Dying words from Elder Covey

Elders and Sisters of the OSM:

             On the third and final day of the Mission Tour Elder Richards turned a few minutes over to me to address a group of missionaries for my final time. President Samuelian has requested that I put the thoughts that I shared in writing and email it to all the missionaries of our wonderful mission.

The day before the third conference Elder Richards asked me if I would take a few minutes in the next day’s conference.  He told me not to prepare a talk but to think about think about what I might share and to go by the spirit. I felt impressed to talk the joy of selfless service and the misery of selfishness. This was a subject that I had on my mind consistently for the few days prior to the meeting. It all started when Elder Richards told Elder Buhler and me a story the Sunday before. The story was about when he was in medical school, was the Elders Quorum President, and was married with two young kids. He then started an internship which took up much of his time. Because of his extremely tight schedule he was not sure if he would be able to remain the Elders Quorum President. He prayed and eventually got a strong answer that he was to remain the Elders Quorum President.  He told us how those years of being outrageously busy but still serving the Lord shaped his life.

 As I thought about this story, I thought to myself, would I be willing to do that? Would I be willing to give up all of my physical comfort?  This really got me thinking about physical comfort. Spiritual comfort brings peace and happiness, but physical comfort does not. Usually we make selfish decisions because it’s more comfortable, it’s easier.  I thought to myself, what are examples of people who lived comfortable lives in the Book of Mormon? And what came to mind were King Noah and Laban.  On the other hand all the Book of Mormon heroes we love chose to have very little physical comfort.

            Most of the miserable people I have met focus more on themselves and their comfort than anything else. They think that more comfort or selfish living will make them happy, but time and time again it leaves them miserable. The times on my mission where I have consistently gave up my comfort were the happiest times of my mission, and the times where I chose my comfort were the times I would like to forget. Elders and Sisters let’s not fool ourselves by thinking that sleeping in, staying in the apartment or any other type of disobedience big or small will make us happy. There is no joy in it, just regret and misery. The Lord blesses us with peace when we are doing what he would have us do. It’s not easy, but it’s possible. It does not come all at once, but as children of God we all have the ability to do whatever he commands us to. God did no send us here to be mediocre. We are His children with His potential. He sent us here to be extraordinary.

                I wish you all the best of luck for the rest of your missions and the rest of your lives. Thank you for the examples you have been to me. Keep the faith. You will be in my prayers.

Elder Covey

Temple with President & Sister Saumulen

As transfer week approaches

This possibly could be the last email i send as a full time missionary. The week before transfers are always very busy. As always i am short on time. As for this last week its been really great. These past three days we have had a lot of time to spend in the area, and we were able to see some results from it. We have a great lesson with a new investigator named Rob. And we also had wonderful lessons with some our existing investigators. I would like to in this email do a reflection of my my mission and the things i have learned, but sadly i don't have the time, so i will have to do that after I am home. 

But i would like to share one insight i have had this week. So as i expressed last week i have been learning a lot about selfless service lately. This morning as i was reading from the Book of Mormon i learned another powerful lesson. I am in the king Benjamin chapters of the book of Mosiah. Which is awesome because its probably my favorite part of the Book of Mormon. I have loved chapter two, when he teaches about the greatness of God and how even if we served him all our days we would still be "unprofitable servants" and after he says, "then what have ye to boast." I have taken this as a wonderful teaching of humility and the greatness of God. Today it really hit me that King Benjamin was also teaching about the love God has for us. It reminded me of a quote that i remember my wonderful sister Collette shared with me a long time ago, i don't remember who the quote is from, but it goes something like this " the true measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do nothing for him." Meaning anyone will treat someone well if that person can help them out. 

But there are some people who can do nothing for us and the only motivation we have to help them, is if we actually care and we want to do good for the right reason. King Benjamin teaches that this is what God does for us, even if we spend every second serving God we cant repay the debt, but He has served, helped and guided us because He love us. So we need to do the same for those who cant help us, those that could be considered unprofitable. King Benjamin was a wonderful example of this. As the King he labored among the people and served them with his own hands. He was the king, the only motivation he had to do that was that he loved the people and he wanted to serve others as God has served us. God has blessed me with so much, not so i can do something for His personal gain. He has blessed me because He loves me and He loves those i can serve. The least i can do is try to follow His example in this principle, and serve those who can not help me, those that to myself may be unprofitable and that's exactly what i need to do.  

I love you all and thank you for your prays and support

Elder Covey        

--Fearless Via Faith

Mission Tour with Elder Kent F. Richards

Every year around August all the missions in our area will have a general authority mission Tour. I remember about two weeks after entering the field Elder Koeliker came. Last Year we had Elder Snow, and this week we had Elder Richards. It has been a incredible experience being with him and his wife these past three days. On Sunday President Samuelian picked Elder and Sister Richards up from a Portland Stake Conference that they were a part of. We came to the mission home and had dinner with the Samuelians and the Richards. When we got there the Samuelians were preparing dinner and we were able to sit and chat with the Richard's for about 20 minutes. They were so sincere and kind. 

Elder Richards has a incredible sense of humility about him. You could tell that he wanted us to feel comfortable, to feel like we were his friends. He of course asked where I fit in the Covey line. I told him that i was John Covey's grandson (usually when people ask i say Steve is  my great uncle, but it seems like every general authority i have met knows Papa so i thought i would give it a shot.) He said that he knew John and that he has a story about him, that maybe even he (Papa) did not know. At the time Elder Richards was at Medical school at the U, was married with two young kids and was the Elders quorum president. He then started in a internship or residency (I can't remember which.) He said that his life was incredibly busy and was not sure if he physically had the time to be the Elders Quorum President. He prayed about it and felt like he did not get a answer. He talked to his bishop and the bishop said that it would probably be best to tell the Stake President that he can no longer be the Elders Quorum President. But he could not get himself to do it. He said he had done all he knew how to get a answer to his prayer but nothing came. 

He then went to some meeting or leadership training in which Papa spoke. He said that John spoke about receiving answers to prayers and laid out the things we need to do to receive a answer and then Papa promised everyone that if they did all those things they would get an answer. Elder Richards thought to himself I have done all those things and still don't have an answer. He said that directly after that thought he received a very clear revelation that he was to remain Elders Quorum President. As a part of that it was revealed to him how he could be a effective Elders Quorum President with his tight schedule. He said that the revelation was very clear and direct. He then started to have very early morning meetings with the Elders Quorum presidency because that was the only time he could fit them in. He told me that, that time of his life really made him who he is. He learned to manage time, to work hard, and he learned that the Lord will make the impossible possible if we are serving him. He attributed much of who he has become and the life he has lived to that decision and that revelation. After he told the story he said "and then i knew him from the inside out" turns out he was Papa's surgeon once. After dinner we drove out to Bend for the first of three conferences for the mission tour.

