So this week was pretty crazy! Did not spend too much time in our area but it was really good!
First part of the week we were able to meet with Justin! Man! He is doing so good! Wants to make a huge change in his life and we are just helping him anyway that we can! We have been able to meet with him at a members home and the members there just give solid testimonies that just add the power of the atonement! He is just so good though! He has been absorbing a lot of what we have to say is on board with a lot of it! We even taught the word of wisdom, and he was a little iffy on it but he wants to change really badly!
We were also able to meet with this guy named Bill and he is so prepared to hear about the plan of salvation! He grew up not even believing in God until his wife just recently passed away! Really humble old guy...
Coolest miracle this past week though...we were out knocking doors and I remembered seeing new people moving into this place. Elder Westerguard and I went there a lot but no one ever answered...that is until this past week! We just bore a quick powerful testimony of how God loves us so much and how we know where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going after this life...Rob then said "Cool, can we meet on Sunday?" Well, I kind of screamed inside and he is so ready to hear about the gospel! He is wanting to make a change, not only for him but for his kids! So we were down for that! We taught him on Sunday and he just listened super intently and asked where and when church was! Said he could not come this Sunday but he is so ready! So that was the coolest miracle ever!
Other than that, God has just been so good! We had an awesome Zone meeting this past week. Literally writing down notes to the point that my hand just hurt like crazy. Best part though was at the end when one of the zone leaders came up and asked two people to bear their testimonies...well, I guess since I am talking about it, you already know one of them was me...Well, I whipped out one of my favorite verses that has grown on me more and more...and Dad you may recognize it...
26 And I saw that I must soon go down to my grave,having been wrought upon by the power of God that I must preach and prophesy unto this people, and declare the word according to the truth which is in Christ. And I have declared it in all my days, and have rejoiced in it above that of the world.
27 And I soon go to the place of my rest, which is with my Redeemer; for I know that in him I shall rest. And I rejoice in the day when my mortal shall put on immortality, and shall stand before him; then shall I see his face with pleasure, and he will say unto me: Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father. Amen.
I bear solemn witness of the power of this scripture. It rings truth to all those who have shared the gospel. This indeed is something we should share, and something that we "can rejoice in" "above that of the world". For as we share it, we are helping others come to know that there Father in Heaven loves them, that "in Him they shall rest" and that as they come to know that it is true, our friends will come to know that he is declaring this unto all "Come unto me, ye blessed, there is a place prepared for you in the mansions of my Father." The power of this truth beckons us all to recall upon one of the most sacred pieces of doctrine that was restored fully about 200 years ago, and that is that God is our loving Heavenly Father. He knows us, loves us, and entices us to reach out to Him. As we do so, we will have a mighty change of heart and will receive answers to our prayers. I testify of the power that this simple but mighty truth brings, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love
Elder McCown
Monday, February 15, 2016
Tuesday, February 9, 2016
Guns Blazing
So, we have literally been hitting the grind up here in Burns Lake and crazy miracles have just been happening like crazy!
Besides that it has been fantastic this week! We first went on exchanges with the Vanderhoof Elders and they have been going through a rough spot. Well, Elder Lopez and I just went in there with guns blazing and we got that area some fire in it! I went on exchanges with Elder Johnson and we just lit it up over there! Did some service for an ex con and then went hard tracting. Well we got let in one house and we were not too sure if we could go in. All we could see was the mom and the daughter and just as I was thinking, well you know the Lord provides, and I saw a 20 year old dude walk by and we came right in! Taught how much God loves each individual more than we can comprehend and just testified hardcore. Well, we ended up on making the daughter cry...said it was the deepest thing she had ever heard! So that was awesome! Can check that off my bucket list... The miracle did not stop there though...turns out that they know some members and the daughter is pretty close with one of them, so we called up that member right after and we went right over and made a game plan for this little family! SO AWESOME!!
So we left that area with a blazing fire. We then came back to our area and saw some pretty cool miracles too! We were out knocking on the rez. His name is Justin and the missionaries had taught him a little bit about 2 years back. We went up and started talking to him. Well turns out that he has three kids that he is pretty much taking care of on his own. He made a huge decision in his life to quit smoking weed on Christmas and literally God just took that desire to smoke weed away! I immediately flipped to Ether 12:27 and he just started to cry, that he has been trying for years and that he sees himself in that scripture more than ever! He also came to church this past week with 2 of his kids and it was awesome! He wants to change so badly!
