Merry Christmas!

"It has been the hardest most rewarding thing ever!"

December 14, 2015 -

The week went well. I was blessed to have been able to go to a member's wedding that I met up in BRAGANÇA!!! I am being blessed being able to see all these people that I have met through out my mission. The Lord has been so awesome!! We are sightseeing and everything!!! I'm excited to see you guys!!! The time is flying! I only have 9 Sundays left... #whoscountin?! Ha-ha, I am for sure loving the mission! It has been the hardest most rewarding thing ever. The promise in d&c 18 is becoming more and more real recently for me about the joy we´ll have by bringing others to the Lord! One of the recent converts I baptized is doing spectacular and truly made it all worth it! He has become one of my best friends! You´d really like him! The temple should be finished in 2-3 years here in Portugal! It will be awesome for the people here!
Love Elder Quinn!

Elder Quinn

December 7, 2015 -

Thanksgiving and visiting Andrey!!!!!

November 26, 2015 -

"New companion, Quinn Pitcher from South Jordan"

November 23, 2015 -

Hey, I am just writing to say that all is well. We had transfers and I am in the same area with a new companion named Quinn Pitcher. He is from South Jordan and knows Taylor and Michelle Quinn pretty well! I will write more tomorrow! Love you!

"the sunsets are beautiful from here!"

November 9, 2015 -

Well, another week here in Barreiro! Not a lot of new things have happened and that's why I haven't updated the blog. But this last week was a good one. We contacted a Lady named Kelly in the street and she seems pretty promising. She has recently moved here from Brazil and is very open to hearing the message! This branch is wayyy sick! Its not too big, but it's got quite a bit of support so that always helps! This week I should be getting to do a split in my old area Costa so that should be way fun to get to see all the members and friends from there and get to work with those elders! Christmas is already going up everywhere which is crazy... but it's never too early to prepare, right? We got a really sick view of lisbon from our side of the river, so the sunsets are beautiful from here! All is going well! Thanks for all your prayers and support!
Love Elder Quinn

Zona Miratejo

"I will sure miss Cacem"

October 12, 2015 -

Well, I have once again been transferred, I will for sure miss Cacém. Some of the best friends I have made on the mission, I made there. I will miss them. But it is part of the life of a missionary. Lots of adjusting and lots of changes. But it really helps in the preparation for life. I am now in a branch called Barreiro. It's on the other side of the Tejo River. My new comp is Elder Justin Riggs from Arizona. He´s pretty cool and we should get along just fine. The mission is passing so fast and I am trying to take advantage of my time out here to learn and apply things. Everything is well. We are living in a house with 3 other elders.... meaning 5 ELDER HOUSE!!! It should be a fun transfer! Thanks for all your support and love!
Love Elder Quinn

"Our pace towards becoming better is not as important as our direction"

October 5, 2015 -

19 months..... Who would have thought I would have made it here? How the time flies. The clouds have come out and things are cooling down... barely. The cloudy season isn't my favorite one here. But its nice to be able to wear long sleeved shirts again. General conference was great. Unfortunately we couldn't watch all of it. One thing that I learned, is that we only fail when we stop taking steps. Our pace towards becoming better is not as important as our direction. I have been really trying to figure out how to keep progressing and I really feel like those words helped me.
This past week we found some cool people. We knocked on a door and a black man opened the door. We entered and he asked if he could say the prayer. I was expecting a catholic prayer, but he prayed the way we do. We asked him after the prayer if he was a member already and he told us that he was baptized when he lived in Lisbon. That was a cool little miracle that happened! Hopefully we can help him come back to the Church! We found a couple that has talked with the missionaries before and we are having a family night with them. Andrey also had us over to meet with his mom to start teaching her The Gospel! Hopefully all goes well! Things are going great here. We haven´t been teaching as much as we´d like to be. But we will keep on going and finding! Thanks for all your love and prayers!
Love Elder Quinn

"All is well here!"

