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