1st White Christmas

So it was my first white Christmas which was the best thing ever! I can’t believe that it went by so fast though!  Christmas day was the best day by far! We stayed over on the Southside at a members home and the branch is just so awesome! We woke up that morning to presents that the branch had gotten us and it was just awesome!

Time does go by way to fast though...Skyping with you guys...holy cow...40 minutes is never enough!  Other than an awesome Christmas with the branch we had some awesome miracles this past week!

To kick it off we got to see President Burt at a specialized training! So good to see him! God just sets up miracles for us along the way though! Especially that day! A member took us the whole way and back to Prince George which saved on out K's! He then had some errands to run while he was in Prince George so we went with him. So while we were in good ole Canadian tire I saw one of the employees and I just felt like I needed to go and talk to him. Well, he actually has one of the coolest names...Blessing...that’s right...I’m a missionary, and I received a blessing by finding Blessing..  Anyway, super cool guy! Turns out he is from Africa and the Prince George elders should be seeing him soon! He gave me his phone number and he was so down to meet!

Another amazing miracle! We have not had a single person at church ever since I got here...so the members get people to church for us!
We showed up to church and there were a ton of people there because family was in town and stuff and we pick out of the crowd 4 people that were not members and we also had a couple less actives there as well! Gods just so good! All because of member work though!

Sure love and miss you all! Gods work is moving forward...and it never going to stop! Love you so much!

Love

Elder McCown

Christmas Miracles

So this past week was awesome! We spent almost all week out of our area but that’s still good!  I was on exchanges with Elder Buchanan and he is so awesome! We taught quite a bit which was a nice change from tracting in the snow for hours! Anyway, there was this one lesson that we had, their names are Mark and Jacqui! So we taught the plan of salvation and they are so interested! The wife had not said a single prayer the whole entire time the missionaries have been meeting with her, but that did not stop us! She is from the Philippines and we asked her to say the prayer in Tagalog. She flat out said no! So, I guess you can say that missionaries are pretty persistent and that’s when I said that I had never heard one in Tagalog and that I won’t ever be back again! She thought about it for a moment and then she just started saying the prayer! It was so awesome! Probably one of the best prayers I have heard even though I could not understand a single word!  So that was awesome!

We then took the nice long drive back to Burns and we found some people along the way that will let us come back after Christmas!

Another miracle we had this past week was Ian! Ian we tracted into a couple weeks ago. Of course his girlfriend was just about to have a baby so we had to wait a couple weeks. Anyway, we dropped by a couple nights ago and he was outside cutting wood and we started talking to him! Had a really good gospel conversation with him and it was just awesome! We talked about families and how we get guilt in this life and that it becomes baggage, and basically how awesome the gospel is! So we talked about that for a little bit and he just opened up and he is just so cool! We then helped him out with splitting and stacking his wood which was fun!

Not much else happened though. Dad, you would be so jealous...WE SAW THE NORTHERN LIGHTS!!! It was too far off for us to get it on our camera but they were so cool! Just dancing all over the sky in the distance!

God has been so good to us though! It’s been cold, but is been awesome, and I can’t wait for Christmas!

Sure love ya'll and can’t wait to talk to you in a couple days!

Love

Elder McCown

Gospel Is Rolling Forward

So...I’m in the best place ever!  Crazy week! We have been working so hard to get people coming to church! Gah! People are so stubborn though! We have been working with less actives and trying to get them out of the mud pit they are in trying to get them to church. They are so cool though! Just...dont want to come to church :(...

Coolest miracle this week though! There was someone that the missionaries had been teaching about a week before I got here and lost contact with her. So she fell off the grid for a while, but, we decided to drop by and see them and she just let us in! It was awesome! Her husband is less active from Alberta and he is so cool!  We did not get to talk to them much but they invited us to come over today and to go sledding and split wood for them which is awesome! We are just curious how he feels being around missionaries and all...he was less active for quite a while...but he is super chill and they seem to like us!

We were also able to teach this cool old native dude named Ken. He is progressing and he reads the Book of Mormon every night! God is just so good!  Christmas is just terrible here though...the members just huck cookies and desserts at us all day and I dont know if I will be walking out of a members house this month without them stuffing us...I may just be rolling everywhere from now on...

The work is so good though! I just think of Daniel and how he told King Nebuchanezzar of his dream, and how we are the "stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold". The Gospel is rolling forward and we are that stone that will roll forth until it encompasses the whole earth! God is just so good and love each and every single one of us!

I sure love and miss you all!

Love

Elder McCown

Snow Tracting

First off....HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! HOPE IT WAS AN AWESOME BIRTHDAY!!!

So I am staying here in Burns Lake...I dont know why it’s called Burns lake though...it’s too cold here for anything to burn...and the lake is frozen...that just doesn’t make any sense..  So besides it being below freezing here almost 24/7, it’s been great! The coldest it got this week was about 6 degrees...sooooo cold...I have never seen those numbers before which is the crazy part! 

So we tracked in snow a lot this week...talked to a lot of people...and we were able to teach this week! We finally have some solid people to teach which is basically the best miracle ever! One of them is Ken Solonas. He is a super cool humble native dude that had been taught by missionaries before and he is coming a long quite well! He loves having us over and before we left one time he asked for a book of Mormon! He ASKED for one! So weird but sooooo cool! 

We also got a text from someone that we had been trying to teach before, and we had never gotten in contact with them for a solid 4-5 weeks. Anyway, she texted us saying that she had been in Vancouver for the past little bit and that she and her family had been sick, and that she wants to meet! We are so going to see them this week though! So stoked!

Everything has been great though! Can’t get any better here! The members are awesome! I can’t wait for Christmas though! 

God has been so good though! We have been finding new people to teach and it can’t get any better than that because it is really really cold outside, and I can only imagine it is going to get colder in the coming weeks! 

Sure love and miss all of ya though!

Love

Elder McCown

B&E (Missionary Style)

Well... I bet you can only imagine how good/interesting this past week has been.  Give or take 20 minutes ago, we are sitting here having a grand ole time emailing and everything, and someone calls us back saying that the appointment we had set up for tonight was still good! Super stoked we text one of the members asking if he can come out with us and he said yes and asked where. So I set the phone down and we head out of the family history center, and I close the door behind me. Welllll...we left the keys inside, so, we were locked out of our car and out of the family history center. So naturally we scramble around for a coat hanger. We broke into every single room but we could not get into the FHC. We then look for a paper clip and cannot find a single one! We tried the windows and they were snapped shut. So we are standing outside of the door and Elder Westergard has a brilliant idea and looked up. We grabbed some chairs and I moved the boards in the ceiling and broke into the FHC on the other side. Soooo that was loads of fun!

Rest of the week has been great! Met some more native people, went tracting in -15C so about 5 degrees. I literally look like a marshmallow.   Best part of the week besides being able to break into the FHC is that we were able to teach this guy named Ken! Super solid native dude that we had called a couple weeks ago and the struggle has just been finding a time to actually sit down and meet with him until this past Tuesday! We taught the whole plan of salvation and it worked well for him because he had a lot of death in his family!

The members are awesome too! The Biglers let us stay the night at their place again and we played pool all this morning and went out to his massive lake that was frozen in some places! It is so gorgeous up here though!

Sure love and miss all of you though! Hope you had a good thanksgiving!

Love

Elder McCown

Zone Conference

So this past week was zone conference! Basically was just the best thing ever!  So, we packed our bags and took a nice long drive to Prince George after volunteering at the food bank! I think I have had goldfish and a coke for at least 3 meals this week haha!  So we left Tuesday and got there later that evening and stayed the night with Elder Zieler, Elder Ortiz, Elder Nixon and Elder Dean. Crazy eh? I have not seen so many Elders in such a long time!

So Wednesday morning, the zone leaders, the district leaders, and the sister training leaders all had a meeting with President and Sister Burt and Elder Teh, so I got to go! Elder Teh is so funny! So that was awesome! Got to take some awesome notes and right after that we shot into zone conference! Basically just the most spiritual blast I could think of! I was so tired after though cause I had been sitting for about 6 hours.  After that we drove to Vanderhoof and stayed the night and we were finally back in our area Thursday, got to talk to people, had a couple dogs almost bite me again, no big deal...

It was crazy though! We were out knocking this trailer park and we knocked into this guy that had NEVER met missionaries before...we just kind of stood there for a second. You can only imagine because the town has about 3000 people in it, and Burns Lake has had missionaries for a LONG time. So that freaked us out, and he probably thought that we were weird, but we got his number and was just like the coolest guy ever!

Sunday was awesome! Got to watch the temple dedication, and right after that, after just getting spiritually pumped we took a ferry to the Southside and just started looking for people to teach! Of course, whenever we go looking for someone to teach, I think that the Lord has sense of humor. IT’S ALWAYS THE LAST PERSON! So, we came up to this house and Elder Westergard somehow got us in there, and we were just able to teach the plan of salvation right on the spot! I have to admit, it did not seem like they were interested, but once we got on the topic of families, the moms eyes just seemed to light up! So, we had an awesome lesson and were able to commit them to pray about baptism, and see them next week!

It was such a good week though! God has been so good to us! Finding someone to teach makes it even better! I love you guys!

Love

Elder McCown

I skinned a cow

So another crazy week went by!  I would have to say the best part of the week was this past Saturday though! We were planning to figure out what to do and we got a call from Brother Orr asking us for some help. Well, haha! He asked us if we could help him skin a cow! I was so stoked! Man! I just wish we were there for when they shot thing! By the time we got there though, it was all strung up hanging upside down, just draining blood while we were skinning it! It was so cool! The thing reaked though...we were getting up all in it and blood was just everywhere and my boots are still matted in it. I probably smell like it too. But! We were able to cut the thing open right after and the guts were just all over the place! So that was quite the experience!

