December 16, 2014

     This week has been good! I got a new companion! Her name is Sister Gass and she is from Circleville! I remembered Sadie's first roomates were from Circleville and if their names are Megan and Marci, Sister Gass totally knows them. I really like Sister Gass, she reminds me a lot of Kelcie which is weird but great! She has been out 5 months and is really nice and a hard worker. I hope I get to end my mission with her.

     So Wednesday and Thursday it was snowing like crazy. Even more crazy, transfers still happened on Wednesday even with bad weather. Luckily I didn't have to go anywhere. Instead I spent the day in Fayetteville with another Sister while Sister Gass traveled down here. Then on Thursday there was like 2 feet of snow outside so we decided to try snow shovel tracting. We were excited to do it but as we made our way to the car to get out the shovels we noticed this old lady in our apartment parking lot which hadn't been plowed trying to get her little Camry our of the parking spot. She is just spinning her tires and ruining her engine so we help shovel her out so she's not stuck. We then are gonna head to the streets but the lady immediately pulls into another snow-filled parking spot and gets stuck again! So the pattern of us shoveling her out and her driving into another parking spot continues for 45 minutes! Finally we shovel out a whole parking spot for her to park in. So she gets into the spot, the whole lot smells like gas and burning rubber, and then she gets out and goes back inside. We were like are you kidding me?! why were you even out here?! so yeah. we are super tired after that but we didn't even get to leave our house. but there was one person I remembered meeting and telling her that we would shovel her driveway for her. so we walk over to her street and she and her husband are out shoveling! I was so happy my idea worked out! it had to have definitely been inspiration. So we got to help them shovel and get to know them. it was great. they still aren't interested in learning but they know us now and like us! also the husband was so appreciative he gave us each some money for lunch. Its awesome when the Holy Ghost tells you where to go. 

     We also visited a crazy lady this week. She and her mom are in our area book and we have stopped over and called a bunch and finally we set up a time to come over. I was so excite to finally be able to meet with them but it did not turn out as I had hoped. the mom let us in and gave us gross Chamomile tea and said we could talk to her daughter. The daughter is nuts! She talks nonstop about random stuff! I think there must be a mental disability there but I was like nooo dang it! I wasn't too disappointed because listening to her and talking with her were very entertaining. I kept it together pretty well but Sister Gass was dying. So we listen to her for a while and try to share a spiritual message but then we left, never to return. Then on Saturday we had a Christmas Caroling blitz. We invited the whole ward to come but it was only us 3 sets of missionaries and our Ward Mission Leader. 

     So not a fantastic turn out but we made the best of it. Our ward mission leader is awesome. So it was awkward at first because singing randomly while walking down the street is awkward  but we handed out about 15 copies of the Book of Mormon so it was a success. That night was the ward Christmas party though so we could have picked a better day for caroling but oh well. And a couple weeks ago our Ward Mission Leader asked us and the elders to do a musical number for the party. So after our voices are worn out form caroling, we have to sing at the party too. it was decent enough but the only other musical numbers were done by this amazingly musically talented family so we were showed up real bad but oh well. except Sister Gass and I also had to do a song in sacrament meeting the next day! I also caught a cold this week so you can only imagine how my singing voice has been. Sister Gass was also super nervous to sing but its over and done with. Also, Paul passed his baptism interview so he is being baptized this Saturday! So exciting! He is really ready for this and the changes that will come with it. So that's the most exciting events of the week...I'm excited for Christmas!

      I will give you details about it next week. Hope it snows in Utah! Tell Kelcie hi for me! I love you all! Keep writing me please!

Love, Sister Quinn Nilsson

December 3, 2014

hello!!

     horay i'll keep my eye out for the package! I will give you more details about Skype and such when I have them. super excited!! Pali better cut his hair before I see him!

this week was super good I will tell you about it

     So last Monday we picked up a new investigator! Her name is Krissy and she is so cute! We met her while teaching another investigator. Our other investigator's name is Stephanie and she is a sweetheart. She has some brain problems and seizure problems so she has a 24/7 staff. We have been teaching her ever since I've been here and she's not progressing so at first I was like ok I get that we are doing a nice service to her by seeing her but is this really going to go anywhere? we still visit her anyway but on Monday we went over just with a plan to share the stripling warriors story. So we read it and talk about faith and learning from your mother and Stephanie loved it as always and then Krissy started participating and we were not expected it because usually her aids just ignore us but we were like ok sweet she likes this. So then she picked up Stephanie's Book of Mormon and started flipping through it asking where the chapter was. We were discussing the story with Stephanie while Krissy read intently. Then she asked if we had any extra copies she could have! I gave her one with my testimony in it and we explained a little bit about what the Book of Mormon is. She told us she feels that this could be something that will fill the hole in her life and that she has a warm feeling when we are there. She is married with two young kids and we are so excited. Talk about being in the right place at the right time. So we also taught her the Restoration this week and she loved it. Pray for her and her family so they can be baptized !:) We also go to lead a sing-a-long at a retirement home this week. Its a super nice retirement home and the elderly were so nice! Especially the activities coordinator girl. She thanked us with tears in her eyes :) We are going back on the 22nd to lead a Christmas Carol sing-a-long. It kind of reminded me of when we sang at old folks' homes in choir. We've been talking a lot about Christmas this week, of course, and using the holiday season to talk with people. Going up to a person and asking them if they like Christmas is a lot easier than asking them if they have heard of the Book of Mormon. Also, we found out this week that Sister Hale is transferring to Gouverneur! It was a surprise to hear that she is leaving because she has only been here 2 transfers but an even bigger surprise to hear that she is going to the best area ever!! She is going to freeze up there but Ithink she will love it! 

     My new comp's name is Sister Gass. I kind of know her so I'm excited for her to come. I think I will spend my last 2 transfers here with her. So weird. Time has flown by for sure. Except not really. Paul is still on date for the 20th. He's really excited. He just needs to be better at coming to church! I'm kind of nervous to take over this area but I think I will be able to do it. This is a really good area and obviously, miracles are happening!! I hope things are going well at home! I miss you all a lot but I'm loving life over here. Please keep writing me! I will see you in 12 weeks!

