Week 77 & 78

Week 77

Mom hope you had the best birthday!  the next birthday you have I will be there!   WOW  that is crazy that Michael Merrill  is married!  that is awesome!  

Our investigators are doing great!  I am so happy to see the miracles that the Lord is allowing me to see! This week we fasted with investigators and we saw miracles.  I got to go but I will tell you more next week!

Week 78

Well I don't have much time right now!  but I might write you a little later.

 I just wanted to let you know that I have transfers.  I don't know where I am going but I will know tomorrow!  We are in a little bit of a rush to pack because it was really unexpected but I just wanted to tell you mom and dad that i love you and we will talk soon!  

Love Elder Quist

Week 76

Mom and Dad! How are you both doing?  It sounds like you are doing better and better every week!  Love you both so much!  and I am so happy that I have the best family! HAPPPPPPPYYYY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!!!!!  I have been thinking out you all week and I hope that you have a great birthday!   How old are you now? 29?  I loose count sometimes when you keep having more kids!  hahah well it guess it was just one!  

So where are you going on vaction to?  let me know how it goes!  

This week has been one of the bests!  On Tuesday I was able to give a few prieshood blessings.  I learned how powerful one can feel the Saviors love through the power of the holy priesthood.

Yesterday was a great day!  we were teaching a progressing investigator after church!  We taught lesson three.  After teaching about baptsim and the holy ghost we asked him if he would continue preparing to be bapotized!  He told us "I am already prepared!  He changed his baptismal date 2 week before it was scheduled for!

I have never been more excited to keep working hard! I think it is because I am becoming more of an instrument the in the Lords hands! 
This week I am going to focus on preparing myself each day to be filled with the spirit! Last week I accidentally woke up at 6:50 one day and 6:35 another! I need to be more exact with my obedience but what I am learning is not just to be exact but be exact and to have quality in what I do. What I am learning is that there is a reason for every standard and I am trying to not just live the standard but the reason also! I think that each persons reason is different according to what the spirit testifies to them! 

Love Elder Quist

Week 75

Hi Family!  How are you all doing?  Sometimes I forget about life back at home and how nice the united states is but then I see Cameron and his Pictures and I get jelous;) jajaj  not really.  I am happy here!  My new area is awesome!  It is a ward called Valle Hermoso in the Paradiso stake!(dont be deceived by the names, there is nothing hermoso about this valley and it sure is not a paradise)  I think that this is the poorest area that I have been in, but I love it!  The members are great and there is a lot of work!  I think that we are going to have a few baptism this transfer!  Well what else,  my house is yellow and 2 stories if those are the details that you want! jaja.  I dont really know what details you want to hear, maybe you can come back here one day but I dont think that would be the best idea for our safety!  just kidding mom.  I am safe here! (only because I am a missionary).

We had an awesome experience this week!  We were able to find a new family!  the parents seem a little lazy but the kids were intersed.  We left them with a book of mormon on the fist visit and then when we came back they said that they had read the chapter two times!  I was very suprised and I asked them why!  The mom said that her son was learning to read and kept asking her to read with him!  I asked her why she thought that he asked her to read it if he pobably wasnt usderstanding all of it or as much as a other childrens novel!  She realized that he was feeling somethinbg different.  The book of Mormon has power!

This week I could really feel the difference in the spirit I felt as I took the sacrament!  I had the opportunity to bless the sacrament and as I was breaking the bread some images flashed into my head of Christ bleeding from every pour, getting whipped and crowned with thorns and nailed in his palms and wrists to the cross.  It opened my eyes.  I was not just handling bread anymore but the body of Christ.  As I tore each little piece off I could imagined what Christ suffered for me and then it became personal for me!  I have blessed the sacrament over a hundred times but from now on I will never break the bread without feeling something of what he felt.

love you ELder Quist

Week 74

2 Mondays ago, we called our old mission leader to see if he could come do visits with us my last day in the area!  He told us that he wasn't going to be able to but at the same time that we were talking on the phone, he passed by us in his car!  He stopped and explained why he wasn't going to be able to help us. He told us to get in his car so that we could go to his house and I could say goodbye to his family!  We got to his house and he and his wife hardly were talking!  They are recent converts and have the goal to get sealed in the temple but they have been having problems in their marriage.  The brother does not want to admit that they are not ready, he makes the excuse that he is waiting for his wife to prepare herself so that he doesn't feel bad.  But the only reason that she is not ready is because he blames her for the fact that they have not entered the temple!  She is struggling with depression and doesn't want to open up to her husband because when she trys to explain herself he just tells her ´´you just need to have more faith, stop being so weak´´ which makes her even more depressed.  Well we asked them if we could share a message and they said yes!  We talked about unity and how that was going to be the only way to reach their goals!  I asked the sister how she felt and she said that she was actually praying to have the opportuntiy to talk to her husband.  She knew that this was the moment!  We left their house and started a fast that her husband would be able to listen!

The next morning they told us that they talked and everything got better!  

Love you all.  I am doing great see you next week!

