Week 10: Best day of my life

Hello all you country bumbkins out west,

 

Scripture of the week..... Isaiah 40:29-31, and D&C 122:1-4.

 

BROTHER GREGORY IS NOW OFFICIALLY A BABTIZED MEMBER OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER DAY SAINTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok so first off saturday was probably the best day of my life. I was just sooooo happy all day and it was just flat out amazing. the baptism wasn't till 3 so we were super anxious most of the day just awaiting the special time. the font takes a few hours to fill, so we had to be there by 1 to start filling it and then we had a bit of time to just chill so that was nice, cause we dont get chill time very often around here. Gregorys asked if we could do pictures at 230 so once they got there we were busy with that for a while. they were all smiles when they walked in, it was so neat i have never seen brother g so happy. Elder Gregory did the baptizing, and it went smoother than we expected it would, brother g is a pretty stout guy, so elder Gregory was straining pretty hard but he got it done. the spirit that filled the whole church was just so amazing, ive never felt that way before. If i dont see another baptism my whole mission i wont mind, because that one was so amazing. He was confermed on sunday in sacrament mtg. elder c and i got to stand in on that and it was a very powerful experience. He also got to recieve the aaronic priesthood yesterday, and he and sister gregory are going to do baptisms next saturday. Elder Gregory heads out tomorrow morning. Im really going to miss him, hes become a great friend. We are having "the last supper" with him tonight. On sunday sister gregory pulled us aside and thanked us profusely for everything, and told us we would be a part of their lives forever now, so that was neat to have her say. There is so much more i could say about the baptism but its just not the same as telling it in person, so this will just have to do.

 

The SISTERS........... dundundun........ are actually very awesome.

 Sister wilkey made me call the church doctor about my toe. And yall know how much i hate doctors. Its not broken but there is def something wrong with it, who knows what it is. He got me an antibiotic to help it cause its some sort of weird infection. the pills are no joke bigger than calf bolus pills that we give to calves.
 

We have been fellowshipping a less active couple named the camerons, and bro cameron coached football, and also played at ricks college, so he and i talk football pretty much the whole time.

 

We started teaching Jinny this week, she is the jablonskis friend that i talked about a few weeks ago, it was an awesome lesson with her. The rest of our investigators are super frustrating at the moment, so please pray for my patience.

The best news for the week is that fact that we got to keep our car. The mission got enough new cars that the sisters got one too so that was a relief. i am not sure how many total missionaries we have, ill have to get back to you on that one. President told us that the new mission presidents name is president stocker he is from arizona. they will be here in june.

I think thats about all for today. I hope you are all well. Always remember that i love you all.

 

Keep on keepin on.

Love always,

Elder Quinton Joseph Zilles

Week 9: "Hold on. Hang on, Pray on!"

Hey guys,

Scripture for the week, D&C 112 1-14.

I hope all is well back home in the west, or wherever you may be when you read this. Just know that Elder Zilles loves you.

First things first, this week is transfer week, and here in the NHMM we get our transfer calls the saturday before transfers, which are on tuesdays. So saturday night we were asked to be to our apartments by 830 awaiting transfer calls. So Elder Chen and i sat there and played nurf basketball and shot eachother with nurf guns, because we were both very anxious. We were both hoping we would not be getting a call, because that would have meant nothing would be changing. But about 10 o clock our phone rang, and it was the AP's........... but guess what we are both staying in lyndon for one more transfer. FEEEEEW. The reason they called is Elder C got made district leader. Our district boundries are changing and we dont yet know all of the details on that. But we are both super stoked to be staying here. That means Elder C will die here, he will have been here 9 months crazy right? I am glad to be able to be his comp this last stretch he is a good elder and i truly have a love for him. This tansfer is only 5 weeks long, so elder chen misses 2 years by a week. He goes home to vegas march 27th, its wicked crazy, he is pretty nervous. I guess thats probably pretty close to when Elder Birky gets home right??

