Week 61 - House Hunting

Hi All!

Crazy, tiring week. I would like to make this a nice long email, but really not much happened.  

Basically all week, all day everyday, we went to our area named "Los Alamos" and looked for a house and sometimes we went to the area of Crockett and Rowberry called Cuautzingo and looked for a house there because our areas are close. And we basically found nothing. Finally we found one Saturday that will probably work and I think we are moving in a little bit today and a lil bit tomorrow. I still don't really know. We are looking for houses because they are opening both of our areas and the leaders did not buy us a house. Right now we are living in the house of the AP's and the secretaries and don't get me wrong, it is a party, but we are living out of our suitcases and that kinda sucks.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I really truly hope you enjoyed the holiday with some loved ones! Now get ready for Navidad :)

I love you guys, sorry for the short email again :/

Elder Quist!

Week 60 - THANKSGIVIN'

Hey y'all. Crazy stuff goin' on in Mexico. 

TUESDAY: BUSY DAY LOTS OF WORK LOTS OF LESSONS IT WAS GREAT :))

WEDNESDAY: SAME THOUGH.

THURSDAY: OK so this morning was when all the crazy stuff happened. We woke up and got ready and then we went to Ayapango near Amecameca, we are trying to get the Salas fam married there (cause it is cheaper there and the judge is nice to the missionaries I guess?), and we left our house at 8:30 and got back to the house at like 3ish. We then had to get some info so we could get some medical analysis (for the wedding, I'm not sick I promise), and then Elder Rowberry and Elder Herrera came to our area to do some interviews for baptism! Andrea and Mayte both passed there interviews! It was a fun evening. Then we went and visited a few families before going home. 

FRIDAY: So in the morning the analysis was ready so we went to Chalco to go get them. We then got all our stuff ready, went to lunch, then went to the church at 3 to get ready for the BAPTISM. We showed up about 4 hours early because the font doesn't fill up very fast. We got the boiler goin and then just waited, bored out of our minds, as the font filled up. We had the baptism at 7:30ish. It was awesome :)) Mayte is awesome, she is so ready to be baptized. Funny story: How do you baptize someone scared of water?? HERE'S HOW. You use all the words in your spanish vocabulary that you can think of as you slowly get them to take their shoes off; then you do the same thing as you get them into the door that leads to the font; then you do the same thing as you put one toe into the water; repeat until all toes are in the water; repeat process until they are completely in the water!; THEN tell the person that they can't get out until they get baptized hahahaha works everyyyyy time. *sidenote, it took about 20 minutes*. Then I got to confirm her! It was awesome.

SATURDAY: Today was good, not as crazy. We visited a bunch of people (I will explain later why...). We got stuff ready for tomorrow. 

SUNDAY WOWZA CRAZY DAY: HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAAHAH I was two hairs away from going crazy yesterday... 

The day started at 3:30am. We woke up, got ready, then took a taxi to the church. Turned the boiler on and got everything ready for 4 MORE BAPTISMS!!! It was SO cold in the church. Now, lemme explain: Last week an area seventy came to the mission and had a meeting with ward and stake leaders, announcing a bunch of changes. I knew about this changes but we all thought they would not happen for awhile. Turns out they are happening immediately. Our area is an entire ward and our ward of Cuatro Vientos is being changed to a branch and is changing to the Ixtapaluca Stake. Which means that our area is changing missions to the Mexico South East mission. For the last couple of days, the assistants to president and the secretaries for their mission have been calling me asking about the area. On Thursday it was confirmed. When we went to Chalco President Zapata talked to me about what is going on. On Tuesday we will be leaving :( The Salas family will not be able to get married before I leave so I won't be able to baptize them :(((( We have been working with them for 4 1/2 months! I was devestated. So we got their permission to baptize their kids, Sol, Mariana, and Oscar. So yesterday at 9, we baptized Sol, Mariana, Oscar, and Andrea!!!! It was awesome! The font felt super nice, very warm, like a jacuzzi. 

