Week 54

12/21/15

Merry Christmas! :) 

In my last area we had several people get baptized this past week! So that's pretty cool. Hopefully I will get pictures from my last companion (I wasnt there for it)

I found a book in a free box this past week at the church called "That all may be edified" by Boyd K Packer and it has his signature in it, that is pretty cool. It has a lot of his sermons and whatnot from late 80's and before. 

We had a big missionary christmas party, saw a lot of my old friends there which was cool. 

I saw a member from a different ward this past week that I knew when I was here before and they were like WHOA you're still here?! haha because it was like 9 months ago when I met them. 

 

At church there is this little 4 year old girl named Sophie who is super funny. I always give her high fives when she walks by and say hi when I see her. So that is the background to the story. So at the end of church yesterday, She was walking 10 feet down the hall towards me with her mom and I wave and she did one of those happy scream things that little kids do and came running at me and hugged my legs and said hi. I was a little embarrassed by her reaction (as missionaries were not supposed to hold kids/play with them) and her mom was a little confused because the girl is pretty shy. But it was alright. pretty funny still, little kids. gotta love them right? 

 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 53

12/14/15

 

Hi Everyone,

The other day, when we were exercising, We were playing this game called oompa loompa ball which is basically ultimate frisbee, but with a football and you have to shoot it in the basketball hoop. So we scored and were going to "throw it off" for the other team and another elder was like hey Quinton, you played soccer right? I was like yeaaaaaaa. he was like, kick it in the hoop. I was like uhhhh soccer ball is way different than a football but alright. So I kicked it and it went right in, full court kick I was very suprised. It was complete luck! :) 

Funny miracle of the week, we were about to try this guy that I had taught a couple times and he normally ignores us when we knock, so we were getting out of the car and I was like, "bido, we should probs just pray, or we will never get into his house" so we prayed, walked over. and as Im about to knock he opens the door on his way out to the gym and hes like uhhhh hey guys, come in! hahahahaha it was hilarious. 

My official year mark has passed, I feel the exact same.. hahaha :) 

So theres this old 85 year old lady named Florence who has an ESL program that I found when I was in Carson before and I teamed up with her to teach English to Spanish people. SO I came back and called her this past week and asked if there was a time we could meet so that we could get the English class back on and she said sure and that she was glad I was back. We get over with some other missionaries and her hair is colored so I comment on the fact and she was like "oh please tell me you like it, I feel 20 years younger" and I was like well. "you look 20 years younger" and she was like "awhhh. Im so glad you're back" and she left for a second and the other missionaries were like WOW Quinton and I said what? It's okay to compliment people and help them feel good. It was pretty funny. 

Also a guy named Hector I taught when I was here before met some missionaries this past week and he was like, "oh elder Quinton used to come over and teach me!" so the elders called me and asked if I knew him and obviously I did and so we are going to meet with him this week!

We had our ward christmas party, santa came. I sat on his lap with my companion and said "hey 23 isnt too old to sit on santa's lap!" They got a kick out of that. 

Also one of my investigators from when I was here before, Andy, wants to get baptized! So that is super cool. 

Also I translated for church the other day. first time I had, I did okay. I actually really enjoyed that though, I decided I'm going to start practicing. 

That's basically all! love you all! 

 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 52

Dec. 7th 2015

 

Hi Everyone,

We baptized Ricardo and Brenda this past week! That was pretty cool. I was realizing that Ricardo kind of looks like Cody Farias! My friend from back home, we worked together for 4 years. Except you know Ricardo is mexican. haha Mexican Cody! Ill send a picture, those that know cody will probably laugh. At the baptism my companion, 2 other elders an myself decided to do a last minute quartet and it sounded super good, I went bass, another elder went tenor and the other two who dont read music did the melody. 

Also! Last week in my last area someone I was teaching got baptized which was super cool! :) 

Thats it in a nutshell! :) 

-

Elder Quinton

New address

                                               Elder Caleb Quinton
                                               1533 Goldfield Ave
                                              Carson City , NV 89701

Week 51

12/3/15

Hello Everyone,

So much to be said!

Someone from my last area just got baptized so that was awesome! 

