"Palm trees, beach, tourists all over and beautiful warm weather!!!"

Well, completely different here in Lagos. Palm trees, beach, tourists all over, and beautiful warm weather!!! What a blessing! Some fun things that happened this past week, met a 7th day Adventist that invited us over for some soup and garlic bread to discuss the bible. That was a nice conversation. Found a Bulgarian man that invited us in and gave us some saltines and coke and tried his blood pressure monitor on us... it was definitely something different. The branch president here is Portuguese, but his wife is american (so she makes lots of american food!!!) The first counselor is British so he doesn't speak too much Portuguese, and the branch is pretty cool here! There are some firm members and that always makes things a little easier! Elder Badger and I are still on the look out for some more elect of the Lord. Itś been a while since I've baptized so I am thinking its about time to get back into the water! Excited to be here! It was an ugly day today so I didn't get good pictures, on a good p day we are going to the beach and the cliffs! We have a man that is preparing to be baptized, just struggling with coffee and smoking right now. We shall see. Love you all!!!

Love Elder Quinn!

"I'm excited to put on my white clothes and baptize some souls for the Lord."

Well, I did not have the time or opportunity to write yesterday because I have been transferred. 20 weeks later here I am. I got on the bus yesterday morning at 6 in the morning and got in my new area at 6:30 in the evening.... a 12 and a half hour trip!!! Wooh, a lot of sleep was sure caught up on. My new area is called Lagos. I was in the most north-eastern part of the mission, and got sent to the south-western part of the mission, making a complete change of environment. Stayed up north for the freezing cold blizzady winter, and now I am down in the Algarve (AKA beach region) for the blazing scorching summer. If you look it up, you will see that I am basically on vacation, #itswhatever. I am serving with Elder Badger right now, I am finishing his training. He´s from California and he´s pretty cool. We are in a branch here, with a lot of potential. So I am pretty excited to put on my white clothes and baptize some souls for the Lord. I´m ready to just have fun and focus 100% on missionary work! All is well here. Thanks for all the love and support! Until next week!!!

Love, Elder Quinn

The Wizarding World of Dallis Quinn!

"I will be searching for the Elect of God, A true hunt."

Hey friends and fam...sorry I couldn't write back personally this week, not a lot of time, so here is my fam email! Love you all! I´ll get back to you next week!

Here we are. Another week gone as if it were a day. So this week was quite a great one actually! Usually how they go... right? Have a little rain and whatsoever, but after comes the rainbow! I don't have a lot of time, but I´ll just recap a few things of this past week that are worthy for mentioning!


1. Found another family, but this family is even more elect than the first one we met! They are excited to learn, they read in the Book of Mormon, they love the story of Joseph Smith, it's seriously such a blessing! They have 3 kids, and they are very very humble. The dad smokes, and the parents aren't married, but those are just little speed bumps on the way to their becoming members of the Church of Jesus Christ! They seriously are so cool! Unfortunately they couldn't come to church because the dad was ill, but they are coming for sure to General Conference! And their cat just had kittens, so that's just awesome!


2. We got locked out of our apartment. (see picture) We went to another area of our district to do a division and "you know who"..(my comp) left the keys there... h-aha just kidding, it was kind of a mutual fault thing. But they live an hour away and it's an expensive bus ride to get there in the first place. So we had to call the fire department and they came with their truck and ladder and went up to our window and had to open our door from the inside... it was already past 10 at night and the neighbors probably weren't too happy... whoops! cost 36 €


3. We also locked ourselves IN our house. We were feeding our pet spiders.... (we already killed them...) but the spiders were in our little area where our washer is and there are doors that shut behind us. We were trying to catch a fly to feed to the spiders so we shut the door behind us to trap him in... and we locked ourselves in that little washer room!!! Fortunately we had the keys to our front door... so we had to wait for someone to come by our house and we threw them the keys to come up and unlock us! Ha-ha we probably looked like such dummies!


4. Met a less active member named José. He invited us in for some juice and would not take no for an answer.... so we entered and it is probably the most dirty house I have entered here in Portugal so far.... a very nice man.. but not very tidy. There was a spider web probably 6 inches thick on a coat hanger that had a HUUUUUGE dead spider in it.... there was nasty stuff spilled all over the ground... it was quite an experience... when he went to get cups,I was sure to choose which one I was to put my lips on. They were all covered in dust, so we ran it under some water and had some orange juice with him. It was on Saturday and I'm still here... so I think I am OK.


5. We just had a homecoming here in the branch of the daughter of a family here who was serving in England! We have a family night with her and her family and our family of investigators tonight! It should be awesome!!! We are gonna use her a lot to help out this branch and its growth!


6. Well my cousins are searching for Easter eggs this Sunday, I will be searching for the Elect of God, A true hunt.


General Conference is coming up! Getta hear the voice of our prophets! What up!
Things in the branch are going fine, we´re all excited to come Saturday and Sunday to watch here in the chapel, so that will be fun! Thanks for all the love and support!!! Happy Easter!!


Love you all!!!
Love Elder Quinn

"I am sure excited for that sunshine!"

Welp, with the change in the weather and with what has seemed to happen to me for the last couple of Springs, I ended up sick for the past week. Nothin' too serious, just headache, sore throat, achy... you know, the good stuff. Last week was a little stressful just because we had a lot of things to do. We had to get talks and topics to people, get the travel figured out for our youth to go to Porto for a seminary activity, and as usual... missionary work! Ha-ha, but all went well. I ate some oranges and took some vitamin C pills and the sickness never got too bad and didn't last too long. Saturday we got a call that our house would be inspected on Sunday by a couple from the stake, and that they would cook us lunch in our house. So Saturday night we were up cleaning until... a little early in the morning so we could have a good inspection. We also received a call from one of our teachers that he wouldn't be able to come to church. Every one and their dog here picked up this sickness. The weather was so beautiful and now it's cold and rainy and ugly. Sunday came and I taught his class and we hadn't gotten the talks out or the topics, so the Elders gotta speak again in sacrament! In other good news, daylights savings is next week!!! So I am sure excited for that sunshine! This week the work was going kind of rough... but then we found a family that invited us in to say a prayer with them. Then on the way back to our next appointment with them, we found a mom and her son that were interested in the church! The mom and the son ended up coming to church so that was awesome! We have a man named Carlos that should be baptized this weekend. He´s been having some difficulties with smoking. But he has been showing good progression and desire. Oh and one little shout out to my Beautiful Mother!!! She Turns 30 today and I just wanted to let everyone know that she is amazing!!! I wouldn't be here if it weren't for her and her love and support! 

I Love you Mom!!! Happy Birthday!!!
Love Elder Quinn

In honor of ONE YEAR (hump).....Dallis found a camel!

"The Lord has become my best friend"

Good Morning Bragança!
I know we´ve come so far but we´ve got so far to go! This week some songs from hairspray are going through the air as I wake up in the morning every day here in Bragança instead of Baltimore, and I hit a year this week thusly, the songs from hairspray being appropriate. Can you believe it? A year ago this week I was saying my last goodbyes, not eating because of nerves, and being setting apart as a missionary for our Lord and His Church. It´s definitely been a journey and there are for sure many more adventures to come. I don´t know that I am the exact same person I was a year ago, but I still am just as handsome, clever, and charming.... oh and #humble. The Lord has become my best friend in the past year seeing that He is the one that I have been able to look to 24/7. I have gained a strong testimony of the grace of his atonement. I know that our Heavenly Father lives, and that he truly wants us to have happiness and joy in our lives. I know that His plan is perfect, and that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. I know that this Church was restored by a prophet of God.
I have been a year without seeing my friends, family, pets, and movies. No videogames, no (long) naps or sleeping in. It´s an experience that you can´t trade for anything that truly changes your life forever.
Everything has been going fine. Unfortunately the family we´re teaching had a little set back. Something happened in the past week or so and he didnt want to talk to us so the rest of the family kind of acted wierd towards us and they didnt show up to church. It´s definitely a let down, but we cant get discouraged. We got the stake coming here again for our Branch Conference! gotta get things in order and people to church! All is well, spring is coming and its warming up. The sun is staying in the air longer and we´re still quotin our movies.
Love you all, thanks for the support and love and prayers.
Love Elder Quinn!!! See ya´ll in a year! ;)

"...with the Spirit I usually keep warm."

Good Morning Bragança! (hairspray...)

Welp, one more week in this tiny little city! But good news, the sun is staying in the air longer and we are getting closer and closer to spring!!!! It gets pretty windy here unfortunately and it brings the cold air from the snowy sierras of Spain!!! But with my jacket and with the Spirit I usually keep warm. Still looking for those elects of God here in this town! I know they're here... just a little more and we´ll be having some baptisms!! This branch will be a ward here in no time!! The family we are teaching are sooo cool!! Just trying to get them to make the change from sleeping in on Sundays, to coming to church at 9:00 am. has been the biggest challenge! With just a little more patience and love they´ll get there! Been challenged by the president to speak only portuguese outside of the house, so we´ve been doing that and it has really helped improve my language! Headed to Porto again this week for some meetings there with the Zone and with President. Still drinking juice, and putting brown sugar in basically everything we eat... I have gained quite the sweet tooth out here... I guess I already had one... but still! The Lord is helping us out so much in the Branch here in Bragança! We broke our record with people in sacrament meeting yesterday!!! WOOO 16 people! haha! gave like my 12th talk in sacrament! but its all good, Learning sooo much being here and loving it! Elder Lines and me get along real well! We quote Matilda, Harry Potter, and all the classics. We also find time to do missionary work. All is well here!

Love you all!!!
Love Elder Quinn