Week 49 - #sassyconverselifestyle

Happy Easter, everyone! Hoping that you all had a wonderful day yesterday. My day was pretty cool. Lots of church, but hey! What better way to spend the holiday? We began the day with branch council. Since this is a YSA branch, branch council usually just consists of training. They're all still babies so no one is quite sure of what their calling entails all the time. So training it is. I really enjoyed the training yesterday. One thing that was said was, "some day you are going to get released from your calling, what will your legacy be"? Woof! That sure made me think. Then he went on to say how it doesn't so much matter the legacy you leave with people, but the legacy you leave with our Heavenly Father. Something to ponder, that's for sure. 

Fun facts for the week:

*We rode our bikes to the library this morning! Spring didn't bring us popcorn, but it has brought beautiful weather and for that I am grateful!

*We were third-wheels on someone's date with a non-member this week. So awkward, but we gave the guy a BoM so that's cool!

*I want to be BFFs with Neill F. Marriott 

*YSA's are funny cause they wear converse shoes to church and are really sassy

Back story, over the past month our mission has been focusing on the First Vision (I might have mentioned this, but oh well). We had a goal to get 4,000 First Vision lessons by Easter. I'm not sure how we did as a mission, but our district killed it! To accomplish this goal each companionship had to get three/day. So we set a goal to get 63 as a district for the week (Tuesday-Tuesday). By Monday night we were only at 32 and it was kinda depressing, to be honest. So we each had to get roughly 11 each on Tuesday to reach our goal. And guess what? WE DID IT! Miracles happened as we put our faith forward and went to work. Sister S and I had 10 by the time our dinner appointment rolled around. Afterwards it was late/dark and we had Book of Mormon class to go to. We considered not going, tracting, calling potentials, etc... so we prayed and came to the conclusion that we needed to call some people. So we did. No one answered. So we prayed again and felt prompted to go to BoM class. While reading we got a phone call from an unrecognized number. We stepped out to answer it and it was a potential calling us back! We totally taught him about the First Vision over the phone and the spirit was super strong! I couldn't believe it, but hey... when you follow the spirit in faith, God will provide! 

We were able to finally see a recent convert/less active gal, Cherie, for the second time since I've been here. We met her at the library and found her with a cart full of books and movies to check-out. We had decided to talk to her about everyone's favorite lesson, the Law of Chastity! We knew she wouldn't have an issue with it, but we're missionaries and so we had to commit her to do something! So we thought about it and committed her to clean up her music, movies, books, etc... she said she would and that was that. When leaving I felt prompted to ask her what movies she had checked out. She had some good ones, but then looking closer we saw that she had some pretty scary/inappropriate movies as well. We were able to convince her to let us take back a couple of them. Hopefully she followed the spirit and didn't watch the others. 

Our investigator, Monique, continues to grow in the gospel. She just gets it. We taught her about the Priesthood this week and she already had it down. The lesson was kind of distracting with the member that tagged along with us, but the spirit was still there and was able to testify to all of us of the power that comes from the Priesthood. 

George! We are seeing tons of progress with George. We met with him and talked to him about the importance of studying the scriptures. I don't think that in the 6+ years he's been investigating that he's ever made the habit of reading the Book of Mormon. So we came up with a game plan to call him every night and read for 10 minutes with him. He chuckled at the idea and probably just thought, "yeah right". The first night we called him, no answer. Second night, no answer. Third night, he answered! He didn't read with us, but he let us read to him. Then for the past two nights he's read with us! Even if he reads in Spanish. The spirit has been super strong and my Spanish is improving. He even attended all three hours of church yesterday, which he hasn't done in a long while. 

Hope you all have a great week! Keep your chins up and choose the right. I'm excited for General Conference this weekend! Get pumped to hear from our Prophet and apostles! Ahh! I'm so stoked! :) 

Love you tons!!

Xo,

Sister Quist

We got our bikes all geared up to go and then this...

Yesterday afternoon we were on our way home from Oshkosh and our investigator, George, calls us up and tells us that he left his headlights on and his car battery died. He needed someone to come jump his car. So of course we were up to rescuing him! We drove to Appleton to this park where we found George feeding the geese. So of course we joined him! Even though I really do not like geese. Great ending to Easter 2016. 

 Dinner at the Thompson's! It's a treat to be so close to people I love so much!

Just a fun selfie before our appointment with Elizabeth! :) 

F.H.E. crew for the win!

Week 48 - "Cheese louise"!‏

Hello dearest family and friends! What a week it has been. Crazy! Busy! Beautiful! All of the above. I swear these weeks keep flying by faster and faster. Not sure how I feel about it. I can't believe I've been out for 11 months! But let's not think about that. Let's talk about how Monique is gonna get baptized! Woot woot! So we met with Mo again on Friday and had a fabulous discussion with her. We taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which is probably my favorite lesson to teach. There was such a strong spirit and none of us could deny that the spirit was there. We got to the part about baptism and we brought up her tentative date again. We asked how she felt about it and she said "no". AHHHH. In my head I was freaking out! We had a brief moment of devastation, but then she told us that she said "no" cause she was gonna be out of town on the 16th. PHEW. Holy cow. So we stopped freaking out and set a new date for her baptism. April 23rd. Which will be awesome!! She is so great and just fits in so well with the branch. 

