June 2, 2014

Whoa! What´s up with the date in the subject line? Are you trying to remind me how little time I have left?! Haha, no, I´m kidding

I can´t believe you lost faith in Madrid, Mom! I´m appalled! No, I´m kidding. But I cannot even express to you how amazing that night was! I have converted into a true Madrid fan. Before I didn´t really care too much, but the excitement of being here in the city of both teams of the Champions final was incredible! Actually, at first I thought it was over too. In fact everyone did. They actually set off the celebratory fireworks in the Atletico stadium and everything (we could see them from our apartment). Then. . . all of a sudden all the Madrid fans below our window flipped out! It was crazy! So we knew they scored, but then it got quiet for a awhile and we were confused. We finally figured out they had gone into overtime and then we heard the screams for each successive goal. We were sure by the end who won. The fans were going crazy. I can´t even imagine what the center of the city must have been like! They started setting off fireworks right in front of our window and everything. I was cheering too from the 3rd floor and waving my scarf around out the window. It was amazing (I´ll send along some pics another day) And that´s how I am now a diehard Real Madrid fan. 

Sorry, there really isn´t much to tell work wise. Edgar is from Bolivia. Sadly we found out he´s not married, so we´ll see about this date. Also we had another lesson with him and we´re not too sure he understands well our message. So we´ll see. I´m trying not to give up hope. Other than that we are looking a lot and just not finding people who are truly interested and we are having some trouble with the ward. The leaders are very hard to work with. We´re going to shift our focus to working with the members now. The good news is that Patricia and Joaquín are doing really great! Patricia was called as the Relief Society secretary. She is a bit nervous, but not nearly as much as she would have been when we first started teaching her. She has progressed so much. Joaquín´s been having a hard time lately. Emilia´s health has been worse these last few weeks. She also has been very different, more confused and depressed almost, and she is in a lot more pain so that she can hardly walk. He hasn´t been able to come to church for 4 weeks now. We finally asked the bishop yesterday if we could just take him the sacrament. We had sort of a mini meeting. We sang and had a prayer and gave the sacrament and a little message. He liked it, although I know how badly he would like to go to church. At the end my companion asked if they would like blessings. He gave Joaquín a blessing and then I gave one of health to Emilia. It was a truly sacred experience. It was amazing to speak to her and know that even if in her mind she couldn´t understand me, her spirit was listening. I felt impressed to tell her that God was preparing her for the day that He would call her back to him and that it would not be too much longer. I blessed her that these last days with Joaquín would be some of the best and that she would be at her best physically. At the end of the blessing she was instantly her old self again. It was a complete change. She was happy and amazed. She stood and walked around the room entirely on her own! She keep saying how good she felt and asking what we had given her. I´ve never seen such an instant and powerful reaction to a blessing. As I said it was a sacred experience. I left their home in tears. 

Well I have to go. That was what I wanted to share from this week. Congrats to Sarah on all of her awards and to everyone for surving school :) Thanks for keeping me updated. I love you all! 

Elder Cousins

May 26, 2014

Hey family!

So bad news, we squandered our p-day out on the city, so I have seriously no time to write. I´m sorry!! 

Good news is that Edgar came to church yesterday! He is the greatest! He really liked it too. I think the last hour was a little long for him (let's be honest, it´s a little long for all of us), but he said that it was a really great experience, that he learned a lot. He brought Brian, his 5 year old son too. It took some convincing to get him to stay in primary, but as we left at the end he asked his dad if they could come back here tomorrow! Haha! It was great! So Edgar is right on track to be baptized the 21st of June. He has been reading and praying, and he says he already believes that the Book of Mormon is true. He still needs to pray about Joseph Smith, but I feel like he will be baptized on schedule. I really want Elder Forsyth and I to have a baptism together. 

Sorry that´s all I can write right now. I´m glad to hear people are doing well, and thank you Dad for that story from your mission. It helps. Just leave the classes how they are for now, I don´t have time to think about it right now. We´ll figure it out.

I love you guys a bunch. Thanks for writing me always and for forgiving me when I don´t write much back :P Sorry! Have an awesome week, be safe, be good, be happy. Talk to you soon!

Love,

Quinn

May 19, 2014

Hello!

Another week has passed! That can´t keep happening. It´s terrible every time I tell someone now how much time I have left they get all surprised, "Wow, that´s nothing!" Yeah, thanks for reminding me. I´m going to be terribly sad to go, but if I wasn´t then I would have wasted my time here. Everything has its correct time. And then we go on to the next thing.

But for now I´m still a missionary! And that means up and downs. This past week Alex and his family told us that they no longer want to keep meeting with us. They don´t agree with the idea of tithing and say that they just can´t commit to do that right now. But the real reason is that they still haven´t received a testimony of the truth. I feel like they could have done more, but mostly I just feel that now is not their time. Honestly, I feel that the ward is not prepared for them. The majority of the recent converts here are inactive and there is little or no effort from the ward to help them. I don´t think they could take care of an entire family right now. I hope that´s not just me looking for someone to blame, but that´s the feeling that I have gotten. The good thing is I can see how we have been those that have prepared them to receive other missionaries later on and when the time is right. It hurts, but I know that the Lord will take care of them. I know this isn´t the end of their story.