September 28, 2015 - Whaddup my fellow people. All is well. This past week was a good one. Easton and I found a man named Jolly from Nigeria who speaks English. So we got to do some teaching in the english language. That is always a little difficult to try to remember how to say things in english, but it was pretty cool. We are kind of struggling however with finding people that will let us come back and keep teachin them. It´s part of the mission, always always always lookin for another person/creature to teach. But we enjoy our time together and have a lot of fun! This transfer is flying by! We are already in week 5! For my birthday we ate lots of cosmic brownies and american candy, and did some service (carrying buckets of sand from one part of a ladys yard to the other) and then we went had some Angolan food from a member then went home and had time to work in our area. It was a good day. On sunday, went to church and Andrey received the Melchezidique Priesthood!!! It was the coolest thing ever! He is also the new Leader of missionary work in our ward! He is doing really well and is excited to help the church with its growth and is planning on going on a mission in a year. Then we went to a recent convert family's home that we are pretty good friends with and had some soup and some cake for my birthday! This ward is pretty sick! Today we went and hit up Hard Rock Cafe and I got my rack of ribs!!! It was pretty good! Yancey came and celebrated with us as well! All is well here! Have a good general conference weekend!!!
Love you all!
Love Elder Quinn

"but now I am loving it even more"

September 7, 2015 - Welp, one more week here in the great city of Massamá. On Monday Easton and I were hitting some doors in a place called Sao Marcos, and we found a family that actually has pretty good potential. They read in the book of Mormon and are praying. Unfortunately they haven't seen the importance of going to Church to receive an answer that this is the right path to take, but we will keep you updated on them. We have been working a lot with recent converts and less actives as well this past week so we didn't teach as many lessons as we could have. The ward is helping out a lot in our work and making sure that the recent converts are integrated and have callings. We found a pretty cool kid named Nuno that seems to have a lot of interest! We are going to have another lesson with him tonight! The mission is going soooo fast right now. I cant believe how quick it has gone by. We got some new missionaries in this past week and it felt like just yesterday that I was there. I have loved the mission the whole time, but now I am loving it even more. Me and Easton are goin lookin, as always, for the Lord´s elect! Everything is goin fine here. Not eatin the healthiest... but hey, gotta take advantage of having good metabolism and walking all day while I can, right?
Love you all!!!

Elder Quinn

"he is the right one for this time"

Welp, once again here we are. Week 3 of this transfer. This past week was a little interesting. Elder Easton and me got kicked out of our house for the week to let sisters live there due to some problems they were having in their house. So we moved in with the other Elders here in Cacem for the week. It is really fun living in a house of 4 elders, but we aren't always focused. We should be moving back to our house tonight or tomorrow, so that will be good. Because of this move for the week, Easton and I didn't work in our main area as much. We went to a little town called belas, unfortunately didn't find much, but we´ll keep looking! This past week was fun. Got to have a few member meals which is always awesome!!! Our recent converts are doing well and should be getting callings here within the next couple weeks. We had a change of bishopric here. Our old bishop was in that calling for 6 years here in cacem, the new bishop is awesome and will really help in continuing the work of the Lord. It was really cool being able to be in the sacrament meeting when everyone in the congregation raised their hand of support. The spirit was pretty strong in testifying that he is the right one for this time. Other than that,... not too much. Still drinking lots of juice, and now I'm starting to love drinkable yogurt!!! So all is well here! Love you all!
Love Elder Quinn!

"18 months this week"

Welp.... one more week here in Caçem! The last week of the transfer was awesome!!! We have been working with a kid named Alex who was not expected to be home from vacation in Spain until Septemeber 1, but the Lord worked us a miracle and brought him home earlier and then we marked him and he was baptized on Saturday by Elder EASTON!!!! He was found by the other Elders in our ward and they were working with him until Easton and I showed up and took half of the ward which he lived in, so it was a group effort, and he is really cool! He wants to serve a mission already! This past week was pretty fun.We didn't find too many people, but now Easton and I are staying another Transfer here in Caçem so we will find plenty!!! Yesterday was sooo cool! At church, Andrey and Alex both were confirmed members of the church, and were given the Aaronic Priesthood after church! It is awesome seeing the growth of the Lord´s kingdom happen so quick! The bishop here is really good about helping new converts receive what they need right after baptism! This ward is awesome and this area has a ton of people! We gonna find a lot of people this transfer!!! Thanks for all the love and support! All is well here!!! 18 months this week... insane how fast it really goes....
Love Elder Quinn

"He seriously was very prepared by the Lord"

