Sweet Home Chicago - Family, Friends, & Hotdogs

*Quinn children, spouses, & grandchildren at Ohare airport with banners and signs welcoming home Grammy and Grammy (Pres. & Sis. Quinn)*

There is nothing like coming home—coming home to people who love you, to places that are familiar, and to forty years of memories.

As we boarded our flight home, I felt such excitement knowing our family would be waiting to greet us at Chicago O’Hare Airport.

*Sister and President Quinn on plane header to Chicago O’hare Airport - Coming home!*

We have loved living in Naperville since 1986. We moved here when I was eight months pregnant with our second child, Melissa. From the very beginning, we found friends in the Naperville 1st Ward and in our community, those friendships have blessed our lives for nearly forty years.

When we arrived at O’Hare, all of our children and their families were there waiting with banners, smiles, and hugs. What a wonderful homecoming!

Chicago O’hare Airport - Greeting grandchildren!!! ❤️

*President Quinn with Luke Anderson - grandson*

Our first stop, of course, was Portillo’s in Naperville for authentic Chicago hot dogs—the famous Chicago Dog with everything on it except ketchup! Onions, peppers, pickles, tomatoes… And they gave us one of their famous chocolate cakes as a welcome home gift. A favorite treat of our family’s! It was the perfect welcome home!

*Hannah Francis - daughter holding famous chocolate cake! Yummy!*

After dinner, we checked into the Renaissance Hotel, where our entire family stayed for the weekend. We had brought California gifts for our twenty grandchildren, including “Bigfoot” socks, red crab hair claws, shell hair accessories, and reunion sweatshirts for everyone. It was so much fun watching them get excited about their surprises.

*Grammy and Lily Anderson wearing the family reunion sweatshirt*

On Saturday, we enjoyed a leisurely walk along the beautiful Naperville Riverwalk, went and saw some of our former homes, and spent time playing together at a park.

*A favorite place - Naper Nuts N Sweets*

That evening, we hosted a pizza party for many of our returned missionaries at the Judds’ home. Seeing so many of these wonderful young men and women again filled our hearts with joy. CASRM missionaries are so good about supporting each other. Thank you for making the effort to come to Naperville for our homecoming! We love you! ❤️

*California Santa Rosa Missionaries - thank you for traveling to support us! We ❤️ you!*

*Sister Schneider one of our mission nurses. So great to see her again!*

Sunday was our mission report. I was a little nervous speaking in front of so many family members, friends, and missionaries, with many others joining us on Zoom. Later I learned that more than 87 people had joined in online. We felt so loved and supported. (I am going to attached our talks to the bottom of this post.)

*Sister Quinn giving her mission report. June 12, 2026 Naperville 1st Ward - Illinois*

That evening, we gathered for an open house at the Caines’ home. It was such a blessing to reconnect with dear friends who stopped by to visit. At one point, I took a photo with several close friends, and it reminded me of the beautiful song You Can’t Make Old Friends, recorded by Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson. Those friendships are priceless. These friends know my history. They remember when my children were babies, and we all “grew up” together as young mothers. Time has changed us, but it has only deepened the love we share.

*Friends from over the years in Naperville - Bette, Connie, Claire, Denise, Elaine, Ellen & Dian*

*The Quinns with the Caines - Thank you for hosting.*

*Center piece for the open-house at the Caines*

Tomorrow we begin the next chapter of our homecoming—a week-long family reunion. We’ll spend the day in Chicago enjoying one of my favorite experiences, the Architectural Boat Tour on the Chicago River, before heading to an Airbnb in Michigan City, Indiana. We’ll spend five days at George Washington Park, where our family made so many treasured summer memories riding WaveRunners on Lake Michigan and enjoying the beautiful white sand beach there. We spent many fun summer days at this beach while our children were growing up.

*The Quinn Family - Naperville Riverwalk July 2026*

*Mark and Elaine Quinn with their twenty grandchildren*

Home truly is more than a place. It is a feeling of love and belonging that you just can’t get anywhere else!