Other than that things have been going great and we have just been working our tails off! The members are great and they help us out with everything! One of the members brought us to one of his friends and told him "These are the missionaries, and if you want to learn more about our church meet with them!" Well, yeah, that cool little miracle happened right in front of us and I think the member was pretty shocked when his friend said "Sure! I would love that!"
God has just been so good though! We have been finding people that are so prepared for the gospel!
Love and miss you all!
Love
Elder McCown
Besides that it has been fantastic this week! We first went on exchanges with the Vanderhoof Elders and they have been going through a rough spot. Well, Elder Lopez and I just went in there with guns blazing and we got that area some fire in it! I went on exchanges with Elder Johnson and we just lit it up over there! Did some service for an ex con and then went hard tracting. Well we got let in one house and we were not too sure if we could go in. All we could see was the mom and the daughter and just as I was thinking, well you know the Lord provides, and I saw a 20 year old dude walk by and we came right in! Taught how much God loves each individual more than we can comprehend and just testified hardcore. Well, we ended up on making the daughter cry...said it was the deepest thing she had ever heard! So that was awesome! Can check that off my bucket list... The miracle did not stop there though...turns out that they know some members and the daughter is pretty close with one of them, so we called up that member right after and we went right over and made a game plan for this little family! SO AWESOME!!
So we left that area with a blazing fire. We then came back to our area and saw some pretty cool miracles too! We were out knocking on the rez. His name is Justin and the missionaries had taught him a little bit about 2 years back. We went up and started talking to him. Well turns out that he has three kids that he is pretty much taking care of on his own. He made a huge decision in his life to quit smoking weed on Christmas and literally God just took that desire to smoke weed away! I immediately flipped to Ether 12:27 and he just started to cry, that he has been trying for years and that he sees himself in that scripture more than ever! He also came to church this past week with 2 of his kids and it was awesome! He wants to change so badly!
Other than that things have been going great and we have just been working our tails off! The members are great and they help us out with everything! One of the members brought us to one of his friends and told him "These are the missionaries, and if you want to learn more about our church meet with them!" Well, yeah, that cool little miracle happened right in front of us and I think the member was pretty shocked when his friend said "Sure! I would love that!"
God has just been so good though! We have been finding people that are so prepared for the gospel!
Love and miss you all!
Love
Elder McCown
Monday, February 1, 2016
My Studies
So crazy week! Spent the whole week running, and running some more! 6 months to sexy is almost here so I guess I gotta start early! Anyway! Awesome week! Tom came to church again! Really, like the coolest old dude ever! He is so ready for the gospel! He came up to me right after church yesterday and he came up and asked "What do I need to do to get baptized?" Well I pretty much freaked! He is so cool! He has been soaking up everything like a sponge and he realized just how much the gospel means to him! It’s been helping him get over the loss of his wife! God is just so good! Best miracle of the week! Besides that we have been just working as hard as we can and God has been blessing us with so many people!
I would have to say it all came down to my studies though! I have been memorizing things more and the spirit just seems to carry us where we need to go because we do so well in our studies! Really, the best time for studies is in the morning. I now know why Grandpa doesn’t just go back to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning...wish I could do that, but I am pretty sure I would pass out dead! Something that I learned this past week was just how important the message of the Restoration is. I mean I knew it was important all along, but because of the visitation to Joseph Smith by God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, we have the fullness of the gospel, and that evidence is the Book of Mormon. Because of this recent revelation, we know more about the atonement than anyone else on earth does. Isn’t that just crazy?!? Man, God is just so good.
