for 2 weeks! Crazy! So after p-day last week, we had FHE with the ward. Super fun!

Last Tuesday: AMAZING DAY!! So cool. 10 days at that point and it's already so worth it! Ok to start, we had a ton of appointments today, like 5 to 6. We ended up not being able to teach any of them because only one of them were home. His name is Christopher Garcia and his wife, Angeles. They are amazing. They said that normally they wouldn't stop to talk to us in the street, but they felt peaceful and happy when we stopped them. They felt that it was God telling them to listen. After talking, they committed to baptism! So cool! I don't know spanish very well, but I could understand enough to see that they knew how special the gospel is!

Wednesday: Unfortunately, we had appointments fall through. But later in the day, we had a meeting with Hermano Roman, the ward mission leader.

Thursday: We walked 10-12 miles today, but it was such a good day. We had a lesson with Susanna. She has been taught all the lessons, but never kept any commitments. We visited her and talked and bore our testimonies and she committed to baptism! So that was awesome. Then we did a contacting activity with Elder Garcia and contacted like 20 people in an hour. 

Friday: We went to this super cheap gym this morning. It costs 10 pesos, which is about 50 cents in America. Later that morning, we taught the Garcia family again. It was soooo amazing. I love them. The rest of our day was full of appointments that fell through, so that was fun. Every Friday, we show a movie for local kids. 

Saturday: We tried to go to the gym again, but it was closed. So we ended up playing basketball at the church. Afterwards we cleaned the church. We had our studies, lunch, then more studies before we visited some less actives.

Sunday: REALLY good day today guys. Before church, we had our studies and I finished Alma. We had 5 investigators come to church! Giovanna brought her aunt. And the Garcia Family came (Christopher, Angeles and their daughter, Lucia) and Mariella (Angeles' daughter from her 1st marriage). So cool! Such a great experience! Later we went to Giovanna's house and watched "Ephraim's Rescue." Good day.

Well, this week has been awesome! Really eye opening. I wish that I could understand everyone better, but I know it will come. I have learned that no matter what, everyone can find a way to be happy. Since I've gotten to the field, it has bugged me that all these people living in poverty have TV's and nice phones. But I think that it is because they don't need more than what they have to be happy. They don't need nice homes. It has taught me a lot about humility. Well I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Q 


*This was included in his mom's letter (a little missionary chastisement to his family) and needed to document for his future self😜... "You know, the longer I go without a phone, the more liberated I feel. I think we spent a ton of time on technology. I think if everyone would use a little bit less, everyone would be happier." 

 We had a Kool-aid party!

 a parade by our house

 Main street of Chalco

Week 7 - La Ciudad De Alambres (The City of Wires)

Hey Everyone! I'm still alive - all is well here in Valle De Chalco! I'm in basically the most northern part of my mission in the ward Xico (Hico). Our apartment is small, but that's good because it's easy to clean. My companion is Elder McDowell. He is from Bear Lake and has been out for just about 10 months. We're different, but I love him. He's really good at spanish.

So last Monday was a LONG day. About 15 of us were going to Chalco. We emailed in the morning for a bit and then grabbed our luggage and boarded a bus. About 1 1/2 hours drive, had meetings at the mission office all day, then stayed at the AP's apartment that night.

Tuesday: Woke up, showered, packed, drove 45 minutes to the place for exchanges. Drove back the way I came to Valle de Chalco. Cleaned, unpacked, then went to someone's case for lunch. Lunch is the biggest meal of the day. So instead of feeding us dinner, they feed us lunch.

Wednesday: If I'm being honest, today wasn't the best. My spanish isn't very good so my comp talks most of the time, which is really frustrating because I can't understand much of anything. I know things will get better though.

Thursday: Well, things got better. We went the Chalco for a multi-zone meeting and I got see my CCM comps, Elder Crockett and Elder Rowberry. We walked a ton today after our meeting. Oh! So funny story. Valle de Chalco is known for moto-taxis and combis (come-bees), motorcycles that pull a little cart thing with 2 seats and combis are like VW busses that are like shared taxis. Funny story of the day. So to get to the meeting, we were going to take a combi, but we couldn't find one. So we took a taxi. Our taxi driver was stopped and arrested and his taxi was towed because he didn't have a license. haha. Later that evening, we played futbol at the church with some kids. Then studied after that. 

