Received Monday, June 16, 2014

First off happy father's day Dad! I love you! we talked to Patrick, the scottsman, yesterday and he kept telling us to call our dads back home, it made me want to but i knew it was much better not to.

now the questions

Do you know Ocean? If yes, how?

yes, he is a friend of Eric's, we have hung out a couple times, that would be kinda cool to see him. Oh yea I dont think I ever told you, Eric is programming his own Settlers of Catan game on the computer and its really cool. he has been working on it for months now and he just told me it was about done!

Are you driving extra safe because of the Tee-wee?

not really, its just a little annoying to have to constantly watch to make sure that i am exactly 10kmph over the speed limit (called speed maximum here, silly canucks), otherwise it will yell at me if i'm too high, and i'm moving too slow if i go slower. interesting fact, you go 100kmph on the freeway here, its kinda cool to see a sign that says 100 on it.

How was Sunday at church?

good. on saturday I actually got a call from a bishopric member asking me to speak on sunday! i was supposed to be replacing a youth speaker that fell through so it was only 5 minutes. i told him sure. It was just a little about myself, why i came, and why I love my dad (for father's day), so it wasnt too hard, i didnt write a talk or anything. One cool thing I realized after my talk was that if I ever messed up in life really bad, there was no possible thing I could blame on my parents, it would only be my fault. I dont think too many people could say that. Thank you so much, I love you Mom and Dad!

Where do you sit in the congregation?

on the stand

What songs did you sing?

I dont remember, they were all about fathers though. We did sing O My Father too though, i like that one, its really interesting.

Do people shake your hand?

we actually shake each other's feet in canada, its weird. just kidding, yes they shake my hand.

Do they ask where you are from?

yes. there is actually a guy in the ward who just got his mission call to arcadia 2 weeks ago! I told him to ask me any questions he has, he didnt really have any.

Do they ask why you are so hot?

I ask myself that every time I look in the mirror

forget your nametag this week?

I did not, I was very proud of myself. checked just now and i still have one on! since then though I have kept a spare in my bad just in case, it has come in handy one time already!

any dinner appts this week?

i believe 2, we have a constant one on mondays, the Clarks, and one this friday.

what food has Elder Wilson made for you this week?

burgers, taco's, pork chops, burgers, mac n' cheese (called kraft dinner here), burgers, pasta. 

Are you given a certain amount of time to do email??

not exactly. we dont but the sisters in the same ward come here after we do, so we try to get out by a certain time because we're not allowed to be alone in the building with them.

Any good stories from this week?

We had an investigator (Wayne) call us to come teaching to him again, really cool. we set a baptismal date for him, he said he wanted to be baptized on his birthday july 30th! i forgot to tell him that was my brother's birthday too.

Also I baptized someone on sunday! the sisters were teaching 2 people (mark and leslie) who had a baptismal date for next week but they had to move it up because mak and leslie were thinking they might move on friday, so we baptized them yesterday. I baptized Mark, Elder Wilson baptized Leslie. All went well except I kinda threw him down in to the water when I put him in, whoops, all ended well though and I will try to be nicer to the next one.

What are you doing for p-day?

Going to Oshawa to play sports, probably basketball. relative to home, Pickering is kind of like monrovia, Oshawa is kind of like Pasadena.

Have you done laundry yet? do you do it at your apartment or do you have to go to a Laundromat? How did it all go?

We have our own washer and dryer, its very nice, we do it throughout the week.

How do you like your non-suit pants? Comfortable?

very comfortable, I especially love the fact that I can wash them in a washing machine (read: i have spilled various things on them)

Hey, I have sent you a couple of letters. How many days does it take for  you to get them??

I got your envelope with the pictures in them on tuesday, I like all the pictures, glad you added the house we trespassed at, I dont think I have gotten any other letters though.

I sent you a couple of pictures. The only picture I remember was of my eyelashes!

I forgot about that one! great eyelashes, people always tell me I have very long eyelashes, so I dont need any false ones

How are your investigators?

