Gone With the Wind

This week has been pretty boring, but also very interesting at the same time. Elder Dalling was having some issues with his back so we ended up going to get x-rays. But while we were waiting for the results we get a call from our mission president saying that he's going home on Thursday morning. So now I'm going to be in a trio with the other elders in our apartment just for the last week of the transfer.

But other than that our week has been pretty boring. Sorry I'm so bad at writing and I don't know how to tell cool experiences we've had. But I hope y'all have a great week and that you all stay safe. 

This weeks video

 

Love you, Peace Out!

Elder Quinn Matua 

我受夠了

First week of the transfer and we now have 3 people on date (baptism). We've been putting in that work and now we're starting to see it pay off a little bit. 

We're still hanging in there. 

This weeks video: Ngoh Sauhgau Liuh

Love you all! Have a great week and stay safe.

Elder Quinn Matua

 

Rocket Cup (March 14th)

End of the transfer is today so I'm not a greenie anymore! But I got lucky enough to stay here in the Lake Tapps ward. 

Everything is going good here. We have one of our friends on date (baptism), so we hope everything goes smooth so she can get baptized. 

The work is hard, but it's good. 

Love you all, have a great week! Peace out!

This weeks video: Bored in the House

Elder Quinn Matua 

Sicko Mode

This week was pretty slow, not gonna lie. 

We started off good with Zone Conference which was amazing. It's always very humbling. Then things started to slow down and Elder Dalling actually ended up getting sick. So we spent a couple days inside. Kinda boring, but I'll be honest, it was good to calm down for once. But we got to go to the temple today and that is always great. 

This weeks video

We're staying in there. Hope y'all have a good week. Love you all! 

Peace out,

Elder Quinn Matua 

Mòuh sih 無事

First transfer down, many more to go. Commencement Bay has been amazing. Hope you all are doing great. Not much to say this week. 

This weeks vlog

I love you all. Stay safe and have a great week!

Elder Quinn Matua 我愛你

sām gwa gwa

This week was pretty slow. Still teaching a ton. But we've had a lot more doors slammed in our face than usual. Still love talking to all the crazy people on the streets. Staying in there. 

This weeks video

 

Love you all,

Elder Quinn Matua

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leg day errrday

Super crazy week, honestly one of the weirdest weeks of my life. 

Made it to Tacoma, WA a week ago and it honestly felt like a dream. Lots of emotions. We're in the heart of Tacoma right in the city. In the short amount of time that I've been here we've already seen hundreds of homeless people, smelled lots of weed, and we even saw a drug deal go down. And as you can tell in the video I've been on a bike. My legs are absolutely gone. We end up riding on a bike for about 4-5 hours a day. But overall it's been pretty good. 

Check out my latest Vlog. 

Stay safe y'all. Love and miss you guys!

Elder Quinn Matua

馬君丞 heading out

Note: Late post from 17 January, 2022

This is it! 

Heading out to Washington (Tacoma) in the morning. This is a temporary reassignment. I had a great time here in the MTC. I'm so grateful for the experiences I've had here and the time to grow and learn. I'm so grateful for my awesome District and all they've helped me with. 

Super nervous to get out to the field, but I'm more excited than anything. Y'all know that I'm a man of few words, even though I'm always talking (I know that makes zero sense to some of you guys). But I'll see y'all back in Utah in a quick 2. Love all of you and I hope you're all doing well. Peace Out! 1111

Media:

1. Favorite Mural
2. Lauh Hingdaih
3. O Hingdaih
4. Drip too hard need an umbrella
5. Peace out to the sisters
6. Miss my momma
7. Weekly Video

Love you all,

Elder Quinn Matua

Never Ending Exchanges

This week was exhausting!

We went to Kyiv on Monday to do Exchanges with the AP's and I woke up super sick and ended up sitting inside all day and sleeping. It was not fun and I missed out on doing a last exchange with Elder Jack before he goes home tomorrow!

We had a great Thanksgiving dinner with the senior couple, the Leifers. They fed us really, really well and made us feel right at home. That night we also took a bus out to Lutsk to have exchanges with the elders there.

I got to spend the day in Lutsk with my buddy from Tennessee, Elder Crabtree. He is such an awesome missionary and we had a really good time together talking to people and visiting less-active members from their branch.

We started teaching a young guy named Andryi who was asking questions about English that I could not answer to save my life. Luckily when we started talking about the gospel we had a lot more answers for him. He shows pretty genuine interest so we are excited!

I've been reading talks from this past conference and something Sister Michelle Craig said really stood out to me. She said that in first Nephi 3:7 it says that the Lord will provide "a way" not "the way". It is hard sometimes because I find myself praying and asking for God to guide me, and then, without thinking, I immedietly imagine what the answer is gonna be. I falsely set an expectation for the answer I am going to receive. I know we have heard it a billion times but we have to understand He will provide "a way" and it will ALWAYS be "HIS way". We cannot, as SIster Michelle Craig says, "miss or dismiss personal errands from the Lord", because we are stuck on "our way" or "my way". He will provide a way and it will always be the right way. Find time this week to discover what "His way" for you is.


Love you all!
Elder Kenyon Matua

Updates: November 18th and 25th

Photo Bomb!

November 18th - Gone

Super, super short week calls for a super, super short weekly email. (Sorry mom!)

We finally got to sit down and have a lesson with our friend Emmanuel! We've played basketball with him so much and the Lord finally blessed us with an opportunity to sit down and teach him. It went really well and took a French Book of Mormon and I hope he reads it!

Our branch did a service activity this last Saturday. We bbq'd and cleaned all trash around the territory the church is on.

I got to have exchanges with the Elder from down under. Elder Thorton and I had a great day and he reminded me of a lot of Aussie slang that my mate Bailey Wilson used at home. It was a good day and we got a lot done.

Read a quote from Neil L. Maxwell this last week, "The star at Bethlehem was in orbit long before it was shone". The Lord has blessings in store for you and even though it may not seem like it, and even if it feels like you have been going through the same struggles forever now, the blessings will come. He has promised you so much; have faith in Him; have faith in His plan. He loves you and don't give up on Him.


Love you all,
Elder Kenyon Matua

November 25th - Happy Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving as a zone this last week. We had a really big dinner with everyone and sang a lot of hymns together and unfortunately heard a departing testimony from my good friend Elder Eller. He will be missed. We watched the new Christ Child video and if you haven't watched it go right now because it's amazing.

We had exchanges this last week with Chernivtsi and I was with Elder Packer who is a new missionary. It was so fun and I learned so much about him and he is awesome. His great grandpa is actually Boyd K. Packer so I got to hear some good stories. And his father was the last mission president in this mission! He is such a great kid and I am excited to see him grow.

We had a pretty intense lesson with one of our friends Zhenya. He has been investigating the church for about 6 years now and he is an amazing kid. His family is more active than a lot of actual members and they aren't even members! He knows everything is true but is just struggling to realize that he knows enough. He just wants to know everything but we all know how hard that is. I love the kid and know he will come around sooner or later.

President Kumferman reminded me of a quote from Elder Niel L. Andersen, "Obedience brings freedom". Think about that and email me your thoughts on that!


Love you all and have a great week!
Elder Kenyon Matua

Updates: 4 November and 11 November

4 November
Traveling (again), Exchanges in Ivano-Frankivsk, MLC and the temple!

Sorry folks but this one is going to be very short because I forgot till now.

We had a really long week full of a lot of traveling and not a lot of sleeping but that's ok because that means we working hard right? I hope.

Had exchanges in Ivano-Frankivsk and I got to work with my old companion Elder Petersen! It was really fun and we got a lot done. We had a lesson with an investigator of theirs who is getting baptized soon and he is awesome! We also got to meet the new missionaries again and get to know them better and they are awesome!

We went straight from Ivano to Kyiv for MLC. We got to do baptisms and a session at the temple the day before though and it felt so good. I also got to see a returned missionary and it was so funny and so good to see him again.

It was a really good week and we are just trying to soak up every minute we have here. Time is going by wayyyyyyy to fast and I don't like it. I love this work and the blessings it brings!!! So great!

11 November
President Goldens visit, Investigators and the Funny Things They Say

The stress is over!!

This week took so much preparing and stressing. We had been getting ready for a couple months now for the area president, President Golden, and when the beginning of this week hit, I realized how much more we still needed to prepare. We had heard so many stories about how strict he would be so we had everything perfect. The good thing is, it all went well. Everything went the way it was supposed to and I was so happy. President Kumferman and President Golden addressed us and we got a lot of counsel and guidance from them. President Golden also held a fireside for our branch members here in Lviv and it went really well.

We had exchanges this week with the elders from Rivne. It went really well and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the weather is getting worse and worse. And Elder Laney and I also had four lessons planned for that day and none of them went through, so that was pretty depressing. We got in contact with all of them again though and set another time.

We finally got to meet with our good friend Artiem. He has been meeting with the missionaries for 2 years almost and has just had so many difficulties with baptism. It started with his parents being very against the church, which is still holding him back now. But, on the lesson, Elder Taran bore a very strong testimony of his path to baptism because he is only a convert of about 3 years. He told Artiem that his parents were against him being baptized but he prayed for help and for them to have a change of heart and SLOWLY but surely they started to change. That opened Artiem up a little more to talk about his parents and he shared with us how they have been changing as well. It's very slow, but they are changing. So we invited him to pray and fast for strength to ask his parents again and he accepted and seemed excited to do so again.

Our friend from the Congo, Emmanuel, came to church! I really enjoyed it and everyone made him feel so welcomed. It was perfect because it just happened to be the day that our friends, the Hunters, from Utah, spoke! It was hilarious because after Brother Hunter spoke, Emmanuel leaned over to me and said, "Matua, is no one gonna clap? That was amazing!" I couldn't stop laughing.

There was a verse that President Golden kept bringing up and that was Alma 7:7 which says, "For behold, I say unto you there be many things to come; and behold, there is one thing which is of more importance than they all -- for behold, the time is not far distant that the Redeemer liveth and cometh among his people. "

It is so important that we take the things of God seriously. If we take them lightly, the sacred things and gifts He gives us, He will take them away. We have to understand the most important thing in our lives, or rather who is most important in our lives  and that is our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have to understand that His coming is nigh at hand. And we especially have to understand that God is preparing us and using us to prepare those around us. God works miracles through ORDINARY people just like you and just like me. He is preparing you to share the gospel with those around you, so do it!


I love you all and hope you have a great week!
Elder Kenyon Matua