Remember those cool guys who just randomly showed up to church last week? Yeah! So we met with Anthony on Tuesday at Starbucks (go figure). And it went super well! Even though all of church on Sunday was about Joseph Smith and the Restoration we still thought it would be best to teach him the Restoration in full. So that's what we did. Who knew you could feel the spirit so strong in a coffee shop. Jk, I love Starbucks, guys. But really! The spirit was super strong and he was just asking all the right questions. I love how curious these YSA are! Unfortunately, by the end of the week Anthony had texted us and expressed that he no longer wants to meet with us. Sigh. We're pretty sad about that. 

Wednesday was exchanges with the Oshkosh sisters, Sister White and Sister Twitchell. What gems! I'm so happy that Oshkosh is being taken care of. Sister White and I had a wonderful day full of NO appointments! Seriously, guys. All of our appointments cancelled. Except for Christina! Bless her soul. And after our lesson she invited us to eat dinner with her. I love surprise dinner appointments. That's when I know that God is truly looking out for me ;) But really. It was lovely! Although we almost blew away approximately 7149 times...it was still a great day. 

After pep-talking myself a few times I gave an impromptu talk in Sacrament meeting.

In regards to my subject for this week. Well, it's not that interesting of a story, but here we go. So on Friday before sports night Karlene made us dinner at the church. Some of the guys in the branch were cleaning the building and Sister S yells out "Geeze, Kyle"! Which obviously Karlene and I interpreted into "Cheese, Kyle"! Then it just escalated into all sorts of cheese phrases. After all, we are in Wisconsin, folks! It was kind of hilarious. Thus, "Cheese, louise". 

So, there you have it folks. Just trying to keep in real and preach the good word here in Winnebago county. Hope you all have a lovely Easter this Sunday! Let's not forget the "reason for the season". Which is CHRIST! He lives! How wonderful it is to know that. 

CTR, y'all. 

Xo,

Sister Quist

Oshkosh sisters exchange! It was a long, windy, rainy day. #butwearesmilingcausewelovejesus 

Only one picture from our missionary this week... 

here are some borrowed from the Mission Blog:

Maren's first MLC (Mission Leadership Council)

Zone Conference

cute companions

Week 47 - Taking Winnebago by Storm!

Howdy, howdy! This week has been absolutely fantastic! Here are the highlights (it's like watching Sports Center, but better)

Monday was p-day. Good times...good times... played sports with some Elders in the zone. That was fun. Sometimes I think I'm good at bball, other times, not so much. Brandon took us out to dinner at HuHot, a Mongolian BBQ place. So that was pretty cool...and delicious. Then we went to FHE, but it was all about marriage and we had our training to plan, so we ditched. 

Tuesday was Zone Conference! Of course my first ever training I give has to be at the meeting where my mission President and wife and Stake president are in attendance. You know how much I love giving talks, so you can imagine how excited I was to give this training. It turned out well though. We had a great object lesson, which was a total hit! It was all about referrals and how we (as missionaries) need to take care of the friends and acquaintances that members give us. Basically that meeting plus driving took up all day, so we had dinner really quick and went to the Munson's for the Face-to-Face broadcast with Elder Holland! Holy cow it was so wonderful! #shoutouttosamandadriennebunderson So fun to see familiar faces all the way here in Wisconsin. You guys are famous! Basically that was all about marriage as well (common theme for YSA, can you tell?). Okay, not all about marriage, there were some other good topics as well. The biggest thing I got out of the devotional was that selflessness is the key to happiness! In all relationships we have when we put others first we receive JOY. I can definitely testify to that. I know that as I have tried to be selfless in my thoughts, words, and actions that it leaves no room to criticize or judge. Not that I'm the most selfless person in the world, but it's crazy that I've felt that joy just as I've tried.

Wednesday...meh. Lots of contacting on Lawrence campus. If you look up the word "hipster" in the dictionary there would probably just be a picture of Lawrence University. So many Birkenstock's and thick rimmed glasses. Unfortunately, not too much success, but we still met some cool cats.

Thursday was aight. Every missionary's favorite day is weekly planning day (said no missionary ever), but it was good to get the week planned out and exchanges as well. Woohoo! We also did our weekly community service project. We go to an Ecclesiastical church, St. Thomas, and volunteer with their weekly free meal thingy. For dinner we went to the Munson's...who I love! They are the coolest family. Being around families just makes me so happy. I love the chaos that is kids running around and giggling at inappropriate comments made at the dinner table. But then again, I might not say that when I have kids...but for now, it's pretty fun. 

Friday we met with Elizabeth, she's a recent convert and such a sweetheart. Such a powerful lesson. We also went to this cool hipster cafe in downtown Appleton with a LA guy for lunch. The place we went to was cool. Paying for parking was not. 

