April 10, 2000
Family, friends, and Blake “the snake”,
That’s right, we’re still doing Wednesday Live legends. I’ll never forget Blake “the snake” Thornton, and his elegant long hair blowing in the wind as he would run up court. Gosh, it brings tears to my eyes. I need some help with the guys name that loved Shauri, someone help me out. I know it’s a shame that I would forget. Someone remind me.
So what’s up everyone. Mother’s Day is coming up. I’m excited to talk to you all. I’m sure Mom will start her letters this week on what time, and how we will all be able to talk and all that good stuff. I can’t believe it’s already Mother’s Day, it seems like just yesterday I talked to you guys.
Letters were great this week. The only one I wasn’t able to finish reading was Ryan’s. I really do enjoy your letters. Shauri’s was very touching. I’m always amazed how she opens herself up in her letters. It really makes me feel close to you as I read them. Everyone else, I loved your letters, Thanks. Also, I can’t think of any shout outs so I won’t write any.
Life is great here in the greatest mission in the world. I got a new companion this week. His name is Elder Richards. He is originally from Liberia. He now lives in Alexandria, Virginia. He is one of the few black kids in the mission. He is hilarious. He runs track for BYU and will probably be in the Olympics for Liberia. He’s been a Z.L. for a long time. He trained one of the missionaries I came in with. He’s kind of lost his motivation. It is going to be hard to get him excited again. He works very hard and knows his stuff, but just wants to be done with leadership. I will learn a lot from him. Our personalities match pretty well, also. I’ve already learned that I need to be a lot more persistent in contacting. I’ve lost that in all those months of training.
I’ve noticed some intersting things since we’ve been together. First of all, that I’m not fully extended as Dad’s letter says. I think my letters make me sound better than I am. To develop a good relationship with Elder Richards I’ve allowed myself to become more worldly. For instance, sports talk has gone up along with many other things. I’m just doing a lot of things that I don’t think are right to do when I represent the Savior. Now my excuse is that it was to build a relationship, which I have, but I should have done it differently.
I don’t know why, but it seems like I can’t, actually a better word would be that I don’t, fully extend myself. I could if I wanted, but I just won’t sacrifice everything. In Brentwood, at the end, I was not using my time as effectively as possible, last transfer the problem was trying to love Elder Shoemaker, and this transfer the problem is being part of the world. I know that I’ll always have weaknesses, but it bothers me to know that I don’t give my all. Sometimes, I think that I’m too easy going. It seems like nothing bothers me. I always say, “hey, oh well, let’s move on.” This oft times means I don’t struggle as much as I should. I just don’t know. I’m not progressing like I should be.
The area is doing alright. It could be better though. We have to find new people. The singles ward has nothing going on. We are planning a lot of new ideas to get better at member work. I think last week I mentioned a new class we’re starting called “sharing the gospel”. We are training the stake missionaries to teach it. It will be very interactive and show members how to share the gospel. We are also trying a lot of other things. We’ve decided that the biggest problem in member missionary work is fear. People are scared to share the gospel. So every new program is going to be focused on overcoming that fear and sharing the gospel in a loving, non-offensive way. I think that the best advice I have ever heard was from an Elder Eyring conference talk. He said that if we are living the way we should our friends would be honored to have us share the gospel with them because they would know it is the source of our happiness. They would know we are sharing it because we truly love them. So we have to break members in with this idea.
Another thing we will do is go to each family and ask for 10 names and addresses of people who know they are members that we could tract into. We will then organize the referrals into areas and tract those houses. I believe it will be much more effective tracting than normal.
Our appointments went fairly well this week. We taught Kathy the second half of the fourth discussion. She loved it, of course. We knew there were some concerns though, so the next visit we just discussed concerns. The first was basically her family. Her husband does not want his daughter being a Mormon. He says she can, but not the daughter. He is also fairly abusive, verbally. She doesn’t know why he doesn’t like us. She also discussed that she would be gone a lot this summer, so she wouldn’t be at church a lot. She asked if she should wait until after summer. Also because she’s the secretary at her little church she feels bad just leaving.
I committed her to talk to her husband about his concerns with the church. She wants her daughter growing up in a church so we have to get by this. I also told her that if she waits until after summer the adversary will really work on her. I told her she needs the Holy Ghost. We told her that we wanted her to talk to the bishop and she agreed. I have great faith in our bishop. Finally, we explained that if the church is true she needs to let go of the other church. Our next appointment will be important.
The Noe’ Family is doing okay. On Wednesday we gave them all blessings. It was powerful and moving. Robert was to quit smoking and so on. He seemed pretty ready. The spirit is much stronger in their home than it was. Robert said he would be done smoking by Saturday when our discussion was to be.
On Saturday he had not quit smoking. He made some excuses and said he had asked the Lord for an extension. Pretty interesting. We taught the first and it went well. We are going to keep teaching them. If Robert is not ready to come along, then we will baptize Woe and Diane. I feel very close to him though, and have great faith he can quit. On Sunday they came to church and I took their 5 year old son up to bear his testimony.
We also had a good meeting with Herb this week. We were very bold. Brother Glover told him that if his fiancé didn’t love him unconditionally, then they should not get married. He also let him know that there would be much greater happiness in following God’s plan. He told Herb that if she truly loved him she would want him to be happy. We committed him to pray about baptism, even if it means going against her will. He agreed. I love Herb. I hope and pray things will work out.
We have a number of other investigators, none of which are as serious as the ones I mentioned, so sue to time I won’t write about them.
I talked to Elder Robison and Weight (the other missionary in Brentwood) this week. Elder Robison got transferred. Brentwood is doing great. They are expecting Patte and Chelsea to get baptized soon. They also have a family of three getting baptized, that they found after I left. Everyone else is still progressing except Char. I guess she’s completely slipped away. Elder Robison said when he went to say goodbye she was just like, “bye”, and walked off with a guy she was on a date with. Other than that, things are great there. That makes me sad though.
At S.L.?D.L. meeting this week, President made an interesting comment. A rule was asked to be changed and he said, “a couple months ago there is no way I would have changed the rule, but I will now.” It was very clear that he has a lot more trust in the missionaries. The mission success is changing. Last month we had 43 baptisms, the month before ,40 and they are projecting close to 60 this month. Prior to two months ago, it had been 6 or 7 months since there had been 40 baptisms in a month. The Lord is blessing the mission.
On a side note, the Elder I had that talk with was just made a D.L. in my Zone, last transfer. I’m excited to work with him.
Okay, I’ve got to go. I love each of you though. I love this work, too. The gospel is true. The atonement is real. You are all in my prayers. I love you, Elder Quinn