Greetings from Medford!?

Yes it is true, I am emailing from Medford today. It has been a really tough week for Elder Mcbride. When he came in last Monday he told President how he has been struggling anxiety and depression, and that the only reason he came back out was because when he left Oregon for his surgery President Young had him promise that he would come back out. I cant imagine how hard it was for him to come back out here. He was very scared and was not sure if he could even make it a couple days. We came down to Medford this Morning because there is a member here who specializes in anxiety stuff so we made the 3 hour trip down.

So I am emailing from the a stake center in Medford, its not my old stake center which is too bad, its about 15 min away from my area, but some other missionaries came down to email here and we will play basketball while Elder Mcbride is in his meeting thing. Elder Jorgensen is here! its awesome to see him again, he is doing really good and i am very glad i get to spend a good amount of the day with him. Seeing how great Elder Jorgensen is doing really gives me hope for Elder McBride. On Saturday Elder McBride was really bad, and the plan was for him to go home today, but yesterday he was feeling a little better and he is going to try to make it for 3 months out here.

I really love Elder McBride, he is a great kid, we have a ton of similarities and we get along great. I really feel like he is my best friend. He is from Kanab Utah, and he even knows where the K motel is! He is football player and BYU offered him a scholarship to play there for once he gets back, he is wide receiver, he is not very tall but apparently he is supper fast, he ran a 4.38 40 yard dash, which is insanely fast. He is really great guy and i really love him, its hard to see how difficult it is for him, it really frustrates him how uncontrollable and illogical it is. I have done all i can to help him out and to make it as enjoyable as possible but there is definitely something very uncontrollable there. We have days were everything goes great and i think he is doing well, but after he will express how hard for him it was and how he kinda freaking out. I hope you all will pray for him he really needs it, I think if he can make it the 3 months that he will be better and he will be able to make it the two years. transfers are in one week and he is almost definitely getting transferred somewhere where it does not rain 7 days a week, and where the sun shines more than once a week.

Please pray for my ability to make this next week as enjoyable as I can for him, and pray that President Young will receive revelation on where will be best for him and what companion would be best for him. Elder McBride is a strong kid and I am confident that he will do all he can to stay out.

Our Investigators are doing well, Dale is the same, he is still really struggling to committ. Scott came to church again, and he admitted to us he had not been praying, because he is not sure if there is a God, but we talked about it and shared the BOM scripture where King Lamonia's father (I could be mistaken) prays and asks if there is a God. We committed him to pray about the Book of Mormon and we will see how that goes. We got a really cool new investigator named Mark, a few days before Elder Charleson left we were tracting some apartments and in one of windows there was a dont tread on me flag with a snake on it, I had seen that symbol a lot and neither me or Elder Charleson did not know what it meant, so we thought we would ask the person who's apartment it was when we knocked on his door. Right when he opened the door he immediately said "not interested" and started to close the door, but before he shut it we asked about the flag, then he started talking about it and next thing you know he invites us in, and we were able to teach him about the BOM. We were able to come back and have another lesson. He is doing pretty good, he will be a bit of a longer process, but I think he has a lot of potential.

His hang up is that he is against organized religion, but he is a huge Glenn Beck fan and that has really opened the gate for him. Elder Jorgensen had a CD of Glenn Beck talking about his conversion, I burned it and thought it might come in handy, so I gave Mark that, I really think it is going to help him out.

I am doing great! I am so happy each day on the mission is better than the last, i love to just stop and think about what I am doing and where I am, it makes me so happy, I love this work so much, and i am so grateful for the ability to do it.

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

3 companions in 4 weeks

So first big news, I am getting a new companion!... again. Hi name is Elder McBride.  Elder McBride was in the 4th ward for two transfers before I was here, but then he got tonsillitis and had to go home for surgery, it was looking like he was not going to come back out, but  he has decided to give it another whack. 

The original plan was that when he came back out we would go into a 3-sum, but president feels like that would not be the best situation for Elder Mcbride, so poor Elder Charleson is  getting transferred to Medford today to be in a 3-sum, but he is going to be with some great missionaries that he already knows so i don't think it will be too bad for him. I really have enjoyed my time with Elder Charleson, we got along great, its too bad we were only together for 3 weeks. 

