Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!

First of, Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. On Saturday Juan Escalente was baptized, he is a incredible guy. By the time i came got transferred here he already had a date and was super solid. I will give his story here. Juan is 25 and he is dating a member in the Coos Bay ward. After a while dating he accepted the invitation to come to church. He was very scared to come to church, because not too long earlier he had been to a different church and felt "horrible the whole time." He knew if he felt that same way then that would be the end to his investigation. He said he felt very good and at peace in church, and he has been pretty much every week since.

He met with the missionaries here for a few months and was very earie of joining before he absolutely knew it was the truth. One day he texted the Elders and told them he was ready to be baptized and he set his date for Dec. 22. About a week after setting the date the two
missionaries that taught him got transferred out and my companion and i started teaching him. It was very easy, he knew it all and was ready to go. It has been awesome to get to know Juan, he is a genuinely good guy, he kinda looks like a rough kid, but after getting to know him i know he would never hurt a fly. He will be a strong member through out his life. His baptism wend very well. In the fount he started crying, you could tell it was something that means a lot to him. Yesterday after Church his girlfriends family invited us over to lunch with them. It was great to be with him after the confirmation, and at the end he shared a Christmas message and bore his testimony. The gospel truly makes good men and better.

Thank you to all who have send me Christmas letters, and packages, i really enjoy hearing from you. I love you all and wish you a Merry
Christmas
 

Elder Covey

--
Fearless via Faith

Christmas Pictures

Rebecca Rose Walters Baptism

Juan Escalante Baptism

December Pictures

Merry Christmas 2012

Elder Reed

Elder Burg

Transfers

 First and most importantly Rebecca got baptized! Pauline is too old and not healthy enough to get baptized right now, she is actually in the hospital right now, so she did not get baptized, and that really does not get me down. She has learned understood and accepted these things and she is pretty close to the end. I have no doubt she will accept it in the next life, which could be in a short time. I am so happy that Rebecca got baptized. On Wednesday she called us and said that she was sick and she was afraid that she would have to postpone it, we went over there and gave here a blessing and a little pep talk, and she decided that as long as she was able to physically walk she would be baptized on Friday. The service was great, the only problem was is that Elder Reed and I were Late! ha ha

We had Zone Leader Council that morning in Eugene the drive to Eugene is about 2 hr and 30 min. They said it would be done at 3 but it went over time and the baptism started at 6. So we ended up we got there right as the first talk started. It was kinda Crazy but the service was very nice and Rebecca was very happy. She has such a strong testimony, she has already gotten a bit of flack from her friends for going the church, but she does not care. Being a Member has and will continue to bless her life so much.

Now i will talk about transfers. I am getting transferred to the North Bend Ward, and Elder Reed is going to stay in Coos Bay and train. They told us at ZLC on Friday. The funny thing is, is that i kinda saw it coming. President really likes the Zone Leaders to be in the same ward as the Stake President and President Tricinie lives in the North Bend ward. It is kinda sad to leave Coos bay after only being here for 6 weeks, there are a lot of awesome people here, but with Rebecca getting baptized last week that makes it a little easier, and Shaely and Bauden are moving back to St. George, so my favorite investigators are either leaving or have been baptized. My new
companion is Elder Burg, I know him a little bit, he seems like a good kid and i am exited to be his companion. I have had some really exiting ideas lately for ward mission plans and correlation between members and missionaries. I will talk about it more on a different email, i dont have time for it today. What prompted these ideas is that President Tricinie asked Elder Reed and i to ponder and pray about ideas that can help the stake out and help it so the missionaries can have more things to do when we get all the new ones. We are meeting with President Tricinie this Sunday and we are going to talk about it. I am exited.

In mission slang you call your trainer your dad and the person you train your son, and it sticks with you for the rest of your mission. I say this because this week I am a very proud father. Elder Jorgensen just got assigned to be a Zone Leader, and Elder Kwok is training this transfer! They are both very good sons, and i am glad i did not mess them up too much. I really hope i get to be in one of their zones again. Other good news that i keep forgetting to put in my email is that Justin Pattersen was baptized two days after thanksgiving! He is such an amazing guy and he is going to be a great member, and now i need to convince him to go on a mission Ha Ha. I got t0T call him the day of his baptism, It was great!

