Received Monday, February 23, 2015

{Talking about the new Imagine Dragons Music}  I feel like dad told me that album came out a long time ago, I have heard none of that new album from any random passing by radios, or at least i have not recognized it. i have heard that new taylor swift song a few times the one that goes "we're young and we're reckless" i have to say i am slightly disappointed.

{A toy car suddenly started making the siren noise during church!} very funny car story, i believe lizzie and jayna's faith was finally sufficient.

{Holes in a dress, had to cover them up} i do see the black dots, i think that is very funny that is the quick answer that you gave for your problem. good problem solving mom!

{Referring to a song that I played in church} good you get to play piano, i have never heard that song before or at least i dont recognize the title. 

in our appartment we are on the far left side, there is a big tree in front of our big window to the street. no we do not have green shutters, i cant remember if anyone else in those front windows has green shutters or not.

yes i believe i have seen the griffin pub, i think they have a little sign they put up on the street saying what specials they have for each day.

looking at just a little bit of stuff here from our area, i would say that everything looks completely different totally covered in snow.

Questions:

Do you remember the Song Quinn the Eskimo? Someone in church would sing it to you. Kylie is the one who told me about it. It came up in conversation this last week!

yes, by bob dylan but manfred mann does the more famous version of it. bishop dunham was the one who would bring it up all the time. the reason why i remember who did that song so well is because a member told me it just this week! this family likes missionaries to write down their names and addresses and stuff down whenever they have them over, when they saw me write down my first name, the husband brought up that song. I told him only 1 other person has ever brought that song up to me and he (bishop dunham) was from alaska. i am going to guess only people from eskimo type places know that song.

How has your weather been this week?? Talk about walking from the car to whatever building you are walking to.

very cold some days (-30) very nice other days (-7). it is a very interesting thing when you start saying -7 is very warm weather, but it really was very nice outside.

Do you ever worry about your car starting, or having car trouble in that amazing cold?

do you remember those horror stories that bishop has told us about how in alaska people plug in their cars to keep the engine warm enough through the night? yup, we do that. i keep meaning to take a picture of the plug but i keep forgetting. it is always very important to remember to have totally dry hands when you plug in the car though otherwise you get shocked a little bit and it is not fun. i learned that pretty quickly. it is kind of funny when it snows though the night and there is snow all over the car in the morning, there is always a little spot on the hood where it has all melted because of the heater block.

How are things with elder Yardley?

great, elder yardley is pretty cool, i like him. good, fun companion.

Are  you getting to know the area better, where things/people are?

yup getting to know it decently well, i'm knowing the people a lot better. i would say i know the names of almost all the ward that comes in now.

Do less people come to church when it is colder?

yup, also when it snows. that is a fairly popular excuse. the old people have a decent enough excuse with it though because they have that human berometer effect (they get all achy when the atmospheric pressure changes).

Is there a place to hang coats when you enter the building?

yup, i guess i will take pictures of those too, i totally forgot that wasnt just a regular thing everywhere.

do you have to keep any of your living area clean from snow, like doing the shoveling?

we probably should a little more but we dont really, and there isnt too much, just our steps going in to the house.

Have you done any shoveling to help others?

tons and tons. helped shovel off someone elses roof too, this time we used a roof scraper though. the first time i saw it from far away i thought it was a pool net, but on closer inspection it had a little plastic end like a snow shovel. it is an interesting device. also we help other people shovel their places all the time, it helps to find people. if they are out shoveling we jump out and start helping.

Where is elder Yardley from?

Las Vegas, the cold doesnt really bother him too much either though.

Do you know what missionary I was talking about in the GREAT STORY? When did he start his mission? It will be great if he gets to our ward.

Elder Tim Woodcock from Pickering (well he really lives in whitby but he goes to pickering ward)! yup he left some time in september i believe. he is a pretty cool guy we took him out teaching with us a couple times. that is one of the most important things i gave for him. that would be pretty cool if he came to the ward. and yes that was a GREAT STORY.

Any interesting dinner appts?

yes! on monday we had dinner at the Petrie family. brother Petrie asked me where i was from, i told him Arcadia and began to describe a little better where it was already assuming the next question (oh where is that?) . as i was explaining brother petrie turned to sister petrie and said dont worry we already know where that is. apparently that is where sister petrie served her mission! she was apparently originally called to portugal but then couldnt get a visa so she ended up serving the duration of her mission spanish speaking in arcadia. pretty cool. she didnt remember exactly where all she served but she did say the first week she was there there was a pretty big  earthquake and she had no idea what was going on (no earthquakes up here). also she was there when it snowed apparently.