L8r,

Sister Quinn Nilsson

 

 

September 22, 2014

yay! pictures! oh my sean...yay!! pali in his football gear hahaha he looks so funny. yeah his hair is reaalllyy long. wow, sounds like a lot of new babies i will have to meet when i get home. also, thank you for forwarding camden's email! now i know when he gets home haha. he gets home on the day of our baptism :) yep our Jamaican investigator will be baptized this Wednesday :) we are so excited for him. He told us he wants to be baptized on his birthday because it would be like a gift to him. So cute! Also yes transfers were this week. My new companion is Sister Huang. She is also from Temple Square and Taiwan. She's so cute I am excited to be with her. Also wow this week has been long. On Tuesday we went to the museum here and it was way cool. They had tons of exhibits on nature stuff around here and the metropolitan history and a 9/11 exhibit. also we got to go to the top of this big building called Corning Tower and get a view of the whole city and more. When you all come up here to visit with me we will have to go to the museum. But anyway, back to the new transfer. Sister Huang and I are enjoying working together but that's not all! A sister in Latham is going home for medical reasons so her companion, Sister Curtis is going to be with us for the time being. Trio! Sister Curtis just got here yesterday afternoon and we are already having lots of fun together. I hope she gets to stay the whole transfer because she really adds a lot to the companionship. We also got to teach our investigator the other night. We were trying someone else on his street but they weren't home so we were walking back to the bus stop and we decided just to try him before we left and he answered and we got to teach him about the Book of Mormon. We don't get to see him as often as we would like but I know that if we were able to see him more frequently he would progress so quickly! Both times we've seen him he says he feels so good after talking with us and that what we've taught him is good. It's cool when people acutally tell you that you make them feel good. Cause in trainings we always learn that we as missionaries or even just members of the church kind of have a light and others can see it but when the people actually do tell you they feel good around you it is so much cooler. Taking over the area has been challenging. I basically do all the planning for our days because neither of the other sisters have any idea about the area but I feel like I'm getting the hang of it. At least I am with the bus schedules. We haven't missed a bus yet so that's good. The fall is also coming in. The trees don't look that spectacular yet but they are definitely changing. Well I'm going to email some other people now but I love and miss you all! Keep writing me and have a good week!

Love, sister quinn nilsson

September 8, 2014

Hello Family!

I'm still waiting for those pictures of Ian in his football get up! Yay:) I"m excited for the package :) oh man I forgot about Joe's chicken. That sounds so good. So I will tell you about this week. 

It was pretty good! Nice weather. Crazy people. We tried to teach the Muslim family English on Wednesday. Our original plan was just to read the Book of Mormon with her because that does help people learn English but then she ended up having some books so we kind of quized her on those. We did give her a homework assignment on reading a page in the Book though so we will see if she was able to.like I said they are just a super cute family. We also met this cool girl from Russia! She was waiting for the bus and I saw a Jazz Folder in her hand so I asked her if she liked the Jazz. Then she started talking about herself and all that so we gave her our number and she said she wanted to come to church but I'm not very smart and I forgot to ask for her number so hopefully we will run into her again. We are excited for our investigators baptism! He's the old Jamaican guy we are teaching and he has lots of health problems and every time we go over to teach him he tells us he doesn't think he has much longer to live so we are crossing our fingers he lives til his baptism haha. I'm sure he will. We also went down to Utica to go to MLC. Fun ish as always. I got to see Sister Barley again though so that was the most exciting part. She just told me all the goings on in Gouverneur. I still miss Gouverneur a lot! MLC was cool. There was a big emphasis put on expecting more miralces to happen like in the book of mormon when there are thousands of people converted wihtin only a few days. Things like that really can happen if we just have enough faith so hopefully all the mission leaders will be able to raise everyone's faith so crazy awesome miracles can happen. We are also going have a table set up on Wednesday at the university of Albany so hopefully we will be able to find some cool college kids to teach. Its just been a fun week. I'm a bit nervous to take over the area next week though. I still dont know this area too well and I especially am still not familiar enough with the bus system. Its a challenge I'm kind of excited for as well though. Well thats about all I have for this week. I'm glad you guys are doing good. Hope you have a fun week! Write me!! lOve you!

SIster Quinn Nilsson

September 2, 2014

Hello family!

Man. Lake powell sounded like a perfect trip. Bummed I missed it but it will be there next year! You better post some pictures that I can glance at! Did you see my birthday party pictures Diego posted? Hmm so I will tell you about my week. I wrote about it in my letter but I can tell you about in in here too. I got to work with Sister Hansen and Sister Kunz in Latham for 3 days and it was lots of fun! I got to meet a lot of awesome members and investigators over there and the sisters are so fun. I loved being able to work with them for 3 days too because we are a lot closer now. We get to see each other at district meeting every week but being companions for 3 days helped us bond a lot more. So the exchange took up the majority of my week haha. Sister Hansen leaves this transfer and throughout her mission she has made scrapbooks of it. I looked through them and they were so cool! I hope I can remember everything important about my mission so I can make fun scrapbooks too! Its been super hot this week. Wearing only one layer is even too hot for me. I guess I know what its like to live somewhere humid now. I prefer hot humid to cold humid but its still not super fun to be out in. We had a party last night for one of our investigators who successfully stopped smoking for a week. It was fun! Sister Yu is going to be going back to Salt Lake soon and everyone thinks I'm going to be training next transfer. That would be really fun but who knows if it will happen. I will keep you posted. Yeah the members up here are really great. They are all so willing to go teaching with us a drive us around and do everything for us! Its crazy! and they do it without even making it look like an inconvenience. We could miss our bus to get back home and call a member at 9 pm and they would be completely willing to come take us home. But. Since I am now in the capital of New York, I will probably be able to find ya'll some really awesome authentic new york christmas presents :) totally off topic but i just remembered that. But yeah, just make sure to be a good mormon to the missionaries out there! They run into about a million mormons a day but it really is nice as a missionary to find people who are polite and treat you like you're important. But whenever people get me down I just think of all the awesome missionaries I get to serve with, all the wonderful people I have met, and the fact that God is always with me and wants me to succeed. September may be a boring month for you but its looking to be a good one for us! yes! Letters and packages! hmm requests...pictures :) and idk skirts if you can find any? just stuff that makes me feel loved :) and don't forget to include something for my companion as well :) I love you all and miss you so much!! Have a good week at school :))))

August 25, 2014

hello!

