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

 

 

 

week 34

Aug 3rd,

Again not a whole lot to say this week, but there are some things.

We currently have a third elder with us, Elder Eaton. He got emergency transfered to be with us till the end of the transfer. Those who haven't heard, my little sister Kali gets off her mission this week! That is super weird haha. I feel like an "oldy" 

The area we work in has been a little rough, we get lots of people yelling bad things at us and whatnot. It doesn't phase us though we're still working hard and talking and the such. 

We had 15 minute interviews with president this week! That was pretty awesome, He asked me about my life and that type of thing and missionary work. Hes such a cool guy. Definitely will have a lot of fun working with him. 

We had one of the Zone leaders on exchanges with both of us this past week, that was a lot of fun he's a really fun guy. Elder Jetton, I will post pics with him as well. 

We went to a baptismal service this past week and my friend from Carson, my last area, Ernesto was there! That was super awesome we caught up and talked some. 

Our area is starting to pic up finally! Which is nice, but we still have lots of walking to do and whatnot uuntil our area gets better. It is barely picking up. It will be a trial but that is okay weve just been walking and talking and the such. 

We've been finding these super gross bugs in our apartment. They look like a mixture of a spider and a centipede.... Very hairy long legs, spider like but has like 30 legs. They are so gross. Like 2 or 3 inches long. We also found a caterpillar that was about 6inches long that was crazy. Apparently some types of bugs are bigger here than washington or something like that. 

Elder Quinton

 

 

week 35

Hi Everyone,
Crazy stuff has happened this past week.

The elder that is now in a tripanionship with elder Baker and I. We've been helping him a lot he wanted to go home and stuff like that but president put him with us. Then he had an interview with him and president pulled us in the office after and was like "I cant thank you elders enough, In 4 days of being with you his entire countenance has changed and he wants to stay in the mission field. You literally have saved a soul" It was so cool! I've had some really good talks with this elder and hopefully he realizes the difference staying will make on his life. 

President also told us most companionships in the mission are having problems. He said only a handful aren't, Baker and Myself being one of them. That was crazy, I didn't realize so many were having problems. 

Went on exchanges with an Elder named Elder Craft, he's super cool. I'll send pics. Lots of pics to come this week. I've put it off for 3 weeks already haha! My foot has 3 blisters stacked between a couple layers of skin, its pretty hideous haha! My leg joints sure know how to hurt a lot though. 

Saturday we walked 9 hours. We didnt have any dinner that night and we were super hungry and just tired and we were walking by a latino house and this guy was like dude! We just finished having a party, you guys want some food? Such a miracle. It was amazing lol.

 Then later went to Sonic and got shakes and someone gave us 20 dollars and like 5 people waved at me and I didnt have any idea who they were. 

Elder Baker fell asleep in church class yesterday, everyone was laughing about it, the teacher kicked his foot and he didn't wake up so I started using a pen to touch his hand. Then I hit him with it, he woke up for about 30 seconds and faded back out we were laughing pretty hard. 

Elder Quinton