Feb 21st 2013

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the email. 

So we got transfer calls and I am training a new missionary while opening up a new area as a district leader. I am really excited about it! Well I'm really excited about the first 2 callings. I'm not terribly excited to be a district leader again but I don't have a choice. Not saying that I would say no to the calling but I am the only Elder in my district. Well besides my companion. So this is whats going on in the Coos Bay zone: Florence is getting replaced by sisters. Reedsport is still a senior couple, Elder Williams is replacing me in North Bend, and Charleston is training in a tri-companionship. Coquille is being replaced by sisters along with Bandon. Port Orford hasn't had missionaries so a senior couple is opening it up. And for my companion and I, we are opening up Brookings which hasn't had Elders in at least 2 years. Probably more but as far as I have been able to figure out it has been over 2 years. So we are starting completely from scratch. They have had senior couples in and out but never Elders so hopefully tracting will be beneficial. I have talked to a few people who said that they have friends that live down there that want to take the lessons but don't want them from the Senior couples. So hopefully everything will work out. I get my new missionary Wednesday so I will be going to Eugene tomorrow for training. I am stoked! The only thing is my district consists of Bandon, Coquille, Port Orford, and Brookings. So I am pretty much a Relief society president over the Estrogen District because we have 5 sisters and 3 elders. But hey sisters baptize like crazy so hopefully our district will do awesome.

So nothing really exciting happened this week that I can think of. Just some lessons that were a little intense but just end up going around in a circle. so that has been really frustrating. But it was good to see some people for a last time. But anyways thats about it!

Feb 18, 2013

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the email! So things have been doing fairly good as far as the work is concerned. We have a family of 4 hopefully getting baptized next month. They are a great family. Hopefully another family of 4 will also be baptized as well next month but they are super indecisive.

 So as for things that have happened this week, we went to a part members home last Monday on our p-day because my companion signed me up to make cinnamon rolls for them, which I wasnt too happy about because that pretty much took up our entire pday. So that happened and then I was feeling pretty sick for the rest of the day. We had dinner with our Stake President Monday too which was pretty intense because he is a super intimidating guy. We could honestly probably start up a branch with all the people he has offended with his bluntness. But he is a really good Stake President. Supposedly he is one of the top 10 surgeons in the world. But that't just what we have been told.

We had some awesome lessons this week. We were teaching Troy and Mona and their daughters Kylee and Rylee a few times this week. It was great to see how the gospel had been bringing their family together and listening to them as they read the Book of Mormon and pray as a family. It was a great experience. They all came to church this week too. It's fun to have their principal as our ward mission leader because they are so excited to have him come to their house with "the mormons"

I'm not sure how it is back home but everyone in our zone seems to be trading off being sick. Lots of them with the flu.

So this week I got to go on 2 exchanges this week one with the Coquille elders and one with the Florence elders.
I went to Coquille to be with Elder Griffin. We had a pretty good exchange because we went to a small town they cover called Powers which is an hour away. They had a referral to go teach someone that lives there so we went to have our first lesson. He was a pretty nice guy but kinda crazy at the same time. He lives on a farm a few miles outside of town. He started talking to us about government conspiracies and the cure for cancer. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and said that he would like to join the church. But won't yet because he is involved in some legal complexities and won't join till after they are over with. That way he can pay a full tithe. After the lesson we went to Powers to try and visit some less actives. Powers is now the smallest town I have been in ever. There are about 300 people that live in Powers and we couldn't even find the town center really. We had to take a bathroom break and the only place open was a tiny cafe that had some awesome pie.

The next day we had district meeting and then I went up to Florence to be with Elder Bagley. It was a pretty fun exchange. We taught a kinda crazy weird old lady which was fun. Florence is a big retirement community so they don't really have too much going on. They might be getting sisters soon.

I don't know what my assignment is but President called me on Thursday and today, asked me a few questions and told me that I will probably be training in a new area. But transfers can change often so I will let you know next week.

Anyways I got to get going but hopefully I will be able to email you next week.

Feb 11, 2013

Hey Mom,

Thanks a ton for the package. It was great. Things have been pretty good here. We had a decent week this week. Troy and his girlfriend are getting baptized next month so hopefully that will go through. Also, we set a date with a girl named Kayla. She has to quit smoking though but she seems to want to quit. In her closing prayer she asked that she would have the urge to sell her cigarettes and hopefully give them a pretty good deal.