I Love you all
           Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith

A wonderful start to the Christmas season

 It has been a really good week and we have some exiting things coming up. So first big news is that we have a baptism of Friday. It is of a mother and daughter. the Mother (Pauline) is 91 and the daughter (Rebeca) is 59. They were being taught since before i came. They have had the desire to be baptized since before i came, but the big thing holding them back was Rebeca's health. She has some off shoot of vertigo, so she could not really sit up or move around. Before i came President gave them permission to baptize them even if they had not come to church because of their health conditions. 
When we first met with them i really felt that it was important to get them to church before their baptism. I felt that if Rebeca would give it a shot the Lord would bless her and she could come. We decided the first step was
to get her to come to the church for a chapel tour. We talked about it for a long time but we could not get her to commit to date until two weeks ago, we committed her to come for a chapel tour for Nov. 27th.

We had the Chapel tour and it was great. She was able to walk around and sit strait up in the pews for a good half hour. We showed her the baptismal font and she was very exited. We challenged her to get baptized on dec. 7th and she accepted. She also accepted to come to church on Sunday and she if she could make it threw sacrament meeting. She and he mother came Yesterday and were able to stay for two hours, they loved it. And at church Pauline also said she was willing to be baptized on Dec. 7th. Rebeca has been more exited for her baptism than anyone else i have ever taught. In our last lesson with them she told us "I cant remember ever being so exited for something in my whole life" and she told us that at least 7 times! She is great. It has been amazing to see these miracles happen in for them. I am very exited for Friday.

On Thursday President came to our zone to do a specialized training. Elder Reed and I were assigned to teach about "The standard of Truth" Which is a quote from Joseph Smith prophesying of missionary work and how no one can stop it and it will reach the whole earth. We had 30 min to go in depth and teach from it. We made a little sheet to pass out that morning. I think it went well, I will email the handout so you can see what we did. After Specialized training President Young came to a lesson with us. We taught Mark and Stephanie. The lesson
went really well. We taught about the power that comes from reading the Book of Mormon each day and how much it blesses our lives. It was my first time having President come to one of my lessons. I really
enjoyed it! he is a great man.

Transfers are a week from today. It will be interesting to see what will happen, it seems like there is a 50/50 chance that Elder Reed with stay, and there is a small chance that i will go. We will see what happens. On Thursday President told us that we most likely will not be covering North Bend next transfer, Which is a relief. It has been interesting covering both. It has gone pretty well, they have a few cool investigators and it has been fun teaching them. 

Well that is all for this week. But before i end i would like to just bare a quick testimony of the joy and excitement that God gives us when we serve Him. A week ago from Sunday during sacrament meeting i was sitting in the pews feeling very overwhelmed, there were a million things i had my mind on and at first i thought "poor me, I wish things were less crazy." but almost immediately afterward that i thought about how grateful i am to have all these things going on. In no way would i had rather been been sitting as a non missionary without a care in the world. I have the amazing opportunity to be a part of these things that are so important, and things that bring me so much joy. How awesome is it that i have lots of things to improve on. It's exiting and I love it. I love stepping back and thinking about what i am doing and why I am stressed out. I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to worry about. Well hopefully that makes sense, It make sense to me ha ha, I love you all!

Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith

November 2012 Pictures

Thanksgiving 2012 Pictures

Elder Levac & Cresswell

Stephanie is a investigator who is one of our members girl friends. Mark and Stephanie are awesome, they just need to get married and then she will get baptized. They have us over for dinner a lot and Stephanie is a amazing cook. Last night she made us fried Twinkies and Ho Ho's here are pictures of that adventure

A Crazy/Awesome/Crazy Awesome Week!

So i just spent a freakishly long time organizing my pictures and stuff so i have no time to write this email. Which is a shame cuz a ton of stuff has happened this week. I will try to pack in as much as i can in a short amount of time So i really don't know where to begin, so i guess i will start with thanksgiving. It was awesome. In the morning we went to breakfast with the North Bend Elders and Mark and Stephanie then we did some par core! and had time for a little dance party while waiting from Mark and Steph to get back from Walmart, are dance party was to a CD of remixed primary songs! pretty much the only dance songs possible for a missionary, but it was a ton of fun to mess around , after we went to Mark and Stephanies house and played Monopoly, it was tons of fun.


After that we went to the Shelmans and eat with them. After we eat they took us to the coast and we went hiking, it was amazing. The Oregon coast is so beautiful! After that we went and hung out with the North Bend Elders some more. It was a great day.

