Crater Lake

Last Monday we went to Crater Lake with A recent Convert in Singles ward named Austin. Austin is one of my favorite kids in the whole world, I met him like a week after his baptism. The first time we met we were already great friends, we talked about wakeboarding and stuff.

He would come to lesson with us all the time and he was always awesome to have there! I seriously feel like he is one of my best friends and he is planning on going on a mission next September. we have already planned how we are going to hang out all the time once he is back, because he is going to go to BYU or BYU Idaho once he gets back. We have so much in common and its always awesome to be around him.

Here are pictures of Crater lake. The one where we are holding up Austin is because we had a race up a snowy hill and he one. And the sone with the matching scarf gloves and hat is because Austin found those in a free box somewhere and we wore them because it was kinda cold.

5 Guiding Principles

President Young requested all missionaries write an essay on 5 principles that will guide our lives, so I put this together in personal study one morning. It is very simple but I hoe you enjoy it. Love, Elder Covey

5 Guiding Principles

1.     Think before you act: the idea of this is that before I make a decision I think to myself “in a month will I regret doing this, in a year… will I ever regret doing this act?” if I know I will regret it, then I choose not to do it.

2.     Fearless Via Faith: This is a saying I came up with at the MTC. Fear has held me back from a lot of good in my life. I know that God did not give me the spirit of fear (2 Timothy 1:7) I know for me to become the person I want to be I need to be fearless. I know the only way for me to become fearless is through trust and faith in Christ.

3.     God does not intend for me (one of his sons) to be mediocre: I know that I am a spirit child of Heavenly Father. He did not make me so I would become mediocre. He has given me the ability and the potential to change the world in a positive way. Because of that I always try to keep processing in all the things I do. I am not ne to stand still.

4.     “Therefore, or what have ye to boast”? Mosiah 2:24 I know what King Benjamin taught was true that everything we have and everything we are comes from God, and that on our own we are nothing. I know it is important to be humble, and to thank Him for all He has given us.

5.     Everyone deserves My love: everyone on his earth is a spirit child of our Heavenly Father. Everyone deserves to be carted for and treated right. No one deserves to be unrighteously judged.  

Snow in Medford

Today we woke up and there was about a inch of snow on the ground! which was kind of exiting but it was not nice Utah powder it was ugly slushy stuff. 

It has been a really good week, We set a baptismal date for our investigator Brittney. Brittney is 20 and we will be attending the singles ward. We found her tracting! i totally was impressed to know on her door while riding on our bikes one day. She is from California and her best friend is Mormon and that is the main reason she let us in. It goes to show what a impact a good influence can do on someone. Brittney will be baptised after i leave.

We have a shorter time to email today because it was not working when we first came because of the snow. and we are going to crater lake to today, which i am exited for

I love you all and thanks for the prayers

Elder Covey

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Fearless via Faith

P.S. to who ever gets this i would love a letter. apparently a lot of people get these and i would love to hear what is going on in your lives

Doing Great

It has been another great week. It is crazy to think that i have been
here in Medford for 5 months. Transfers are coming up in a couple week
and it looks like i will be going. I will most likely leave Medford on
the 21st. And i wont figure out where i am going or if I am going
untill the 18th.

It's kinda exiting to think about, so we will see. It
will be hard to leave Medford I really like it here, but the hardest
part will be leaving the people I have come really close with. There
are certain people that it will be very hard to say goodbye to.

I am very exited for the future and i know that with the help of Lord
i can do whatever i am assigned to do where ever I go.
I wish i could write more but i am out of time for today. I love you
all, thanks for the prayers

Elder Covey


-- Fearless Via Faith

Pictures

Roxy Ane Peak

Lithia Park in Ashland

Mountain Biking on New Years Eve 2011

Rain ain't enough to stop the truth

This week i experienced my first full week of Oregon rain. It rained
pretty hard almost every day. Which was not my favorite but it made
for some good memories. This week my testimony of how the Lord will
always comfort us and give us joy when we are doing what is right, has
really grown. We had a couple really hard days especially Wednesday. In
a matter of three hours on Wednesday we got a text from our
investigator's (Kaiden's) step-mom texted us and told us that he did
not want to be baptised on Saturday. Which was a really shock because
he had, had that as his date for a while and seemed really solid. 


