Week 45 - Hello from up North{ish}

Hello my dear family & friends!! 

I made it back up North safe and sound. Wednesday I hauled all my stuff to the stake center and me and a bunch of other missionaries being transferred loaded up into the "fun bus" and drove up to the transfer point in Oshkosh. Where I met my new companion Sister Schlosser!! She's cool. She's a ginger. She's sassy. She's real. I love her! 

But let's back it up to Monday. Monday was cool. P-day, you know. We went bowling with the Zone Leaders and the Munoz and Wehrhahn family. Such a blast! And let it be known that I totally beat Elder Reina.

Tuesday was busy, busy with goodbyes and packing and appointments with investigators. Went and saw Jaclyn. She's a gem and I love her! It's been such a joy to help teach her the new member lessons and see her testimony deepen. Then we went to Red Robin as a district. That was fun, even though we were all basically broke. Then we went and said bye to the Mead's. Aww I just really admire that family. I'm so grateful for people like Katie and Merrill! 

Sister Ah Mu was an incoming missionary from my home town so we were able to take her out for a couple hours on Tuesday! That was pretty fun. Apparently God likes sending us Highland/Alpine kids to Wisconsin. Which is fine by me because I always love making that connection. 

Anyways, Tuesday night we went and got Kopps (custard) with Jessica. Oh Jess. I'm going to miss that girl SO MUCH! But it's okay cause we decided that's it's not "goodbye". I'll see her around :) Saying goodbye to the Munoz family was probably the most heartbreaking thing of my life. Okay, I'm exaggerating, but it was pretty sad. They are so incredible and I already miss them so much. They are strong in the gospel though and I know they'll continue to do great things. Like I said, Wednesday was crazy busy. Said "bye" to my baby, Sister Garner :( Sad day. It's hard when companions become best friends and you live with them 24/7 and then the next day you're just not with them anymore. But West Allis is in good hands! 

That night I was able to meet Mari and Ismael. Our investigators who are gonna be BAPTIZED in March!! They're doing so so good! Ismael is reading the Book of Mormon all on his own (he's 12) and coming to church and is super stoked to be baptized. Mari is getting there. She was out of town yesterday so she wasn't able to attend, but she'll be there this Sunday. 

Thursday we met with a YSA recent convert, Cherie (like "cherry" the fruit). LOL. Cherie is hilarious and a gem. 

Friday was weekly planning. Blah blah blah. Great times, weekly planning is long, but makes the week run 10 times smoother! Cassandra took us out to Olive Garden (yeahhhh) and then we had sports night. See, the fun thing about the YSA branch is that there are things going on every single night! Man, it was good to be with the members! I was even able to see some old friends from the Oshkosh ward! Fun times. 

Saturday was a blast!! We went to the UW Oshkosh campus and just contacted basically all day. I wish I had more time to write about that, but the gist of it is that we met some wayyy cool people and also some way awkward people! 

Alrighty. See you later. Letters are gladly accepted! :) 

Chose the right. Follow the Prophet. Keep your chins up. 

Xo,

Sister Quist

a good book, a really good book. :)

Week 44 - "and then I blinked"

This week has been such a blessing, ya'll! So many miracles and such little time to write about all of them. But I'll just start out by saying how I'm getting transferred :( Goodbye, West Allis. I'm headed back to where it all began. Seriously. Going back to my same district/area(ish). But this time I'll be serving in the Young Single Adult ward! Winnebago YSA! I'm super excited to be back in my old stomping grounds and to be working with the YSA in the area. I'm a little nervous, but I know without a doubt that Heavenly Father will bless me with the capability to do what is needed. I think that's probably one of the biggest things that I have learned so far on my mission. That Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us unconditionally and that He will always be there to lift us up. I've had so many moments this week when I have felt that love. Going into this week I kind of had a feeling that it would be my last one in West Allis. So it's obviously been full of many emotions. There is so much work to do here in West Allis, and even though I'm super sad to be leaving, I've had such a peaceful feeling with me all week. I can't deny that is the love of my Savior. I'm grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost to comfort and guide me. I feel like I've finally learned how to feel the Spirit at all times. And let me tell you, it's pretty incredible. There aren't really any words to accurately describe the Holy Ghost. But it's pretty great.