Nothing was too exciting this week though. Went tracking in snow which was super new. If I do my math right it was about 15 degrees! And this is just the start of it! I just wonder what it is going to be like in about a month! CRAZY!  It honestly is so much fun here though! The members are awesome! The Raasvelds took us all the way to Prince George for a zone meeting which was awesome! Saved us about 300 kilometers! Thank goodness too!

Sure love and miss you guys though! My feet may be freezing right now, and maybe even the rest of my body as well, but God is just so good!

Love

Elder McCown

Butchered Cow

So this week was crazy awesome!  SO! We honestly have one of the best branch Presidents ever! Monday night we were able to drop by a couple people with him and he was just so good with going along with the schedule because basically our plans fell through! So we were out doing drop bys and we were able to drop by these super cool families! One of them was Richard and his wife and his son Silas. So, one of the hardest things to do in my opinion on a mission is to break the friend barrier, so we broke that that night and outright asked them if they wanted to learn more about eternal families! And they were so down for it! Could not meet for the rest of the week, or make it to church either but we will be meeting them this coming Thursday hopefully!

We were also able to see this single mom named Roberta! She has three sons and she really wants them to come to church and to actually have her sons have a belief in God. So we are going to be seeing them tomorrow night hopefully! I am so excited! We were also able to spend the night on the Southside this week. THAT WAS FUN!

So Burns Lake is basically made up of two places, north side and south side, and it is basically divided by this giant lake that has a ferry running from south to north side. So, we hopped on that ferry and were able to go meet with this couple, AND WE WERE ABLE TO BUTCHER A COW! Well, we actually watched them but it was crazy seeing where my steak comes from! He told us that he shoots the cow in the head and then slits it throat and lets it drain which is crazy! Then they cut the head off and pull it up by a forklift, basically holding it by its legs upside down. Then they cut it open and clean it and send it to the butcher! So that was cool! Then we traveled all over the south side because there are just rolling hills for days, and we were even able to spend the night at a members house which was pretty cool!

Sunday was awesome too! We were out on the south side all day and we got to meet another member! He is super cool and we talked and got to know him. He literally just needs to come to church! What’s so cool though is that the members that we brought with us were just inviting him to everything that they could think of that was going on for the next month!

We then took the ferry over with the branch president’s son and were able to get some drop bys in with some people, see a less active and we also got to see our ward mission leader that night as well! Hopefully we will be getting a volleyball night set up though! We are running out of daylight and it gets dark by about 4:30 pm which makes things interesting. Not many people are happy when we knock on their door at night time. Really hard to make it work but we have been trying to come up with ideas!

I love it up here though! Even though it is 20 degrees sometimes, which does not even include wind chill, and it is barely the beginning of winter to say in the least, it’s still awesome! God is just so good to us and he loves everyone no matter what!

Love you guys so much!

Love

Elder McCown

Barking Dogs

Wow! So this week has been a bit crazy!  Starting off Monday went on this super cool hike around this lake. Basically it’s in our backyard so, that makes it even cooler!  Tuesday rolls around and we are headed out to Vanderhoof! We went on exchanges and I was with Elder Belnap! He is such a stud! We knocked doors all day, talked to whoever is on the street, and found some people for them to teach! We also got to split some firewood for someone. It’s kind of funny though. Here we are all bundled up in jackets and scarfs, gloves, etc, you name it, and this guy in short shorts and a t-shirt answers the door. Gotta love your typical Canadian lol.

Wednesday was awesome! Was my first district meeting up here in the north, and it was so spiritual! I loved it! Shortly after we went on exchanges with the zone leaders! AND GUESS WHO MY ZONE LEADER IS!? ELDER ZIELER!! I actually got to see one of my old companions! I went with Elder Ortiz though! He is this crazy Philipino! Made some miracles happen though! We were knocking doors and we got let in on the first door! Kind of crazy! He is so scared of dogs though! There are quite a few native reserves in town and it seems that every native has a dog. We walk down the street and every dog just starts barking like crazy, and they come so close!

So, I finally get to be with my companion and we went to the Southside on Friday! We got members to drive us everywhere and we got to do quite a bit of service! It was gorgeous heading out there though! Rolling hill after rolling hill! And there are just a ton of lakes in between! Loved it out there! We helped the Williams move the wood stove which weighs like a ton. After that we helped our ward mission leader on his farm! That was cool! We helped him get some posts in the ground! He had this crane that he was renting and he rigged it up with what the road workers use to flatten the ground! He then welded a pipe onto it so it held the post in place, and next thing you know, the ground is shaking within a 5 foot radius.

Sunday was awesome! We got to meet with this guy named Wilfred. He is pretty cool. Was a little tired though so we will be seeing him some other time.  We were so hungry though. It was fast Sunday and I was just dying. We had french toast though and IT WAS SO GOOD! Never had a better meal!

The week has been great though! Sure love ya!

Love

Elder McCown

Rolling Hills

Sooo, I am cold...I literally have never been so cold in my life!  Just kidding it’s not too bad! Not yet at least! This place is known for getting overnight dumps of snow all the time. FREAKY!  Besides that, for those who don’t know, I am serving in an area that has about 3000 people, with miles upon miles in between most of the people out here! Tracting is fun. Rolling hill after rolling hill. I swear there is not a spot of flat ground here...

I love it though! Sure every door has been knocked on 500 times in that past 20 years but that doesn’t worry me! I’m just worried whether I will be able to get out the door or not in the next couple months. I have heard that they have had overnight snow dumps of about 5 feet give or take, and it is not uncommon for it to be -40 degrees here either.  So, needless to say, I feel like I am going to be carrying a shovel around this area. I heard that in years past missionaries would just go door to door all day shoveling snow off of peoples driveways.

My last area is so different from Burns Lake though. In Surrey there were thousands of people to talk to, and a lot of them had not talked to the missionaries before. Whereas in Burns Lake, everyone recognizes the missionaries, and they all know our purpose.

So, needless to say I have probably tracted out a good percentage of the town. It’s awesome though looking at how many members there are here! Out of the 3000 here in Burns Lake, there are about 70 members that attend regularly! Crazy eh?? So awesome!

Our week has been interesting though. Everyone that we had been teaching has either had babies or getting sick! I sure love the place though! Too much fun!

Love you guys so much!

Love
Elder McCown

-40 degrees

So, I knew it! I just knew it! I am literally going to freeze my butt off...I am getting transferred to Burns lake!  So, Burns Lake....it’s cold...coldest place in the mission! From what I have heard, it gets down to -40 degrees...nothing an Arizona boy CAN handle! My new companion is Elder Westerguard, and I have absolutely no clue who he is by the way!

Well, besides the bitter freezing cold news, we had an awesome week! So, Yemi is honestly the coolest guy ever! He just moved from Nigeria a month ago, is looking for a job, and taking care of his family all at the same time! If I were to be in that situation, I would be freaking out! That is so much stress going on all at the same time! But, we have been able to help him get started with his job searching through the employment center and he is just so happy! Anyway, I called him up one night.  When we had met him we had given him a restoration pamphlet! Well, turns out that he had been going through it a couple times and he wants us to be able to teach it to him! He also called us this past Saturday saying that he will be coming to church! That never happens!

We were also able to teach Harry this week! He is so cool! Taught the word of wisdom and he said he would also come to church!

It was such a good week though! A lot of tracking, a lot of it! It was awesome though!

Pretty sad saying goodbye to Surrey though! I am literally going to freeze though! This is going to be fun!

Love you all though!

Love Elder McCown

Weekly Planning

So, this week...we...haha...it was crazy...

To basically just start it all off, we will start with weekly planning. Weekly planning is by far one of the most grueling, most tiring and most mind numbing things when I first started out. I absolutely disliked it with a passion. We had to plan for a whole week, planning in something for each hour, with back up plans to each of them for 3 hours. I have gotten used to it though, kind of. This week was a little different though. So, the struggle we have had is getting our investigators to church.

So! WE HAVE SEEN SOME AWESOME MIRACLES! We did quite a few drop-bys yesterday and we have talked to EVERYONE! Our goal is to just talk to everyone that we see on site, even if it means yelling at them! We have found some awesome people to teach because of it!

Well, other than that, it has been raining like crazy! The rainiest day thought was when it was park the car day. Everyone in the mission literally parks their car for a whole day and we just go out and walk everywhere. We walked for about 8 hours in the rain which was crazy!

Everything is going good though! I think I will get transferred this week! Can only imagine where I will be going! Hate it and love it all at the same time! Love you guys though!

Love

Elder McCown

Mass Text

I am at my mid-life crisis...So, this was the week, where I just emotionally and physically brokedown because I have no idea what I am going to do. I literally, only have 358 days left to be out here, but ya know what? I have absolutely no time to even think about that!
This week was a montage of walking, walking, and walking some more! And then general conference got thrown in there somehow, and then some more walking!

It was pretty sad this week though. None of our investigators were able to see us because they are all either too busy or sick:(. So sad... BUT! We were able to find some awesome people along the way! And even some of them are families! So exciting! And guess what is even better?!?! WE FINALLY GET OUR CAR TODAY! So yeah, we will be burning some of our P-Day to drive all the way to Richmond to get our car, but I am so happy! We will finally be able to get around because everyone in the ward is absolutely busy, or they don't have a car.
General conference was awesome though! May or may not have passed out during one, or two, or maybe even three of the talks. President Monson did freak me out though...I thought he was going to fall over during his talk...crazy how we got 3 new apostles though. Can’t believe that all those beloved brethren passed away so recently.

