Awesome Week--New Adventure Coming

Dear Mom and Family,

Ha ha, of course mom you are forgiven! I already told you that it is totally fine that you didn't write last week! And thank you for the letter and for the insights! I hope everything works out for the best with the house and the piano situation!

Now onto my awesome week! It was jammed pack with stuff and hopefully I will be able to write all about it!

Oh before I forget, Mom no I still haven't gotten sick yet and I still don't have any problems with my ears! So blessed! But anyway!! So last week on Pday we went to Pizza Hut and it was soooo good! I miss that American food so much! Ha ha and it was an awesome pday! Today I am getting a haircut and hopefully it will look good! There's a little store where this women does haircuts for the missionaries! 

So this week one of my teachers went on vacation for a week so I got a new teacher and that means I got a new investigator as well! It was fun and the teacher was pretty serious about missionary work! He would make us do wall sit competitions and I won every time! ha ha! He was very impressed with my Spanish (which is a whole other thing that I cant wait to tell you he he), but first to do everything in order! Elder Cummings my district leader and the one that reminds me of Doug got really sick on Monday and got a huge migraine and he couldn't even move or open his eyes! And that morning I found my oil vile, but I thought to myself that I didn't need to bring it that day since it was pday but I got the prompting again and then again. So after the third time and right before I was about to leave for the CCM, I ran upstairs and got it and I am so glad I did! Because when Elder Cummings got really sick our teacher raced into our room and asked if any of us could give a blessing! I was the only elder in my district that had oil! So I was able to run and go give the blessing of the anointing of the oil to Elder Cummings and it was such an awesome experience for me! I am so glad that I followed that prompting to bring my oil!

Then on Tuesday we got to go to the temple again! Which I just love! This time I focused a lot on the specific covenants we make in there and I know that I am giving everything to the Lord these next two years! And when I was in the celestial room 1 Nephi 3:7 kept popping into my head. I wasn't sure why but I did find out why I needed to hear that scripture because I applied it to myself a lot this week! I will tell you later why!

Wednesday was actually Chile's Independence Day and it was awesome! They go all out and party crazy! Although we just stayed in the CCM it was still really cool to be able to experience their lifestyle! And for about two hours we got to go to a park where they had set up all these different stands and go look around and explore the lifestyle a little bit more! I love the Chilean people! There was actually this one lady who came up to us and kept asking us questions about our church and that was when I realized I could get her to be a referral! But then she left and I thought to myself oh well. . .then my teacher came over and told me that I better go get her address so that the missionaries can come by! So in the Spanish that I knew I found the lady again and got her address and phone number and got her to be a referral!!!!! YEA!! It was so awesome!!! Oh and that night we got to have ice cream and I love ice cream soooooo much! I am so a Dennis! Ha ha!!

Alright what else happened. . . well I did get my first headache on Friday which I am actually really surprised that that was my first one and it was only a small one! I have truly been blessed with good health and strength while I have been here! The only worry is getting fat ha ha but I have only gained two pounds! And I am working hard to get rid of those two pounds ha ha!! Friday we taught one of our investigators named Rafael who is the punk rock kid that I was telling you about, well we just dropped him today because the only times Elder Peel and I have been able to teach him he is completely high and doing drugs ha ha! It is sad that we couldn't help him! But!!! Do you remember our investigator Alejandro and how he was so frustrating and hard! Well yesterday was the last time everyone got to teach him and guess who got a baptism!!!!!?? Elder Peel and I did! And we were the only ones in our district! It was awesome! We just went in there and asked him how he has felt when he prays, and he said he had some good feelings but he wasn't sure and that's when Elder Peel and I for like half an hour just straight bore testimonies about the promptings and gift of the Holy Ghost! It was so intense and awesome!!! Holy cow! I feel like I am on cloud 9 and he isn't even a real investigator! Ha ha! So that was a huge thing that happened this past week! 