A week of miracles! Like I told you last week, we have been working with the boyfriend of one of our members, and last Saturday he accepted to be baptized. It was a really strong lesson and we knew that we were all feeling the spirit! So then this past week, we were teaching him and preparing him for his baptism which happened yesterday!!! woot woot! It was awesome! He seriously was very prepared by the Lord. Elder Easton and I were just blessed enough to be able to teach him. His name is Andrey and he is brazilian. We met him about 3 weeks ago at a birthday party at the members house and he was asking us some questions about church and stuff and that's where his interest sparked and then we've been working with him since! His story is real awesome. He is 22 and before we had been teaching him, he wasn't sure what he believed or even if he believed. We helped him see the blessings of having a modern day prophet, and he received many answers by his own reading of the Book of Mormon! The Lord truly did everything! It was a tender mercy for sure. We are working with another young man here in our area named Alex. Right now he is progressing very well! The pictures are at another cliff with a lighthouse here in Sintra. All is well! Love you all!
Love Elder Quinn

August 10, 2015 - Waddddup? Sittin at Mcdonalds on a tablet doin Internet. There was nothing too special this past week. Easton and me are doing alright. We didn't find too many people this past week, so we are on the search still. Our investigator came last week to a baptismal service and to church again so I think she is still having a good experience with the church. She doesn't think she needs to be baptized again and she likes to be able to say she is a member of the catholic church so we´ll see. Easton and me ate tons of grilled cheeses this past week. I love them and he got a little sick of them, so we are gonna try to change it up this week a little. All is truly well. Gonna give it more than I did last week. We can always do better than what we´ve done. The Lord doesn't expect perfection but he expects progress. Gonna keep goin! Easton is really helping me with the work! He is speaking really well and has a true desire to help people. I am learning a lot from him! It's still kind of hot here, but not as hot as it was down in Lagos. It's nice to have a breeze every now and again! Thanks for all the support and love!
Love Elder Quinn

August 3, 2015 - So this week was another fun one - Probably one of the best weeks of my mission actually. We ended with 6 lessons all with members present, which was pretty cool. It took a little more effort on our part to line up the members and the lessons, but the Lord for sure blessed us! We found some pretty cool investigators that have some good potential, so we are excited to work with them! We had an investigator in church and she wants to witness a baptism and see what she feels about it! So we´ll keep going with that! Elder Easton is already speaking really well! He´s doing awesome in helping me out and never complains, so that really helps! We are talking with billions of people right now! President Tavares' goal, is for every companionship in the mission to baptize at least one person this transfer, so we will for sure be able to do that! The members have been feeding us really well here in this ward so that's definitely a plus. Other than that, not much more to say. Been in the mission for 17 months this week, it has seriously flown!!! President said I'm in my "Sprint" meaning now's the time to give it all I've got plus more until the finish line!
Love you all!!!

Love Elder Quinn

July 27, 2015 - WHADDUP peeps of Utah... and others reading this blog.
So I got transferred to Povoa, to be in a companionship with Elder Fish and an Elder we would be training together... when we got to the office to pick up our greenies, two missionaries showed up that didn't have companions. So I got one of them (his name is Elder Easton from Bountiful, UT) and we were transferred to Caçem and we are now working there. So it will be a fun challenge for these next 5 weeks to just search for the Lord´s prepared here in the City of Caçem. This area was being worked by other Elders, but they also have their own city where they´d work more, so basically, we split the area and it will be good for the Church. Elder Easton and I are talking with millions of people. Not found anything too promising yet, but we will in a bit. Just gotta keep showing the Lord our desire to find people! This place is a lot more populated than Lagos, and there isn't any tourists here, so that makes the work a lot easier (the finding part of the work). The ward here is a good size and seems pretty supportive of missionary work, so I am excited to be here and work with the Leaders here in Caçem. There are apartment buildings everywhere!!!! But that just means that there are more people to find. All is going good here. I have not had as much juice this past week, but I'm sure I'll make up for that this week! Love you all!!
Love Elder Quinn

Me and my dragon! (Avatar Roku)

This is the view of Portugal from a really cool castle that we visited today!

The castle we were at is clear at the top of this picture!

