[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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