Church started. We confirmed those 4 and Fatima from last week. SUPER STRESSFUL. At church today were the stake presidents from Chalco AND Ixtapaluca, the mission president from the South-East mission and his wife (super cool people), a secretary from their mission, and one of their assistants to the president who will be the new missionary here in Cuatro Vientos. NO PRESSURE. But I did it, it was an incredible experience. Super grateful. Then I showed the new missionary around the area a little bit, told him about investigators, all that fun stuff. I was sad cause I was not going to be able to baptize Bernardo and Ana Salas :( But I felt like I should talk to President Mann (from South-East mission) about it. I explained the situation and he said he would be honored if I come back to baptize in about a week!!!! Not only can I see them baptized, I can BAPTIZE THEM FASKHFDAÑJFUAQEFHIPÑSAIÑJ I am very happy about this news!

Later I got our changes. They changed around the whole stake, and a couple others as well, about half the mission changed, and I will be staying in the Chalco area! Turns out that the AP's are changing their area and my son and I will be going there! Dope. :))

STRESSFUL WEEK ((: I love y'all! 

Elder Quist

Week 59 - CUATRO VIENTOS

Hello family and friends! 

Had a super exhausting week, but that's good right? 

Tuesday we spent most of the day in Amecameca at the trainers meeting. We left our house at 8:45 and got back to the house at about 5 pm. It was a brutal meeting, but I really liked it. President Zapata talked to us about our attitude about each of our areas. There is no such thing as a bad area or a good area. All areas can be successful, but if we don't think it can be successful, it will be pretty hard for God to bless you with success. BUT if you go in there thinking it is the best area, working like it is the best area, praying like it is the best area, you WILL have success. It will get to a point where God cannot deny you the blessings.

Friday was awesome. And stressful :) 

In the morning, we did weekly planning in the morning for a few hours. At 5, the Zone Leaders came to our area and did an interview with Fatima. Then we booked it over to the church and started getting the church ready for a BAPTISM. The photo isn't very good, but it is good enough :)) My son got to baptize her! It was awesome. I love baptisms, but they stress me out.. sidenote: I am losing hair, which just makes me more stressed, which makes me lose more hair... it is quite the vicious cycle.

SATURADAY WAS LOCO. First off in the morning a member came to our house and installed a pull up bar which is dope, Imma get shredded ;) Then we left and chambiamos todo el dia, bien chevere. WE FOUND 8 NEW PEOPLE TO TEACH. And then 2 others that are looking very promising. And then the assistants called me and told me that they had 2 girls at a baptism of theirs and they live in our area and they are sooooo cool (segun..). It was just so cool to see God blessing us through small and simple things. I have been learning to be more bold on the mission. I really like this quote "What's bold today isn't bold tomorrow." Meaning what is hard and uncomfortable and bold today will become part of your nature tomorrow and it won't be bold, it'll just be normal. I like to think of this and always try to be bold, try new things, teach in new ways. Take some time this week and think about how you all can be bolder in sharing this amazing gospel. :)

I LOVE YOU ALL!

Elder Quist

Week 58 - DIA DE LOS MUERTOS (Day of the Dead)

HELLO AMERICA! HOW ARE YOU AND YOUR MIDTERM ELECTIONS DOIN'? 

So I forgot to mention last week that last Sunday I did not realize it was daylight savings (don't know why that isn't info given to missionaries because we kinda need to be on time to things...) and no one told me or my son so we did not change our clocks accordingly (and it should be mentioned that our peanut phone didn't change either) SO. What happened? This is what happened. We woke up at 6:30 am and got ready for church on Sunday and got ready fast, we prayed, left the house, out of the gate of our street, and up the hill to the taxis. Right in front of the taxi base is where they do the giant street market (Tianguis) on Sundays. I was asking myself in my mind why everyone was getting all of their shops ready a little later than normal, and why there weren't many people in the street...  We get in the taxi and are on the way to church - btw the church is about 45 minutes away walking so we use taxis, not just lazy - and I see the dash on of the taxi has a clock... it says 7:30 am... Here I am thinking it is 8:30 am... We get to the church an hour and a half early and I literally took a nap and then set up all the chairs and then chilled again for a while before ANYONE CAME IN... We woke up at 5:30 am... "Nice one Elder Quist."