We were at dinner with the Lopez family and also one of my friends from here, who has been back in the church for about a yea,r and I was going to share a scripture and "randomly" decided to look up at him and a completely different scripture came to my mind so I shared it instead. Then about 2 hours later He came and talked to me about it and how he's been having a hard time in his life and whatnot. It was cool we talked for  like an hour. I gave him a discourse by one of the apostles that really helped my perspective .He told me as well that it helped him a ton so that was pretty awesome! 

Happy late Thanksgiving! I can't spell. Actually I just dont' feel like going back to recorrect that :)  I know my sister or my mom will fix it anyway. lol

I was doing some studying on fear and faith this past week and I had an interesting thought'. So as Im sure you all know, Christ and the Atonement work among men "according to their faith". I was reading about that and then I was reading through fear and stuff on it (its the opposite of faith) and then I thought "Satan works among us according to our fears" which is probably obvious to most of you, I just hadn't thought about it before. Sure changes the way I think about it now.

Not a whole lot else to say after all. lol

 The week went really well though! :) 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 50

11/23/15

Hi All,

Today is my year until return date! Buttttttt It may be changing. I heard our transfers may be off this next week. My year date that I’ve been out is December 10th though, time went by quick haha!.
 I found out that someone that I met right before I left, he was a white guy. We gave him to other missionaries since he lived outside our area and I found out he got baptized a few weeks ago! So that was super cool, his name is Dean.
 I found out switch blades are officially legal in Nevada now apparently? That was interesting haha a couple people we know showed me them.
 I was studying in the Book of Mormon the other day and came across a verse in Alma 44:6 which talks about Captain Moroni and how the support of wives and children are sacred, thought that was pretty sweet.
 Also the seminary students (for those that aren’t Mormon, seminary is early morning scripture study for the kids that are in high school) challenged the missionaries to a "scripture chase" and there are 25 "scripture masteries" that are chosen. We destroyed them, it was hilarious. They were super angry. I thought for sure they would destroy us since they are doing Old Testament and well. I studied that in seminary 8 years ago. The other 9 missionaries didn’t know them as well as I did so I was a little impressed with myself. The Lord sure helped me to remember haha!
 We went to teach someone that the sister missionaries we replaced were teaching and found out she didn’t want to get baptized into our church and that the sisters gave her candy to listen to them talk hahahaha I laughed when I heard that. Goodness.
 We ate 3 dinners yesterday it was the worst! hahaha. not on purpose. Spanish missionary problems... haha we kept meeting people who wanted to give us good. Sooooo yea. thats all for this week!
 --
 Elder Quinton

Week 49

Hi Everyone,

Sad to of left Sparks! :( Tons of good friends there. 

Buttttttttt Carson is my other home. Tons of people were happy to see me again which was nice. 

Before I left elder Knight and I had a huge card throwing war. I won. and then we went to this local burger joint and tried something called the Mighty Mike. 1/4lb hot dog deep fried, wrapped in bacon and stuffed in cheese. it was funny. 

Its been a long 3 days in our area. We've had to throw away tons of stuff that missionaries have left in this house. We went through our record book and there was tons of people being taught out of our area which we gave to the missionaries who covered those areas. Tons to do here. Tons of organizing and junk to clear up. 

but no complaints! Its been a good few days :) 

One of my old investigators when I was here before decided to be baptized! that was super cool. 

This next week is super busy. we got texted yesterday asking us to give a 30 minute training in 2 days. I was like ugh. and we have to prepare 2 discourses each for this week. and a couple other things. stress haha. We are doing great though! :) 

I don't have much to say today though because we've just been way busy cleaning up and fixing stuff here. Hope you all have a great day! :) 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 48

HI Everyone,

I am getting transfered! I am going back to Carson City hahaha. Serving in the Carson River Ward that I served in for 6 months. But I am covering the other area in spanish. I am sad to leave, we are supposed to have like 6 or so baptisms this transfer here and now I won't be able to go to any of them because Carson is an hour away :( 

Oh well though. I am excited to return to Carson! I will be with Elder Bido, he just finished his training. Elder Knight (my current companion)  was his first trainer. He is from the Dominican Republic.

my new address will be: 

1533 Goldfield Avenue

Carson City Nevada 89701

Last week we did an amazing race zone activity. Knight and I destroyeddddddddd it it was the best! 

I went on exchanges with a newer elder this past week and we went to the park and there were TONS of geese and he told me he's seen people bake home made bread and put tons of laxatives in it and then give it to the seagulls on the beach and then they just start like raining down poop everywhere hahahaha so funny. 

This past week we met a guy named Anthony and he said he wanted to get baptized and his friend was working on his car so  we asked him if he knew of anyone that needed help or service and he was like "Yea, Anthony." and Anthony was like "whoa, whoa bro, I just asked to get baptized, you're the one that needs help!" super funny. 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 47

Nov 2nd

Funny story, one of my shirts was made of satin and my companion had ripped a tiny piece on accident so I walked into our house at the end of the night and was like "Im getting ANGRYYYYY!" and I tore it in half hahaha. 

I called the cops this last week! That was "exciting" I guess. I saw a man beating up his girlfriend or something like that and I was like yea I'm calling the cops. Not 2 minutes later they showed up it was intense. 

Also happy late halloween! on 10/31 7 years ago is when I got my drivers license haha weird to think about. 

Also! A 17 year old in the area I'm serving, the son of the branch president kicked a 47 yard field goal in their final game, that was crazy. Thats a long field goal. 

We also almost got hit by 3 cars the other day. This week was full of tons of random stuff. We had several really cool lessons and whatnot as well. Things are going great! 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 46

Hi Everyone,

We met someone we had to pass on to the English Speaking missionaries, since we're Spanish speaking missionaries. She was outside, and we asked her what she was doing and she was like I am looking for my work keys I can't find them anywhere and i've been looking for hours! I was like so when I was younger and would lose something I would always just say a prayer and find it after is it okay if I say a prayer? she said yes. Then her boyfriend walked out of the house, not a minute later, saying "hey I found them!" super cool, haha she was like "OH MY GOSH." 

I went on 2 exchanges this past week. It was pretty sweet! went to my old area in Sun Valley for one of them. My Zone Leader Elder Palmer told me not to be suprised if I got a call for leadership this transfer... (still hoping to dodge that bullet though :) ) 

Funny story of the week: When I was with a new elder ,a lady we didn't know snuck up on us when we were sitting in our car and she knocked on the window and we rolled it down. and she started yelling at us about how its not fair we have a car when she's homeless and has to walk and I was like my companions leg is broken... and she kept freaking out and then was like" I'm not crazy. everyone says I am, but im not." then she proceeded to tell us that drones are following her and how there are ones that are un-detectable. It was pretty interesting and a little unnerving to say the least. She kept reaching towards her bag too, I thought she had a pistol or something. 

Gave a tour of the outside of the temple to a family we are teaching. she's a member reactivating and he's an investigator. 

I also spoke in church  this past week. It was pretty cool. except  I prepared a 15 minute talk. and I got 5 minutes to share it. haha awkward. oh well though. Things are going great! 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 45

Hi All,

So many miracles again this past week. Elder Knight and I have moved our lesson count into the upper 40's! We have almost 10 people who are progressing pretty rapidly towards baptism. Hopefully we get to stay in the area long enough to see them all the way through :)

One of the missionaries was telling us in a meeting this past week an idea that I really liked. It was pretty cool they were sayiing that at dinners back home with family every night they would ask everyones high and lows of the day and then also who they served through the day. Pretty cool I thought. 

I got petty sick this past week for a day or two it was awful. 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 44

Oct 12th letter:

We had a phenomenal week! We started applying things that worked for me in my first area really well between finding methods and stuff in general and our numbers doubled this past week. It was awesome, we are super pumped. 

We went to the temple this week also! First time since I've been a missionary that ive been able to go it was super fun. 

Funny story so this past week I was at a spanish dinner and I was trying to describe the person, Carlos, that we baptized this last week and I was going to say "viajito" which means pretty much little old man" but I accidentally said "viajoto" which isnt a word. But joto pretty much means gay. so it was implied. Everyone laughed at me it was awkward, yet super funny haha!

Speaking of Carlos, we baptized him this past week it was super awesome! 

