A phone call from the mission president

A week ago Mark and I received a phone call from Ukraine, it was Chase's mission president.  My heart sank.  Usually the only time a mission president would call parents is if something is wrong.  He was kind, after he told us who he was, he immediately said "and your son is fine."  He went on to explain that Elder Quinn had jumped on a nail while doing some service.  He wanted to know if Chase was up to date on his tetanus shot.  I felt calm knowing that Chase would be taken care of and that all would be fine.

Then Chase sent photos and a video with his next letter and told us about the  treatment of his foot.  His treatment included the wound being cleaned out with a needle (was it sterilized?) in a backyard to help remove all the rust and then some treatment he received at a hospital.  The treatment looked unorthodox and that is when I began to worry!  What were they doing? (photos of treatment in previous post)  All I can say about that hospital is that I hope Chase doesn't get sick while there!  The mission president's wife emailed us this week and said that Chase was fine and up and walking.  Why do moms worry so much?

I jumped on a nail!

Well as many of you may have found out I stepped, or rather jumped, onto a nail this week. We were helping a lady in our branch gather firewood for the winter. And she had purchased some from her neighbor. We helped her to bring it over. She didn't have an ax so we jumped on them to break them. We were being really careful to see where the nails were but I must have missed one. I jumped onto it and felt it immediately. I yelled and Elder Welch asked immediately is it bad? And I said ya it's bad. I took of my shoe to see my sock turning red in two places. The nail had gone through my foot.The sister was really nice and quick to act. The problem was there was a lot of rust in the hole. We made it back to Cherkassy by hitchiking which was a miracle because they stopped and had 4 places open. I have spent time each morning this week going to the hospital to have them do some weird things. It is definately not America. haha. I took a bunch of pictures and videos which I will put up today. If you don't want to see them don't look ;).

As far as investigators go we found 6 this week which was super cool. We also set up with a family of 8! I can't wait to teach them. The baptisms for this week fell through as well. Unfortunately they are getting their apartment taken from them so they don't think right now is the best time. Pavel was in Russia all this week and Avraam has been busy. But it gave us a lot of time to find and teach other people. This week looks really promising so that is cool. Hopefully it goes better this week. We had a cool miracle yesterday a guy came to church and said he has come from across the river just to get a book of Mormon. He found us on a website and came to get one. I got his number so we will hopefully meet with him this week.

So just some random things is this week is Leadership Trining which as a District Leader I get to go to. President just got back from Latvia where they had a Mission President Conference so it should be really cool. This week we also find out about Transfer info which is crazy how fast it is going. And also I have been making a mormon.org profile as President has asked that we make one. I will let you know when it is done.

gathering wood to help a woman

We had to jump on the wood to break it up

oops jumped on a nail 

the nail went all the way through my foot and out the other side

The kind lady got a needle and began to dig the rust out of my wound - ouch

at the hospital they used this weird contraption to get the germs
out or to cause cancer, I can't remember what they told me.  ha ha

The hospital also gave my foot a suntan?

me in front of the hospital

One year in Ukarine

June mission Conference

Hey everyone, Well not sure if anyone noticed mainly because I forgot myself. But this week marked my one year in the counrty. Elder Young, Elder Welch, and I are all together so it was fun to talk about the old times in the MTC and how much we don't want this to end. I can't believe it is going that fast. But it was so much fun. I went on exchanges with Elder Welch and we just laughed about when we went on exchanges when we were greenies and all we did was tract because we were scared to ruin anything haha. It was so much fun serving with him. He is such a good missionary. We also got into a deep doctirne talk which was super fun to explore the scriptures. But ya it was cool. 

One year in Ukraine today!

Mom kind of asked what the resposibilities of District Leaders are so in short, we go on exhcnages with all of the Elders in our district, we teach district meeting, make nightly calls, and report everything to the Zone leaders. It has been really fun being District leader and being able to see the growth of the district. Also District leaders interview candidates for baptism. I may be doing this in two weeks so that will be a super cool experience.

making nightly phone calls

So this week we did a cultural activity as the whole district was invited to Pavel's house to make Borsh. It was so much fun. I now know how to make borsh. Pavel is really into energies and things so he uses wooden spoons to help the engery flow from the body. Elder Welch asked what if it is bad energy. This is what Pavel said "Everyday I wake up and judge my energy levels. If I feel that there is a bad level I will not make borsh that day." It was so funny. Elder Welch was stirring to fast so he was demoted to cutting things. It was fun.

Eating Borsh with Pavel

Well I love you all so much. Thanks for the letters. Also I read Grandpa's story last week and was sharing it with the Elder's in my district while we were playing ping pong. They all said that it cut off at the best part i.e. when he leaves for America. They have all asked for the sequeal. So if possible please send it.

Love Elder Quinn

Yard work my favorite thing

helping out

lots of squash

I sure hope they can get reception!

Zone Conference - An awesome week

Hey everyone thanks so much for the letters and pictures. Thanks Justin and Grandma for sending me Grandpa's conversion story. I got letters from dad, mom, Melissa, Justin, Natalie, and Grandma Hoole. I also really enjoyed looking at all of the pictures that you all put up. That Alaskian cruise looked beautiful! Also nice job Johnny on receiving the calling to be in a singles ward bishopic. That is really cool. Also Happy Birthday to Dave, Andrew, and Isaac. I almost forgot there hasn't been a birthday in a long time.