Tuesday we had a district meeting. It was great. Oh, yeah, forgot to mention that TUESDAY WAS LOCO. We had 2 baptisms planned for 7:30 pm that night of two little girls, both just barely turned 9 (one literally turned 9 on Tuesday haha), and they didn't have their interviews done yet. SO after the district meeting Elder Gonzalez, one of the zone leaders, went on divisions with my son (who does not communicate well in the Spanish language yet haha) to go do those and I went with the other zone leader Elder Peña in his area. It was super stressful. We had awesome divisions, but I needed to be back in my area to get the baptism ready. We got back in our area at 5:30 and in the church at 6:30. We had to fill the font, turn the boiler on, and clean the church a little bit and set up the chairs STAT. Long story short we ended up starting at 8:15 hahaha. It was awesome. :)

District photos

AVRIL AND MAYRIN GOT BAPTIZED

HALLOWEEN Y´ALL. Today was fun. Lots of work. Very productive.

Something I appreciate here in Mexico is that all efforts are made to find an excuse to party hard. For example, in America we have Halloween. In Mexico, they have Day of the Dead... and it is TWO days cause why not??

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS PARTE UNO: We had a very productive day. At the end of the day we watched "The Best Two Years" with some members and the dad made us Crepes filled with caramel. :))

PARTE DOS: We found this family that has a daughter on the mission, but no one else is a member in her fam and they are super interested and super cool. 

SUNDAY

Good day. Awesome way to end the week. We had crepes again. 4 hours of reporting today. My brain melted haha. I have heard that a ton of changes are coming to Mexico soon. I'll keep you updated!

Have an awesome week! I love you wonderful people of America.

Elder Quist

We met this boxer dude and took pictures with him and his class

Early morning Chalco pic

 Me this morning :))

Week 57 - A Day in the Life of a Missionary

Hi All!

I will just straight up quote the email of my good friend, Elder Crockett, from a few weeks ago because it perfectly relates to this week. 

Honestly I can't think of anything special that happened this week.  

It was a super long week.

Full of the normal missionary life.

Each day we get up early and go study our brains out. Still super tired and nodding off sometimes.

After that, we go out into the day and no one is home before lunch. 

It's super hot outside and I get sunburned at least every day hahaha.

Then we go eat lunch with a member who is kind enough to feed two hungry missionaries and give them something to drink.

And they don't stop feeding us...

Then we go back out with full stomachs looking for willing people who are looking for the gospel in their lives.

There are always drunks that yell at us and angry people as well.

And then there are the people that yell "May god bless you" as we go on our way.

Sometimes we will have appointments. Most often these appointments fall through. We go to their house and they say they are sleeping or don't have time.

We walk through the dirt streets of Mexico seeing hundreds of dogs in the streets each day.

Sometimes we will go to an appointment and they let us in for some strange reason. Sometimes we are able to share a message that reaches their hearts. Sometimes they begin crying. Sometimes they feel the spirit so strongly. And their heart starts burning inside. And they are grateful to have a God that is their loving Heavenly Father. 

Each day we see many things that are wrong with the world. 

Each day we see tiny little miracles that make us smile.

Then we go home at the end of a long day. Super tired and just ready to sleep. The day starts over and over again.

There are 730 of those days as a missionary.

There are good days and bad days.

But the good days are so good.

And the bad days are so bad.

But at the end of each day, we have made a difference in some peoples lives. The spirit has testified to them. And their lives are changed forever.

And it's worth it.

I love y'all! Enjoy your Halloween!

Elder Quist

Week 56 - Happiness is a Choice

Hey everyone! 

A lot happened (and didn't happen) this week. 

The Salas family: Ok y'all buckle up. SO. The Salas fam is the bomb. We met them my very first day here and they have been preparing for baptism since then and actually they are very prepared and excited to be baptized. The thing is they are not divorced and the divorce is ALMOST done, but something keeps delaying it. So every week in my emails I say "this week is gonna be awesome", but then something always happens. :/ BUT hopefully this week gets LOcO and they finally get wet. haha

Niños: We are going to baptize a couple kids soon (I think), the 30th. They are my homies.

Andrea: Also my homie. She met with the missionaries 3 years ago and wanted to get baptized, but she was living with her boyfriend so she couldn't. NOW she isn't! We have been meeting with her for awhile and teaching her but she never has been able to go to church (she works on sundays and her boss is a jerk and didn´t give her a break). BUT she finally changed jobs and this week she finally went to church!! It was sick. I was pumped. I was also freaking out because of a soon to be revealed "problem".

