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.

Too funny!

Hey family,  you will love this...  Elder Quinn

Being guided by the Spirit

So this week was awesome. I want to thank mom and dad for the testimony they had sent for Vova. I translated it at the beginning of the lesson and it really set the spirit. That was one of the coolest lessons I have taught on my lesson. We had planned to just go in and answer any questions and help him through any concerns. I felt guided by the spirit as I brought up points and things that started to really help us know how to help him. I felt impressed to give him a Doctrine and Covenants and have him read the Joseph Smith story in the back. I then told him I would call him that night and talk with him about it. We talked for about 20 minutes about how young Joseph Smith was and the amount of faith he showed by praying to our Heavenly Father. It was super cool. As for more on Vova, we met with him Sunday before church and asked if we could announce his baptism in Sacrament meeting. He said we could and with some more talking he has become really excited for Saturday. Please pray extra hard this week that it will all go through. We are meeting with his family tonight and are going to invite his father to come. I really hope he does. I am super excited for this week! 

As for our other investigators to be honest we don't really have any. Vova's dad is still listening to us. We had to drop some this week which is always a bummer. We have also not been finding very well so that is making it really hard. But this week we started the Member Missionary Program that President has asked we do. We had President Sadchenko and Brother Popenko come on Thursday and do splits with us. It was really interesting that even with a native people just didn't want to talk to us. I hope that they see this and see that we need help in finding investigators. Also the sisters from Odessa came down and went on splits with the sisters in our branch they also want to help. It was super cool I love this branch they try to help so much. And then yesterday I had the opportunity to speak and talk about missionary work. Again with the challenge from President Klebingat I didn't use any notes. I went up and started talking. This may sound funny but I love speaking with the Spirit. It feels so cool to have the words and stories just pop into my mind. For instance I had not planned on using this story but I felt that I should but I thought to myself but I haven't practiced this story but again I felt that I should say it so I went for it. I then told the story of dad ordering a Gingerale and a friend thinking it was alchol and that now he only orders milk. I explained how we have to be examples at all times because we never know who is watching us. The branch really liked that story. 

After Sacrament meeting Grandma Lidia came up to me and complemented me on my talk. I had herd a story of her telling an Elder in his last transfer that she can tell that he still can't say what he wants to say. She went on to tell me that she could see that I said all that I wanted to say. She wants mom to know that if you would have been there you would have been proud because she was proud. It was the nicest thing she has every told me haha. Usually she yells at me for having my hands in my pockets or having mud on my shoes. She is such a fireball it is super funny. 

So quick funny stories. We were up in Kiev and were walking around on the street next to the big soccer stadium. Ukraine was playing that night and everyone was going crazy. There were a bunch of cameras around and we started joking about if President saw us on TV what would he do. When I got back to Illichovsk my branch President came up to me and said hey I saw some missionaries on TV how was the game and winked at me. It was super funny. But just to clarify we were allowed to be on that street. Also another funny story. The hot water in our building has been off for about a week now and won't come back on until the 26th so ya morning showers aren't as exciting as they used to be. Just think of me when you are in a nice warm shower haha.

testimony for Vova

Dear Vova:

We are Mark and Elaine Quinn.  You know our son Chase as Elder Quinn.  We are so pleased to have him serving a mission in Illichosk, Ukraine.  In the short nine months he has been in Ukraine he has developed a deep and sincere love for the people of your county.  Though we miss Chase daily, we are grateful for this opportunity he is having to share his testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ with the people of Ukraine.  Our love for the Savior makes this sacrifice bearable.

Elder Quinn has told us about you and your efforts to gain a testimony.  We wish to share our testimonies with you in the hopes that they might help you in making your decision to be baptized.

We know that Jesus Christ lives.  We know that He has established a Church on the earth today to bless His children.  This church bears His name – The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Like He has always done He leads and teaches His people through living prophets.  We know that Thomas Monson is the Lord’s living prophet on the earth today.  We also know that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God.  This wonderful book bears witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, The Savior and Redeemer of mankind.  It teaches of His deep love for each of us – a  love that led him to sacrifice all for us.  We know the truthfulness of these things because the Spirit has borne testimony of these truths to us as we have sought a witness through prayer and study.  Our testimonies have grown over the years as we exercised faith in the words of Jesus Christ – words contained in the scriptures and spoken by modern day prophets.  We know a witness will come to you as you exercise faith in the message and testimony Elder Quinn and Hughes have brought to you.  These young men are servants of Jesus Christ sent to share his Gospel with you.  Like all the Savior’s servants they have sacrificed a great deal to share this message with you.  We also know of the happiness available from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We know you and your family can enjoy this happiness as you accept the Gospel message. 

Thank you for your kindness and friendship to Chase.  He is happier as a missionary than he has ever been in his life.  Please know that our family prays daily for you.