Friday: We started today with some studying and personal study. Good start! We studied all morning. It was freezing. Also, I need to add - we do not have any hot water! So that makes for some cold mornings. After studies, we went to lunch at Susanna's house. It was so good! Best food I've eaten in almost 2 months. Then we went contacting and visited members until evening. We showed "Despicable Me 3" at the church to a bunch of local kids. Mostly non-members as a way to get to know them. 

Saturday:  Good day. We slept in few minutes and surprisingly, that 10 extra minutes helped a ton. We just read the Book of Mormon for about an hour. We then went and cleaned the church with Elders Freitas and Santiz, the other Elders in our area. We went contacting and met some cool peeps. Later, we went to Stake Conference. Twas good. 

Sunday: We had Stake Conference from 11:30-1:30 pm. After studying, we had lunch at the Relief Society President's house. Later, we visited with another member, Giovanna. 

Monday: P-DAY - After cleaning our apartment, we met our whole zone at our capilla. We played basketball and soccer for awhile. All of the LDS churches in Mexico have basketball/soccer courts.

So our capilla (apartment) is pretty small. Our only door is the front door. The beds are pretty comfy. We have access to the roof of our building so we chill up there sometimes. It's super pretty when there isn't pollution. The neighborhood is pretty poor, but everyone is super nice. Our capilla is only 5 minutes  (walking) away from the church. It's awesome! 

Altogether this week has been good. The first couple of days were rough. Really rough. But I'm getting the hang of it, I think. Our companionship goal for this cycle is 7 baptisms, so we'll see how that goes. Everyone (at least in our area) is new so we don't have any investigators, but we are trying! I'm excited for the next 12 weeks! Love you guys!

Elder Q

Elder Quist with his companion, Elder McDowell

The view from the roof of our capilla

(a volcano - not sure which one)

PS - I challenged Dad to do the same thing, but I listened to a talk "Prepare Now for your Mission" from April 1977. It talks about enjoying the blessings of Family Home Evening. I want you guys to try to have FHE every week and only use paper scriptures - put electronics in a different room. :) Just trying to be a missionary! Well, sorry it took so long to email today. I miss ya tons and I'm sending tons of hugs your way! Don't worry about me. I'm safe and the Lord protects me. :) 

Made it to Chalco!

Hey guys! I miss ya! We have just a few minutes to email and tell our parents we made it safely, so yeah, I made it safely haha. My first area is Xico (Hico) and my first companion is Elder McDowell. He's been out since January, I think. We are at the mission office right now. We are staying at the AP's house tonight, then meeting our trainers tomorrow morning. Just talking to the APs on the way here, we found out our p-days are Monday and we have one hour to write home. Also, the APs said they wouldn't be surprised to see our mission get tablets in the next year-ish so that's super cool. Our mission is a trial mission for something, I'm not quite sure, but it is because we baptize so many people. Like 5 per companionship per transfer. Anyway, I love ya! I'll talk to you next week!

(Pictures! Thank goodness for the mission Facebook page...)

Elder Quist arrives at the Mission Office

Week 6 - Goodbye CCM, Hello Chalco!

Hey everyone! 

I'm leaving later this morning so this will just be a short one. The CCM has been amazing! It's so cool here and I've learned so much. I can't wait to email my first week out! Everyone go read DyC Section 100 - it's so good! 

Elder Quist

Distrito in front of the CCM sign

a group pic with the branch presidency

me with Hermano Chavez - he is the 1st counselor in the branch presidency

Elders Flaherty and Quist

 Elder Ambrose and Elder Quist

 Elder Quist with Elder Rowberry and Hermana McEwan - fellow Lone Peak-ers (same high school)

and another missionary from Lone Peak - Hermana Flanary

(Besides the actual studying of the scriptures and learning the language, Davis always expresses how much he has loved to meet new people and make new friends - as well reconnecting with familiar faces from home. He's so ready to get out there and work!) 

Week 5 - "Oh, you're gonna get robbed"

Hola mis amados hermanos y hermanas! This week went by so fast. The weather is a lot better down here, just so everyone knows. Ok I'll get right to it. 

