it has been a good week. The most exiting thing is that we were finally able to teach this one guy we have been trying to teach for a couple weeks. his name is Chris Marsh. He has grown up in a Semi active home, but he never wanted to be baptized, we are not completely sure why, when we asked him he said it was cuz his Dad forced him to go to church so he tried to push back by not getting baptized, but now he does want to get baptized! He is way cool, it was really different teaching him because he already knows most of it and he believes it all. he is going to be baptized on Sept 15. he is a huge guy, probably 6 foot 5 around 260. He is cool, it was definitely a miracle, its not everyday you find people who are anxious to get baptized. So besides Chris not much has changed. Everyone is still doing good.
So i am going to take advantage of not having too much to say, and make this email a little shorter so we will have more time for Frisbee golf. I love all of you, hope you all have a great week.
Elder Covey
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Fearless via Faith
Monday, August 27, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
An Apostolic Week
It was a wonderful week. On Wednesday we went down to Eugene for Zone Conference withe Elder Snow of the 70, He talked about how everything is really a matter of faith, and how with enough faith we could obtain any of our goals. Sometimes we hear that and we think that it sounds too easy, but in reality its probably the hardest think to do. Its easy to say that we are going to have more faith and believe that are goals will come, but in order to have real faith we need to do something about it.
We also went to Eugene on Saturday and the whole mission was there. Elder Andersen of the twelve, Elder Hansen and Elder Rashband of the Seventy, and Bishop Stevenson the presiding Bishop were all there. They were all hear to go to different stake conference and some other stuff we are not sure about, but they took two and a half hours on Saturday and spoke to us. It was pretty cool because they went completely by the spirit. They had nothing prepared for the meeting. Pres. and Sis. Young gave 5 minute talks at the start of the meeting and then they turned the time over to Elder Andersen. He went up and we listed some stuff that we learned from Elder Snow and some other things we wanted to improve on and then each of them took sometime and expounded on one or more of the topics. It was amazing how in-tune with the spirit they all were.
They had nothing prepared yet they taught us the exact things the mission needed. It really makes me want to get better and listening to and following the promptings of the spirit. One really cool thing that Niel L Andersen did was he encouraged us to use the New testament and stories of Christ more in our teaching, it really struck me that these Chinese people we are teaching need to learn more about Christ and his life hear on earth. Well I am flat out of time. I love you all!
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
Monday, August 13, 2012
An Exciting Week Ahead
So I don't know if i have told you guys yet but next week we have a mission conference with Niel L Andersen of the 12! For the past month or so we knew a apostle was coming but they did not tell us until this week. I am super exited, the whole mission is going to Eugene on Saturday for it. We also have Zone conference on Wednesday and that's going to be with Elder Snow from the 70, and that's going to be a all day thing in Eugene, with half the mission. So its pretty exiting times!
This week has been awesome. Elder Brian is great, I have been so blessed to be companions with best missionaries in the mission, and they are all guys that if i knew them back home i would be good friends with. Elder Brian is from Idaho falls, and he only has 3 months left, it will be interesting to see if i will be his last companion.
Things are pretty good in Corvallis, its been pretty hot but nothing unbearable. The best part about Oregon this time of year is that black berries grow wild. They are everywhere! you can just pull of to the side of the rode and there will tons of huge black berry bushes, its incredible. So we have been eating lots of black berries and making a lot of black berry smoothies. Its awesome!
So probably the most exiting news of this week is that we set a baptismal date with one of our Chinese investigators. His name is Kimo I have talked about his in past emails. He is pretty much the bomb. Teaching him has been awesome. We have taught him a lot differently than the other Chinese. Back in China he went to the only Christian church there, its pretty much a Catholic church but its under a communist government. So we taught him the restoration first and he seemed to understand but we really got the feeling like we needed to focus more on the restoration instead of moving to something else. So the next lesson we watched the restoration video with him, it helped him out a lot and he really felt the spirit from it. We thought after that we would move on and teach something else but before our lesson yesterday we felt like we needed to go over the restoration again and focus on Authority. The lesson was awesome it really all clicked for him and he realized that the need to be baptized by proper authority. So we were able to set a baptismal date with him for September 1st. I know that it was the spirit that told Elder Brian and I what we needed to teach. I know the promptings of the Holy Ghost are real. On my mission I have felt the promptings much more than i ever have in my life, and my biggest goal is to be more and more sensitive to them.