The coolest miracle this week though had to be when we sent out a mass text to everyone in our phone. Potentials, Investigators, and Former investigators, and what’s so cool is that this guy named Tony came to both of the morning sessions of general conference! Gotta love those miracles!

So everything is going great! Can’t wait to finally get some teaching in this week! Gotta love the car though! Makes things so much easier!

Sure love and miss you all!

Love

Elder McCown

We Walked and Wallllked

Wow, this simply just blows my mind...starting today, I literally have a year left on the mission....FREAKY!
So, a year has gone by and I sincerely have no idea where the heck it went! I have never been so mentally, spiritually, and of course physically tired, as well as hungry...BUT ITS THE BEST THING EVER! No matter how tired I get, it just keeps on getting better and better!

So this week, we started off strong with dropping the car off in Richmond for repairs, and hitting the pavement. After P-Day we went over to Elder and Sister Johnsons for dinner. Best food ever! It did not help that I did not have any food that day, so needless to say, we may have imagined that chicken to be a lot tastier than it actually was...That night we were also able to go out with our Bro. Rosales to go give a blessing to a less active in the ward. So awesome!

So, you know that primary song about the pioneers and "how they walked, and walked, and wallllllked." Well, that’s what we did on Tuesday, "we walked, and walked, and wallllllked...and walked some more..." It’s been so long since I have walked to so many places, but we had some awesome miracles along the way! We were able to run into this guy named Mengistu. Freaking cool name to start off with! He’s from Africa and he was so down to meet with us! Just wish he would pick up his phone...I honestly wish I could go around and just tape peoples phones to their foreheads. Would make things so much easier haha!

So Wednesday rolls around and we had the best district meeting ever! Elder Maluse is honestly the coolest guy ever! He is from this little tiny island off the coast of the Philippines! He got baptized like 2 years ago and learned English on his mission, and it’s awesome! He is the most humble guy ever! He bore the most beautiful and most humble testimony of how we need to anchor our faith in Christ! So awesome! Later that day, after an awesome district meeting we met with this guy Harry! Harry is so awesome! He lives in a half-way home, which means he just got out of jail recently. While he was in jail though he found God! He read the Bible 7 times in the 18 years that he was in there! We were able to teach him the restoration of the gospel and all about Joseph Smith, and he just soaked it all up! So cool! He wanted to share it all with his inmates which is even cooler!

We were also able to meet with Gus and the Martinez family! Haha! Helped Sister Martinez with her homework which was interesting! Going back to connotations and all that fun stuff! She came to Canada a couple years back she wants to get her degree which was awesome!
The rest of the week "we walked, and walked, and walllllllked." That is until Sunday night! We met this cool couple a couple weeks ago and they asked us if we could help them move some stuff for them. Had a good conversation with them and they were so thankful for us helping them! It was so cool though, because we were able to make that transition from becoming friends to being their missionaries, and we are going to share about the Book of Mormon with them this coming week! So cool! So excited!

So miracle upon miracles this week. God can help us most when we are on our feet though! He really can’t put people in our car for us to teach, but he sure can put people in our path as we are on foot!

Sure love you all!

Love

Elder McCown!

Talk about Prepared!!

So, long week...I have not been so tired before...Soooo...to start off, I really can't remember anything haha! I have 7 days until I have exactly a year left and I am already forgetting everything! Gah! It’s terrible!

We had some awesome miracles this past week though! We met with Gus and he is just doing so good! Slowly progressing to October 24th which is awesome! He needs all the encouragement he can get to keep him off of smoking and drinking.

So, Floyd is honestly the coolest miracle! He showed up to church randomly last week and we tried to get in contact with him after but he did not answer any of our calls or texts. He told us that he wanted to come to church again though so we banked on that! I absolutely hate banking on that though! Could not do anything about it though! So, we waited, and guess what!? He showed up! He said he would love to meet this week and that he loves church! He has gone through so much though! He has been completely off of drugs and drinking for 7 months though! TALK ABOUT PREPARED!! I literally can’t wait for this coming week when we can meet with him!

Other than that, it has been a struggle. I can only imagine this week though...we finally were able to get the car in...however that means that we will not have the car for 10 days...and our area is huge...I don’t know what we are going to do!!! GAH!!! The rainy season is starting to which makes things a lot more fun! Reminds me of Port Alberni though...we will be driving, and one second it will be sprinkling, and the next we will be getting poured on. The rain comes in waves here! I don’t think I will ever get used to how much it rains!

Sure love and miss you guys though!

Love

Elder McCown

AWESOME MIRACLE

What...the heck...I have 17 days since I am out a whole year on the mission! Isn’t that just super weird?!?!?  Anyway! This past week was awesome and tiring all at the same time! I think having P-Day on a Tuesday just threw me off for the whole week...it was so tiring, but what was so awesome was that we were able to pick it all up by the end of the week!

District meeting was awesome this week! A little intimidating when you are the one who has to run the meeting and have President Burt there! It was such a good meeting though! He is just so good on wanting to help us out with our investigators. He just wants to help so badly! Makes me want to work even harder!

The rest of the week was pretty rough though. We had a ton of appointments fall through and we had members coming out with us which makes it look bad on us. I think that was the gist of the week. A TON of appointments that just kept falling through. Kind of rough. But that’s when Satan wants to get down on ya! That or something awesome is just about to happen! We just keep praying and working hard for those miracles! And guess what?!?! They happened! Valentino and Gus both came to church today! And what is even cooler is that we had this guy named Floyd that had been investigating the church over in Coquitlam. I didn’t get to know him that much but I was sitting next to the door and he had just come in. He looked out of place, so, I of course run up to him and ask him to sit next to me. Next thing I know, the guy is crying in sacrament meeting. I talked to him after, just shortly before he left, and he told me that he had a lot on his mind and that he will be back next Sunday. Didn’t seem in the mood to talk, but, IT WAS AN AWESOME MIRACLE!!! He will forever remember that experience!

Other than that, not much happened this week besides talking to a bunch of people and trying to meet with them! God is just so good though! It’s been awesome serving in the area! Surrey is hard, especially trying to keep up with it, but it is SO much fun! Sure love and miss all of you!

Love,

Elder McCown

Temple Day

So this has been a crazy week. My head is about to explode! First off, we have been super busy with teaching so many awesome people! We have been working super hard and I am just straight up exhausted...

But it’s still awesome! The best part of the week has to be today though! WE WENT TO THE TEMPLE! We got a call last week about us going to the temple and we were screaming like little girls! It was so awesome!  It was so spiritual too! Ever since then, we have been flooring it to get everything done today. It’s been exhausting...It hurts to think... But it’s been good. Super spiritually uplifting

What else did we do? Ummmm...haha, I can’t remember.... We went and met with Gus again...We also met this super cool guy from Congo named Fauscin...SO prepared to hear the gospel! What’s super sad though is that we lost one of our investigators. Suki has literally dropped off the face of the earth and we don't know where he went. He won’t answer our calls, and what’s freaking us out is that he was the one that Elder Anderson called a couple weeks ago and basically prevented him from committing suicide. So yeah, him not answering the phone is really freaking us out. Whenever we are in the area, we drop by a McDonalds that he is at all the time. Have not seen him for over a week :/...

Nothing much else happened this past week. John is going on his mission tomorrow which is super sad. Now we are wondering what the heck we are going to do without him. He literally has come out to so many lessons with us and we have no idea who we are going to bring out to lessons anymore...

It has been super freaky lately...transfers are this week! I have no idea what’s going on and I can’t wait to find out!

Sure love and miss all of you though!

Love Elder McCown!

Flying Trees

So, another stinkin week has gone by... this just goes way too stinkin fast... So, crazy week. We were so busy, that I don't even remember the whole week... I guess this is what getting old feels like, just forgetting stuff all the time. Anyway! From what I can remember the week was awesome!

Coolest miracle this week was this guy named Suki. So, Elder Anderson and I were making phone calls one night, trying to weed through these numerous pages of just phone numbers and names and I gave the phone to Elder Anderson cause I had to go use the washroom. Well, when I got back, Elder Anderson had had a conversation with this guy named Suki. Turns out that he was about to commit suicide, and told us to come and visit him tomorrow. So Elder Anderson got off the phone and that's when I walked in. I basically flipped when he told me that! So, the following morning we meet up with him and that was a flipping awesome lesson! He just unloaded all of his problems and he was just so happy after we talked with him! He took a Book of Mormon, and, what is even cooler is that Elder Anderson set a baptismal date with him for October 4th! It’s so freaking awesome!

What was even cooler was the following day! We had set up a lesson with him to go over word of wisdom and law of chastity because this guy is just SO prepared! Before that we had some service to go and do, just helping an investigator move some stuff. We came back to the apartment to change and we heard a loud snap outside, and then we heard from upstairs, "the tree fell on the car!". Well, you can guess what happened...our car got hit by a branch. Our roof is bent in, and the windshield was just shattered. So we called President Burt and, well, that was fun explaining to him. "A tree fell on the car." I could only imagine what he was thinking!

