Tuesday, September 25, 2012

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

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