! this week was good! I'm still enjoying my life as a missionary :)

I will tell you something i have learned in this first i guess. Missionary work is hard! I knew it would be hard but it is hard in so many more different ways than I thought it would be. We tracted a lot this week which I enjoy. Everyone knows Jesus Christ loves them and died for them, people do think there are prophets on the Earth, people have valid points as to why they don't want to be involved in a religion. Its hard to have the right thing to say to them because half the fime, I don't even know what they are talking about so I don't have a good answer. I know there are elect people out there who are ready for the gospel and I should be focusing my efforts on them but at the same time, I have to do all within my own power to help others accept the restored gospel. People know a lot more about God and Christ. So don't worry, I'm not having a breakdown or anything haha thats just something i"ve noticed about this week. We also met this nice guy on the street. He just moved here from Iraq with his family about a year ago. We talked with him (the best we could) for a little bit. His english really was not good but somehow we were able to communicate that we wanted to come to his house the next day. So we did and we met his cute family and they live in such a nice clean house and are such nice people. I just think they are so cute and I agreed that we would come over once a week to teach them english. I don't know, maybe hopefully somethign will come of it. I have also realized this week that I have been gone so long!! One year! I keep seeing things that give me flashbacks of Corning and man was I there a long time ago. I'll see you all in 6 months which seems so far and also so soon! I don't even know what to think anymore! Mostly I've just been thinking of how I can not be distracted by anything and just keep being super focused on being a missionary here. I think though that as times goes on and I'm more immersed in this city with the people then I will stop thinking of home. Its always when you enter a new area that you get homesick because you no longer have your church family. I miss Sister Barley. Everyone here is really great though, more time spent with them just has to pass. Also today we have a district activity that will take up like all day so I probably won't get a letter written to you guys! :( sorry:( I will write one for sure next week though! I'm jealous of your lake powell trip, tell me how it goes! Send a picture of pali in his football stuff!! i love you all and miss you a lot! 

Love, Sister Quinn Nilsson

August 18, 2014

 this week was pretty fun! We had a Zone Training Meeting on Tuesday which was good. The zone is huge and there are a lot of strangers. its so weird to meet lots of missionaries who you think you haven't met because they are old but really, they are young and you are old. So weird. We are teaching this Jamaican guy and the first time we taught him the Plan of Salvation  We finished teaching the rest of it and he loves it He doens't really know much about the church besides he knows he needs to join it and he wants to get baptized on his birthday :) We also met a lot of nice people just walking around this week. am pretty confident that we will find people who actually care here. It will just take a little time and continued effort looking. Working with Sister Yu is still great. She laughs when I say things I think are funny so its good. I hope to receive more letters from ya'll. I understand its busy with school starting but really! Ok I got to go now but I love and miss you all! Have a fun last week of summer :))))

August 11, 2014

oh yeah! that tie is for anyone. I found it at a thrift shop we volunteer at and I had to get it. So anyone can wear it. I hope the shirt fits good, I didn't really know which size to get. Yes isn't that bbq sauce amazing? I"m going to buy another bottle of it before I go home. yeah Albany is pretty cool. Its very much a city. Sister Yu is great! She is always on the ball and a super good missionary. Its fun to talk with her about the secrets of Temple Square. She goes back to Salt Lake this upcoming transfer so go to temple square and maybe you will find her! Oh man. If I come home to a dog... So this week was exhausting! I haven't even been here a whole week but I"m so tired haha.  this one is bigger than Gouverneur. And Sister Yu will be going back to Salt Lake this transfer so I have to learn the whole area in 6 weeks! I will have to study the maps a lot. We have a good amount of investigators to teach right now so the work is going really well. Sister Yu is a great teacher and is so good at being bold. It sure is hot this time of year too. I put sunscreen on my face and the back of my neck everyday because it is so sunny! I"m glad I got to experience the different extremes of New York. the winter compared to the summer. the small country towns compared to the big ghetto cities. I'm excited for all the people I"m going to continue to meet here. Well I wrote you a pretty good letter so I think this email will suffice for now. I love you all and miss you a lot so keep writing me! Have a good rest of your summer :))

love, sister quinn nilsson

August 4, 2014

hello!

So first news first. I assume you probably saw me doin stuff on facebook. We have just been approved to do internet proselyting so feel no need to continue updating my facebook and whatnot considering i will be taking care of it now.. but yeah. we will be using it as missionaries now so feel free to comment and like any stuff i put up there. i dont really know what i will be putting up there yet...still trying to figure that out. but add all my friends up here! a big purpose of this is to allow the people up here to have support from you guys too! I will tell you more info about it as we continue it. also yes transfers....I am being transferred to Albany! President told me at MLC at I was kind of in shock at first. I really was expecting to stay another transfer but then during the meeting I started feeling nervous about it. I thought it was just because transfer calls were the next day so like the day before a test you get super nervous but I guess it was just the feeling telling me that I would be going. I will be serving with Sister Yu and it's a walk area so I'm stoked! I am very sad to leave Gouverneur because you have seen from my emails and pictures how much I love everything here but I am excited for new things. Gouverneur has so much potential and I'm excited to see the great work Sister Barley and Sister Gochnour are going to do here. There are so many very special people up here that I love so much. Members up here are so dedicated to the gospel and to the truth they've learned. I have loved being able to get to know them and love them. They are definitely people I will be keeping in contact with as life goes on. I've learned a lot about myself and the gospel as I've served here. I have learned that God really does know what He is doing and that He will make things happen when they need to. I have had so many experiences that got me thinking "how did this even happen?" but then I realized that God provides the miracles He needs to for the gospel to reach to everyone. I also learned that he puts my with certain companions who care enough about me to point out my weaknesses out of a desire to help me improve. Sister Barley certainly has done that for me. Her polar oppositeness has helped me see what I want to do less of and what I want to do more of and even though its hard, I know it was a needed thing in my mission. I love you all and miss you and appreciate the letters! Keep them coming please! I love hearing about the goings on in Cottonwood Heights. Tell the Lambs hi and to stay out of trouble.:)

love, Sister Quinn Nilsson

Sister Nilsson's Fiesta

 Surprise Party! (complete with confetti cannons)

 Its not a fiesta without a giant sombrero.

 Her caption: "please dont mention the double chin. i dont need to hear it."

some gifts she received from her friends in New York.

She called this her best birthday ever, which was awesome to hear! She continues to love every minute she spends in New York.