I love you all, thanks for all you do!
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
This week has been awesome. Elder Brian is great, I have been so blessed to be companions with best missionaries in the mission, and they are all guys that if i knew them back home i would be good friends with. Elder Brian is from Idaho falls, and he only has 3 months left, it will be interesting to see if i will be his last companion.
Things are pretty good in Corvallis, its been pretty hot but nothing unbearable. The best part about Oregon this time of year is that black berries grow wild. They are everywhere! you can just pull of to the side of the rode and there will tons of huge black berry bushes, its incredible. So we have been eating lots of black berries and making a lot of black berry smoothies. Its awesome!
So probably the most exiting news of this week is that we set a baptismal date with one of our Chinese investigators. His name is Kimo I have talked about his in past emails. He is pretty much the bomb. Teaching him has been awesome. We have taught him a lot differently than the other Chinese. Back in China he went to the only Christian church there, its pretty much a Catholic church but its under a communist government. So we taught him the restoration first and he seemed to understand but we really got the feeling like we needed to focus more on the restoration instead of moving to something else. So the next lesson we watched the restoration video with him, it helped him out a lot and he really felt the spirit from it. We thought after that we would move on and teach something else but before our lesson yesterday we felt like we needed to go over the restoration again and focus on Authority. The lesson was awesome it really all clicked for him and he realized that the need to be baptized by proper authority. So we were able to set a baptismal date with him for September 1st. I know that it was the spirit that told Elder Brian and I what we needed to teach. I know the promptings of the Holy Ghost are real. On my mission I have felt the promptings much more than i ever have in my life, and my biggest goal is to be more and more sensitive to them.
I love you all, thanks for all you do!
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
Monday, August 6, 2012
Changes!
So i think last week i forgot to mention that transfers are today. So i got a new companion, his name is Elder Brian, and he is awesome! I already kinda knew him from some ZLC's. So other great news, Elder Howard got called to be the next assistant to the President! he is super overwhelmed but i know he will do great, he is a amazing missionary. I am going to miss him a ton! So yeah transfers were today, and Elder Howard left at 9 30 and Elder Brian came at 11 30.
It has been a pretty hectic day, we have had to take a lot of people to the transfer spot, but some how we still got a little time to go Frisbee golfing. It was great, it really is a super fun sport. I have improved a ton since i have gotten hear, and Elder Brian is really good, and he is down to go every P day, so that's good. We actually Just went to a baptism for one of the family wards here in Corvallis. It was a family of 7! They are awesome. Elder Howard and I did their baptismal interviews yesterday. It was great to get to know them.
So Elder Howard and i had a really good week. On Tuesday was ZLC so we went down to Eugene. It was another great meeting. usually we get 6 days from ZLC to when we have to teach Zone training meeting, but this time we got two days. So it ended up that we only had about 2 hours to make a plan to teach a 3 hour training meeting, we were super nervous, but it ended up going well. There are some things that i wish we would have included but i guess it will always be that way. Overall it was good.
Our investigators are still doing good. We taught Allen the Word of Wisdom, which is kinda a scary think to teach a Chinese person because they all smoke drink tea, and their favorite thing to do is to go get drunk with their friends. We taught him it, and he talked about how he struggled with all those things, but that he was willing to give them up and that he believed he could! Allen is so awesome, he definitely is slow moving, but when he gets baptized he is going to be solid! Alex is doing awesome, I don't know if i have talked about his lately but, he is doing better than ever.