How does this Ward do for singing in sacrament?

not too great, i try to sing louder but we always do songs that i have never heard of so when i try to get a little over confident we sing a completely different note than i thought it was going to be.

Does this ward use an organ or piano?

organ!

How do you do your laundry? Is there a washer/dryer in your apartment or do you have to go to a laundramat?

actually there is a super nice member who volunteers to do it for us so long as we supply the soap! very nice. it is the wife of the quinn the eskimo guy. the MacNaughtons. they play the bagpipes.

What are you doing for P-day?

we played pool earlier, not too much outside of that.

How long does it take you to drive to your Ward building?

about 5 minutes, it is very nice, we are very close.

Are the roads fairly cleared of snow?

yea they are pretty well cleared, or at least covered in sand and dirt and stuff enough so that you have good grip anyway.

1 cool missionary experience:

last week we randomly stopped by this less active member that no one really knew. her, her husband, and her 5 kids (none baptized, 3 over 8) were there and she invited us to come back to teach the kids last friday. when we came back they were all ready the kids all loved the lesson and really wanted us back, the parents said that would probably be a good thing if we did, so now we will be coming back every friday. when we told bishop he said, "wow we have been trying to get in there for a year and no one has ever been there." apparently 40 day fasts for missionary work do something.

thats about it!

i love you!

Quinn

No explanation on this picture, but the snow is amazing! Maybe this is a road he drives down!

This is how he  plugs in his car so it will start the next morning!

Received Tuesday, February 17, 2015

I SAID whats cooler than bein cool!? Ice Cold!

Do the sister missionaries not have bikes or something? i thought most of them did its kinda weird that they would pretty much just leave the sisters chillin in arcadia without a car, bikes, and a pretty bad bus system. In our mission they pretty much let every area have a car unless they have a decent bus system. anyway glad beebee could help em and you could make them some pancakes. you shouldve just told them that you werent a short order cook and just give them the one option.

funny and a little weird from the steimles which is right on par with them.

exciting for nana and bumpa, also i'm pretty excited to see all sorts of interesting autocorrect mistakes.

i was at byu-i when they changed it so i was there for a little bit when it was like that, it was a little annoying because i felt a little less comfortable blasting my very loud rock music right by where the mission office people were working.

christopher can feel a bit better knowing that it is probably a bit colder here. this week was the coldest of the year so far and throughout the week with windchill it was -40. And would you like to know what that is in Fahrenheit? -40, yes it was very cold, luckily i have some good warm clothes and many layers to wear so it really wasnt too bad.

QUESTIONS:

Do you know your new address?

yes! it is:

147 Richard Street #4

Bracebridge, ON

P1L 1J3

1 quick joke i heard earlier. so youve probably recognized that the canadian zipcode always goes letter-number-letter like that right? thats why canadians like to claim that santa clause really lives in the canadian part of the north pole (canada and russia lay claim to the north pole) because he always tells people his zip code H0H 0H0

Does Elder Yardley know Brittanni Cole's husband Justin Yardley? Are they related? Justin's dad is Roy Yardley from Gunnison Ut.

I asked him the first day we were together, he said he did not know a justin yardley.

How did you even get up to your new area?

by driving a car, everyone who gets tranfered meets at the stake center in Brampton (just west of toronto) which also has the temple next door. thats where you meet up with your companion and drive up in to the great white north

How is your apartment?

pretty nice, it was a sister appartment for a while up until like november so it has to be nice.

where are you emailing from?

the ward building family history center.

Is there more snow where you are now?

much much much more. there was maybe like 6 inches on the ground in cobourg, there is a couple feet here, its pretty sweet.

How is the Ward?

pretty good, apparently regularly like 70 people come during the winter and during the summer it gets huge because bracebridge is apparently a big vacation place. tons of summer "cottages" people move up to during the summer. actually just down the road they have a little theme park place called Santa's Village which is only open during the summer and christmas day... for some odd reason, still havnt been able to figure out why.

ayway back to the question, it is good. lots of people who have strong testimonies and are excited to do missionary work. One of the first days i was here was the end of the ward "40 day fast" for missionary work which they did for the first time. they had a calendar of 40 days apparently and 40 different people signed up on each day to fast for a day. pretty cool. also every wednesday night they have a volleyball night that we go to that people invite friends and stuff to.

How long has your companion been in their area?

2 transfers so i think thats since mid november, this was his first area.

Have you had any meals at member's homes since you've been there?

yes, like 4 set up ones and another that we came by their home, meaning just to be really quick and introduce myself and set up an appointment for a mini lesson some other time and they just invited us in for dinner because apparently the wife had accidentally made way too much for everyone to eat.

Do you know the person that took your place in Cobourg?

interestingly enough it was actually the other missionary that was here, elder christenson.

