Friday, November 22, 2013

November 11, 2013



[Thanks to Erin for transcribing Quinn's letter so that we could post it!]

Dear Family, 
                                                                                                                     
So this is a little bit different but hopefully not in a bad way. Sorry for the wait though, I hope you weren’t worrying too much. And don’t worry, I’m totally fine. Better than ever, actually.

Can you believe this is how missionaries used to communicate with their families? You know, way back when the dinosaurs roamed, right Dad? Thank heavens for technology, right? Except when it doesn’t work like it should and makes us crazy, like it’s doing to all of my friends/ companions right now. We are in Segovia (yes, again) and the computers here are about as old as the town.

There is something special about a handwritten letter though. I feel like more like myself writing like this than on a computer (even if my words per minute rate is rapidly dropping). So we’ll continue like this for the foreseeable future and please forgive any inconvenience (like, for example a lack of spell-check). 

So I didn’t get to read your email for this week but I assume all is going well. I hope everyone is happy and healthy.

Things are going quite well here. The beginning of the week was a lot like the last couple, lots of walking, but by the end of the week we had a few lessons. We are starting to find some people, which is awesome! We had an amazing lesson with  Ruth (the lady who gave us her number at the little tea-party-in-the-church thing) on Wednesday. She is so prepared and so interested in the Gospel. She had several good, sincere questions and even though she sometimes distracted herself when she spoke (it was a bit of a long lesson) it was obvious that she had genuine interest. And she came to church on Sunday and really liked it. :)

We also found and began teaching Juvenal. He is about 25 years old, from Equatorial Guinea and is here studying something that makes him sound really, really smart. The first lesson was a little awkward. We didn’t have much time and we didn’t really do a good job explaining things. But we gave him a Book of Mormon which he was interested in and he said he wanted to come to church to learn more. He also came to English classes on Saturday and stayed for Noche de Hogar (FHE) afterwards. He left pretty quick after but he said, “I’ll see you at church tomorrow.” Which was way cool! Sadly, he didn’t show, but when I called him afterwards, he was really apologetic (he slept in) and sounded like he really wanted to be there. We set up another lesson without trouble and he was super friendly so I have high hopes for him.

We also taught Jhonny (I know, right?) this week. The first lesson was good and he came to English classes and NdH, but he didn’t like NdH and he basically said he wasn’t going to come to church so we’ll see. He may need a little more time to warm up.

Other than that, we see Arthur just once a week at Miriam’s house and he hasn’t come to church for 2 weeks. We don’t really get to talk to him at Miriam’s because there are always other investigators there, but as far as I know he’s still slowly smoking less and less. Very slowly. We both feel like he is going to get baptized someday, he has a strong testimony, but it will be in his way and at his pace and no one is going to change that.

We saw Mayte again for the first time in 2 or 3 weeks. She went to a Young Women’s activity and afterwards we were able to talk for a few minutes. We found out that her dad has prohibited her from meeting with us because it’s affecting her grades or something like that. We encouraged her to continue coming to church if she can and to go to the YW activities and be friends with them. We testified that there is happiness in living this Gospel whether you are baptized or not. I hope she continues to stay close to the church and when the time is right she’ll be baptized.

Beto showed up to church out of the blue for the first time in a month. And Patricia said she would call us  to meet again for the first time in a  month, so I guess we’ll see what happens there. Viki is lost completely so pray for her.

And that’s about the picture of things right now. This Sunday was the ward Primary Program, so that was a lot of fun. I really enjoyed the Primary songs in Spanish. You remember when we all used to be in that?

Well that’s about all I can think to tell you for now. My companion and I are getting along great and I feel like we are working well. Segovia was beautiful with all the fall colors. It’s starting to get stinking cold again here. And just stinky. The cleaning people have all been on strike for about a week so the city is covered in trash. It’s pretty gross.

Oh, just a heads up, if you see a lot more money coming off my home card lately it’s because I’m full into Christmas shopping. In fact I only need a present for Dad and then I’m done. Any requests? Also I found this coat that I really like and would be great for here and after the mission, but it’s a bit pricey. I’m going to wait and see if it goes down in the big Christmas sales, but I am considering it as a present to myself, just so you know.

Oh, I almost forgot! Thank you so much for the package you sent along! That was awesome. I especially liked the quotes from Erin. Thanks!

One thing I thought of for Christmas that would be nice would be a battery charger. I love my camera but it is always out of battery right when I need it. It sucks them dry so fast! So that would be nice. Also, pictures. Lots more pictures.

One last thing. I know there are at least a few people who read the letters blog, so I’m not sure what to do about that with this new set up. I don’t want to ask you to type up my letters, but maybe a brief summary or something would be good. Or maybe you could just scan the pages and post it like that. I’m not sure what the best thing would be. Sorry about that. Thanks for your patience with me.

Well, that really is all now. I must go. I just want you to know how much I love you all. I’m so grateful for your love and prayers, for your incredible examples to me throughout my life. Thanks for your concern and prayers for the people I teach and love so much. It makes a difference to them and to me. I hope everyone is doing wonderful and you all have an amazing week. I love you!!

Elder Cousins

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