A cool experience from this week. On Tuesday in companionship study my companion told me about what he had studied about listening (something that is particularly difficult for him). He shared what he learned about how important it is becuase what really matters is the people. We are here to help them out, and to do that we need to love and listen to them and understand their needs. It was wonderful to see that light in him, to see his desires to really go out and help people, to forget about himself and serve. I got in that moment a strong feeling that we were going to see success together this transfer, specifically a baptism together before the end of the transfer. Then that night we had a lesson with a man we had contacted the day before. It was one of the most spirit-led lessons I´ve had in my mission. It was really special. Edgar is possibly the most humble man I´ve met. He truly loves the Lord and wants to serve Him. We listened to him for a while and then we taught the restoration and felt the spirit strongly. His desires to do the right and know and share the truth are impressive. We talked about baptism and invited him to be baptised the 21st of June. He said yes, and then he said his greatest dream is to be baptised, something that he has always wanted to do. We promised him that he could be prepared by that day. It sounds too good to be true, but the spirit was so strong. The most amazing thing to me is how much he wants to share the gospel with other people, how much he wants to help them. He even said that he wants his 4 year old son to be a preacher some day. It was really special and confirmed the feeling I had that we were going to see success together. 

That is about all the news from this week. Lots of walking and looking, but I feel like I´m seeing a lot of progress in my companion, if not a lot in the area, so that´s good. 

I´m glad you liked the letter Mom. How interesting that I felt the need to write that right around the same time that you spoke about the influence of righteous women. I hope you can see the limitless influence you have had in my life and many others. I was able to go to the girl´s baptism, and she told me that her mom has decided to stay.

Here is something that may be able to help Sarah with her new calling. I´ve shared this scripture with my last few companions who have had trouble with confidence in their abilities. D&C 100:4 Therefore, I, the Lord, have suffered you to come unto this place; for thus it was expedient in me for the salvation of souls. If you have been called at this time, to this position, in this place it is because the Lord needs you. He needs your unique talents and abilities. There are girls in your class who will need help in the way that only you can give it. I have seen this countless times during my mission. I know that you have talents and abilities that others do not have and the Lord will magnify as you serve relying on Him. If the Lord has called you, then He needs you and the people you serve need you, and I promise there is nothing better than following the spirit to help another person.

Tell Erin she can´t quit soccer because I still need to see her play! She´s so good too, it would be sad if she stopped now. It´s worth it to do hard things. But I don´t want her to not be able to walk either. That would be sad.

Please tell Grandpa thank you so much for his contribution and for his continued support for my mission. Tell him he is pretty great. I like that :) 

Your talk was great, Mom! Thank you for letting Dad attach it. I love hearing your voices and testimonies. And it´s so true that each of us has a limitless potential to influence others through our righteous decisions. 

That is all for this week, hope you´ve enjoyed. I hope you know also how much I love you. I thank the Lord everyday for giving me the perfect family. Thank you for your love for me and all the people I work with. I know it makes all the difference. A mission is and should be a family affair. I love you! Take care and have a wonderful week!

Love,

Quinn

May 5, 2014

Hello! 

Wow, Sarah went on a date with Zach Galafanakis! That´s crazy! So how old is this kid? I mean I´m all about the beard, as you know, but aren´t these people in high school? Also, I have mixed feelings seeing those pictures. Maybe it´s better I wasn´t around. . . But I´m glad Sarah had a good time. :)

Erin has developed an incredible ability to make me cry like a little girl. Thanks for sending along her talk. It was amazing! Wish her luck for me in her games this week. I cannot wait to get home and see her play! And to play some together too :)

So it looks like everything is all cleared up with the passport. Went down to the embassy on Tuesday and ordered a new one. Cost me 135 dollars! :O I should have it in 2 to 3 weeks, so no worries I think. They also had me fill out a form to cancel to old one and report it stolen so that hopefully no creeper can pretend to be me. Don´t worry about a new camera. I don´t have that much longer left. I´ll just steal pictures from other people. I´ll get a new one. . . someday. I could use some deodorant, though. I ran out and had to buy some from the supermarket here and it´s terrible! It smells like alcohol until I start sweating and then it just smells like sweat. Not cool. A couple sticks should be sufficient. Sorry I didn´t tell you before you sent the Easter package.

Crazy about the Champions League! I didn´t watch the game (don´t worry) but I did see a clip from the Madrid-Bayern game where Madrid takes it from their goal all the way across the pitch and scores in 12 seconds and 10 touches on the ball. Beauty. 

Well, things are going a little slow here. Alex and his family didn´t come to church. But we did teach them the plan of salvation and talked about eternal families, and I think they it gave them a lot more motivation to find out if this is true. Every time we meet I´m amazed by how great they are, and I´m sure that they will get baptized, it´s just a slow process. Other than that there´s really not much to share. We´re in a bit of a low point but things are starting to look up. Next week is transfers, I think I´m staying but I´ll actually be able to tell you beforehand because we are going to talk on Sunday.

So Mother´s Day! We are planning on getting on to Skype around 9, so 1 your time. Would that work? Bueno, I guess it´s going to have to, we aren´t going to talk again before then. I would be ready a little bit beforehand, like 20 minutes before, because we may be able to get there earlier. That should give us about an hour to talk if all goes well with the equipment (which it never does). So we´ll see. but I´m pretty excited to see everybody again! 

Well I gotta run. We are going to go do something fun today since we had to go to the embassy last week :( Sorry this isn´t the longest email, but it doesn´t mean I don´t love you. Just so you know. I love you all tons! Take care and thanks for everything! 

Love,

Elder Cousins