The Monday and Tuesday were set up the same. We had 1 hour leadership meeting before the main conference started. The conference went from 9am-1pm. We had lunch and then Elder Richards interviewed 5 missionaries each day.  In the Leadership meeting Elder Richards talked about the three main things all leaders should do. They are To 1. Teach Truth 2. Invite and 3. Minister. He particularly focused on the inviting part. He taught how its very natural to try to force people to do things, or to give them specific challenges when we feel like they aren't doing all the could. He taught about the importance of inviting them, expressing your love and trust that they will do what is right. During the Conference he taught about sanctifying ourselves. He taught about Law and how there is a eternal law and when we abide by it we are blessed but when we cross the line by one inch we are in the devils power. He also taught us to teach simple. As missionaries we complicate things and teach way to much. He taught about teaching so a child could understand, cuz the people we teach have the spiritual understanding of about a nine year old. each Conference was different than the others. He is very much a go with spirit guy. A lesson i have learned on my mission is that in order to be able to teach by the spirit you have to be knowledgeable. When you have study and pondered and gain that knowledge the Lord can remind remind you of it when and where you need to share it. On Tuesday i got to be interviewed by Elder Richards. 

The interview was wonderful he asked me about my plans for the future and gave wonderful advise. At the end he said he had been having the impression that i needed to address the missionaries in the final conference. He told me to not write a talk but to ponder and pray about what the Lord would have me share and then to go by the spirit. While i was thinking about what i would share my mind went to the story he told on Sunday. Not so much on the aspect of answered prayers, but how he said that, at that time in his life when he had no down time. When i am sure he had to give up some hobbies or passion. That is when he grew the most. That is time where he attributes much of the happiness he has been able to have. It really got me thinking of selfless service. Ever since he told the story i had been thinking about selfless service, I really feel the Lord is trying to teach me about it right now. Obviously the opposite of selfless service is selfishness. Selfishness is the cause for so much bad, but it is so hard because we are naturally very selfish. As i was thinking about it i realized that selfishness is misery disguised as happiness. When we do something selfish we think its going to make us happy, or make us feel good. That's where disobedience comes from we think it will be fun or make us happy but in the end it always turns into misery. This also got me thinking a lot about physical comfort. I think lots of the time we make selfish decisions because its more comfortable, its easier. Spiritual comfort brings peace and happiness, but physical comfort does not. I thought to myself what are examples of people who lived comfortable lives in the Book of Mormon. And what came to mind was King Noah and Laban. The heroes of the scriptures chose to not have much physical comfort. Lehi and his family traveled threw the wilderness. King Benjamin fight side by side with his people in war. Alma served a 13 year mission and later stepped down as chief judge so he could travel the land and preach. the examples are endless. I see it all the time with people i meet. Most of the miserable people i have met focus more on themselves and their comfort than anything else, they become lazy and it turns into self loathing. They think that more comfort or selfish living will make them happy, but time and time again it leaves them miserable. It made me think of something that i wrote in my study journal on September 7, 2011 (my second day in the field.) 

There is a exercise in Preach my Gospel where you think of yourself at end of your mission and answer the question. What do want to say you have done as a missionary? I wrote "i want to say that every time i chose between the work of the Lord and my personal comfort, i chose the work of the Lord." I cant honestly say that i never chose my own comfort over the work. I am far from perfect, but i am so glad that, that is what my desire was and is. That phrase has been in the back of my mind for these past two years. The times on my mission where i have consistently gave up my comfort were the happiest times of my mission, and the times where i chose my comfort were the times i would like to forget. I cant imagine what my mission would have been if my sights would have been lower, if my goal was to just have a good time and get threw it. I am sure i would have been much more selfish and therefore much less happy. So all these thoughts i have been expressing is pretty much what i taught during the Conference today. I focused on the happiness that comes from selfless service. I am dead out of time, and i have more i wish i could say but i just can't. I love you all.

Elder Covey    

--Fearless Via Faith

Zone Confrence Week

This last week was zone conference week. Since our mission is relatively small we only had three zone conferences instead of four. We only have Zone Conferences once every three months so this is only my second time being involved with planning and training in Zone Conferences. It is a very stressful but very fulfilling week. We had a Zone Conference on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. They started at 8 am and ended at 5 pm. Elder Buhler and I were both assigned to train for a half hour each. He trained on faith filled planning and i spoke on faith filled finding. I decided to start my training by talking about how important it is to use both agency and inspiration in our finding efforts. 

Bruce R McConkie gave a talk entitled " Agency or Inspiration, Which?" In it he talks about the importance of using both agency, The God given ability we have to think, to reason things out in our mind and come to conclusions from our knowledge and experience, and inspiration, the ability we have to pray and receive answers to our prayers on what we should do. On the surface it seems like these things could clash. It seems like agency could take away from inspiration, that since God knows all we have no need to reason or draw from past experience, all we have need for is prayer. The truth is, is that they don't clash. God has given us both and we need to use both. In making a decisions we need to always be praying to be led and guided but we need not wait to move until we have a spiritual experience. We need to study out our options, we need to get creative and decide what we think is best, and then its vital we take to God in prayer what we have come up with what our conclusion is, and ask God if it is what He would have us do. If he is happy with our decision he will give us a burning in the bosom, for me its that i feel exited and good about the conclusion i came to. 

If its not what he would have us to we will have the stupor of thought, we will feel not so confident and exited about or decision. In my training I applied this to finding people to teach. Sometimes in finding we are all inspiration and no agency. We don't bother with trying out the different ways Preach my Gospel teaches to find people. We do the same things we have always done but decide we are going to have more faith, and we think that by saying we are going to have the faith to find that we are actually demonstrating our faith, when in reality we need to demonstrate our faith by giving the Lord something to work with. On the other hand sometimes as missionaries we are all agency and no inspiration. 