Well, I sure love and miss you guys! I promise you guys that as you come to know more and more about the Book of Mormon that you will receive your personal revelation upon what you can do better. I testify of the power of the atonement and its power in its entirety. Even though I will never be able to comprehend the whole magnitude that the atonement covers, I promise just what Elder Jeffrey L. Holland said in one of his talks:
"However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines." I echo his call, for this has been one of the hardest, but most rewarding weeks of my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love
Elder McCown
I would have to say it all came down to my studies though! I have been memorizing things more and the spirit just seems to carry us where we need to go because we do so well in our studies! Really, the best time for studies is in the morning. I now know why Grandpa doesn’t just go back to bed at 3 or 4 in the morning...wish I could do that, but I am pretty sure I would pass out dead! Something that I learned this past week was just how important the message of the Restoration is. I mean I knew it was important all along, but because of the visitation to Joseph Smith by God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ, we have the fullness of the gospel, and that evidence is the Book of Mormon. Because of this recent revelation, we know more about the atonement than anyone else on earth does. Isn’t that just crazy?!? Man, God is just so good.
Well, I sure love and miss you guys! I promise you guys that as you come to know more and more about the Book of Mormon that you will receive your personal revelation upon what you can do better. I testify of the power of the atonement and its power in its entirety. Even though I will never be able to comprehend the whole magnitude that the atonement covers, I promise just what Elder Jeffrey L. Holland said in one of his talks:
"However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love. It is not possible for you to sink lower than the infinite light of Christ’s Atonement shines." I echo his call, for this has been one of the hardest, but most rewarding weeks of my life. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
Love
Elder McCown
Monday, January 25, 2016
The Work Is So Good
Things have been going awesome up here in Burns Lake! We have been working so hard up here and have been literally running everywhere which has been awesome! Keeps me in shape!
To start off with the best of the best, Tom is so solid! He has been doing so well in progressing! He came to church this past week and we were able to teach him about the word of wisdom and he committed to live it! He is just so good! There’s a lot he does not know but he has already read the first 5 chapters of the Gospel Principles manual and has been reading the Book of Mormon pretty well! He admits that he does not understand it that well but is ready to go back and start rereading so he can understand it!
So Tom has been great and so has Megan! She is doing great! Progressing well, just has not come to church yet. She reads and prays though and we were able to get her a true friend this week which was great! They instantly connected and the member invited Megan and her family over for dinner sometime within the first ten minutes of the lesson! She is so good!
We have done a lot of finding this past week, which has been awesome! We were able to hit 140 QGC's which was even better! We worked so hard to get there! We literally ran from house to house and people have just been coming out of the woodworks which has been the best part!
God has been so good to us though! He has blessed us so much and the work just keeps on getting better and better! My new companion is Elder Lopez. He is such a hard working missionary! Pushing me to do better every day! Just keeps on getting better and better with him!
God's been so good though! The work is so good and Tom and Megan have been working out really well! Sure love and miss yall!
Love
Elder McCown
To start off with the best of the best, Tom is so solid! He has been doing so well in progressing! He came to church this past week and we were able to teach him about the word of wisdom and he committed to live it! He is just so good! There’s a lot he does not know but he has already read the first 5 chapters of the Gospel Principles manual and has been reading the Book of Mormon pretty well! He admits that he does not understand it that well but is ready to go back and start rereading so he can understand it!
So Tom has been great and so has Megan! She is doing great! Progressing well, just has not come to church yet. She reads and prays though and we were able to get her a true friend this week which was great! They instantly connected and the member invited Megan and her family over for dinner sometime within the first ten minutes of the lesson! She is so good!
We have done a lot of finding this past week, which has been awesome! We were able to hit 140 QGC's which was even better! We worked so hard to get there! We literally ran from house to house and people have just been coming out of the woodworks which has been the best part!
God has been so good to us though! He has blessed us so much and the work just keeps on getting better and better! My new companion is Elder Lopez. He is such a hard working missionary! Pushing me to do better every day! Just keeps on getting better and better with him!
God's been so good though! The work is so good and Tom and Megan have been working out really well! Sure love and miss yall!
Love
Elder McCown
Monday, January 18, 2016
Mexicans In The Great White North
So this has been a fantastic week! This has to be the best week I have had in the past two transfers here in Burns Lake! So good!
So we were able to teach Megan and she is progressing really well! She read 3 Nephi 11 and understood it really well. We also told her about baptism, and shied away, but we committed her to pray about it as well as the Book of Mormon. So, so far, it’s going awesome with her! She understands really well and really soaks it up like a sponge.
