What a week!

It has been a amazing week, I am going to do a day by day thing here

Monday: Elder Brian and i did our P day stuff early and at about noon we headed down to Eugene, we got there around 1 and he went to his new area and i went to the trainers training meeting. It was really cool because there are a lot of trainers this transfer (20) so having all of us in the mission home getting training was awesome. Usually all the trainers sleep at the mission home, but since there were so many of us 4 of us stayed at at the AP's apartment. So that was fun, its been cool how much i have been able to see Elder Howard, it was good to be with him again.


 Tuesday: morning we went jogging at some trails by the University of Oregon stadium, I wore my Oregon State T-shirt, it kinda felt like wearing a BYU shirt in salt lake, but much worse because there are way more BYU fans in salt lake than OSU fans in Eugene. After all that wewent to the mission home for breakfast and more training. The training was really good it reminded me a lot of last time i trained and also when i was being trained. Those two experiences really helped me a lot to decided the kind of trainer, i was and was not going to be. At 1 pm the new missionaries came, I was super nervous, because we had no idea if Elder Kwok spoke English, or Mandarin all we knew was that he was from Hong Kong so he spoke Cantonese. So the moment of truth came and they all got out of the transfer van and before any of the new missionaries got out sister Young got out and came strait to me and said "He speaks English and Mandarin!" that was a very relieving moment. so i met him but i could not tell him i was going to be his companion yet, because the way president does it is he interviews all the new missionaries and prays about it then at the end of the whole thing he decides who is going to be with who. The only reason i already knew I was getting Elder Kwok was because the reason why he got called to Corvallis was because of all the Chinese people that are being taught in Corvallis. So the time came and they announced the companionships and then i got to start getting to know Elder Kwok. First of he is brilliant, his English is perfect, he speaks much better English than any of our Chinese investigators, and his Mandarin is also perfect. He grew up in Hong Kong and he went to BYU Provo for a year before he came on his mission. Elder Kwok is awesome, he is definitely one of those pre-trained missionaries. I can tell that he did a lot of preparation for his mission because his teaching and finding skills are better than most missionaries when they have been out for a year, and that's no exaggeration. He is also is just a awesome guy. I was really afraid that it would be hard for us to gain a friendship because we are from two completely different cultures, but it has not been that way at all, we have gotten along great.


Wednesday: Wednesday was awesome we went out and did some street contacting in the morning and Elder Kwok was great, he went up and talked to people, it was really impressive. Then we had lessons with both our Chinese recent converts, they are both very exited to have him hear, I think it will be a great tool, to help them become stronger and stronger in the gospel, because he can really explain in Madrine the things that don't quite make sense to them. Then we had a lesson with a investigator Zhenhu, who just got back from China and that went great as well.


Thursday: We had district meeting. So when they first gave us transfercalls all they said was i was released from being a Zone Leader and that i was going to train Elder Kwok, and i was really exited to be able to just focus on my area, and not have to worry about other missionaries. But that hope only lasted for a day, the next day when President called Elder Brian and I he asked if i would be the district leader, at first i was kinda bummed but then they told me who was in my district. They split the Corvallis district so my district only has 3 companionships in it which is nice, it is us, the sisters that serve in our ward and also Newport, which is on the coast. They are all areas that are doing very well, and they all have great missionaries in them. So on Thursday i taught district meeting, it was weird teaching a meeting like that by my self, I got use to teaching Zone Training meetings with my companion, I like teaching with someone else better. But district meeting went really well, was a little nervous
because i did not really have a chance to plan for it until Wednesday night after planning because the whole training thing, but the whole district contributed a lot and it went well. Most of it was on Focusing and being driving by our purpose. Which pretty much means focusing on the end results and not the means. I learned a lot while preparing it and Elder Kwok and i came up with a bunch of things to do to help us focus on our purpose, its been great. We Also taught Chris on Thursday, we had not been albe to meet with him for a while but the lesson went great, we are having him set his own baptismal date, because the ones we have challenged him to have fallen through. Friday: On campus there was a spiritual awareness thing, so all the student religious organizations could have both. It was pretty cool, there were not a lot of people there but we found a couple potential investigators.


Saturday: was a awesome day, we had no appointments set up so we planned out a route to visit a lot of potentials and then also places to find. We saw a lot of Miracles. We OYM'd these two Chinese guys out side of their apartment and Elder Kwok did the whole Mandarin thing and before you know it they are best friends and he is writing down their phone numbers so we can call them and schedule appointment once they get their class schedules. Another miracle we saw is we went to visit a potential investigator and we knocked on his door and then the door right next to him opens up, so we just pretend like we meant to knock on his door, It was a Japanese guy named Tamoki, we talked to him and taught him for about 5 or 10 minutes and we scheduled appointment for today, but the most impressive part was that the whole time he was brushing his teeth, and he did not spit once. It was weird but impressive i would have definitely had to have spit after talking for like 30 sec.