Someone sent us a referral and we called the guy, turned out to be a wrong phone number (classic) and Knight was going to hang up and I was like "dude, try to share the gospel with him" and so he was like well have you ever talked to misisonaries before? and started teaching him over the phone and then I was like Knight, ask him to say a prayer with you over the phone. And he totally did! It was so funny. a fun experience. 

Sal, Isaacs room/our friend/ward mission leader. was at dinner with us last night and He was like elders you didnt eat very much! We had eaten a full plate but I was like wellllll we dont want to gain weight and we are trying to work out more and he was like "ohhhhhhhhh I understand what you're doing, you want to be the guys that go to the beach and all the girls stare!" and then he was like "con razon elder," which kind of means that he understands now and then he imitated the face and then said we call those guys in spanish "Las traigo muertas" which literally means I bring the girls death. It was SO funny. we were all laughing so hard. 

Last night we were supposed to have a lesson with this guy that we just met that is an alcoholic and he called to tell us he was busy and not to stop by. Then 2 hours later another set of elders call us asking if we teach him and we were like yeaaaaaaaa why? and apparently alberto saw 2 missionaries walking and came running because he thought it was us and knew we needed to come over and he really wanted to talk. Then they called us. It was really cool. especially because our appointment we were suipposed to have at the time we received the call just had cancelded. miracles for days!

--

Elder Quinton

Pictures

Never really grow up completely

soccer

Men In "GRAY?" 

Hot wings

Week 43

Oct 5th 2015

 This week went super well! :) this coming saturday we have a baptismal service so that is pretty awesome. I will send pictures next week.

One of the missionaries going home this past week said something I thought was pretty profound it was "Heavenly Father can get anything he wants in this world except the souls of his children(meaning salvation), and that is why we are here"

We met this lady this past week, taught her about the restoration and she said she already knew it was true and she wants to get baptised so that was a super cool miracle! 

ALSOOOOO! Someone we are teaching named Aris, shes 25 and she has a husband and 3 little girls. I found out she is from MOUNT VERNON! I made a reference to Seattle and she was like "oh I am from Mount Vernon." Turns out, we went to highschool together and she lived just down the road from my parents. Small world!

We saw some other miracles but like all weeks, I dont have much time so sorry! 

Thank you for all the supprt though! I hit my 10 month mark this week wooooo! almost half done, that is pretty weird lol. 

--

Elder Quinton

Week 42

Hi All,

I get to stay here for another transfer woooo! this past one went superrrrrrrr quick. I will be staying with Elder Knight. 

We are doing good though. He keeps still struggling with focusing because of girls buttttttttt it is a work in progress! 

Crazy things for this week:

Hostage situation right next to my house. at the sparks highschool . It was super sad. That is right next to my house though, may have made national news who knows! 

We met this black man named Paris and he asked what happened to Knights foot because hes in a big ol' boot. and then when we left he asked if he could say a pray and he was like "dear Lord creator, I know you have a sense of humor today on the news a man found a snake with 2 heads, but they say two heads are better than 1 so please bless this man (my companion) that he can grow 6 toes, because 6 toes are better than 5" hahaha It was great! :)  Funny man.

We have a baptism in two weeks! This guy we met about a month ago and his wife. Him first, she wants to wait a few more weeks but he told us we were sent from Ggod and whatnot. Which you know, is pretty true. 

We've been playing more soccer lately, Ive found that old skills are starting to come back a little, that has been nice. 

Have a great week!

--

Elder Quinton

Week 41

Hi Everyone,

SOOOOO.

Apprently Elder Knights leg actually is broken! whoops... totally was kind of my fault too. Kind of. He was guarding me playing sports and he kind of walked on top of my foot and tripped and snapppp. We've been going to doctors several times this past week. 

At zone conferences this past week, Elder Knight and I wore matching grey suits and super skinny black ties, ( NOT planned) eeveryone thought we wre going to get called out because of how skinny the ties were and president walked up to us and told us how good we looked, hahaha so funny. 

He also told us he's been worried about us a lot lately since we've been inside because of Knights foot. We are going to be going on exchanges a lot this week with members so I can keep working while he hangs out lol. 

