Russian phrases

So mom wanted some Russian phrases so I will type some up. Let's see who can guess what they mean.
Я вас люблю
Я знаю что эта церковь истина
Пока!

Chase's testimony

Well I will just end this letter with my testimony. I know that this church is true. I know that through Joseph Smith,  Jesus Christ restored His chuch on the earth. I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God and leads this church. The Book of Mormon is true, I know it is. And by reading it and understanding it we grow closer to our Heavenly Father like we never before. I know that what I am doing is the will of God. Missionary work is the best work that we can do on this Earth. I know that helping others come unto Christ through baptism is what I need to be doing at this time in my life. I love it here and wouldn't be anywhere else. All these things I say in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 

funny experience - teaching about Moroni and the Title of Liberty

So this week Elder Hilton was in Armania so I was on exchanges with Elder Flint. He is a Ukrainian speaking missionary so it was really interesting. Our lessons were all over the place language wise it was super funny. But it was nice because most people here perfer to speak in Russian and Elder Flint understood a couple of things. This language thing is just so hard. I am always feeling like I just don't know enough. I still have to strain to understand what people say and sometimes don't catch it all anyways. It is so hard. But it is nice to have Elder Hilton back he has been teaching me some new things to say which is nice.

The other Elder's baptismal date is still on for this weekend. Karil is a super cool kid who everytime we see him he informs us of how many more days until he is baptized. He is super cool. there is also a young girl who is the daughter of a less-active woman. She also wants to be baptized. Her name is Katya and hopefully her baptism helps her mom come into activity again. Elder Hilton and I taught primary yesterday and taught about Captain Moroni and the Title of Liberty. The other elders gave me an old shirt and I had it over mine and when Katya read the verse I ripped of the shirt and started to write the title of Liberty on it. It was super funny. The kids really liked it.

As far as our other investigators Pavel is out of town so we couldn't meet with him. But we are hoping and praying that he is the one the Lord has prepared for us to baptize in August. He is so close we just have to help understand some things.

Last week I began the Book of Mormon again from the beginning. I am going chapter by chapter and writing down my own cross references and things that I like from each chapter. It has been super cool. Since I have been reading it so slowly I have picked out new things that I haven't ever noticed. I am in the middle of Nephi's vision and it is so amazing how much he writes about that comes true later in the Book or Mormon. It is just such an amazing book. We have an investigator right now named Danomik from Cameroon. He is so cool. He reads the Book of Mormon and really likes it. He leads a Bible study class for other Africans in the school. It is amazing how much he understands correctly about the teachings of Christ. He came to us last week and said I want more light on this subject what does your church say about it. We tell him and he just loves it. It is cool to see the Book of Mormon helping him.

some cool investigators

Well this week is going to be a crazy one. I am in Kiev right now because Elder Hilton is going to Armania to renew his Visa. I go back to Cherkassy tonight and will be on an exchange with a Ukrainian speakig Elder. It is so hard to understand people. They speak a language which is called surgik which is Russian and Ukrainian combined. It sounds like someone speaking English from the deep south. But I have learned some Ukrainian pharases and people are pretty good about switching to Russian if you ask them.

So here was a super cool story. We were walking home at night at about 8:50. The rule is be home by 9 unless you have a meeting then be home by 9:30. So we were walkiong fast but we walked past these two guys and said hello to them but kept walking. We got down the street and then they came running after us and one pulled out a bat.... haha just kidding scared ya didn't I? But they did come back to us and asked us to tell them why we are here. We sat down and started in on our message. We asked why they wanted to know and one of them said I don't know there is just something in your eyes and I can't figure it out. I saw it when you walked past me. We gave them the whole first lesson and one guy was super interested. But unfortunatly he lives in Moscow. The other guy who talked about our eyes only wanted to know why but didn't want anything else. It was too bad. Maybe next time we run into him.

