Becoming spiritual reliant

This past week was really cool. We had meet the missionaries night and I think it went pretty well. We had a good show up from the branch and some investigators and people from english came. It was really fun to show the pictures I think everyone really liked it. Now our next goal is between the 3 companionships here we are going to every active member and recent convert in the next month. Now it is time to really get these members working for us :). We have such an amazing branch here I love them so much. 

This past week was leadership training and it was awesome. The main focus that President Klebingat is taking, is becoming more Spiritual Reliant. He is really looking to us to grow as missionaries with out the aid of a district meeting or zone conference. Although these are very important learing opportunities he wants us to grow between them more. It is a cool direction that the mission is taking. I have seen some really big growth since the time I have been here. 

As for investigators we had a cool week. P.... continues to read and pray daily for an answer and I believe he really is doing it with great faith. I am not sure why it has been taking so long but I know it will come eventually. I gave him Elder Hollands talk about the Book of Mormon "Safety for the Soul." He said he had already read it vut would read it again. He continues to progress so that is awesome. 

D.... is so cool. He read the chapters I gave him about Ammon the missionary and Alma teaching about faith. He loved them so much. He even told another young man that he needs to read these chapters because they are so cool. He is super excited and super elect. He still works 3 days on 3 days off so we need to work with that. But he is awesome. We found a really cool couple while tracting. In short a lot of things led us to being in the right place at the right time. We talked with this couple and at the end of it the lady, her name is L... and his is Z....., said "I would be really interested to meet with you two again." It was awesome. They are so ready for the Gospel. I think they said they have two kids and they are even looking for an apartment near our church. So that was really cool.

Just a little news on Vova from Illichovsk. He wrote me a letter this past week and said that he has done baptisms for the dead and he loved it. His testimony has greatly improved and he is so cool. I can't wait to see him again. Elder Hughes and I were on exchanges this week and called him and talked with him for a little. He is going great!

I wanted to write really quickly about something I have discovered this past week. There are two types of companions. One type makes you grow because if you don't nothing will get done. This type of companion looks to be a challenge for you at every turn. Then the second type of companion helps you grow. This type of campanion sets a great example for you and you want to be like them. I am sure the brother-in-laws and dad will agree with me on these points. 

Well I love you all so much. Have a nice week and know that you are always in my prayers.

Love Elder Quinn


photos from:
 "getting to know the missionary behind the badge" night 

A few of the photos we sent for Chase (Elder Quinn)

welcoming baby Hannah to the family

Eagle Scout

biking in Chicago

running back at Naperville North High School

The family as of 2006

Started my 4th quarter

So this past week started my 4th Quarter. I cannot believe that I only have 6 months left on my mission. It is so weird but I still have time left so nothing to scary. This upcoming week is a leadership conference that I am looking forward to. I cannot wait to hear more from President Klbingat. I have really loved serving as District Leader. one thing I want to say today is about district meetings. I Begin planning district meetings usually on the way home from the last one. I really try to seek the Spirit in determining what I need to do to help the district the most. Ths coolest thing is in doing so I usually teach myself more than what I had planned on teaching. I usually go through 2 or 3 plans before I actually receive the revelation to know what the District needs. I have often thought why not just tell me the first time? But then if that was the case how would I grow? It has been so neat to see this increase my own effectiveness as a missionary.

As for our investigators, we had an interesting week. We went over to Pavel's for New Year's day which was good because a lot of people were drunk so we were able to teach him. He fed us some traditional Ukrianian food. Salted fermented fish, fermented raddishes, and potatoes. Don't worry we blessed it haha. But things are going really well with him. We call him every night to see if he has read and he has really enjoyed talking to us about the Book of Mormon. It is only a matter of time before he accepts what we have been teaching him. We had D.... come to english again, He is so awesome and elect. We had an amazing lesson with him and he really felt the Spirit. In the middle of the lesson he asked if we could pray again like last week. We said we could so at the end we went to pray and asked if we could do it on our knees. He responded with an "of course we need to." He is so cool.

We picked up an investigator who Elder Young and I dropped about a month ago. We tracted into his mom and then he came up the stairs while talking to her. We decided that the Lord put him in our path again for a reason. This time he actually said he would read the Book of Mormon. It was a really cool lesson. We unfortunatly had to drop our date with Y.... Her mom hasn't come to church therefore she hasn't come to church. We are hoping to pick it again but her mom is going to need to step up to the plate and be an example. Hopefull y that goes well. 