Best miracle of the week though was this new investigator named Tom that one of our members found. He actually found her and told her that he wants to come to church, so that opened the window immediately for us. So long story short, he is this old scuba diver that dove around the world with some famous marine biologists. So he is super cool. His wife just passed away. Well we came in and set expectations the first time and talked about the Book of Mormon. We gave him one and committed him to read it and he said he felt great! We come back Saturday and we followed up with him on the Book of Mormon and he has already read 17 chapters of it! We were so excited! He is so prepared! We taught the Restoration, and he loved it! Every comment was great! He felt happy and said he doesn’t feel depressed whenever we come over and whenever he reads the Book of Mormon! We then set a baptismal date for February 20th and he accepted! So miracles never cease, and I am so excited so I have to keep on telling you about them! He came to church this week as well and we were a little worried because we were teaching Gospel Principles and it was on exaltation. Well, needless to say, he is so prepared! He wants to get sealed to his wife! Talk about setting expectations! Well it is sad to say but I got a new companion! His name is Elder Lopez! SO excited though! Nothing like two Mexicans in the great white north! Sure love and miss all of you!
Love
Elder McCown
So we were able to teach Megan and she is progressing really well! She read 3 Nephi 11 and understood it really well. We also told her about baptism, and shied away, but we committed her to pray about it as well as the Book of Mormon. So, so far, it’s going awesome with her! She understands really well and really soaks it up like a sponge.
Best miracle of the week though was this new investigator named Tom that one of our members found. He actually found her and told her that he wants to come to church, so that opened the window immediately for us. So long story short, he is this old scuba diver that dove around the world with some famous marine biologists. So he is super cool. His wife just passed away. Well we came in and set expectations the first time and talked about the Book of Mormon. We gave him one and committed him to read it and he said he felt great! We come back Saturday and we followed up with him on the Book of Mormon and he has already read 17 chapters of it! We were so excited! He is so prepared! We taught the Restoration, and he loved it! Every comment was great! He felt happy and said he doesn’t feel depressed whenever we come over and whenever he reads the Book of Mormon! We then set a baptismal date for February 20th and he accepted! So miracles never cease, and I am so excited so I have to keep on telling you about them! He came to church this week as well and we were a little worried because we were teaching Gospel Principles and it was on exaltation. Well, needless to say, he is so prepared! He wants to get sealed to his wife! Talk about setting expectations! Well it is sad to say but I got a new companion! His name is Elder Lopez! SO excited though! Nothing like two Mexicans in the great white north! Sure love and miss all of you!
Love
Elder McCown
Monday, January 11, 2016
“What has the Book of Mormon done for you?”
I haven’t frozen yet so that’s good... But besides that it was another great week! Just tracted like crazy! Well, besides tracting we were able to teach Megan this past week! So awesome! Just taught the whole plan of salvation and she loved it! She listened and things were just awesome!
Oh yeah...so best part of the week, I got to hit cows with giant yellow sticks as hard as I could...yeah, be jelly... So there is a member in the branch and he this super cool farmer dude. Anyway, missionaries go over and help him every year and we get to herd cows with giant sticks made of pipe while he sprays them down with this tick killer stuff and tags them if he needs to. Pretty cool, eh? Nothing like hitting a cow as hard as you can!
Other than that is been pretty cold...hit -11 the other day. My studies have been pretty awesome though. I was reading a talk today all about conversion and after finishing it I drew a blank on what to study next, so I sat there for a good 5 minutes and a question popped into my mind on what I should think about. I never thought about this question before, probably because I could easily say how much good it has done for me, but once I thought about an answer to the question, I could not imagine the amount of answers that could be given, but the question was "What has the Book of Mormon done for you?" Think about that. I did not think that such a question could be so hard to answer, because there are so many answers!
Sure love and miss you all! Those who are reading this who have never read the Book of Mormon, read it, those who have read it aimlessly, read it again. I testify of the divinity and power that this sacred book has. God has given us another testament of Jesus Christ. Read it. Pray about it. God will tell you it’s true.
Love
Elder McCown
Oh yeah...so best part of the week, I got to hit cows with giant yellow sticks as hard as I could...yeah, be jelly... So there is a member in the branch and he this super cool farmer dude. Anyway, missionaries go over and help him every year and we get to herd cows with giant sticks made of pipe while he sprays them down with this tick killer stuff and tags them if he needs to. Pretty cool, eh? Nothing like hitting a cow as hard as you can!