We think since we have been doing it for a long time that we know whats best. We forget to ask the Lord to guide us in our decisions and we also forget to ask for his approval when the decision is made. Our minds and hearts are closed to methods of finding that have not worked in the past. As missionaries we need to use both agency and inspiration in finding people to teach and all other aspects of missionary work. I am sure that i was taught this principle before my mission, and i think i had a partial understanding of it, but my understanding on how to receive answers to my prayers has greatly increased on my mission. I am very grateful for that, and i know it will bless me for the rest of my life. I had more things i was going to share but kinda went off on the agency and inspiration thing so i am out of time now. The Church is True. Gods plan is perfect and i am so grateful for it.

 

Elder Covey 

--Fearless Via Faith

Jacob Covey's Top Five Clifton StrengthsFinder Themes

Gallup Higher Education Division
StrengthsQuestTM

President Samuelian is paying for each missionary to take this test. He believes it will help us in our life after mission and deciding what we want to do. Have you done things like this before? i thought it was really interesting, and i agree with the strengths it gave me. I thought you might  be interested is seeing the results. Let me know what you think.
Love
Elder Covey

Below are my Signature Themes — my five most dominant themes of talent, ranked in the order revealed by my responses to the Clifton StrengthsFinder.

As you may know, the Clifton StrengthsFinder measures the 34 themes of talent determined by The Gallup Organization as those that most consistently predict outstanding performance. The greater the presence of a theme of talent within a person, the more likely that person is to spontaneously exhibit those talents in day-to-day behaviors.

Focusing on natural talents helps people build them into strengths, and enjoy personal, academic, and career success through consistent, near-perfect performance.

How well do you think these themes describe me?

Belief

If you possess a strong Belief theme, you have certain core values that are enduring. These values vary from one person to another, but ordinarily your Belief theme causes you to be family-oriented, altruistic, even spiritual, and to value responsibility and high ethics—both in yourself and others. These core values affect your behavior in many ways. They give your life meaning and satisfaction; in your view, success is more than money and prestige. They provide you with direction, guiding you through the temptations and distractions of life toward a consistent set of priorities. This consistency is the foundation for all your relationships. Your friends call you dependable. “I know where you stand,” they say. Your Belief makes you easy to trust. It also demands that you find work that meshes with your values. Your work must be meaningful; it must matter to you. And guided by your Belief theme it will matter only if it gives you a chance to live out your values.

Focus

“Where am I headed?” you ask yourself. You ask this question every day. Guided by this theme of Focus, you need a clear destination. Lacking one, your life and your work can quickly become frustrating. And so each year, each month, and even each week you set goals. These goals then serve as your compass, helping you determine priorities and make the necessary corrections to get back on course. Your Focus is powerful because it forces you to filter; you instinctively evaluate whether or not a particular action will help you move toward your goal. Those that don’t are ignored. In the end, then, your Focus forces you to be efficient. Naturally, the flip side of this is that it causes you to become impatient with delays, obstacles, and even tangents, no matter how intriguing they appear to be. This makes you an extremely valuable team member. When others start to wander down other avenues, you bring them back to the main road. Your Focus reminds everyone that if something is not helping you move toward your destination, then it is not important. And if it is not important, then it is not worth your time. You keep everyone on point.

Futuristic

“Wouldn’t it be great if . . .” You are the kind of person who loves to peer over the horizon. The future fascinates you. As if it were projected on the wall, you see in detail what the future might hold, and this detailed picture keeps pulling you forward, into tomorrow. While the exact content of the picture will depend on your other strengths and interests—a better product, a better team, a better life, or a better world—it will always be inspirational to you. You are a dreamer who sees visions of what could be and who cherishes those visions. When the present proves too frustrating and the people around you too pragmatic, you conjure up your visions of the future and they energize you. They can energize others, too. In fact, very often people look to you to describe your visions of the future. They want a picture that can raise their sights and thereby their spirits. You can paint it for them. Practice. Choose your words carefully. Make the picture as vivid as possible. People will want to latch on to the hope you bring.

Learner

You love to learn. The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning. The process, more than the content or the result, is especially exciting for you. You are energized by the steady and deliberate journey from ignorance to competence. The thrill of the first few facts, the early efforts to recite or practice what you have learned, the growing confidence of a skill mastered—this is the process that entices you. Your excitement leads you to engage in adult learning experiences—yoga or piano lessons or graduate classes. It enables you to thrive in dynamic work environments where you are asked to take on short project assignments and are expected to learn a lot about the new subject matter in a short period of time and then move on to the next one. This Learner theme does not necessarily mean that you seek to become the subject matter expert, or that you are striving for the respect that accompanies a professional or academic credential. The outcome of the learning is less significant than the “getting there.”

Responsibility

Your Responsibility theme forces you to take psychological ownership for anything you commit to, and whether large or small, you feel emotionally bound to follow it through to completion. Your good name depends on it. If for some reason you cannot deliver, you automatically start to look for ways to make it up to the other person. Apologies are not enough. Excuses and rationalizations are totally unacceptable. You will not quite be able to live with yourself until you have made restitution. This conscientiousness, this near obsession for doing things right, and your impeccable ethics, combine to create your reputation: utterly dependable. When assigning new responsibilities, people will look to you first because they know it will get done. When people come to you for help—and they soon will—you must be selective. Your willingness to volunteer may sometimes lead you to take on more than you should.

Loving every second of it

Last week I emailed so late in the week, so not a lot has happened since then but i thought it would be good to try to get closer to the Monday email schedule. But there was something that i forgot to put in my last letter. A week ago from last Monday, we had a group of departing missionaries go home, which is normal. The not normal part was they were all missionaries who came out with me. Because the OSM is on a different transfer schedule any missionary that came from the OEM either goes home 3 weeks early or 3 weeks late. We did not go to the airport with them cuz we had so much other stuff to do but we were there for the whole morning before they left. It was a little weird thinking that there going and i am staying, but in all honesty i did not envy them at all. It made me so grateful for the opportunity I have to stay longer. It still doesn't feel like i am ever going home, but slowly its becoming more and more realistic, and it makes me sad. I love being a missionary so much I love having so much purpose, but i guess that just means that i am going to have to make my life equally as purposeful when i get home. I know there will be opportunities to still and help others.

So know for last week. On Friday we went out to Redmond (by Bend) with President Samuelian. Each year the Bend and Redmond stake do a combined Aaronic Priesthood "encampment." And its all about preparing for a mission. Its tradition that on the last night the mission president and the assistants come and speak to Young Men. It was a incredible experience. It was in the complete middle of no where (90 minutes east of Redmond.) We spoke to the young men and answered questions. I decided that i would speak to them about how meaningful a mission is and the purpose a missionary has. I told them that if they experienced what i had experienced and seen what i had seen there is no way they would consider not going on a mission. I truly believe that. If every young man really understood how much they would help others and how much they would learn and grow there is nothing that could stop them from serving a mission. It was a amazing experience to be up there, we were like rock stars to them. Many of them came up to us after, thanked us for coming and told us how exited they were to serve a mission. We stayed with the Bend ZL's that night. President Samuelian strongly insisted that we do some sort of P-day activity on Saturday because we had not had a break in a long time. So Elder Buhler and I drove out to Smith Rock national park in Redmond. We did about a two hour hike, it was a lot of fun.