So after that, we went straight to work and thank goodness for the coolest old dude ever! Brother Brown is a lifesaver! We were meeting with him at the church to go to the lesson together and we went to meet with Suki. Well, while we were there, nothing was really going anywhere, partly because McDonalds was playing some music that I had never heard before. Hearing songs that I had never heard before really makes me feel old in the mission. I still have a year left of that too...So yeah! We were there and some weird old dude started coming up and talking to us, which is always fun to bump into when we are teaching the law of chastity. You honestly have to be so stinking bold in teaching it, otherwise things might get confusing. So you can only imagine telling someone not to look at pornography, have sex outside of marriage, as well as the other things that it entails, inside of a busy McDonalds. Well, the day before we figured out that there was going to be a baptism on Saturday, which was that day that we were meeting with Suki, and, he was just so cool! We invited him to the baptism which was 45 minutes after that lesson and he just came! Bro. Brown just drove us all over! COOLEST OLD GUY EVER!!!

We also got to meet with Valentino! We were able to set a baptismal date with him for October 4th as well! Other than that, not much. We always meet with Gus and this past Saturday was his 3 week mark of not smoking! WOOHOO!!! Now he just needs to get off of the drinking and he is a go! So awesome!

Not much else happened. We burned 2 hours of our P-Day driving to Richmond to get an estimate on how much the car would be to fix. The guy who was taking the pictures said it was going to be pretty expensive. Other than that it was an awesome week! Everything is just going great! God is just so good though!

Love you all!

Love

Elder McCown

Not Giving Up

So this week was a blast! Long some days, but the other days in between seemed to fly!  So, starting off Monday we met with Gus! Always love meeting with Gus! Man! This guy is so dang solid! As of this past Saturday, it’s been 2 weeks since he last smoked and a week since he had a nicotine patch on! Anyway! We call him up and the cravings are just killing him! We meet with him as much as we can so that we can give him that support that he needs to be able to pull through each day! He is just so good!

Tuesday rolls around and we are just sweating like dogs that day. Walking and talking to everyone. My shirts are starting to get a little yellow because of how humid it is outside XP. We walked so much, dropping by potentials and just finding people to teach!

Wednesday was another hot and sticky day, again, but we got to meet with Gus and talk to some pretty cool people!   Thursday was a gong show. We had weekly planning and apartment inspections. I don’t think we left the house for 5 hours that day. We were just stuck in doors getting everything planned for the week! Friday was awesome though! We went on exchanges! I went with Elder Samis and Elder Tolman, and it was just a blast! We talked to so many people that day! They have been struggling a little bit with finding some people to teach, so, what do we do? We go out and we start talking to people! And what’s more important than going out and talking to people?! Looking for humble people! So, we just jump into the heart of Whalley and go up and down the sketchiest street ever talking to everyone we see! While we were there though we found some awesome people that can really use the gospel!

Saturday comes around and we had an appointment set up from the previous day and we couldn’t find the person at all because he lived in a homeless shelter which is terrible. Anyway, we were on our way out and, we were just about to get into the car, and I get an impression to go and talk to this homeless guy. I really had no idea what he was doing. He was scraping a tree when I went and started talking to him. Anyway, we were able to share the whole restoration with him! It was so cool! Not able to do that with many people on the street! The spirit is just so good at telling you what to do and say! It’s just a matter of listening!

After that we went all the way to Langley for a meeting! It was so cool being back in my old area! Got to see a couple of people there! Anyway, we had a really cool meeting with Elder Johnson from the seventy which was really good! He literally called everyone to repentance there. Bishops, missionaries, you name it! It was awesome!

We then went and saw Sunny which is always good! He reads the Book of Mormon all the time and what’s even better is that he got a job! Now it’s even easier for him to not struggle with smoking as much!

I would have to say Sunday was the best though! Started off slow though. Gus showed up for church which was still good! He was struggling super hardcore the day before with smoking. He is doing so good though! I read part of Enos with him, all talking about when he "kneeled down before his Maker" and "cried unto him all the day long". He told me at church that that had helped him get through that night! So awesome!

Later that day we met with him as well and he said that the cravings were still there but that he is not giving up! Thats what we wanted to hear! It was awesome though because we were able to set a baptismal date on October 24th for him! Yeah, it’s a little ways a way, but it gives him that time to be able to conquer that temptation as much as he can! He is just so good!

Now, this has to be the best part of the week! We were finally able to meet with this lady named Kamal and her son Shivam. It was so cool! I had never met them, and they are so prepared to have the gospel in their lives! Shivam was wanting to become a missionary like us! That’s so stinking cool! We also had one of the most spiritual lessons I had ever had! We were talking about the Restoration, and the Book of Mormon. Once we opened up the gospel to them, they opened up to us! She has gone through so much! She came from Fiji and she worked her tail off to get her family here into Canada. What’s even crazier is that she is the happiest person alive! It was at a low point in her life that she realized that God was there. Her whole family was of Hindu faith, except for her aunt who was Christian. There was this one night where the world just seemed to be on her shoulders. She was breaking down in her car, thinking about how much easier it would be to just end everything right then and there. She however, found herself in front of a Christian church, and she called up her aunt, and she said to just give it all to him.  I don’t know, if many of you know this, but Hindu's are very resolute in the religion. There aren’t many that are willing to change. Willing to listen, but not to change. She however changed! She became a Christian, and when I read Alma 7:11-15 I think it was, she was just crying. We promised her that she will be able to have whatever she is going through at that time, alleviated by Jesus Christ. That is when we challenged her to be baptized, and she readily accepted September 20th as her date!  The lesson was just so powerful though! Elder Anderson recited the first vision perfectly, speaking as if he had been doing this for a very long time! I had never felt the spirit so strongly before! God is just so good! We walked away from that so excited! God is just so dang good!

Well, I sure love all of you, and miss every single one of you!

Love

Elder McCown

YOU! Yes!

SO, I can’t believe another week went by, just as unbelievable as how last week went by so fast. Crazy eh? I’m going to be out 11 months in 2 weeks. FREAKY.

So this week was a little bit slower than the others, but it’s still so good! To kick it off, we played chair soccer AGAIN! Elder Anderson got nailed in the chest though. He had an imprint of a soccer ball on it for a little while. Let’s see, after that we called Gus. So, literally, coolest miracle ever! We called up Gus, and we were calling to see how he was doing and he said that he was on nicotine patches but that he was having a bit of a craving for a smoke. So, I just stopped him right there and said "Alright, we are coming over." Didn't wait for him to agree. So we started calling members up and NO ONE was open to come to a lesson with us! GAH! The struggle! If a missionary calls you up to ask if you can go to a lesson, that means that they need YOU! Yes! SO, we called EVERYONE! No one answers, or they say they are busy. We then remember we have some return missionaries upstairs staying with the family that we live under. We run up there and we grab one of them and take him to the lesson! It was really cool though because he (Elder Waldron) had served here about a year ago. So we go to the lesson and he is just living the dream! He was just soaking up the time he had with us! What was so cool though was that he really pushed me and really showed me some different ways of going up and talking to people! It’s been a while since I had been with a missionary that has been out that much longer than me! It was awesome though! Really got out of my comfort zone!

Let’s see. Tuesday through Saturday we spent cleaning out our area book. We did drop by nonstop because past missionaries did not know how to keep an updated area book. Super painful but we have cut down the area books size by at least half. At least it feels like it.

So, this past week, I forget which day, we were at Bear Creek park and we were teaching this lesson with Gus, and we were about to leave, when John showed me this tree. I had literally seen this tree like 50 times. He just walked into it though and disappeared. I was so excited! I raced into the tree after him and I looked up and there were just a ton of branches going up! And I just climbed that thing like a monkey! So much fun!

Other than that, it was a great week! Sunny and Gus came to church! God is just so good though! Love being a missionary! I told President Burt today that I am not going to leave ha-ha! It’s just too good! Sure love and miss you guys though!

Love

Elder McCown

Baby Boy Elder Anderson

Well, the pregnancy is over, and after 30 minutes of labor...I had a beautiful baby boy! Haha! So yeah! It’s been awesome! Training is so much fun! It’s even better when he is such a good missionary! I named him Elder Anderson by the way, not that I really had a choice, but yeah! He’s a healthy baby boy!

This was quite a week though. I literally felt like a taxi driver this past week! So, to start off our taxi business we drive to Richmond, which is about a 45 minute drive, to pick up an Elder that had flown in from the north. Drove back and virtually lost all of our time to work because it was a P-Day. Next day, we drove all the way back to Richmond to take the missionary that we picked up to a meeting. And then we drove and saw a couple of people, picked up another missionary, and then drove all the way to Langley to drop off Elder Slack. Drove back, and on the way, picked up another missionary, and drove him to the far side of Richmond so that he could catch a ferry. I may or may not have sped the whole way because we were going to be late for his ferry...Then we drove back, got dinner and had a lesson and then had a meeting.

The following day Elder Hall and I drove all the way to Richmond AGAIN! Picked up Elder Anderson and then drove all the way back.  So, now that we are actually back in our area, we could actually go work! Psych! We actually did weekly planning! So yes, weekly planning is when you plan for 3 hours straight nonstop for your following week! Well, I have only been here for 5 weeks, so I just crammed super hardcore for a week... So, now we can get to work!

We went and saw Sunny for Elder Andersons first ever appointment! Haha! Crazy Punjabi! He just cracks me up! Probably freaked him out but that’s about it! Then we taught some Muslim dude named Yaroon. Yeah...he got the hard stuff right from the get go.

Church was good! We met with Gus right after church! He’s getting off of smoking which is good! He’s so awesome!

Well, that’s about it. I drove all week almost. 3 days straight of driving!

God is good no matter what though! No matter how many times I got lost on my way to Richmond, it’s still good! Love you all!

Love

Elder McCown

Expecting New MTC Missionary

So yeah...crazy week... To start off, P-Day was awesome! It was the last P-Day for some elders so we went all out and played basketball and chair soccer for 3 hours! So much fun! Had a blast, as well as probably lost some weight which is awesome!