We went on a trio exchange with one of our assistants to the President this week which went pretty good. We taught Kevin and his 3 daughters the plan of salvation. They have been taught the lessons before but we are going through them again. I have learned that play dough is a great tool for teaching kids. Anyway they said that they know the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet so they are praying and discussing a date to get baptized or if that is what they want to do.

After our zone training meeting we went on exchanges and I got to be with Elder Moua again for a day.

It's awesome to see the change in people when we teach them. We were teaching Kathy and when we got there she was super mad because her wallet was stolen but by the time we left she was laughing and having a good time. Another lady named Mickie also changed a lot during the lesson.

We tried to go see Will again but found out from his brother that he went to prison. Turns out he was trying to sharpen a machete on the pole of a stop sign. Then he took a chainsaw to a gas station, filled it up, started it, then ran down the road with it full blast while yelling at people. So we won't see him for quite a while.

So they are changing the way they do home teaching here in our stake because it is so low. And it should really help with missionary work. Now EVERYONE will be home taught. It's fun being a missionary at those kinds of meetings because it doesn't really apply to us and afterwards when they have refreshments we always get to take home whats left over.

While at that meeting I called a less active to confirm our appointment we had and he rescheduled. Then the next day (yesterday) we found out he died in a car wreck
earlier that morning. It was pretty nuts.

Anyways we did have a ton of less actives back at church. It was pretty good. But thats about it for this week!

Feb 4th 2013

Hey Mom,

Thanks for the email. And thanks in advance for the package. Things have been pretty good here. Last p-day we went after emailing to a single sisters home because she wanted to give us some food from her food storage. I thought that she was going to give us a box of food or something but ended up leaving with our trunk full. It was awesome! I guess she is planning on moving away to Arizona in a more assisted living place and has no family near by so she gave a ton of it to us. Now I will probably never have to buy food for the rest of this transfer.

So we are starting to do more service in the community here so we are currently working at a community cafe as well as a foodbank at the 7th day adventist church. so far its been going pretty good and has been a lot of fun. We are teaching a guy named troy and his family. troy came to church which was great! the work is picking up. so this transfer is a week shorter than most transfers due to the change in how long you are in the MTC for. So that means that I will be home a week earlier then I thought. So transfers will be Monday the 25th of Feb. Anyways thats about it for this week! Love ya!

Jan 28 2013

Hey Mom thanks for the email.

Things are going here. We have been teaching 3 people in a group home. That has been interesting. They ask some really great questions though and have a pretty good understanding of the Bible. They honestly ask better questions then most of our sane investigatiors. But they are fun. They were suppose to come to church yesterday but went to the Jehovah's Witnesses church instead. Also this crazy homeless guy named Will we kept on running in to said we could come over and teach him. But he is always CRAZY drunk and talks about some weird stuff. The night before our visit him and his friend were running from the cops and Kirk ran face first into a pipe. It was pretty gross because his eye was oozing tons of pus and what not. I thought about taking a picture and sending it to you but ended up not doing it. The next day we were at McDonalds having a late dinner and Will walked in to beg people for come change and saw us. he started pulling makeup out of his pocket and proceeded to tell us that he uses it to make himself look like he has some black eyes or hasnt slept for days. The life of homeless people is pretty interesting. Then he talked to us in the parking lot and as soon as we started leaving he tried to break in to the bagel shop across the parking lot. I'm not totally sure but I think he might be in jail right now. Anyways that's pretty much all that has happened recently that is interesting. We are hoping to get some mentally sane people to teach this week due to the fact that we are only really teaching crazy people. One went to jail, and will is probably in jail too. But anyways thats pretty much it. Love ya!

Elder Covey's Going Away

Elders Berg and Covey and other Pics from January

Jan 21st, 2013

Hey mom,

Things are going pretty good here. Transfers are today and my companion is the new Assistant to the President. It was funny to see him take that phone call. Especially the situation that we were in when he took the call. But now I am getting Elder Mitchell. He was in my MTC group and stayed in the same dorm as me. I remember that he sleep talks a lot.

Currently I am up in Florence waiting with Elder Griffin, Elder Benard and Elder Hansen while we wait for our companions. Elder Hansen is getting a different Elder Griffin Benard is getting Elder Charlson and Elder Griffin is getting Elder Bagley.