We have still had a lot of logistical we have been working out with the new mission its not my favorite but i really feel like I am learning a lot of things that will help me with a future job. This week have had more time to work in our are. we taught two lessons on Monday and two Yesterday. Dan (Member) and Marsha (Investigator) are a part member family we are teaching. They are in the process of making some great changes in thier life, and its incredible to see that as they have taken the gospel seriously it has empowered them to make those changes. 

I love you all, thank you for the prayers. I love this gospel.

Elder Covey

-- Fearless Via Faith

Transfers, made easy

Today was transfers, it is crazy how much smaller the OSM is than the OEM. Today we did not have to start transfers till 10am, opposed to 6 am in the OEM. And we got done at about 5, opposed to 10pm.  Things went very smoothly which is always a relief. I drove the van all day. Elder Buhler got in a accident at the start of his mission and has not been able to drive ever since. i am getting pretty good at driving a 12 passenger van with a big trailer, and i even had to back it up about 40 feet today, and usually i am terrible at backing the trailer but i actually did alright. Today was the first real meshing missionaries between the two missions. There are now many companionships with one missionary from each mission, I am very exited to see how it goes. 

So now that i got the transfer day out of the way, i will  talk about the crazy week that lead up to it. In the OEM we would start working on transfers about two weeks before transfers. We started working on this transfer on Thursday. On Monday and Wednesday President Samuelian had his last two zones of interviews to do. We were planning on working on transfers for most of Tuesday but when we met with President we had so many other things to plan and talk about for the first week of the transfer, that we had no time to work on transfers.

 So Thursday and Friday were jam packed with the three of us in Presidents office working on transfers. We actually stayed the night at the mission home on Thursday and Friday cuz we would be working on it till around 11. On Friday  at about 5pm we were all so exhausted from it President thought that it would be a good idea to take a break so he took us to the golf course that is right next to the mission home and we hit a bucket of balls at the driving range. And then we came back and had great stake dinner. The Samuelians are wonderful cookers and we benefit from that quite a bit. Saturday morning we finished up and then made the calls to all the Zone Leaders. We spend the rest of the day figuring out the logistics of how to get each missionary from point A to point B. It was different because we have never done it with this geography, so it took some time but we got it done. 

July 26 2013

So i was not able to finish this on Monday, I ran out of time, and right now is the first free moment i have had since, but there has been many exiting times since. On Tuesday we had trainers trainers training at the mission home. As i was sitting there during the portion while President Samuelian was teaching i was trying to think about/planing what Elder Buhler and i were going to teach once he was done (we did not really have anytime to prepare.) While i was sitting there i it hit me that i will never have  another opportunity to train a new missionary. I have taught at the last five trainers training's and i guess each time i have hoped inside that i would be able to train one last time. Training Elder Jorgensen and Elder Kwok were the most meaningful things i did on my mission. It was kinda sad to realize that it would not be happening again but i would like to think that i have been able to help trainers and new missionaries in these last 6 months. Elder Buhler and i trained on planning and companionship study withe the trainers, President always chooses the best missionaries to train i really love being a part of those meetings. After the meeting we had to drive to the Porland missions, mission home because we needed to borrow there transfer van to pick up the new missionaries the next day. Its been pretty interesting being able to see so much of the Portland mission, and interacting with the Portland mission president so much (President Morby.)

 It was a pretty late night On Wednesday the new missionaries flew in. It was my first time at the Portland airport, it is way bigger than the Eugene airport. We were running a little behind but luckily we got there right before the new missionaries got threw the gate. I love being at the airport with the new missionaries, i always give the Elders big huge and welcome them to the greatest mission on earth! each time it makes me think of my first day and how exited i was to be a missionary. We went strait from the airport to the Portland temple, the missionaries all took a picture with President and Sister Samuelian. We spent some time on the ground and we also went threw the visitors center. It was only my second time at the Portland temple. It is a incredible temple. I think it really made a impact on the new missionaries it was Elder Buhlers idea to take them there and it was definitive worth it. After the temple we took them to the mission home and had lunch, and then right after lunch we went out to pacific city on the coast and took them to "the rock" that we went to for MLC and that is in our logo. We had a powerful meeting out there. After that we went to the chapel in Newburg and had dinner. The trainers spend most the day Wednesday proselyting in their own areas and then came back for the dinner. After dinner we had a small meeting and then the trainers and new missionaries stayed the night in Newberg at members homes. 

We met with President late Wednesday night to finalize plans for the next day. our plan was to announce companionships at about noon and have office training from 9-11. In the middle we had a hour for the three of us to train, but it was already so late that he sent us home before we could really plan what we were going to train on. we planned on meeting the next morning at 6:30 at the mission home. I showered that night and got to bed at around 11:30 I was about to set the alarm for 6:10 so i would have just enough time to get up get ready and go, but then i got the prompting to set the alarm for 5:45 so i would have time to study and ponder for the training the next day. My first thought was "I have slept so little this past week. Extra sleep will help me much more than a little preparation time. I am only going to have a few minutes to train anyways and i have already done this same thing four times." The prompting did not go away so i set the alarm for 5:45. When the alarm went of was not very tired i jumped right out of bed, said my prayers and went to my desk. I pulled out a "history of the church in Salem Oregon" book that i borrowed from the Salem ZL's apartment cuz i thought it might come in handy with the new mission. there was a story marked about  the first missionaries to ever come to Oregon and also the story of Salem's first convert. 

I immediately  knew that i needed to share the stories with the new missionaries. When the time came for me to teach i was not quite sure how i was going to present it but the spirit was helped a lot and i was able to read the stories of the first four missionaries to ever be called to preach the gospel in Oregon. I compared those four to the new missionaries. The new missionaries are first to ever get their mission call to the Salem Oregon mission. It was a really neat experience and i am very glad i followed the promptings of the spirit. After that we announced the companionships, and we hoped in the transfer van again and took them to their areas. I am so grateful for all the opportunities i have had. I love so much interacting with new missionaries, i really wish i could switch places with them. At the start of my mission when i heard missionaries who have been out a long time say "I wish i could could be at the start." 

