"VISA trip" to Bulgaria and a new companion

Hey everyone, thanks for the great letters and stories. I am so glad that everything is ok with everyone especially Natalie and Johnny. You are in my prayers. And Melissa that story about the twins sounds way funny. It really sounds like they are growing up. Dad thanks so much for your great advice. That is something I really strive for is obedience. It is just so important. Mom thanks for that great email about hope, faith and miracles. It really is amazing that every year plants grow up again after they had died. Thanks again for all of you great emails. 

Eastern Europe 

So as for my week. It was a pretty crazy week. So it started out with me going to Bulgaria. The problem is that the senior couple in the office had to leave unexpectedly because their Visa ran out. So when my group got there no one knew we were going to Bulgaria. So ya it was kind of stressful, but it all worked out. We got to Bulgaria and it is really pretty there. We had a sister in our group so a young recent convert girl there was her companion but it was really cool because she was able to take us to all of the cool spots. We got Subway which isn't sold in Ukraine and also Doritos. I'll put some pictures up so you can see them. It was a really fun trip especially because we were all together with the Elders from my MTC district. It was fun to see them all again. But then again on our way home no one knew we were coming back so we had to take public transportation to the Mission Office. But ya kind of a crazy trip.

You have to love those Doritos
(Bulgaria has Doritos!)

Original MTC District 

After that Elder Welch and I did some work with Elder Perkins in Kiev. I had to be there the next morning for a training meeting so we worked up there for the rest of the day. So the next morning was our training meeting. It was so cool to be taught by President Klebingat so personally. He gave us a lot of good advice. After that I met my new campanion. His name is Elder Hughs and he is from a small city in southern Utah. He is a really hard worker and really wants to get out there and talk with people. His understanding of Russian is actually pretty high. The new program that started with us has done so well that from now on Russian speaking missionaries are only there in the MTC for 8 weeks. Although it did help me to see how far my Russian has come. But ya he is a great missionary. He spent a transfer in Boston due to Visa problems. He is really into acting and plays and one of his goals is to be Jean Val jean in Les Miserables. He really helped our branch yesterday while we sang.

Elder Quinn and Elder Hughs
(in front of the Ukraine Temple) 

Unfortunately we weren't able to meet with Dima this week. It sounds as though he is getting pretty sick. We hope to meet with him tomorrow. We were informed that it will only take him 2 days to get married. We are going to commit him to be baptized in two weeks hopfully it goes well. So Mom, As far as getting a picture of his family I will see what I can do. I haven't seen his girlfriend for awhile. 

So yesterday we had a great lesson with Oleg. We discussed the Gift of the Holy Ghost and how to recieve answers. It was a really cool lesson. Anya just came back from a mini-mission and helped so much on the lesson also Sister Alyona did such a great job. It is so nice to have them there especially when our language holds us back. They are a great family. 

One thing that was cool is we received two referrals this week from other parts of Odessa. Hopefully somthing good will come out of these. Although one is a young woman and I don't know how I feel about teaching her but the sisters in our area said they can't do it because she lives in our city. So we will just have to get a bunch of members on those lessons. Also this morning a man called and wanted to set up with us. He said he knew other Elders and wants to meet with us. This is the first time this has ever happened on my mission. We will see how it goes tomorrow. 

So this week as far as study goes I have decided to switch my focus onto Preach My Gospel more. I have started reading it and doing all of the actvities and I can really see how much it helps. That book was totally written for missionaries. And I can see how much it will help me to improve. 

Well sorry this letter is a little shoter, but I love you all and thanks again for everything. 

Love Elder Quinn

Miracles Happen Every Day - Advice from Mom

Dear Chase,  

WOW!!  What exciting news!  You are staying in Illichosk and are going to be a trainer!  You will be great!  I am so proud of you for turning towards the Lord to find strength and answers.  The Lord is truly blessing you!  You are seeing miracles everyday and miracles have been promised to you through President Peterson's blessing to you.  Every letter from you we see miracles in your life. 

When Pres. Klebingat said that one day there will be a stake in Odessa, I thought again how miracles happen everyday!  You may already do this, but if not I think it would be wise to record in your journal each night, "the miracle of the day".  I had a "miracle of the day" journal  a few years ago, as I wrote in it, I found it amazing that there are miracles everyday.  We just have to watch for them.  Watching for miracles increased my faith so much and also made me feel so much gratitude.  I took some photos last Spring that reminds me that miracles happen everyday.  Here are the photos:  The 1st one is of my rose bushes in April of 2011,  the 2nd one is of my rose bushes in May of 2011 and the 3rd one is of my rose bushes in June of 2011.  

