I am really excited to serve here - Central Odessa

Wow thanks for all of the letters. I got them from dad, mom, Dave, Melissa, Justin, Natalie, and Hannah. I am glad to hear that everything is going well for everyone. I am also glad to hear Hannah got her patriarchal blessing. I read mine very often and use it to make decisions. It really is amazing.

So I am back in Odessa. It was fun to walk around and remember a lot of it. I was actually up here on exchanges twice last year so I have been in the apartment and area. Elder Pace is awesome. We have really hit it off. He played basketball in highschool and is only 18. His parents are serving as Mission President and wife in Spain so he got permission to come on a mission early. He is really fun. 

On the day I got in we had a baptismal interview for one of their investigators. His name is Malik. He is a really nice man. He was baptized on Saturday and received the Holy Ghost Yesterday. It will be fun to do the recent convert lessons with him and get to know him. As far as other investigators, it looks like we have a lot of potential right now but we will definately have to deepen our pool. 

But now for the coolest story ever. So the lights were out in the church all weekend. After the baptism there was a young men's and young women's party. I ran into Sister Goncharova and her daughters from illichovsk. They started to freak out when they saw me. So there goes my surprsie return to illichovsk after my mission. That night we came to the church to grab something. The lights were still out but there was a party up on the thrid floor. It ended up being the institute teacher celebrating his 25th wedding annivasary. We stayed on the first floor and then Anya. who is Vova's step-sister, came to the door. We couldn't get it open because the door's lock is electric so we had to drop the key to her. But I waved at her through the door and then a couple of seconds later she realized who I was a freaked out and pulled her phone out to call someone. I figured it was Vova and I was right. We went up to drop the keys off the second floor and when we came back downVova was there and gave me a huge hug and picked me up. He was at the party on the third floor and came down while we were on the second. It was so much fun to see him. He said he is getting the Melchezidek Priesthood in March when there is a District Conference. I was so happy to hear that. He is so awesome!! It was so much fun talking to him for a little. I will see him like 2 times a week so I am so excited. 

But to be honest I am really excited to serve here. The branch is pretty cool. We are going over to some nice members tonight. You know the ones who absolutely love the missionaries and just want to feed us all the time. So that will be nice. I already miss Cherkassy as that branch ran so well. I am hoping to improve some things by working well with the branch council and branch preisdent like we did in Cherkassy. Elder Pace is district leader and said he felt pretty intimidated when he found out I was coming. I guess president Klebingat said some nice things about me in his interview with him. But I told him I will bring some ideas that worked in the past and he can decide what to do. Like for instance he loved the idea of the "meet the missionary nigh"t so we will do that to kick off our mini-mtc for the members. 

Well thatis about it right now. Thanks for the letters again. I love you all.

Love Elder Quinn

Being transferred - pretty hard to say goodbye

Hey everyone thanks for the letters. I got them from dad, mom, Melissa, Natalie, and Grandma Hoole. It is so good to hear from you. I hope you all got the letter/christmas card I sent out. So this week I found out that I am being transferred. I am pretty sad to leave this place. I have made a lot of friendships and I really love this branch. It was pretty hard to say goodbye to everyone. Especially the young men. I got a lot of pictures put up so I hope to do that at the church later today. I will be going back down to Odessa to serve in the Center Branch there. I have heard great things about my new companion. His name is Elder Pace and he was in Elder Hinkson's group so he is going into his 5th transfer. Elder Karadjov is coming here so replace me. It is pretty funny three of my former companions will be in this district. Elder Karadjov, Elder Hughes, and Elder Hinkson. But I am excited to be going back to Odessa. I will be able to see Vova everyweek at institue so that will be really cool. I was released as District Leader which is ok with me. I now get to write in my Journal at night. I really enjoyed the assignment but it was a lot of work.

This week was an ok week. A lot of the potential that we have had the past couple of weeks kind of fell away. But Daniel is awesome. We are meeting with him tonight with a recent returned missionary who is his age. It will be a good lesson. He has already read into 2nd Nephi. He came to church yesterday and stayed for all three hours and really liked it. The branch has really taken a liking to him. He is super happy and really outgoing. As for B.... we haven't been able to get a hold of him this whole week. He didn't come to church so we had to cancel his date which was really too bad. Hopefully After I leave they will be able to track him down. The rest of our investigators didn't really do much this week unfortunately.

Yesterday we stopped by a recent convert young man named K.... He is a good kid and is cousins to Daniel who I talked about last week who is awesome. We stopped by and I said goodbye to him. I am the last missionary to leave that was at his baptism. So I printed out some photos to help him remember. He is a good kid he just needs to pick his priorities. I have faith that he wil come back. I could see it in his eyes last night that he felt really bad and he had a desire to come. So hopefully he will.

This week I think I am going to focus on studying patience. I have never been impatient but I think I can improve so I am going to try to see how to be better at that. Sorry for the short letter this week. I am sure I will have a lot to write next week.

Love you all

Charity

Hey everyone thanks for the letters. i got them from dad, mom, Katie, Natalie, and Grandpa Hoole. You all write such good letters. I love hearing that you are all doing well. It gives me great comfort. 

