Another Great Week--Testifying of Book of Mormon and Jesus Christ

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the letter! That is awesome that Jenny and Kyle are there visiting! Hi Jenny and Kyle and little baby Abby! I wish I could see little Abby! Haha! She sounds great! That is great that you had time to visit with them! That's great you got to visit with Jenny because I know you have been pretty lonely with no boys and with Dad traveling so much!

Also just so I don't forget, Rachael wrote me and said that she has finally made her decision on which college to go to and she chose BYU haha woo hoo! Oh and I forgot to give Kylie a birthday shout out so if you're reading this Kylie, Happy Birthday! haha!

Alright onto my week, I can't believe I am already writing to you guys--it only feels like two or three days have passed by haha! Alright, so my week was another great week! Nothing huge and it felt like the same as the week before but I will still update you guys! Tuesday we have divisions or splits so I went with Elder Niquet, who is this Mexican missionary in our district and is very funny haha! He makes me laugh so much! But the splits were a tad difficult because he speaks sooo fast so it was really hard to communicate with him. We mostly communicate through jokes haha. It was also a tad difficult because he is not 100 percent focused on the work, which made me a little upset during the divisions. He didn't really have anything planned out for the day and we ended up just walking to the chapel and talking with members for a really long time, which made me a little frustrated because I knew we should be out working or at least talking with people in the street not just at the chapel. I finally did get him to leave the chapel and we went to one of his investigators where we watched "Finding Faith in Christ." It was a great lesson--not only for the investigator, but for me personally. Because the weather keeps changing every other day--one day it is hot, the other it is cold. And that day during divisions was a cold day and so while Niquet was just walking around not knowing what to do, I was really cold. But I remembered the movie and just kept saying little prayers expressing my faith and testimony about Jesus Christ. And I don't know if Heavenly Father is the ultimate giver of cakes or something but I had another little tender mercy of the Lord, and guess what . . it included cake once again haha. While I was cold and just trying to focus my efforts and thoughts on the Savior, the same investigator we had just taught came running up the street with fresh hot cake for us! Hallelujah!! Haha and then right after that a member drove by and gave me his jacket! Which was another tender mercy! Back to back! I know my Savior loves me and has gone through everything I have gone through and even more! I love my Savior!

Now onto Eric, our investigator. He is very very Evangelic and it has been really hard to teach him because he is so devoted to his church. And on Wednesday when we taught him he would just interrupt us every 20 seconds with something not about the lesson. The spirit was obviously not there! But we taught him again this last Saturday and we finished the lesson on the Restoration which was an okay lesson, but then he asked us how my companion and I both personally know that the Book of Mormon is true. And that's when it got awesome! We both bore our testimonies of the first time we read the Book of Mormon and received an answer through our prayers. I shared with him how I have been a member all my life but had never really had a testimony until about 14 when I finished the book completely and when I prayed I felt the spirit like a tiny fire in my chest start to burn. I told him that I remember kneeling alongside my bed upstairs and how I started to cry because I realized how much of my life I had taken for granted by not reading this book everyday. It was a very powerful experience and the spirit was very, very strong. I know he felt the spirit to, but I think now he is a tad confused because he feels torn between these two different beliefs in his life. Hopefully, he can receive an answer himself about the Book of Mormon and let go of his past beliefs.

Then on Thursday we contacted Ulyises who is a recent convert and only is 13 years old. He just got baptized a year ago and has already stopped going to church. We went and visited him and his family who are less actives as well and shared with them a lesson about Nephi's faith in building a ship. As we testified of the story, the mom started to cry and the spirit was really strong. We found out that they have gone through a lot these past couple months with losing her job, divorce and other things. You could see that Satan has been working with this new developed faith family when they got baptized and has been trying to destroy them a part. But we strengthened their testimonies and I hope they will come back to church. 

Thursday we also contacted one of our references Ema, who is 14 or 15 years old but she wasn't there but her mom was. We ended up talking with her mom for a really long time about religion. We found out that she was baptized but now doesn't believe in the Church. We asked her why and she believes God never answered her prayer about if the Book of Mormon is true or not and she believes that God is racist for cursing the Lamanites with a curse of black skin. She kinda was getting in our faces and was a tad upset at us. But when she started going off about how she didn't receive an answer the way she wanted to and that the Book of Mormon was racist that's when I turned back on her and got a little bit in her face. I told her basically that she is straight wrong to her face. I testified how God always answers our prayers, but not always the way we want it and that she has to read the entire Book of Mormon before she can go start judging it and judging the rest of the Church from only the couple chapters that she has read. I said this pretty straight forward and really upfront with her and after you could see how she just got proved wrong haha. Now, don't go thinking I was rude or anything--I just bore my testimony very strongly. haha  I think now she realizes that she hasn't been doing all that she can be doing to receive an answer to her prayers. 

Now about Rodrigo. He is a cop here in Chile and his wife is a member who we got to start coming back to church but every time we come over the first thing he says is, "Oh I'm Catholic, I'm not interested." So the past couple times it has been really hard to adapt our lessons to spark an interest in him because he just always shoves it aside. That's when my companion said that the next lesson was all up to me, haha! But I am actually glad he let me do that because the next lesson went awesome! My lesson was about the Book of Mormon and how it testifies of Jesus Christ. I began asking Rodrigo about his Catholic beliefs and he just talked a lot about Jesus Christ which was exactly what I wanted haha! I shared 2 Nephi 33 verses 10 and 11 which pretty much says to believe in these words and if you don't believe in these words then to believe in Christ and if you believe in Christ then you should believe in these words because they are the words of Christ. And after I read that, it was like Rodrigo just got hit with a brick in the face! Haha a spiritual brick! After that we helped him realize that his beliefs in Jesus Christ can be the same through the Book of Mormon. We shared our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. After the lesson you could tell there was something different in him. I think we really sparked an interest in his heart about the Church! Woo hoo! 

Now onto Friday which was probably the funnest day I have had in the mission because it was a ward activity where it was a talent show! But whoever put it together planned it really poorly haha. But there were a lot of people there and we even had Rodrigo come haha yeah! But there was no planned talents to perform or anything so a lot of the time it was just the ward sitting in the cultural hall visiting. But then they got some talents put together from different people and they were really funny. And then they had the missionaries go up and do something. Well, we completely improvised because we didn't know we were going to do something so we drew mustaches on ourselves and then lip synced to this song which I don't know the name of it, but basically it just says Hallelujah over and over again haha. But the ward loved it! Everyone was laughing and having a great time and they were all cheering. It was definitely the best act of the show! And it really helped strengthen the members relationship with us! Haha They especially liked me because I'm the super white greenie with the mustache, haha, so I had a ton of members come up to me and start talking to me. It was great! 

But with all the people there, came the snakes. . .  oh no. . .You know the reference I said we tried to contact named Ema? Well, we got her to come to the activity too, which was a good and bad thing haha. She brought about 4 others of her girl friends who all just wanted to talk to me. It was annoying!! Haha and to make things worse, Elder Contreras left me for like 2 minutes and I didn't know he left, but right when he did immediately afterwards there was a circle of all the girls around. They had trapped me in! And I couldn't get out and they were all giggling and I had know idea what they were saying to me and I don't think I want to know! Haha! Eventually after realizing I couldn't leave the circle, I just pushed one of the girls out of the way and ran to my companion hahaha! Aww it was annoying! 

The last thing I want to write to you about is about Jazmine and Jorge. We met them on the street and went over to their house Saturday. Jorge is less active and has had some problems with some members in the ward. But Jazmine is not a member and we read together in Alma 36 about the Atonement, mostly for Jorge. It was very powerful, as we were talking about the Atonement he lost it and started to bawl. We ended the lesson with giving them pamphlets about the Restoration and Jazmine just ate it all up haha! She is really interested and has a lot of questions! I am excited to keep teaching her! And we invited them to come to church but they didn't come till the end which was okay, we just gave them a tour of the chapel for Jazmine and she really liked it!

Well, I have to go! It was a great week! And hopefully we can find some more people this week! Thank you for the prayers! And I hope Blake that you are having fun with those girls haha since I didn't get to hear from you! I love you all so much! Have a great week! Love you!!