This is it! My final mission blog post and my final letter out to all of you!. It has been a wonderful experience writing each week about my mission. Thank you for following along. I have enjoyed your emails and comments and mostly have appreciated your friendship and support. I’m sure I will continue to blog about mental health at elainehquinn.com and begin doing that in the next month or so. It is not goodbye it is see you later - tot zeins! ❤️ Elaine

*Quinn family outside of Stake Center in Naperville*

Here are more photos from the week during our family reunion:

*Throw back: Quinn Family 1997 - Quinn Family 2026 Naperville Riverwalk - 29 years later.*

*Francis family on boat tour with Chicago skyline in background. Love the Sears Tower!*

*Quinn family at the beach in Michigan City Indiana*

*Clayton Boswell and cousins playing kick ball.*

*Maverick and Booker Quinn - youngest grandchildren and twins of Chase and Maryssa at our AirBNB*

*Natalie, Hailey and Margo at the beach in Michigan City Indiana*

*Some fun sunglasses Quinns with grandchildren - Beach in Michigan City, Indiana*

*Chase Quinn, Katie Anderson, Hannah Francis, & Grampy by light house on Lake Michigan*

*Grammy, Hailey Boswell and Lydia Black - Lake Michigan*

*Mark and Elaine Quinn at beach in Michigan City, IN lighthouse in background*

Here are the invitations we sent out on social media for our pizza party and mission report

Attached here are our mission report talks:

President Quinn - My Mission Report

Naperville First Ward

July 12th, 2026

I am Mark Quinn and I am a disciple of Jesus Christ…

Invitation from President Nelson: Sister Quinn and I had the privilege of being called by President Nelson to serve as mission leaders. We visited with the prophet over Zoom for nearly 15 minutes. It was a visit we will never forget. During our meeting with the prophet, he asked that the focus of our mission be to help our missionaries become lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ. He promised that the gospel would bring them the greatest joy in life. President Nelson told us that our missionaries would be counted as our converts and that their conversion to the gospel would be the greatest accomplishment of our mission.

One the second page of Preach My Gospel, we are given the following promise:

‘“As your understanding and testimony of the Savior and His Atonement grow, your desire to share the gospel will increase.” (PMG Page 2)

Prior to our mission, as Elaine and I considered ways to fulfill the invitation from President Nelson and the instruction in PMG, we chose a mission scripture and motto focused on discipleship:

Our Mission Scripture: “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.” (3 Nephi 5:13)

Our Mission Motto: Disciples Go Deep (Share account in Luke 5:1-8 – “Launch into the deep…”)

Every six weeks we would meet with our missionaries in zone conferences. These conferences allowed us the opportunity to teach our missionaries fundamental missionary skills. We also selected and instructed our missionaries on topics that would strengthen their discipleship. These topics included:

The Infinite and Intimate Nature of the Atonement of Jesus Christ
Putting on the Armor of God
Seeking and Relying on the Spirit
Honoring Our Covenants Made in the House of the Lord
Living a Gospel Principled Life
Spiritual Power through Prayer and Scripture Study
Making the Sacrament a Consecrated Experience Each Week

In our interviews or in their weekly letter to me, I would often ask missionaries to share with me how they were “going deep” in their discipleship. Here are a few examples of thing our missionaries shared with me:

Prayer: “I’m going deeper with my prayers. I’m spending time before and after my prayers meditating and pondering. My prayers used to go one direction – from me to my Heavenly Father. I now feel that that my prayers go both ways. I am receiving inspiration for my mission.”

Scripture Study: As I have (studied the scriptures), I have become more sensitive to the Spirit. I can't even begin to describe the personal conversion I have gone through… I just want to share this joy with everyone!! The gospel means everything to me… I tried my best to give (the Lord) my all – and He has magnified every effort. I love Him with my whole heart, and I can firmly say with confidence that I know the Savior.

Faith: “I have learned to replace fear with faith. Too many times before my mission I allowed my fears to control the decisions I made. I denied myself some wonderful opportunities because I feared failure. In the future, I will allow faith in myself and Jesus Christ to help me make decisions.”

Charity: “I've been praying all week for Heavenly Father to help me to understand how I fit into this area and this part of His plan. On Sunday I saw an older lady walk into church by herself and she looked a little uncomfortable, so I walked up to her and started chatting with her. She told me today was the first time she's been at church for years. She was so sweet. I sat with her for sacrament meeting. After the meeting, she turned to me with tears in her eyes and said, "Thank you for being here. I know now that this is where Heavenly Father wants me to be and I'm going to be here from now on." …I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father allowed me to feel His love through this sweet lady! I just feel so blessed to be part of this work!”

Missionary Purpose: “I love it here in this mission. There’s so much that makes me happy. …I have been able to overcome personal challenges and weaknesses that I never could before. I have grown so much spiritually, being able to pray earnestly and intently, reading and feasting upon the words of Christ, and hearing and receiving divine revelation like never before. I am enjoying the work, becoming more diligent and faithful every day, and even the hardest parts don't bother me much anymore. I am a different, better person now. In this mission I have found Christ. This mission is the greatest thing in my life right now.”

I hope you have been as inspired as I was by these efforts of our missionaries to “go deep” in their discipleship to Jesus Christ. Discipleship comes with a price. I have witnessed many times over the last three years that when we make the effort to deepen our discipleship to the Savior, we will be blessed in rich abundance.