Her fathers day gift

She had us print this out and frame it to give to dad on fathers day. He sure loved it!

Random Photos from the Sister

"Me at a garage sale. I can't escape them!"

"GIANT MUTANT SNAPPING TURTLE"

Sister Nilsson enjoying the summertime

Pictures from the 4th

Her caption: These pictures are all very American.

July 21, 2014

Aw poor pali haha. Tell him to stick with it and it will get better! Yes I will write lance and Linda today. I have not got the other package yet but im sure it will come soon. Ok im typingona tablet right nowand it is really hard so this will br short. We met an elvis tribute artist this week! He is a member's brother, we just stopped by to say hi and he answered. He gave us signed photos and we are going to his concert at a restaurant tonight haha. We also taught this super cute 15 year old girl. Her mom is a member but she is inactive and she thinks its great we are hanging out with her daughter. We taught her the restoration and towards the end we asked her how she was feeling and she said she felt very sure of all of it. So cool! We are going to e teaching her a lot this week. We also taught an old jamaican couple and they are the cutest.  We've known them a couple weeks now but we finally got to a tually teach them this week. It was amazing. While we were going through the pamphlet Roy started reading joseph smith's account without us even asking him to! The spirit was very strong.  So it's been a really good week. Our investigtor, kevin, came to church for the first time yesterday and he loved it! He participated and everythinh. I love serving in Gouverneur.  Transfers are coming up at the beginning of next month. I feel like it could really go either way which is scary! Oh well, I will just enjoy being here while I can. I love and miss you all. Have you started school shopping yet? :) keep sending me letters!

July 14, 2014

hello family!

First off....THANK YOU FOR THE BIRTHDAY PACKAGE. I will go into detail on how much I loved it in my letter but just know that I really loved it:) So this week was good. I got to go on exchanges again with Sister Stephens which is always fun (we talk about the Aumicks the whole time) then nothing else really exciting that week happened excpet for my birthday! it was so super fun! it started with seeing the adorable decorations Sister Barley stayed up until midnight doing, then opening presents from you guys which I loved, then Gina surprised us at 6:45 with smiley face pancakes, then we went to church in Ogdensburg and experienced a crazy downpour, then we went to Gouverneur church ( I will go into more detail in all of this in my letter) then we went to the Jara's for our usual Sunday dinner but when I got out of the car and turned around I saw a surprise fiesta awaiting me! The Jara's planned it and everyone was in on it and I had no idea! Diego started blasting mexican happy birthday music from his car and the elders shot off confetti cannons and everyone i love was there! Seriously the best birthday ever. It made me feel so good. I am in a good good place here. So the party was complete with tacos, birthday tres leches, a pinata, and very thoughtful gifts and cards. and good friends too haha i love everyone who was there. I love so much being a missionary and finding more family out here. Gouverneur feels like home and although sometimes things get hard, I hope I don't leave here anytime soon. Hmm this was a short email for all I wanted to say but yeah, thats the jist of it, expect a great letter. Love you all so much! Wish Nate luck for me! Oh and Nick with his t-shirt business. kk love you!

Sister Quinn Nilsson

July 7, 2014

alright. I'm not in an emailing mood right now cause I just emailed Madison and some other people and I'm going to write you all a letter anyway but I will email you something I suppose. I'm glad you had a fun week at the beach. I figured it would be fun. Did you get donuts?? Oh an inland site for the first time? Guess having me gone is bad luck. I'll be there for the next beach trip though! :) How was Sadie so lucky to get work off? Imma have to get her job. Also I know tons of people going to UVU this upcoming year including my companion's younger brother so tell her to look out for him. My 4th of July was alright haha. We were in MLC all day which is that missionary leadership meeting. It was good though. They decorated the cultural hall with little american flags and the served apple pie so it was a pretty american day after all. the only thing that would have made it better is if i heard "made in america" playing somewhere. also Diego and Erin did let us play with sparklers. Sister Barley has never used them before so she was really excited but as I've grown older I've gotten more and more afraid of them. I was brave though as you can see from the picture. They were nice to want to spend the evening with us even though we had to ditch early to make it back home for curfew. We are going to be walking a lot because we have a lot of driving to do again wihtin the next couple weeks. Oh oh oh next time I email you I'm going to be 20. So weird!! I feel too young to be 20! and Sister Barley told me she automatically went up a pant size when she turned 20 so good things don't seem to be in store haha oh well. Our investigators are doing so-so. We are trying to figure out how we can have more spiritual lessons with them. Any advice? I missed you all so much this week! I feel like I would have missed you more during Christmas but it turned out that I missed being at the beach with all of you more. Just don't make so much trouble the next time we go! I still love it here, don't worry. Homesickness comes and goes I suppose. lol that rhymed. Well. I'm going to look at those pictures some more. I love you all and hope you have a good week this week! Make sure you all email me back and write letters!:)
love, Sister Quinn Nilsson

June 30, 2014

hello family. this will be a super short email cause i'm writing ya'll a letter. it was a good week. no trainee actually .she got sick:( Aurora's baptism went great:) she had lots of supporters there and we love her. i'm jelly of all of you in cali. have a fun week and dont get stung by anything. tell everyone i say hi. happy 4th of july too! MADE IN AMERICA. kk i'll let you get back to the fun. dont miss me too much. get me something cool at the swap meet. lates lates love you all. 
sister quinn nilsson

June 23, 2014

hola familia!