Thank you for the pictures. I am really hoping it is a fun night. Also dad I wanted to ask you and Hannah about the new youth program for this year. I have looked over it and it seems really cool. I think it has a lot of potential to be really good. Let me know how you both feel about it. 

So as for my pick up date. It all sounded good to me. Here is what I was thinking. 

Monday- Meet at Mission office.

Tuesday- Go through Temple and have testimony meeting that night.

Wednesday- Temple day for Dima.

Thursday- Kiev day and maybe take out President Klebingat and his wife to dinner.

Friday-Travel to Illichovsk.

Saturday- Odessa day and buy ties at 7K :)

Sunday- Go to church in Illichovsk and meet with members.

Monday- Travel back to Kiev.

That's all that I need to do here, but I do think it would be pretty cool to go to Moscow but it is up to you. I can't look up things to do there so if it is worth it then maybe you can see what you want to do. Thanks again. It will be fun.

So dad asked me for my testimony about The Savior and my love for Him.

My whole life I have known that Christ is my Savior and Redemmer, but never have I had the opportunity to stand as his representative and to do what he would do if he was here. I have developed a very strong love for the Savior and all that He has done for me. I know with out a doubt that He felt everything that I have felt. I have found an immense amount of comfort as I have turned to Him while on my mission. As I have read and studied more about His life, I know that He loves each and everyone of us. I know that He wants all of us to return and live with Him and our Heavenly Father. I know that it is through His atonement that this is possible. He loves us and wants us to be happy. That is our message to the world, that Christ atoned for our sins, died for us, and then rose again. He did this for no other purposes other than the love He has for us. I feel honored and privilaged to be able o serve as his representative. In the name of our Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Love You all,

Love Elder Quinn

Elder Hinkson is an awesome new companion!

Hey everyone. Thanks for the letters.... oh wait I only got them from dad, mom, and Grandpa Hoole. I will give you all a break because we skyped last week and I am sure you are all busy having fun. :) but thanks a lot Grandpa Hoole for the letter. I am planning on using some of it for District Meeting tomorrow. Dad I am glad to hear work is going well. Keep being awesome. And yes Elder Hinkson and I really enjoyed the IBC rootbeer. And mom how awesome is our family. Baby's being blessed by their fathers, daughters and son-in-laws magnifying their callings in church, and everyone strong in the faith. Way to go!

So I forgot my planner today so if I forget something I'll write about it next week. To start off Elder Hinkson, my new companion, is awesome! He is so amazing at the language. He has a brother who served in Russia and two little brothers who were adopted from Ukraine so he got a lot of practice before his mission. Then he was in an advanced class in the MTC. We have been SYLing on the street and it is awesome. He is also a really good teacher and we teach really well together.This is going to be an amazing transfer.

Now for a little about our investigators. P....   is doing awesome. Yesterday during third hour we watched the Christmas devotional from the first presidence. Elder Hinkson leaned over and told him to write down the things he feels. He did and it really helped him to recognize the Spirit. He invited us over on Tuesday because he doesn't celebrate New Years. I am so excited, we are hoping to set a date with him.

A...... is also doing pretty good. He came to church yesterday, We have a cool lesson plan that will hopefully show him what he needs to do to get an answer. He still doesn't like the Word of Wisdom but that will all be covered after he knows the Book of Mormon is true.

Y.....   is doing ok. We set another date with her. But she didn't come to church yesterday because her mom was sick.  

Yesterday Feyoder got the Aaronic Pristhood. I had the opportunity to give it to him which was really cool. He is doing really well. I am so happy that things are going good. He is a really nice guy.

We had some cool things happen while tracting this past week. But one couple we gave a Book of Mormon to gave it back last night so that was unfortunate. But we had another conversation with a really nice lady who is definately ready for the Gospel. We will be stopping by her this week to see if she had a chance to read the Book of Mormon.

I also want to make sure that you are working on the power point of photos. I need that by next week so please send it! I can't put up photos this week because the library is closed and I don't trust this computer. It might have a virus on it. So I will put them up next week.

Thanks again! I love you all!

