I prayed about it, pray everyday, prayer gives us a relationship with our Heavenly Father

Thanksgiving Dinner 

Hey everyone thanks for the letters this week. It is so good to hear from all of you. So first of all Happy Birthday to Katie and Melissa! I'm sure Justin and Dave spoiled you. So it sounds like everyone had a great Thanksgiving week. It was really fun to go to the Gregory's house and eat. They are the senior couple in our area and also Elder Gregory is the Branch President of Illichosk. They have us over every other Tuesday for District Meeting and after they feed us lunch. It is really nice of them. 

So now for some sad news. Dima was not baptizied on Saturday. As we were filling out his baptisimal record there is a place for the wife to sign to say it is ok. At this point he informed us that he is not married. Needless to say it came as a big shock. He told us that he only lives there to help take care of his son. His "wife" and him have stopped caring for each other a long time ago. He just doesn't want his son to grow up with out a dad. Up until this point we hadn't asked him to make any significant changes. He didn't smoke, he didn't drink a lot, and he loves to come to church. But now we had to give him two options, leave the son you love or marry a women you don't. It was so hard to ask him to do it. We left that meeting very nervous. Our next planned meeting was two days later. I have never been so worried about someone for so long. I was so scared that he would come to us and say "Sorry Elders it's just not a good time." So we met with him on Wednesday and he came in super happy. He said "Hey I prayed about it and before I was almost sure I was going to leave, but now I feel like I should get married to her." He went on to say that the past little while they have started to do more things together, and he feels that they can rekindle their love for each other. He said it might take awhile but it will all work out. I was so happy to hear that. We challenged him to pray together as a family, and when we talked to him at church he had done it. I really hope that everything goes well with them. So we don't have a date right now but we are having him pray about a time that will work. It was so cool to see him act on the answer he received.

Now for Cylvester, just to clear something up, it wasn't morning seminary. But to be honest this would be harder to go to, it's on Friday's at 5. Anyways we taught him last night and watched the Joseph Smith video. It really brought the Spirit into the room. We talked to him about prayer and why it is so important. We asked him if he prays and he said he doesn't. He then turned to his dad and asked him if he prays. His dad looked at him and said "Every day." It was way cool. Afterwards we asked him to come to church this Sunday and he said he would. Right before we left he asked for my facebook name so that he can friend request me. I was more than happy to give it to him. I hope this will be a good way to keep in touch. Dima has one and will hopefully request me soon as well. I love this area so much.

Out in the Selo (Country)

So do you remember a month or so ago I told you about running into some kids out in the Selo and then their dad came out and started talking to us. Well he offered us some tea so we finally took him up on his offer. He was really nice but unfortunately he was very set in his ways. He said that prayer is something too sacred to do everyday. We tried to explain to him our relationship with our Heavenly Father but he wasn't interested. He said we could come back for more tea but were not sure if it will do anything.

love photos from home

Chase tells us he loves getting pictures from home.  Here are a few we have sent...  

     

Mark 

Caleb

This is "Super Mark" Mark Anderson (on left.)  He loves super heros!! Don't we all.  Here Mark is showing off his cape, belt, wrist bands, mask and the mighty "M" on his chest.
Next we have little brother Caleb or rather "Super Caleb" He is still working on his "flying" skills so Dad (Dave Anderson) is helping him move along.  Super Caleb did not like wearing his mask and enjoyed eating his wrist bands, hence his costume is a tad more simple.

Dave and Caleb

Andrew and Isaac 

Next we have Isaac and Andrew Black (Below) carving pumpkins.
Mom/Melissa said they enjoyed all the slime.  On the right the twins have turned into Thing 1 and Things 2 (Andrew and Isaac) Notice the blue hair.  It is there.  They sure are darling like their Super Hero cousins.

Isaac and Andrew

Caleb, Grampy, Mark, Hannah, Grammy

BYU football game: Natalie, Johnny, Mom, Dad and Hannah     

It feels good to be on everyone's thankful list! My three kernels of thankfulness are...

Hello Family, 


Man it feels good to be on everyones thankful list,   As far as fun things we do while on the streets, is before we talk to someone we will say something funny so that our smiles are real. Usually it's something like "Wow we need a guy with a beard like that in our branch" or "Where can I get a hat like that?" It makes it fun. For P-days we often go up to Odessa and play games with the other Elders. And this week we get to celebrate thanksgiving at the Senior couples apartment.