I always thought  that they were just saying that because its the noble thing to say, but as i near the end i understand why they felt that way. I love being a missionary so much I have learned and grown so much and the thought that it will end its very sad, don't get me wrong i do very much look forward to moving on to the next stages of life and all the adventures and experiences that come, but its hard to imagine it being better than this, but i am sure it will be. I love you all

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Transfers are here all ready

It has been a really good week. From last Monday to today President Samuelian has been going district by district and doing interviews. We have not been going with him so we could get down all the many things we have to do here and also so we can work in our area. There were a lot of logistical little things that are still needing to be done, but we were able to knock most of those out, and we also were able to spend quite a bit of time in our area. This is a really great ward with a lot of potential. It seems like every every time we just show up at a Part member family's, or former investigator's door they are very receptive and willing to set up time for a lesson, I turely believe that Lord is giving making it work out so well because he knows how little time we have to visit these people. 

Transfers are next Monday and since President Samuelian has been doing interviews for the past 8 days we have hardly started, but i am sure it will work out fine. Its really interesting because I am the only one that has done it before since this is President Samuelian's and Elder Buhler's first time doing a transfer, the good thing is that logistically its very simple process, the time consuming part is president spiritually know who should be with who, and that is definitely not going to be an issue because President Samuelian is very in-tune with the spirit.  The actual transferring people next Monday is going to way easier because our mission is less than half the size of the Eugene mission, but i will miss driving from Eugene to Medford in the transfer Van with the trailer, I must of done that 15 times and those were some good times.

Well I have got to go. I love you all

Elder Covey

OSM week 2

I am sad to say that i have almost no time to write this email, but i will do my best to include as much as possible. It has been a crazy/ incredible week. We have been meeting a lot with president Samuelian in getting everything running for them and the office and getting things going. On Friday we had mission leadership council. We had 18 Elders and 6 Sisters at the mission home. President as Sister Samuelian have been planning this MLC for the past two months. President Samuelian is big on focusing in Vision and strategy and letting the tactics fall in place from the vision. Friday was a all day meeting and all we talked about was culture and vision. For culture they compared combining two missions to marriage.

That we both come from different cultures and we need to figure out what they were and take the good from both and eliminate the bad from both. we separated the former OEM and OSM missionaries and talked about the cultures (good and bad) of our past mission, and then we looked broke of in companionships and found good examples of great cultures in the scriptures. Elder Buhler and i focused on the Culture of Alma and his followers starting at the waters of Mormon threw when they made it to Zarahemla. They were a incredible people, much like the pioneers they left everything for what they believed, an went threw many hardships and threw it all remained humble and always kept the commandments and eventually (not immediately) they were delivered. We Also talked about Vision. President Samuelian has a incredible vision for the mission. The spirit has shown him what the Lord wants of this mission.

He is determined to make it happen and he has many good strategies to make it happen. Everyone stayed at the mission home Friday night and then on Saturday we went on a little field trip out to pacific city Oregon. There President and Sister Samuelian reviled the new mission logo and motto (included below.) This haystack rock is the 4th largest in the world. the motto is "build upon the rock" meaning the savior. It was really cool experience being there and we talked about it and had a testimony meeting. I am dead out of time, but i will end by saying how grateful i am to have a chance to be apart of the start of this great mission, i am giving absolutely every thing I've got. I am glad i will have the opportunity to extend be a part of it a little longer. I love this work and i know it is God's work.

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Oh how i love the OSM!

It has been a incredible week! I hope i will be able to include all that happened in this email. I spend Monday threw Thursday in Eugene. On Tuesday and Thursday i went with Elder Migliori to each zones good bye President Young meeting. Elder Richards and Elder Jennings (Migliori's comp) stayed and worked in their area and in the office. It was really great to spend some final time with Elder Migilori and President & Sister Young.   

Friday Mourning I went up the mission home had a final interview with President and said goodbye to them. Around Christmas time i gave President a Tie, and i bought the same one for myself so we could have companionship ties, we both wore them, and he gave me one of his ties, which was pretty neat cuz i have never heard of his giving a missionary a tie. It was hard to say good bye and leave the mission home. It was weird to think that the next time I would go to the mission home i would not be a full time missionary. Directly after that i drove up the Newburg with the office staff. I got to Newburg around Noon and started setting up the transfer board in the office. The Portland mission was having a Zone conference in the Newburg that day and i was invited to come to it, so i could have lunch, meet my companion, and make some announcements about the coming weeks. I walked in during lunch. It was really weird to walk into the gym with 40 missionaries that you have never met before. I have been so use to knowing all the missionaries in the meeting i go to, it made me feel like i was a brand new missionary. 

I quickly found my companion. His name is Elder Buhler. He is also from Orem and he is 27 years old. He is a incredible missionary i have loved being with him. He has one more transfer than i do. He did not know he was going to be the Salem assistant until two weeks ago (the Portland transfer.) He has not been a assistant before, but he spent two weeks with the Portland assistants, and he is a really mature and smart guy. So back to the Zone conference, at first it was weird but i got to know a few of the missionaries, and ended up being really fun to get to know some people. After the Zone conference Elder Buhler and I went to the mission home to set up the transfer board in President Samuelian's office. We got done and then waiting for their arrival. They ended up getting here at about 10 pm. We probably were with them for 30 minutes that night and it was incredible. They are wonderful people, and they have great vision and plans for the OSM.

On Saturday they took us out to lunch and we met with him for a little while, and then we got some time to spend in our area, and then at night we went to a meeting that all the Stake Presidents, Bishops and their wives in these 8 stakes were invited to. 

The area authority (Elder Hansen) was also their. Most of the meeting was just a social thing and a chance for President Samuelian to get acquainted with the stake Presidents and bishops. While he was doing that we got the opportunity to talk to and get to know many of them. It was really a unique experience to be there with such amazing men and women. They were all very humble and Christ like, it felt very natural just to start up and conversation with them and talk with them about their ward or stake. The meeting went very well, President & Sister Samuelian are both incredible speakers and they gave wonderful talks about the vision they had for the OSM. Sunday was a pretty normal day. We had church and then a less active lesson, and then a ton of office stuff to do. Monday was pretty busy, we correlated with all the Zone Leaders, and met with President, and we did get a chance to go grocerie shopping which is really good cuz we did not have much food, at night we had a dinner and lesson with a Part Member family(Curtis and Janell)  that has been coming to church. hopefully next week i will have more time to tell you about them but Curtis is the non member and he has been taught for a month or so and he has a lot of potential. 