Love,

Mark and Elaine Quinn

giving service and mission conference

Now for my week. So we have gone by Larissa and Rano a lot lately and have had some opportunites to bear testimony. It has been super cool. We gave Rano a pamphlet about the plan of salvation and she said she would read it. Next time we stop by we are going to see if we can meet with them and begin to teach them again. I can feel some really good things coming from this. They are both really nice and want some answers and we have them. I pray for the opportunity to teach them everyday. It will also be nice because of all of the awesome sisters we have in our branch. Once they come to church they will definately be fellowshipped. 

Vova is doing good. He came to family home evening last week which was super fun and awesome I took some pictures and I will put them up today. We weren't able to meet with him this past week which was too bad but we talked often on the phone and he is still reading and praying which is really cool. Also there have been some other Elders who have set dates for the 23rd as well so we are hoping that this will help him to feel more comfortable. This week we are hoping to meet with him as much as possible and to help him progress for next weekend. Next week our district leader and I will be on exchanges and this will be perfect for him to be interviewed. We are also going to invite his father to come the the baptism and hopefully that will get things going for him as well.

This week we did a lot of service for members and non-members. It was super cool. The members have really been grateful for all that we have done. I hope it builds some confidence in us so that we can start teaching their friends. We really need referrals. But a quick cultural note is that there are fruit trees everywhere here and it is totally normal to just pick what ever you want and eat it. There are berries and apples and pears and so many other things it it is super cool.

So on Saturday Elder Hughes through me a "Surprise Birthday Party" not sure how surprise it was when I am always around him haha. But he took some pictures and wants me to send them home so I'll do that. He is a really nice companion.

AS for the Mission Conference it was super cool. President Rasband from the Presidency of the Seventy came and spoke to us. It was seriously really cool. We all got to stand up and the beginning and shake his hand. He was such a neat guy. He talked about how we shouldn't get down on our selves and that miracles happen all of the time. He said he came to Ukraine 20 years ago with John Huntsman Sr. when the Iron Curtain fell and there were only a couple of groups, but now there is a Temple and a Stake. It was really neat. He also allowed us to ask him questions which was neat because ther were a lot of good questions asked. I wish I could talk more about it but I am short on time.

We then spent the day in Kiev and I'll put the pictures up of that as well. We slept in an apartment that was down the street from the soccer stadium and so we got to hear everything especially when Ukraine scorred. It was so loud and there were so man y people on the streets. It is nothing like Illichovsk. 

the mission conference 

me by the world cup 

Every missionary that is called to Kyiv takes this picture!

Happy Birthday Elder Quinn

Elder Chase Quinn at 1 years old


Thanks for the Birthday wishes. I can't believe that I am almost 20 but I am really excited because twenty is easier to say than nineteen in Russian. Nineteen and ninety are really close, so people laugh if you get it wrong. haha 

great investigators and looking for people to serve

So as for my week. It was super cool. We committed Vova to be baptized on the 23rd of June. I really hope that this will give him some more time to receive his answer. Yesterday I gave the lesson in Elders Quorum from Elder Richard G. Scott's talk about receiving personal revelation. I made it specifically for Vova and it was a good thing he came for it. I really hope that it will help him to find his answer. We also gave him a picture of Christ to help him remember his comittment for the 23rd. We explained that we don't pray to pictures but that they help us to think of Christ and all that he has done for us. But he is doing really good. He also promised to read a chapter a day in the Book of Mormon.  Vova is really cool.  

Last Monday Nelya, who was a referral we had received from Dima invited us over for lunch. Of course we went and things were going super well. Then Larisa came in and I was so shocked because we have seen her a couple of times on the street and talked with her but I didn't know how she would react to us being there. But it was really cool. We were able to get to know her a lot better and spoke for a long time. It was a great experience. And it didn't end there. On Saturday we decided to stop by Rano who is Larisa's mother. We went by her work and Larisa was there. Rano was busy with customers so we asked Larisa to say hi to her for us and went to leave but Larisa said no wait she is almost done. So we stayed and talked with them for a while and it was again really cool. Apparently Zhena really likes us which is funny because it is hard to get a high five out of him. haha. But they asked us to stop by the next day as well. We were a little late because of branch council so only Rano was there. She told us why at first they didn't like us. Apparently Dima had some not so good friends so they thought that we were just like them. After they got to know us they realized how nice we were. It was really funny. I can't wait for the opportunity to start teaching them.

So this week I wanted to tell you all about our new idea of how to find people. I decided that we need to be more like Ammon my hero :). At this time of the year a lot of people are doing their planting. So we decided to have our members find us opportunites to serve people in their gardens. I plan on this opening up opportunities to talk with them about why we are here and about our message. We will see how it goes. I think that it will have a lot of potential, I just hope that our members ask people if they need help. 

Real quick story that was so cool. I think I told you all about President Klebingat wanting the members to be with the missionaries from 6:00 to 9:00. Yesterday at church sister Finanko came up to us and asked where are we meeting tomorrow. I was like what do you mean. And she said where are we meeting I want to help you two like President Klebingat has asked. The funny part was that we he doesn't want us to go out with sisters. So I am going to call him today and see how our branch of only two active bretheren can be most effective. I am sure if we can do less active stop-bys then it will all be good but we will see. We have a bunch of sisters who want to help us. It is super cool.