Do you know, was your mission pres gone to a big conference over this last weekend about the "rollout" of the ipads? The Arcadia Mission pres was at that conference.

i really have no idea and havnt heard anything about it, he might have, we didnt get a president's letter from him this week oddly enough so maybe he was spending too much time working on that.

What happened in Canada for Family Day? Anything? A Parade?

no parade or anything, just a day off from stuff for families to hang out together.

Any interesting stories?

i shoveled off someone's roof this week, you read correctly i shoveled their roof. apparently it snows so much up here that if you dont do that every once and a while the ice will build up so thick on your roof that it will cave in and break your roof! when someone first said that laughed and thought they were joking... nope :D

another interesting thing, the husband of a member (now passed away) who is in this ward is mentioned in preach my gospel! i cant remember exactly what page it was. it is in the "working with members" section. it mentions a man by the last name of stoneman who used to be part of the united church i think... or it might be the catholic one i dont remember.

Any big meetings coming up...with General Authorities?

actually yes! apparently there is some general authority, i think the area 70, coming up to stake conference here in the end of march. good inspired question.

Are you a driver?? I think you are.... if yes, how do you like it?? Enjoy having a "backer"?

i was for most of this week. it was great no problems, the only thing is that the whole time i had no idea where i was going, elder yardly had to just tell me where to go. So at the end of the week we just asked the senior missionary in charge of cars if we could just switch for the transfer while i figure out where i am actually. they said yes. so back to being backer while i figure out where i am, this is a pretty big area.

what is cooler than cool?

ice cold, I said, whats cooler than bein cool!? ICE COLD

Thats about it, i'm staying warm, all good, nice and happy.

I love you!

Quinn

Received Monday, February 9, 2014

Why do i feel like you've made chicken cordon blue casorole a lot of times? isnt that the stuff with the peas?

That was a good talk from g-man, did sister thurman say anything about taylor swift this week?

I do not remember that "the lord is my shepherd" song just from the lyrics, probably would with the music though. is that the one that is like go tell aunt rodey?

why cant they just call that crudite stuff celery and carrots, that makes way more sense.

I have a copy of true to the faith, i have not used it too much, maybe i will try to use it a bit more. i have heard our search for happiness is a pretty good one too. that one is written by Elder Ballard and essentially goes through all the missionary lessons i guess.

 

QUESTIONS:

 

any transfer news today?

Yes! very surprising actually. I will be going to bracebridge (i'm pretty sure thats how you spell it) i dont know too much about it aside from the fact that it is about the same size as cobourg and about 4 hours north of here i think. my new companion will be elder yardley (dont know who he is), and i will be designated driver. i guess that means i will be getting much better at driving in the snow. i am a little sad to be leaving cobourg, i really like it here, but the location and everything for bracebridge sounds good. brace bridge should be colder (not good) but there should be a lot more snow (i've decided that is a good thing) and maybe i will finally be able to see a moose. i wonder if they sleep in igloos up there... just kidding. it should be fun, more on it next week.

Last week, I think you thought this week would be full of snow. Any of that happen?

that has got to be one of the craziest, grammatically correct sentences i have seen, i applaud you mother.

Yes, lots of snow this week, only about 20 people came to church because of it. there was also a bit of freezing rain while we were in the church.

What are you doing for P-day today? Working on your moccasins?

nope we are going to go to oshawa for sports, it will probably be the last time for a while for me to be able to do that actually because the zone i am in is huge (like super spread out).

did you do game night? how did it go?

We did! it did about as well as expected granted the weather... no one showed up. it was just us and the ward mission leader. there was lots of snow and stuff though so it was understandable. if the weather was fine i would have guessed about 7 other people would show up. so it should end up fine.

is valentine's day something they celebrate in the old Canada?

yes, or at least i'm pretty sure the people of old canada do celebrate it.

did you send us your SD card with your pictures?

I did, hopefully you will get it pretty soon.

Tell us 3 things you ate last week.

turkey, ribs (super good), and spagetti.

have you heard any new news on ipads for your mission?

nope. also i'm pretty sure when we do eventually get them that the missionaries will have to buy ours also.

Any good stories?

when we went out from church this week the car battery was dead! we went around the church, found someone who said she had jumper cables in her car, walked out and saw that her husband was jumping her car as well! that was pretty funny. he went and jumped our car, we left it running for a while, all has been good since then. it was probably just the cold and the wind blowing on it that killed the battery or something.

Anything interesting happen while you are out tracking?

i went on exchanges up in peterborough on friday. the missionary i was with is pretty new and has done hardly any tracting since he came in the mission. we had a little bit of extra time so he decided we should go tracting really quick, i told him ok but we would only have time to go to a couple doors. we knocked on 2 doors and we got 2 new potential investigators. ridiculous, he has some magic or something.