As for our investigators. P.....  is doing well. We met with him and also did a service opportunity with him for some members. He is super cool and the branch is starting to warm up to him. He is still having an issue understanding the Atonement and that our Heavenly Father has a body. He has studied a lot of religions and he takes things from each one. But he loves the Book or Mormon. He reads it a lot and has a lot of good questions. This week I am meeting with A..... I am going to see if I can help him with the word of wisdom. He is a nice old guy. I asked why he wasn't baptized and he said I don't know baptize me! haha So we will keep working with him.

Yesterday at church it was super cool. President Klebingat visited our branch. He and sister Klebingat gave such good talks! They were perfect for our investigators to hear. Afterwards president came and met P.... and asked him if he has a date yet. P..... said no and Preisdent said well keep working for it. We are hoping to set a date with him tomorrow. But after church we had our Missionary School. It is where the members come voluntarily and learn how to do missionary work better. It is such a cool thing. So we asked president to come be a guest speaker and to talk about how members can be friends to investighators when they come to church. It was a super cool thing and will hopefully help our members to reach out more.

Well that is it for my week. Thanks for the letters again. Love you all.

Love Elder Quinn

I really like it here

...about my week. Here I am in Cherkassy. I really like it here. Elder Hilton is so cool. His Russian is so good. I can't wait to learn more from him. So just a little bit about the area. We share the city with another companionship of Elders and also a companionship of sisters. It is Elder Welch from my MTC district and Elder Sanes who is from Peru but studied Russian at Moscow University and got permission from the first presidency to go on a mission even though he was 27 already. He is super cool and way funny. These Elders will be super fun to serve around. The sisters are super nice. One of them is a trainee and was born in Russia and grew up in Italy. So ya her Russian is native level. So jealous!

I met the branch yesterday. We had 60 people there and 16 Priesthood brethern. It was so many people it was awesome! The branch is super nice and way friendly. But it is so hard they like to speak Ukrainian as well. But they usually speak Russian around us but Elder Hilton says that it isn't too bad to understand. So maybe I will come home knowing two more languages.... maybe.

So we have a couple of investigators and I have met two of them already. P.... is cool and has been meeting with them for a long time. He is really interesting. He reads verses really slowly and repeats them a lot to get everything out of them then he says he doesn't know if he agrees with them. He is really hung up on the Atonement and what it means. We had a lesson with him trying to explain it but he wants deeper answers. But he is really cool. A.... is a nice guy. He has been taught everything but can't give up drinking. Elder Hilton said that maybe if I through down on him he will stop so we will see. Our other investigator I am meeting tonight. His name is V..... He was found on Monday and when we called to set up he said hey ya I am reading your book I am already in 2 Nephi 29. So ya that will be cool if he keeps reading. 

So since we are so close to the other missionaries I will probably tell you about their investigators as well sometimes. So here they have a lot of fun youth activities. We have English, Game night, and Sports Morning. Last week a member youth brought his young cousin who is 12. He has come to everything since then. He is a super cool kid and honestly just a good down to earth kid. He came to church for the first time yesterday and loved it. He even helped clean up the Hymn books. Durring Priesthood they talked about baptism in the youth class. Kiral, that's his name, turned to Elder Sanes and said when are you going to baptize me? They went to his grandma's where he lives and she said he could and then both parents agreed as well. His Aunt is one of the strongest members in the Branch so he will have a really good fellowshipper family. The other Elders asked him why he wants to get baptized and he said so I can be a missionary like you guys. It was so cool. He is awesome.

Well that is my new area! Ilove it here. Fun information is that Elder Wells served here, my trainer. And told me I would serve here sometime. I really like it and look forward to being here. Well thanks again for everything. Love you all.