Wednesday: The rest of last p-day was just us chillin and then later we met up with Salas (our latino comp) and did a lesson. Sad day cause he leaves Monday and we aren't going to see him. 

Thursday: We somehow got out of teaching all day today so we just studied outside and talked with a ton of people. We went to the tined to buy some Hot Nuts (they are so good - hard to explain exactly what they are, but they are good!) and Jumex (just some bomb juice). I read my Book of Mormon a lot today and it was so great. Later in the day, Peterson and I taught a lesson to our class on 2 Nefi 31 and 32. Awesome chapters, go read them!

Friday: Eventful day today. I was so full of the spirit today. It was so cool to look back and see how I was guided by the spirit. As ZL's, we go around and check on the districts and share a thought and the scriptures I shared were not what I was thinking I was going to share. Super cool. So 2 weeks ago this kid in my district left to join a latino district cause he is so good at Spanish, and today we got a new elder. He was moved to our district because we are apparently pretty obedient anddddd this kid is not... So he has almost gotten sent home twice now for being disobedient. We are doing good though and he is being a lot better now, a lot more humble.

Saturday: HAHAHA SO. This kid in our casa, Elder Davis (the same one who broke the window), tore his pectoral - so his chest is HUGE. It is soooo funny. (and sad) He has to wear a sling for like a week. Not much went on today. Read some BoM, taught a lesson, learned thee Español. 

Sunday: As always, Sundays are a blessing. Daylight savings was today so we got an extra hour of sleep which was the best. Sometimes we sleep in Rowberry and Crocketts room and have little sleepovers cause why not? They are both going to Chalco too. The 4 of us make up the Chalco Boys Gang haha, pic coming soon. We watched the Joseph Smith Movie today and it was so good. Like, I've seen it before but seeing it here was way cool. My fav quote was "..perhaps I was meant to swim in deep water." Super cool to liken that to our own lives if we are going through hard times. The devotional at night was about the Book of Mormon. I really like the second part of Alma 30:44, everyone go read it! It is such a cool scripture. So we were talking to some latinos about where they are going and then they asked us where we are going and we said Mexico City Chalco. The first thing he said was, "Oh, you're gonna get robbed." HAHAHAHA I'm so excited. It's gonna be so fun. He was from Chalco and said he loves it, and that we are going to be pretty safe (besides getting robbed haha).

Monday: Guys I miss music so much, no offense to MoTab, but I miss real musica soooooo much. This Elder two doors down has the voice of an angel and he sang some Sam Smith and he sang Welcome to the Black Parade, sooooooooooooooooo good. I miss music guys. The food today was so good, cinnamon french toast in la mañana and enchiladas for lunch. Our lesson went well. Only prepared for like five minutes and I didn't really mess up so go me.

Tuesday: Halloween today! Hope everyone is enjoying the weak sauce United States holiday. haha Here in Mexíco, we have Diá de los Muertos, or day of the dead. It's insane. Instead of just one night, it is two whole entire days (Nov 1 and 2) and there are tons of fireworks and fiestas and the such. So sorry USA, Mexíco has got ya beat here. At gym we played revenge and I killed it. I'm pretty sure if I didn't go on a mission I'd be drafted by now. For Halloween, Crockett and I switched name tags and we were each other. Also, as a treat to myself, I bought a brand new quadruple combination in Spanish. It is so small and I love it.

Wednesday: So far today we have played some ball, got a haircut, played more ball, and emailed, so I'll fill y'all in next week about today.

I might not miss home when home is freezing and it is 75° here, but I do miss everyone! Email me and just tell me whatever - how's school, how's the weather, anything. I love hearing from you guys! I'm doing great out here, Español is muy bueno, mi compañero is bueno, los alimentos es mas o manos pero me gusta tratando nuevo cosas. 

Love you guys! 

Elder Quist

 me and my comp and Elder Salas

View from the casa

Me and Elder Fullmer 

My eyes look way weird in this picture so please don't look at them, but this is Elder Klemme.

We love finding our boy's face on the CCM Facebook page!

 Spot him? (Middle back)

Far left... love that smile!