Who knows maybe we will be companions again. Elder McBride is flying in today and will be hear at 1. I don't really know how long I will be with Elder McBride there is a good possibility that he will be transferred at the end of this transfer, because Pres. want to get him somewhere where the weather is not so bad, because they are trying to do all they can so he stays out. It is really hard for missionaries to come back out and right now he has he is planning on being here for 3 months and then making a decision whether he wants to stay or not. 

So President is going to put him where ever he will be happiest and apparently the bad weather here was kinda hard for him. I am really exited to be his companion, Elder McBride is the companion who President planned on me being here with when he transferred me here. Its kind of a fragile situation, but I hope i will be able to help him out, I'm just gonna love him and do all i can to be his best friend. From what I hear about  him I think we will really get along, everyone in the ward has spoken very highly of him, I think we are going to do great together. 

Please Keep him in your prayers. I can only imagine how hard this will be for him, and every prayer will be appreciated. So there is the big news but it was a very good week and I don't want to skip over it. This week I have had more success knocking doors than any other week of my mission. We got 9 new investigators from tracting. In order for someone to be classified as a new investigator you have to teach them multiple principles and have return appointment. from new investigators its lucky if you get half actually investigating. 

Most just bail on the first appointment and become uninterested but hopefully out of the 9 we will get some solid investigators. The best part of this week was the two lessons we had with Dale Writesman. Dale is married to a member and has been coming to church for 7 months, he always reads the next weeks lesson for the gospel essentials class and for priesthood, he is going to a Tuesday night Book of Mormon class, he is watching the BYU channel all the time and he is reading from the Book of Mormon everyday. He is a great guy, but he is having a really hard time recognizing his answer and he really struggles to feel the spirit, but we had two great lessons with him this week. I can tell he is close. I really love him and his wife. 

I was laying in bed thinking about it one night and i was thinking about how much the gospel would bless this couple. How great a blessing it would be for them to be able to be sealed for eternity. At that moment I decided I would never be able to forgive myself if I do not do everything I can possible do to help him recognize his answer, and help him enter into the waters of baptism. I realized that i cant afford to waste study time, or even just study for myself I need to study for my investigators, think about there needs and how I can help them. During one of the lessons I had a thought to my self "nothing in the world matters to me as much as this mans salvation" it was great feeling. 

If you told be that Jimmer scored 82 points in a game and broke Kobe's record, it would not make me nearly as happy as if Dale were to call me and tell me he wants to get baptized. The joy of this work is like nothing else, I am so grateful to be here and I am the happiest I have every been. Please pray for Dale and Elder McBride. Thank you for all you guys do and I hope the best for you. I love you all

 

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith

I could not come up with any clever subject name today, and i did not want to use one i have already used, so this is what you get

Another week has come and gone. Its crazy how fast it goes! cant believe i have been out for almost 7 months, it seems like i just got here, and another crazy thought is that i have been here in Eugene for longer than i was in the MTC, and while i was there i thought the MTC went by fast but compared to these past 3 weeks it was a eternity.

It has been a really good week, we had the baptism of two kids we have been teaching Caden and Connor (10 & 11 years old) They are the grand kids of the ward mission leader, there Dad is inactive and he said that they needed to go to church for 2 months and then they could start meeting with the missionaries, so they have been going to Church and wanting to be baptised for a little while. Teaching them has been awesome, at first they were pretty bummed because they were attached to the last missionaries, but Elder Charleson and I got them over that pretty quick and we became really good friends with them.

I really enjoy teaching younger people because it is a lot easier to gain a real friendship with them. I remember when i was there age how much i looked up to Older kids and how much i appreciated it when when they would be nice to me or be my friends, so i try to do the same for any younger kids that i teach. I have become really close with them especially Connor, he is such a awesome kid, when we are teaching him he will just randomly say something like "...yeah, and you guys are so awesome, i really love you." and when he does that its pretty much the greatest thing ever, I try so hard show everyone i teach how much i care for them and love them and its awesome when someone does the same for you. Teaching younger kids is different you have to keep it from being boring and so we would use a lot of object lessons. The one we did that they really liked was the "faith rocket." The faith rocket is a example of doing something hard or scary, but doing it because God told you that it was going to be okay.

We get a emptied out and unfolded herbal tea bag (so it is a cylinder.) Then you put it on there hand and tell that you are going to light it on fire, "but we promise its not going to burn you, but you have to believe us and stay still.) so you light the top of it on fire and it burns down the bag until it is about 1/8 in. away from there hand and then it floats away. Caden and Connor absolutely loved it, they kinda went crazy, it was great. We have been using the faith rocket a lot lately.