We also witnessed hundreds of baptisms where our missionaries helped their friends become disciples of Jesus Christ. I would like to share one experience with you (My experience interviewing Eddie). His previous acts required First Presidency approval…

“Now is the time for us to make our discipleship our highest priority.” (President Nelson, GC October 2024)

Experience at the airport: It does not matter…

“Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:32)

Testimony

Sister Elaine Quinn – Mission Report Talk

July 12th 2026 – Naperville Illinois

It is so good to be home in the Naperville First Ward. We love you! We have missed you!

I want to thank all of you who have traveled here to support us today and those who are joining us through zoom we love and appreciate you!

I am Elaine Quinn, and I am a disciple of my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Standing here today brings back many memories. This is the building where we blessed our babies, baptized our children, and celebrated mission farewells and homecomings.

After three wonderful years of serving in the California Santa Rosa Mission, I can’t believe it, but it is now our turn to report on our mission.

Our mission’s boundaries …..begin at the magnificent Golden Gate Bridge and stretched all the way to the Oregon border—a drive of nearly ten hours. And then it goes from the Pacific coastline, east to Sacramento -- another three-hour journey.

It is a beautiful mission!

The giant redwood forest there inspire awe and reverence. If you have never stood beneath those towering trees, I highly recommend adding visiting them to your bucket list. I’m not kidding it is amazing!! You will not be disappointed.

And there’s more …. Along the coast are beautiful rock formations and quaint lighthouses overlooking the Pacific Ocean. While inland the rolling hills of Napa and Sonoma counties stretch for miles with lush vineyards.

During our three years, Mark and I estimated we drove well over 100,000 miles through our eight mission zones. We spent countless hours traveling to zone conferences, missionary interviews, ward visits, Stake Conferences, Checking in on missionaries, transfers, and yes—even the occasional pickleball game with our missionaries on P-Day.

We had the privilege of serving alongside 616 extraordinary young men and women We love our missionaries deeply. We enjoyed being their mission parents. We added 616 new children to our family.

We also served with more than sixty senior missionaries who generously gave their time, talents, experience, and love to our mission and missionaries.

And We came to love the good people of Northern California and the faithful Saints who live there!

For three years President Quinn and I gave the Lord our all!

Every six weeks Mark and I would stand in the Santa Rosa airport with our APs and tech sisters waiting to welcome another group of young missionaries. They came carrying suitcases, wearing tired smiles, and sometimes there were some anxious tears as they left behind family, friends, jobs and all that was familiar to them.

Across the world, around 87 thousand young men and women ------willingly leave behind comfort and convenience because they know …. What our prophet President Dallin H. Oaks has testified—that Jesus Christ is the way, …….the only way to receive forgiveness of sins, overcome death, find healing and joy in this life and inherit everlasting life in the world to come.

There simply is no greater message to share.

What a remarkable time to live when the Lord is hastening His work.

President Russell M. Nelson has taught:

“The gathering of Israel is the most important work taking place on earth today. Nothing else compares in magnitude. Nothing else compares in importance. Nothing else compares in majesty.”

Through obedience and sacrifice our missionaries gather Israel by finding people to teach the Doctrine of Christ to and to help them make their first scared covenant with God….. that of baptism and begin the covenant path. Our loving Heavenly Father has a plan of happiness and a pathway in life to bring all of us, His Children back to Him.

Our mission theme was Disciples Go Deep and we spoke often to our missionaries about being lifelong disciples of Jesus Christ and the importance of becoming like Him and staying on the covenant path. The missionaries were our converts! It was such a sweet experience to watch their growth!

One truth became very precious to me during these past three years.

Jesus Christ is not standing at the end of the path just waiting for us to arrive.

He walks the path with us through life

He strengthens us when we are weary.

He comforts us when we are discouraged.

He lifts us when we cannot stand alone.

And He sends miracles.

In the California Santa Rosa Mission, we had a simple saying:

Expect miracles. Seek miracles. Record miracles.

President Quinn and I wanted our missionaries to recognize the Lord’s hand in their lives, so Every Monday evening we decided at exactly nine o’clock, all our missionaries gathered on Zoom from across the mission for fifteen minutes to share the miracles they had witnessed that week.

There was never a shortage! Each week we heard stories of prayers answered, hearts softened, people finding hope, and friends entering the waters of baptism. I loved hearing many stories how a person was praying for more light and truth to come into their lives and within days sometimes within hours they would meet the missionaries.

Our weekly Miracle Monday time strengthened my testimony that God, like in olden times, is still a God of miracles.

Our missionaries often heard me say God is in the miracle business.