yay i'm glad you got that letter! sorry it got there after fathers day...it would have been way better if it got there on time but whatever. oh man, you had me worried with pali's leg! another sadie hawaii experience. lucky its not broken! he would not have a fun time and the beach if he couldn't get in the water. hmm is the beach trip early this year? who are you going with again? aww the beach :( i hope you think of me when you eat donuts and fish tacos. oh well. i love being in New York! yyeeaauuhhh goin to church on vacay? dedication. that will be fun. hmm lets think of what happened this week. i'll start with the most exciting thing. i got to go on exchanges with sister stephens for a day! it was so fun to be with her again! she is seriously the nicest and most fun person ever! we talked about the Aumicks the whole time of course. i got to ride a bike on exchanges too! not as hard to ride a bike in a skirt as i thought it would be and it was fun too! i went on fort drum again for a dinner appointment and for an institute class. we met with one of their investigators and he had the coolest porch decorations ever. they were allll cowboy. i wan them all. also...more super exciting news....sister barley and I are training this upcoming transfer!! we get a new sister to be with us! we're so excited! also Aurora is getting baptized this Thursday. very exciting. Sister Barley and I have to do a musical number for that. we are not at all prepared. freaking out. We are planning on me playing that pretty piano solo arrangement of Come Follow Me and her figuring out how to sing along with it. will tell you how it goes...I also went to a baptist church bible study this week. everyone was nice but the pastor just outlined the book of Daniel. We had a Relief Society get together thing on saturday. you all will be so proud of me. i sewed my own apron all by myself. we made them out of men's button up shirts too! they are way cute i will have to take a picture of it and send it to you. Aurora is the best and has been giving us rides everywhere all week. Seriously i don't know how we got so lucky with her. she is so so so solid in her testimony and is always willing to help others get to church or other things and is just the best. we are having dinner with her family tonight :) also i went to a bluegrass concert this week! our cute cute "investigators" clem and doria have their own family blue grass band called "Matune Creek Band" and they performed at their little church this week. Aurora went with us and gave us a ride (obvi cause she's the best) and it was so fun! they were so cute! Clem is in his 80s and he was up there jamming on his mandolin and harmonica and singing! the people up here are so simple and i love it. hmm thats about it for me this week. write me more letters. please. have a super fun time in cali and take lots of pictures and send them to me. i'm loving missionary life. be a missionary at home. i love you all. 

lates,
sister quinn nilsson

June 2, 2014

heylo!

School's out! Let's rock and roll School's out! gonna lose control! School's out! party with my friends....anyway woo hoo summer! don't tell me about all your summer plans or I might get depressed! jk life is fun up here too. I can't remember this week very well but I will try to give you as much detail as I can. oh, we had a lesson with Aurora this week about modesty.. Also Aurora is awesome and is like the in for all missionary work up here. she is going to help open up so many doors up here. keep praying for her, we love her! we also had to wax our car at 5 in the morning one day this week. I've never waxed a car before. I know why they call it buffing too because holy cow did it give my arm a work out. then the day after we waxed it it got all dirty so we were not happy. also one day this week it downpoured like crazy. we had to run from out car into our house which took like a total of 5 seconds and we still got drenched. and then on sunday when we were driving home form church sister barley saw a turtle on the highway so she made me turn around so she could go rescue it. unfortunately, some guy in a truck saw it as well and was putting it on the grass. so we stopped and waited for him to drive away which was dumb because he obiv saw us and knew we were going to go after the turtle so while sister barley was across the road looking for it the truck guy came back and talked to her for like 10 minutes and she came back without the turtle. she was quite upset. also I'm very happy that the weather is so nice now, its really pretty up here and very green once again. that's about all I have to say for this email, maybe my letter will be better. but I love you all and hope you have a good week! write me!! lates

love, sister Quinn nilsson

May 26, 2014

hello family!

sorry this is going to be the world's shortest email but we are super duper short on time right now. I just wanted to email to say YAY NICK IS HOME YAY YAY. also thanks for the pictures, they were tender:) glad to know he is home! hope you guys had a fun weekend with the lambs. it looked like a lot of the usual fun and I kind of wish I was there because I do miss everyone a lot but I've gotta stay here for a while! it was a good week though. luckily the letter I wrote you guys was actually good so you can here more details about my week. Also tell Pali he looked super fly in that model picture that I know he took just for me:) Ok I've got to go but keep writing me letters and have a good week.

kk lates love you all

sister Quinn nilsson

May 19, 2014

ok i have like 10 minutes and i still have to email my mission president so i will tell you like 3 things and then the rest will just have to be in my letter!

so my new companion is sister barely! i told you about her, right? how i knew her from my first district and she is the best! we have been companions not even a week yet but it has been really fun! she is a really fun person and takes my jokes and can make even the worst situations funny so its been great. i am having a good time with her and she is also a really good missionary. i have to do a portion of a training at our zone training meeting this week and i am kind of nervous for that so pray for me and i will tell you how it goes! tell nick hi for me! that's really exciting i bet you guys are excited. well yeah i need to email president now but enjoy those pictures and keep writing me!

also mom, Madison will probs forget to tell you this so if you don't mind, send me that joseph and the dreamcoat cd back please! i love you all and hope you have a good week!

love, sister Quinn nilsson

May 12, 2014

hi family!

i have no time to email much cause of our awesome alex bay tour today but i thought i would just send you a little email. i'm glad you got to go to the buchanan's after all! excited to see camden soon! the boat tour was way fun! really pretty, you guys will have to come up here one day. it was weird to feel like i was on vacation and a mission at the same time. this week is looking good i think. i am going to have to take over the area which i am really nervous about but i will just have to pray a lot and it will be ok! i get to work in gouverneur with sister davis on wednesday while sister church is at transfers and while sister barley is traveling up so that will be fun:) sister davis' comp is going to corning so thats really really exciting. also sister stephens will be coming up this way and i will get to be sister training leader over her so i get to go on exchanges with her! so excited! well yeah just wanted to tell ya'll i had a really good time skyping and calling you yesterday.:) hope all continues to go well

i love you guys! have a good week! write me letters!

love, sister quinn nilsson

May 5, 2014

Hello Family!

First things first:mother's day phone call. We are planning on this Sunday (obvi) at 7:45 ish 8:00 our time so 6:00ish your time (p.m.) so plan on that! super stoked. ok I think that is all the business I need to take care of. now to tell you about my week

