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