I encouraged our missionaries to record their miracles. I, myself have a list of miracles on my phone. It is a great strength to me to read and reread this list. I invite each of you to record the miracles in your life. Great joy that comes when recognizing and remembering what God has done for us.

Every transfer I would visit with missionaries in the hallway of Church buildings while they waited for their turn to interview with President Quinn. Sometimes we would share more miracle stories.

Every miracle reminds me that Heavenly Father knows His children individually and blesses them uniquely. I asked a few missionaries if I could share their stories today.

One of our sweet sister missionaries, Sister Thueson, was struggling during her first transfer. She was very homesick and wondered if she was equal to the work.

One evening she and her companion were invited to dinner at a member’s home. As she walked through the door, she could hardly believe what she saw.

Everything was yellow.

Yellow dishes. Yellow napkins. Yellow decorations.

Yellow was her favorite color, It reminded her of home.

She commented on how cheerful everything looked, and the sister smiled and said, “It’s funny. I was planning to use my red dishes tonight, but at the last minute I felt impressed to pull out my yellow ones instead.”

It may have seemed like a small thing to everyone else.

But to Sister Thueson, it was a tender message from Heaven.

“I know where you are.

I know how you’re feeling.

And I love you.”

How grateful I am that we worship a God who cares about the details of our lives.

Another miracle taught me something different.

There was a wonderful missionary named Sister Mitchell.

Whenever I saw her, her beautiful smile would quickly dissolve into tears. At first, I thought she was simply homesick and having difficulty adjusting to missionary life. President Quinn and I changed companions and areas, hoping a fresh start would help. She had loving parents, faithful companions, and a desire to serve.

Yet the tears continued.

Eventually, I realized she wasn’t homesick.

She was battling anxiety and depression as an illness

We arranged for her to meet with our mission doctor, This doctor was a miracle for us too, who lovingly evaluated her and recommended medication.

A few weeks later, everything changed.

The tears were gone.

Her smile returned.

The light came back into her eyes.

When I saw her again, I wrapped my arms around her, and we both jumped for joy.

That experience taught me that Heavenly Father often answers prayers through inspired people.

One of the most tender miracles came from Sister Wright.

During a particularly difficult time, she knelt in prayer, crying asking Heavenly Father for comfort.

Later she wrote a poem which included these beautiful words:

“With tears streaming down,
Dwelling in hurt,
My Savior let Himself in through the door.

There He sat with me in silence.

Whispering while embracing me with love:

’You are not alone.

Trust Me.

I have sent people from above.’”

Those words touched my heart because they remind us of a beautiful truth.

The Savior doesn’t always remove our burdens immediately.

Sometimes He simply sits beside us until we are strong enough to continue.

Over and over again during our mission, I witnessed this truth.

Jesus Christ walks with His disciples.

He comforts the discouraged.

He strengthens the weary.

Another great miracle

Elder Soderquist’s mother called to tell me their family had been fasting and praying that he would be transferred to Crescent City so he could bless a family member there. Elder Soderquist thought that was nearly impossible because it would require whitewashing his area. Unaware of their prayers and desire, Mark and I made an unusual move during transfer prep and transferred him to … CC ! It simply felt right. When transfers were announced, their family rejoiced in the miracle.

My favorite miracle was witnessing great spiritual growth in our missionaries. I remember one Elder whose testimony was a little rocky when he first came out, saying to me, Sister Quinn it was on my mission where I found Christ.

Mark and I often commented on the confidence, strength and joy we saw on missionary faces that came as they committed to be lifelong disciples of our Savior, becoming more like Him. And walking the covenant path.

As Missionaries returned home after their service was completed…leaving from that same airport to family and friends awaiting their arrival They returned better versions of themselves. Stronger and happier, more Christ like.

God our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ know every missionary, every family, every new baptized member, every person seeking Him, —and He knows each one of us. As we reach out in faith and obedience I know we will see God in the details of our lives.

People ask me what we did for three years in California. The answer is simple we watched Jesus Christ change lives. Those of our friends, missionaries and family.

Yes, The greatest miracle I witnessed wasn’t the redwoods or the increasing number of baptisms. Although that was wonderful The greatest miracle was watching Jesus Christ change people – including me …….

I love the Lord and am grateful for my opportunity to Serve Him.

I stand before you today and testify that Jesus Christ is our Savor and Redeemer. He lives. The Book of Mormon is scripture that testifies of Him on every page. There is a prophet of God on the Earth today Dallin H. Oaks. I know each of each one of us is deeply loved and that God is waiting and wanting to send miracles our way!

…Amen

Sweet Home Chicago - Family, Friends, & Hotdogs

Crossing the Finish Line & Being Released - The Quinn/Peterson Exchange