July 13, 2015 - Glad to hear all is well! All is going well here. That man, Paulo, which we found, has basically dropped off the face of the earth. We are having a hard time with finding people that will stinkin progress... kind of sucks. Just have to keep going.
Love you forever!!!
Love Elder Quinn

July 6, 2015 - Yancey and me went to a Mexican restaurant for 5th of July celebration. I wasn' t very satisfied.... ha-ha nothing like cafe rio, but still was good. We found a cool guy named Paulo this past week. He says he is agnostic and has never really believed, but recently has been diagnosed with severe kidney problems so he has been reconsidering his faith. I know we were inspired to knock on his door when we did. We have a little more potential than usual right now but it's hard getting people to act, especially on the part of coming to church!!! ha-ha people are sooo stinkin lazy!! They don't realize they can sleep after church... but we´ll get some good firm investigators for sure!! I am going to miss Angela and Davey soooo much! I think things have changed the most at home while Paige and me have been out... #notfair! Angela's cousin came here to visit our branch president and I asked her if she knew the Felicianos and she said "are you Daveys cousin?" I can't believe Paige is on her way home!!! Time is flying soooo fast out here! I love you mom!!! Thanks for always keeping me strong in this gospel!
Love Elder Quinn

Last time at the Beach, the beach, let's go get away

One of the only creatures that would listen to our message in Lagos

#blessed

June 29, 2015 - Things are starting to heat up here too! Humidity and these winds from Africa... whooo don't know what I'm gonna do!! At least I got a little bit of juice to keep me hydrated! President Battaglia is going back to Utah for a month to have his son's farewell, sell his house, and then come back so he can continue to help out the branch. A miracle happened this week though. We were coming back from saying our last goodbyes to President and Sister Fluckiger, and on the train there was a lady coming back from Lisbon. The next day Elder Yancey and I went to this place we had never been before about 50 minutes out of our area looking for a lady we had contacted the week before. We found the lady we were looking for and starting teaching here in her front yard and her neighbor came over. It turns out that this neighbor was the lady on the train that had seen us the day before coming back to Lagos and was curious about why we all had Jesus Christ on our name tags and questions like that. We are for sure gonna let you know what happens with her! We found a couple of new people to teach so that's good... still looking for someone that is going to progress. The branch is doing good and Yancey and me are having a great time laughing and stuff. Love you so very much!!!
Love Elder Quinn!

June 22, 2015 - hi I don't have too much time today. All is well. It is getting sooooo hot here! like draining! We just gotta keep water in us. So this past week I tried some Angolan food and it was good. Also had some inked squid dish that our Branch President caught while he was fishing! That was a new experience! Having a rough time encountering people to teach! We talk to a lot of people, but they are all tourists. All is well here, getting tan and blonde! This is the last full week of President Fluckiger! Life is kind of sucky like that. I got to talk to some members from costa da caparica and it was so nice hearing their voices and just having a little conversation with them! I might get to see them this weekend! I'll let you know!! Love you sooo much mom! Thanks for always supporting me!!
Love Elder Quinn!

June 15, 2015 - This past week was good. We had a power lesson with our investigator Charles, but we have not been able to get in contact with him since. It's pretty sucky. He is sooo elect. It's not like him to not answer the phone or the door so we do not know what is happening right now. We are giving him the benefit of the doubt. Other than that, the weather was cooler this week. Some clouds came over and it rained a little! Things are going good here. But it's hard sometimes knowing that when I go home tonight I won't be able to relax and have a nice conversation with the fam! But at least we have email!! ha-ha, love you soooo much mom!!! Miss you too! Time is flying sooooooo fast!
Love you!!!!
Love Elder Quinn!

"......and the Lord leading us."

Transfers happened and I am staying in Lagos another 6 weeks. Charles came to church and loved it! He was talking to Elder Badger after church and said that he has thought about it and wants to be baptized! So that is awesome!!! Sacrament meeting was so cool. There were some visitors from Canada backpacking in Europe and one of them bore her testimony and was talking about how they were sooo excited that there was a church here and they finally after much searching, they found the little apartment building that is our wardhouse. When she walked in and saw the photo of Jesus, she knew she was home even though she was all the way over here in Portugal. It was a really good sacrament meeting. Also, Elder Badger has been transferred and I received Elder Yancey... AGAIN!!!! ha-ha my trainee has come back to his papa! So Yancey and Quinn are at it again!!! How wild is that?! We are already laughing and having a great time!!! We are exciting to work together again! So in the past week besides teaching Charles and him being elect, we were able to go to a branch BBQ which was delicious. The branch president's kid's birthday was on Sunday, so we went over there for lunch and had a pancake buffet. It was delicious! It is getting very very hot down here! The branch president and his wife are working on integrating a family into the branch so that is very exciting! The family has been coming for a little while now! We will see what happens! All is well down here, juice, soup, heat, pastries, and the Lord leading us.
Love you all!!!
Love Elder Quinn

