It's summer in Corvallis!!... and its still raining

Ever since rain season began everyone has been telling me that in Oregon once it gets to mid June, it turns to perfect weather for 3 months, they lied. It has been raining quite a bit, and its suppose to rain all this week. You gotta love the Oregon rain! but i really have grown to love the rain, but too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, and i am definitely ready for some sun.

So transfers are today, and this past week has been kinda crazy, we got calls from President or the Assistants about everyday asking about certain missionaries and certain areas and just throwing out some ideas. For a while there it the plan was to split the zone and Elder Howard stay here and get a new ZL comp, and me go to Lebonnen and start the new Lebonnen Zone with a new companion, but that did not end up happening. But the final verdict is that the zone is not splitting and Elder Howard and I are staying together. Which is really good because i love this area and it would have been hard to leave these investigators, and I am way glad Elder Howard and i will be together another transfer. Something that did change for us is that we no longer cover a family ward. I am really glad that we just get to focus on the Singles ward. The family ward we had was just kind of a distraction, we did not have a lot of time to spend out there,  so the change is definitely for the better. The only potential downside is that things could possible get slower in the summer, and now the ward has full time Elders and Sisters, We teach the men the sisters teach the women (there has been both in the ward for a while, i dont know if i have mentioned that earlier.) 


So with us both here it could equal us tracting out the area pretty quick because there are less people in the summer, but that just means we are going to have come up with new ways to find and to get ward members to share it with there friends. We have been thinking and praying a lot about how we can make things explode this summer and we have had a lot of ideas, so we will see how it goes.

The zone is doing awesome, Jurassic June has been one to remember! we did not quite reach our goal of every companionship baptizing, but we had more than doubled the baptisms the zone had in May. And its looking like July is going to be even better, the zone has 27 people on date, which is way more than i have ever seen it.
Things really picked up in our area this week now that finals are over, we were able to have lessons with a few investigators we had not seen for a while, and we had two awesome lessons with two new Chinese investigators Carl and Len Ting (some of the Chinese pick American names when they come here and some keep there Chinese name.) we found them both tracting. There both awesome especially Len Ting, He let us right in when we knocked on his door, then he came to church the next Sunday, and we have had another lesson since. Its very interesting teaching the Chinese, you have to start at ground zero because they have no beliefs, we usually teach the plan of salvation first, and we teach it very simple. They usually understand it well. And almost all the Chinese are willing to give a prayer at our fist lesson, its awesome, and for all of them its the first time they have every prayed. And they all talk about the peace they feel, while praying, and then we teach them how that's the spirit, and that's God speaking to them. Its very humbling to get this opportunity to teach these people who are so hungry for something more than have. Our investigator who is most progressing right now is Allen (also Chinese) he is the roommate of the Chinese guy who got baptized a month before i came. They taught him a couple months ago and apparently he was not very interested but he came to church a few times. We saw him about two weeks ago and invited him to come to church again and ever since then he has had a change of heart. He is so sincere and he is recognizing God telling him, that He is there. He is doing awesome we are really exited for him. 

It has been a amazing week. Yesterday during church i was just thinking about my whole mission and all that has happened since i have been out. It made me think that i still have a far way to go to accomplish all my goals and to grow as much as I want to, and how i still have so many weaknesses that i need so work on. but its also made think about how much i have changed, and grown in these past 10 months. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve a mission, It has done so much good every aspect of my life. I know it has only changed me for the better, i use to worry that i was going to turn to a robot missionary and not be able to joke around or have fun, but that's not the case at all. Sure it happens to some missionaries but it definitely does not have to. I am probably more of a goofball than before, but i have learned how to have fun without taking away from working or taking away from the spirit. And most importantly its been amazing to see the change in other people, I know there is nothing else near as meaningful as what i am doing now, and its really scary think that its almost half way gone, ha ha every time that comes to my mind i think to myself 'I better start working harder cuz before long i wont be able to do this anymore.' 
The church is true! and it changes lives! Don't forget it! I love you all, thanks for your prayers

Elder Covey

--
Fearless via Faith

Finals and Graduation at OSU

I would like to start my letter with a Fathers day shout out to my Father, Dad you are the best! I want to be just like you, thanks so much for your example. I love you. And I would also like to wish a happy fathers to day to Johnny, Michael and Papa, and to all other fathers who read this.

Its been a very intersting week, now that finals are over there are tons of people moving out of Corvallis. There are moving trucks down every street it seems. I am really looking forward to this next week because hopefully all the people that wont be here for the summer have already moved out. 


Yesturday was graduation and it was kinda crazy, Michelle Obama spoke at graduation because her brother is a coach for the basketball team, the town was pretty crowed it kinda reminded me of Provo on a game day, but not quite as crowded (Levell Edwards stadium hold much more that Beaver stadium.)  