 

 

Ok, that is all I've got!

Pooped.

i'm glad you took the time to go poop trying to think of what else to say before you signed off.

I've just started the "Captain Moroni" chapters in the BOM. They will be interesting to read tonight. He was a good man.

that is actually where i am as well right now. i just read where amalikiah is killed. lots of good lessons.

alright thats it for me

i'm in the library and would rather not poop here so sorry i'm not taking that time.

I love you!

Quinn

Received Monday, February 2, 2015

Those dang cheater patriots won? too bad, we had dinner at a less active member's home last night before the game and one of the sons was talking to me about the patriots cheating and thats why he was cheering for the seahawks. also i found out on sunday that my bishop here is a chicago bears fan, he told me they fired all of their coaches except the receivers coach apparently... again.

every single time i read GD class i think "Gosh Dang" class instead of gospel doctrine.

I remember the name of elois wayment and would probably recognize her face if i saw it but i cannot think of it. 

Questions:

How is your eye??

much better, basically gone. i can actually put my contacts in. My last companion (Elder Burton) got one when i was with him and apparently his still hasnt gone away and president clayton told him that he would probably have to get it drained when he gets back! really stinks for him, glad i dont have to do the same thing.

Hey, do you have transfer news?

transfers calls are next sunday, so no. sorry for possible misinformation in the past.

did you get your package - large yellow envelope?

i did! it was leaning against the door when i got back to the apartment. in the letter it said you did not remember exactly why you felt like you had to send me a shirt. the reason is because i showed you the shirt with the exploded ink stain on it.

did you happen to find the very funny pterodactyl card with your ATM card in it?

no :( really have no idea where it would be, and my credit card is currently not working for sure. I hope the latter does not have to do with the first.

how long did it take you to take the exit exam? How many hours?

i have no idea,all i remember is it being really easy, probably didnt take too long.

How did your moccasins turn out?? Talk about that experience!

they take a while, but i started them, then realized i had threaded it incorrectly! so i had to pick it out and start over, i just havnt taken too much time to work on them this week so not too far along.

Have anything in particular that you want Griffin to say in his update about you in Sacrament meeting?

everyone should learn how to play hockey and pray and read the scriptures.

Get much snow this week?

actually yes i did. many random crazy measurements involving centimeters and milimeters so i cannot remember how much is on the ground, it is currently snowing though and apparently it is supposed to snow about half the week.

How is that family doing with the lessons? Meet with them this week? Find anyone new to teach?

They got sick again!! now its the other half of the family, i told them by the time we meet again they should have the whole book of mormon finished. they thought it was funny and said they would make sure to read once the kids are in bed.

one girl who is a former investigator who is a friend of a couple members who just started coming back to church was very excited when we came by and told us to come back next week, so that is great!

How is your Ward's Mission Leader?

he is good, he works very hard at his work and is very busy though so its a little hard sometimes, but he does his best at his calling. he is a former bishop/branch president from the ward, so hes got a lot of good info and stuff from that time.

actually last correlation we decided to try and start up a monthly games night (people bring whatever games they want, board games, mini hockey stuff, etc. and we play for a while) we are hoping that will be a good thing to give so people can invite their friends to it and we can meet them. it will be the first saturday of every month starting this saturday. i dont think the turnout will be too great this time because of snow and that it wasn't advertised that well, but it should pick up in the following months.

Anything else going on that you want to tell about?

really, sadly this week was very uneventful again! lots of appointments moved to next week, lots of tracting.

last thursday we went on exchanges and i drove again. of course that is the day when it started snowing a lot, the roads were pretty bad. it was fun, i drove slow.

What will the Canadian holiday be in February?

national family day, that will be in 2 or 3 weeks on a monday so i will probably have pday on tuesday that week.

When you come from outside into someone's house, have you ever felt like they keep their house to warm? Yes, that is my question.

very very uncommon. normally its the really old people who get cold super easy. if it is very warm then i just soak up the warmth and disperse it throughout the time i am in the cold.

I am going to send you a letter today with my sd card of all my pictures! i gave descriptions of the pictures, also i sent some notes from the talk i gave a few weeks ago that you will maybe be able to read, also i sent last sunday's ward program. you should hopefully get it next monday or tuesday.

really trying to think of more exciting/remotely interesting things to tell but i cannot really think of anything so i guess this will have to do.

I love you!

Quinn

Received Monday, January 26, 2015

Awsome news for sam! as far as i can remember sam did not like spanish class in high school, so good ol classic irony we tend to see all the time with mission calls.

i got the same email you got about the mission office, surprising news to me this is out of nowhere.

