BIG CHANGES!!!

Well, big news. Quinn is leaving Trinidad!!! He will be leaving Wednesday (January 20, 2010). After Zone Conference Quinn found out that he will be moving to Guyana. He will be the Zone Leader there!! His old trainee, Elder Livingston, will be the district leader down there. His “greenie” will also be going to Guyana and will be another district leader. Quinn sure knows how to teach them to be successful missionaries!!

He will be in Georgetown, the capital. The area is called Grove. Guyana has the second worst living conditions of any mission in the world. He mentions that he will have a “cutlass” but I am not positive what that is. He guesses:
• No Running Wager, just a big black tank
• Showers in Buckets
• Not sure what the apartment will be
• Filter all water, because it is so bad
• A local missionary companion (Elder Bharat)
• Most people cannot read
• Daily Blackouts
• A SWEET scripture case made out of alligator
• Lots of alligator to eat
• A cool leather belt with his name on it

With Quinn leaving on Wednesday, he will have to leave before the baptisms he has lined up for next month. He has 6 set. They have also had 4 less active people come back to church.

He did not feel the earthquake that destroyed Haiti.

Zone conference was incredible. They discussed about ways to get the work to really take off. They are going to work with strong members and get referrals of the less actives in the area. They too are working on the retention of the members. Isn’t it amazing that the things we study and work on here, are the same things that they work on there.

Last thing to look forward in Guyana:
• Haiti is the only country in the Western Hemisphere poorer than Guyana

At least while in these other countries Quinn is not forgetting his roots:

January Updates

Things are pretty slow and there’s nothing fun to do in Chaguanas.

Quinn miss’s the islands. He is not sure yet if he will be able to return to the islands. He received a red stamp in his passport when he arrived in Trinidad, which, he says, signifies that he can not return to Trinidad for 5 years once he leaves. We are not certain that is what it means, so we will have to see.

They working with a lot of cool people, but they aren’t committing to a specific day to be baptized. They want to, but they don’t know when. They did have 8 investigators in sacrament meeting a few weeks ago, which is cool. But the new requirements are making it very hard to get people to commit to baptism. They do have one man, who’s wife and children are members, is coming to church and may commit to baptism soon.

Quinn finally saw the ocean for the first time on since moving to Trinidad.

Quinn is really enjoying having Elder McKeachnie as his companion. They work hard and have a lot of fun together. Transfers are soon, and Quinn is hoping they do not get split up.

Below is Quinn’s favorite story (so far) from the mission:
“Grenada is about my favorite experience. With Patrick waiting for half an hour to talk to us and ask what church we represent, then telling us he wants to get baptized and being pretty much the most golden person EVER, with how the church was really struggling in the beginning with about 40 people in church when I got there and 80 people when I left. The church grew both literally with the building expanding and figuratively with the membership growing and people coming more regularly. One med student, speaking before he left for home the last time, talked about the changes he’d seen in the branch. He was speaking from a wooden pulpit that didn’t wobble when you leaned on it, through speakers so everyone could hear him, to a chapel filled nearly to capacity. It was figurative of all the changes he’d seen since he came. The church had a much more solid foundation in Grenada. Now they’re even moving out to a new town and are hopefully going to be starting a new branch in Grenada before too long! I’m so excited to hear all of it! Patrick was especially awesome because there are 4 wards in the city where he lives, a temple in his country and yet he had to come to Grenada to me and Elder Larson to learn about the gospel. He has seen the book of Mormon in Yoruba, his native language, but never realized it until we showed it to him. He’s actually back in Nigeria now where so many more blessings of the gospel are available to him. I’m sad that I won’t be able to see him unless I go to Nigeria, but I’m happy to see that he’ll be in an area where he has so many more opportunities for growth.”

Zone conference was January 11th. We will see in his next letter how it went.

Merry Christmas from the West Indies

Talking to Quinn at Christmas was neat. There were a few problems (like we didn't have the right number) but we eventually got to talk to him for almost 2 hours.

Quinn has been eating intersing things still including Cow Tongue, Pig Snouts and Doubles. Doubles are a common street food in Trinidad and Tobago. It is a sandwich made with two flat fried breads, called "bara", filled with curried chick peas or garbanzo beans, commonly called channa. Topped with a variety of spicy chutneys (mango, cucumber, coconut, tamarind) and extra pepper sauce. He buys those quite often.

Quinn still misses seeing the ocean. It has been an adjustment for him.

It was great for Quinn to get to hear Mikkean say "Hi Quinn". I have to say it was the highlight of the call.

Quinn is doing really great. He is having a great time, and growing so much spiritually.

Pre-Christmas Updates

So this is from the middle of December, before we talked to him at Christmas. I am still going to post, just because there is some interesting stuff.

After 6 months Quinn has finally been transferred. He left to Chaguanas Trinidad on Wednesday December 9th. The area is full of east Indians who love to feed the missionaries. He is homesick for Grenada, but he felt the same way when he left St. Vincent. The 6 months he lived in Grenada is the longest he has lived anywhere (besides home).

The transition is weird because he doesn’t see the ocean ever, and after 9 months of seeing it every day, it is quite a bummer. The weather is cool, and a bit rainy.

Quinn is learning about the Hindu religion which is the prominent religion there.

The branch is small but strong. There are several really cool investigators. The baptisms will take place in a font instead of the ocean. The Stake President lives in the Branch, and is a really neat guy.

His new companion is named Elder McKeachnie. He is from Highland, Utah. The get along well. Quinn is the only companion he has had besides his trainer.

We will be talking to Quinn this Friday, YEAH CHRISTMAS, so hopefully there will be much more to post next week.