So, we also went and saw Gus. We have actually been seeing Gus every day, trying to get him to overcome smoking and drinking. So sad. He seems to be trying so hard! GAH! Satan is just so strong sometimes!

Tuesday was fun! We went and saw Sunny! Man! The guy is just so awesome! He loves the Book of Mormon! He reads it all the time without us even asking us to! Talk about a miracle! I have never had that happen before!

Wednesday was so much fun though! We went on exchanges and I was with Elder Erasmus! He is such a stud! Love that guy! John took us to IL Uk Jo which was even better! IL Uk Jo is this Japanese buffet. No, I did not eat the sushi! I already had a terrible experience with that before... but I just loaded on Teriyaki! SO GOOD!

Thursday rolls around and we go on another exchange! I went with Elder Samis which was a lot of fun! Found some awesome people for them to teach which they have been struggling with a little.

The next day was Zone meeting. All the Elders and Sisters that were leaving went up and bore their testimonies. Kind of freaked me out because I only have 14 months until that happens to me...FREAKY!

I would have to say that the freakiest/most nerve racking day of the week was Saturday. To start it off we went and helped someone move for 4 hours. I was so exhausted already, and we just wanted to die because the furniture was so heavy and everything else. Super hot outside too. So, imagine, I am just super tired and we go to a lesson at 6, and it was a GONGSHOW. We were planning on meeting this less active who wants to come back to church, and he is just super awesome about inviting people to hear our message. So, we are super pumped about this because the members aren’t all that excited about missionary work.  It turned out on being crazier than we thought. We got questions thrown at us that we didn’t even have time to answer, food was being passed back and forth, and somehow we were able to fit the message of the Restoration in there somehow. So, we walk away from that, and we are just still dead tired, we go out and talk to some more people and that’s about it. We come in for nightly planning, exhausted, and we were just about to finish when we got a call from the mission office. Well, we got transfer news earlier than we were expecting, and, well, I figured out I am pregnant. Yep, I am.  So, for those who don’t know the mission lingo, that means that I am going to be training a brand new missionary! Yep, straight out of the MTC. SO, THAT FREAKED ME OUT! Elder Slack is also going to be transferred to another area to follow up train, so we were both a little on edge. Needless to say, neither of us slept that well that night. I don’t even remember what went on Sunday. I was just too exhausted. We were also fasting which didn’t help, and we didn’t even have time to eat dinner the night before, so, I was running on very little steam that day.

So yeah, I’m sitting here, about 9 months pregnant, due in about 2 days...yeah, no big deal... So, great week! I am exhausted, but God is just so good! Thank goodness for the spirit, or else I would not be able to function right now!

I sure love and miss you all!

Love

Elder McCown

God is just so Good

So this was an awesome week! To start off we had dinner at the Rosales! They are just so awesome! They always know when we are hungry! She made such good pasta and we had family home evening with them as well as this family that lives in Delta! Super yummy though! She made the best cheesecake! WAY YUMMO!!!

So, not much happened Tuesday. We went and met with a couple people and taught them about the gospel. Ya know, missionary stuff. Anyway! Wednesday rolls around and we are scrambling to district meeting because we had a lesson beforehand.  Long story short though, it was a gong show. Yes a gong show. One of the Elders was giving training, and realized that he had studied for the wrong thing. Another Elder didn’t get to prepare for his training because they were missing the DVD which had the training on it. So, needless to say, the meeting wasn’t as spiritual as it could be.

So right after district meeting, we went on exchanges and Elder Lawlor came with me to our area. Was super fun! Elder Lawlor is such a goof! We worked hard though and got to talk to some pretty cool people!

I would have to say that the best day of the week though was Friday! I GOT TO GO ON EXCHANGES WITH THE SPANISH ELDERS! So that was so much fun! I got to try out my white boy Spanish, and man! IT’S TERRIBLE! But by the end of the exchange, I learned how to pray a little bit in Spanish! It’s so much fun though! I hope that I get transferred to Spanish work! I could be in Spanish work for the rest of my mission, and not do anything else, and I would be SO happy! So yeah! We went and taught a couple lessons in Spanish! That was crazy! I tried reading from the Book of Mormon in Spanish but, I’m pretty sure that no one could understand me.

There was an awesome miracle though! So, earlier in the week we had helped this lady and old guy move. Well, of course nothing works out according to schedule, so the truck had showed up 30 minutes late. So, of course, that means that we start 30 minutes late, and we had an appointment in 30 minutes to get to. So we flat out sprint to the elevator, running stuff back and forth to the truck and back and then all the way back up to get more stuff. Well, we were just about to leave because we had cleaned out the apartment of all furniture, and the old dude said there was more stuff to get at the basement. We roll our eyes a little cause we knew that we were going to be late, and we literally book it to the basement and unload all the crap down there into the truck and we showed up to the appointment a little late. So why do I tell you all this?  So, we were teaching this guy named Juan. He is used to rich lifestyle and loves to spend money, however he doesn’t have any because he lost his job. He however wants to take us out to dinner but we only have 30 minutes. He starts driving and we follow and we notice that he is taking us to this nice fancy restaurant. It’s called Boston Pizza. Anyway, Elder Woolf tells him no, and that we only have 30 minutes to eat. So, we go across the street to Wendy's and guess who is there? The old dude and the lady we helped move! So when we got up in line, the old guy comes up and tells us that he is going to pay for us because we helped them move! So that was an awesome miracle because the guy that wanted to take us out is already in debt! GOD IS JUST SO GOOD!

Church was awesome too! Valentino and Gus came as well! What’s even better is that we were able to hit standards this week! It was so much fun! So yeah! Miracle never cease! God is just so good! I have been learning so much and I am so happy that I am able to serve here!

Love you guys so much and I hope you have fun in Mexico!

Love

Elder McCown

TEXX Burger

So, this week was pretty eventful! We have been teaching a TON lately! Monday, was fun. I don’t remember what happened but it was still fun...man, I am getting old...my memory is basically useless. Anyway! I remember playing chair soccer...again...still fun though!

Tuesday we walked around, and talked to people, A LOT of people! We got to see Sunny which was awesome! This guy is so weird sometimes but he loves the Book of Mormon, so no complaints!

Wednesday rolled around and we had district meeting, and man, I had a lot of improv to do. So, I had to assign some other people to give trainings on the Sabbath day, and of course, there really isn’t much to the Sabbath day. A couple scriptures here and there. Well, the other people who trained took all the scriptures I had and all the references as well, and thank goodness for the spirit, otherwise I would have no idea what to say or what to do. So, that was fun.

Thursday rolled around and we had weekly planning. This is when we plan for a full week of things to do in 3 hours. Of course, we are already scraping by to finish it all off, and I get a call from one of the Elders saying that his companion is not feeling well, right in the middle of weekly planning. So, needless to say, we may or may not be scrambling to plan for the rest of the week! Anyway, crazy miracle! That night, we were knocking doors and we come to this one house, and we don’t even get to knock on the door, and this guy comes out, asks if we are missionaries, and we of course have this dumb look on our face and say "YES!" cause that rarely happens. Anyway, we find out his name is Jerry and he tells us to come back the following night! Crazy eh?

So, Friday was fun! We went and did service at the soup kitchen! We washed windows and stuff, and unloaded this giant U-Haul full of food! I don’t know where they are going to put it all though! After that, a member took us to get milkshakes! Man, these milkshakes were the best! Apparently this place called White Spot is famous for its milkshakes...and I found out why!  After that, we went and taught this guy named Roody. He’s pretty cool! Just wants to study with us for the time being but is very truth seeking!

We then floored it over to our miracle named Jerry! He’s pretty cool! Went over the restoration with him and he just sat there quietly. It was kind of a weird lesson. He was either soaking it in, or just dozing off. Don’t know what to think yet!

Saturday...oh boy...Saturday was by far the hottest day so far! It has been getting so hot and humid here! We walked everywhere, knocked doors and met with a couple random people, but that’s about it. Then we went with the Spanish Elders to this place called TEXX burger. So... Elder Hall and I made the dumbest decision...we tried the Super Texx Burger Challenge. Literally...this burger was bigger than my face...and what’s even worse, is that they brought out this huge bag of fries, and the challenge is that if you eat it all in less than 30 minutes, you get it all for free. So, before all this happened, Elder Hall and I are just getting super pumped. It wasn’t until they brought it out that we realized how big the dang thing was. So, they start the timer and we just go to town on the fries. If you eat the fries last, you literally kill yourself because it’s so starchy. Anyway, took us like 12 minutes to down all the fries. Next thing I know, I am on the burger, and, I’m about an 1/8 way through the burger and I just tap out right then and there...We were so full...I just wanted to die after eating all of that food.

So yeah, the next day I fasted for some odd reason...Sunday was awesome though! Valentino, this Fijian dude that we have been teaching lately who just loves god and such, came to church! We also had Gus there, as well as a couple less actives! God is just so good! The best part was the Valentino loved sacrament meeting! He loved the speakers and everything that went on! He was even crying while one of the speakers was talking about the atonement and Jesus Christs suffering. SO GOOD!

It was such a good week though! We were able to hit standards again, which was awesome! God is just so good though! I sure love and miss ALL of you and hope for the best for every single one of you!

Love ya tons

Elder McCown

Game Over

So a little over two weeks in Surrey and nothing has gotten past the usual threats, cussing out, and other numerous things.  But is so much fun here!  It’s crazy how fast time flies though...I am struggling right now to even remember what even happened this past week...I just know it was AWESOME!

So Monday was fun! We normally just do chair soccer and stuff, but we had to get a haircut which was an adventure in itself. We decide to go to this barber shop. Turns out it is run by Punjabis. AND NONE OF THEM SPEAK ENGLISH!!! That is honestly the hardest part! None of them can communicate with us! And I don’t speak Punjabi!

So, back to the haircut...we go in and tell them what we want. Next thing ya know me and Elder Slack walk out of there with the haircuts we weren’t expecting....and they were AWESOME!! I bet you were thinking that I would have said that they were terrible, but NOPE!!! I was surprised on how good they did! Wasn’t what we asked for, and we may or may not look a little faddish, which isn’t the most approved thing to do on a mission, but hey, it was borderline, and super good!  So, that was fun!

So Tuesday rolled around. It was hot...yes it gets hot here in the great white north... We went and saw Gus which was good. We watched the Lords errand which is all about Thomas S. Monson. Such a good video on what he’s all about!

Poor John though. So just to let you know, there is this awesome soon to be missionary in our ward, and he literally walked around with us for a couple hours dropping by potentials and talking to people which was pretty sweet. He's going to be such a prepared missionary!

Wednesday was hot too... We got to go to the Soup kitchen again though! No...There weren’t any fights so you don’t have to worry mom... It’s crazy seeing all the needs of these people though. Us missionaries don’t have much, but these people have nothing... Wednesday had to be the worst night of sleep we ever had though. We were tired, hot and thirsty so at like 5pm we went and got this Mountain Dew Kickstart slurpee. Bad idea. I swear that thing had caffeine injections like no other! We were up until 1 am because of that dang thing! So, I think that slurpee did me in, and what didn’t help was that I was feeling sick too. I didn’t "Game over". For all you missionaries who know what that means, you know what I had. For all of those who don’t, go ask a missionary and they will tell you...

So, that was quite an adventure. What was even worse was that we had Zone Conference. Basically a 7 hour meeting with President and all the while I had that "game over" feeling. Not good!  Super spiritual though! I got to consecrate oil too! Nothing much happened in between then and Sunday. I felt better that was about it....

Sunday was awesome though! We got to go to the Rosales family for dinner! They had flatas which were super yummy! They also have a pet parrot which is pretty cool!  Best part of that day though was when we went and saw Sunny. Sunny is another Punjabi, he is so cool and he actually speaks English! Long story short, a lot has happened to him too. He has come out of his depression though since the first time we met him, and he has been able to cut down on his smoking and has been reading the book of Mormon! It has been so cool seeing how him reading the book of Mormon has changed his life! He has literally seen the blessings of reading the Book of Mormon! He has gotten some good job interviews, he has gotten his car back, and he keeps directing that all towards the Book of Mormon which is so awesome!

So yeah! Honestly one of the best weeks on the whole mission! It honestly is so much fun being on the mission! God is just so good! And the Book of Mormon blesses people’s lives! It truly does! I have seen it affect my life, and I have seen it change Sunny's life which is so awesome!  God is SO GOOD!

Love ya

Elder McCown

Miracles Never Cease

So this has been such a crazy week! So, to start off, the reason why only had like an hour to email this past week was because one of the missionaries had gotten sick while we were emailing, and he was not doing good at all. Just shivering like no other. So I took him home while the other elders finished up emailing. So later on that day, we played chair soccer which was SO much fun!

So, we were able to start off the week really good! Tuesday we taught quite a few lessons. One of them was Gus. He’s been struggling super hard core with smoking and stuff. So we want to help him as much as we can right? SO we decided that we were all going to fast for him this coming Sunday and that he will set a baptismal date after the fast! SO AWESOME!! So we quickly scrambled to a couple other lessons. The evening was literally chock full of teaching people which was awesome! We taught this guy named Sunny. He’s a Punjabi and he wants help to quit smoking and drinking and stuff! He also loves the Book of Mormon which is awesome! Cool guy though!
Next we scrambled all the way down to Surrey Central and met with this guy named Roody. The guy is just super open to what we want to hear which is awesome! Haven't had any of those on my mission until I came to Surrey which is SO cool! Then we scrambled over to see Janett. She’s super cool. Her son got baptized not too long ago, and it’s crazy because she didn't even believe in God in the first place! Now she has been taught everything, has read the Book of Mormon, and wants to move on to the Doctrine and Covenants as well as the Pearl of Great Price. Crazy eh? So that was Tuesday.

Wednesday we visited this guy named Mike. He’s a less active but is wanting to come back to church. I then had my first District meeting as a district leader. It wasn’t too bad. The assistants were there so they were able to help me realize what I had done wrong.

Later that day we met with this kid named Dillon. Talk about crazy life, and he’s only 15! We were knocking doors the other day, and Elder Toleman was with us because one of his two companions was sick, so we were able to at least take one with us. Anyway, Elder Toleman has the greatest faith! He pointed out a house that we would have completely missed if he had not pointed it out. So that’s when we met Dillon. And Dillon has gone through a ton of stuff, but he wants to get to know God more, and he wants to quit smoking! Crazy how he’s going through all of this and he wants to set aside time to talk to us! So cool! So after the meeting we met with him and we literally talked about Job the whole entire time. He kept asking why so many bad things happen. We all pulled it back to Job though, who had gone through so much more. We also helped him realize that he is so much stronger because of his trials.

Thursday was a bit of a crazy day. More lessons! We went and met with this guy named Mike. Really relaxed dude. Really nice though. Wants to quit smoking, drinking, and wants to come to church! So cool! Talked about Baptism a lot and he said that he would read and pray about it. He also has been looking for a job recently. And guess what! We have the employment services building at our church building! What a miracle eh?

Friday morning we did exchanges with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Hall to Delta! Man! We saw some pretty awesome miracles! We went and visited this lady named Alanna! She is such a miracle! When the missionaries had talked to her before, just previously she had been wondering which church she should go to. About an hour passed by and she met Elder Hall, and set a baptismal date right then and there! So cool! So we showed up at the return appointment and we talked all about the Plan of Salvation. Her Uncle had just passed away, so she said that God had sent us to her, because the Plan of Salvation talks all about life after death! What was even cooler was that she kept talking about how what we were teaching was handed down from her Grandfather by mouth. SO COOL!

After that, we ran to Home Depot cause Elder Hall had to use the washroom, so we hang out around there and start talking to people. I for some reason felt the urge to go to the gardening area. We had been looking for someone for the sisters to teach, so I thought that that made complete sense. So, as we were in there, I started casually talking to this one old lady. I kept asking about flowers to keep a conversation going, and she talked about how her husband had just passed away. I was just about to break out about what we believe in, when her daughter came up. Turns out her daughter had almost been baptized back in Fiji! So she knows the missionaries very well! We invited her to come to church and her mother and her both said yes so we gave them our address!

Saturday we exchanged back. We met with this guy named Neeraj who was pretty cool. He is just super open to hearing what other people have to say, and we will be handing him off to the Delta Elders soon.  We also met with Sunny and Mike again.

Sunday rolled around, and I have to say, that this was like, the longest day on the mission so far. I was SO hungry! Time slows down like crazy when you are hungry. Anyway, we met with this guy named Valentino. He’s pretty cool. Really fired up about the Bible and stuff. Talked the whole entire time too. After a couple hours of walking around and knocking on doors in the heat, we got to go have dinner at Brother Smith’s house. They are honestly so cool! This has been the only member visit we have been able to get besides the Bishop!

So yeah! Crazy awesome week! We have been so busy! But it has been so much fun!  Sure love and miss all of you! God is so good! AND MIRACLES NEVER CEASE!!

Love

Elder McCown

Hit Standards

So! This has honestly been one of the best weeks ever! SURREY IS THE COOLEST PLACE EVER!!! So, to kickstart the first day with Elder Slack, we literally drove EVERYWHERE... We had to drive Elders everywhere because one of the zone leaders was puking and stuff....yeah, not good...anyway! After driving everywhere, we managed to squeeze in a lesson at the very tail end of the day... So.... Thursday was fun...weekly planning....kind of rough considering that we really don’t know the area that well....Friday was HOT! man, we were sweating so much! My farmers tan is getting even better!!

Saturday has to be the best day ever though! We had so many lessons Saturday! We even had stake conference that night and we got to see President Burt which is always exciting! So, I take that back, Sunday was the best day! So, Sunday morning, we get a call from some elders in Langley, saying that there is this investigator from White Horse that just moved to Surrey, and that he was wanting to come to church! So, it’s like 9am, and stake conference starts in about an hour. So, we call him, figure out his name is Ram, and we somehow were able to get a ride for this guy to come to church! Man, that was fun! It was so hard for us to be able to get a ride for church... such a struggle for some reason...anyway....we got him to church, and we didn’t get to meet him until after the meeting. Turns out, he is the coolest guy ever! He was excited that he was able to make it to church, and that he was already talking about how he was going to get to church the following week! Crazy eh? Tell me about it...it gets even better...so we set up an appointment for that night and we meet him at Subway. Music is going on in the background and so many distractions, but still, it was such a good lesson! Turns out that he had been with the missionaries up in White Horse for quite a while, and that he wanted to move down to be able to go to school. We pulled out the pamphlets that we had and he immediately recognized the restoration pamphlet! So we went over that with him, and he said that he already knew that all of that was true, and that the Book of Mormon was true which was so cool! SO! We then start talking about baptism, and he said that he wanted to get baptized, but before, he had just wanted to make sure that it was true! So, we set a date for him on July 19th! So cool! We will be handing him off to the Langley YSA Elders though :(...Kind of sad to give up though...He’s so cool!
So yea, Surrey is full of miracles though! Dad, you are so right...it’s in the most evil of places that people are looking for the light the most...SO TRUE!! I haven’t had as much success in this area as in other areas!

