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