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
Monday, October 5, 2015
Monday, September 28, 2015
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!
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!
Monday, September 21, 2015
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
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
Monday, September 14, 2015
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
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
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
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!
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!
Monday, August 31, 2015
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
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
Monday, August 24, 2015
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
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
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