Lately my testimony on Gods love for each of us has really grown. I have been doing good, but the last little while i have gotten a little down on myself. My year mark is coming up pretty soon, and i know that i am not yet the missionary I want to be, and not the missionary i wanted to be when i reached my year mark. I have been a little unsatisfied with the efforts i have put it. My prayers have gotten a lot more sincere lately and i have been apologizing to God for not always doing all i can to serve him and apologizing when i choose my personal comfort over his work, and whenever i do i really get the feeling that God is very happy with what i am doing, that he knows i can do better and he wants that for me, but that he loves me and i happy for the service i have given him. I know that i can get better and its important that i keep striving to become a better servant, but i also know that God understands me personally, he knows my weaknesses and he understand, and he also knows my desires. Sometimes its hard for me to believe but i know that with Gods help i can overcome my weaknesses. I have a ridiculously hard time talking to all the people i see, very often there are people that i should talk to about the restored gospel that i pass by, because i am scared to talk to them. I hate it, i want so bad to be able to go and to tell them about the restored gospel, but something holds me back, and sometimes i get really down on my self for that weakness, but i know that God knows my desires, and i know that he will help me overcome that. He wont do it for me, but he will help me. it will still be hard, but he can give me the courage. And in the end it will be good that it was hard for me to do, because nothing at this time seems more insurmountable than for me to get to the point where i can talk to all those i see. It honestly seems impossible, but once i get past it I will know that i can do things that seem impossible, and i can only do it by relying on the Lord. I love you all, thanks for your prayers, you are in mine.
Love
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
It has been a pretty hectic day, we have had to take a lot of people to the transfer spot, but some how we still got a little time to go Frisbee golfing. It was great, it really is a super fun sport. I have improved a ton since i have gotten hear, and Elder Brian is really good, and he is down to go every P day, so that's good. We actually Just went to a baptism for one of the family wards here in Corvallis. It was a family of 7! They are awesome. Elder Howard and I did their baptismal interviews yesterday. It was great to get to know them.
So Elder Howard and i had a really good week. On Tuesday was ZLC so we went down to Eugene. It was another great meeting. usually we get 6 days from ZLC to when we have to teach Zone training meeting, but this time we got two days. So it ended up that we only had about 2 hours to make a plan to teach a 3 hour training meeting, we were super nervous, but it ended up going well. There are some things that i wish we would have included but i guess it will always be that way. Overall it was good.
Our investigators are still doing good. We taught Allen the Word of Wisdom, which is kinda a scary think to teach a Chinese person because they all smoke drink tea, and their favorite thing to do is to go get drunk with their friends. We taught him it, and he talked about how he struggled with all those things, but that he was willing to give them up and that he believed he could! Allen is so awesome, he definitely is slow moving, but when he gets baptized he is going to be solid! Alex is doing awesome, I don't know if i have talked about his lately but, he is doing better than ever.
Lately my testimony on Gods love for each of us has really grown. I have been doing good, but the last little while i have gotten a little down on myself. My year mark is coming up pretty soon, and i know that i am not yet the missionary I want to be, and not the missionary i wanted to be when i reached my year mark. I have been a little unsatisfied with the efforts i have put it. My prayers have gotten a lot more sincere lately and i have been apologizing to God for not always doing all i can to serve him and apologizing when i choose my personal comfort over his work, and whenever i do i really get the feeling that God is very happy with what i am doing, that he knows i can do better and he wants that for me, but that he loves me and i happy for the service i have given him. I know that i can get better and its important that i keep striving to become a better servant, but i also know that God understands me personally, he knows my weaknesses and he understand, and he also knows my desires. Sometimes its hard for me to believe but i know that with Gods help i can overcome my weaknesses. I have a ridiculously hard time talking to all the people i see, very often there are people that i should talk to about the restored gospel that i pass by, because i am scared to talk to them. I hate it, i want so bad to be able to go and to tell them about the restored gospel, but something holds me back, and sometimes i get really down on my self for that weakness, but i know that God knows my desires, and i know that he will help me overcome that. He wont do it for me, but he will help me. it will still be hard, but he can give me the courage. And in the end it will be good that it was hard for me to do, because nothing at this time seems more insurmountable than for me to get to the point where i can talk to all those i see. It honestly seems impossible, but once i get past it I will know that i can do things that seem impossible, and i can only do it by relying on the Lord. I love you all, thanks for your prayers, you are in mine.
Love
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
Monday, July 23, 2012
My mandarin is coming along pretty good
It has been another good, some awesome stuff is happening. Yesterday was a really good day, we had 4 at church, which is a pretty good turn out. It was really weird because usually the rule is, if they say they are 100% coming to church then there is about a 50% chance they will be there, and if they are not 100% sure they are coming then they are pretty much not coming.
That's why yesterday was weird because we had 3 who said they definitely were coming and 3 who said they probably could not come. It ended up that the 3 that said they probably could not come said all came and only one of the ones who said they were for sure coming came, and of course they were all Chinese.