The Reyes family: We made a list of less active members to visit and came across this sweet fam. We visited them and we have had an enjoyable time getting to know them haha. The dad is crazy, looks like Einstien a lil bit, and is very confusing sometimes but super cool. And his wife is the bomb. She is super nice. They have a teenage daughter who is a genius. She is planning on working for NASA in a few years sooooo yeah. She told me her hobby is studying math #props. Also we are going to baptize their daughter and son, 10 and 8 years old.

Our "problem" was that there were only two Elders at church (well, that is normal) and THIRTEEN investigators came!!!! That is insane. It blew my mind. That was one of thee most hectic days I have had in a while.

I was listening to a Holland talk and this thought came into my mind: Happiness is just as much of a choice as discouragement. We wake up everyday and work and we can make the choice to be happy or sad. Always choose to be happy :)

Elder Quist

Companions - Elders Strunk and Quist

 Fellow LP Knights - Elders Quist and Rowberry

Week 55 - Another Week in Cuatro Vientos

Hey y'all! 

Here I am again, same area - Cuatro Vientos - and I am doing the same thing: training! My second son is named Elder Strunk. He is from Taylorsville, Utah and is going to SUU after the mish to study to become a pilot. He loves comedy and entertains me at night in the house with comedy routines haha. 

We had a semi stressful week. I can't explain it right now causeeeeee it is a crazy long story and I am lazy when it comes to writing today. BUT I will have quite the story next week so don't worry and stay tuned for the next part of this adventure.

I WILL say I will probably throw a swimming pool party this week. It will be crowded, but it will be sick. So keep them in your prayers!

I have to go, but I love you. I can't wait to see ya. Have a fantastic week!

Go read Elder Hollands talk about forgiveness!

Elder Quist

Week 54 - Conference & Training Again!

Hello everyone! 

So this week was General Conference! Duh. Haha It was awesome! I watched it in ENGLISH at the mission offices with the assistants. It was so great! 

I don't feel like summarizing a conference talk or telling you my favorite quote. I just want to tell you that I know without a doubt that President Nelson is a prophet of God. I know that Jesus Christ directs this incredible work through him, and I know that if we listen to the prophet and apostles, we can really come to know the will of our Father in Heaven and become more devoted followers of Christ. I do not know this because I read it in a book or because someone told me. I know these things because I have prayed and asked and I have received this knowledge from God. I invite all of you to make an extra effort this week to read one conference talk, pray to God, and then go and do the things that you need to do to become closer to the person you want to be.

Other update: Elder Speirs will no longer be my companion, just one week together. Starting tomorrow, I will start training my SECOND son. This one will be a white guy. My first son has a brother from another mother. I'm excited! I will be staying here in Cuatro Vientos. 

I love y'all! I miss ya! Have a good week!

Elder Quist 

Week 53 - The Work Must Go On!

Ok so this week was crazy! And very sad. I am still very sad. Let me explain. 

At the beginning of the training of Elder Solorzano, he said his ear kinda hurt, but it wasn't too bad. So he dealt with it and the pain kind of went away. A couple of weeks ago it got worse and it was hurting him all day every day. I gave him a blessing and we went to the doctor, but nothing helped. This last week he has been getting super nauseous and sick and threw up almost everything he ate, 3 or 4 times a day. SO we went to the doctor again, a better one, and he told us that the problem is not his ears, it is his nose. As long as Solorzano can remember he cannot breathe through his nose and that makes his ears hurt (?) which shouldn't make sense, but it did when he explained it. So we told President Zapata and he called the family of Elder Solorzano and the General Authorities. Everyone decided that he needs to get surgery. Now, the rule is that if you need surgery and it'll take more than 2 weeks to recover, you have to go home to do it :( THEREFORE on Friday in the morning I went with Elder Solorzano and the AP's to the airport to drop my lil child off so he can go home to Guatemala. Tears were shed, pictures were taken, we also ate donuts, but that is beside the point... My son will be in Guatemala for about a month and a half and then he will come back :) My son was and is one of my best friends. But the work must go on. 

Until this cycle ends (next week), I will be with Elder Spiers. He is super cool, I love him. Right now he is learning how to be secretary because the secretaries of the mission are going home soon. I am still in Cuatro Vientos for now. All those baptisms I talked about last week fell through :( I am also very sad because of that. 

