January 22, 2018

Family and Friends,

       Yep! You saw the title. By the end of this week, every missionary in my mission will have a smartphone in their hands. In fact, they will be in our hands TODAY (we wont be allowed to power them on until zone conference on Friday) we're supposed to have them charged for zone conference. With this announcement comes changes in the way the work will go. As we've been trained these last few months, we've thought up ways to use technology that will help us to find new investigators, find fellow-shippers for investigators, and keep daily contact with those we are teaching. Along with the benefits to our teaching and finding, this tool will allow us to more effectively plan the route we take while we go to appointments, and improve our personal and companionship study. Its all very exciting.

       Even more exciting however, are the 6 baptismal dates we have for our investigators. All of them speak spanish, and some of the dates are very soon. There is a young couple, he's a member she isn't, that should be getting married TODAY! It's very exciting, because we've been working with them FOREVER. We'll see next week if it actually happened or not. If it does, she can actually get baptized the week after that. We also started working with another young Spanish couple, where he's a member and she isn't. They are actually married though, so thats good. She has a baptismal date set for March. We also have been working with some English speaking people, which is awesome. We're very excited to see the work picking up for both languages we work with.

       I finished Jesus the Christ this week. I've decided it's probably one of my favorite books. The things that Talmage talks about are very interesting, and learning more about the life of our Savior fascinates me. I highly recommend it.

       This week we did an extensive amount of contacting. We've been working with less actives a lot in one of our wards, because we found out that there are over 400 less active members in that ward alone. So far we haven't had a ton of success, but we're hoping things start working out soon. This week, we've done something with dinners that has vastly improved our ability to get referrals. We call 3-4 days ahead of time, and after setting up the dinner, we let them know that we will be asking them for names of people we've been working with after we share a message, and inviting them to think or come up with someone during the time before we come. This, surprisingly enough, has triple the amount of referrals we've been getting. Its pretty amazing. Highly recommend it for all my missionary friends out there.

       I love you all, and I hope that you have a great week. This is an exciting time to be alive. The Lord is hastening his work, and we're right here in the middle of it.

Godspeed,

~Elder Quiner

First Picture: My companion at I at a members home

Second: The wall of pictures I made next to my desk.

Third: Loves for my mom

Fourth: Our district, minus the Filer sisters.

January 16, 2018

Family and Friends,

       Time really just seems to fly by on the mission. its crazy to think that I've been gone for 3 whole months already! Sorry for not E-mailing earlier, preparation day is today because Martin Luther King day was yesterday. Nobody really celebrates it here though, for some odd reason.

       On Monday night to Tuesday night I was on exchanges with Elder Murray we contacted a lot of less actives, and had a really great lesson with one of the people we found in the Meadowbrook apartment complex. She was going to come to church this week, but something came up, so she wasn't able to make it. She said she should be there next week though, which is awesome.

       The next day we had interviews with our mission president. He's excited about some of the work we're doing here in Buhl, which is nice, because we're also very excited about it. All of our wards have been blowing up with work recently, and we have so many potential investigators that we don't know what to do sometimes. The Lord always provides a way though, so hopefully we'll be able to get everything we need to get done done. 

       This week we started to set up more frequent correlation meetings between ourselves and our ward mission leaders. It should help us out a lot to work with our wards more closely. On Saturday, we had a correlation meeting with the Ward Mission Leader for the Thousand Springs ward, Brother Smith. We put together a 5 pronged plan for our wards mission plan. A lot of the work we'll be doing is to help strengthen the members, and really get them involved more with missionary work. We'll also be working hard on our Spanish work, and Brother Smith decided the best way to do so was to start up a class to help people who know Spanish learn English, and those who know English to learn Spanish. We hope that sharing each others languages will bring the Ward closer together, and not only help with member retention, but also with helping us to get more referrals. In our other wards, especially the Deep Creek ward, we've been really hitting less-active work hard. We got a list of all the members in the Deep Creek ward, and to our surprise, less than half of the people on the list were even semi-active. So, after talking with the bishop and ward mission leader, we set out on the arduous task of contacting every less active on the list (more than 400 names) and determining their willingness to start accepting the Gospel back into their lives. So far, we've actually been met with relative success, as we've found a surprising number of them just developed a habit of not coming to church, or not doing the simple things, and are entirely willing to at least let us share a message once in a while. It's very exciting.

       on Friday, we had the opportunity of watching our dear Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson's funeral. It was an excellent event, and we were able to bring the spirit into the home of a less active families house very strongly, which was excellent. This morning we also had the opportunity to hear from our new Prophet, Russell M. Nelson. Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring are his 1st and 2nd councilors, and all of them are divinely inspired men, who will execute with earnestness the will of our Lord. how powerful it was to hear the words of our new prophet, as he solemnly declared, and with a powerful spirit, that he would dedicate his every breath to serving the members of this church, in doing the will of the Lord, and in serving Him until his final breath. We sustain him as the next Prophet, and a man who will lead this church with exactness according to the will of the Lord. We look forward to seeing the diverse ways the Lord will move His work forward, as we see He is even now doing. I love this Gospel and this Church, and solemnly testify that there is nothing more true upon the entire face of this great Earth. I love you all, and wish you the best as this week progress'.