Love Elder Quinn

Cherkassy is in Central Ukraine
on the Dnieper river

Being transferred to Cherkassy... and leaving a message that will bring so much joy

 So the news you have all been waiting for. I am getting transfered to Cherkassy. It is just East of Kiev. My new companion is Elder Hilton. He was actually in the MTC with me but is one transfer older than me. He was really cool and I look forward to serving with him.
So 6 weeks ago dad asked me to write after this transfer and to respond to the question of why am I here for another transfer. I truly feel blessed to have been here for so long. I was able to teach Vova since the beginning and to baptize him. I have been able to make great connections with this branch and with Dima's family. I have loved serving here so much. Yesterday at church when I told Grandma Lidia she started to cry and told me that I need to talk to my Mission President and tell him that there is a grandma here who loves her missionaries and doesn't want them to leave. Vova really didn't want me to leave and said I should be here for the rest of my mission. The rest of the branch was super nice and thanked me for my service a lot of them were actually sad. I was surprised because usually missionaries are all the same to people but they actually might miss me, that is until the next one comes haha. I got to bear my testimony and thank them for all that they had done for me, and in helping me learn Russian. I really have loved it here so much. It is going to be really weird to leave. But in two years after my mission ;) I want to visit here with mom and dad. It would be so cool to see them all again. 
Now here is the story for you about sharing the Gospel with friends. We went over to Dima's mom last night. I didn't know if she would be home or what I should say. She invited us in and we started to talk. I told her very plainly that she and Dima's other family and friends are very dear to me and I love them all very much. I said that we have a message for you that will bring you so much joy. This message was the message that we taught Dima and he believed everything we taught. I told her how I met Dima and how much of a great man he is. I then went on to teach the Plan of Salvation. She accepted everything we taught and it brought her a lot of comfort as I explained to her about doing work for those who have passed away. After the prayer, I looked up and she was crying. She said Dima is very happy you came by today. I told her that I know that if Dima was here he would want her to accept this message. It was a very spiritual moment. I told her it was my last week here but that there would be another missionary who could teach her. I also said that in a year I will hopefully be able to visit again. It was an incredible experience. 
Well that is about it for my week.  I have to get home and pack. I love you all very much.
Love Elder Quinn

Elder Quinn Zhenya (Dima's son)  Elder Hughes 

Dima's grandma, Rano, Pavel, Nelya, Larisa, me and Zhenya

the branch in Illichosk

Hump day - Has it really been a year?

Hey everyone thanks for the letters. As always it is so much fun to hear from all of you. Well dad it sounded like the High adventure was fun. I remember doing that and I loved it so much. I am also glad that mom and Hannah were able to have an adventure of their own./ Have fun at EFY this week. I will be expecting a full run down of all that happened next week. Well sorry this paragraph is so small. It made be because of lack receiving emails from all of my dearly loved sisters..... hint hint. :).

So this week was a really cool week. On Monday we had an awesome lesson with Vova's dad Oleg. We committed him to a soft baptismal challenge which is just that when he receives an answer of these things he will be baptized.  We are wearing down his pride slowly. He is a great guy and would be a huge help for the branch. But anyways we taught him the third lesson again. We have gone through every lesson and pretty much every chapter in the Book of Mormon. He just needs to be baptized already. Tonight we have planned to set a date and to really get him progressing. I know he believes everything we have taught he is just not wanting to accept it yet. But he will :).

As for Vova, he is such a boss. We talked with him this week about receiving the Aaronic Priesthood. He was super excited and asked where he could read more about it. It was super cool. Last week the members gave him this giant bag of books that he can start reading. He showed me some of the books and asked if they were necessary to read. I told him I haven't even seen some of those books. But it was really nice for the branch to give him everything. I pointed him the Gospel Principles and Preach My Gospel. He is meeting this week with President Sadchenko. I am so happy for him. But it was a pretty big eye opener. After our lesson I told him that we find out transfer info next week. He said that I should serve here my whole mission. It then hit me how sad I will be if I get transfered next week. But of course I don't know what will happen. I actually could stay here my whole mission. haha. 

This past week was my year mark and as appropriate we celebrated by eating at McDonalds. It was nice because we had to go to Center Odessa anyways to be interviewed by President Klebingat. He tries to interview us every other transfer. It was really funny he asked how everything was going and I informed him that it was my year mark that day. He then thought for a moment and said ya tomorrow is my 1/3 mark. It is really cool that both of us started our missions at the same time. But ya so we ate at McDonalds and of course I burned an old tie that had a pen mark on it. It was a pretty funny day. But I seriously cannot believe that it has gone that fast. And I am scared to think the second half of it might go by faster. I don't know how fast it has gone for all of you but it has just flown by. But I am so thankful for this opportunity that I have had and still have to serve the Lord. I want this next year to go by as slow as possible (sorry mom). This has been such an amazing experience. Thank you all so much for your love and support. I feel your prayers giving me strength.

