Hey everyone!! This week has been a little different than normal. For one, it's rained quite a bit. And we haven't been able to get out and work all that much this week. But it’s still been a pretty good one.

We spent last Monday and Tuesday in Ajijic with the Zone Leaders. Another companionship in our Zone came too. It was pretty nice. Monday night we had the chance to attend a Family Home Evening in Ajijic with a family from Canada. Only the dad speaks Spanish, and the rest were English speakers. I felt right at home haha! It was like being back in Utah for two hours. And we had ice cream, which was marvelous! 

The rest of the week was normal until early Thursday morning. I got really sick. I won't go into detail, and I hope you'll appreciate that, but it was not nice. We ended up not leaving the house that day because I couldn't stand for very long without feeling like I was going to die. So we just spent the day watching every church movie we had. We watched Meet the Mormons twice, in Spanish and English. The next day I was feeling a lot better, so we decided to go out. But around 12:30 we got a text from our Zone Leaders that we couldn't leave the house after 4 pm because there was a hurricane or something on the coast. I'm not exactly sure what the problem was, because I couldn't quite understand what my companion was saying. He has this great habit of saying things even faster when I ask him to repeat himself. It's just great.

(When we told Kaden that it was a very large hurricane that passed right over him, his response was: Oh wow.... haha well that’s nice to know haha. I have no access to any sort of news here. And the information I do get is meddled in the translation haha!)

Friday was another day without many results. So we've spent the last two days trying to do everything we can to achieve our goals for the week. We got pretty dang close too!

But overall this week has been pretty good. We watched an inning of baseball waiting for one of our investigators, we've has some pretty good food (more tacos, tacos duro, this amazing carne vegetable slosh stuff that we don't know the name of, gorditas), and some great experiences. We also had our District Conference this Sunday. It’s the equivalent of Stake Conference, but we're not a Stake. We got to meet a lot more people, and President and Hermana Egginton were there. They took pictures to put on the "Facebook Celestial" they have. But that’s about it.

I've understood Spanish a lot more, and I really noticed during the Conference when I actually could follow a few of the talks. But of course it’s easier when they are talking about the church the whole time! It's coming along and progressing, but it’s still a challenge. But it’s getting better. I can really start to see hope at the other end of the tunnel for my Spanish haha!

We’ve had some good lessons. The best was with the blind investigator, he is really awesome and receptive. Also, the son of one of the less-active members died this week. We visited them, had a great lesson about the Atonement. Hermana Rodrigues gave the prayer at the end, cried, and the Spirit was strong. They ended up coming to the Conference with a lot of their family too!

Faith has been the biggest change here for me on the mission. Faith, and the direct blessings I've received because of it. And the weakness thing, it’s so true. We are so weak. But one of my favorite chapters is when Ammon and his brothers return from their missions, and he boasts in the Strength of the Lord. It’s a truly great chapter!!

I love you all, and I love hearing from you! Thank you for all your prayers, and you're always in mine!! Have an amazing week!

Love, 

Elder Kaden Quinn

1- Elder Taveras is fascinated with the trains haha! Every time it passes we have to stop and watch for a few minutes.

2- The sun rise in Ajijic off Lake Chapala.

Found a little lizard outside our house. Pretty cool.  Apparently they are everywhere, but this is the first I've seen.

Saltines and Electrolytes for days!!

And proof that I'm still alive! This was even the day after I got sick, so yeah.

 P.S.- that day, I lost 6 pounds.... !!!!!

Holy cow, what a crazy week. We've done a lot of traveling this week. Every week we travel to Ajijic for our District and Zone meetings, but this week we also had interviews with President Egginton, so we went to Ajijic twice. That was great. He is such an awesome guy! And after he took us out to dinner and I had a pretty dang good steak. We also had the awesome opportunity to listen to a seminar by President Durant. He was the one who gave the "ponderizing" talk in this General Conference. It was great. He talked a lot about missionary work and helped us to ask better questions. And man is he tall!! So anyway, we spent a lot of time this week on the bus.

We are progressing with a few investigators, but we have none with baptism dates. We do almost all our work in reactivation, we have so many less-active members. When we showed up, we had no investigators to go off of. There hasn't been a baptism for about 8 months in this branch. Our church is an actual LDS building, but its tiny compared to our building. We have about 45 members every Sunday.

We've been able to find quite a few new investigators this week. And we've met a lot of great people. A few of them know a little bit of English, and during our lessons they try to practice on me. It's almost as hard to understand as the Spanish haha! But it’s great!

Also, I just want to make sure you guys definitely know; the food here is amazing. This one family sells these tortas (toasted sandwiches from heaven) that are absolutely to die for. And another one of the members sons runs a taco cart, and oh my goodness. It was fantastic! The street tacos are absolutely amazing!

One other nice surprise is that the electricity in our apartment keeps going out. The breaker sometimes just doesn't work. And yesterday, it just quit. So we have to get the landlord to fix it. But it will just be flashlights until then! And cold showers, because we start our boiler with toilet paper and our electric stove haha!