April 2011

May 2011

June 2011

I am not much of a gardener anyway, so to see my new rose bushes from that last summer looking like dead twigs was upsetting. I didn't have much hope for them to ever look beautiful with blossoms on them again.  Well, it happened!  My rose bushes bloomed and looked beautiful. Something that we take for granted every year - a tree, a bush, a buried tulip bulb...comes back to life in full bloom after the dead of winter!! It truly is a miracle.  

I will stay in Illichosk - I will be training - I feel very humble!

Read this letter in order and don't look down. Well I will really quickly say thank you for the letters. It sounds like everything is going great. Congrats to Katie and Dave on the new house. And Hannah just keep your head up. Your friends will see your example and be very impressed. I know it's hard but there is a reason why you are there at that time. Mom I am glad you got my letter. I was afraid it didn't get there and Dad that is so cool that you get to watch a basketball game in "the garden" from the box, have fun.

Illichosk
Alright now for the big news. So I will just start from the top.So Saturday morning we received a text from our Zone leader telling us that we have a conference call. I figured it was just with our Zone. Up until that point our zone had only found one new investigator on the week. We called in and it was actually President Klebingat. He gave us a lot of cool advice. He said that he is really happy to see that the advarsary is trying so hard to discourage us, he believes that it means good things are on the way. He said that one day there will be a Stake in Odessa. So after wards we had to go to the church to clean. On our way there we were talking about the transfer info that we would receive that night. I said really there are only two options. Either we are staying together or I'm leaving and he (Elder Karajov) is training. Thats when we got the phone call. Elder Karajov answered and said "Hello President, ya I'll be there on Friday." That meant that Elder Karajov is training and also means that I would be leaving. I got really disappointed. WE started cleaning and then the phone rang again. I heard Elder Karajov say "Hello President ya he's right here let me get him." I too have been asked to train this transfer. I honestly can't believe it. But now we didn't know who was staying. I was so nervous all day because I really didn't want to whitewash train a new area. The call came that I will be staying in Illichosk and that Elder Karajov will be returning to his old area in Obolon. He was pretty disappointed because he really enjoyed being here. I'm pretty sad because Elder Karajov hasd been a fabulous companion,  and we only got to serve with eath other once. So ya theres the news you have all been waiting for.

So that night as you can imagine I didn't sleep too well. I just kept thinking about situations that might happen that I won't be able to fix. So the next morning I decided to study Humility. It was one of my best studies I have had so far. I started out with a sincere prayer for help. I told the Lord that I am not ready to train but that obviously He is. I told Him I really need help. I went on to study Scriptures such as Ether 12:27. I decided that I have a lot of weaknesses that need to be made strong. I also ready in Alma about Ammon, my bro, gloying in God's power. I ended my study prayer and really asked again for the Lord's help so that we can accomplish what he wants done. That day I was able to communicate and understand better than ever before. It was a direct sign that the Lord does hear and answer our prayers. So this morning I studied in the General Conference issue of the Ensign. Thanks again for sending that. I read two talks that really stood out. The first was "It's better to look up." At this time that is something I really have to do. The second was "Waiting on the Lord:Thy Will be done" again this is something I have been trying to focus on. The Lord knows what's going on and what is going to happen in my area way better than me. I have to let him do what he wants. 

Well now for my week. To answer some questions I don't know how Dima's son is doing he is really young and may not know what is really happening. But for good news. Dima said that they are going to get married. He said that if things get better he wants to give his girlfriend a proper wedding but if not then they will just sign the papers. I don't think things will get much better. He is now using two crutches. But I hope to meet with him and set a date on Saturday.

As for Oleg and Vova. Vova thinks we are weird and doesn't know why he has to meet with us. So we will have to work on that. Oleg though as come a long way. He held his own Book of Mormon for the whole lesson and even said amen at the end of the prayer. He had never done that before. He says that he can't read because the writing is too small, so I had a distinct impression to make poster boards with an entire chapter on it. I don't know if he will actually read it but maybe it will show him how important he is to me. I am going to pray and see which chapter I should do. Hopefully it's not too long. haha.