We got some crazy news on saturday night. The North Bend missionaries are getting transferred cuz we had elders who extended this transfer and they are going home this week and so the mission is short on
Elders. So now Elder Reed and i cover North Bend and Coos Bay! its pretty much just one big city. It is going to be pretty crazy they were teaching a lot of people, and we dont know if we are going to be covering it for 2 weeks or 8 weeks. So thats a stressful yet exiting thing. Okay i wish i had time to write more but i need to get going, i love you all!

Elder Covey

--
Fearless via Faith

Coos Bay Pictures

Elder Kwok & Elder Covey

 Justin Patterson Baptism

Happy Thanksgiving

It has been a really good week. First off Pat was baptized. He is such a sweet old man. When Pat decided he wanted to join the church he asked the High Priests what he needed to do in order to join. They told him he needed to be baptized, but he told them he had already been baptized when he was young in a different church, but that he was willing to do it again if thats the way it worked. So he did not go into it thinking it would be a life changing event, but then we meet with him a couple times and taught him some things, so by the time his baptism came he realized why he was getting baptized again and he looked forward to it, but after the baptism he definitely understood why, from the spirit he felt. It was really cool to see how at the start it was kinda a "if thats the way it is then i guess i will do it attitude, to at the end he was crying because of all the differences he knew it made and because of the importance he knew it had. He had a lot of family come down from Washington for the baptism and the confirmation. It was great to meet them, they were all  very nice people.


We taught Stacey again and it went well, and she committed to come to church and we had a ride set up for her and everything, but we called her in the morning and she said she was "sick" so that was kind of a disappointment. We had a really cool experience on Saturday before the baptism With a new investigator Named Chris. Chris is probably in hislate 20's he lives with his girl friend and they just had a baby on Tuesday. He is a really, cool nice guy. About a week ago we went threw all the former investigators in our area book and we prayerfully picked a few to go visit, and see if they would like to be taught again. Ones name was Chris and last week we tried him twice and could not catch him, but in Friday night planning we decided to visit him the next night. Before the baptism we planed on making the baptismal program, but as we left the apartment we realized that we could do that while the font was filling up, we we then had a extra hour that we had not planned for, and we decided to go visit Chris. We went and he was there. He Immediately let us in, and thanked us for coming. 

We got to know him a little and then he started telling us about how right now he is going threw some hard stuff, and that he has been very discouraged and that before we came he completely broke down.  He said he was so happy to see us, cuz he knew this is what he needed, we told him how we knew we were led by the spirit there. We read with him Mosiah 20 which is where Alma and his people are in bondage and they pray and are comforted, the Lord makes the burdens light and then they are delivered. The spirit was really strong. I am very exited to continue to teach him, and hopefully we can get the girlfriend in on it also.


I am really exited for the thanksgiving. We are going to spend most the day at the Schelmens. The Schelmens are this awesome member family, They remind me so much of our family, its pretty crazy. I am really exited, they are great. Well i am about out of time, but i would like to end by expressing the gratitude i have. I am so grateful that i can be serving a mission. I cant in words describe how much it means so to me, how much  i have grown, and how great it has been to see others grow. I am so thankful for the gospel and for the restoration. I have no idea where i would be with out. It blesses me with so much peace and direction. It helps me in ever aspect of life. Most of all i am thankful for Christ and His Atonement slowly but surely the Atonement has become more and more real to me, and i have been able to rely on it more and more. I pray that it will continue because as it has grown I have been able to apply it more to me, and i have been better able to become who God wants me to be.


I love you all, and hope you have a great thanksgiving. Thank you so much for the support you give me. i love you all!

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Pat Houghton's Baptism

Pat's Grandson baptized him

Story of Alex Serrano

This is the story the Elder Quentin L. Cook told on a broadcast from Salt Lake City. 

Alex had been dating a member (Elisa) she was semi active when they started dating, but about 6 months ago she became fully active, and like two months later Alex asked if he could go to church with her and from then on he has been going every week. Whenever missionaries would ask Elisa if Alex wanted to take the lessons she would say "not now" because she was afraid of pushing him or making him feel uncomfortable. A little over a month ago Elisa's home teacher (Thomas) challenged Alex to take the lessons and he accepted. Throughout all the lessons Alex has been super in-tune with the spirit, every time he would talk about how good he felt when we met and how he wanted to meet more often so he could have that feeling more. He understood every principle really well, and when we taught the commandments he was  so willing to live them. He said that he use to love ice tea, and usually in the summers he would drink like a gallon a day, but when we taught him the word of wisdom he had no concerns,  he just pretty much said that he knows that's what God wants of him and so he will never drink it again, even if he doesn't fully understand it. His baptism was awesome. Elisa gave an awesome talk, on how seeing Alex grow threw this whole experience has re-converted her. The spirit was there super strong. After the baptism We went up to give him a hug, and he was just glowing,  and he said "I have never felt so much peace." His confirmation was great also, and later that night he sent us a text just talking about how he feels so good about everything, and how he feels different.