Saturday was my first exchange as a Sister Training Leader! The Sheboygan sisters, Sister Koyle and Sister Butler, came up here and we took Winnebago by storm! Sister Koyle and I were paired up and we saw so many miracles. We went street contacting on UW Oshkosh campus and we talked to seriously everyone! It was fabulous. We talked to these two guys, Anthony and Randy, and they seemed quite interested. We taught the First Vision and gave them a BoM, got their numbers and invited them to church. Then yesterday we came out of our correlation meeting and there they were just standing there ready for church to start! What!? When does this happen!? I was kinda in shock, to be honest. They were great. Stayed for all three hours of church plus the potluck afterwards. We set up return appointments with both of them and we're excited to teach them more!! 

Monique came to church as well! She attended Institute this past week and when we asked her about it she said because we taught her the Plan of Salvation the night before the lesson made a lot more sense. She's a gem and we love her lots. Super stoked for the 16th of April!! 

God is so good! I am loving this work more than ever. As we approach this Easter season, let us all remember Him who sacrificed so willingly for us. I know our Savior lives and loves each of us. Also, this new Easter video is pretty fabulous. The Church is really killing it with the new media coming out https://www.mormon.org/easter Watch. Share. Repeat. 

Keep your chins up. Choose the right. Love you!

Xo,

Sister Quist

Late happy birthday shout out to my fave fourteen year old! 

Welcome to the years of Stake Dances. xo

just throwin' it back to a few weeks ago with this guy! 

what a hoot :) 

farewell party with the west allis crew

#redrobinyummm

Trainer and trainee reunited at MLC! Me and Sister Straight.

Me and my old ZL, Elder Norris!

Me and other old ZL, Elder Riena! Fun fact. 

We came out together!

 Me and Sister Wise!! I've missed her oh so much!

Sister Wise, Sister Blas, and yours truly at Mission Leadership Council! So crazy to think 10.5 months ago we were all brand new! Love these fun friends of mine. 

Sister Schlosser has turned me into a chef! BBQ chicken and asparagus is a fave around these parts.

You know you're doing your job when you walk out of an apartment with 40 pounds of empty bottles of alcohol! Yeah. We're bosses.  

relieving our stress after zone conference

#wegohard 

Week 46 - a good week with the YSA's

Holy cow, it's March! So there's that. This week has been quite the interesting one. I feel like I say this every week, but so much has happened! We have this investigator, George. Oh George. He has the coolest afro...which I'm slightly jealous of. He has been coming to church regularly for the past six years. Yes, SIX YEARS. And he pays his tithing and everything! But for some reason or another he will not be baptized. He's been really tough to get appointments with in the past, but we were able to meet with him this past week and it went really well. We brought Carolyn, a recent convert, and her testimony just added so much spirit to the lesson. 

Me and Carolyn!

The meeting was long... he basically just unloaded his whole life on us. But it was good, cause now we can discern his needs more accurately. He did commit to take the lessons again, so that is super great and we're excited for him to progress!

The wonderful thing about the YSA is that they are so eager to bring their friends to activities and such. Brandon, a member, has been bringing his friend/co-worker, Monique, to activities for the past six months. And get this, no missionaries have ever talked to her! What?! So we were super excited to coincidentally stop by their workplace and talk to her. And it worked! As Sister Schlosser said, "We sacrificed our figures to bring her the gospel". But man, that burger was good. And totally worth it to ask her if she wanted to take the lessons. She said "yes"! So we met with her on Friday after Mission Leadership Conference. We taught the Restoration. Basically it took us forever cause she had so many questions! Great questions, though! Just a lot of them. So I feel as though we may have overwhelmed her a bit, but I'm still pretty sure she's excited to learn more. And guess what?! She agreed to a baptismal date! #miracle April 16th 'twill be a grand day. We're pretty stoked to say the least. She is so curious and so prepared. At the end of the lesson we read Moroni's promise with her (Moroni 10:3-5) and afterwards she said, "I like that...no, I love that'! And she committed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. She was working yesterday so she wasn't able to come to church, but luckily we know her boss, so hopefully she'll be able to start coming soon! Also. Guess who bore their testimony yesterday? ALVIN. One of the first things he said was, "Guys, I really don't like hugs". Have I mentioned I love the YSA branch? They're quite hilarious. 

Saturday we took a "road trip" up to Green Bay!! So fun, but so many miles. Never again. Haha, but it was good times. We went out to lunch with Karlene and Kyle. Then all four of us went to the Sanders' home to have a lesson with John. Sometimes as missionaries we get early access to the new church media stuff, and so we are able to share the new Easter video with people. So that's what we did! Although the internet was really (like really) slow, we were still able to have a powerful lesson and John was able to give us THREE referrals. It's kind of mind blowing to think how many of our friends, family, and acquaintances are prepared to hear the gospel. All we have to do is invite them to hear it. Not even that, just invite them somewhere where the missionaries can invite them! Cause we're awkward and weird and it's okay, we know that we're strange

I love this gospel and I'm continually amazed at the love that Christ has for me and for all of us. Keep it real, guys. Choose the right!

Xo,

Sister Quist

Bye to Jaclyn :(