So the coolest thing though, is that we hit standards too which is my first time! What’s even better is that we hit standards in a total of 4 days because Monday-Wednesday was full of driving/packing/P-Day...
So, to hit standards, we have to do 4 of 5 of these things: Teach 8 member present lessons, have 2 baptismal dates, have 2 people come to church, get 4 new investigators, or have 140 quality gospel conversations. And guess what?!?! Ram made it all possible! By coming to church and having a lesson that night, he made is possible for us to hit standards in 4 days!! SO AWESOME!!

So yeah, we also went to the soup kitchen this past week...we volunteer once a week...There was almost a fight while we were there....I may or may not have wanted it to actually happen... but it got broken up....We also got 3 tubs of ice cream out of it! YUMMY!!!

Another investigator that is so flippin solid is Gus! Man, this guy was found by the sisters and he is so dedicated to coming to church and is so determined to be baptized! He has been trying to quit smoking, and when we met with him, I felt the spirit which brought to mind to ask him to set a date to quit smoking, and to start with baby steps, and that he should prayerfully ponder a day to quit, and that we would give him a blessing that night when we would go to scripture study class. So, we met up later that night and the spirit was so strong. Before we gave the blessing, he told us, that before we had even brought it up, that he had been praying about a day to quit smoking. The day that came to mind was July 1st! Soon after, we gave him a blessing, and the spirit was so powerful as we were in the little tiny room. So powerful. After giving him the blessing, I saw him crying, and straightway, I gave him a hug. He is such a humble man. He tries so hard, and he is so strong!
So this honestly has to be one of the most successful weeks of my mission! It’s been so awesome! I love Surrey and I feel really confident that being here is where I am meant to be...I even felt that before I got here which was awesome!!!

I sure love and miss all of you! I may live in the heart of Whalley, which is probably one of the most scary places in the mission, and I may or may not have to bar my door every night, but I love it here!

Love you guys so much!

Love

Elder McCown

Transfer Week

Oh boy, well, isn’t it transfer week....

Well, we got transfer news SUPER early this week! Elder Tan is going to Prince George and is training which is awesome! So excited for him! He seems super nervous though! And, nope! I do NOT get to stay in Brookswood :(. I'M GOING TO SURREY!! I was so excited once I got the news! I am going to hopefully have some crazy stories when I come home! SO EXCITED!!! Maybe I’ll get robbed....that'll be fun!

Anyway! This week was a lot of fun! We didn’t teach as much as we had hoped which was a bummer.  So to start off the week though, I twisted my ankle during basketball :/. Such a good start to a week eh? Wasn’t too too bad though! Nothing ibuprofen, ice and more ice and more ibuprofen can’t handle! So Wednesday rolls around. We go on exchanges. Elder Ringer comes out to Brookswood. That was a lot of fun! The best part of that was when we went to the Vadocz family! Such an awesome family in the ward! We shared Free the Birdies with them and they just loved it!  Brother Vadocz has some crazy stories though. He served in New York which was sweet!

This past Sunday was probably one of the most eventful days though! We got calls just about as we got up which was crazy! Can’t believe that I am going to Surrey.... anyway.... We were basically rushing from family to family saying goodbye to everyone...  I really wish I could have spent more time in Brookswood. 3 months isn’t long enough to get to know people well enough. Probably won’t remember me at all haha! Oh well!

Other than that, I am so stoked for Surrey! My new companion is Elder Slack! He came out with me which is exciting! I’ll be District leader too... Don’t know what to think of that though...

I am so excited for a new area though! I’m going to have so much fun in Surrey!

I sure love and miss you all though!

Love

Gatorade

So this has to be one of the best weeks ever for the time I have served in Brookswood! So many miracles! We have had so many more lessons to teach which is SO AWESOME!!! We have been lacking in lessons sooooo much! Finally! Everything has come into place which is awesome!

So one of the many miracles this past week was this guy named Nick! So we go to this apartment building all the time to help one of the members read because he has some disabilities. Anyway, this member had run into this guy that was interested in the church! We tried throughout the week to contact this guy because we were so excited to be able to teach him. It wasn’t until Thursday that we were actually able to get a hold of him though! So we got Bishop and rushed over and taught Nick. The guy is so open to the gospel! He just soaked everything up and was excited that we were there! Turns out that he is a REALLY good piano player. Like, REALLY GOOD. So we immediately connected which is so important! It’s so hard to teach someone when there is absolutely no connection! We were even able to set a baptismal date for July 5th with him which has to be the best part of it all! The whole almost 3 months that I have been here, we have had absolutely no opportunity to be able to set a baptismal date. Every time we tried, we were shot down!

So that was awesome!  Probably the most humbling experience was when we were out on the street and we were talking to this guy in a wheelchair. An appointment had just fallen through, and I can’t remember his name for the life of me, but we had talked to him earlier in the week! Really nice and really high in spirits considering that he had just gotten evicted. So, after we do our little shpeel, we of course ask if there is anything that we can do for him. He asked us jokingly if we could push him to the homeless shelter, because his luggage that he was carrying around with him was painful to carry. So, next thing we know, I am pushing this guy down the street, and Elder Tan is carrying his luggage. As we were walking, we figured out that he is one of the nicest guys ever! He had gone through a lot in his life, and was even asking questions about the gospel along the way. He even said along the way "man, I guess we should say a prayer when we get back eh?" We are always pumped to hear that from someone! So we get to the shelter and he was just so thankful! He said that "this just made my day, thank you so much!" So we talked a little while longer and talked about the gospel, and gave him a Book of Mormon. He was so thankful, and will never forget that! As we were about to leave, I remembered that there was something in my bag. The day previous, I had bought a couple Gatorades. Oddly enough, I had not set the one I had not opened, in the fridge... So, I pulled it out, gave it to him, and he was just as excited as can be!  Even though we did not set a return appointment, or get his number or whatever else, I am so grateful that I was able to take part in planting this seed. It also has helped me truly realize how much I have, and how much other people don't, which has helped me come to terms with the fact that I need to share with everyone! Such a tender mercy from the Lord!

Well I sure love and miss you all so much! I am so grateful for every single one of you!

Love you so so much!

Love

Elder McCown

Talking in the Park

So this has been an awesome week!  This past week has been so good! We have had multiple lessons which has been a nice change in the area since I first got here. So amazing!  I think one of the coolest miracles this past week was Shiane. So last week we were in the park because one of our recent converts invited us to meet him there. So yeah, were all excited because we get to see him and stuff. Anyway, as we were there, he went off for some reason and started talking to some other people he knew. So, we go and talk to random people in the park. One of those people was Terry. She was just relaxing under the shade with her roommate. He had this whole set up for drumming in the park. Anyway, she talks to us for a little bit and said that we could come by the park in the afternoons because she is normally there. So, we haven’t been able to see her since. HOWEVER! God works in some pretty freaking awesome ways! So one of Terry's friends, which turns out to be Shiane, wanted some help. SO GUESS WHAT!!? Terry was a missionary without even knowing it! She gave Shiane our number and she called us up, and we met up at the park with her! Super truth seeking! She even said that she wants to come to church with us! Such an awesome miracle!

We also got to see Richard this past week! It’s such a miracle because this guy is so busy! Works day and night to provide for his family! The coolest part about this visit with Richard though was that right after we were going to leave, he went and got his patriarchal blessing! Only a member for 2 months and he already has the priesthood and already has a patriarchal blessing! This guy is so cool! He is so kind and generous too! So, in Africa (that’s where he is from), they have this very interesting dish called Foo-Foo (I think that is how you spell it). Just imagine a very gummy potato. But that was the yummiest gummy potato ever! Dipped in the soup that his wife made, mmmmm, it was SO GOOD!

Anyway, not much else happened! We just keep working and doing what missionaries do! Sure love and miss all of ya!

Love
Elder McCown

No More Eyelashes

What the heck...I have officially been out 8 months as of yesterday! I can’t believe that! Anyway, this week has to be one of the best weeks ever! This week we had a huge jump in our lessons and everything is going great! So, to start off the week, we had an awesome Pday! We played basketball for a couple hours and it honestly was the funniest thing ever!

After that we went and visited the O'dwyers and that’s about it! Nothing much really happened until this past Thursday! I got a way AWESOME PACKAGE!!! The chocolate covered peanut butter balls were the bomb! I couldn’t stop eating them....I even shared a couple which was shocking to say in the least! Needless to say though....those were all gone within a couple days...
But I have to say, my favorite was the booklet with all the pictures!

Anyway, right after picking up the package and tearing it open gorging myself on the most delicious creation ever, we had to do weekly planning! 3 hours of planning for a whole week is never enough! But we were able to finish it in two hours because we were on the balls of our feet the whole time!

Right after that we had an awesome lesson with this guy named Leaf! This guy is from China and doesn’t consider himself worthy to be baptized! He is so prepared to hear the gospel!

Next thing ya know, we went and did service for this lady named Sheila, that almost got baptized 4-5 times. We did service for a fundraiser for Africa. We were tasked with grilling hot dogs and stuff. Unbeknownst to me though, when we’re hooking up all the valves to the grill, one of the kids turned the grill on high, so propane was leaking out like crazy. Anyway, long story short, I go to light it and a huge flame goes up, and my hand is all burnt, my eyelashes are all burned off, and some of my hair has that singed look. All I was worried about though was my eyebrows, and I am happy to say, that I still have them Haha!