The other day, I don't remember which one cause there have been so many, I was reading in Helaman chapter 5. It is a very good chapter. I never have realized how good it is actually! Go read it :)) 

That was the major news of this week. Please keep Elder Solorzano in your prayers so that his surgery goes well.

I love you ALL. God loves you more. If you love God (and me) you will all remember to watch General Conference this weekend! There will be a bunch of cool announcements, (so they say). One of them will include China (just a guess though, haha). ;) 

Have a great week! Love you all!

Elder Quist :)

My birthday celebration 

Sending off my son

 Me and my new comp

Week 52 - ONE YEAR IN MÉXICO

Wow I haven't been in the USA for a year now and BOY do I miss it! Now when someone asks me what I was doing a year ago, my memory will be about Mexico. Weird. 

This week was good. I am not gonna go into a ton of detail cause typing a lot makes me sleepy. 

I am loving my area. Cuatro Vientos is super cool! It is not too big so we don't have to walk so far for everything. It is a little city situated on a hill so we get a good leg work out in every day. Our house is at the bottom of the hill which means the first thing we have to do every day is go uphill. 

We got good news this week! We have an investigator that has been an investigator for awhile. All four of her kids are members (she has two kids on the mission), but she has not been able to get baptized cause she doesn't want to get married to her boyfriend. But just the other day she told us that she had talked with him and they decided (she decided) that he can't live there anymore... so we will probably baptize her soon :)

The other family we are teaching is awesome! We are just waiting for the divorce papers to get back and then we are goin' swimmin ;)

I encourage you to go read "For Times of Trouble" by Jeffrey R. Holland this week. I have listened to that talk 4 or 5 times this week. Apply it to your life in the most personal way possible :)

Love you all!

Elder Quist

 Celebrating Elder Solorzano's birthday

Just a handsome guy in the middle of México

a trip to the temple!

Week 51 - Small and Simple Things

Hey y'all! 

Very busy week! 

We had interviews with President Zapata this week. My son asked him if we can stay together until Christmas, which would be another two cycles together hahaha. 

On Wednesday I taught my first disrict meeting. It was pretty fun. Right now we are teaching a family of 5. They are awesome! They come to church almost every week, they read the Book of Mormon - super cool people. Baptism in a couple weeks, it's gonna be a party.

I have been thinking a lot lately about what makes us different from the rest of the people in the world, as members of the Church of Jesus Christ. Visiting so many people on my mission, those that accept the gospel and those that don't, has shown me just how important this message is that I get to share everyday. It really changes lives! I gave a talk in church this past Sunday about the small and simple things in life. Taking the sacrament every week, reading the Book of Mormon everyday, or, even better, really STUDYING the Book of Mormon everyday, personal and family prayer, family home evening, putting a little extra effort to serve someone, to show someone love, to be grateful, etc etc... All of these things are small, relatively speaking, but they are hard though. What is easier: studying the scriptures or not studying? Answer: not studying. The gospel is not easy. Keeping all the commandments is not easy. The easy things in life come from Satan. Everyday we make tiny decisions that will either bring us closer to Christ or take us farther away.

 

It is hard being here sometimes and we are teaching people and telling them exactly what they need to do to make their life better, how to get closer to Christ, and they don't do it! As we walk in the streets, we see a bunch of worldy distractions, and I'm not gonna lie, sometimes they really are distracting. As members of His church here on earth we have to be examples for everyone. We are different because we know how to find that happiness that can't be described. We know how important the little things are. I can't remember which apostle said it, but I remember a quote that said something like: "I have never met someone that went inactive that was reading the Book of Mormon every day and praying." The small and simple things take care of all the things big and complicated. I know that to be true with every part of my body. Being a missionary is hard, we have so many rules we need to keep, so many things we need to think about, study, ponder, and pray about, we need to develop the characteristics of Christ, and so on and so forth. Sometimes (actually many many times) I have small mental breakdowns when I think about that. haha My companions really appreciate them. BUT. I know that perfection does not come all at once - let alone in this life - so we need to focus on the small and simple things. :)

I love y'all. I miss America. Someone eat In-N-Out for me this week.

Elder Quist