Sunday, our district decided to fast and we were fasting for one of the Gilbert's family members named Tanner Larson who is only 4 but has a fused cerebrum and has over 1000 seizures a day and this Thursday he is going through a surgery where they are going to try to cut the brain and separate the cerebrum and they said it will either help him or kill him. So if you could keep him in your prayers that would be great! And guess who came Sunday?!!!! My mission president! He was the guest speaker at the devotional Sunday night so I got to meet him and his wife and man I already love them!! It is going to be great serving with them! 

Okay a funny thing that happened last night was the prank Elders Cummings, Peel, Humphreys and I played on our new roommates! Elder Humphreys and I started to talk in my room about how we think Cummings was going to be going home and then Elder Cummings came in and got all mad at us for talking behind his back and we were all acting so good like it could've been in Hollywood! Ha ha! And then we started to push each other and then left. About two minutes later our roommates were freaking out!! Ha ha, but then we just started busting up laughing!! Ha ha it was awesome!! Ha ha!

Okay!!I I have 5 more minutes but I have HUGE news!!!! You know how I said my Spanish was getting really good?!! Well! President of the CCM called me aside one day and guess who is going to the Spanish district on Thursday!? This Elder!!! Yea! I guess it is really rare for them to move North American elders around and especially into Spanish districts! I am so excited! I get to be fully immersed in the language! I am a little sad because I will miss my companion and my district! But I am so excited at the same time! They said that all my teachers have told President that it is useless for me to be in the North American groups because my Spanish is already ahead of all of them! So I get to have a Latino companion!!! Wish me the best!

I have to go! I love you guys!!

Love Elder Cowan

Good, Bad, Great!

Dear Family!!

Well, Mom I don't know if you wrote me or not it looks like I didn't get a letter from you guys but that's okay! I still love you! Ha ha! I sent you guys some letters today but I don't know how long they will take to get to you guys! And to begin with the Gilberts here do know some Dennis's from Utah so that's really cool! I told you they reminded me of grandma and grandpa! And just an update, it actually is getting pretty cold now! Which is weird cause it should be getting warmer! And everyone is getting sick but Elder Peel and I are the only ones that haven't gotten sick yet! Hah! Lucky! And thank you for the thermals Mom! I have already used them and they are so nice I love them! But GUESS WHAT!?!! Wednesday is my half way mark through the CCM! AWW it's so weird and I am so happy! It is awesome here but I want to be out in the field so bad! I can't believe how awesome and fast it has been! Since I have been here I have been going OCD or something seriously! Ha ha! we have all these books and stuff and only have a small desk in our classrooms and everything has to be in its place! Ha ha my district makes fun of me but I have been rubbing off on my companion cause now he is doing it too! Ha ha I love my companion! He is such a stud and I love him! We are great companions! Also since I have been here for three weeks now I have been getting really tired and its annoying cause I don't want to! They really do work us hard here at the CCM but it'll all pay off!

Last week we got a new batch of missionaries and actually got one new elder in our district who went to the Provo MTC for 8 weeks then had to go home and now is going to be here with us for 4 weeks! So he will have been in the MTC for 12 weeks!!! But he is a great guy! And all the younger gringo missionaries are all confused and scared the first couple days and it was weird to see that because I know that is how I felt! Elder peel and I made it one of our goals to help the new missionaries out as much as possible and we have really helped them out. They thank us all the time! I am glad I can be an example for them! Soo onto my week now . . .which to start off it was good then bad and then awesome near the end of the week, I will explain . . .

It began great because we were the only district here at Alcantatar and we got to have pancakes and American food for breakfast! It was awesome! And it was our P day so that is always a good day! Then we had cake and popcorn Tuesday night because it was Elder Sousas birthday! And he is one of the Brazilian comps here in my district and one of the nicest and funniest guys I know! I love him so much! 