We also had two investigators who had a baptismal date told us they were
not willing to meet with us anymore because they are too busy moving
and stuff (that was not the biggest surprise because we have had a
insanely hard time meeting with them, and their baptismal date was not
until Feb. 28th because they struggle with every aspect of the Word of
Wisdom.) and we also had one different investigator cancel her next
appointment and say she did not want to meet anymore. And then after
all of that we biked for 45 min to visit some people and to tract in
the pouring rain. 


The strange thing was that the whole time I was in
a good mood, I was happy and i really felt comforted, don't get me
wrong it was insanely hard to hear those things from my investigators,
its a whole different kind of sorrow, but even with all that I was
just naturally happy. I know that it was the Lord giving me feelings of
joy, reassuring me that I am doing the right things and that it will
all work out. I was very grateful for that.

Thomas is who I talked about us tracting into last Sunday, and things
have been going really well with him. we have had two lessons and a
chapel tour with him, along with him we have been teaching his
girlfriend and her son who is 8. They are all really progressing and
they have a ways to go, but i am really looking forward to teaching
them more and helping them grow.
Thank you for all the prayers i really appreciate it, it everyone could
pray for Kaden this week that would be great. We are meeting with him
on Tuesday and that will determine a lot.
love
     Elder Covey
Fearless Via Faith

Happy New Year 2012!

It has been a while since i have been able to send one of these, and as always i dont have a lot of time to write it. The work is picking up now that the holiday season is over. We had some great experiences finding (tracting and street contacting)

The highlights of the week would definitely have to be  the the recent converts. Yesterday at Church Bob Trimble (83 year old man we who was baptized in October) was suppose to give the opening prayer. He did not know when to go up and someone else said the opening prayer. directly after the opening prayer he went and sat next to the 1st councilor, and he told him he could say the closing prayer. He sat on the stage for the whole fast and  testimony meeting and then at he end he said the greatest prayer i have ever heard. It must have been 3-5 min. long. He pretty much bore his testimony to God in his prayer. It was not a prayer you would hear from a long time member, it was so great! it made me so happy. He was telling Heavenly Father how much he loved coming to church, how much he enjoyed the temple, and other things like that. the joy to in seeing someone change so much and to gain a testimony is incredible. It was a moment that i will never forget! I am so blessed to be able to be a part of his conversion.

About a month ago i requested that everyone pray for Joel Lewis. Joel was baptized in November but a few weeks after being baptized he went back to doing drugs. He never told us he had a drug problem before because he was embarrassed and he cleaned up  about two weeks before his baptism. He has had a crazy past, pretty much without parents, so he relied so heavily on friends and he had bad friends so he got into bad stuff. He made a new years resolution to stop doing drugs and to come back to church, and he has been doing great. We went and saw him last night, and just talked for a hour. 

It was great I really felt like a friend or a brother just there strengthening and encouraging him. He is great guy and know he can make it, and it makes me feel good that i can help. Something interesting about the whole situation is that through it all his testimony never wavered, he has been fed a lot of anti stuff and people try to challenge his faith. He told us that he knows the Holy Ghost is in this church and he feel is here more than anywhere else, and because of that he does not doubt that the Church is true. It was so great to hear him say that, he has such great faith, i really love him and hope you all will please pray for him.

I am out of time, but thank you for all your prayers. Elder Jorgensen is doing great, after he decided to stay his plan was to just stay for 6 months because that's all he thought he could handle. He now is planning on a full two years, its amazing to see the chance he is doing great. He is a great example to me of pushing threw hard things and not giving up. I love him. Please keep him in your prayers.

 

Elder Covey

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Fearless via Faith