Love Elder Quinn

P.S. Happy New Year

teaching English

A mini MTC for the young men

So I have a lot to write this week so I will just start. I am staying in Cherkassy and I am really happy about that. I am getting a new companion his name is Elder Hinkston. He is going into his 4th transfer I am going into my 12th so it will be fun to get some young blood. I am so excited to seve here again! We had some cool things happen this week.

Starting out with Pavel. We had an awesome lesson with him on Monday night with our Branch President and his wife. Then we met again on Friday and had another great lesson. He is so awesome. The branch members love him and he has made really good friends with Brother Koval who is so awesome. Things are going well with him. He said we could meet with him more often and he would read whatever we gave him to read. I can see things progress quickly with him. 

Feyoder is doing well. We had 2 lessons with him and we are now working on getting him the Aaronic Priesthood. Elder Hughes was on the first lesson with me. It is a lot of fun teaching with him. We teach really well together. But Feyoder continues to read and study the scriptures which is really good. He was unable to come to church yesterday as he got sick but we are going over this week with the branch president.

This past week we tried some new finding ideas. We have been doing some caroling infront of this big tree in center. It is pretty fun. We have four of us sing while two others walk around to talk to people. Last night we tried it but it was way too cold. It was -10 plus the wind chill so it was pretty bad. But don't worry I am staying warm! Right now the district is really struggling in finding new investigators. We are going to have to change this quickly. 

So this next week I have the lesson in Young Mens. I cannot wait! We are all done with the lessons from the book so I decided to do a mini-MTC. We are going to have them teach us the lessons from Preach My Gospel. It is going to be so much fun. To top it off President Klebingat and his family is coming down so we will have his two sons with us. Apparently President Klebingat is coming down with a friend from Salt Lake. But nobody knows what that means so it might be a member of the 70. That would be cool to translate for him.... haha

Alright on Jan. 12th our district is doing a "get to know the missionaries behind the badge night." Can you send me a power point of 20 pictures of me before the mission. Probably just start with me when I was little. I also want a picture of me playing football because I always give people a hard time about how much better American Football is haha. But it should be a really fun night. Send some pictures that I can tell stories about. Also the sooner the better. Thanks!!

Well I look forward to seeing some of you next week! Love You all!

Love Elder Quinn

moving a piano!

seeing scriptures in a new way

So this week was a really cool week. First of all I got a letter from Natalie with pictures and mom's letter with the For the Strength of Youth pamphlets. Thanks for that. I also got the two Christmas packages. I am so excited to go to some of the families with kids on Christmas eve. It will be a lot of fun. But I am not sure where I will be for Christmas. This week we get transfer info. I really hope I stay I love here it. But going back to the Christmas package. It seems I may need to refrigerate one of the presents that dad gave me hahaha :). 

This past week we had a mission conference from President Bennet of the Europe East Area Presidency. It was amazing. Last year he came and really threw down on our mission for the things we weren't doing right. It definately changed the direction of the mission. This past week I was a little nervous about what to expect. Our mission has come a long way and I hope he has seen that. He spoke all about charity and love and how we need to love these people more. He said he is very impressed with our mission and believes we are a model mission for the world. It was pretty cool to hear. He did point out some things we need to work on but he again praised us for our obedience. He said he still has to talk to missions about waking up on time and talking to everyone but with ours he wanted to talk about the little things to help us even more. It was so cool.

Thursday night before the Confernce we had the opportunity to go to the temple. It was amazing!! It is so pretty inside and I even saw three members from Illichovsk and it was fun to talk to them for a little. Mom I put your name on the prayer role in the Temple so now people will be praying for you in 3 languages :) I felt so good after going through the temple. We are allowed three times a year. It has definately shown me how much I need to attend the temple after my mission. I am so excited to go through with Vova in July and then to go through again for Dima. It will an amazing experience.

As far as investigators go, we haven't been able to get a hold of D... and his wife this week which was too bad. We met with J.... this week and set a date for her on  Dec. 29th. She is 10 years old and super excited to get baptized. Hopeflly we can reactivate her mom as we teach her. Feyoder is doing well. We had some good meetings with him this week. I am now beginning to understand him a lot more. He has made a lot of progress. Unfortunatly we weren't able to meet with Pavel last week but tonight should work out. 