But then as the week kept going on I just kept getting really tired and by Friday I was exhausted! I tried everything to stay awake but just couldn't! So since I was tired I kinda began to slack a little and same with my companion. But to begin I will talk about our investigators! We got a new one last week named Rafael who doesn't believe in anyone or anything so that will be a little bit of a challenge and we will see how that one goes. And Carolina has a baptism date! She is a rockstar investigator and believes in everything we teach her except when we taught her the Word of Wisdom she was having a really hard time accepting that, but then we just told her that it was just another commandment of God and if she wants to follow his example she will have to stop drinking tea and coffee. After we told her that she realized it was true and excepted. However we won't see her for a week because she is going on a vacation with her Catholic family and I feel they might have a big influence on her to not get baptized! I'm praying so much for her to stand strong! And then there is Alejandro. ..  AWW he is so difficult! He doesn't believe in anything, he is hard headed, never pays attention and is just listening to us for his girlfriend. It's is so annoying! We have taught him so many lessons but he just doesn't accept anything! And he has turned down baptism and I honestly just don't know what to do with him!!! Afterwards our teacher gave us feedback on our lesson and pretty much chewed us out for not knowing his concerns but we have tried everything it seems like and he just won't open up! So I got really down on myself and was really frustrated! But on a funny moment in the lesson we were talking about the Atonement and sin in Spanish is Pecado and fish in Spanish is Pescado. And pretty much the entire lesson I kept saying Pescado. So I sounded really stupid saying stuff like, ¨We can receive a remission of our fishes if we use the Atonement¨ ha ha it was pretty funny! But other than that I was really hard on myself and just went to the bathroom and that's when I just lost it and started to cry because I was thinking of you guys and my family! It was a really hard night for me but on Saturday morning in my personal study I came upon D&C 100 which I don't have time to write out, but I would like you guys to read it! I know now that the Lord is watching over you guys and I am doing the best thing I possibly can!

Then it got to the awesome part! Sunday!!! I love them so much! They just load you with spiritual highness to live off of for the week is seems like. We watched some videos and had the mission stress doctor come and that was really relaxing to just forget everything. Then we watched a devotional by Elder Anderson and he testified so much about how we need to be a witness of the power of the Savior. And it just hit me like a wall! We were fasting that day and I was fasting for you guys and for myself to be able to teach better and know what to do with my investigators. And that is when I started to cry again but this time for good reasons because I just felt the Savior's love so much! I know He died for my sins and that I have this opportunity to represent and share that love with the people here in Chile! I am so blessed! It was like everything I needed to hear that day! The Lord really is watching over me! And then in fast and testimony meeting I bore my testimony in Spanish and I just felt so much peace when I was bearing my testimony because I know that when times get hard I still have my testimony and no one can ever take that away from me and I will not doubt the things I have experienced! I love being a missionary and am so grateful for this experience! I know Jesus Christs lives and is the Savior and Redeemer of the world! I cant wait to share His message with the people here in Chile! Sunday was just an awesome day! It was exactly what I needed! 

Well that is my letter for the week! I'm half way and going to keep serving with everything I got! I love the mission and I wish you guys the best! I love you guys so much and thank you for everything you have done Mom and Dad! Mom you have been the best mom in the world. And I don't have time to write you personally Dad so I will just write it in here! I just wanted to thank you guys for your examples! Mom you are so hardworking and loving and Dad you have been a role model to me my whole life! I love you guys so much and I know I haven't told you that enough! You guys are the greatest blessing in my life! I am so grateful for your examples and especially you, Dad, for your example of converting to the church and serving a mission! Thank you for setting me apart as a missionary! I am so proud to be an instrument in the Lord's hands! Thank you guys for leaving this legacy behind for our family! Dad you are the greatest dad in the whole world and I will never forget all the times you have made me laugh. Your diligence to serve others is wonderful. Mom you are the greatest mom in the whole world and I love you so much. Thank you for always being there for me and being willing to help me with anything! I love you guys so much! Have a great week!

Love Elder Cowan

p.s. I don't know if you guys didn't write because you didn't know when my pday is because it changes every week but as long as you guys write on Sundays you will be safe

p.s.s. Do you have Rachael's address or can you get that somehow? Text her maybe?

p.s.s.s Did Austin get his mission call yet?

It's Awesome!

Dear Momma!