It hasn't rained all that much. But yeah, we just go out and do work. The roads turn to a muddy mess. Most of them are just cobblestone and dirt. But it’s only rained three times, and two of them were at night.

Well everyone, it’s starting to get better. The Spanish is still a struggle, but it's not nearly as big of a burden as before. I'm starting to understand more and more every day. And the work is actually going places. We've finally gotten past the second lesson with an investigator, and we've had less-active members coming to church. And the love you can feel from the branch is amazing. The people here are so great!

Thank you all again for your support. I love hearing from you all, and knowing that I have so many people at home supporting the work is a great comfort. I love you all, and have a fantastic week!!

Elder Kaden Quinn

Week 9, wow. Man, so much has happened! We just barely finished contacting all our references from the Church Headquarters and from other people. We've been running all over Ocotlàn and every colony around it. Our area isn't huge, but we have members and investigators in the farthest outskirts of the colonies. And the public transportation here only covers the Centro where we live, but there are only like 3 members here. The first couple days here, we made the mistake of not organizing our contacts, so we basically walked from one end of our zone to the next. We're very particular of scheduling visits by colony now haha!

But overall, to be honest, this week has been rough. I hadn't been feeling like my Spanish had progressed at all. Almost every lesson, I would sit there until Elder Taveras needed a testimony of something. And especially yesterday, after church, we had our comp study for the day, and we were studying how to begin a first lesson with someone. Elder Taveras expressed that he wanted me to do all the talking in this part for our lessons, and I very strongly expressed to him that I could not, because I could not understand people. He then told me how I was supposed to be here, and that the things we teach are spiritually inspired. That we teach with the power of God, and that I needed to have more faith and confidence in the Lord. He promised that if I had the faith to talk, I would understand. Let it suffice to say that I left that evening feeling even worse and that I was totally going to fail. But of course, God works in ways that man cannot understand. I'll continue in a little bit.

This week we found two new golden investigators. They were prepared for the Word. The first was Hma. Eliza. She was a reference, but when we got to her house she didn't want to hear our message. Her reason was that her son had died 6 years prior. I'm not sure how that was a reason, and I'm definitely sure I didn’t understand it all. Anyways, Elder Taveras started telling her about the Plan of Salvation, really brief. And 30 seconds later, with tears in her eyes, she let us in. We ended up teaching her whole family. It was awesome!

Our second investigator was Hmo. Francisco. We were walking down the street, when we heard someone yell, "Brothers!" He and his girlfriend had just been talking about his previous work in the US in Vegas. He worked for a company that happened to employ many LDS members. He called us over to his truck, and we set up an appointment to meet him Sunday night. This is where the previous story ties in. We get to his house, and he meets us at his door before we even knock. Since he was from Vegas, he knew a lot of English, but wasn't quite fluent. We started talking. He was practicing his English with me, and my Spanish with him. And the first sentence I said, I messed up, but he quickly corrected me. He told me not to worry, because that was how he learned English, by being corrected. And from the moment, I totally forgot my worry about not being able to speak. No, I didn’t understand it all, but we had one of the best lessons we've ever taught with him. And I actually said stuff!! It wasn't until that night that I realized that my companions promise was true. I was able to have one of the greatest lessons ever, in Spanish, and I know it was because the Lord knew what he was doing. It just so happened to be with a man that knew English, but I know that it was much more than just coincidence. Faith - what an amazing principle of work and reward. The Lord truly blesses faith.

Ok, in reality, this week has been great. I just made it hard for myself. I've had a lot of great experiences here. Not only is the church true here, but so is baseball. While my companion was on the phone, I was able to watch a few runs. Also, I had the most amazing churros of my life. Maybe I was just hungry, but they were fantastic. 

I want to finish with Scripture of the week. Last week, I ponderized Matthew 6:21. It made me readjust somethings in my mind this week. This week, I will be ponderizing Alma 32:41, all about faith.

Well, everybody, thank you all so much for your support. I love you all, and am so thankful for this opportunity to be out here. I love you all, and I'll talk to you guys next week!!

Love,

Elder Quinn

Additional comments:

 I think the problem is that I actually have a pretty good comprehension of the language, and He's wanting to push me. But I don’t want to. I want it to take 3 months to learn. But I need to have more faith and trust in the Lord, as well as being practical and patient with myself.

I almost forgot, but I had the wonderful opportunity to wash my clothes by hand today. Last week we took our stuff to a laundry mat, but they came back just like we had given it to them, just with a slightly less worse smell. I’m not sure if I'm doing it right. haha!!

Oh man, I don't even know what say right now. This week has been crazy. I'll be honest, it's been one of the hardest weeks of my life. Spiritually and emotionally, that is.  Don't get me wrong, it already has been amazing here, but it is no walk in the park. 