I think g-man writing different answers on his test is hilarious and something that i am fairly confident i did many times in tests, there was once or twice in which i drew a random picture after every single answer in the test (dragon, wolf, muscle arm, etc.) once you're in high school the teachers tend to find these things slightly more funny.

I'm glad my mention of glebe brought good conversation, i didnt notice any weird words this week though.

that is really sweet about the vaughns, i feintly remember them. that is something i have definitely learned on my mission about everyone having a story. we will stop and talk to random people on the street all the time and they have some ridiculous, crazy story that has made some significant aspect of the gospel permanently imprinted on their minds whether they recognize it or not. there is a quote in preach my gospel that mentions something along those lines, saying that essentially anything anyone says will have some semblance to a truth of the gospel that the spirit has brought them to know is true for themselves. all sorts of members and nonmembers alike have a reason they are the way they are.

The bears have themselves just one more year to stink it up, then they should be good. apparently yesterday was the NHL all star game as well just in case anyone was wondering.

Did you get a package this week?? big yellow envelope??

I did not! i bet i will probably get it later today though, i dont think the mail had shown up yet before we left this morning.

I really thought I sent that ATM card!! I THINK I sent it in a funny pterodactyl card...why can't you hear the pterodactyl go to the batheroom?  Did you get that card? Was there nothing inside that card....no bank card???? remember..... THe card was in a large card size envelope, like 6 x 8 inch.

I dont remember that card, that still doesnt mean i didnt get it though, i will have to check harder, maybe i quickly put it away somewhere when i was busy without even recognizing it.

interesting news having to do with cards this week though. So before when i got that gps map, for some reason the map wouldnt load on to the gps and i didnt have the time to fiddle with it until it worked, so we put it off for a while. this week we had the chance to work on it again. went, looked at it, couldnt figure it out, very annoying. finally i gave up and called the support service lady. she was very good and very nice. apparently the "map" i had gotten was just a one time update and not a map. she then told me that she would refund the money back on the card i bought it with (my credit card) and she showed me the right one to buy actually that would really help. surprisingly it was only 10 more dollars. when i went to get it. very good glad to have it taken care of. for some reason when i went to buy it, the credit card would not go through! kinda weird, i havnt had the chance to try to buy something with it to see if it's actually active or not, so thats a little weird, maybe something happened again where they stopped it because they didnt believe i was actually in canada or something.

 

Talk about your weather this week!

not too cold actually, its been pretty nice. it started out monday and tuesday really cold then slowly warmed up until it went to positive degrees on saturday. its probably about -5 today.

 

Talk about you making moccasins last week!! were you able to buy more hide?

the store was closed so no hide for me last week :( but yesterday the lady told me that through the week her son had gone out and bought some for me! when i asked her how much it was so i could pay her back, she said she didnt know and it didnt really matter any way. very nice.

 

Do you use the term First Nation instead of Indian?  Are they the same thing? Did I just use some terrible slur when I said Indian?

thats probably the worst thing you can say to a first nation person... just kidding not really. a lot of people call em indians and no one would get offended, i pretty much just say first nation instead because it sounds sweet.

 

what items do they sell in a First Nation store??

didnt get to see it, it is closed on mondays :( we did go to some other store though that had a little bit of stuff. they had some super expensive moccasins and lots of cigarettes and other assorted things for drugs. 

 

Any good food stories this week?

hmm this week we ate at a family and made sure to be perfectly on time because last time we got there about 5 minutes late and they had already started eating. they told us (not mad or offended or anything) last time that they did not wait for missionaries in their home.

What are you doing today?

moccasins for real!

How is the family you are teaching doing?

last week we couldn't meet with them :( on monday they had to reschedule because the husband was at a concert kinda last second deal and then the day we rescheduled to (thursday) the wife and son got the stomach flu! so we will meet this week.

 

Candice told me that in her ward, they help the missionaries by marking the Books of Mormon - marking all the scripture mastery. When you give out Books of Mormon, are they previously marked? Just wondering.

i did it once in the beginning of my mission, not too much productive seen from it though with how much time it took.

 

Remember to wash your hands with soap. Touch anything you'd like, just wash later and don't touch your face in the mean time.

soap is overrated

Stay warm.

Have a good joke on hand when needed:

Why couldn't the pirate recite the alphabet?

because he always got lost at C.