 That is really it for this week. We don't have any new investigators which is getting really aggravating. We just need to find people to teach. I have really been trying to push the members into getting us referrals but they seem a little too afraid to do anything with their friends. I have taught in third hour the past two weeks and I talked a lot on Missionary work. Well I love you all very much. Thanks for your prayers. Next week I'll have transfer info so ya it will be a crazy week.

Love Elder Quinn

just doing some cooking 

Baptism of Vova!

Good news. Vova got baptized and received the Holy Ghost. It was awesome! I had the opportunity to baptize him which was seriously one of the coolest things I have ever done. But I will start at the beginning of this week. On Wednesday Elder Christensen, my district leader and I were on exchanges so that he could interview Vova. I sat in the corner during the interview praying my heart out that it would go well. He answered the questions perfectly it was awesome! I could literally feel his testimony growing as he answered the questions. So on Friday we taught him and just went over some last things before the baptism. He said he was really scared and I told him I was too haha. So the next day we went to Center Odessa for the baptism. There was another brother being baptized which helped him with his fears. We had asked his step-sister Anya to give a talk on baptism. She did such a good job. She got really choked up as she talked about how this day is an answer to so many prayers. She said the next person to be baptized will hopefully be her dad and that maybe her mom will speak at his baptism. It was really sweet. So after that I was able to baptize and it all went well so I was super relieved. After the service we had some food and snacks. Some people from the other branches got to know Vova which was really good. I forgot to say that we had an amazing turnout to the baptism. Nearly half of our branch came. The next day Vova received the Gift of the Holy Ghost and I and Elder Hughes got to stand in the circle to confer it upon him. It was really cool. Definitely one of the coolest experiences of my life. I will put up some pictures right now.

Elder Quinn, President Sadchenko, Vova, Elder Hughes 

A happy moment!  Vova, Elder Quinn

Elder Quinn Vova 

Now about his father. Unfortunately he did not come to the baptism or to church. But tonight we have an amazing lesson planned for him and his family. It is going to be so cool. I really hope that he has seen the change in his son and will see that this is what he wants as well. His family is so cool it is only a matter of time before he accepts this great message. I just want it to be sooner rather than later. It would bless him and his family so much. That is one thing I have really learned while on my mission. About how much this Gospel really does bless everyone. The blessings of Priesthood in the family and in the church has been shown as I have seen families struggle without it in their homes. But I am so thankful to be a worthy Priesthood holder that they can look to and ask for help. As our branch President said on Sunday, without us there would be no branch here. We had a less active brother show up and when Vova gets the Priesthood then we will have 6 worthy brethren. That will be awesome. But we need more specifically Oleg.

The Kozakova family - Anya, Sister Alyona and Grandma Lidia
along with Elder Hughes Vova and Elder Quinn

The people at the Baptism

So Hannah you mentioned a couple of weeks ago that you are doing family indexing. Keep it up that is a really good thing to be doing. There are two young women about your age who after church do indexing while their mom is in meetings. I have seen the pictures that they do. Imagine Russian cursive. It is pretty intense. There is no way I could even pretend to read it haha. But ya that is a really good service so keep it up.

Mom, here is a funny story for you. It is about the handkerchiefs that you sent me in my package. Elder Hughes kind of laughed and said that he would make fun of me if I used them. But that was before it got soooo humid. We were at sister Finanko's and she was feeding us her Borsh which is a hot soup. Then she fed us pasta and meat. I was sweating bullets so I pulled out my handkerchief and wiped my face. I look up and Elder Hughes was sweating way bad too so I haded him another one I had in my backpack and he used it. Afterwards he said ok fine I will eat my works the handkerchiefs were a really good idea. It was super funny.