Other than that is been pretty cold...hit -11 the other day. My studies have been pretty awesome though. I was reading a talk today all about conversion and after finishing it I drew a blank on what to study next, so I sat there for a good 5 minutes and a question popped into my mind on what I should think about. I never thought about this question before, probably because I could easily say how much good it has done for me, but once I thought about an answer to the question, I could not imagine the amount of answers that could be given, but the question was "What has the Book of Mormon done for you?" Think about that. I did not think that such a question could be so hard to answer, because there are so many answers!
Sure love and miss you all! Those who are reading this who have never read the Book of Mormon, read it, those who have read it aimlessly, read it again. I testify of the divinity and power that this sacred book has. God has given us another testament of Jesus Christ. Read it. Pray about it. God will tell you it’s true.
Love
Elder McCown
Monday, January 4, 2016
Ham Sandwhich
SO! It has been the coldest it has ever been in my entire life! We are driving down our drive and its about -6 degrees and we are just driving down our hill and heading out towards the middle of nowhere to find people, and by the time we get to where we are going to start finding, it drops to -11...FREEZING! A Mexican does not belong up here...
Well, besides the bitter cold and the frozen face and toes things have been great! I met a guy who told us his nickname was Wiener, and that’s basically how my week kicks off...
I guess I could be a little more spiritual than that, but it’s so dang hard to narrow it down because there are so many! I guess we could start off with the McGloclins! So we were planning one night, just praying like a good ole missionary does and we just get this impression that we need to go by this particular family. All we had was a former status for this guy, so we go by and this older lady named Kate answers the door and lets us right in! So we start talking and turns out that she had a near death experience about 40 years ago and met the missionaries shortly after and studied with them for a year. She then sets that aside and then becomes a Jehovah Witness, and then gets disfellowshipped. Pretty rough. So that’s when we come in and just talk about that plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon and she was down for having us come back! What’s even better is that her granddaughter has been taken to church by some of the members! So that’s awesome! That has to be the spiritual highlight of the week though because while we were there we were talking about faith and I whipped out good ole Alma 22 and the scripture that I shared talked about "exercising a particle of faith". Well she just went ham sandwich on that and just ate it all up! Turns out that she is super into physics and just struck a chord with the word particle. Dont know how it happened but that transformed into teaching about the law of chastity...weird eh?
So that has been great and we cannot wait to see them again this week! We are stoked to be able to meet with them because they have super close ties with some of the members!
God is just so good though! We have been in a bit of a rough spot but the past couple weeks have been full of miracles!
Sure love and miss you all!
Love
Elder McCown
Well, besides the bitter cold and the frozen face and toes things have been great! I met a guy who told us his nickname was Wiener, and that’s basically how my week kicks off...
I guess I could be a little more spiritual than that, but it’s so dang hard to narrow it down because there are so many! I guess we could start off with the McGloclins! So we were planning one night, just praying like a good ole missionary does and we just get this impression that we need to go by this particular family. All we had was a former status for this guy, so we go by and this older lady named Kate answers the door and lets us right in! So we start talking and turns out that she had a near death experience about 40 years ago and met the missionaries shortly after and studied with them for a year. She then sets that aside and then becomes a Jehovah Witness, and then gets disfellowshipped. Pretty rough. So that’s when we come in and just talk about that plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon and she was down for having us come back! What’s even better is that her granddaughter has been taken to church by some of the members! So that’s awesome! That has to be the spiritual highlight of the week though because while we were there we were talking about faith and I whipped out good ole Alma 22 and the scripture that I shared talked about "exercising a particle of faith". Well she just went ham sandwich on that and just ate it all up! Turns out that she is super into physics and just struck a chord with the word particle. Dont know how it happened but that transformed into teaching about the law of chastity...weird eh?
So that has been great and we cannot wait to see them again this week! We are stoked to be able to meet with them because they have super close ties with some of the members!
God is just so good though! We have been in a bit of a rough spot but the past couple weeks have been full of miracles!
Sure love and miss you all!
Love
Elder McCown
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