 

OH! Griffin will be giving a report on you NEXT Sunday, February 8th!! Think of things you would like him to tell for next week's letter.

cool thing that happened this week. we knocked on a door and a husband and wife answered. they very quickly let us in and told us that they were sorry she had not been baking so they didnt have any cookies for us, but they did have something else for us. apparently the husband is a magician and so he showed us lots of different card tricks that were really cool. She has been singing and doing music about 40 years and she talked a little about all the plays and things she had done. very cool. very good people. he actually taught me a fun, easy little trick in which i can snuff a rubber band up my nose, with magic. We gave them a book of mormon and a plan of salvation pamphlet, sadly at this time they didnt really want to hear the missionary lessons though. Thats ok, planting seeds with them.

Also really quick, kinda gross. this week for the first time in my life i got a stye in my eye! apparently the best way to make it go away is just putting a warm cloth up against it as often as possible and just pretty much waiting until its gone.

alright thats about it, i love you!

Quinn

Received Monday, January 19, 2015

I say that you should capture and slowly train the skunk to be a real pet. that would be pretty cool. i guess beebee is using that church slightly differently than i did. all of my friends all the time would ask me when we were going to "mormon church" again to play dodgeball.

every week i keep trying to remember to bring a ward program here emailing, so i can actually remember what songs we sang but i never remember, maybe next week. there was one song this week that used the word "glebe" in the 3rd verse. it made me laugh to learn that glebe is really a word. i asked a member in front of us after the meeting and she told me it was like a meadow... i responded that i will try to use the word glebe at least 3 times this week.

i think i might have seen that quote or something very similar to it in the past, very true, very cool.

tell sister therman that i agree with any sort of reference to napoleon dynamite or taylor swift any time in church. i quote nacho libre all the time while doing missionary work, "why have you not been baptized!?"

Good missionary work mom! its the small little decisions each day that affect the end.

very exciting about taylor! thats pretty crazy, cant wait to hear sam's

no canadian martin luther king day, i found out this week that here there is at least 1 day every month in which people get work off, even if they have to make up a holiday (civic holiday, family day, etc) it is pretty sweet. january's was already new years day.

Oh, Grandma sent you some actual green money in a letter for christmas, I think, did you get something like that?

yes i did! i got it this week, tell grandma i really appreciate it thank you.

I also sent you a package last week. I am sure you have not received it yet, just keep a look out!

awesome! did you tell me a while ago that you sent up my debit card? i cant remember, if so i have not gotten that yet. also next monday i am going to try to send down to you my sd card so you can see all the new pictures and videos.

Did you get our Christmas card with family picture?

got that this week too, i liked the note saying better late than never.

 

How were your dinner appts last week?

on sunday a member found a recipe for cafe rio pulled pork and made it for us! it was very delicious, didnt taste exactly like it but it was still very good.

 

How is your new family progressing?

we taught them once last week, didnt come to church :( but when we taught them the plan of salvation the wife got all excited and said she cant wait to be able to get a perfect body, then the husband said "does that mean i will be able to walk down the beach with my shirt off again?" very funny. we are meeting them tonight and the member that is coming with us will invite them over for dinner on friday.

 

How is your (sometimes) rash under your eyes? Have you had it much?

really not too much recently, right now its actually pretty bad on the corners of my mouth for some reason though, very annoying. i try and put aquaphor on it as much as possible.

 

Does the air feel dry there? Do you get a bloody nose? (that is what happens when the air is so dry). Does your face feel dry?

the air is exceedingly moist, we get tons of moisture from lake ontario and it makes it very humid. so no dry stuff outside of the corners of my mouth. i actually have never gotten a bloody nose from dry air before.

 

How are you lips doing for being chapped? Any issues?

nope, all is good outside of previously mentioned twice problem.

Does your nose run in the cold? mine does....

like crazy, it is annoying but unavoidable, just wipe it on your sleeve a lot, that normally does the trick.

 

Does someone in the office just chose who in the companionship will be the driver? (And that is not you for this companionship, right?)

i guess, i really dont know, they just tell us on the day of transfers.

 

What are you doing for P-day today?

making moccasins! hopefully at least. we were at a first nation member's house and she had some extra hide so she showed us moccasin patterns and she told us she would show us how to do it today. sadly she only had enough hide for 1 pair of moccasins so i am going to see if there is hopefully some cheaper hide i can buy in the first nation store there. very exciting.

 

Did you wear your retainer last night? How often do you wear it?

i did! i'd say that i probably wear it about half the time, but i have been trying to improve that.