Love,

Elder Cowan

Diviones, Challenges & Tender Mercies

Dear Mom and Rest of the Family,

Thank you for you letter, Mom! I loved it! And that is awesome that you and Dad both had the oportunidad to listen to him and learn from him! You guys are so blessed! Just how I will be blessed on November 13th! You know why?! Because an apostle is coming to talk to all the Santiago missions and can you guess who its going to be!!. . . .  .drum roll. . .Elder Holland! Heck ya!! I am so stoked! I can't wait!

Alright and I just want to thank you guys for your letters. You might think that I might get homesick from hearing from you guys, but your letters boast my confidence every Monday and I get re-excited to start working after p-day is over! So thank you so much! 

Alright now onto my week, which flew by, holy cow! I now have to have a piece of paper throughout the week and I divided it into seven sections for each day of the week and I write two or three phrases for each day so I wont forget to write it in the letter because all the days are blending together! But don't worry, Mom, I am still writing in my journal, as well, every night! I have only missed two nights since I have begun!!

But I will start on Tuesday! We had splits or diviones, as they call it, so I went with Elder Sharapata in our district while my companion Elder Contreras went with his companion for a day. It was a great opportunity to learn how other missionaries work. It was a little weird because you are with them for a full 24 hours not just for like the night or something, so I had to sleep over at Elder Sharapata's place and eat there. It was a little weird but it was great learning experience. Elder Sharapata has bikes too, which Elder Contreras and I just got informed by president that he is going to let us have bikes as well! I think bikes make me more sore but we will get to cut off a ton of time from walking to and from places, which means more people we get to visit and more lessons!! Yes! 

Wednesday was a pretty tough day, Elder Contreras and I walked SOOO much! My knees hurt, I have blisters on my feet and three of my toenails have fallen off! haha! But when we were walking we had no idea where we were and I just felt like we were wasting so much of our time. That's when I decided to say a little prayer for strength and protection, and immediately after I ended my prayer and member drove up and told us to get in and that he would take us to our appointment! It was such a tender mercy of the Lord!! The Lord really does watch over his missionaries! 

Oh, and I made my first meal, Mom! It was spaghetti! Haha it was pretty easy actually! haha but I have really come to love you so much and to realize how much you have done for me my whole life! And I washed my clothes for the first time. We had to wash our clothes in the sink and it was pretty tiring, but then the next day the relief society president offered to do all our laundry! Haha heck yes! It was such a blessing! So Kiersten fore warning! You may have to wash the missionaries clothes haha! 

Thursday was another fun day. My companion had to go to the mission office for meetings so I went with Elder Sharapata and Elder Niquet again and we had a fun time together! We were walking back from an appointment when we decided to choose a color and we had to count how many times a car passed by with our color. Well, I lost so I had to buy them ice cream, but it was great! And a great bonding experience! And right when my companion got back, not knowing I just had ice cream, he went and brought me ice cream haha! So it all worked out! The weather during this past week has been really hot! So the ice cream was sooo good! And I had my first completo!! Pretty much just a jumbo hot dog with so much stuff loaded on it! I love them!!! They are so flippin good!! haha! That night we had coordinating council with the ward mission leader who is a stud! I love him! He is a return missionary so he can easily relate to us and knows how to work hard! It is awesome! Same with the rest of the ward! 

Friday was really fun because I had to go to a meeting at the mission office for a meeting for the new missionaries! So I got to see all my good friends from the CCM again! It was awesome! We had a great talk by president about being obediente and how crucial the doctrine of Christ is! It was great! Then after the meeting we came back to Penaflor and then we found Javier who works in the street and it was our 2nd time talking with him.He has had a lot of problems and has tried to commit suicide twice. We gave him a tour of the chapel and the spirit was really strong, especially when we walked in the sacrament room! It was great! Then right after that, every Friday night we have English classes. And I had to teach it this time!! Haha They told me five minutes before the class started that I was going to be teaching! It was a little scary! But I just made a game where I wrote the words, country, name, fruit, movies, books, and then I would choose two people and I would yell out a letter in English and they had 30 seconds to write as much stuff for each section in English as they could. It wasn't really a lesson but everyone was participating and yelling and having a great time! The rest of the elders noticed this too and they all complimented me on being a great teacher! So that means I will probably have to keep teaching! 