Where to begin though. So much has happened these last couple days. So my daily schedule is as such. At 5:50, Elder Taveras and I get up to exercise. He has this weird routine he does that he makes me do, but its ok. We prep for the day, and at 8, we are studying. We have personal study, companionship study, language study, and also an extra hour of study for this program they have the new missionaries do. It lasts 12 weeks. So right now, we don't leave the house until 12. Every single day besides Monday (p-day) we have lunch with a member, because that's the biggest meal here in Mèxico. We usually eat around 3 or 4, so until then we walk the streets. The rest of the day is spent working and contacting.

The work here is so crazy and overwhelming. There are about 15 active families here, and if I had to guess, probably 50 inactive families. And to make it more confusing, I can't remember names for the life of me. It doesn't help either that there are 5 Familia Rodrigues Dìaz here in this branch. We have spent almost our whole time here trying to contact the members and less active members. We haven't had any time to tract, or as in Spanish, "tocar puertas" which is literally, touch doors. I found it amusing the first time Elder Taveras told me we were going to plan to "touch doors". But anyways, we are in over our heads with trying to contact as many people as we can, which I guess I should not be complaining at all, but it’s so crazy and confusing.

The other thing that is driving me crazy is the Spanish. I know, I know, I won't be a Master Spanisher in any time, but it is so frustrating. Usually Elder Taveras answers the questions while I just sit there trying to focus on the few words I do recognize. But the worst is the lessons. I'll be sitting there, while my companion and the member or investigator talks, just looking nice and pretty. Then in unison they would both look at me and the world stops. Something was said, but it was oblivious to me. Then my companion makes a short sigh, and continues talking. Those moments have been the worst part of being here. That brief moment that totally rips apart any confidence you might have had. I now know why so many Elders are frustrated with languages when they first get out. You're not expected to be able to speak, but at the same time, you are.

But not everything has been terrible. Not even with the language. Something has really been noticeable in this past week. The days that I feel great, comfortable and ready, everything goes so smooth. But the days that I wake up and think "What the heck am I doing in México??" are the hardest. And the difference isn't the attitude, it’s the Spirit. And let me just say, that the Gift of Tongues is so real. No, I have not been able to spout Spanish, even with the words I do know, but I've been able to understand. And I've been able to understand when it’s my turn to speak, when I should bear testimony of something, and even understand what the screaming old lady wants. And those times come when I've been feeling the Spirit. It is so incredibly astounding how necessary the Spirit is. It is needed in every moment, or you will literally do nothing. That is one of the things I've noticed the most, and something that has helped make this week more enjoyable than not.

Ok, now onto the section with the random information about México. The food here is sooo much better than the CCM!! I'm still craving a nice hamburger, and even a cold glass of water every now and then, but the food is great. I did have to eat a fish one day, which was just as bad as I imagined it to be. No I do not like fish if you didn't know. But, one of my many tender mercies this week totally surprised me. One of the members delivered a meal to us at our apartment. It was rice, tortillas, tamarindo soda, these hash brown tatter-tot things, and believe it or not... fry sauce!! Yes, someone here in México believes in fry sauce!! It totally made my day! Ok, moving on. It is pretty warm here, and doesn't really cool down at night, but it isn't bad. My companion leaves the 14 of December. The water isn't sanitary, so we have to buy drinking water. But we use it for everything else, cleaning, brushing teeth, etc. The members here are so awesome. I can't remember most of their names but they are so great. Oh, and I've already given someone the baptismal challenge! but he didn't come to church so it has to change. Here in México, the investigators need to attend church 5 times before they can be baptized. Okay, well I can't think of anything else so I'll wrap this up.

I love it here, but it’s hard. That about sums it up. Thank you all for reading my novel (if you made it this far), and thank you so much for your support. I quite seriously could not so it if it weren't for everyone at home helping me along the way. I love you all, and I'll talk to you next week!

Love, 

Elder Kaden Scott Quinn

P.S.

I totally forgot, but for conference, I was able to watch the morning session on Saturday and the Evening Session on Sunday in English. The others were in Spanish, so I'll have to wait for them to be printed so I can read them. What a great opportunity we have to listen to the prophets. That's one of the great things we have in this church. Prophets and Apostles that receive revelation directly from God, that is specifically for us!! Truly inspired men and women. Great messages.

 This is my house. The one without the balcony and all the pictures in the window.

 These are just a few of the mosquito bites I have. They all happen at night because it’s too hot to sleep under anything. And repellant only helps so much haha.

 This has nothing to do with the picture, but yes, we have cockroaches. We killed two last night. One crawled across Elder Taveras' face, and the other was under my bed.

 This is the main floor. We just moved our study room to this room this morning.

This room is now pretty empty because we moved it downstairs. It’s a lot hotter upstairs than down.

Besides the Spirit and Elder Taveras, that fan is my best friend right now!!

This is the other side of our bedroom

President and Sister Eggington.  Mexico, Guadalajara, East Mission