When I was pondering what to title my last email in West Allis (such important things, you know), all that came to my mind was the quote from Father of the Bride, "and then I blinked". I feel so blessed to have served here. There are people here that will forever be a part of my heart. The past four transfers have not been easy to say the least, but I have learned so much. From the members, from companions, from investigators/less actives. SO MUCH LEARNING. Sorry if this isn't the most eloquent email. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed at the moment. Of course, though, I have learned the most from my Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and loves all of us. I know that he Atoned for our sins and died so that we can live with Him again. I know that we can turn to Him whenever, wherever and He will be there. I love Him and am forever thankful to Him for all He has done for me. 

I love West Allis! Peace out, guys. 

I'm kinda super sad to leave this area and super sad to leave my companion. She's basically the bomb and I'm so confident in her. I'm so lucky that I was able to train her. She is one of those people I was talking about when I said they became a part of my heart. West Allis is about to BURST with baptisms!! This week has been full of people coming unto Christ! But there are many people being prepared in Winnebago. 

Alrighty. That's all I can do today, folks. Keep up the great work wherever you are. Choose the right! 

Xo,

Sister Quist

 selfie in my Milwaukee shirt

selfie with the crew

 the fancy Basilica! oh so beautiful!

Us and dear Jessica

Week 43 - Painting Skills and Loving the Work!

This week. Oh man. Tuesday was wonderful. We had Zone Training meeting. Such a great spirit and I learned a lot. Plus always great to see others in the zone! This mission life is pretty great, guys. 

Tuesday was also a day full of ups and downs. Later that evening we had a pretty interesting experience. I'm just so so thankful for the Holy Ghost. That promise is real, guys. He will always be with you when you are obeying the commandments! Wednesday we met a really cool referral. She has gone through a TON in her life. Has four kids and her husband is in jail (for false charges...no worries + he's getting out soon). She just beat cancer last year and has a strong desire to know God better. She was very receptive to our message and we are going to go back tonight to talk to her more! 

Wednesday was awesome. You know. Any missionary knows that tracting just isn't the most successful way to find new investigators. But holy cow we found a good one! I think I may have mentioned a guy named Xavier. Maybe not, anyways. He is SO COOL. And actually kept his return appointment which makes him 10x cooler. So we went over with Kelly and taught him the Restoration. The spirit was super strong. Kelly shared her testimony with him and he was really touched. We committed him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon and to come to church. But he works on Sundays (boo) and wasn't able to make it. But hopefully this week. He is YSA age though...so we will probably have to hand him over to the YSA elders. 

Thursday we were able to meet up with a girl from Utah. I mentioned her a while ago...Kendall. She is a rockstar! First of all she took us to Noodles and Co. (already winning points) then she came with us to our appointment with Jessica. And WOOOOWWWW. Spirit was strong, guys. It's so tough when you just want this so bad for someone, but obviously it's her choice so it's not like I can make that decision for her. But I just know that becoming a member of this church will bless her life in ways that she can't see right now. 

We did a whole lot of service this week. If you are thinking about painting your walls, shelves, crown molding anytime soon just wait a few months and I'll hook you up. We painted some crown molding for the Sykes, some shelves for some less active women, and a few weeks ago those walls for Jaclyn. So you could say we're professional. 

Friday we saw my favorite lady. BARBARA! What a gal. We're pretty much bff's and I'm going to be so sad to say goodbye if I leave next week. We had a great lesson with her. She needs to get her booty to the temple again. 

Saturday was busy, busy. As Saturdays typically are. My tender mercies go as follows: Tina, painting, Fazoli's, Meet the Mormons, Connie, tracting - Eric and Emily, library service, puffs with lotion, hot chocolate.