--
Fearless via Faith

I love you all!

So i am needed to go get my hair cut really soon so this will be a short email. First news of business is we are having a baptism on Saturday. Its a 84 year old man named Pat. He has been married to a member for 20 years, and the day before i came here he decided that he knew the church was true and he wanted to be baptized. He has met with missionaries many times, and knows all the stuff so we only had to meet with him a few times, and now he is ready. It has been interested to have a baptism of someone i have only met with a few times, and have not gotten to know very well, but i am very exited for him and his wife. They are a great couple.


We taught Bauden again yesterday, it was good, he is understanding the answers he is receiving but i can tell he is scared about making the changes necessary in his life. I am really exited for him. I will give one quick story before i need to take off. On Wednesday we were trying to contact a potential investigator name Rosey. We knocked on  her door and her sister Stacy came out and said that they are very open people and usually listen to what people had to say, but that they had there own beliefs, it seemed like she was trying to tell us not to come back. But then she started asking us some questions, about things like if we believe you have to go to church to get to heaven, and we answered her questions and were able to teach quite a bit. We ended up teaching her for about 45 minutes, and she enjoyed everything we taught. The spirit was super strong there, and i could definitely tell it was leading Elder Reed and I in what we needed to say. We aremeeting with her on Wednesday and we are really exited. I got to get going. I love you all. The church is true! and the spirit is real, it leads me to do and say things i would not have thought of on my own.

Elder Covey

--
Fearless via Faith

Coos Bay is the place to be

It has been a awesome week. I really love my new area. The members hear are so outrageously nice! They bake us things and love feeding us and us coming over. One of them even does our laundry! kinda weird but supper nice cuz laundry mats aren't all that cheep. It has been a really interesting week, and it has kinda felt forever long. So i will start talking about some of our investigators here. On Tuesday we picked up a awesome new investigator, her name is Marleen. Last week one of the Senior couples in our zone were in Coos bay and they went to a pancake house, and one of the workers noticed there tags and started talking to them, she talked about how she just got here a month ago and things have been really hard for her, and she is lookingfor help, so they told us to go by the pancake house and see if we could set something up with her. So one morning we went in and talked to her. It was kinda weird walking into a pancake house to contact a referral but she was glad we came and we were able to set something up for tomorrow. She seems super open and we are really exited to teach her. 

And yesterday we also picked up a super solid new investigator his name is Bauden (bow-den) His wife is a member. He plays baseball at a community college here, and they are from st. George. The missionaries in the past have gotten to know him a little bit but he had never been taught, so yesterday we dropped by and we were able to teach him the restoration. It went well, Elder Reed and I are still getting use to each others teaching styles, but it was good and he understood it all. He is very open and he agreed to read from the BOM and pray. We are exited for him. They are a awesome couple. Friday was ZLC so we went down to Eugene, it was really good, we were trained on how we can more use the book of Mormon is finding people and in helping to show people how the gospel can bless their lives, it was good.

Yesterday was stake conference, and all the Oregon stakes watched a broadcast from Salt Lake with Quentin L Cook. He talked about preparing for a mission, and as a part of it he used a story from
missionaries in the Oregon Eugene Mission, and he said that the names were changed. He then told the story of Alex Serrano! but used the name Daniel. it was awesome. Apparently he asked President Young to send him some stories so he could use one. I had send the office a summary of Alex's story, so they must have sent that to Elder Cook. Its crazy to think that he read the story i typed up and he decided to use that one. It was exiting, I kinda felt like in a way Elder Cook was thanking me for my service, it felt good.

This week i have felt a overwhelming amount of gratitude and joy in me having this opportunity to serve a mission. I have been able to really reflect on how much joy this has given me, and how much it has helped me, and more importantly how it has helped others. I am so grateful i can be here in Oregon serving, its weird to think that it will someday come to an end, but luckily i still have lots of time left. I really cant describe in a email what my mission has meant to me, but i can say i will be forever grateful for it. I love you all!

Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith

I'm definitely going to miss Corvallis

So first big news, I got transferred. I was really hoping and expecting to stay in Corvallis, but on Saturday i was told that i was getting transferred to Coos Bay. Coos Bay is on the coast, it is about to two and a half hours away from Eugene. My new companion is Elder Reed and we are the glorified district leaders ( mission lingo for Zone Leaders over a one district Zone) in the Pacific Zone. The pacific Zone has 10 Elders and 2 senior couples. At first i was really bummed. I really wanted to stay in Corvallis cuz some many great things were just around the corner, and i wanted to stay with Elder Kwok. But i do know that this is where i am suppose to be. And i am exited to be in a small Zone, when i was in Corvallis I always envied those in the small zones, cuz know instead of having 5 districts and 36 missionaries we have 1 district and 10 missionaries. So we will be able to focus on each companionship and each area much more, and it will make us more effective and be able to help the zone much better.


Elder Reed is from Layton and he seems like a really cool guy, we came out together but never really knew each other cuz we were in different MTC districts. I think we will get along great, and he told me all about the different people we are teaching hear it sounds like there is a good amount going on and they have seen a lot of miracles lately. My last week in Corvallis was a great one. Sunday was a especially good day. At church was the time i planned on saying goodbye to most of the people i had grown close with. At church was when i said goodbye to Zhenhu, Kimo, Yao, Zhou Zhung and Yang. They all were extremely kind and it really made me happy that i knew them. Right after sacrament meeting Zhenhu asked if he could take a picture with me and him on his phone. I was already planning on getting a picture with each one of them, but it meant a lot to me that Zhenhu would want a picture with me, Zhenhu is the sweetest guy ever he kept saying "Covey I am going to miss you." Yang came to church for the first time since he has been back from China, he has been super busy and we have not really been able to meet since he has been back, but when i told him that i was leaving he agreed on coming. It was great to see him again. Kimo is still doing great. It was hard to say goodbye to him. I gave him one of my ties, he was very grateful, he gave me big huge, told me he was going to miss me and wished me luck. Probably one of the hardest part of going is leaving Justin, but the good thing is, is that he is doing amazing. He comes to all 3 hours of church each weeks, and he goes to all ward events and even institute. As of Sunday he had not told his family about his plan to be baptized at thanksgiving break, and for some reason he was really scared to. I saw him at church, gave him a tie and told him i was leaving, but he said he was planning on coming to break the fast, so we could say goodbye then. We sat bye him at break the fast and he told us that after church he called his family and told them that he was getting baptized during thanksgiving break, his Mom was very glad (I am not quite sure why he had been so hesitant to tell them.) And he asked his uncle to baptize him. And before we left we took some pictures and he gave me a note he typed up after church. The note pretty much made my mission. 

I don't remember what i said in past emails about our fist meeting with Justin, but he basically invited us over and told us about some struggles he was having and he tough that maybe we could help. I know that one of the big reasons i was assigned to Corvallis was for Justin. Things really clicked for and we really built a strong friendship. The Lord really blessed me with a strong love and concern for Justin. It was so sweet of him to write me that note, he thanked me for helping me and said a lot of nice things. Reading it was definitely one of those "its so worth it" moments. I got pretty emotional and it reminded me how amazing it is to be a missionary and to get the opportunity to help others come closer to Christ, and you get to see the change in their lives. Later in the night i was able to say goodbye to Xingyu, Chris and Alex. They all could not come to church for various reason but it was great to see them one last time. It was especially great to see Alex, I have not been able to see him much lately cuz he started this crazy schedule where is at work or in school 7 days a week until 8 pm. So it was really great to see him, talked about how exited he is for the crazy scheduled to be over and how much harder life is when he cant go to church on Sundays. He is awesome! I really feel like i gained some life long friends in Corvallis, especially Just, Alex and Kimo. And i told all these people that next fall or winter i will come back up to Corvallis and for a weekend and hang out with them, So i guess i am going to have to back that up! and i definitely look forward to it, they all will be here going to school next year. Elder Kwok is doing amazing, his new companion is great also. It really has been a pleasure being with Elder Kwok, he is amazingly humble and kind, and he has ever necessary skill for being a dynamic missionary. I am going to miss him, and i look forward to seeing him around. Well that's all the time i have for today, I love you guys. Thanks for the prays. The church is true!

Elder Covey

--
Fearless via Faith