Wayne is good, Patrick the new convert is slipping, his wife Emma (not baptized) is learning, a less active named Marc Procter (Gianeze, dont know the spelling, Giana is an island by Jamaica I think) is progressing a lot too. Also Brother Crisostimo another less active is awesome, we took him teaching with us actually and he loved it.

did you get zak's letter I mailed to you from last week before you saw the email today?

no I did not, I read it today, it was good

Anything you need?

yes! i forgot to tell you last week but my Debit card got voided! you probably dont remember but we got a new debit card in the mail, the letter had my name on it but the card had mom's name on it, we never fixed the problem, so my card has been voided. Since then I have had to use the credit card (working fine) a couple times, once for the luggage on my flight in. Can you pay that off on my credit card for me on my account? Also I found a check for 50$ from my farewell in one of my suit coats! I will try to send that in to home to be cashed soon!

I think thats about it. great week overall, I think all the exciting parts are in the contents of my answers to the questions. so instead I'll list a couple different things about canada:

milk comes in plastic bags, we put the bag in a container then snip off a little corner then we pour like a regular gallon of milk.

the money is all colorful like monopoly money

they dont have pennys

they have a dollar coin called a loony because it has a loon on it, and a 2 dollar coin called a toony because it is the value of two loonies.

Received Monday, June 9, 2014

First off I dont think I ever thanked mom for those packages that she sent me in the MTC, Thank you! all the chocolate is long eaten, the cards are hanging up (one says "through strict obedience Jesus won, I had never heard that before, but we sang it yesterday in church) Also I have worn my turquoise tie several times since I got it.

how was your first week?

Really great, it was a little crazy though. I got to Pickering on Tuesday night at like 6. The next morning at 2:30 in the morning we got a call from the neighboring city sisters (Ajax) telling us they were in the hospital and they needed a blessing! All is well, one sister accidentally OD'd on some cold medicine apparently, she was totally fine the next morning. I am the driver also, Elder Wilson couldn't drive because he got yellow dotted (green, yellow, red) from this weird thing they have in the car called TiWi (tee-wee). It monitors your driving, if you go over 10 km/hr (about 6 mph) over the speed limit it tells you and records it and if you take turns too sharp. It is actually really annoying, but see how it is very helpful as well, very much a love-hate relationship.

tell us about your companion!

Elder Wilson, really cool guy, super excited about everything. He is about a year on his mission, he was actually totally inactive up until about a year before his mission. Apparently he went to Egypt to help his brother move in there (not sure why his brother went there), he ended up staying and his brother kind of convinced him to go to church finally, really cool. He is originally from northern Idaho. he has many relatives in Preston! they are the Peterbourges, ever heard of em dad?

how are you spending most of your time...like with planned appts?

not too many appts actually, the elders from a few months ago were a bit apostate apparently, so the ward members are just learning to trust the Elders again. The ward is combined with the city of Ajax as well and almost all the members are from there, so we cant get much help from them. we spend a lot of time with less actives, former investigators, and we've tracted a pretty good amount too. There is one recent convert who we visit a lot too who has started picking up smoking again and swears like a sailor, he also has a nonmember wife we teach. that guy, Patrick, is very Scottish and has a very thick accent, really cool, and he calls us jimmy and he'll say things like "i helped him out, so i did" all the time, its hilarious.

how was church?

good. the first hymn was some weird one nobody knew so it was very quiet, it was funny, i think it was hymn #125. set up lots of appts with members to come with us to other appointments with people. I actually forgot my name tag and didnt realize until I got to church. Luckily Elder Wilson had an extra name tag, so I wore an Elder Wilson tag for the rest of the day at church, pretty funny.

have you noticed the Canadian accent?

there is a very small accent for the canadians up until they say aboot very distinctly and they say eh a lot. lots of little hockey nets set up in front of houses. Also interesting thing about ontario, many immigrants and they really keep their culture, its cool so lots of different types of people. tons of cultures, a fairly decent amount of Jamaicans actually, theyre really cool, they call us Jesus boys.