As you know, we did the "Flap Jack Attack last Monday and were unsuccessful. I sent you pictures of that, right? Then on Wednesday we had another Relief Society Dinner so that was fun. We had it at Sister Adams' house and she is from Korea so she made us some really good Korean food. then we helped a new member move into town. She now lives in our same apartment complex right across the street! She is really sweet and invited us for dinner this Wednesday so that will be fun. We also went down to Utica again this week for Missionary Leadership Council. Kind of fun but its mostly just sitting for 7 hours trying to solve problems in the mission. But on the way down we had to stop in Watertown to give the Watertown sisters something so while we were there we stopped in Target and ate at Chipotle! Some areas have it all. I got a super cute cardigan with little pink bicycles on it:) anyway so MLC was fine. Then that night we taught a funny lesson. They are a new old couple we picked up named Bob and Marlene. They are really sweet and into their own church but they let us in so we teach them. Anyway, we were getting towards the end of teachign the Restoration and we ask them "If God were here right now, what would you ask Him about what we have taught?" Then Marlene says "I would ask Him why He is letting Obama run this country into the ground" umm ok...haha so that was funny. Then we are supposed to have one of them pray at the end so they can have a spiritual experience but they were both too scared to pray in front of us so we came up with the idea that we could all say our own silent prayers asking if the first vision was true so after we all pray Bob breaks the silence by asking "Do you know Mitt Romney?" yeah. it was a great lesson haha. but we are going back tonight so woo hoo! Also I have another funny story but I have to have something to write in my letter so I will just save it for that. In other news, Angel was baptized on Saturday! It was so great! And Aurora came with us early so we could fill the font so while we were waiting we taught her about baptism and confirmation. She is so great. She tells us she plans on being baptized but she doesn't know when and we don't want to push her so we will let her decided when she is ready. But yeah, Angel's baptism was great! He was really happy and Diego got to baptize him so that was special:) Diego and Erin had us over for dinner on Sunday So that was my week. Pretty fun. Its supposed to be warmer this week too. I hope you guys have a good week too. Super excited to Skype/call you. Keep writing me letters!! lates

love, sister quinn nilsson

April 28, 2014

Hello Family!

I see you are experiencing classic Utah weather. Have fun with that. I don't really feel like replying to everything you just told me about what is going on but thanks for telling me. Now I will grace you with the events of my week. 

It started with dinner and the usual game of Rook with Roxanne, Mary, and Sister Strough. Have any of you played Rook before? As you would imagine, I was terrible at it the first few times of playing but then I got the hang of it. Then oh oh I found some really cute shorts while volunteering at the thrift shop! haha the ladies that work there with us are so nice and just let us take things we like. So far I have gotten one dress, 1 skirt, 3 shirts, and now one pair of shorts from there. I obvi can't wear them yet but they are bermudas and they are white and blue stripes and they are free. Hmm we also taught Aurora a couple times this week. She is so great like always. We also told her that we never know what the weather is going to be so now she texts us the forecast every morning:) oh oh also, Angel is getting baptized this Saturday! He is Diego's kid and he's 11. That will be exciting. Diego is going to baptize him too:) Hmm really nothing super exciting happened this week besides a lot of finding but luckily something is finally coming of that! We have a lot of potentials that we are going to try and visit again this week. 2 of them are people who just invited us in right away which never happens so it was great! I'm really hoping that we will be able to pick up some more investigators this week because after Angel gets baptized Aurora will be our only investigator, ah! Oh oh we also broke our church attendance record at the Gouverneur Group today. 32 people came!! Thats more than the Ogdensburg branch had! There were a couple less active families that came yesterday! one of them being Patricia and her 3 kids. She is a less-active member who referred herself to the missionaries on mormon.org just last year and she really wants to come back and has been praying and reading the scriptures but its really hard for her to come to church because her husband is not supportive and she has 3 kids but we had a lesson with her this past week and we talked with her about it and committed her to come and she came! We are also having a relief society dinner this week and she came to the last one so we are hoping she is able to make it to this one too. Hmm and then today as you can see in the picture, I lived Man vs. Food. and I lost. Its at this place in Potsdam called the Village Diner and its called the Flapjack Attack. It sounded really fun and the missionaries up here tried it and told us about it so we were all pumped to do it. You have to eat that entire thing in 45 minutes. We told everyone about it throughout the week and were sure we were going to be able to eat it all but we didn't even get close! Sister Davis and Sister Langford met us there and Sister Davis tried it last week and didn't finish because of like 4 bites so she tried it again today and still wasn't able to do it! Poor girl haha so yeah, diet starts today. 

So it was a good week. Its going to be warm this week and we are going to pick up some investigators:) I miss you all and hope you have a good week! write me!

love

Sister Quinn Nilsson

April 21, 2014

Hello Family!

First, thanks for the package! I never know what i'm going to find in there when I open the box but its always something awesome. Like those pajamas are super cute haha and the sheet music was the best thing of my life. I have been playing it all week. Although you did send me only one page of the Hie to Kolob song so if you send a letter or something anytime soon I would really love to have the entire song. Also yay I'm glad you got my package! I've never had one of those maple candy things but Sister Church said they were good so I let you guys try them first. I hope Madison has a happy birthday! I'll just say this: Happy happy birthday from all of us to you, we wish it was our birthday so we could party too! I bet you know what that was from. But yeah thanks for the package. I really liked it and hahahahahahah Lynn got Mally a bunny! oh man tell me how that goes! tell them hi for me again! and also Nick when he gets home. EXCITING! ok here is my week.

not too eventful. It was 80 degrees on Monday and the next day it snowed. I met this cute old couple that have had sister missionaries over for the last year or so. they are the cutest. They invited us over for lunch one day and it was egg salad sandwiches. I ate it. Sister Church said that's all they really eat so woo hoo that's what I get to have all the time. But they also have this funny family band called Matune Creek that is kind of bluegrassy. They play like the guitar and mandolin and the fiddle and the harmonica and its kind of countryish music. They like the sisters to learn instruments to play with them so I will be practicing the guitar this week...but yeah, they are cute. They also gave us Easter baskets on Sunday. We have a couple people we have found/member have referred us to that we are hoping to pick up as investigators this week so I will tell you how that goes. I got all your letters this week. Thanks! I also got on from Grandma Nilsson so tell her thanks as well! There has been some flooding around up here as well. Crazy! its not close to our house or anything but when we were trying to get up to Ogdensburg for district meeting this week it took like 20 minutes longer because we had to keep searching for a road that wasn't closed! I also went on exchanges again this week with Sister Jorgensen. She is really cute, maybe we will get to be companions one day. I went up to Carthage and got to go to Fort Drum to see some people. Everything is so orderly and perfect. Like Tentacle Acres! It was cool though, the people were really nice. Then Sunday was good. Aurora came to church again. She is so great. I hope she is able to get past her hesitations soon and want to be baptized. Oh also, we colored Easter eggs last Monday! It was fun, did you guys do any? Also, another story. Sister Church found a giant wolf spider in our bathroom sink on Sunday morning and I had to kill it! it was super scary but I sprayed it with Scrubbing Bubbles with bleach enough times to kill it and then I washed it down the drain. I have become the spider assassin this week. they are everywhere! I knew dad would be so proud of me. Oh also yes I get to talk to you guys on Mothers Day so tell me when you have church so we can plan accordingly! I'm so excited!!