Friday morning we had to cut our studies short to give a service for a family in the ward. They need a new front door so Elder Contreras and I had to construct a door for them! It was really fun! Then that's when it went a little downhill. . .Saturday, since it was the day after the meeting with President, we wanted to plan so exactly and well that Saturday would be packed with lessons! We had plan A, B, and C! We had so many back up plans that we thought for sure we would have a great day! But all of them fell through! And we walked to every single appointment but none of them were working out. We decided to go knocking on doors and all the doors were slammed and turned us down. But I wasn't really in a mad mood and I didn't let it affect me. If anything I just felt sorry that they didn't want to listen to this great message. But we finally had two lessons that worked out! One with Natalia who is a missionary who served in Argentina but now is less active. We taught about the Atonement and how we can all apply it in our lives! Elder Contreras had me teach the whole lesson, he barely opened his mouth! But it was really good!!! Then we taught Patricia and Alex who Alex is Catholic but we read the first two chapters in Nephi and taught about the role of Fathers and how Lehi lead his family in the gospel which lead to so many blessings!

Okay, now onto Sunday! Felipe! the 15 year who is our investigator came to church! And another one of our investigators, Jacquline, came too who is less active! It was great to have her start coming back to church! Then we taught Felipe after and we taught the restoration again and then when the spirit was really strong I invited him to be baptized! My first baptism invitation and before I could even finish my sentence he interrupted me and said "Yes!" Haha! Yea!!! I'm so excited! But a couple days ago we saw Felipe and we were talking about coming to church and he said he likes our message and knows it is true but he is not sure since his family isn't interested. And that's when I shared your example, Dad, about how you got baptized and were an example to your family which later lead to having your whole family baptized! He really liked your example! Thanks Dad!!! 

Okay, my last thing! Sunday I was craving cake for some reason all day. haha I don't know why! And then after church we were walking a lot and trying to find our references which took a lot of time, and since it was Sunday we were in our suits, and then out of no where it just started to rain! which is so weird because it has been so hot but it was just a random rain storm! It was pretty annoying and I was cold and wet! But then the Lord gave us another tender mercy and we finally found a house of a family and we taught them about the importance of the Book of Mormon because they are less active and then in the middle of the lesson, one of the daughters brought out cupcakes!!!!! Close enough to cake for me!! Haha I was so excited and I know it was the Lord telling me that when the times get tough, if we just endure it, we will be blessed!! I am so grateful to be a missionary! I love all of you guys so much! I love this gospel! I know Jesus Christ is my Redeemer and Savior and I love Him so much! I wish you all the best of luck with everything this week! Got to go! Chow! 

Love,

Elder Cowan

P.S. That is really sad about the tortoise. 

P.S.S. Also mom in the general conference may 2013 I would like you to read Elaine S. Dalton's talk and especially about when she talks about here 92 year old mother and everything she has done. I read it and I thought of you so much! Also in Boyd K. Packers talk in the same ensign where he said the there is nothing more powerful than the prayers of a mom, and I know that is so true! Thank you for your prayers! I love you all!!

First Week in Field! Woo Hoo!

Dear Family,

Okay, I am a tad bit overwhelmed right now since I didn't have p-day last week and I had like 20 emails to catch up on! But I did read all of them and thank you all for the letters! They were all fantastic! I love you guys so much and thank you, Trevor and Blake, for your letters every week--no matter what they are or how short they are--I love hearing from you guys! Oh, yea, and you too Kiersten. . . haha just kidding! I love hearing from all of you! And I don't have time to write all of you separately so this will just be a big letter for the whole family talking about each of your guys' letters! And I am trying to write as fast as I can so hopefully this letter will make sense and hopefully my spelling isn't too bad! Mom, you can help me out there haha! 