Thank you so much for the letter and the insights you got from those talks! My pday is Tuesday as you can tell so you did have to wait another day. But I have a lot to talk about and I really wanna write to Dad to since I didn't write him anything last week. But I love all of your letters SOOO much! It's the best in the world and I have the best family ever!!!

So just for update my favorite scripture is Ether 12:27 which I have been relating to a lot here at the CCM. And just another update Mom, the water here in Chiile is 100 percent safe so I don't have to worry about that and it is so beautiful here! And at Alcantara where I stay there is a maid who does our laundry and it's awesome so I have it pretty good here haha! But also I just want to apologize for not writing everyone last week, they only give you an hour and it's probably the most stressful hour here in the CCM! But guess who is the top dog at the CCM now!!? Me! All the older districts left this morning to go to their missions so we are here for another four weeks and we get some new missionaries tomorrow morning! It's awesome now that we are on top! It's awesome! And out of the Americans here, I probably know the most Spanish! It's pretty sweet! I am so blessed to recall all my Spanish and for it to just stick with me, it's really easy! The hermanas in my district tease me everyday that they are jealous of my Spanish and how they want me as a companion cause my Spanish is so good haha. I already told Blake this but my teacher was teaching us past imperfect and preterite and he got them switched around and went on this twenty minute lesson about it teaching it wrong when I finally told him the correct way and he just starred at me in amazement that I already knew it all! Ha ha so thank you so much Blake for all the studying! 

All the days seems super long but the weeks seem to go by fast it is weird. So the days all seem to be blending all together. I will try my best to recall everything. We have three investigators, Ismael, Carolina, and Alejandro. And the first two are actually really easy and they are so prepared to hear the gospel. Every time Elder Peel and I teach Ismael and Carolina they just absorb it all up! And Elder Peel and I were the first companionship to get a baptismal date with Carolina! Ha ha! Number one! Ha ha just kidding! It was awesome! Alejandro is a whole other story. He is a kid who just is not interested in or during our lessons and is only listening to us because his girlfriend is Mormon. It is really hard to keep his attention. Every time we go to teach him he is just mad, but Elder Peel and I just keep our lessons short and we just testify a lot to him cause we have noticed that whenever we testify he pays attention. The rest of our district is having a really hard time teaching him but we have gotten to know him the most. Every time he opens the door my companion just goes in and gives him the biggest bear hug and it changes his attitude totally! I know Heavenly Father has really blessed me and my companion with teaching him. I hope our district can do better as well! I know this isn't the real thing but I can't wait to actually be teaching real people; it is going to be awesome!!!!!

Saturday Elder Peels and I had an adventure!!! So we have exercise every morning and this time we had a little bit for free time so we decided to go out and explore a little bit. . . bad mistake. We left and 8:15 in the morning and didn't get back till 9:30 because we got SOOO LOST! It was so scary! I was panicking sooo much! I have no idea where we were but we just kept running and running and then we missed our street so we went way North and then way East! And we had no idea where we were. I tried to ask people where our street was and they just kept looking at us and saying stuff like, "Your street is half an hour just by subway. You have a very long way to go!" Ha ha so that was not comforting at all! Just imagine Elder Peel and I in this huge city with only our name tags on and no money or phone running for a straight hour and a half! It was so scary! But we decided to pray for help and I know Heavenly Father answers prayers! It was pretty cool actually. There are stray dogs everywhere but right when we finished praying we got up off the sidewalk and this dog walked right up to us, looked at us, then starting walking in a direction. For some reason, both me and my companion had the impression to follow the dog and after following the dog for twenty minutes, we asked someone for directions and then we were only two blocks from our house! It was such a tender mercy! I am so grateful for the dog! I know there would have been no other way we could have gotten back! It is such a blessing and I know that Heavenly Father answers prayers and looks after his missionaries. So no worries mom, I'm completely fine, just really sore ha ha!