Lets see exciting things that have happened this week. We have an investigator who we have been working with who said that she might have been baptized so we looked in to it and found out she was 37 or so years ago. So well now the plan to get her baptized is over all we have to do is get her active again. So we have met a lot of cool members lately. The only bad side is they are way to use to the missionaries just hanging out so that makes it hard because we actually do are job. We have been trying to work with a lot of the members to do missionary work which has been going good for the most part. Some have been good some have been terrible. We had dinner with a single sister and another family (mother and son) who is our age. Afterwards we tried to do this presentation so that we could have them do missionary work but it didn't go all that well. Every time we see the Single sister who is in her 70's or so she always talks about her mission. I didn't mind hearing about peoples missions before but now it's like okay that's great but move on. So while we were talking about something she would say "On my mission..." and then bring it way off topic. So it was super frustrating. But we got through it.

So when I get back to North Bend I will hopefully send pictures. Last P-day we went to the beach and checked out the sea lions. we got bubbles for christmas so I wanted to show some to them. Lots of fun. 

Yesterday we went to the same place because some members in coos bay ward had a bbq and invited us for a little going away thing for covey and reed. So I will email a picture of them too. anyways thats pretty much it for this week. 

Tie Sale and Ping Pong

Jan 14 2013

Hey mom,

Thanks for the info on what foods I can eat. I feel like im getting old or something. So this week was pretty good. Monday we got a call from the other Elders that were shopping at Macys saying that they had a clearance table full of ties. So we went over there and they were all 91% off so we went a little crazy. At first I bought 5. Then realized that this kind of thing doesn't happen very often and went back and bought 6 more. I even got President Young one too. We rapped them and on Tuesday when we were at the mission home for a lunch after our meeting we hid them in their dryer. We were in Eugene all day Tuesday and had a great meeting. We are getting a lot of missionaries soon. So lately we have been working a lot with the young men to do a nerf blow dart activity to invite their friends to. Our young mens has 4 boys so we are trying to build it up.

So with the age change we are getting a lot more sisters so in zone training meeting we had to teach a segment on lock your heart. I'm glad we don't have sisters in our zone other than a senior couple so we could be pretty blunt and open. It was really funny to have a senior couple there too with all the input they had to offer. Sister Brown would say things like: "And don't compliment sisters on their hair because that gives them the impression that you are interested!" and things like that. 

After zone training meeting we taught one of our kinda crazy investigators that loves to talk about aliens. We had a good lesson though about the restoration. The next day we saw him at Sizzler too along with 2 other people we know. It seems like everyone here LOVES sizzler. I was not impressed at all.

So on Saturday we decided to walk to see a few people we planned on visiting and while we were walking through the downtown area this crazy drunk lady stopped us to ask what we were doing. She then invited us into the lobby of this old hotel that was now a place for low income housing and started to talk to us about the church. There was nothing in the lobby except this old fireplace  reception counter, a ping pong table and a table with a puzzle on it. we sat down around the puzzle and were talking then another crazy lady came up and started talking to me so while Elder Covey was talking to one of them i was talking to the other. Then this little old lady came in with her cane and went to the ping pong table. Pretty soon it turned into Elder Covey getting owned at a game of ping pong while I was still being talked to by this lady that I have no idea what she was talking about. It was a pretty fun adventure though. Well thats basically all that happened this week. Love you! 

New Years Eve at the Beach

Pictures from Christmas

Dec 31st 2012

Hi mom,

Things are going good here. The Holidays are almost over! Thank goodness. Hopefully work will be able to pick up. Thank you for the Chirstmas packages and for the calendar. Nothing too exciting has been happening lately. we had interviews with President and Sister Young last night. That was pretty cool. They said that we will be getting about 20 missionaries this month and I believe 25 next month which is a lot. So we are trying to help get everyone ready for that because they will need a lot more trainers. So Chirstmas was lots of fun. We had it at the Shelmans home where I skyped from. We opened presents, had a nerf war, ate breakfast built lego things and so on. Afterwards we went to the Pecks, played pony princess and firefighters, break the ice, and had a turkey dinner. They have twin 4 year olds who are crazy. But it was a lot of fun. In the evening we went to the beach and checked out this place called shore acres with all these chirstmas lights everywhere. Works been really slow because of the holidays but they are almost done! anyways thats about it for this week!

Dec 24th, 2012

Juan's Baptism

Getting ready for Christmas

Dec 23rd 2012

Skyping with Nate!