Today (Tuesday) has been a incredible day. We had two meetings that each had 3 zones each. The meetings were so President Samuelian could meet the missionaries and they could get to know him. Once was in McMinvile (30 minutes away from here) and the other one was in Albany. The meeting were great. they were about two hours long, and then we spend a hour of President meeting each missionary and taking a picture with them. Last night President told Elder Buhler and I that he would like us to take 5 to 10 minutes each during the meeting on whatever we felt we needed to. We did not have anytime to prepare until the car ride over. I decided to talk about always striving to becoming a Christ like missionary. It is very easy to get caught up in doing missionary things. 

We tend to justify our shortcomings by thinking 'all that really matters is i am working hard and being obedient.' Obviously those things are incredible important be we need to always being striving to be more like Christ and Developing Christ like attributes. In the talk shared some scriptures from Alma 7 and how Alma commands the people of Gideon to repent even though he says that he is glad they are in righteous paths. I talked about we all have things to repent or change in our lives, and that threw the Atonement we can have the power to make those changes and become more like him. I decided to also talk about the Christ like attribute of humility and how important it is to be humble threw this time, there are going to have to be a lot of changes made. There were many differences in how the OEM did it and how the OPM did it, and some decisions are going to be made that initially some missionaries will disagree with. I bore my testimony that President Samuelian was called of God and all he has us do will be the will of the Lord so we need to be humble and fully support every decision. Elder Buhler gave a great talk on change, and how important it is make changes for the better. President Samuelian spoke over a hour and just shared his vision with everyone, he talked a lot about culture and the type of culture we are going to have in the OSM. I am very grateful to be serving with President Samuelian, i have already learned so much from him and i know i will learn much more. I love you all. The gospel is true! 

 

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Goodbye Bend

First off i would like to wish a happy birthday to my amazing sister Katie, I love you Katie! 

So the stay in Bend was short as expected. Today President did the last transfer that will involve all the stakes, and he decided to put sisters in the Mountain View ward. It is definitely a unique thing getting white washed into a ward and then three weeks later getting white washed out. I am grateful for the time i had to spend in Bend, i feel like i was able to use all the things i have learned about missionary work in how to work and area and get the ward exited. I honestly think it will be good for the ward to have sisters, our most solid investigator was a women, and we were working with 4 less active single ladies who are all very close to coming back to activity. Elder Richards and i are both in Eugene right now. We are staying in my old apartment with the assistants. We will take the next 4 days and help the office out and get ready for the OSM, i will be transferred to Newburg on Friday, and Elder RIchards will be get his new area next Monday with the Eugene transfer.

 I am very exited to go up to Newburg. Things are going to be crazy once the new mission starts, the whole office staff will be new and have pretty much no experience so we will be helping them a lot, and i am sure President Samulian has some big plans of things he wants to do right away. I am not sure what these next few weeks are going to be like but i am very exited. It is going to be a challenge meshing two mission cultures, but i am very confident that we will be able to get everyone exited get things started right. I am preparing as much as i can. 

I am sorry these emails have been so short but time has been tight. Hopefully next week i will be able to give a good description of the craziness! I love you all. I know this work is  true and i am so grateful to be a part of it. I pray i can be a effective tool in the Lords hands.

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Time has flown here in Bend

Its crazy to think i have been in Bend for two weeks, it feels like i just got here. Its looking like i will get transferred a week from today. I am not sure if i will go spend a few days in Eugene or if i will go strait to Newburg. Its kinda sad that i am leaving so soon, we have the wards trust and we have made a lot of progress. I know i will not really see the fruits of our work while i am here, but i really hope that in a month the work is really flourishing here. We got some solid new investigators this week. Ones name is Doug he had investigated in the past and for one reason or another he stopped meeting with the missionaries, we visited him last Monday night and then taught him on Tuesday. 

We focused on the Book of Mormon. He had been taught several times but not really have a understanding of what the book of Mormon is and why its important for him to pray to know if its true. So many people we teach don't connect in their minds that if the Book of Mormon is true then Joseph Smith is a Prophet and this is God restored church even after we teach them it. It seems like most investigators think that missionaries want them to figure out if the Book of Mormon is true, cuz if it is its more knowledge for them or another inspirational book. As my mission has gone on i feel i have gotten a lot better at helping people realize what i just described. Its almost like there is a light that goes off when they understand and they start to take their commitments much more seriously. In our lesson with Doug it really clicked for him and he was very exited to read from it. It was a great lesson. We found a few more people threw tracting, and we are not teaching quite a few less actives, and one came to church who had not come for years.

Seeing as Yesturday was Fathers day i want to share some things that i have learned from my father. 

1. Complete selflessness: i will always try to be as selfless as my father. Dad has never let a hobby or a interest come in front of those he loved. There never was TV show he had to watch, a sport he had to play or a thing he had to have. When Dad is not providing for the family he is with the family. One of my favorite stories is of my Father getting money from his grandparents for his birthday, and then explaining to Mom that he wanted to buy her a new dress with the money. I know for a fact my Father is happiest when he is making others happy. 

2. A deep care for spiritual matters: my father has taught me by the example the importance of daily scripture study, daily prayer, taking all decisions to the Lord, and to always magnify your calling.  

3. Hard working: My father has always been hard worker. He works during the week and on Saturdays he wakes up at 5 am and starts fixing and maintaining anything that needs attention, if nothings broken, thats perfect, then he has time to for a project like making a out door screen for the projector and coming up with a pulley system to get it up. Rearly does he wake up past 5 30, and i am not sure if i have ever seen him get up past 7. 

I love you dad thanks for all you have done for me. I hope to someday be as good of a father as you. 

Well i am out of time. Happy fathers day to all you fathers. I love you all 

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Another week in Bend

The first week in Bend went pretty well. The first thing Elder Richards and i did was go threw the area book, and make a long list of names of people missionaries have worked with for the last 6 months or so (investigators, former investigations, less actives.) On our first few days we had the bishop and ward mission leader tell us that we were "starting from ground zero" and they both used those same words, which was kinda weird. At first i thought they were just being pessimistic, but after going out and contracting all the people they had been working with in the past couple weeks i realized that they were being realistic. We actually had a lot more luck with investigators that stoped being taught months ago. Elder Richards and i decided we want to bike and walk as much as possible, so we can been seen and talk to more people. It has gone well, we contacted 3 less actives that we are going to start teaching, and we got some pretty solid potential investigators from tracting and street contacting. I am really exited for these next couple weeks. I really hope that when i leave this area it will have a lot going.