Sunday was an awesome day! We just watched a lot of movies about the Book of Mormon and how important it is! It is such a blessing to have the Book of Mormon and I have taken it for granted so much! It is the word of God and has the fulness of the gospel! I know it is true and we ALWAYS need to be studying out of it! I also realized after a devotional we had that I just need to forget myself and get to work just like the talk Gordan B Hinckley gave. And guess what happened in Priesthood??!!! I had to give a talk!!! Yea every Sunday the CCM president calls on like five guys to give a talk and you better be prepared. Luckily, I was and I gave a five minute talk about keeping commitments because they are crucial for our investigators to make covenants with God and I told them that we all made a commitment to be a missionary and we need to always remember who we are representing and how we need to help our investigators draw closer to God. I felt like I did really bad with my Spanish since I was so nervous but I actually had a lot of people come up to me and say that my Spanish was really really good for only being here for two weeks. I had some elders that just left on their missions today come up to me and say that they wish their Spanish was that good ha ha! And they have been here for six weeks! So that was a great confidence booster! 

Today since the Elders and Hermanas left for their missions, Sister Gilbert made us pancakes!!!!! It was awesome! For breakfast here we have fruit loops with yogurt. It's pretty good, but when she brought those pancakes out I just went to town with them! I think I had about 7 this morning! I miss American food so much! I have chicken, rice, and mashed potatoes every meal! Ha ha but don't worry I still haven't put any weight on! Yesterday was a way tender mercy cause I was missing your cooking so much Mom. And for lunch that day guess what they had? They had squeaky chicken and I know I didn't really like that that much back home but it was awesome! And then guess what they had for dinner?! Stroganoff or however you spell it! It was such a blessing! Heavenly Father really does look after his missionaries! 

Okay so that's my email! I'll try to send pictures but it is really slow here, but if you don't get any you will next week for sure!!!}} I love you guys so much! And I love this work so much!!!!!}

Love, 

Elder Cowan

Kevin's First Letter from the MTC or CCM

Dear Mom,

Thank you so much for the letter! I loved it! It just made my day! I've been waiting to hear from you guys all week! My p-day this week is today, Monday! But I think it might change to Tuesday, we are not sure, they hardly tell us anything ha ha! But man, one week! That's how long I've been gone! But seriously, this past week felt like two weeks. I feel like I've already been here for so long. They sure do work you from sun up to sun down, it's crazy but awesome ha ha! This week was pretty challenging getting used to the schedule and everything and with missing you guys. I will be honest, you were probably right, Mom, I probably have gotten the most home sick, but it's not terrible or anything so you don't have to worry! I love it here! I just realized how much you and Dad do for me! I got a little teary eyed in your letter because I know you have done so much for me! You are amazing! And I love you so much! All of you! A concept that has really been in my head this past week is eternal families. I know we have the blessing to be together for eternity and that is the best! I wouldn't want to be with anyone else than you guys! Oh, and Mom and Blake I can't remember if I told you in my first letter but thank you so much for your little letters that you hid everywhere! It seriously makes my day when I find one, I actually have one in my back pocket and one in my shirt pocket!

Well onto to my long week! I will try to fit everything in but I'm on a time limit! As I said before, I am not staying at the MTC or which they call it here the CCM in Spanish. I stay at Alcantara which is like a big mansion almost and super nice big house. The assistant to the MTC president lives there and is in charge there. His name is Elder Gilbert, who is from Washington. He is a pretty quiet guy but loves everybody and is really funny! He actually reminds me a lot of Grandpa. He was a farmer and he just has the presence of grandpa so it's always a good feeling when I see him. My flights went all well and same with customs. So I broke the curse! The only problem kinda was when I had to pay the 160 dollars to enter Chile and my debit card wouldn't work, so I just paid in the $200 you guys gave me so it all worked out. Is there something I have to do with the debit card? Anyway, I am in district two and I love my district. We get a long so well! My companion is Elder Peel from Utah and he is a great guy. He is a very easy going person and kinda a little quiet. He actually has an identical twin; it's awesome! But my district is Elders: Horne, White, Peel, Amorin and Souas (from Brazil they are hilarious), and Elder Cummings, who I have gotten super close to! He seriously is just like Doug Macdonald! Really! It's so awesome and he is the district leader and deserves it because he is just a stud in the gospel. He and I laugh all the time it's awesome! And GUESS WHAT? I felt my very first earthquake here in Chile! It's okay, Mom, I'm alive no need to worry. It was really tiny but one morning my bunk bed was shaking and it freaked me out! Ha ha The earthquake happened right when we were supposed to get up so everything was moving and alarms were going off and it was pretty awesome!