Elder Quist

Week 73

Well I am here in my new area!  My new companion is Elder Fife from Logan Utah!  He is awesome and this transfer is going to be sick!  I was so suprised and a little sad to leave my last area but I know these transfers were inspired and an answer to my prayers!  I Prayed a little bit a ago that the Lord would give me a challenge that would both strengthen my faith and help me purify my soul!  When they told us that I was getting transfer that was the first thing that came to my mind!  I thought ´´well here is the answer to my prayer´´ and it sure was!  This transfer is going to be a hard one.  On monday night I had the impression that I needed to fast to be able to accept the trial, not thinking about myself but in my new companion and how I was going to be able to help the new zone and area that I was going to.  When I got to the area I saw that the house was in pretty bad conditions and the area was struggling.  The area book hadn't been updated in a month or two and my companion was not very used to planning. Because I fasted I know that the Lord blessed me to see the new area not thinking in myself but in how I was going to be able to help others and give service.  I could see the house with potential and not just how dirty it was!  I know that fasting has power over our hearts and minds!  

There are 25 missionaries in our zone!  We have got a lot of work to do!

Well I got to go but I love you so much!  You are the best family ever!  Keep it up

Love ELder Quist

Week 72

Happy Fathers Day Dad!  I was thinking about you yesterday.  We had a great day and it made it even better to be able think about all the great times that we had together before the mission and think about how great it going to be after!  I love you so much and can't express the gratitude that I feel for what you have done for me.  For being by my side physically and spiritually and in the good times and the hard times.  What a blessing you have been for me!  hope you had a great day I hope you could feel my love from here in Mexico!

Dad I can't believe you!  you were pulling for Lebron?  thats messed up!  steph curry is the best..

I am very suprised today.  Elder Aguila told us that I have transfers!  I was not expecting this,  I thought that my companion was going to be transferred because he has more time in the area then I do, but the Lord has his plans!  This is going to be my 4th area and 6th companion!  But enough about that!  I trust in the Lord and am willing to go where he wants me to go!  It is interesting that you mention the sabbath day Mom, although the Leaders here are not focusing on this (hahah, Mexico is a little lost when it comes to the sabbath day. ELder Juarez and I have been focusing on keeping the sabbath day holy with exactness. I have really seen a difference,  I have had more peace and have accepted the will of the Lord with more faith then ever.  As we have done this he as revealed more eternal truths in these 3 weeks, than for 18 years of my life I did not pay attention to because I was distracted!  

Yesterday we knocked on the door of a lady that looked tired physically and spiritually.  During an un-expected short conversation it became clear to ELder Juarez and I why.  Her husband and mother recently died within the same 10 month period!  She told us that she couldn't see a purpose of living anymore and had lost all hope. This poor lady thought it would be easier to just quit living.  In the sincerest way possible we tried to tell he how much God loves her and that there is always a purpose to keep living. It was hard for her to take, which is understandable ¿ how are the words, at least at first, of a 20 year old stranger from a differnt country  going to change a heart shaped by countless days of suffering and lonliness? It just isn't that easy. As we kept talking the spirit guided our converstation to the subject of faith.  I asked her the simple question " do you have fatih?" to which she responded " life has taught me that I don't need faith!" Looking her directly in the eyes I said " Maybe life has taught you that you don't need fatih but God teaches that faith is life!"  she paused for a moment and said "Maybe you are right" I saw a womans heart be softened by the words of the spirit. Maybe the words of a 20 year old from California can't change a heart but I am 100% sure that the words of the spirit are without limits!  Let us be intruments in the hands of the Lord!

Love you so much family!  I will let you know next week where I went in tranfers!

Elder Quist

Week 71

The time is going by so fast!  We ar eapproaching transfers again!  I can not believe it!  I think that this is the last week for my companion and I!  It has been a great 2 transfers and I feel very blessed!  We are seeing miracles!  I think that Elder Juarez is the companion that I have gotten along best with!  

We are teaching many families that are having problems.  For Example, hermana Rosa and her kids.  She is struggling a lot with her husband and money.  It has been really hard for her.  On wednesday we went to visit her and she was struggling more then ever!  It was so sad to see!  When we got there she was acting different, she told us a little bit latter that she was thinking about asking us to stop teaching her so she could fix all of he problems and then after they were all fix then she would go to church and prepare to be baptized!  We had a powerful lesson in wich we taught about the importance of trusting the Lord during our problems!  She understood, after the lesson we asked her and her family to kneel and pray with us!  She said the prayer and in her pray thanked the Lord sending us, the missionaries, she said that we are angels for her!  The power of the holy spirit to change peoples hearts is un-real!  

One thing that I learned this week is the importance of being obedient to the commandments.  In the mission people are very open and honest with us about their problems.  I have seen families being destroyed and hearts being broken and  every time it is for disobeience to the commandments! EVERY TIME!  Although most for the time we don't realize that the problems that we have are direct results of the disobedience to the commandments, THEY ARE!  It is so sad!  The Lord tells us in almost every chapter of the book of mormon  "if you keep my commandment you will prosper in the Land"  and may I add " and in your lives and in you familys and in you work and in you relationships and forever!  I know this is true

Love you family! You are the best!  Give a hug to Abby for me!

Love ELder Quist