Sunday: was also great. We had 3 investigators at church, 2 Chinese and Chris. It was really cool cuz for the 3rd hour class bro Gu came and him and Elder Kwok taught a Sunday school class completely in Chinese, so we did temporary splits and i went to regular priesthood. After church we went and contracted some one who referred them self through mormon.org. I was super exited because not once on my mission have i gotten a media referral for someone who requested a missionary visit for them self. It was all i ever dreamed it would be. His name is Justin, His Mom is a member and his dad is not, they got divorced when he was 5 and his dad would not let him get baptized but he went with his Mom and pretty much lived like a member for 5 or 6 years. And now he wants to get baptized, but there are some things he is struggling with that he wants to overcome before his baptism, so he is coming up with a date as the goal to overcome those things and be baptized! he is a way cool kid, he is a freshman.


Well i am more than out of time. I love you all, the church is so true!

Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith

September Pictures

At ZLC they always take a picture, here is one of the last ZLC. This is from the misssion blog oregoneugenemission.blogspot.com i probably should have told you about it earlier, but better late than never i guess.

On Friday the LDSSA  (Latter-day saints student association) had a booth on campus for a spiritual awareness thing. this was our both. It was fun, the place was pretty empty but we found a couple potential investigators.

Chopsticks, Rice and Jesus Christ. Kimo was Baptized and I am training a Elder from Hong Kong!

 So first of all, Kimo was baptized! it was awesome, He is such an amazing guy. I have given pieces of it in several different emails but i will go ahead right now and give Kimo's whole story. About 9 weeks ago I was on exchanges and i stayed in my area. In planning the night before we decided that we were going to finish out tracting an apartment complex that we had started just a few days earlier. So the next day we starting knocking and about 4 doors in we knocked on a door and a Chubby Chinese guy (which is pretty rare) opened the door. He was shirtless and him and about 5 other Chinese guys were playing playing video games. Right when we opened the door Kimo immediately jumped out the door and shook our hands. We told him that we were missionaries that teach about Jesus Christ. 

He talked about how he was a Christian and he went to the Christian Church in China (also very rare.) He agreed to meet with us but said he was going out of town for 10 days and so he gave us his number to call him when got back. 10 days later we called him and he answered the phone: "I am Kimo!" He agreed to meet with us the next day. The next day we meet with him at the institute and gave him a chapel tour. We had a member with us named Martin. Martin mentioned that there was a YSA dance that night in Salem, and he told Kimo he was invited. Kimo immediately accepted the invitation, and he rode up with some members and went to the dance. The next day was Sunday and he came to church (He has not missed a Sunday since.) We had a lesson with him that next Tuesday, we taught him the restoration, he did not seem to understand and the whole time he just seemed to be pointing out the differences with our church and the church he went to back in China (which is pretty much Catholic) At one point of the lesson he asked us if we knew of any churches around that were like his church from back home. He was not understanding what we were sharing but he agreed to meet again. 

The next lesson we watched the Restoration DVD in Chinese and then did a overview on the restoration. It helped a ton and finally started to understand, in the last scene of the Movie it has Joseph Smith senior being baptized, and right once it was over Kimo asked about baptism, he talked about how he was baptized as a infant. The next lesson we felt a strong prompting that we needed to teach the restoration again, so we did and it finally all clicked for him he understood and he believed. And all the time before he had been reading from the Book of Mormon and coming to church. We committed him to baptism at that lesson. A few weeks later we taught him about the Word of Wisdom, which is always a concern for the Chinese because tea and alcohol are a big part of their culture. We taught him and he said that even though he did not do any of those things on a regular basis that he could not promise to God he would not use them, because he felt like when he went back to China he would have to. We Challenged him to pray about it, and pray for strength. We were not able to meet with him for about 10 days because he had finals and stuff but he still came to church. We finally got another appointment with him and we were pretty nervous cuz we knew it would be make or brake. We asked him how his prayers had been and how he was feeling toward the Word of Wisdom he simple told us that he promised God he would follow of his rules. About two weeks later he was baptized. His baptismal service was great, the spirit was strong. He was confirmed the next day, and he definitely felt the spirit strong. After the confirmation he gave us all hugs and he we was about in tears.