Sunday. Solid. Irena and Jess came to church. Holla! Jayson got baptized!! What a wonderful day. And dinner at the Lagazo's. Plus the Cragers came. Funnest dinner crew ever! 

And here we are. Monday. Played sports with the our district and the spanish elders. Totally killed in in basketball. Tonight we have fun plans. Gonna go see a part member family and have dinner with them! I love this work and I love West Allis. 

Stay classy and choose the right. 

Xo,

Sister Quist

I could smell it before it came ;) (gilmore girl's reference)  SNOW!

Me and Barbara. Love this sassy lady! BFFs.

Jayson got baptized yesterday!! :) So great to see the whole family baptized. Love the Munoz Family.

Week 42 - star struck and cheese curds

I don't know if I mentioned this, but last Sunday/Monday the referrals just kept coming in. And oh man do I love referrals. Seriously guys, go to lds.org and refer all of your friends and family. Best thing ever! I mean they all ordered Bibles, but the ones we've contacted so far have all taken Books of Mormon as well. And a lot of them are fairly interested in learning more. God works in mysterious ways. We went back to contact a potential investigator, Xavier, and caught him at home! He is super cool. He lives with his dad, who is Pentecostal, but he hasn't gone to church in a long time. He told us how he hadn't read any of the BoM, but said that once we left he would go and read some. I was asking if we could come back and teach him more and he eagerly said that would be cool. Yay! So we are gonna go back on Thursday to talk to him more about this wonderful gospel!!

Irena is doing well. I guess. We didn't get to have a sit down lesson with her this week, but we are gong over tonight with Tina to talk to her more about the Word of Wisdom. We did stop by her house this week, though, and she said she really enjoyed church. She couldn't make it yesterday, but hopefully she'll be able to this Sunday.

We went to the Crager's house for dinner this week. That is an A+ family. So many laughs. This week we also went on exchanges with the sister training leaders. It was fun to be with Sister Blas, but I'm so happy Sister Garner and I are back together. I love my companion! I'm really trying to savor these last couple weeks of the transfer cause next transfer is pretty up in the air. Jessica took us to a fabulous place called the Wisconsin Cheese and Sausage Shoppe. 

Oh. my. gosh. Pizza Grilled Cheese sandwich and homemade Wisconsin cheese curds. I may have died and gone to heaven. No worries, I'm back now. 

We also went to the Capps to check on Brother Capps. He's doing well and just taking it easy now. That man is a champ. When we stopped over on Saturday, Sister Capps was drying bananas so we helped her with that. Of course she gave us a baggie of them and we are so addicted. We were invited over for Sunday dinner too, so we went back yesterday for a nice dinner.

Fun fact. Ever since I came to West Allis I have heard that Jabari Parker and his brother sometimes come to our ward. WHAT? Jabari Parker the NBA player?! Yep. So of course I've been on the lookout since I've been here. Nothing for the past 6 months and then yesterday it happened. Yep. One of my dreams came true. NBA players are tall, guys. It was so cool to meet him! He was very nice and even took a picture with us. If I leave West Allis I can now leave in peace. Just kidding. It's not that big of a deal, but still a fun experience!

This week has been nothing short of busy. We are really working our tails off here and finally there has been some pick up! I'm grateful for my Savior and all that He does for me on the daily. There is no way that we would be able to do this work if it wasn't for the power and strength of the Atonement. Elder Dallin H. Oaks said, 

"Our Savior's Atonement does more than assure us of immortality by a universal resurrection and give us the opportunity to be cleansed from sin by repentance and baptism. His Atonement also provides the opportunity to call upon Him who has experienced all of our infirmities to give us the strength to bear the burdens of mortality. He knows of our anguish, and He is there for us. Like the good Samaritan, when He finds us wounded at the wayside, He will bind up our wounds and care for us (see Luke10:34). The healing and strengthening power of Jesus Christ and His Atonement is for all of us who will ask. I testify of that as I also testify of our Savior, who makes it all possible."

He truly does "make it all possible". He lives and He loves us and He knows YOU. He wants us to follow His example and turn to Him. I know that as we do we will be oh so happy! 