Alright! So, yea, general conference was the best thing in the world! I loveeeed every single minute! I did have the chance to watch all sessions even though the priesthood session didn't end till 11 o'clock here, but it was great! And I got so much out of it! My plan was to write about my favorite talks but it sounds like you guys all enjoyed it and we all heard the same stuff so I am not going to write about it specifically for time's sake! I loved how they focused about conversion, keeping the faith through troubling times (which was perfect for me to hear since I was struggling with my companion) and how important it is to work with the members and how crucial their role is! I just loved it! I can't say that enough! This is the first time that I have gotten so much out of conference! Being a missionary really changes your view on conference and about everything! It truly is amazing that we have a living profeta de Dios today and that we can have the oportunidad to hear from him! Oh, and real quick! Do you guys get the Liahona? Well, you should for November because I might be in it! After conference we were walking around the temple grounds when a man came up and offered to take our picture for the Liahona! Haha sick huh! And we had to sign all these contracts and everything! So hopefully I am! That would be so cool! It was weird too after priesthood session to not go out and eat with the boys and Dad and eat at Chile's. But then I thought, Hey, I'm actually in Chile! haha It was funny! Or at least for me! Haha! Thank you all for your insights on general conference!

So, yea, the reason I didn't have p-day last week was because I was traveling to the mission office! woo hoo! And Dad just for your information, it took about 50 minutes by bus from the temple to the mission office. There we just had a bunch of orientation from the assistants while President pulled us out one by one to have an interview and, yes everyone, I did follow Trevor's and Blake's example, of course, and told my President that I wanted to be the best missionary in the mission but in order to be that I would need the best trainer he has for me! And I think he really did give me the best trainer in the mission!! My trainer is Elder Contreras from Punta Arenas the southern part of Chile like down by Antarctica! Haha crazy! But he is amazing! We have only been together for a week and I already love him so much. His English is pretty good too so that helps a lot! We get a long just fine! And for Dad's information, President is awesome! He is really funny but also has such a strong testimony in the gospel. If you remember the movie Deck the Halls of Inspector Gadget. . .he looks like that actor haha it's funny! But who is also awesome too is his wife! I already feel like she has been my distant aunt or something my whole life! She is soooo kind and sweet! I love both of them! 

Now onto my first week in the field! So yea as you guys know I am in Penaflor which is a really nice area or at least I think so--I'm not sure what the rest of the mission looks like. This place reminds me so much of Argentina and more specifically the neighborhood in one of Blake's areas where he got the phone from and with the two twin little girls. So hopefully that helps with an image of what I am living in. I think it might be a little nicer though! And our area is huge!!! We walk so much and I already have blisters and I am so grateful for that moleskin, Mom! But it really isn't that bad! My companion is the district leader in the area too and is very calm about things and has a super strong testimony in the gospel. It's crazy and awesome! I love it! He is going to ask president if we can have bikes because our area is so huge! Oh, yea, by the way I give mad props to you Blake! I seriously don't know how you survived your mission walking everyday with your ankle all messed up! You're such a stud! Haha Wednesday was my first official full day in the area! It is awesome! The schedule goes like this, we wake up at 7:30 and then exercise for half an hour then personal study at 9 and then companion study at 10 for two hours and then an hour of language study at 12. So basically the first half of my days are all studying, which I did not know missionaries studied that long! And since I am new I am doing the 12 week program where we come back to the pench in the afternoon and study the language again for an hour. It is a lot of studying, but I love it! I love learning more Spanish and even more about the gospel!! Elder Contreras is new to the area too so we are both trying to get used to everything since the area is huge! 

We got a lot of referrals from the hermanas in our district which is awesome and we have a couple investigators right now but I will talk about them later! I want to talk about the people here! They are sooo nice! Yesterday was my first day in the ward and I got up and introduced myself in the ward and they are all so very loving. It is sad that the missionaries in the United States are not this central in the wards and stakes! Here everyone knows the missionaries and talks with them! It helps so much! We have gained a lot of referrals from the members already in the ward! And every day we have a sister in the ward that makes us lunch, so you don't have to worry, Mom, I am getting fed every single day! It is awesome! And the food is great! We just have a lot of chicken, meat with potatoes and rice! And bread!! A ton of bread! Haha it is sooo good! Haha but I am watching myself because I do not want to get fat! That's like my number one fear! Oh, random thought . . .Dad could you tell Brandon that I am sorry for not writing him to give some insights for his talk. Just let him know that I already knew he was going to give a great talk anyway and wish him the best for me! 