Yeah that's all I really have to report for the week. Keep praying for the awesome people here. keep sending me letters! I love you guys and miss you.

love, sister Quinn nilsson

April 14, 2014

hello!

thanks for emailing me haha. I could have just sent my email but I wanted to know what was going on at home. I heard dad took Sadie out in the sunbeam. cool cool. too bad it broke again haha. make sure it is in good working order when I get back! also yeah haha yay for the Aumicks! I've been out of Corning for 2 months but I still love them and they are doing so great so I will keep updating you on them:) Tell Ian to stop growing so much! hmm okay I will tell you about my week.

"Nice weather we're having" that was a SpongeBob quote but we really did have nice weather this week. It was amazing. I'm not even wearing tights today! crazy! although it is supposed to drop again this week so that is lame. I hope you have a fun time in warm st George. So yeah we took advantage of the warm weather by walking around the whole town. its fun though! my feet were hurting a little by the end of it but it was a great change from being in the car all the time. Also just a side note, I think our house is like infested with spiders! I have killed like 6 in the past 2 days! I would have run screaming at home but now I take care of business with those dumb things. only if they are on the floor though so I can step on them or spray them with fluids. I am getting that spider killer stuff you spray around your house today. anyway back to the week. yeah like I said we really just tracted most of the week. it was fun though! I am getting better at it! I used to be afraid and uncomfortable talking with people but now I think its fun and the people here really are pretty nice even if they aren't interested so its fun. we did meet this cool family though. we have been praying for a family to teach so hopefully they are some people God has prepared for us. we found them just by tracting down this dirt road in the middle of nowhere haha but I think we were walking down that road for a reason. they were really nice and open and we talked for about 5 minutes and then gave the dad a book of Mormon. he does a lot of research about like everything so we offered him a book of Mormon and he was like yeah i'd love one and then he asks "so, what is the book of Mormon?" which is another one of those questions that every missionary would die to hear so we cherished that moment for a second then explained it to him. so yeah. hoping they are someone we can teach. we also taught Aurora a couple times and she came to church and loved it again. she is so great i'm so happy we have her to teach because she just loves everything! we invited her to be baptized last week but she said it was a big commitment and that she wanted to think about it some more but I think she will come around soon. also. ooh crazy miracle. we have this really cute 17 year old girl, we are teaching and we haven't been able to see her in a while cause her mom kind of controls the situation and they have been really busy so we just haven't been able to see her but then we are tracting in a different part of town and we knock on a door and this woman lets us in and there is her and her mom inside! they were visiting a friend and we happened to knock on her door that day! it was so great. haha there was a 6 year old boy there too and he was just talking about plants vs zombies the whole time. I felt a bit nerdy cause I knew exactly what he was talking about but hey, its a fun game! so we chatted for a little bit then left because they were going to watch the Hobbit II. then a couple days later we are walking around town and we wanted to try her neighbor and then we see her outside! So we got to talk to her and teach her a tiny bit! yes we have just had a week and being in the right place at the right time and it has been great. holy moly long email sorry if you have a difficult time reading this. but yeah. it was a good week. i'm looking forward to the package you sent me:) i'm trying to get one together for you guys so you might get one within the next few weeks. tell everyone I miss them and love them! i'm super excited for mother's day because I really have been missing all of you a lot. keep writing me letters please and emails! I love you! have a super week!

April 7, 2014

greetings family!

thanks for the email. haha I cringed and made a face when you asked how I felt about a purple house. i'm glad you're not painting it purple. blue will be better. with an orange door. not cause I like brighton but because orange is a good color. so is dad's car done then? does he drive it around? yeah Sadie told me about your dinner experience. Madison hasn't emailed me though >:( tell pali hi and to write me or something!

oh my gosh wasn't conference great!? due to technical difficulties we missed the majority of elder Holland's talk which was a bummer because he's one of my favorites too but I will just have to look it up this week. and yes, Uchdorf's was great! attitude of gratitude. it was so needed for today. so many people just focus on the fact that they don't have the iphone 7 or a 3 car garage. there are so many more important things in life! also I really loved President Monson's talk. So simple! The world would be such a better place if people really were just kind to one another. I really loved how he said something like "you will never regret being too kind" it is so true! Ooh also, Elder Ballard's follow-up talk! mission humor haha. anyway hey hey are all you guys gonna invest in a PMG then? :)) yes as you can see, I really loved conference. I can't wait to get the next ensign so I can read them again :) well this week besides conference we had MLC again. The Potsdam Zone Leaders drove us and Sister Langford and Sister Davis down. Then when we got to Utica all the Zone leaders had a zone leader conference to go to so all us Sister Training Leaders got to go out to dinner! We went in separate cars because there were so many of us so Sister Church and I rode with Sister McGregor and Sister Bladh. We decided to go to Panera bread and we go in and order and sit down when through the window we see  a big group of sister missionaries walking to the door! haha we didn't even plan to go to the same place but I guess we were just all feeling soups and salads and sandwiches. so we all had a lot of fun together eating there. then yeah, the next day was a long day. 7 hours of sitting and talking about the new teaching method gets me pretty restless but it was good. yeah nothing really too exciting to say about mlc. its warm today! i'm super excited for spring. do you have Easter plans? does anyone remember what we did for easter last year? oh also I forgot to tell you this but a while ago I tried a deviled egg for the first time. it wasn't horribly disgusting but eggs and mayo are not my thing. anyway. I love and miss you guys! I hope you have a good week. CTR and share the gospel!

love, sister Quinn nilsson

March 31, 2014

Hello Family!

yes sorry i wasn't able to send a letter last week. it was a crazy p-day. we were at the Blackburns house in Ogdensburg for our district activity and i didn't have much time to write but i'll write a letter today! you're remodeling?? i won't even be able to come home to the same house? :( jk cool do what you want i'm excitied to see it when its done in 10 years. hows dad's car coming along btdub? i'm super excited for Nick to come home. i bet he's going to be way awesome. tell him he can't go back to Korea until I come home to see him! ok this week was actually eventful so i'll start the email.