Keep it real. CTR. Lots of love from Wisconsin.

XO,

Sister Quist

Week 41 - We are ALL called to serve!

Ahh! I don't have much time, but I do want to say a quick "hello" to everyone!

This week has been fabulous. Lots of miracles are happening and our teaching pool is growing! We had two investigators come to church yesterday. Woohoo! Jessica continues to search for her answer. We set another baptism date with her. Hopefully when February 21st rolls around she will feel ready! Also, did I tell you? She is planning on going to Utah in April to attend General Conference! 

We got a call Thursday night with a referral from some Elders in the North zone. This woman's name is Irena. She's so sweet. She's 70 years old and Polish. Like, straight from Poland. She has been put in a lot of unfortunate situations in her life and feels really lonely and empty at this time. We know that the gospel message will help her! So we went and met her Friday and it went so well! The only thing is that she is a pretty heavy smoker. I'm so grateful for the Word of Wisdom! But the lesson was great and we were able to teach her how to pray. She very eagerly committed to come to church on Sunday. When we went with Tina to pick her up yesterday morning there she was, standing under her umbrella in the rain waiting for us. She stayed for all three hours and said she really enjoyed it. Even though it was kinda weird cause it was the fifth Sunday. We are excited to continue teaching her about the restored gospel! I know that the emptiness that she feels can be filled as she repents and comes unto Christ.

We had interviews on Friday, which went well. I always love getting to visit with President Cutler. Plus, when we have interviews we get some of Sister Cutler's famous cookies! Score!

Some other exciting news. We got our car back! We are feeling #blessed because we feel like we can do so much more with our vehicle. The bus was a good experience, though. I felt like I was just starting to get the hang of it all. But no complaints here! :) 

I was re-reading my old study journal and found this great quote by M. Russell Ballard, "Weaknesses become strengths, challenges become opportunities, trials become triumphs, and adversity becomes an adventure in the service of the Lord". I know that whether we wear a name tag or not, we are all called to serve! And that as we magnify that calling we will be oh so blessed.

Stay safe and make good choices. I love you all and hope you all have a happy week! 

XO, 

Sister Quist

* No pics from our girl this week, so I am borrowing from the mission blog! These are from New Missionary Training a few weeks ago and Christmas morning with President and Sister Cutler.

Week 40 - #livingthebuslife

I'm running out of opening statements. So I'm just going to jump right into this week's recap :) It's been one heck of a week, to say the least. First of all we are car-less. Not due to my accident, but the Racine sister's car is in the shop for a week so they gave our car to them for the time being. Luckily, Milwaukee has a decent bus system! Imagine this: two girls who have never taken a bus anywhere in their lives trying to navigate the city of Milwaukee. It hasn't been too bad. It's kind of an adventure, I must say. Although, my nose has almost frozen off like five times while waiting for the bus. But we're surviving :) I do have to say, I'm pretty proud of us. Especially considering the fact that we had less than 3 hours notice to get bus passes, routes, maps, etc... if I had to title Thursday it would be "the day we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off"! It ended well though with a great surprise dinner with Sister Stewart (RS pres) and a nice lesson with a less active woman. Sister Stewart is such a rockstar. She took us out all day on Saturday! 

Friday was our first full day on the bus. I mean, it took us an extra hour to plan out bus routes/times/changes, but we did it! It's kinda fun to be honest. We were suppose to see Sis. W, but she was sleeping when we got there. So we taught her non-member mother the Restoration instead. It's sort of weird because when we had our car we usually just pray before we get out and go into the appointment, but seeing as we don't have a car we totally forgot to pray before we walked in. Both Sister Garner and I could definitely tell the lack of spirit as we taught. Things just didn't go as smooth. The spirit is so essential in teaching and testifying of the gospel! 

