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