So my week again was awesome. So I will just start right into it. We had Zone Conference this week and it was as always way good. President and some fun with us as we explored some deeper doctine of the Plan of Salvation. He said we can only study these things on P-days or after our missions because we have to study for our investigators. But it was really cool to think about things in a new way. He then had us practice giving baptismal commitments and making these a really spiritual experience. It was super good. We have Zone Conferences I think 4 times a year but President said he likes to see us too much so he plans more than he is allowed haha. He calls them other things like "Specialized training." He is a great man and I have learned a lot from him. He also gave the District Leaders a lot of things to work on with our districts so that will be fun.

This week was really good. The Zone Leaders came down to do exchanges with us and it was a really good experience. They were both in the MTC with me but they were one group older so it was really fun to serve with them. While I was with Elder Hare we got a baptismal date with Pavel. His is also scheduled for the 22nd of September. He is going to be so good for the branch. Avraam still has his date for the 22nd as well. He is doing great and just loves everything we tell him. He lives pretty far away but hasn't missed a Sunday yet. He is doing great.

As for other investigators we have been teaching a bunch of others. I don't have time to write about every individual lesson but they are all doing well. Some need more help than others. But we will see how it goes. On other good news the other Elders and the Sisters in our District set dates for the 29th. The sisters set one with a Grandma who has been an investigator for 15 years and the Elders set one with her grandson. Hopefully those go well. It was a great week for the District.  

So funny story we went out to our M.C.L.'s house to do some service for him. We picked a ton of melons and pumpkins. It was really fun to get to know him and his wife and family more. I have some good pictures that I will be putting up today. But afterwards we went to go home and he explained to me how to get to the bus stop but we got so lost. We walked in a huge circle. Luckily we asked a guy how to get to center so we could go to Cherkassy. He said he was going there so we got in a taxi with him and he paid which was way nice. He was a cool guy, a little drunk but nice. 

Well thanks agin for everything! I love you all a ton. I hope everything goes well with the delivery Natalie. You will be in my prayers. 

Love Elder Quinn

P.S. you know it isn't against the law to send hard letters and pictures through the mail. ;) 

P-day fun

the sisters in our district 

funny billboard 

Best teaching week yet!

Hey thanks so much for the pictures they were so much fun to look at! Mark has gotten so big and those twins aren't far behind. It was so funny to see them all wrestling in the sand. Caleb sure looks like he wants to join in the fun haha. Those were some really fun pictures. Natalie your looking good. The bigger you get the quicker it will come haha. Well thanks also this week for the letters. I got them from dad, mom, Melissa, and Hannah. I really do love hearing from all of you.

So last week dad sent me a letter about Via Sikahema. While on his mission he took his championship ring with him and it was clearly a distraction. I have been thinking a lot about that this week as the time is quickly moving by, only 6 more transfers left after this one :(. I really want to make sure that nothing is distracting me. I prayed about it and I really can't think of anything. I love serving here way too much. Don't be offended but I only think about you all on P-day haha. I don't have time to think about other things. I am always trying to think of scripture stories or talks that will help my investigators. It has been such an amazing experience to just focus on missionary work. Don't get me wrong, I am not perfect and far from it but I really do love it so much here.

So mom I want to know more of Granpa Hoole's conversion story. I know the jist of it but we have some young investigators and young recent converts that I want to share the story with. We have some kids who come to game night and I think they would really like it.

This week has been the best teaching week I have had on my mission. We found 7 new investigators and had 24 lessons. It was a great week. Elder Young is a really good missionary. He always has people from formers to call and so whenever we have a minute he calls people. It was a really good idea. As far as our investigators go they are all doing pretty well. Pavel came to church and really participated in 2nd hour. We had a lesson with him and he knows he needs to be baptized he just doesn't know when. He isn't a fan of modern day revelation. He thinks if we have it then what is the Bible for. He knows the Book of Mormon is true mainly because he went to Mexico and saw all of the old ruins. He is a good man.  So we will be working with him on that.

Avram continues to pregress. He came to church and again really liked it. He needs to start meeting some of the branch memebers. He is a little quiet but in the same sentence super loud. He is really excited for his baptism and calls us everynight to talk. He is super funny. We just need to keep meeting with him. He is a good man.  We have a couple more people we are working with and there are a lot of them that are super cool. Kleem is super elect. He loves everything we sayd he is just really busy so it is hard to meet with him. He doesn't drink or smoke and he wants to find a good girl and raise a family. Victor we met with on Saturday with him mom. We brought our branch President, President Shaparda. It was a good lesson.  Victor thought it was really cool.

This is for mom and dad. Remember when ever I would say "But I don't want to." And you would say "Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to." Well there are  people that need to hear this lesson. I get so fustrated with a few people who when asked to do something for service or as a part of their calling respons with "Well that's not something that we want to do." I just want to stand up and yell "Well sometimes we do things we don't want to do!" They are all good people.  I am just really grateful that you taught me this lesson.

So tomorrow is Zone Conference which I can't wait for. It should be really good. I'll write more about it next week.

Well that's it for this week. I love you all a lot.Love Elder Quinn

Letters from home...Chase wants to hear from you!

It is easy to send Chase a letter!

Write to:

Elder Chase Quinn                                                 

vul. Yabluneva 1

s. Sofiivska Borshahivka

Kyevo-Svyatoshinskiy rayon

Kyivska oblast 08131

UKRAINE

a standard letter is $1.05

OR

Email Elder Quinn for FREE

go to www.dearelder.com ...from the top menu bar click "write a letter", then use arrows to select "Ukraine Kyiv", click on "write a missionary", type in Elder Chase Quinn, then start writing in the box!

OR 

send me an email at     ehq41@me.com     and I will forward it to him 

Peru Night

We made some homemade chili and had fun with the Branch celebrating South America!