As for Bulgaria this week. I am only there for three days and then I come back. We only go once in a mission but we are going really early for some reason. Usually you go at your year mark. We are also going before a lot of other older groups. So we will see how it goes. I can't wait for it because they have a Subway there and really good Chinese food. So I will probably eat a lot. And I get to see my whole district from my MTC group which will be really fun. It should be a cool couple of days. they say its the closest thing to a vacation we get as missionaries. I forgot my camera to computer cable so I'll put some up next week. I'll be sure to take some pictures in Bulgia and obviously of my new companion.

Well thanks again for everything. I love you all a lot.

Love Elder Quinn

A Lot Going On!

Alright I got a lot of things to talk about. But I'll start at the top of my list. Next week I am going to Bulgaria for my Visa trip. I need my social security number and I can't remember the first three numbers. Could you just send those to me? Also about Visas I have a pretty good chance of staying in Illichosk because the 26 new missionaries dropped to 15 and now they don't know if any of them are going to get Visas. My group was the last group to come in without any problems. I didn't realize how much of a blessing it was until now. But ya we will find out on Saturday, I really want to stay, things have really been going well lately.

So a quick two funny stories. This one is for Johnny. A little while ago he told me how he and his companions would keep themselves entertained while walking on the streets. They would kick rocks between each others legs. Well I did it to Elder Wells and he didn't like it. But for a little while now Elder Karajov has been doing it to me. At first I thought it was an accident but then he did it and I heard him mumble "yes." I asked him what he was doing and he told me everyone up in Kiev does it. I laughed so hard. I guess missionaries are the same everywhere. 

Second funny story. I was studying this week and came across a word I didn't know. It ended up being the word "beard" then I came to the same word but with a prefix added to it I looked it up and it said chin. But the litteral translation is "under beard." It makes you wonder what came first the beard or the chin in Russia. Sorry that was a random story I just figured you would all get a kick out of it. 

Now this was a crazy story. So we approached this guy and started talking with him he was nice but wasn't super interested. Then this lady walked up and asked if she could listen, Elder Karajov was like ya of course but I thought I know this lady from somewhere. We payed with both of them and then she sprang her attack. She started Bible Bashing like never before! Then I remembered that she once came into our church and tried to bible bash with me and Elder Wells. This was one of the first times that I actually understood what the person was talking about and she was making me so angry. Here we were talking to a nice guy and she came in and ruined it. She turned to me and said I read on the internet that you believe Jesus Christ and the devil are brothers. I said we are all children of our Heavenly Father and that makes us all brothers and sisters so yes the devil is our brother. She looked like I had just slapped her in the face. She was so mad at me. She said how dare you say that about our Savior. I just started in on the Plan of Salvation but she wouldn't let me talk. So we gave up and just let her ramble on. But then she hit another nerve of mine. As missionaries we always try to commit people to do things. So when she said "This is what I want from you boys, I want you to stop using the Book of Mormon and only use the Bible. Will you do that?" It was if she was trying to commit me to do something. I was so angry but I held my tongue and said "We know that this is Holy Scripture" Then I turned to the guy and said if you would be interested we would love to talk with you. This was the best part. He said ya now I am because that lady is crazy. He said it right in front of her. It was awesome! So we just walked away. But afterwards we looked back on it and were really proud of our selves. We didn't bash we only bore testimony. 

Now onto investigators. So I guess I need to stop complaining because we had a great week this week. We found 3 investigators and two of them came to church and that doesn't include Dima because he wasn't able to. Stanaslav came which was super random. He said he didn't want to when Elder Wells and I tried to commit him but this time he came. Also Vova came which was really cool. Then we had one of the best sacrament meetings. Kcosha Goncherova a 16 year old girl gave an amazing talk on prayer. It was one of the best talks that I have heard for awhile. Then I talked on the Plan of Salvation and then President Gonyev from the District Presidency talked on the Plan of Salvation as well. It was such a sacrament meeting. For second hour I gave the lesson on being cleansed from sin through Christ and I think it went well. 

Relief Society Choir 

Later on the night we taught Oleg again and talked about repentance. At the beginning we talked about why we ask him to make commitments. I told him that we are representatives of Jesus Christ and so when we ask him to something it is as if Christ is asking him. His whole attitude changed and he said we could continue teaching him. Also next week his step daughter Ana comes home from her minimission which is going to be such a big help of lessons. 

So as you can see things really picked up this week. I really want to stay in Illichosk for just s little bit longer.