Bend is a beautiful place. It has been nothing but blue skies since i got here. Bend reminds me a lot of southern utah. Its really hot and desert like. And yes i did got to the Nike outlet last P day, I will admit its not as good as the park city one, but its still a nike outlet. I got some pretty sweet shoes. 

Exiting news! Elder Richards and i are cousins, maybe and if so very distantly, but we are both related to Willard Richards. Elder Richards is awesome,i am sad we will only be companions for a few more weeks. Well i am running out of time. Love you all

Elder Covey

--
Fearless via Faith

Goodbye Salem (See ya soon) Hello Bend

First matter of business, I got transferred and i am now in Bend Oregon. A missionary who was serving  in the ward i am in had to go home for some surgery, and some visa waiters in other parts of the mission got their visas, so there had to be a mini mid transfer. My new companions name is Elder Richard.  

He was just serving in Corvallis, so he is new here to. The missionary who had to go home for surgery had only been here for two weeks and his companion had been here for a while, and they did not have anything going so they decided to put Elder Richards and in here new. Elder Richards is great. I have served around him a lot and we were already pretty good friends. He is from Sandy, and, fun fact, his dad the owner of Creamies ( the ice cream bar company.) to bad there are not creamies here in Oregon or i am sure would always be well stocked. It was hard to leave my last area, even though i had only been there for 10 days. I really loved being with Elder Thompson and Elder Raulston, but they will do just fine with out me. I have always wanted to serve in Bend so its exiting. I will only be here for four week, at the end of this month i will be getting transferred to Newberg, for when the new mission opens. Another exiting this is that I am not with the Zone Leaders this time around, so i pretty much get to be normal missionary for 4 weeks! 

Bend is pretty much the Park City Oregon. It is 3 hours east of Eugene, and high altitude. And like Park City it has a Nike outlet! to think i have been serving in the State of Nike for 21 months and have  yet to see a Nike outlet, but the time has finally come, and we are going today!

I am really exited to work this ward for these four weeks. We talked to the Ward Mission Leader yesterday and asked him if there were any investigators or less actives that the missionaries have been working with that we should visit today his response was "its kinda like 9 11, we are at ground zero." Elder Richards is a great and very skilled missionary. I am exited to work hard and get things going here.

For the past few months i have been thinking a lot about how sometimes as missionaries, we get caught up with being good at missionary things and maybe we dont put a lot of focus on being a Christ like missionary. In Preach my Gospel there is a whole chapter about developing Christ like attributes, and we don't use that chapter nearly as much as we should. I have tried focusing developing those attributes and what it means to be a Christ like missionary. What a wonderful thing that Christ showed us a perfect example of how to act and how to be, and then commanded us to be like him. As i have focused on being a Christ like missionary, i find myself using the "that's just the way i am" excuse much less. In a way it has been very overwhelming to to try to gain those attributes because in order to do it you need to recognize your weaknesses, and i am so far away from being completely Christ like, but i think I am making progress, and i hope we all are. Its crazy how it really takes a focus to gain those attributes if we don't think about or set goals towards it, we are not going to change. Years can go by without any change in character, but if we use those years, and focus on becoming more like Christ we make a lot of progress. I hope that anyone that reads with will find a Preach my Gospel turn to Chapter 6 (Christ like attributes) and pick one to work on, i don't think there is anything more meaningful we can do.

I love you all

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

Loving Salem!

Well its only been 4 days since i have emailed last but a fair amount has happened since. I have really enjoyed having having two companions. Elder Raulston and Elder Thompson are great, Raulston is from Salem Utah and Thompson is from American Fork, but for some strange reason claims he is from Canada. It has been great to be back in the field. We have been able to have full studies, full planning and our area is our main focus. From here on out I am going to start doing a least two exchanged a week. i am going to start with companionships in my zone and then i will move on to companionships in other zones. I am really exited to start getting out on exchanges. We have a lot of very young companionships so hopefully i will be able to help them out. Its weird being in a area that you know you are going to be in for only one transfer, and we cover two wards, so right as I start learning everything i will be getting transferred, but I am really grateful to have time in this area. I know i am met to be here. 

We had some good lessons this week. We have are teaching a lady named BJ who is married to a member. She had been taught by missionaries for about 5 months, and she had been reading from the BOM for a month or two. She talked about being a little confused with what the BOM is and then after asking a few more question we came to realize that she did not really understand what the BOM is and how we got it. A skill that i have worked on more than any other on my mission is being able to teach people what the Book of Mormon is and why it would be important for them to use it. 

I like to use the pictures in the front. How I started learning how to introduce the BOM by reading the title page over and over again and knowing all the points it teaches. Before i use to just show a few pictures explain how its a ancient record of the people and prophets in America, and invite people to read it, but one day i realized that, that way did a good job about telling them what the BOM is but not really why it would be important to them to read it, pray about it and know for them selves that its true. I have gotten a lot better at explaining about how Mormon compiled the record, Moroni being commanded by God to bury them in the ground, and Joseph Smith Being led to them and translating them by the power of God, and then connecting about how if the BOM is true then Joseph Smith is a prophet. I love making that connection for people, it goes from something interesting to something important. Sometimes it takes a few times of explaining for it to click with people, but its a very important step. I love the Book of Mormon it is a incredible book. It excites me to teach people about it and invite them to try it for them selves. I love you all, have a great week

Elder Covey  

--Fearless Via Faith

My last OEM transfers

I am emailing from Salem today. I am now in the Creekside and Turner wards. I am in a threesome with Elder Thompson and Elder Raulston, who are the ZL's here. I will be in this ward until the mission splits and then i will get transferred to Newburg which is where the OSM mission home and office will be. President asked me about a month and a half ago if i would extend my mission to September 3rd and serve as a assistant for President Samulien in the OSM. I have very mixed emotions. It will be hard to leave to OEM and president and sister Young. I love them so much and have really grown close to them especially over these last 4 months, but i am very exited to have the opportunity to work with a new mission president in starting a new mission. Its a very unique opportunity and one that I have mostly because of timing. I know there is a reason for everything and a reason why am here now. I am sure i will learn a ton and i will do all i can to help all the missionaries in the OSM and to positively effect the mission. For the next 6 weeks i will be doing a lot of exchanges with missionaries in the 5 zones that are going to the OSM. I am very exited to interact with many missionaries and be able to serve them.