I will just end with something that Elder Bennet said. "Have you ever been reading a scripture and seen new words that you could promise weren't there the day before?" That is something that has been hapening more and more to me. As I read a scripture that I have already highlighted I see something completely new that I didn't see the time before. It really is amazing to have the scriptures. I have gained such a love for them.

Well I love you all a lot.

Love Elder Quinn

P.S. Skype is right now planned for the 25th at four'o'clock here. I am not sure if I will be here of in another area. I will know by next week. Also P-day is being moved from Monday the 24th to Tuesday the 25th so we can skype with our families. This means there won't be a letter from me in two weeks.

It is getting pretty cold here!

in front of the temple 

Kyiv Temple

nativity by Temple

teaching of the Holy Ghost and its blessings

So about my week Feyoder was baptized! It was a pretty crazy weekend.  I had the opportunity to give him the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  It was a neat experience. But we still need to meet with him often to help him. 

Well miracles happen everyone! Lately in our mission we give our members lists of people to call that have potential. Not a lot of success has come from this but this week it was really cool. Our branch President's wife who is so good at missionary work called us and said a man she called told her to call her back on Friday. Well I have heard that before but we called him and he said he would come. He came that night at 8 and it was an amazing lesson. We showed him the church and when we showed him the kid room he said he got married a year ago and that he and his wife are thinking about having a baby soon. He is about 28 and is so awesome. He said he really wants to know if the Book of Mormon is true. He works a lot but his only day off is Sunday so all is well. :) So we are hoping to get to his house sometime this week and meet his wife. Well they don't have kids yet but prayers can't be choosers. :)

For P.... we are meeting with him tonight at our branch President's houes for FHE. It is going to be really good I can't wait for it. We are planning on talking about what the Holy Ghost is and the blessings of having it after baptism. We believe he is afraid of the resposibility so hopefully this calms his fears. It will hopefully be a good lesson.

So this week I get to go to the Temple for the first time since the MTC. I am so excited. We are going up to Kiev for a mission confernce with Elder Bennett and we are going up early to go through the temple. I cannot wait. I need to go through so bad. But the mission confernce should be really good. Last year he came and really threw down on our mission and it was very humbling. I am really looking foreward to see how we can be better. It will be great.

Well thanks again for everything. I love you all a ton. Have a nice Holliday season.

Love Elder Quinn

P.S. I haven't heard about skype yet but I am sure we can.

P.P.S.  It is supposed to be -8 C this week.

Specific prayers yield specific answers!

As for my week it was a rewarding week. I had the privilege to interview two people for baptism. It again was a very spiritual experience as I was able to hear their testimonies of what they have recently learned. Sergey was baptized on Saturday and U... was going to be baptized but couldn't make it. I am sure he will be baptized soon. It is so much fun to see the blessings of the Lord. 

As for our area F.... is doing well. He still wants to be baptized on Saturday. Yesterday it was anounced in sacrament meeting. He still has some concerns that will be tough to overcome.  He is really nice and the branch is trying really hard to support him. It has been great. Also yesterday President Shaparda announced that we will be doing a chain fast in the branch to get the 11 baptisms in December. That came from an idea from Elder Arndt as our mission is doing a chain fast for 200 by the end of the year. I love the power of fasting and prayer. 

So some really cool news. P.... came back from Brazil and we went over to look at some pictures he had taken. It was a good opportuinty to break the ice again after he had been gone for so long. Also which is really cool is he has set up with our branch President to meet with just him on Thursday and to talk. I have no idea why but I really hope it will help him to accept our message. Our branch President is seriously amazing! He has the coolest conversion story ever and he is such a hard worker. I love him so much. But we are going over to their house tonight and am going to talk about working better with the branch and also a little about P.... It will be really fun. 

Alright so I have a favor to ask from everyone. I have been studying prayer and have realized that specific prayers yeild specific answers. I really want to teach a family. I have not had an opportunity to sit down and teach a father, mother, and children. Please pray specifically to help us find a family who will receive this message. Couples are always the hardest to contact because one of them always keeps walking and pulls the other away. I haven't let a couple get past us please pray that we can find a family to bring into the branch. Thanks!

Well that is it for my week thanks again for everything!

Love Elder Quinn

P.S. I am looking forward to that Christmas package. :)

thewaywespeak.com

Elder Saens last day

We knock on everything!

Pin the tag on the missionary.   The youth loved it.

the freezer

Hanging food out of the window = extra freezer room 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING