Jumping through Hoops

So, ya know how last week was just a rough week and all...WELL IT WAS ALL WORTH IT!

So we kicked butt this week! Literally just worked our butts off, had an awesome zone conference with President Burt, (even though it was 7 hours of straight sittin). But it was so good!

So there is this guy. His name is Jerry Joy. But, anyway interesting story on how he was found by the missionaries. He was actually talking to a member and said that he wanted the missionaries to come by because he remembered them from about 40 years ago give or take. So, when you tell a member that you want the missionaries to come by, you better expect 2 guys in white shirt and ties to be there shortly.
So he let in Elder Robinson and Elder Ushio and they figure out that he is a less active.  Wellllll, interesting story, this guy literally does not remember his baptism. His ex-wife got baptized, and so did his son, but he does not remember it at all. He can literally remember the type of car he drove as well as the interior of the car way before his wife and son got baptized...so we have been jumping through hoops and bending over backwards through the bishop, to stake president, back to bishop, then to SLC, and then back...well, we just got back from bishop on Sunday, and you bet we were screaming like little girls in ward council! Well...not really...I screamed like a little girl on the inside, but anyway, JERRY IS GOING TO GET BAPTIZED! Literally! Miracles! Dont know when but he is!

I was also able to hear about this family that I found in Surrey. Elder Anderson and I were just working hard out there in the sun and we knocked into this less active mother and she said we could come back! So, I never saw her again after I left but her kids just got baptized! Crazy eh!?!? I literally thought I left Surrey with nothing but it’s been crazy being able to hear about how Gus, Esperanza, Jerry, Jassly Ja, and now two kids named Jattinder and Jasleen! CRAZY!!!

Well God has just been so good! It’s been crazy up here in Kelowna and we have been just going hard, hittin the grind every day! We were able to teach this guy named Allen and his dad named Harold. Harold is the coolest old guy ever, (besides you dad). He’s like 94 and served on the beaches of Normandy back in WWII...nuts eh? Well Allen is super down!

We were also able to teach this guy named Rob and he is progressing well! He was taught about 20 years ago when he was going to college, and was close to getting baptized. Kind of broke apart when his girlfriend, died in a car accident. Other than that, things have been just going great! Sure love and miss yall!

Love

Elder McCown

Patience

Soooo, going by formers one day...had an interesting conversation with this one guy. Told us very respectfully that he does not believe the Book of Mormon and that we were damned...yeah I get that everyday...anyway...I learned something new from this guy...In the middle of the conversation. He said "everything is a lie!"   Well, long story short, he told us right after that the world feeds us lies about how the world is a sphere...he said that it is actually flat, that NASA is a hoax, that no astronaut ever landed on the moon, and that God put this invisible dome thingy over the earth and we can’t get past it...He told us we probably thought he was crazy...well...he was right...

So that was the kick off to our week! Just getting told that we were nuts...not new lol  Also hit up some doors...found some cool people...talked to some crazy ones...

Best part of the week? Well, can’t pinpoint that but the weather is up and down here...we were walking around this past Saturday and it was nice out in the morning...then it got hot, like wearing just a sweater was making me sweat like a dog. Then, we went knocking for about ten minutes and all of the sudden it started getting super windy, like pinecones and some branches falling out trees windy. Then, about 20 minutes later it sprinkled, and then 10 minutes later it was pouring...so yeah that was fun!

Thinking about it now, the best part of my week was my studies! I had to give a training in district meeting this past week about patience...never thought I could get that much out of my studies, especially on just one word. The whole focus was on Jesus Christs example of patience. As I dove into it, I began to realize only a fragment of the amount of patience that this man had. It’s crazy how he endured through so many things, just because he loved us so much! I can only imagine the patience he had with his disciples, when they fell asleep during the most critical, and let’s not forget, the most painful event in history. He came back a couple times and I can only imagine the level of patience he had to not look down on his disciples. Not only this event but also, when his beloved apostle Peter had fallen into the trap of fear, denying that he knew Jesus Christ thrice.

After this, I can only merely understand what he did for me. Often times I get frustrated with myself, thinking that I should be doing better, but often times, it is hard not to look over the necessity of patience, and its heavenly virtue. We often times expect instantaneous results to fix our problems, and an answer to our prayer just because we got down on our knees. Much like a seed, it needs nourishment, sunlight, water, and most importantly, time...

God has just been so good to us though! I sure love and miss you all!

Love

Elder McCown

Kelowna Awesome

So this place is so cool! Literally reminds me of Tucson! I’m already walking outside with short sleeves on! To start off, I honestly have some of the coolest companions ever! My new comps are Elder Weingarth and Elder Ushio. Elder Weingarth is from Atlanta, Georgia and Elder Ushio is from Tokyo, Japan. Talk about a melting pot in a tri, eh?