 

Any good stories from your week?

really nothing beside going to a meeting with ELDER OAKS! also one of the 70 named elder catcher.

yes the apostle came to the mission on saturday, i kinda forgot to mention that last week... whoops. so it was set up that all the missionaries within 3 hours of the brampton stake center could come and the other 1/4 of the mission could listen over some phone thing they set up, this was going to be from about 10-12. after that he was having a meeting with all the recent converts and returning active members at about 3.  then after that he was going to meet with the leadership from all the wards, then leave at 7:30 to somewhere else, very busy day. the only problem was that his plane got delayed and he didnt make it until 1. we found out the night before that it was going to be delayed, so president clayton told us to come about the same time as we would have and he would do training for a time. all of it ended up well. elder Oaks meeting with us was cut short about a half hour and so he invited all of us to stay for the meeting with new members also! He talked about a lot of things. the cool thing that stuck out most to me was when he talked to us about spiritual gifts. different people have different spiritual gifts, (some gift to know, some gift to believe). We can find out our spiritual gifts and use them to the best of our abilities, and along the way we can discover new gifts. also, apparently he didnt get to serve a mission because he was in military but years later his brother served and his family went up to visit him on his mission and he went out with his brother knocking doors for a day, very funny. also during the recent convert meeting he called the book "Songs of Solomon" biblical trash.

 

anything exciting or different coming up this week?

outside of missionary work, nope nothing out of the ordinary. i just recognized that i didnt put that sentance together very well. nothing exciting outside of regular missionary work, not doing anything different this week. there, fixed it.

i guess i would have been better to ask this last week haha

 

Ok, that is the end for me. It is very late. Zak has texted to make sure I was going to write to you. You are being well watched out for! We are grateful you are out serving people and sharing the gospel! It is the greatest gift you have to give.

So far you have a perfect record with me, no forgotten letters!

I love you all!

QUinn

Received Monday, January 12, 2015

Crazy about christie, her cousin paige who emails me sometimes actually let me know she turned in her papers but good to know where she is going, that should be a pretty awesome mission, italian is a cool language.

even more surprising that beebee is changing high schools. if thats what needs to happen and thats whats best then that is awesome you were given that option. it took me a long time (like until senior year) until i finally figured out who i really wanted my friends to be and who i wanted to hang out with, whats funny is that the best friends i wanted were the ones i always ate lunch with and stuff, i just never really wanted to hang out with them much outside of that until senior year. so i'm glad beebee gets what she needs and still gets a legit high school education.

in response to the Heaven story, thats why you either live where it doesn't get cold or you go to canada so you get used to the cold so you don't need that stuff any more!

Questions:

what week are you in for transfers?

i think 3, let me check... yes week 3.

How has the cold been this week? wish you had anything that you don't?

really not bad at all. that coat, although it makes me like a marshmallow man (big and puffy) when i put it on, it doesnt let any cold in at all. so that is a pretty awesome jacket. Also, in like november a member (sister peterson, the missionary mom of cobourg) bought us some nice thick, warm socks to wear when it got cold. so those have been great. so really there is nothing i really need. also i have plenty more to put on when it gets colder, so i am all good.

funny story- we had a zone council (zone training, meeting with just the zone) this week and president and sister clayton came to it and before they left they mentioned that we all need warm winter coats, they were worried for us, all that good stuff. then they mentioned that they looked at the coats hanging up in the other room and there was one that was very thin and just wouldnt work well here. whats funny was that this was my coat (a different one) which actually is very thin but that was all i needed because i was already in a warm suit jacket and i was going home to change right after the meeting. I assured president and sister clayton that i had already been supplied a much bigger and thicker coat. hmmm not that funny in writing, thats ok.

Any freezing rain this week? Any weather that you had to be warned about?

yes, early in the week but it wasnt much so really not a big deal :) nothing really to be warned about except we did get another text from the claytons to the mission telling us that it is going to cool down now and we needed a coat, they said the mission could get someone a coat if they had no means of supplying their own, nice, not needed by me. also yesterday we went up in the boonies of our area, roseneath, and the old people that lived up there said it was really windy and to be careful as we went up there, we did, all is well.

Was the attendance at church better than last week?

better, still not too great though, working on it. the ward made the ward mission plan this week and they asked each family to chose 1 person this year to "rescue" (less active member or nonmember) and bishop has asked us to follow up with families on that and see how we can help, so thats sweet.

Any dinner appts coming up this week?

yes! every day but today and tomorrow.

I can't remember, do you take your shoes off at the doors of the homes you go in to?

every time. it is weird now when people tell us to leave our shoes on. it is always a little funny when i notice in those "the district" videos that their shoes are on and i think its weird.

Find any new investigators last week?

yes! a family! going by a former, they moved away but the new people invited us in. a family! mom, dad, 2 young kids. they are cool, nice people. the dad doesnt believe in god really but is nice about it, the wife got in a car crash when she was younger and her friend died (sad) and she broke her neck, but she healed completely and is totally fine now, she believes God helped her :) she told us "instant cross tatoo'd on the back of my neck for that one." well, at least its religious.