This next week is looking like it will be really good, we have a lot of appointments set with investigators that we have not seen for a couple weeks because of finals and stuff. On Saturday we get transfer calls, and it will be very interesting to see what happens, there are a lot of different possibilities for the zone, including a zone split, but we will see, it definitely seems like Elder Howard and I will be staying together but there is no way of being sure. 


Well thats all i have time for today, sorry this letter is so short, i will try to make is so i have more time to write next week, this week i was looking up some stuff on LDS.org for a investigator so thats why i don't have much time.

The Church is True! and it changes lives. I love you all, please pray for me, and the struggling missionaries in the zone.

Elder Covey--
Fearless via Faith

OSU Finals Week

So this week is finals for Oregon State University and last week was dead week. It definitely has slowed the work down, but we still have seen some awesome miracles. It has been a interesting time, a good amount of the people we are teaching are going home for the summer so are teaching pool has significantly dropped, and the ones who are staying have not been able to meet because they are busy with finals. So this week has consisted of a lot of tracting, and a lot of visiting less actives in the family ward (Philomath.) At the start of the week tracting was pretty rough, we tracted a ton tues- thurs and we did not get a single investigator or even potential investigator. 


We met so many people who seemed interested and we would teach them a little and commit them to read a pamphlet or the BOM and then we would ask if we would could come back and see how it went and teach a little more, and they would say how they would but they are going home in a week and were super busy up till then. It was kinda frustrating, and it seemed like there was almost no point to tracting but we knew its what we were suppose to be doing. and then on Friday, Saturday and Sunday we had awesome tracting, It seemed like everyone we talked to was not leaving for the summer, and we even had two people let us come in their apartment and teach them on first contact, which is really rare. It definitely was a testimony builder for me that the reward does come after the trial of our faith and that if we do all we can we will be blessed. 

Alex is doing awesome, we had a lesson with him at the church and he was just on fire. He said that there has been a drastic change in his feelings and attitude since his baptism. He talked about how there had been sometimes during the week when he just felt super peaceful during times that he usually feel really down or stressed out. He knows that he has received the gift of the Holy Ghost and it has made a real change in him. It is so amazing watching people change, there is no way i could deny that there is a real change in people after they are baptized and confirmed. its incredible. That's all the time I have for today, I love you all. 

Elder Covey
Fearless Via Faith

1. Elder Hill (one of the spanish Elders that live in our apartment) came up with the idea of doing our weekly planning in baptismal whites so our mind would be on baptisms. We did and we took pictures of us planning

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2. Alex's baptism. He is in the middle, next to him is his girlfriend Elisa (she is a member), and next to her is Thomas who baptized him. 

Best week ever

ts been a awesome week. First and most importantly, Alex got baptized on Saturday! It was awesome, he is just an amazing guy. Working with Alex has been awesome, with us being so close in age with him its really helped up gain a really good friendship with him. I don't know if i have explained how Alex was started meeting with missionaries but i guess i will tell you real quick. 


Alex had been dating a member (Elicia) I think 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 Elicia 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 Elicia's home teacher (Thomas) challenged Alex to take the lessons and he accepted. He had one lesson before i came. 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 did not whine about, or try to justify how its not bad like most investigators do. he just pretty much said that he knows thats 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. His Elicia gave a awesome talk, on how seeing Alex go 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, when i gave him a hug he squeezed really tight (not in a weird way but kinda in a manly to almost hurt you way.) and he said "I have never so positive." 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. It is so amazing to see the different in people from before they are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost and after.

And then rest of the week was pretty good to. Thursday was my birthday, and it was a great day. It was a pretty normal day, but it was great! And thanks to those that send me a letter or package, it made the day so great!
Friday Elder Howard and I went down to Eugene for zone leader council, it was pretty much the whole day. So Zone Leader council is a meeting type thing where they bring all the ZL's from the whole mission to the mission home, and President teaches us a lot of things about where he wants to mission to be going, and all sorts of things, he also asks us what are thoughts are on some ideas he has, and we discus pretty much everything that is going on in the mission. It was great and super spiritual, i learned a lot about things i need to be doing and things the zone needs to work on. Next week we have combined District meeting (all the districts in the zone meet together, for district meeting.) And Elder Howard and I teach it, and we are suppose to take all we learned about at zone leader council and teach it in combined District meeting, we will see how it goes, I am really looking forward to it. 

So Jurassic June is off the a great start, the zone had 4 baptisms on Saturday, so we are on to our goal!
Well that's all the time i have for today, I hope you all are doing well, thanks for the prayers.


Elder Covey
Fearless Via Fatth