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!!!