Monday was p-day whatever. but i did get to go to walmart because we were in Ogdensburg so that was wonderful :) then Tuesday. haha Tuesday was interesting. our day started off with a text message from Erin (the cute girl who got baptized last month) telling us her cat, Baby, whom she has had for 14 years and is sick, was doing really bad. we gave her some comforting words and went to visit a less-active at 10. then on the way back we decided we needed to go see Erin and comfort her. she answers the door with puffy red eyes and a tissue and lets us come in. her cat is sprawled on the floor with its tongue hanging out, gasping for breath and Erin is just sitting on the floor next to her, crying and petting her. so freaking sad. then within 20 minutes of us being there, Baby took her last breath...SO SAD! haha its funny to look back on but it was so sad in the moment. so then we went out and got Erin a coke and a plastic tote for her to put Baby in. so that was Tuesday morning. Later that night we were able to teach this awesome awesome girl named Aurora. We met her once at a less-active family's house cause she is their landlord but we didn't really think anything of it. then a member in our branch, Jade texted us and told us that Aurora babysits her daughter and said she was interested in going to our church. So before we even started teaching her she came to church and loved it. Then we went over to teach her and she had already downloaded the Book of Mormon onto her phone and felt like she had already received her answer that this is what God wanted her to do because of the 2 Mormon families she knew and then us coming along. She is sweet. She totally gets the gospel and is like the most solid person ever. But then on Thursday our other investigator dropped us.  Well she is this really cool retired band teacher/now writes articles for the newspaper. she knows everything about the church and her extended family is Mormon so she was researching and meeting with us and was progressing but she told us on Thursday after 2 weeks of intense research she thinks that Joseph Smith was a con man and that he lifted the Book of Mormon and that the whole church was a scam. a;sofj;aigjsa;glknsd;gvls what. so that sucked. she also predicted that SIster Church would follow in her footsteps and realize the church wasn't true. the people you meet on your mission. so then I cried all that night which was weird because like you know, i'm not an emotional person (although this mission is turning me into a big cry baby) and i didn't even know her that well but it was sad to see her so confused. oh well. she'll come around someday. then on Friday we took Erin out teaching with us just to a less active couple and then we had tickets for the fish fry at the catholic church school so we went to that. it was really fun haha. they gave us huge pieces of fried fish and coleslaw and mac n cheese and dessert and i died because i ate all of it. it was fun to do that with Erin though. She and Diego just went to the temple with everyone last Saturday and they loved it:) then on Saturday hahaha we helped this family who broke Amish a year ago move into their new house. so we ended up doing that like all day and oh hahah when Sister Church and I were saying bye to everyone the two boys who were 17 and 14 tried to get our number and take us out to the New York Pizzeria. so awkward haha. we skillfully rejected them and got out of there. then sunday we woke up to 8 inches of unexpected snow. so we ended up shoveling snow all day. also yesterday was fast sunday so we fasted as well. probably not a good idea but we need blessings! so yeah. that was the week.

hmm for the box...? clothes/jewelry is always fun to get but don't feel like you have to go out and buy me stuff. i just like fun random stuff. ooh like letter writing stuff. idk just whatever.

ok i love you guys and don't forget to read your scriptures daily and don't be afraid to share the gospel with your friends! have a super week and write me letters!

love, sister Quinn nilsson

March 24, 2014

olo family.
hey tell sadie thanks for those pictures! Pali(Ian) looked so handsome :) i got the letters and package! thanks!! the scarf is super cute:)  ok well i guess i will tell you about my less than eventful week...

we did a lot of walking. dad you wanted me to get my fill of tracting, i definitely did this week. and so far we haven't found anyone from it but whatever, we will find people eventually! there is this one girl we know though. we met her when we were visiting a less active family and then we found out she babysits for another member of our branch! she heard about our new church in gouverneur and wanted to come so she came last sunday! i think she liked it so we will possibly see her this week. besides that i spent a lot of time thinking about my old area...i thought i would be over it by now but i'm not! i still miss everyone so much! oh oh oh and the McConnels and Janie have a baptism date so I am dying! also its still cold. i seriously dont think winter is going to end. yeah honestly we just tried to find people the whole week. i will tell you when something exciting happens. hope ya'll have a good week. tell pali to wax that unibrow. he looks like squilliam fancy son. lates.

sister quinn nilsson

(and for those who don't know what squilliam fancy son looks like, here you go)

March 17, 2014

Hello family!

first of all, i haven't received a letter all week. what is going on? i'm dying over here. also aww that was nice of them to get you a big gift basket :) tell them hi and that i still miss them! awww noo our trees! i never thought they would come down. 
yeah anywya fun stuff at home thanks for keeping me updated. so now i guess i will tell you about my week. it was interesting. not too exciting. we had another ztm. i finally met all the missionaries in my zone. there are so many senior couples! oh also haha yeah i went to that baby shower last week at the blackburns. it also was way snowy on wednesday! we had to stay in for part of the day so we didn't get in a car accident. we have been searching for more good investigators. oh funny story. so we went on exchanges this week. I went with Sister Stephenson to Watertown. it is such a cute town! way bigger than gouverneur. but so we were walking down the street to get to someones house and ahead of us is this screaming crazy man who is yelling at a lady in a car. we are like 10 feet away when he starts to walk away but then he turns around and yells to her "YOU KNOW, I SITLL LOVE YOU" and then she's like "THEN WHY DONT YOU SHOW IT?" and then he's like "I DO SHOW IT" and then she said 'NO YOU DON'T" or somehting like that. so funny. we got a safe distance away before we started laughing but it was seriously so funny. we considered approaching him and offering to teach him about the gospel but we didn't feel like he would be in the mood. it was like being in the middle of a drama series haha. oh and then we had a dinner appointment with this awesome family. they are hawaiian. the mom is so funny and there were like 4 teenagers. it was so fun. she made us cafe rio/costa vida basically. aw i miss hawaii.  oh also today we bought funfetti pancake mix. stoked to try that. also we had district conference this weekend. so weird the "stake" or "district" of potsdam is like as big as our ward. maybe a little bigger but its nuts. there are no members up here. they all talked about missionary work again :) i love being the most important person in the room. how is the missionary work in our ward going? well. i kind of got to go but i will add more info in my letter. WRITE ME. 
lates,
sister quinn nilsson