The really cool part is that they all stayed for all three hours, which is rare for the Chinese. For a while we have been trying to do a class in Chinese for the 3rd hour with a Chinese member from one of the family wards, but usually we are not able to do it because they leave, but yesterday it actually happened and it was great.
So on Wednesday we had dinner with the starting middle linebacker for OSU, he's a member his name is Fetti Unga. He is super cool, and he is cousins with the Mormon high school basketball phenomenon from Chicago. He said he is trying to convince him to go on a mission. He also said that he will be coming to Corvallis for a couple days in august to visit him. Hopefully its over a weekend and he comes to church, it would be awesome to meet him! There are a few members in the ward that are on the football team, they are all polys ha ha and they are really cool down to earth guys.
This has been a really great week in personal growth for myself. I have been pondering and praying a lot about things i need to do and changes i need to make to more full reach my potential, I have grown a lot on my mission but the awesome thing about life is that we can always improve. Its turns out that Elder Howard has been feeling the same way, it probably has something to do with we are both at the middle of out missions and we know we are not fully satisfied on where we are. So we had some great talks on what we need to do as a companionship and individually. I wish i had time to explain it all but i definitely don't, in fact i got to go right now. I love you all. The church is true!
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
Monday, July 16, 2012
Short Letter this Week
I only have 10 min to write today, so sorry but this one is going to be short.
Its has been a really good week, all of our investigators are slowing progressing, they all are doing a little better than last week. So this week Elder Howard and i taught, what is now called zone training meeting. What it is, is that the thursday after Zone leader council, instead of having a district meeting the whole zone gathers and the Zone leaders teach about all the things that they were taught at ZLC (zone leader council) and what ever else they feel the zone needs.
This use to be 1.5 hours so that what Elder Howard and I were preparing for, but two days before it happened president told us that from now on it is going to be 3 hours long. So we were really worried about what we were going to teach and how we were going to make the whole 3 hours productive, we knew we wanted to spend about a hour or hour and a half about what most of ZLC was on, which was about teaching short powerful messages while tracting and street contacting people.So we planned out how we were going to teach that and have everyone come up with these short powerful statements and have everyone practice them. So we got that all ready but we knew that would only take up half the time.
So we did a lot of pondering and praying about what the zone needs, and what we should teach for the other half. The night before the meeting, we got a distinct impression that we needed to teach about the importance of being led by the spirit as a missionary (being a instrument in the hands of the Lord.) and we decide the way we would focus on having the spirit a bigger influence in our work, was through prayer. So we also taught about prayer. I learned so much about prayer, and i realized that i have been completely under utilizing prayer. Ever since then i have put a lot more effort my prayers and it has helped a ton. I wish i had time to talk more about all the things i learned but i don't have time.
But i would like to bear my testimony on prayer, its amazing and the more we put in the more we get out. Threw prayer we can have so much guidance and we can always have the spirit with us very strong. I know when we focus on our prayers and always making them sincere amazing blessings come from it.
The Zone training meeting went good. It was relieving to get it done.
that's all the time i have today! i love you all!
Elder Covey
Fearless Via Faith
Its has been a really good week, all of our investigators are slowing progressing, they all are doing a little better than last week. So this week Elder Howard and i taught, what is now called zone training meeting. What it is, is that the thursday after Zone leader council, instead of having a district meeting the whole zone gathers and the Zone leaders teach about all the things that they were taught at ZLC (zone leader council) and what ever else they feel the zone needs.
This use to be 1.5 hours so that what Elder Howard and I were preparing for, but two days before it happened president told us that from now on it is going to be 3 hours long. So we were really worried about what we were going to teach and how we were going to make the whole 3 hours productive, we knew we wanted to spend about a hour or hour and a half about what most of ZLC was on, which was about teaching short powerful messages while tracting and street contacting people.So we planned out how we were going to teach that and have everyone come up with these short powerful statements and have everyone practice them. So we got that all ready but we knew that would only take up half the time.
So we did a lot of pondering and praying about what the zone needs, and what we should teach for the other half. The night before the meeting, we got a distinct impression that we needed to teach about the importance of being led by the spirit as a missionary (being a instrument in the hands of the Lord.) and we decide the way we would focus on having the spirit a bigger influence in our work, was through prayer. So we also taught about prayer. I learned so much about prayer, and i realized that i have been completely under utilizing prayer. Ever since then i have put a lot more effort my prayers and it has helped a ton. I wish i had time to talk more about all the things i learned but i don't have time.