Has anyone offered you poutine yet?

not yet but I did have tim bits (doughnut holes) at Tim Hortons. Everyone talks about them all the time, I thought they just tasted like regular doughnut holes, so still pretty good. There are Tim Horton's here about as often as there are starbucks in America.

Where are you emailing...the library?

family history center in the ward building

how are you sleeping? still taking along time to fall asleep at night,  or are you more tired?

Actually sleeping very well, not taking quite so long as normal to fall asleep. it's nice.

How about dinner appts? Had any yet? If yes, what did you eat?

Had one yesterday. This lady was a convert from Jehova's witness from a long time ago. she came to the door acting like an investigator at first, it was actually pretty cool. We just had spagetti and some kind of white fish, some name I didnt recognize.

Have you heard if you are now considered a "driver"? I did get your DMV good driving record and I scanned it in the computer and emailed it to those nice elders. I believe they got it. So, how does the driving work with you and your companion? (Do you know that the elders called me?? It was exciting. They told me to text them!)

yes, i went online and printed out the unofficial one, which they were fine with, as they were calling you. The elder who called you told me right after that you were really nice. talked about the driving earlier.

Have you been the back up (as in driving) elder yet?

nope!

Are you doing the morning exercising? Yes? What are you doing?

nope, I'm too tired in the morning, we might try to go running this week though.

Will you get an opportunity to walk/run on that path across the street from where you live? It looks beautiful!

hopefully thats where we'll run! I definately want to go down to that path. also that water we are next to is lake superior, it looks like an ocean.

DO you live above a garage? It looks like someone built a set of apartments above a garage at your address. Is that correct?

that is incorrect, we are in a basement, the garage in not on west shore, we are a corner house.

How many elders do you live with?

just Elder Wilson

What do you do for lunch? do you go back home?

Normally go back home.

Have you had to cook for yourself?

Elder Wilson actually loves cooking, so he has made most of the stuff, it is great!

Like Zak, do you and your companion live the law of consecration?

yea, he asked in the beginning what we wanted to do, I said law of consecration so that I wouldnt feel bad for him cooking for me all the time.

What is the word on ipads....any word at all??

We are supposed to get them within the year.

Alright thats about it! I need to learn how to write these a bit faster! Happy Birthday to Mom on Wednesday! and happy father's day to Dad on Sunday!

Love,

Quinn

Received Sunday, June 1, 2014

i'll do a real email later today, but this is just to say that I'm probably gonna call home at between 9:30am and 10:30am minneapolis time. thats because we are leaving for the airport at 2:30am and we take off at 6 in the morning and i figure you probably dont want to wake up that early.

 we land at 9 in minneapolis and dont take off until 1 so i'll have plenty of time to call after that.

 Does that sound good? have any better ideas? 

also I'm assuming I should call the home phone first, my call card has 500 minutes on it but im pretty sure just making a call takes away 200 minutes, so we dont have too many tries.

Received May 26, 2014

Alright i will start with answering your questions. I think I'm gonna go with Zak's Q&A method, that seems to work well.

I just remembered about you shining your dull, black shoes!! Have you ever shined them yet? Have you worn them yet?

Have not shined nor worn, hopefully I will shine them today. We have plenty of extra time because the temple we were planning to go to today is closed because of memorial day, kinda sad but thats ok.

 

do you carry your man-purse around the MTC?

Yes, mostly. We take it to our assigned "classroom" and we are there or around there most of the day so I dont carry it all that much. Not too bad to carry, I gave up feeling embarrased about anything a couple years ago so I'm fine.

 

how are you sleeping?

Pretty normal (read: takes about an hour to fall asleep) the first day it kinda took a while but since ive been pretty good.

How is your pillow?

lumpy and not that good, but it really doesnt bother me.

have you bought and used a journal?

yes I have! I've written in it every day but one, I'm trying to keep it up writing every night.

have you  bought anything there at the MTC?

the journal and today I need to buy laundry detergent.