It wasn’t until Saturday that things started getting a little crazy. One of our recent converts wife was getting baptized. However, he didn’t know that he was going to baptize her until 3 am, so needless to say, he was afraid, and he called us saying that he wanted someone else to do it. We just sat there, wondering what the heck we can do. That’s when I can sincerely say, that God spoke directly to me. As I knelt down to pray, a thought came to mind. That thought kept coming back again and again. So we made a couple phone calls and pulled off some awesome crazy miracles! So, you do have to know first that Elder Ringer was the one who baptized our recent convert (Richard). Elder Tan and Elder Ringer had taught him everything and he was golden and ready to be baptized. Anyway, we pulled some strings, called the zone leaders, and next thing we know, I am in Maple Ridge with another elder and Elder Ringer is back in his old area with Elder Tan. They pulled him aside and talked to him and made some miracles happen, and next thing you know, Richard is baptizing his wife! Such a miracle!

Sunday rolls around and it honestly was probably the best day of the week! We had Leaf and his wife at church as well as Sheila! Such an awesome miracle! We then got to bring Leaf and his wife Eva to a baptism and the spirit was so strong! I was praying so hard as we were there that they would feel the spirit! It was so awesome!

Later that day, we went over to the Henry’s and had steak, corn on the cob, and all the fixings for dinner! It was SO GOOD! No dad, nobody cooks as good a steak as you, but, Brother Sulymkas steaks were pretty dang good...

Anyway! This was the best week ever in Brookswood! So many miracles and now we have so much more to do! Love you guys so much!

Love
Elder McCown

Mini Missionary

This was such a fantastic week this past week! So many miracles have been going on!
So this past Tuesday we got a call from the zone leaders saying that we would be getting a little present the coming Friday. Wanna guess what it was?!?!? WE GOT A MINI MISSIONARY!!! No we did not a get a missionary that was 3 feet tall....would have been cool if it was though! We got to spend the whole weekend with Manuel Herrera which was awesome! We had some awesome miracles happen!

So, before all that happened, this past Wednesday, we got to go on ward splits which were fun. I went with Brother Friesen and Elder Tan went with Brother Welliver. We dropped by less actives and got to meet this sweet old lady, Sister Leonard.

This past Thursday was probably the greatest miracle of them all before Manuel came. We got to go and see Kevin with the Bishop! Now, I can’t remember if I told you this before but Kevin lives in a mental institute, so that always puts a damper on things....UNLESS YOU HAVE SOME FAITH!!! Kevin just soaked everything up like a sponge! We knew that he had some mental disabilities, so Brother Welliver had given us the suggestion to bring a visual aid. IT WORKED WONDERS!!! We spent quite a while going over the Plan of Salvation, consistently testifying that he no longer had to mourn for his parents that he lost. He seemed reassured, and he even said that he felt the spirit which was awesome!  So, while we were there, we of course had to test his knowledge to make sure that he was soaking everything in, so we rearranged the plan of salvation and had him reorganize it. He did it perfectly! He put it into perfect order!

So Friday rolled around and we got to pick up our little mini missionary! He honestly was probably one of the coolest guys I have ever met! He told us stories about his dad and when he went and served his mission. It’s unbelievable that his father is even alive! His father served in Peru in 1988 I think. That’s when terrorist were running rampant. Crazy eh??

Sunday has to be one of the best/interesting days of the week though. Kevin came to church which was awesome! However, that does not fully clarify how long we were actually in the church. Kevin unfortunately has a smoking problem... and with his mental capacity as well as his depression from his parents, it is hard for him. So, I think we spent a total of an hour inside the church building. However, we were very determined to not waste any time at all. While we were outside under the ramada, we talked about the Word of Wisdom with him, and we committed him to cut down on the cigarettes and the pipe. I really wonder what Manuel was thinking the whole entire time as we were there, in and out of church. Before we knew it, church was over. Never have I ever cherished church so much. It truly is our spiritual recharge for the upcoming week. We didn’t even get to have the sacrament which has to be the saddest part of this past week. We were so occupied with Kevin which was very saddening in the least.

However, the day got better! We were able to go over to the Shens for dinner! She is such a good cook! After that, we zoomed over to the stake center to drop off our little missionary. It was pretty sad to see him go. Before we parted ways though, all the missionaries and their mini missionaries had a quick testimony meeting. Such a powerful hour where we sat together and were able to hear the testimonies of these mini missionaries, as well as some other missionaries.

This has been such a good week though! I sure miss and love you guys!

Love

Elder McCown

Knock Knock

Wow, I can’t believe how fast this week went by! So many awesome miracles as we were here!  So this past week we were able to get a couple new investigators which is so exciting considering from where we started after all that we lost! So many miracles! Such a blessing!  So one of these miracles we ran into out in the outskirts of our area. We were knocking doors and contacting people who had previously been interested. On our way to contacting one of these people we saw this person at the bus stop. He immediately recognized the name tag as well as the white shirt and tie. Immediately we started talking and he just opened up to us and that he had been reading the Book of Mormon. He also talked to us about how his parents had died in a car accident and that was the kicker for him going into depression, which was pretty sad to see. He even lost all of his teeth because of it which was sad to see as well. Anyway, we talked to him for a little bit longer, and gave him all the pamphlets that we had, all of them talking about the Restoration, The plan of Salvation, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He was so happy and he even questioned whether or not it was okay if he could have them or not! It wasn’t until we were about to leave that we figured out his name, which was Kevin. As we were walking away, he was repeatedly saying thank you over and over again. We then started on our way to the man that said that he was interested, and it turns out, it was the same guy that we met at the bus stop! There is a sad part of the story though. This man unfortunately resides in a mental institute. However, we won’t give up on him! We just have to get permission and everything will be settled!

We also met with another person that we knocked on last week! Their names are Jeff and Destiny and they are both foreign exchange students from China which is awesome! They both speak very little english so it was very hard to get our message across. However, Elder Tan speaks their native language, which was so cool! He started speaking Mandarin and the member that was there, as well as myself had no clue what was going on the whole entire time, unless it was spoken in english. Such a cool miracle!

Not much else happened except that I turned 19! Man I am getting old! Anyway! Sister Tusitala had us over for dinner and it was some awesome Tongan food! She is this lady from Samoa and she made a ton of food! As we were at the dinner table, we hear someone coming down the steps. I knew something was up when I saw Brother Leonard coming down those steps. He proceeded to pull out his Ipad and he played me the coolest birthday video ever! Such a surprise! So cool!  Later that night we went over to the Henris and had an awesome lesson with them!

P-Day was awesome too! We got everything done and then we went and played basketball with the Willoughby elders which was a lot of fun!  This has to be one of the best weeks ever though! I sure miss and love you all so much!

Love

Elder McCown

Deep Freezer & Mommy's Day

 So this week was a REALLY GOOD WEEK! We have had so many miracles here in Brookswood! This past week we met with so many less actives and we were even able to meet with our recent converts in the area as well!

So, probably one of the greatest experience this past week was when were at this less actives home, and we get a text from Richard, saying that he needed help moving a deep freezer. If I had not mentioned before, Richard is a recent convert and is literally the coolest family guy ever. He just moved from Ghana not too long ago and is working his tail off to support his two kids and his wife, who at the same time, is going to nursing school. Long story short, this guy is a dedicated member, was baptized in 3 weeks, loves the gospel so much, and literally runs on 4 hours of sleep during the weekdays!  Anyway, he calls us up saying that he needed help moving this deep freezer. We just so happened to be around the corner, so we drive over and see if we can fit it in the car. That doesn’t work. So we sat there thinking for about five minutes because the store was going to close relatively soon. We didn’t know anyone in the ward that had a truck that we could use, especially since it was in the middle of the day. So, we just pick up the deep freezer, and we start carrying it to his house which was about 3/4 of a mile away. So that was fun, carrying it across this street and through little alleys. That thing was so heavy though! My forearms were burning and it was hot out too which didn’t help, so we were all sweating by the time we got to his house. He was so grateful for us to have done that though. I honestly am so thankful for that to happen because I feel that I have genuinely served someone who was in great need. I have done quite a bit of service on my mission, but none of it compares to carrying a deep freezer 3/4 of a mile for someone who genuinely needs it.

Other than that, we had a great week! We knocked into a less active this past week and they let us in right on the spot which was pretty cool!

And of course, there was mother’s day... Fastest 40 minutes on my mission. I honestly don’t know where the time went, but it was so good to see everyone there!

I sure love and miss you all though!

Love

Elder McCown

Mother's Day ~ 2015
We love our missionary....

Sore Muscles

Hello!

So this week has honestly been one of the hardest weeks on my mission. But it was so good! We haven’t had that many people to teach which is a little bit of a bummer but we have been working a lot with less actives and just talking to people which is awesome!

So last night, we had a huge miracle. We had just gotten out of a lesson with one of the members and we were just about to go start knocking doors when the spirit brought to mind a less active family that lived a block away. So we knock on their door and immediately they let us in! That like has never happened before! There have been very few occasions where we have just been let in. Anyway, no one has been able to contact this family for almost a year because they are so busy! And we just got let in like that! So cool!

Let’s see, what else happened this week?

We did a heck a lot of service. We helped Cran clean out more of his stuff. We helped this nonmember clean up his backyard. We also helped these members in the other ward move to their new house. We also got a call from the sisters saying that they met someone on the street that needed help moving. But yeah. I think it was this past Thursday that we did service nonstop from 1-9pm. I was so tired. My muscles are so sore too. But yeah, everything is going good and we have been working a lot with less actives more than anything!

So glad that you guys got my package though! I was wondering when you were going to get it. I was worried that you wouldn’t get it in time!

Well I sure love all of you and hope for the best for every single one of you!

Love

Elder McCown