So I don't know if I mentioned this, but Brother Capps asked us if we could go visit some people whose records they just received. He told us how he had tried to call them, but some of the numbers were disconnected or they didn't answer or whatever. So we pull up to this one lady's apartment complex and we find out that she lives in a place for deaf people! So obviously she's not answering her phone...she can't hear! Now I'm really wishing I had paid better attention in my ASL classes and not just watched Switched at Birth for extra credit. But fun fact: Sister Garner also took two years of sign language in high school! So we were able to communicate with her and set up a return appointment. I really need to brush up on my ASL though...

On Friday I hit my halfway mark. So strange. I've been reflecting a lot lately on the past nine months and I've just been filled with an overwhelming feeling of gratitude. I've met some of my favorite people, become a Green Bay Packer fan, learned how to say "Wisconsin" correctly, seen families become united through the gospel, eaten more custard than I care to admit, felt the spirit on a daily basis, and most importantly I have come to know my Savior on a more personal level. I've finally decided to tackle "Jesus the Christ" by James E. Talmage. And I'm so happy that I started reading it! I'm not too far along in it, but I love this scripture that he referenced. John 6:38 "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me". I've been thinking a lot about that and how Christ was per-ordained to come into this world to be the Redeemer of mankind and how He didn't come to this world on His own agenda, but He came to do the will of the Father. I guess it goes back to the talk by Sister Marriott, about yielding our hearts to God. It's super tough to do, but I know that as we try our hardest to submit to God's will that we will be blessed with the strength and courage to do so. 

Be good this week and always choose the right! 

XO, Sister Quist

If you need us, we'll be at the bus stop!

Elders cut their ties in half at their halfway mark...

apparently sisters take a "9 months" pic. LOL.

From Utah to Montana to Wisconsin to Arkansas to Wisconsin... I finally got my package! :)

Week 39 - a week full of tender mercies

Fun fact: every night before we plan for the next day we write down tender mercies for the day. Here are mine for the week:

1. Beanies. This week has been chilly. High of -1.
2. Saw Trish & Callie this week (investigators). Love getting to testify of the Plan of Salvation!
3. Laundry dayyy! Clean clothes...yes.
4. Emailing my family and friends
5. So we have this cute old man investigator, Stanley, and we finally got to see him again this week! Hooray! He even let us in (perks (only perk) of the cold weather)! 
6. The Munoz's are gems and gave us a little space heater because no big deal our heating doesn't work in the apartment. 
7. Barbara!! Even though we didn't get to see Dylan and Carly. I still love meeting with Barbara.
8. Chick-fil-a (always a tender mercy)
9. Tidied up the apartment. 
10. Munoz's. Crazy lesson on the 10 commandment. Exodus 20, people. Read them, live them. 
11. Transfer point! Seeing some missionaries who are leaving/coming. I love making new friends!
12. Earl + Fischer's for dinner. I love older people.
13. Sis. Escobar left, but on her last day we took her out with us!! Rockstar. 
14. Tina! She hammered down in our lesson with our investigator, Fred!! 
15. Sister Cutler's cookies.
16. Jessica's lesson with Bishop and Sister Hayes!! Never having a lesson without a member there. (Bishop showed an AWESOME series of videos called Patterns of Light by Elder Bednar. Go watch). 
17. Sister Morris' dinner. I love hearing all about her mission stories. 
18. Tracting!! Gave out two Books of Mormon (whoo!). 
19. Taco bell
20. Kelly. She's so awesome. 
21. The beautiful weather! (when it heated up to 34 degrees...so tropical)
22. Sister Osburn coming to the Munoz's with us. Talk about flashbacks. 
23. Got in a car accident...with a pole. No worries. Everyone is safe. Except our car.
24. Saw Jaclyn. She went to the temple for the first time!! 
25. My companion
26. The spirit
27. Sister Skye's talk in church. Quote, "You don't have to be doing something extraordinary to have an extraordinary life, but you do have to be doing something". 

This week I'm going to focus more on finding joy in the journey! I encourage you to do the same :)

Be good. Say your prayers. Do missionary work.

Xo,

Sister Quist

 Companion close-up! Wearing our matching beanies.  

So fun to be reunited with this girl! Lucky we got to take her out for the day!