This last week was a lot of working on transfers. We were also ableto have few really good lessons in our area. Joe fed us a huge breakfast on Wednesday and we had a lesson with him. On Saturday President spoke at a YSA regional conference in Corvallis and he wanted Elder Miglori and I to come help him with technical stuff. I was able to see a lot of people from Corvallis. Including Justin Patterson. When i  left Corvallis he has a baptismal date for a few weeks in the future. It was so great to see him and be able to talk with him for a while. He is a amazing guy. I asked him if he had thought about going on a mission, and he said that had made a plan to be able to go. He is going to start saving now and plans to leave in about 1 year. I am so thankful i got the chance to work with him. Speaking of Corvallis, I am emailing Alex about every week, and he is doing great. 

I came to Salem yesterday instead of Monday so i could drive the van all Monday and help organize everything for the new missionaries coming in. I was temporary companions with Elder Howard for two days because he was training. It was so great to be with Elder Howard again, i am lucky cuz i have had so many opportunities to be around him since we have been companions. During the training the trainers meeting it hit me that i was never going to get the  opportunity to train again. It really made sad, but i tried to think of what i can do to help new missionaries and trainers.

I am out of time and got to get going, but i love you all and hope everyone has a great week

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

A wonderful mothers day

It has been a really good week. we had some good success in the area and we made a lot of progress on transfers and some other stuff we are working on. The most exiting thing that happened in the area was definitely with Joe. So if you remember Joe was the one Elder McKenzie and i found and was doing so good, but then he "put things on pause." On Saturday i sent him a text telling him that i was going to be transferred soon and i would like to see him once more before i left. He did not respond to the text which was pretty disheartening. The next day we were in his apartment complex and saw that his car was there. We decided to knock on his door and see if he was there. We were a little unsure because he asked for space, but i knew that i needed to talk to him before i left. He opened the door and immediately invited us in. One of the first things he said was"I was going to call you back today." 

He said he did not want to make excuses but that because of some personal stuff he fell away for a little time, but he told us that he "wants to get back into the Mormon." He had marked his old baptismal date on his calendar and he talked about how hard it was to look at his calendar and know that it did not happen. He expressed gratitude for us caring enough to show up. He also asked me if i would be able to travel from Salem (where i am being transferred in one week) to Eugene so i could baptize his once the time came. I am not sure if will be able to come or not, but it really does not matter. I am so happy for him and that he is back on the path. He talked about how he never doubted and that his testimony of the things we taught him is still strong.

So that is my description for how the week went. I would like to finish this email by sharing some insight i had during sacrament meeting yesterday. 

For the mothers day service that had many of the Youth speak and talk about some of the qualities of their mothers. It really got me thinking about all the things i have learned from my mother, the attributes i have inherited from my mother and the the attributes that my mother had that i am still trying to gain. I will start by sharing a few attributes that i feel i have inherited from my mother. 

1. Fun loving. Mom always taught by example how to always be happy and always be having fun.  Her type of fun is never less than wholesome, and always has the intent of making everyone there happy.

2. Never complacent. Mom has never been ungrateful, or ever complained about circumstances but she has always been determined on improving. She has no vices and never looks at a fault with a "that's just the way i am" attitude. This may be thing that has helped me the most. In the world there are so many people who become complacent with everything because it would be to hard to change or to progress. 

3. Never having any intent for harm. My mother has never expressed even the smallest amount of desire to get back at someone who has wronged her. Her charity is so strong that if someone does wrong her she stills loves that person, and wants the best for them.

Now i will list some of the attributes of my mother that I am still trying to gain.

1. Free of Vanity/ A clear vision of what is important. Mom always has her priorities strait. She has hobbies that she loves (tennis, biking.) But she never puts those in front of things that are more important. I strongly remember when Mom sat out of tennis matches that were on Sunday, even though the matches were part of nationals for her USTA league, and her team wanted her to play. Moms choices are always made from a hard look at what is really most important, and what God would have her do.

2. Outgoing. It has much to do with her desire to make others happy and comfortable. All my friends loved my mom and how outgoing she was. She fearless in the fact if she knows it would be a positive thing to talk to someone she will.

There are many more things that i wish i had time to list but these are things that came to my mind about my mother, and the wonderful attributes she had. I did put this in hear partially to brag about my wonderful mother, but also so any of us future parents can be determined to teach some of these wonderful things to our children. Thank you mom for all you have done. And to other mothers know your children have many positive attributes they have learned from you, whether or not they recognize it.     

Elder Covey 

--Fearless Via Faith 

Mission Leadership Council

Last week we had the OEM's very first Mission Leadership Council. It is new throughout all the missions in the church. It replaces Zone Leader Council. The Mission Leadership Council consists of the Zone Leaders, the assistants, mission president, and the Sister Training Leaders ( a new leadership position.)  When i first started going to Zone Leader Councils they would be at the mission home and there would be 18 missionaries there. Now we have to do MLC at the chapel and we have about 40 missionaries. It was interesting having sisters there, but its definitely a good thing. With the increased amount of sisters the Sister Training Leaders are going to be a big help. A big part of MLC we trained on teaching repentance. President Young recently went to a mission presidents conference and most of it they talked about teaching repentance. I am really exited about the focus. If we are really trying to invite the people we work with to come unto Christ. Then we need to teach them about repentance and invite them to do it. At first it sounds kind of scary, inviting someone to repent, but we have had some amazing lessons in this past week doing it. 

We had a great lesson with a less active Lady named Jenice. We knew that it would really benefit her to repent and change some things. We started by teaching a overview of the gospel of Jesus Christ, we started by teaching about the Atonement, and then we taught faith briefly and then really focused on repentance. Repentance is such a beautiful thing, and something we all need. We tried really hard to teach it in a positive and loving way. At first it seemed like she was a little confused that we are actually asking her to do stuff (some less actives are use to missionaries coming by and hanging out or just sharing a light spiritual message.) It kinda seemed like she did not like it at first. But by the end she really opened up, and talked about how much better she felt just from discussing faith and repentance.

Transfers are coming up in two weeks. We have been working on them with President. We are probably further along by this point than any other transfers i have been here. This next week we have District Leaders training and Sisters conference here in Eugene. I am really exited for District Leaders training, there has been some stuff i have been thinking about for quite some time that Elder Migliori and i will be able to train on.

I love you all. Have a great week

Elder Covey

--

Fearless via Faith