Well yes it is pretty wicked how fast time is going. Its interesting out here in the mission field, the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days, and they also say the months feel like years, but the years feel like months, so i will be home in no time.

I'm glad to hear that Zilles grandparents are doing well. Thats great grandpa wrote me, i was actually going to write him a letter today, but i will just wait till his gets here amd write him next week.

Well Zone conference was incredibly awesome. The topic was the book of mormon, and man was the spirit strong. No general authorities came to this one, but when President Wilkey is there you dont need anyone else to bring in the spirit. That man is going to be a prophet someday he is so amazing. I cant wait for yall to meet him someday, he just has a special spirit about him. He shared something really cool with us he said "when a missionary is called to the New Hampshire Manchester Mission, not only is he or she hand picked by our father in heaven, but they are hand picked by the prophet joseph smith. The prophet knows each one of you personally, and he has chosen you to come labor in his home country." I think that is pretty neat if ya ask me.

I was reading in my setting apart blessing the other day, and it says i will grow closer to the prophet joseph. At first i just thought that meant i will grow a stronger testimony of him, but i think it means more than that now. I love going to meetings, because i get to meet all the missionaries, and see my mtc buddies, and be with president and sister wilkey, they are great.

BROTHER GREGORY GETS BAPTIZED ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so happy and excited for him, and he is a great man, his family is wonderful. Elder Gregory had to have surgery on his back, he had a cyst. He had surgery in provo before he came home and just came home for recovery, he heads back on the 27th. His mission does not cover temple square though or he would love to meet you.

Yup so our sisters come tomorrow, we are pretty excited to see who they are, Today we are going to littleton to set up their apartment so they can get right to work when they get here.

As far as getting people to church, especially kids, just show them and parents love and it really will go a long way. Sounds like church was really good yesterday, im glad to hear it.

Think about this-We are all created in gods image, why do you think our family is all so goood looking? haha And its ok, we all have to learn to deal with a new body at least once in our lives. I am trying to learn how to deal with this new missionary body haha. Im weighing about 175 right now and i love it, just wish this weight would have come during my football days. But i love my morning workouts, they are a great way to blow off steam.

WEll, i hope i answered everyones questions. Love you all so very much.

"Hold on. Hang on, Pray on!' (Ross Zilles)

Love Elder toner

The District

The district at the Joseph Smith Memorial 

A New England Snow Storm

(We thought it'd be fun to include this email from President Wilkey) 

DATE:    February 8, 2013

TO:         NHMM Missionary Parents

FROM:    President Wilkey, New Hampshire Manchester Mission

RE:          New England Snow Storm ALL CLEAR

As you might know, a major winter snowstorm is upon us in New England.  All Missionaries are safe and accounted for, and I will be receiving regular updates on EVERY area of the mission in the next two days from district leaders to zone leaders to my assistants.

We are expecting from 1-2 feet of snow, frigid temperatures, blizzard conditions and some power outages.  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that New England is known for these conditions, and we feel prepared to deal with this storm.  Vermont and Northern New Hampshire will be impacted the least, but the southern part of the mission and coastal areas will experience the brunt of this storm.

As a precaution, I have grounded the entire automobile fleet through Sunday morning with the exception of the western part of our mission and they are to stay within 5 miles of their apartments.  Missionaries will largely be in their apartments or doing service projects close thereto.

Thank you for your prayers.  We’ll be safe because of your faith and prayers.   If conditions worsen I will apprise you, but at this point let this mighty work roll forward come snow, or snow, or snow!

Week 8: I Couldn't see them...but I could feel them

Hello my dear family and loved ones,
Scripture for the week.... moroni 10:27-29. 
 What a week. Ill just start from the beggining,  Monday as i said was district pday, which was a pretty good time. We went out to eat at applebees, and then we went back to the Montpelier chapel and played missionary sorry, the board game sorry, but we turned it missionaryish. Then Elder Barfuss and i taught Elder Chen how to rope stuff,(Elder Barfuss is our district leader and his grandpa sent him out a lariat). So that was quite humorous to see a little asian boy trying to be a cowboy.
Then it was time to go on exchange, so Elder C and Barfuss headed to lyndon, and i headed to South Royalton with Elder Petersen. He told me they didnt have anything really planned for exchange except for going to help some members in the area milk. And of course right when he told me that i perked right up and was nothing but happy. So on the way to their apartment we stopped and helped a member milk, and it was just good to smell cows again, ive missed that smell a whole bunch, they were probably some of the worst cows i have ever seen but they were still cows so i wasnt going to complain out loud.
 Tuesday we woke up and started doing missionary stuff, we went to the joseph smith memorial because it is in that area.

When we got there the spirit was soooooooooo strong, i have never felt it that way in my life. one of the prophets i dont remember who it was said, "if we had enough faith, we would be able to see the angels that surround this sacred ground." I couldnt see them, but i could definately feel their presence it was very neat. I got to get my own personal private tour from one of the senior couples soo that was pretty awesome.
 Later tuesday night we went and helped another member milk, and his cows weren't half bad, the only problem is he uses alot of accelerated semen,(dad we need to get the ABS guys going around here). He had a Guernsey that was actually a really good cow, so that was fun to see. While i was milking, Elder Chen and Barfuss were back in Lyndon teaching the first lesson to brother gregory, i was pretty bummed that i had to miss the first lesson, but i got over it. They set a baptisimal date for february 23 and he will be baptized at 3 that saturday, i am super excited for him to be baptized so they can go through the temple when Elder Gregory gets home for good in a year and half. They have already set the date that they plan to go through the temple.
 Wednesday we had our normal district meeting back in montpelier, so i got to exchange back to elder C,Once we got back to lyndon we had to hurry and go get set up for mutual. Our activity turned out so good. I wont go into to much detail about it, because i honestly dont know how to describe it in an email, it was just tooo awesome. The spirit was strong and i hope the kids were able to feel it. WE talked to Brother Jablonski after and he said there is no way they couldnt have felt the spirit, so it was good to hear that.

 Thursday we got a call from bob and he said he didnt want to learn anymore, so in the mission we call that being dropped. It was hard for me, seeing how that was the first time i have been dropped since i was out here. We also dropped two other investigators who have been being taught for a long time but werent progressing at all. We also had to drop logan and keiths bap dates, because they have not been progressing either. Also on thursday we were tracting and a guy told us he was going to call the cops on us, i was super mad, i wanted to tell him to go ahead and call the cops on us, but i didnt think that would be a good missionary thing to say. But even after all the bummer stuff that happened it turned out pretty good. That night we taught bro gregory lesson number 2 which went great, we also had dinner with them he cooked us moose steaks mmmmmmmm very good.
 Friday the storm of the century was supposedly going to rock all of new england, it was supposed to be wicked bad. But sounds like the whole world already knows about it. You would be happy to know that here in lyndonville we didnt get more than 4 inches of snow. But other parts of the mission got hit really really hard. Because of the weather our cars were grounded, so we grabbed our snow shovels and started walking around. Thursday night the Gorhams called and cancelled for friday becasue of the storm, they live up the mountain a little bit, so they got more snow than us, but they are so sweet and love us so much that they brought us pizza to cook for dinner and brought me milk and elder C orange juice which is what we always drink at their house. So friday night we took Elder Gregory out with us and tried to contact some less actives with little success, then Hershel called and invited us to the chinese buffet, so we went and ate with him.

