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