We heard gun shots outside our house a couple nights ago too! It was pretty intense, a car went flying by a minute later. pretty sure it was a drive by. It was like 100 yards or so down the road. We were also walking a few nights ago and a guy pulled his car over and was like " my mormon friends! you guys know this is the ghetto right?" and we were like "well yea, thats why were are here!" hahaha. I guess right next to my house is considered ghetto? Doesn't look like one at all though. Hope all is going well for you all at home! :) 

 

Casey came to visit

--                                                 Happy Birthday MOM!

Elder Quinton

Week 40

9/14/15

Hi Everyone,

Again not a whole lot happened this week because my companions foot is still really bad, we are going to the actual doctor today. The missionary doctor reallyyyyy wasn't that helpful haha! well. She was, but she thinks its getting better but it hasn't been. So we've spent pretty much all week inside and ocassionally going out for set lessons.

The zone leaders told me they sent my name as a suggestion to president for leadership or trainer... they were confused how I've not been out yet. I was like ahhhhh sucky. Hopefully I can keep dodging that bullet though. 

Enjoy your week! Sorry the last few weeks I've been lame haha
-

Elder Quinton

 

 

 

Week 39

09/07/15

 

Sorry I am emailing a little bit later!

We've had a really hectic day and internet has been out in 3 of the buildings that we've tried (church buildings) and I just was able to fix it in one of them! took like 40 minutes.. someone had messed up the cords big time.

I made my salsa this past week WOOO!

It was delicious. I don't have a lot of time though this week so this will be shorter.
Elder Knight hurt his foot reallyyyyyyy bad this past week! He tripped on my foot when we were playing soccer and his ankle has swollen to double the size and is purple. Pretty bad. We went to the missionary doctor she told us its a very bad sprain and to take it easy this week.
I went on exchanges again. I realized something, every single time that I go on exchanges with an elder into his area, I have a really interesting experience with a less active member they are teaching. A very powerful spirited lesson. If that makes sense. Kind of cool though haha. Sorry I have nothing to say this week!

Elder Quinton

 

 

Week 38

Aug 31, 2015

 

Hello Hello! 

First full week in sparks has been great! In just a week, elder knight and myself have found an entirely new teaching pool! :) We have hardly used the people the other elders were teaching yet. That is our plan for this week though. There are several people we found this past week that want to get baptized though so that is pretty cool. 

Also! I forgot to mention it last week. So I was actually supposed to be a zone leader this transfer but due to a LOT of last minute changes and whatnot it was changed. Several people went home that were supposed to be staying and some missionaries didn't come out like they were supposed to. Looks like a dodged that bullet ;) haha. 

We have one of the general authorities of the church coming this past week (he got sick so its postponed) but he wanted us to all write a 5 minute discourse on faith and I thought a lot about what I want to say in mine and wrote tons of notes. I had been thinking about doing the correlation of Faith and Fear and how fear holds back our faith and because of that if we fear, we wont see the miracles that should happen because of our faith etc. and defining it through the scriptures and then in the bible dictionary. It was a good idea I thought. Then one of my good friends last week said something to the effect of hey, this is random but you should look up my favorite talk and its called "Some lessons of faith and fear" Gregory Clark. Anddddd. The ideas were the exact same that I had and he even used the same scriptures and bible dictionary reverences that I had planned on using. It was a super cool experience! You should read it its good. 

The elders that live upstairs in the same house as us are.. extremely dirty. Elder Knight and myself clean our dishes when we use them and clean up spills and all that. They just leave that stuff everywhere. Their junk is across the entire house it is so nasty. We had an intervention with them. Hopefully they keep that in mind. It was really bad. 

another miracle of the week is we were looking through some old papers of people that the other missionaries had tried before and came across a name that we decided to try. The address turned out to be wrong but as we were looking for it we found someone! He saw us(he was inside) and we started walking up to his head and he started laughing and shaking his head saying NOOOOO and then he put his big Doberman in the front window and was making barking noises for him (that dog wouldn't hurt a fly though, never even barks) and we just started laughing. Then he decided to come outside anyways. We had a member of the church with us and we found out this guy, Juan, had gotten out of prison a year before and had a lot of problems before he went in and he's been trying super hard to change his life and his girlfriend and him have been thinking about trying to go to church and get that spiritual guidance and wanted to find god for the first time in his life. 