 Sunday we got to church at 9 for correlation meeting and bishop grabbed me and said his speaker couldnt make it, and asked me to speak. My topic was John 13:34-35, its about love. So i gave a talk on the fly, and people said it was really good, so hopefully they werent just saying that. After church we had a linger longer, and then after that we went and taught bro greg again. After that we took Elder G and Zack barnhart a kid from the ward that has his mission call to brasil and we went on splits. Zack and i went together, we taught a less active, did some street contacting and we found a new investigator. His name is Sky and he looks like a very rough character, tattoos all over and piercings, but he seem open to learning wht we have, so we are teaching him again friday.
 So i just want to tell you a little more about brother GRegory. His wife has been a member her whole life and has always been active. They have been married 22 years, and Bro G has always went to church with her. So we always joke that we are teaching him but he has been going to church longer than we have been alive. He is a vermont game warden, an avid hunter and trapper and also a competition weight lifter. He is going to teach me how to do some trapping, and when i get home he is gonna come stay with us and hunt in idaho. He bench presses 700 pounds, yea that is an insane amount. But i love the guy he is so awesome.

My toe still hurts and is fat, but ill get over it, idk what i did to it or whats wrong with it. Tomorrow we have zone conference at the Joseph smith memorial Brother Gregory and Elder Gregory are driving us to it, and after it Bro g is having his bap interview so exciting. After Zone conference i am going on exchange with the zone leaders so that should be fun.
 Always remember that i love you all. The church is true, and without it none of us would be the people we are today. I am so grateful for the gospel and the man this mission is allowing me to become.
Love always,
 Elder Quinton Joseph Zilles