Let’s see, so we have the coolest teaching pool ever! Ranges from Ken who wants to quit smoking and wants to be baptized, to your agriculturalist named Rob who investigated the church with his girlfriend about 25 years ago, to this Vietnamese woman who knows absolutely nothing about God or Jesus Christ.

So we were able to see every one of those people this week and they are so solid! Literally just searching for the gospel!  Coolest miracle this week! Well...one of them!  We were sitting in the mall, just eat'n my good ole KFC... and we see this girl that is like 4'1 with a longboard walk by...she turns around and just looks right at us! She started talking to us saying that she has seen missionaries 3 times in the past two days. So we invite her to sit down with us and she just starts talking about everything that has happened in her life, and said that she feels that she should become a Mormon...weird eh? Wish that happened every day! Anyway, she’s solid.

We were also able to teach this Jamaican family that just had a baby...literally my dream in the mission...to teach someone that is Jamaican...and to teach a family...I can check that off of my bucket list now! So cool!

Other than that Kelowna is awesome! Some members fed us last night and literally, they were our saving grace. We had been fasting all day and I swear that my stomach was going to eat itself!

Well I sure love and miss all of you!

Love

Elder McCown

Talk To Everyone

Holy cow! Another week gone by and we are just seeing miracles up in here!  So we have been able to see the fruits of our labors here! Last week was spent all tracting, finding, calling and such, one of the most exhausting weeks of my life! We had found so many people though, even with knocking the town for the 5th time.  Cray eh?

The best miracle that happened this past week was when I went on splits with President Moore. We went and met with this lady named Rita. We actually ran into Rita a couple months ago. Elder Westergard and I knocked on her door and it was one of her kids birthday parties and all she said was "Come back another time!" Did not even have time to get her phone number, so we have dropped by quite a bit in the past couple months and, we were pretty lucky, her husband was pulling up the driveway a couple a weeks ago and gave us her number. So we texted her and were able to set it up! So I went with President Moore and she just told us about her experiences with missionaries! Every time when she was feeling down in life, or things were just rough, the missionaries would just pop up out of nowhere! Said that she was even parked out in the middle of nowhere one time and they showed up! She was so curious about why that happens, because whatever bad feelings she had at the time, the missionaries seemed to just take it away! Crazy eh? So we taught the Restoration after that, and she said she knew it was true, that it made sense! So cool!

So that miracle literally blows all the other miracles out of the water! We have been finding and teaching quite a bit though! Even in a town of 3-4000, and you think you have talked to everyone, you figure out just how wrong you are really quickly.

God has just been so good though! I am sad to leave, but, I learned so much from this area! Working even though you have felt that you talked to everyone, giving it all even when there are so many hills to climb (literally). Such a refiners fire up here in the north!

I am excited for a new adventure though, especially in Kelowna!

Anyway, sure love and miss yall!

Love

Elder McCown

Topley

So this week has flown by! Everything has been going great and they just keep on getting better and better!  Even though it was a rough week of finding, we were able to find quite a few people that were interested! We also have quite a few lessons lined up for the week which has gotten us really pumped up to go out and work even harder!

There was a really amazing experience we had this past week. We were out knocking doors and I just felt that we were not in the right place. No one was answering because it was a weekday morning. Everyone is at work. So we prayed and both just listened to the spirit super hard. We both got the impression that we needed to go to the west of town. Because I have almost memorized the area book, I remembered that there were 3 potentials that had been written down, but they were 30 minutes out of town, burning about 45 ks just to get there. So after that prayer we just started talking and moved out towards the west of town, and the more and more we were talking about it, we realized that we needed to go to Topley (the area that came to my mind). So we drove there and went by all 3 potentials and they either answered and were not exactly sober, or they just did not answer, or the person moved. So we went straight to work and taught the Restoration to quite a few people. There were not that many people who were away which was nice for a change. Last house we knocked on was not interested at all, but they told us "Go by the Brodies" while pointing her finger to the house. Well, we drove over to the house and, we had knocked it before, but no one was home. Knocked on it and we got let in and taught the Restoration! And the best part was that he came to church too! Turns out that he had met with missionaries in the 70's in New Zealand, and that seed had been nourished ever since then, by members and missionaries! It was so awesome! He has read and studied the Book of Mormon, and knows its true, but whats weird is that he does not want to get baptized. We will work on him though!

It has been so great up here in Burns Lake though! Studies have been so good though. This morning was crazy though. I was reading up in Acts 8 about Phillip and something I had never used was the maps in the back. Well, turns out that Phillip was in Jerusalem and an angel told him to go down to Gaza. Well I flipped out the maps and figured out that they were a little under 100 kilometers from each other. He just went out and worked, followed the spirit, probably talked to everyone on the road to Gaza, talked to an ethiopian eunuch, and baptized him. Made me think about our trip out to Topley, I just did not have to walk thank goodness...

Sure love and miss all of you though!

Love

Elder McCown

I Screamed Inside

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

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