Godspeed,

~Elder Quiner

January 7, 2018

Family and Friends,

       This week was a very busy one for us here in Buhl, Idaho. Elder Saunders felt a little sick on Wednesday (He threw up) but it didn't stop us from going out and doing work. Thursday we contacted a LOT of our potential investigators, we met a few people who are really promising. We ended up giving a blessing to an older lady that day as well. It was cool, because we actually ran into her while tracting on her street, and she said she was going to call us later anyways. It strengthened my testimony that what we are doing out here is becoming tools in the lords hands. On Friday, we went to tract out an apartment complex, on inspiration of the spirit. We ended up finding 5 people who want to meet with us again, and 2 less active families. 

       That day was also the first day of the Book of Mormon reading challenge. I'm focusing my reading on the Plan of Salvation and what we have to do in this life to be Happy. Already I am seeing the blessings of my studies. This week, we reviewed our mission president's letter in district meeting. It was about having kneeling prayers, and he challenged us to do so more often. I testify that as we have kneeling prayers by ourselves, in our families, and with our companions, we will be blessed with the Spirit of the Lord as we pray. As we pray, we must remember to not just draw near to Him with our mouths, but with our hearts as well. We should be seeking for what the Spirit would have us pray for constantly as we pray. This is something that I have learned here in the field, and something that has blessed me by making my prayers more powerful. I just wanted to share that with you all, and I would like to challenge you to have kneeling, audible prayers more often throughout this new year. 

       On Sunday, we had two excellent fast and testimony meetings in Clear Lakes and Deep Creek. Afterwards, we co-ordinated with or ward mission leaders for two of the Wards that we cover. We will be working a lot with less active members here soon. Should be good. We have a couple of lists that we a re working on right now, that Elder Saunders has organized to increase effectiveness. 

       We were sad to hear that our dear prophet passed away this week. However, I testify that he was a prophet of God. It was his time to leave us, and the next prophet, President Russell M. Nelson will receive inspiration from the same source that all prophets before have. Remember that this is not a church led by one man, nor by a group of men. The resurrected Christ literally heads his church, and makes the decisions that will prepare the world for the second coming. This is our Lords time, and he is hastening his work. We look forward to hearing the inspired words of President Nelson in the next General Conference.

       I love this gospel and this work, and I bear testimony that this is the MOST IMPORTANT work on earth. There is nothing I could be doing with my life right now that could be more important. I love the people that I am serving, and I know that this gospel is the best thing that they will ever receive. I love you all, and wish you the best as this year moves forward.

Godspeed,

~Elder Quiner

January 2, 2018

 
A Picture I took of Elder Baccarini and I before he left

Family and Friends, 

       This week has been a good one. I went on exchanges with Elder Tauanu'u on wednesday. We had an awesome exchange. We shoveled a couple of peoples driveways, and actually ended up helping a less active family move to Mountain Home, ID. They were very thankful to us. It's always cool to see how peoples hearts soften as we serve them. 

       On Thursday, we had a very good lesson with a young spanish couple living with one of our members. We actually set a baptismal date with them. They are very prepared, and they are very ready to receive the restored gospel. The baptismal date, as of right now, will be the same day as their marriage in a couple of months. We're very excited to continue teaching them. On Friday, we had an AMAZING lesson with a spanish man named Alfredo. The spirit was very strong, and he felt it SO MUCH. It was truly incredible.

       District meeting we talked a lot about the new policies regarding phones. They are coming soon, so its important that we learn about how we can best use them as tools to push this great work along. We'll actually be able to teach people outside of our assigned area, on case by case basis, so that should be interesting.

       New years eve was excellent. We spoke in sacrament, and I gave a very well prepared talk about how we can strengthen our testimonies, and how when it comes down to it, the best way to do so is what we call spiritual CPR. In other words: Church attendance, regular Prayer, and regular scripture Reading and study. Those small and simple things build up our testimonies bit by bit, until they are strong. We went out and tried to find people to teach, but nobody was interested. That night, I SAW A SHOOTING STAR! Not just any shooting star though. This one seemed really close! Very red tail, with little streams coming off of it. I got very excited. (hopefully it wasn't a plane crash, wishes dont work as well on those) Either way, since New Years Eve gets crazy, we had to be home by 6:30pm that night. So once we got home, I did my nightly routine, and then I read Jesus the Christ for a while. It's a really great book, and I'm enjoying it more than I thought I would. It talks about a lot of interesting scriptural and historical truths I didn't know about.

       It's the New Year! This year I'm going to work hard to share the gospel with everyone I meet, so I'm looking forward to doing well this year. Coming up here soon we will be doing a BOM reading challenge, and I would invite all of you to take the challenge with us. On January 5th, we will start the Book of Mormon, from the introduction. On March 30th, we will finish it. 85 days. 7 pages a day. This is the same amount of time that Joseph Smith translated the Book in. Surely we can finish it in the same amount of time.

       Have a good year everyone. 2018 is here!

Godspeed,

~Elder Quiner