"we are really excited to work with him"

So another week has come and gone, and we are in the last week of the transfer already... again. Time truly does fly when you are having fun. This past week was a really good one. We went out to Sagres last pday and got to see the bottom corner of Portugal, and it was amazing! The cliffs here are spectacular! Then on Wednesday we got to do some service for a lady named Bia in her yard. Cleaning up vines and leaves and stuff and then she sent us home with a bag of fresh picked lemons from her tree and cooked us a dinner for our service! It was delicious! Elder Badger and I were walking and we contacted someone that was sitting on their patio and he had something under his shirt up by his collar. We asked what it was and a little Owl peeked it's head out of the man's shirt! It had huge yellow eyes and at first I thought it was a gremlin before it turns evil, like gismo! It was sooo cool! I want one now. Ha-ha the funny thing that happened this week, we passed by Jorge's door and he was taking the trash out so we offered to help. He gave me the two bags, and he said be careful with this one, because it had his mom's diaper inside it. I of course just about died, but Elder Badger didn't know the word for diaper so he just took that bag out of my hand and offered to carry it. Once Elder Badger knew what was in the bag, he wanted to get it out of his hands so we walked to the trash bins and Badger threw it in the first garbage can he saw.... which was the glass recycling bin... whoops. Ha-ha it was so funny. We didn't touch anything until we had washed our hands. But the coolest thing! We were out walking further than we´ve ever walked before and we just felt like we should keep walking and so we did. We were doing a little posilyting and in the end we turned down a street and there was a guy looking out his window. So we went down there and waved and he let us in! His name is Charles. He´s 20. His parents are french and he grew up in Florida. He is wayyy cool and it's definitely a different experience teaching the Gospel in English. He has a lot of good questions and understands the whole sincere heart and real intent. He was gonna come to church but he typed in the wrong address which took him to a city 50 minutes out of town. But we are really excited to work with him!! Other than that, just eatin soup, drinkin juice, and having a great time!
Love you all!!!
Love Elder Quinn
You wanna piece of meat? ill give you a piece of ham!

"I love the SOUP"

This week is nothing too new. Our friend Jorge is still on the way in preparation for baptism. He is not quite ready for the commitment of baptism. I was called as the Executive Secretary here in the branch. I am enjoying that. It's a lot of note taking and following up with people about their assignments. I am loving it here in Lagos in this area and this branch. This past week Djuca (African member) received the Mel. Priesthood! He's a recent convert of 5 months and it's really cool to see the sacrifices he has made and the faith he has to do the will of the Lord and support the church here in Portugal. It was an emotional ordination because President Battaglia has been working with him for this to happen and he made it! He is also now the 2nd counselor in the branch presidency! So it's really cool to see that things are going forward! This past week I was helping carrying Jorge's mom upstairs, like in my arms, (she´s about 80 and has no use of her legs) and I rammed her poor little knee into the doorknob! It was terrible! I felt soooo bad!!! I sat her down on the bed and she sat there rubbing her knee and all I could do was say I was sorry... she was quick to forgive. Basically I am still loving the juice here.... but something else I have come to love as of now is the SOUP!!! It's very very good. We have some investigators with some potential but not too much at this time. There were four of our investigators in church today and one of them cried during sacrament meeting, so I think that's promising! I love you all and thanks for the support!!!
Love Forever, Elder Quinn!!!

#paradise

This last week was good. Found 14 new investigators, of which a good amount seem very potential!!! So Elder Badger and I are very excited to work with them! We had a man named George who came to church and he seems very promising! So that's awesome! He has been smoking for 40 years but is excited to stop! This place is beautiful! Elder Badger and I went to a place called ponta da piedade today. It was amazing!
While looking for investigators and people to talk with on the streets, we also keep an eye out for nêspra trees! They are orange little spring fruits that you can just pick and eat! They are so good! My favorite brand of juice just came out with an apple juice that is bascially like drinking apple sauce #paradise.
Had a lesson with 2 old ladies. It was a pretty funny one. One of them told us she had some pretty grand daughters for us, and then wanted to kiss our cheeks, but since she couldn't give us a kiss, she just caressed our faces, haha she was a nice lady.
That about does it for the week... not much more. I love you all, Thanks for the support and the prayers!!!