Any interesting stories?

that one about those 2 is the coolest one. hmmm... interesting story. last week we had dinner at the relief society president's home. she asked us to go by her son and his new nonmember wife at their home, not exactly to teach a lesson, more just to get to know them and so they can know who we are. He hasnt been able to come to church because he can hardly sleep because of a crazy health condition. apparently this son, when he was on his mission, he was in a nasty appartment and his eyes started turning red and started forming a bad rash under his eyes (very similar to mine) they sent him to the doctors and the doctor prescribed him some topical steroid. it worked, every time he stopped using it, the rash would come back. he kept using it for the course of his mission, then a year after he came back. eventually he recognized there probably was some problem. apparently now his body developed a need for that topical steroid and now to get off of it he basically has to just deal with an awful, itchy, painful rash for months. tough.

alright that feels like way too little but i cant think of much else, sorry.

i love you!

Quinn

Received Monday, January 5, 2015

Exciting for taylor and sam with their mission papers, that will be cool to see. also the 4.0 from zak is pretty good too.

I didnt even know the football playoffs had started, thats cool. everyone here is watching the U19 (i think) national hockey games, USA lost this week to Canada just barely apparently.

I think i kind of sort of understood what went on with the zak text thing, very funny, i think something like that has probably happened a few times.

excellent new twist on the new years game, many people have asked me what i normally do at home for new years. when i tell them we do a trivia, they always think its kind of funny, would have been even better if i told them that my family had to take shots as punishment for getting answers wrong (and yes club soda is disgusting)

the gospel is good, helps people all the time. 

questions:

what happened with you on New Years? Anything?

not much special, on new years eve we were supposed to be in our appartment by 7 so we can avoid all the drunk crazies. then on new year's day, a person in the ward did her new years tradition of having the missionaries over for waffles with ice cream in the middle and raspberries on top. pretty dang good. then later that day we were at a dinner appointment and we got a call from a ward member telling us there was going to be freezing rain and not to go out and a text from the mission telling us not really to go out either, so we were a little stuck at that member's house for a little bit so we helped them take down christmas decorations then drove home (very slowly) for the night.

Did you have appts. on New Years Day?

aside from those 2 members nope, we tried, everyone told us to call em again in the new year, so the freezing rain didnt cause too much of a loss.

Did you talk about the Rose Parade?

nope, i entirely forgot about that until you wrote it in this letter, so i heard no talk about it from anyone else either.

How has the work gone this week?

a little tough because everyone said they were busy this week :(, but we got a couple good lessons in, reconnected with a less active guy who we talked to before, and he came to church.

What are you doing for P-day today?

one of our "investigators" Caelan (a 9 year old son of a member) is having his baptismal interview today and they called and asked us yesterday if we had a little extra time. we told her (the mom) yes, and she said "well maybe we can bring some of our remote control helicopters and fly them around the gym with you guys for a little bit" so that should be really cool, fun.

any good food stories this week?

nope, none outside of what i told you.

Weather still the same?

sadly, its trying to start to get cold now. that freezing rain previously mentioned, then it happened again on saturday night and then it heated up all of a sudden a little more sunday morning so all the snow and stuff turned super sloshy, so everyone freaked out and didnt go anywhere or come to church. it was like 20 people there that sunday. but apparently there should be a cold front moving in the next week or 2 sadly, so much more canada-esque weather going on now.

Any good stories?

well sunday night we called one of the less active people we were teaching, to see if she had a ride to church. she said she was not coming because her husband just went in the hospital because he had bad numonia (i know it starts with a p but however you spell it) and apparently had a heart attack also! we asked if he would like a blessing, she said yes he would love that. the next day at church, we asked in elder's quorem who would join us. the only one who volunteered was this other less active man who came to church (previously mentioned in another question). this man has the Melchizedek and has been living the commandments so it was all good for him to come with us. when we came to the hospital the sick man, also a member but inactive, who had previously told us he was not interested in coming back said that last night he had prayed for the first time in a long time and that he really needed to make some changes in his life and to get back to church and start living the way which he knew he needed to! We gave him a blessing and since then he has been recovering extremely well. really cool.

How was your Sunday? Investigators? any good questions in class?

no investigators, everyone was too scared to drive in the slosh, lame. testimony sunday was good, one member came up and bore his testiomony on the power of testimony as he was working on spreading the gospel, then most people after that talked about something along those lines. then after sacrament meeting a member came up to us and asked us to teach the Youth class because apparently the Youth teacher didnt show up and forgot to tell anyone to sub. so an interesting day at church.

alright thats it,

I love you!!

Quinn