How do you like the food? What is the best thing you have eaten, and the worst?

first couple of days not so good, dont really remember exactly what it was. recently it has been pretty good though. and endless byu creamery chocolate milk so that is a serious plus (i drink it for every meal).

How do you like your teachers?

They are good, one is about 24 i would guess. He speaks in a very interesting way, it really makes me think of Joel Oesteen (spelling?) it makes me laugh. Also there is a sister, probably about 25. she is good too, she speaks in a very quiet way kinda like how a bunch of sister missionaries like to do.

Are you going over the PMG?

kind of going over random parts, not just running through in a specific order. Apparently it is a very good, helpful book

What great speakers have you heard?

we have devotional with great speakers on tuesdays and sundays, tuesdays tend to be the famous people like apostles and stuff, sundays less so. On wednesday the MTC president spoke and partway through the head chaplain of the US air-force who was touring campus that day (non member) came in and told us we were great for doing this, kinda cool.

How many times do you think you have sung "Called to Serve"?

only once or twice, we sang it a couple hours after I got there, and to start a class session once.

Have you been asked to pray in a meeting?

yes, I prayed for sacrament meeting yesterday and for class several times. by the way I get to chose who gets to pray because I am District leader.

how do you like your PE times? What activities have you done? I think some of our missionaries really liked 4 square...maybe Zak and Christopher...

I have only had 2 PE times so far. the first day I played basketball for a while, kinda lame no good games, then the second day I played 4 square a while. that is pretty fun because there are a lot of unathletic elders mixed with athletic ones, so you can dominate sometimes but still have a challenge. I am hoping we can get out to play soccer tomorrow.

Have you been to the Provo temple?

nope... memorial day.

have you seen messages written on the pavement there by the MTC? I have heard they do that. Don't look for messages from us, there will be none.

I have not

Have you seen Kevin your BYU-I roommate yet? Have you seen other people you know there?

yes I saw kevin once or twice, we have very different schedules so I'm glad I got to see him. Also I think I told you but that girl who is going to the same mission as me is in my district so that is pretty cool too.

How many people sleeping in your room? my guess is 4.

your guess is correct! the mtc is not very full right now, there is an empty room on either side of us and 2 extra beds in our room. all my roommates/district elders are great.

How was unpacking all your stuff?

I chose not to unpack all my stuff, just going out of my suitcase mostly.

Are you happy with all we packed, have you missed anything, or wished you had brought something you didn't?

nope, I've actually been pretty good with everything

If time, please tell anything that I forgot to ask!

not really time! I am doing super great! lots of people are super stressed and going crazy but I feel no anxieties (yes I am still working very hard though). I think thats part of the reason why i am DL, I'm glad I am though, It's literally my calling to help people, its great!

has there been any talk in the MTC about you getting ipads in Canada?

havnt heard anything. only 3 people in my district of 8 going to toronto though (me, my companion elder bennet, and aubrey my friend), the others are going to oregon.

have you taken any pictures?

yes, I will get them sent at some point, no time now!

QUINN: Next Monday is June 2nd, the date you are supposed to leave the MTC, I am guessing you will not write on that day. Do you have any information on that?

I do not really, I think i may be able to email on saturday though!

 

P.S. a Dodger's pitcher, Josh Beckett, threw a no-hitter today. First of his career, first in all of major league baseball this year.

AWESOME!

Love you all!

Quinn

FIRST LETTER! May 23, 2014

Hey family!!

They gave us permission to send a really quick letter today before we get to send our real one on Monday!

 I am doing really well, my companion is awesome (a canadian native, alberta, farmer) and everyone in my district is great. There are 4 elders and 4 sisters in the district. Actually my friend from BYU-I who is going to my mission is part of the district, its great. and speaking of the district, I was just assigned as the District Leader yesterday! 

I feel great, not too stressed, working hard.

Alright thats all the time I have! 

oh yea I got mom's letter today, I still need to read it.

until monday

love,

Quinn