The schedule here goes like this. I wake up at 7 and go downstairs for personal and companion study and then we have breakfast and exercise, which they don't play frisbee at Alcantara but they do at the MTC :( ha ha it's alright then we hurry and get ready and go to the MTC at 10 and have classes with my AWESOME teachers Hermano Traverso, Hermana Cabrera, and Hermano Inostroza who I love so much! The hermanos are probably the funniest people I know. And then we have Spanish study, lunch, class, dinner and then go home basically. And I already know how to say a prayer, bear my testimony, say the missionary purpose, the First Vision, and greet someone in Spanish! Well, I already knew before how to greet someone before but I'm learning Spanish fast. It is awesome! I love it! Other than the Brazilian companions in our district, I know the most Spanish out of everyone else. It's pretty cool! My companion doesn't know any at all!!! But its alright it will get better, it's just hard to teach with him since he can't. We actually learn Spanish everyday and whatever we learn we go out to the temple grounds and teach people we can find in Spanish! It's so fun! I look forward to it everyday! And the people here are so nice and they say my Spanish actually sounds really good, and then they always make fun of my companion. ha ha! 

Here at the MTC they make all the missionaries carry a water bottle around so Mom you don't have to worry about me blacking out anymore! I drink so much everyday, we get a ten minute break every hour and I always go to the bathroom. Let's see what else, Sundays are probably my favorite days because we just watch videos, feel the spirit, and have refreshments ha ha! I love it! And I weighed myself today and I lost two pounds. I thought I gained 'cause I feel fat! ha ha Here at the MTC they have rice, mashed potatoes, chicken, and pasta everyday so nothing really healthy! It's good but I still miss your meals, Momma! 

We got to go to the temple on Saturday and it was the old video for the endowment but I was so tired from working so much that I kinda fell asleep at the beginning and when I woke up I realized it was the old video and so I started to look for you, Mom, and for Blake and then I started to panic 'cause I didn't know where you guys were and then it hit me that I'm in Chile. That was pretty hard for me and I got pretty homesick for the rest of the temple. So I guess that kinda was my awakening moment! Ha ha! Every night right when I say my prayers, I'm out of it! I'm exhausted everyday! But yet it is a great feeling, I wanna feel exhausted at the end of the day. This week prayer has been huge to me, I have never prayed so much before in my life. Prayer is awesome! Heavenly Father truly does love us and wants to talk with us. Whenever I started to feel homesick, I would pray for comfort and something would always happen right after that would make me happy. Like at the airport when I had my 5 hour lay over I started to have some fear but I prayed and immediately after I was done, 14 other missionaries arrived at the gate and we were all so excited. Or another time I was missing you guys I prayed for comfort and then reached in my pocket and read your note, Mom. I immediately started to cry and realized why I'm out here. We all have a work to do and I know I can do hard things! I am a representative of the Lord Jesus Christ, how awesome is that! I am so excited to serve and I Believe in Christ. The Lord trusts me to do his work and I feel so blessed that I can be the way that people can see Christ through me and go onto him, it's not about me at all. It's all about the Savior! I receive so much joy from this gospel and I love it! You guys are the best family ever! I pray for you guys everyday! Hope you guys are doing great and thank you for all the letters! Keep them coming! They make my day!

So se que El Libro de Mormon is the palabra de Dios y es verdadero y otro testamento de Jesucristo. Yo se que lasfamilias son eternos. Yo se que Dios dio a su hijo para salvernos y podemos volver a su prescencia. Yo se que Jose Smith restauro el Evangelio y fue in profeta! Me amo es Evangelio! Y amo ustedes! Chao!

Love, 

Elder Cowan