We are teaching this huge guy named Scott, Scott is super awesome guy, and very interesting. He is huge, Like 6'6 probably 300 lbs. his dad played Defensive line for the Raiders and Scott looks like he could have to. He is also kind of a Buddhist, and really into Zen, but he has a open mind and loves having us over. We met him tracting one day, he told us that his wife was a member (very inactive, her records were not here) and that she would probably be interested in talking to us, but it turns out she does not want to meet with that because she feels guilty for the way she is living, so we are trying to start working with her but she is reluctant, but we have been able to work with Scott. He came to Church yesterday and he seemed to really enjoy it.

It would probably take a miracle for him to change his views, but I believe it could happen! anyways he is a cool guy and i thought i would tell you guys about it.

Well that's all i have for this week. I am doing great, being a district leader has been good, all the missionaries in my district are really good missionaries which makes my job easy. I appreciate all the love and support, thanks a ton.

Elder Covey

Fearless Via Faith

Goodbye Medford

Elder Jorgensen & I

Elder Snow - A true cowboy from New Mexico

This one is with Elder Harrison. He was in my MTC district and he transfered to Medford 6 weeks before i left. He is a awesome kid, I think if i could chose anyone to have as my companion it would be him

Good Stuff

It has been a really good week. I have gotten to know Elder Charleson more which has been really good. He is a really good guy. We get along great, am really looking forward to working with him more. I have loved being in Eugene! the people here are cool and a lot nicer than the people in Medford. There has been a lot of rain but it has not poured yet. It was a interesting week, kinda a lot of starting all over having a new companion, but it has been good.

One interesting thing that happened this week is we had two guys who work at the MTC come out to our mission. They go to all the mission Presidents in their first year. They came to help him during one of the days and the other day they did a little training thing for some of the leadership in the mission. Both of the nights they were here they split up and went around with missionaries. Pres. chose us as one of the companionship's for them to go around with. It was pretty scary because the guy that came with us had just been out the assistants to the president the night before, and the other guy went out with a set of Zone Leaders both nights, so we did not want to disappoint. He went out with us from 6-9, we had two lessons with investigators planed and one lesson with a member family planed. Our 6 pm lesson fell threw and we had to scramble to find a replacement but we called some recent converts and they were open.

All the lessons went pretty well, it was kind of rough because Elder Charleson and i have not been together long, and so are teaching is a little off, but it was not bad. The next day we got to go to the training thing they did. The guy who came out with us was one of the main writers of Preach My Gospel. He talked about how much time they put into creating the missionary purpose, it is very simple but he talked about how ever word is so important. The purpose it "to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel threw faith in Jesus Christ and his atonement, repentance, baptist, receiving the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end." He talked about how one of the words we as missionaries usually overlook the one of the most important words and that is the word "help" He talked about how we need to really care for and love each person we teach with great passion. It was good to hear him say that because i was so overwhelmed with all the things that i was not good enough at, but when he said that it made me feel like I am doing what i am suppose to, and the reason why i say that is because i have been thinking and grieving a lot over two people from Meford and that is Jeff and Kaiden.

I have not told you this but Jeff fell away from the church, he is the one we baptised in early december, and a few weeks after that he had some people at work kind of attack him with anti stuff and he stopped coming and started to completely ignore us. I called and texted a ton and never got a response, I even went to his parents house to visit him and his mom said he was not there. I felt like me and Jeff were great friends, it totally considered him one of my buddies and i thought that we really be friends for life. It was really hard to see him fall away, and it is still hard to think about, its a sorrow like i have never felt, and i am not sure that had to do with anything but it when i am down about it and i think about it, it brings me joy that what matters to me most is other peoples salvation, and i have hope that someday he will come back. Sorry for random tangent but that is what came out. Anyways i learned a lot from the MTC guys, it was great!

I also taught my first district meeting this week, it was pretty scary Its two hours long and i was in charge of it, but went really well, i taught about the importance of the BOM in conversion, I actually shared Jeffs story and kind of a bad example, because he did not read a lot from the BOM, and almost started to cry, which was kinda weird. But the lesson went well.

Well that's all i got for this week, sorry this letter was so unorganized and crazy i will do better next week. I love you all, if you love me you will send me mail ha ha I am just kidding, but i would love to hear from any of you, and whats going on in your life. Thanks for the prayers!

Elder Covey

--Fearless Via Faith