We found a secret room in our house! it is in the closet and leads to a little attic thing. Who would of known right? 

For those of you that don't know me super well, I have several incredibly random talents that you would never in a million years need. One being throwing playing cards. I can throw them about 50 yards. try it. not as easy as you would think. Anyways though, I started teaching my companion how to do it. We have been having little mini wars throwing cards at each other. One of the other missionaries here asked if I could throw one through a rope he was spinning in a circle as fast as he could. I was like hmmmm probably not but I can try. So he starts spinning it in a circle as fast as he can, and I threw this card with all I could and it went through the spinning rope (no idea how) and CUT HIS NECK. It barely cut him but I was like WOW that was ridiculous!! He was also very surprised.

That is all! Love you all. 

 

 

 

hey also the new mission blog is 

http://nevadarenomission.com/

 

Elder Knight

Week 37

Hey hows it going!

Transfers were stressful like normal of course. I am now with elder Knight. We have 4 elders living in the house that I am in. Elders Dugger and McSheehy upstairs and Elder Knight and myself downstairs. 

We had a super cool experience with someone we met yesterday when I was with Elder Dugger and McSheehy before Knight got here(he was coming from the east side of nevada). We went to contact someone missioanries had contacted before but ended. up running into an inactive member of the churchl. He saw us (he was swiomming) and got out to introduce himself. They we went away and tried to contact the person we wanted to and he saw us again and he came over and was like Elders Im taking this as a sign, I need to talk to you about myself. He then proceeded to tell us his life story and all the trials he had gone through and whatnot and that he tried to come back to church but that he didnt feel welcome or something to that effect. After he tells me all this I felt so strongly to tell him the following "Jason. God needs you on his side, there are many people in your life that need your testimony and experiences to help them to come to the gospel and you will play a pivitol role in that" I said some other things as well but yea. It was crazy though, his eyes got all glassy and he shook my hand for like a minute saying thank you so much. I was only with those 2 elders for.. a couple hours. definitely not a coincidence that we came across someone who I needed to be there for. Our experiences in life are supposed to help others. lesson learned haha. 

We started a nerf war with the other elders that live in the house. Then the next evening we arrived home to all the lights off, all the doors closed and a note on a chair with a flashlight that said "Zombies... No lights, flashlights only, you get bit you die" and there was a nerf pistol with one bullet and then we found bigger better guns with more bullets it was SOOOO hilarious hahaha! Suffice to say though.. Elder Knight and I won. 

I will send a picture of the note attached. 

We've been talking a ton more spanish! its been so great. It is SUCH a relief to have tons of people outside. I definitely think this area has the highest potential of all that ive been in sso far. We have lots of work ahead of us, but in the 3 days elder knight and I have beentogether we already have had more success than the elders before us. 

I am having tons of fun here. My favorite part of being a missionary is seeing the changes that people make in their lives to become better people. People from all types of backgrounds. Gangsters, drug lords, old people, homeless people, etc. People from every type of background can set aside their differences to come together as children of God. Super cool stuff. Helping people really is the best. Love you all!

Elder Quinton

the Comp feel asleep  in church 

making breakfast

                                                               Triplet ties

Week 36

Hi Everyone,
So to start off, Elder Baker and I are closing our area down because of the lack of work here.

I am sad though because we won't be companions anymore. 

My new companions are Elders Parker and Knight.  Who knows! Hopefully things go alright though. 

My new address is 739 16th st Sparks, NV 89431

I don't have a whole lot to say, we walked a TON. I went on exchanges with Elder Gamble, who lives in the loft with Elders Craft and Wolz. I received the nickname "GQ" hahaha. They called me grandpa Q because I am older than most of them, then they made the joke, DUDE "GQ" hahaha so funny. 

This transfer by far went the fastest I've been here. Elder Baker is a great missionary. 

The more I work the faster the time seems to go by. It was super hot this week too. Sorry this email is super lame, I have Tons to get done between packing and whatnot. Love you all!

Elder Quinton