So now about my week. Unfortunately Dima was not baptized this week. We met with him and there were some misunderstanding of some of the commandments. (Who knew wine has alcohol in it? haha) But all is good. It will happen this Saturday and he is very excited to be baptized. His wife won't meet with us because she doesn't see the need to meet with us. We keep pushing but we don't want to sound too invasive. It is so weird to me that she wouldn't be a least a little bit interested in what her husband is doing. But still Dima is doing great and he even showed up to our Branch service project. It was really cool to see him step up and to realize what will be expected after baptism. 

So this story is going to make mom so proud. Last year a young man who was 14 got baptized. His dad is a member but his mom isn't. He went inactive but his dad still comes everyweek. We have really been trying to get him to come to Seminary. So one week I went with Elder Larrymore (we were on exchanges) but he refused to go. I mean who would go if their mom said they didn't have to and their dad doesn't do anything. So they next week we brought Maxcime with us. He is 14 years old as well and is super strong in the church. This time Sylvester couldn't say no. We brought him to seminary and then stayed to listen with him. This past week We went and Maxcime was already there and they were already to go. It was awesome. We decided that we will go every week until he is already at the church when we come to get him. Next step is coming on Sundays so thats what we will talk to him about tonight.

Now for some good news. I have begun to understand what people are trying to saying to me. Not so much because I understand every word but because I can figure out the meaning of what they want. It was pretty cool when finally I talked with someone while my companion was talking to someone else. It's really nice the branch is super nice to me. They all speak slow and use simple vocab. I love this area so much.

This weeks Elder Welch and I went on exchanges. You may remember that we are both the same age on the mission. This time our exchange went so much better than our first time. We taught 2 lessons and talk to a lot of people on the streets. We both felt really comfortable talking so it was a really big step for us. One night we were getting ready to go to sleep and almost at the same time we said "Your Russian has really improved, how did you do it?" We both started laughing because we came to the conclusion that we only know different words and that's why we think the other is so good. It was pretty funny. I really hope I get to serve with Elder Welch later on in our missions. We get a long really well.

Alright remember that family we found that I said was a future relief society president. Well they dropped themselves. I called them one night and they said "Hey where you guys been, you should have called earlier" So I was super excited to teach them but they said call them the next day. So I did and this time they yelled at me and said "Stop calling us we don't want to meet with you." It was super weird and all I could get out was "have a nice night." But ya this week please pray that we can find more people to teach. We are running out of investigators.

Well I'm going to send mom a letter for Grandma so that's why it's a little short. But here's my three kernels of corn for thanksgiving. I am so thankful to be on a mission, I am so thankful for such an amazing family that send me letters, and I am so thankful for the Ukrainian people. I love them so much.

Well love you all, have fun this week. I know Dave is sad that I won't be able to burn him in football at the "Turkey Bowl" this year. haha

Love Elder Quinn

photo of Larry the pet cockroach and more...

Larry our pet cockroach 

The Night Club across the street from our apartment
we call it "The Great and Spacious Building".

Just had to have my picture taken here 

Things like this make us laugh when we are out tracting. 

Branch service project.
See Dad, wherever I am I still have to haul leaves. :)

Service Project - Dima our investigator in on the right 

I honestly love these people...I want to understand them so I can see how to help them.

 A few snippets from Elder Quinn's last letter...We found two investigators this week but one was while I was on exchanges so I didn't get to meet him. But ya yesterday no one answered their phones and we got kicked out of two apartment buildings.  I think that I am out of the Honey Moon part of my mission and I am now in the rough waters. I really got tested this week on both patience and love. But I will prevail! I honestly love these people so much. I used to want to speak Russian so that I can talk to people but now all I want to do is understand them so I can see how I can help them. Grandma Hoole your poem you sent me couldn't have come at a better time. That's how I felt this whole week. I'm tired but I have energy. I'm sleepy but I can walk for ever. I'm weak but I'm strong. I don't know how it happens but it does.

The Port at Odessa

Our second investigator has just dissappeared. Most of the men here are sailors and this is they time they go out so sea. The problem is they don't know when they are going until the get a call from their captain saying come down to the dock. They have to wait until they get a load of cargo but they don't know when that is. So our investigator who was home 3 days ago is now at sea for 6 months. So we have no way of contacting him. It makes it really hard because when we plan for a lesson with a man in our branch he says maybe depends on if I'm going out to sea or not. So we don't really know what to do with our new Investigator. But hopefully we will be able to get a hold of him in 6 months. 