Well this week was really cool. The Zone leaders were down on exchanges and it is always fun to work with them. They are some really good missionaries and i always learn something from them. This past week we set a baptismal date with D.... He is so awesome. He came to church this week and loved it. He couldn't stay for 2nd and 3rd hour because his brother was in town from Russia for only a couple of days. But he promised to stay next week. The young adults in the branch were all talking to him a ton.... mainly the young single women. It was pretty funny to watch how interested they were in missionary work all at once. his date is also for the 23rd of February. 

B... is doing good as well but he couldn't make it to church this week. I talked with him last night for a little on the phone and this week we are going to think of some ways he can come to church. He said he really understands the importance of coming to church and really wanted to come but as they say here "I didn't have success." He said he may be able to work something out with his work to allow him to come twice a month. We will see how that goes. But he is awesome. He read in the Book of Mormon and really just understands it. He told us about Nephi going into Jerusalem to get the plates not knowing before hand what he would do. He said that's like faith right? We were like ya a lot of faith.

We met with I.... The first thing he said to us was "So you two want to make me a mormon?" By the end of the lesson he agreed to continue meeting with us and said we could help him quit smoking. He is a really logical and down to earth guy. It is really fun to work with him. Also A...., the one who is Jewish, we went over and read some from the Book of Mormon. He is really nice and open. But he goes out to his farm house a lot so that was unfortunate. The rest of our investigators weren't able to meet this week. I really don't like farm houses. Everyone goes there durring the winter. It is really hard to meet with people. But we have gotten a hold of most of them and they still want to meet when they are in Cherkassy.

I have been doing a lot of study on Charity and what it really means. One thing I have decided is a lot of people try to cover up charity with love. They are very similar but also have some big differences. I believe that charity truly understood leads to action. If we really have charity for someone then it is not enough to just say I love you. Service is one great way to show charity. But what I decided was as I develop true charity for these people, it means I will take every aspect of missionary work more serious. My studies will be better and more focused, I will desire everyone's salvation, and I will work with my whole "heart, might, mind, and strength." 

On other news, D... the young man who is in Aaronic Priesthood with me is awesome. I want to brag about his amazing faith. He has come to church every single week I have been here and he is pretty much the only active young man. He reads the scriptures everynight. He is so reverent and quiet in class and sets a great example for A... the other young man. It has been inspiring to see his faith and love of the Gospel at such a young age. I am not saying I didn't have a love for this Gospel but I had a lot of friends at church that helped to make it more fun. The Young Women had a party this past weekend so in two weeks we are going to do a young men's party. It should be really fun.

Well I love you all so much. Next week is transfers so we will see what happens.... Hopefully I stay.

Love Elder Quinn

We have been led to elect people

So this week was a cool week. We have truely been led to the elect people. We have a lot of really cool investigators right now. I will quickly go through the list. D.... is awesome and is from English class. He is so excited about the Gospel it is so much fun to teach him because he eats it up. B....  is also from English class and we set a baptismal date with him for the 23rd of Feb. He is 19 years old and loves to meet with us. He has been asking a lot about serving a mission and seems to have some interest in it. He works on Sundays so please pray that as we comitt him this week to change work he will be able to do so. A couple of weeks ago I met a man while doing a survey on the street. (it is a finding activity). He is Jewish but doesn't seem too strong. We went over to him and he was really open and super nice. It was really interesting teaching him without a Chrisitan background. But he is really nice and really wanted to read the Book of Mormon.

 Z... and L ... are the couple we met last week. They are super nice but were busy this week. We talked to him today and should be meeting on Thursday. They are awesome. We also have V... and N... We tracted into them in the coolest story of my mission. We walked out of the church and Elder Hinkson asked where should we tract. I said let's go down by the river. We went down and he said lets go to that building. As we were walking up the door opened up so we could get in. I turned to Elder Hinkson and said "I think we found the right building." We went to the top floor and the first door we rung a lady opened up and imediately started to shake her head. But after talking a little and asking some quetions, the next thing we know we are teaching a first lesson to her and her husband. It was one of the best lessons on my mission. They invited us back to continue. but again they work on Sunday's so as we try to over come that concern this week please pray for us. We also have I... who knew some members of our church in America. He said "Mormon's would give the shirt off their back if you asked them to." He is really open and he and his wife recently had a new born baby. He seems to have some things in his past that he wants to clean up so this will really bless his life. 

Right now P... is going through a hard time. He has been praying and reading but not receiving an answer. The other night we talked with him and he sounded really discouraged. He said he wasn't sure what to do next. We told him about repentance of past transgressions and that seemed to hit a cord with him. We aren't sure what he did but it is really weighing down on him. We tried to set up with him but he said he would call us to meet. That is exactly what he told me and Elder Young. We aren't sure how to help him. He didn't come to church yesterday and we think it was just because he didn't want to. We believe he is trying to do it on his own. Please pray that he will be able to see the comfort that he can have through baptism.

Well that was a really big rundown of my week. I will just end with my testimony of the Book of Mormon. Elder Hinkson and I have really dug into the Book of Mormon and we have been finding some really cool insights. There is just no way that only one man could write this book. It is far too complex. I know the Book of Mormon is ture. I have seen how it changes people's lives and what a powerful tool it is. It truely was written for our day. There are things in there that can help us and comfort us in our tirals. I know it came from Prophets who were called of God. In the name of Jesus Chirst. Amen.

Love Elder Quinn

p.s. I love you all.