Week 7: Lyndonville: The Lord is Definitely Teaching me Patience

Hello my loved ones,
 Scripture for the week 2 Nephi 4:28-35
Mom you showed me this scripture a long time ago when i hurt my back and was really struggling with life, and the other day i was having a pretty rough day and was praying pretty hard, and this scripture was once agian brought to my attention. So, mom thank you for showing it to me the original time all those years ago(seems like its been forever since all that happened).
 First off, just a couple things that i need to remember to tell ya'll. 1. Be on the lookout for GPS's on sale. Luckily Elder Chen has one, or we would always be lost. There are very few road signs in New England and it makes it very hard to get around without a GPS. 2. I would ask that all of you get on mormon.org and make yourselves a profile. that website is a great wonderful mission tool, and i have grown to appreciate it very much(we got two referals from it this week).
Sounds like the super bowl was a bit of a bummer with the lights out and stuff, Hershel invited us over for dinner and said we could sit in the other room so we didnt have to watch the game, but i knew the temptation for me to watch it would be far to great, so we had to turn his offer down.
 As far as your budgeting questions, it has been pretty easy, all i have to worry about is paying for food and other daily needs. The mission office takes care of the rest, so all i have to work with for the month is 130 dollars, but i did fine this past month. As far as restaurants around here, the only chain we have is a subway and a mcdonalds, the rest of them are just little podunk ones here in lyndonville, but we do have a pizza place that makes wicked good pizza(wicked is a new england term).
I am glad sunday was swell for you. I love fast sundays, testimonies are the most wonderful thing in the world. And i bet your meeting was a spiritual monster. Ours was pretty good as well. Lots of people talked about missionary work, which was great, becasue yesterday in ward council, elder chen and i did a training on how we really need the members help or we will not be able to accomplish all that we have to do (we used these scriptures, Alma 13:24, Ether 12:18-19, D&C 33:8-10, D&C 84:85,88). I bore my testimony, and felt a strong impression that i needed to share that part from elder holland about god loving broken things, and i feel it was very well recieved.
It was super exciting yesterday, we got a new family in our ward. And yup they moved here from Boise. It was so nice to have an idaho boy with me they are a super legit family and i cant wait to work more with them. Our ward is really small, and i feel it should probably be a branch, but i dont make the calls. We will get the attendance up so that it actually looks like a ward.
Our Family history center in our building just got new computers(2) and a new printer, that is all that it consists of. But after church elder C and i got the privilege of setting them up, they are super high tech, and we were pretty stoked to get to set them up.
 This week was realllllllllllllllly slow and very kinda boring. Elder Chen got super sick with a bad cold at the beggining of the week, he was running a fever and everything, so we didnt get a whole lot of work done, we went from teaching 11 lessons last week to 4 lessons this week. John and marry(thursday couple) had to cancel cause they got stuck in the office late that night, but we meet with them this week. We finally met with keith and also alan. Keith is well he is an alcoholic, so it is hard to say what will ever happen with him, but at least we know he is alive and we finally got to meet with him. Alan is confusing as well, he flat out told us that everything we believe is correct and he believes it, he just doesnt want to commit to changing his life right now. Some people are just a little slow. The lord is definitely teaching me patience. We had dinner with the Gorhams again on friday and read more out of the BOM. They still havent come back to church, but we will get them there soon. We did however get new tires on our suburu this week so that was sweet(yes landon we drive a suburu).
 As far as your question about people watching over me out here, yes i constantly feel like i have guards around me, and at times i really do feel like i can see them. I had a dream this week about a woman who i dont know, and i usually only dream about people i know, so it was a bit of a change up. I really feel like this woman is someone who i am supposed to find and share the gospel with, so that was a pretty cool and uplifiting feeling and experience to get to have.
 I am super stoked to be getting more missionaries here in the area, it will move the work forward so much faster. And the fact that they are sisters is even better. Sister missionaries are so much better than elders, i dont even know why they need us out here, the sisters teach about double the amoount of people. But it will be great to have the help. I just hope we get a car.
 The missionary training program is called "the first 12 weeks" so technically you should be with your trainer 12 weeks. But that doesnt always happen, so we really have no idea what could happen here. Transfers are 6 weeks long. Because of the influx, all misssions here are getting cut down by a week, so instead of 8 weeks left Elder C only had 7 weeks,he is getting super excited/sad/nervous.
 Thank you so much for my package, i love my scarf, and my cow, really thank you so much. and my knife haas already come in handy more than once, and i dont feel naked anymore now that i can carry it on my side. I was so happy when i opened it and there was peices of hay in it, it really made me miss my cows and farm life though.
 I am pretty excited about this week. Elder Chen is finally feeling better, and so that means we can get to work. We are putting a special emphasis on finding new people this week, so that means lots of walking and tracting, but its going to be great. I am one of those weird missionaries that actually loves tracting.
So today is District pday, so once we are done with laundry we are heading to montpelier to hang with the district, who knows what we will end up doing, we kind of put the sisters in charge of planning it. Tomorrow we are doing a exchange, so i will be going from montpelier to south royalton today, and will exchange back on wednesday at district meeting. South Royalton is a neat area, i am excited to see it, the Joseph smith memorial is in that area, and also lots of dairies.
 Tuesday while i am on exchange elder chen and elder barfuss will be starting the lessons with brother gregory who is from our ward. His wife has been a member forever, and he has just never wanted to join, but goes to church every sunday. His son Hunter has been on his mission in Salt Lake for 6 months and had to have surgery and is coming home today on sick leave. So Brother gregory wants hunter to baptize him before he goes back on his mission at the end of the month. The lord works in mysterious ways. Next tuesday is zone conference, which is at the joseph smith memorial, and the theme is the book of mormon, im super excited for it and to see who comes to speak to us.
Always remember that i love you, and as far as it is to be away from you and home, i know i am where i am supposed to be. Heavenly father promised me that he would take care of everyone that i love while i am gone.
Continually strive to grow your testimony,
Pray as often as you can,
 and earnestly study the scriptures everyday and i promise you will see a difference in your crazy everyday lives.
If the missionaries back home ever ask for help do every little thing you can to help them, because we are all in this work together, and it is the single most greatest work that will ever happen on this earth, and we get to be a part of it always remember that.
 Mom and dad, thank you so much for raising me the way that you did. You taught me to love the gospel, how to work, and how to love people, and many other things. I realize now how stupid i was to treat you the way ii did at times, and i really wish i could take those times back and fix them. But for now a simple email will have to work.
 I pray for you all everyday, and i feel your prayers as well. Take care, and talk soon.
 Love always, Elder Quinton Joseph Zilles

 p.s im pretty sure my big toe on my left foot is broken, so pray for that for me. but dont worry illl live