It was a pretty cool week

Branch members at a get together

Alright so now about my week. It was a pretty cool week. I was able to go on exchanges with Elder Larrymore from the other zone. He is a great missionary and I learned a lot from him. I really like exchanges because it forces me to talk more because I'm the one who knows all of the people we meet with. Dima is doing great but he will be in Kiev again this week so we had to move his baptisimal date back to the 19th. But he is really excited to be baptized and receive the Holy Ghost. We taught him about tithing this week and I was a little nervous on how he would respond but he said "Ya it makes sense the Lord gives us everything anyways." So that was really cool to hear him accept it.

Edic unfortunately is really hard to meet with. Every time we meet we have an awesome lesson and he wants to change. But it's hard when we only meet with him once a week. We will also have to move his baptisimal date back to Dec. But other than that he doing good. He said his back has stopped hurting so he will come to church this week. I really hope he can make it.

I got a little discouraged on the language again this week. After our lesson with Dima he wanted to walk us to our next lesson and talk with us. I didn't understand what we were talking about because it has come to my knowledge that I only know church related dialogue. It was really dissappointing. Afterwards I asked Elder Wells what they were talking about and he said just about everything. He said it was really cool to get to know Dima and just talk to him. I was really jealous, I love talking to people and getting to know them. I don't know if this is pride or not but I think one thing I am good at is getting to know people on a personal level. Russian is making that really hard to do. I feel like a robot when I talk.

But that's enough of me complaining. Because this week was really good. I have been able to talk to members in my branch better and when I make a mistake I understand when they are correcting me so that was good. Oh back to Dima really quick, he said we could talk to his wife and that he would bring his son to primary so that was really good to hear.

Missionaries at the Halloween party 

Mummy making contest! 

Big sandwich, bad hair cut  :)

A garlic stick on fire, a prayer answered and a sweet baptism

So real quick story. The past couple of days I have had a pretty bad cold. I haven't been sleeping well because I have to constantly blow my nose. But I gave a talk on Sunday and I was sniffiling the whole time. After sacrament meeting this member in our branch walked up to me, light a stick on fire and told me to smell it. I did and instantly my nose cleared up. It ended up being a garlick stick. It was so random but it helped so much.

Alright now for some more spiritual stories. This one may not sound like much but it was an answer to my prayer. We were taching a less active member about prayer and I was focusing on trying to breathe because of my nose. I was super stuffy and could barely talk. I said a prayed in my mind to help me so I could at least bear my testimony.  At that moment my companion turned to me and said how about you. I started by saying "sorry I can't talk right now" but then something came to me and it felt like some one was behind me and just said "Talk" so I did. I bore my testimony on prayer and as I spoke my nose and congestion gave me no problems. It was funny how I was telling him I have recieved answers to prayers and at that moment I had just received one. 


Next, this story is about the girl that was baptized on Saturday. I'll start with the story and then give the challenge. So like I said last week, this little girl's parents are inactive but her grandparents have just come back into activity. When I told her grandpa that he could baptize her, he was so happy. So we went over on Wednesday to teach him how to do it. He was really nervous. The day arrived and it went really smoothly. When he pulled her out of the water he gave her a big kiss and I could feel the Spirit so strongly. Her grandma was so happy and I don't think she stopped smiling.   

So here comes the challenge. But this one is going to be hard because it is for the rest of your lives. I want all of you to go to every baptism in your ward, even if you don't know them very well. The Spirit at Baptism's is so strong. We also see people make their first covenant. Just as we go to the temple to be spiritually strengthened, I believe that going and seeing baptisms can be strengthing as well. I was so excited to see her get baptized and it made me think about how awesome it is going to be when Dima enters into the waters of Baptism and recieves the Holy Ghost. This gift is one of the greatest things the lord has given us. It is a constant companion that will never lead us wrong. I was honored to be able to participate in giving this gift to her.

Alright well I love you all so much. Thanks for your awesome letters. Good luck this week Hannah your going to do great. Just be yourself and people will love and honor you for it. Well I'll try to send pictures right now.

Love Elder Quinn

This morning we went to a place called Battery 411. It is essentially a Cantigney in Ukraine. Just a bunch of tanks and boats to climb on. It was really fun to go on as a district. I have some pictures for that too so I'll send them now or maybe next week.