But i would like to bear my testimony on prayer, its amazing and the more we put in the more we get out. Threw prayer we can have so much guidance and we can always have the spirit with us very strong. I know when we focus on our prayers and always making them sincere amazing blessings come from it.
The Zone training meeting went good. It was relieving to get it done.
that's all the time i have today! i love you all!
Elder Covey
Fearless Via Faith
Monday, July 9, 2012
Not your ordinary week
This week was interesting but great week. Because the 4th of July was on Wednesday thats when we took our P day, so monday was a normal proselyting day, and the 4th was our P day. For the 4th of July 8 of us Elders here in Corvallis played different sports pretty much the whole time. We started by Frisbee golfing, then we went to we went to a church and played volleyball, basketball, football and soccer. We were all pretty beat by the end but it was way fun.
And then on Friday Elder Howard and i went down Eugene for ZLC (zone leader council.) I think i explained what ZLC is in a different email, but it was really good, it went from 9 am to 5 pm. The focus of the mission for the next month is going to be making it so every missionary can be able to give short powerful statements of truth, teaching about the restoration while tracting and street contacting, I am really exited because it is something i want to get better at.
We had two lessons with Allen and two lessons with Daniel this week. They are both still progressing. Allen especially, he really wants to have a strong belief in God, when right now its kinda wishy washy. After our first appointment we left him with the commitment to read Alma 32, he read it and loved it! He said before that he really did not understand faith, or how to make his faith grow, but from reading that he realized the faith he already has and how to make it grow, and he learned all that on his own. Its amazing to see how simple the BOM is how it these Chinese students who have never read from the Bible or anything like it can understand and learn from the BOM.
We got a new Chinese investigator this week named Yoa he is the friends with a different investigator name Xhenhu (Jen-who.) Xhenhu is awesome, he wants to be baptized but his parents, said that he cant because they are afraid it will distract him from his schooling. He is going back to China for a month in August and they plan to talk about it them, he seems pretty confident once he can explain it to them face to face that they will be okay with it.
So funny story, we had a lesson with Xhenhu and asked if we wear crosses, and we talked about that for a bit, and then he asked if the church has any symbols, so we showed him our CTR rings, and he thought they were the coolest things ever, and he said he wanted one, so we told him he could search it online and he could find a place to buy them. And Lo and behold yesterday at church Xhenhu is wearing a CTR ring, its pretty awesome.
That's all the time i got for today, I love you all. Thanks so much for your prayers.
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
And then on Friday Elder Howard and i went down Eugene for ZLC (zone leader council.) I think i explained what ZLC is in a different email, but it was really good, it went from 9 am to 5 pm. The focus of the mission for the next month is going to be making it so every missionary can be able to give short powerful statements of truth, teaching about the restoration while tracting and street contacting, I am really exited because it is something i want to get better at.
We had two lessons with Allen and two lessons with Daniel this week. They are both still progressing. Allen especially, he really wants to have a strong belief in God, when right now its kinda wishy washy. After our first appointment we left him with the commitment to read Alma 32, he read it and loved it! He said before that he really did not understand faith, or how to make his faith grow, but from reading that he realized the faith he already has and how to make it grow, and he learned all that on his own. Its amazing to see how simple the BOM is how it these Chinese students who have never read from the Bible or anything like it can understand and learn from the BOM.
We got a new Chinese investigator this week named Yoa he is the friends with a different investigator name Xhenhu (Jen-who.) Xhenhu is awesome, he wants to be baptized but his parents, said that he cant because they are afraid it will distract him from his schooling. He is going back to China for a month in August and they plan to talk about it them, he seems pretty confident once he can explain it to them face to face that they will be okay with it.
So funny story, we had a lesson with Xhenhu and asked if we wear crosses, and we talked about that for a bit, and then he asked if the church has any symbols, so we showed him our CTR rings, and he thought they were the coolest things ever, and he said he wanted one, so we told him he could search it online and he could find a place to buy them. And Lo and behold yesterday at church Xhenhu is wearing a CTR ring, its pretty awesome.
That's all the time i got for today, I love you all. Thanks so much for your prayers.
Elder Covey
--
Fearless via Faith
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