Kimo is a amazing guy, he is supper funny and loves craking jokes. He is oddly good at sports. He came to sports night twice, one was volley ball and one ultimate Frisbee, he had never played either before but he was pretty good at both. I love Kimo and I am super exited to keep working with him. Kimo is my first baptism of someone who i knocked on their door, I have had a ton with baptismal dates but they all feel through. Lots of older missionaries talk about how tracting is a waste of time and how they had not seen a baptism out of it thier whole mission. I am glad that it has paid off for me. So other news transfers are today and some crazy stuff is happening. I am being released as a Zone Leader but i am staying in this ward to train a Elder from Hong Kong China! His name is Elder Kwock. quite a while ago president requested a Chinese Elder for this area and all the Chinese people we are teaching. About 3 months ago I learned he was coming to the mission, and since then i have been hoping and praying that i would train him here, and now that came true. I am so exited, it is going to be a huge challenge but i know it will be great! I am out of time to write I love you all! pray for Elder Kwock

Elder Covey
--Fearless via Faith

Pictures

Disc Golf - searching for a disc

 Elder Covey and Kimo. This is the shirt Kimo wore on his first day of church.

An Eventful Week

It has been a very eventful week. But I will start with the good news. We were finally able to have another lesson with Kimo. We had not had a lesson with him for about 10 days cuz he had a bunch of finals, and the last time we had taught him we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he was not sure if he could commit  to live it, so we committed him to pray about it, and pray for courage to commit to live it so he could be baptized. So we were pretty nervous for the lesson cuz we knew it would kinda be make or brake. We met with him on Tuesday, and we asked him about his experience praying about living the word of wisdom, and he simply responded "I promised God that i would follow all his rules." It was awesome! He is getting baptized this Saturday. I am so exited for him. Kimo is so great, he has not missed a week of church since the day we knocked on him door, even during finals. Chris did not come to church so we are going to have to reset his baptismal date. 

So on Tuesday we had Zone Leader council in Eugene. It was really good, the mission is making some big changes. From now on we are no longer going to be reporting tracting hours and OYM's which is how many people we talk to. These are two numbers we have  collecting but that are not in Preach my Gospel. The reason why we are taking these out is so people will focus more on finding new investigators than getting tracting hours. We really should be tracting just as much. Wednesday we did exchanges with the AP's and Elder Howard came with Elder Brian and I. It was awesome to be with him. He is doing a great job as a AP. 

Saturday was the Home opener for OSU. They played Wisconsin who from what i hear was a high ranked team, and everyone thought they were going to destroy OSU. But OSU beat them, so that was pretty exiting for the city of Corvallis. The only problem with the whole thing was that it was a really hard proselyting day. In the morning we tried just going out and talking to people, and everyone was on their way to the game and did not really want to talk to us. And during the game no one was home, and after the game everyone was partying. So it was kinda a rough day, and we did not have any appointments so we went finding and visiting Less Actives, and no one was really home or wanting to talk. So next game day we are probably going to go someone else area and do splits during the day. Next week is transfers, we will be getting transfer calls on Saturday, it will be interesting to see what happens. Probably one of us will go and one will stay, I guess we will see. 

Well I am out of time, Love you guys! Pray for Kimo


Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith

Happy Labor Day!

Happy Labor day everyone, I hope you everyone has a fantastic day. Its a regular P day here, I just hope it does not make the Frisbee golf course crowded. So this week was finals week, which is pretty rough, we were not able to meet with any of our Chinese investigators. The only investigator that we were actually able to have lessons with was Chris. Chris is  doing awesome our lessons went great and he came to church, it was great the ward fellowshiped him very well. He is looking very solid to be baptized on the 15th. 

We have not been able to meet with Kimo cuz of finals, he has a tentative baptismal date for the 15th as well, but he is not to sure he can committee to live the Word of Wisdom for the rest of his life. We are meeting with him on Thursday. It will be pretty make or break, I have been thinking about him and praying for him a lot. Please pray for him. I want to be better at putting something i learned in these emails. I am learning a ton of stuff while i am out here, and when i sit down to email it  seems overwhelming to write all the stuff i learned, but i am going to try to include one thing each letter. 

Yesterday in church the Sunday school lesson was on Charity. I guess i have been overlooking charity lately, its not something i have been focusing on. I think the reason for that, is that I know that i love all those i teach, and my companions, it has come pretty natural naturally. But in the lesson it talked about having Charity towards everyone. It reminded me of before my mission when i had my call, in all my prayers i would pray for all the people of Oregon.  It made me think that lately i really not been focused on loving absolutely everyone, i know that, that is something that is missing. I need to love those who's doors i am knocking on and every person i talk to. Its great that I have Charity towards my investigators, my recent converts and my companions, but its not enough. If I can have Charity for all the people i talk to, it will be a lot more natural to truly fulfill my purpose. And I also need to love the missionaries in my zone more, there are couple who have been really frustrating, and i have not been showing much charity toward them but i known as i do it will make everything work much better.


Love you all!

Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith