Monday, August 27, 2012

Getting Excited for Fall term!

it has been a good week. The most exiting thing is that we were finally able to teach this one guy we have been trying to teach for a couple weeks. his name is Chris Marsh. He has grown up in a Semi active home, but he never wanted to be baptized, we are not completely sure why, when we asked him he said it was cuz his Dad forced him to go to church so he tried to push back by not getting baptized, but now he does want to get baptized! He is way cool, it was really different teaching him because he already knows most of it and he believes it all. he is going to be baptized on Sept 15. he is a huge guy, probably 6 foot 5  around 260. He is cool, it was definitely a miracle, its not everyday you find people who are anxious to get baptized. So besides Chris not much has changed. Everyone is still doing good.


So i am going to take advantage of not having too much to say, and make this email a little shorter so we will have more time for Frisbee golf. I love all of you, hope you all have a great week.

Elder Covey


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Fearless via Faith

Monday, August 20, 2012

An Apostolic Week


It was a wonderful week. On Wednesday we went down to Eugene for Zone Conference withe Elder Snow of the 70, He talked about how everything is really a matter of faith, and how with enough faith we could obtain any of our goals. Sometimes we hear that and we think that it sounds too easy, but in reality its probably the hardest think to do. Its easy to say that we are going to have more faith and believe that are goals will come, but in order to have real faith we need to do something about it.

We also went to Eugene on Saturday and the whole mission was there. Elder Andersen of the twelve, Elder Hansen and Elder Rashband of the Seventy, and Bishop Stevenson the presiding Bishop were all there. They were all hear to go to different stake conference and some other stuff we are not sure about, but they took two and a half hours on Saturday and spoke to us. It was pretty cool because they went completely by the spirit. They had nothing prepared for the meeting. Pres. and Sis. Young gave 5 minute talks at the start of the meeting and then they turned the time over to Elder Andersen. He went up and we listed some stuff that we learned from Elder Snow and some other things we wanted to improve on and then each of them took sometime and expounded on one or more of the topics. It was amazing how in-tune with the spirit they all were. 

They had nothing prepared yet they taught us the exact things the mission needed. It really makes me want to get better and listening to and following the promptings of the spirit. One really cool thing that Niel L Andersen did was he encouraged us to use the New testament and stories of Christ more in our teaching, it really struck me that these Chinese people we are teaching need to learn more about Christ and his life hear on earth. Well I am flat out of time. I love you all!

Elder Covey
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Fearless via Faith

Monday, August 13, 2012

An Exciting Week Ahead

So I don't know if i have told you guys yet but next week we have a mission conference with Niel L Andersen of the 12! For the past month or so we knew a apostle was coming but they did not tell us until this week. I am super exited, the whole mission is going to Eugene on Saturday for it. We also have Zone conference on Wednesday and that's going to be with Elder Snow from the 70, and that's going to be a all day thing in Eugene, with half the mission. So its pretty exiting times!

This week has been awesome. Elder Brian is great, I have been so blessed to be companions with best missionaries in the mission, and they are all guys that if i knew them back home i would be good friends with. Elder Brian is from Idaho falls, and he only has 3 months left, it will be interesting to see if i will be his last companion.


Things are pretty good in Corvallis, its been pretty hot but nothing unbearable. The best part about Oregon this time of year is that black berries grow wild. They are everywhere! you can just pull of to the side of the rode and there will tons of huge black berry bushes, its incredible. So we have been eating lots of black berries and making a lot of black berry smoothies. Its awesome! 

So probably the most exiting news of this week is that we set a baptismal date with one of our Chinese investigators. His name is Kimo I have talked about his in past emails. He is pretty much the bomb. Teaching him has been awesome. We have taught him a lot differently than the other Chinese. Back in China he went to the only Christian church there, its pretty much a Catholic church but its under a communist government. So we taught him the restoration first and he seemed to understand but we really got the feeling like we needed to focus more on the restoration instead of moving to something else. So the next lesson we watched the restoration video with him, it helped him out a lot and he really felt the spirit from it. We thought after that we would move on and teach something else but before our lesson yesterday we felt like we needed to go over the restoration again and focus on Authority. The lesson was awesome it really all clicked for him and he realized that the need to be baptized by proper authority. So we were able to set a baptismal date with him for September 1st. I know that it was the spirit that told Elder Brian and I what we needed to teach. I know the promptings of the Holy Ghost are real. On my mission I have felt the promptings much more than i ever have in my life, and my biggest goal is to be more and more sensitive to them.


I love you all, thanks for all you do!
Elder Covey


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Fearless via Faith

Monday, August 6, 2012

Changes!

So i think last week i forgot to mention that transfers are today. So i got a new companion, his name is Elder Brian, and he is awesome! I already kinda knew him from some ZLC's. So other great news, Elder Howard got called to be the next assistant to the President! he is super overwhelmed but i know he will do great, he is a amazing missionary. I am going to miss him a ton! So yeah transfers were today, and Elder Howard left at 9 30 and Elder Brian came at 11 30. 

It has been a pretty hectic day, we have had to take a lot of people to the transfer spot, but some how we still got a little time to go Frisbee golfing. It was great, it really is a super fun sport. I have improved a ton since i have gotten hear, and Elder Brian is really good, and he is down to go every P day, so that's good. We actually Just went to a baptism for one of the family wards here in Corvallis. It was a family of 7! They are awesome. Elder Howard and I did their baptismal interviews yesterday. It was great to get to know them.

So Elder Howard and i had a really good week. On Tuesday was ZLC so we went down to Eugene. It was another great meeting. usually we get 6 days from ZLC to when we have to teach Zone training meeting, but this time we got two days. So it ended up that we only had about 2 hours to make a plan to teach a 3 hour training meeting, we were super nervous, but it ended up going well. There are some things that i wish we would have included but i guess it will always be that way. Overall it was good.

Our investigators are still doing good. We taught Allen the Word of Wisdom, which is kinda a scary think to teach a Chinese person because they all smoke drink tea, and their favorite thing to do is to go get drunk with their friends. We taught him it, and he talked about how he struggled with all those things, but that he was willing to give them up and that he believed he could! Allen is so awesome, he definitely is slow moving, but when he gets baptized he is going to be solid! Alex is doing awesome, I don't know if i have talked about his lately but, he is doing better than ever.

Lately my testimony on Gods love for each of us has really grown. I have been doing good, but the last little while i have gotten a little down on myself. My year mark is coming up pretty soon, and i know that i am not yet the missionary I want to be, and not the missionary i wanted to be when i reached my year mark. I have been a little unsatisfied with the efforts i have put it. My prayers have gotten a lot more sincere lately and i have been apologizing to God for not always doing all i can to serve him and apologizing when i choose my personal comfort over his work, and whenever i do i really get the feeling that God is very happy with what i am doing, that he knows i can do better and he wants that for me, but that he loves me and i happy for the service i have given him. I know that i can get better and its important that i keep striving to become a better servant, but i also know that God understands me personally, he knows my weaknesses and he understand, and he also knows my desires. Sometimes its hard for me to believe but i know that with Gods help i can overcome my weaknesses. I have a ridiculously hard time talking to all the people i see, very often there are people that i should talk to about the restored gospel that i pass by, because i am scared to talk to them. I hate it, i want so bad to be able to go and to tell them about the restored gospel, but something holds me back, and sometimes i get really down on my self for that weakness, but i know that God knows my desires, and i know that he will help me overcome that. He wont do it for me, but he will help me. it will still be hard, but he can give me the courage. And in the end it will be good that it was hard for me to do, because nothing at this time seems more insurmountable than for me to get to the point where i can talk to all those i see. It honestly seems impossible, but once i get past it I will know that i can do things that seem impossible, and i can only do it by relying on the Lord. I love you all, thanks for  your prayers, you are in mine.

Love
        Elder Covey

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Fearless via Faith