The weather here is not much different from home. It feels like another August day in Arizona. So it is very normal for me for it to be bright, hot, and sunny all day but my companion hates it since he lives down by Antarctica! haha! It's funny!  Oh, and for an update about the language! I haven't really had any problems with the language! I know I am not making sense and I don't know a lot and still have a lot of room for improvement, but I can understand usually the main ideas of what everyone is saying or when they are talking to me and I can talk really well. All the rest of the missionaries are super surprised that I know so much and some said they were jealous and wish that they could have known this much Spanish when they entered the field. And I'm sure my companion loves it too. There are a few times when I don't understand him, but then he just says it in English. So, yea, I am not that worried about the language. I am doing great in the lessons and I even teach most of the lessons sometimes or I start and lead the conversations when we are out talking with people. My companion has already taught me a lot and we try to talk to every single person that we see! It is awesome! He is a great example to me and I carry this little notebook around and whenever there is a word I don't now I write it down. Also the people here are very accepting! It's awesome! We have figured out that the best way to have people start trusting us is by talking about our families and showing them a picture. So I show every single person we talk to everyday, which is a lot, your guys' picture! Haha! They all think that we are all twins because we look so much alike haha! 

Thursday we had district meeting which Eler Contreras lead and that was my first time getting to know all the elders in our district. There are three companionships of elders and two companionships of sisters in our district. They are all great! Oh, another random thought, guess what Mom?!! Every single meal that we have been fed they feed us ice cream! Haha It is sooo good! I am such a Dennis! Haha Also we had to go shopping for food and it was so stressful, another example that I'm Amy Cowan's son haha! But I got only what I really needed. It was a little difficult because here they have a medium size breakfast and then a huge lunch and then we don't get back into the pench till 10:30 so we eat a tiny little thing before we go to bed. But I have already adjusted! Oh, by the way, Mom, my ears are fine and my knees haven't had any problems.

Okay, now onto our investigators! We have one with a baptism date! But we haven't even met her yet! Haha! It's because the hermanas have been teaching her and our area is new because they changed some of the boundaries around and she fell in our area! But our next investigator is Felip! He is 15 years old and at first kinda looks like an emo punk rock kid. He has really long hair and always wears black, but he is actually really kind and shy. I love him! He is great! He and I get a long great! We still have to teach him a bit more and the family isn't really supportive with him listening to the missionaries but we are praying that will change. Our other investigator is Margarita another reference from the hermans. We met with her the first time and she is very nice! She had a son that went on a mission and she has a hard time believing in a living modern day profeta, but we are helping her with that. And Rodrigo who is the husband of a less active women. He is very Catholic but we focused this past week in our lessons about how everything relates to Jesus Christ. We are having him highlight every time Christ is mentioned in the Bible! That should spark some interest, hopefully! Okay, I have to go! I will try to send some pictures! I am loving the field! I got sunburned today and my feet hurt and I come home exhausted every single night, but I know that I am doing the Lord's work and it's awesome!!

Thanks for updating me about Blaze and, hopefully, he will be okay and that's crazy that you just left and went to Utah, Mom! Haha! And Dad I am glad your meetings went well and thank you for your advice. Trevor and Kiersten have fun with tests! And that's awesome about the internship! Blake. . . I love hearing about this girl! Haha! I want to met her so bad!! Haha but from what everyone has said and how happy you are in your letters she seems pretty dang awesome! Can you let her know that I say hi and that I approve haha! I wish you all the best this week! Mom and Dad, good luck with the general authority coming! I'm sure it will be a great experience! I love you all soooo much!!!!! Have a great week! Thank you for all the prayers!

Love, 

Elder Cowan

First Day at the Mission Home

Dear Familia!

Elder Cowan with Pres. & Sister Barreiros

Well, I have finally made it to the mission field! And it's already been awesome. We haven't done a lot of stuff. We've just been at the mission home and been doing a lot of training. We had lunch and it was so good! It was lasagna, yea, I know, I didn't really like it before but it was great! And guess what, Mom?! We had ice cream afterwards! ha ha! I don't know who my trainer is yet, but I'm so excited. We are each taking turns meeting with President (who I already love, they're awesome) and I'm just gonna go in and tell him to give me his best trainer because I want to be the best missionary I can possibly be!

Elders Cowan & Contreras with Pres. & Sister Barreiros

I still can't believe that I'm a missionary right now! I still remember being young in deacon's quorum messing around with Austin Mills. I also remember Trevor leaving on his mission and thinking how cool it would be to be a missionary, but that it wouldn't be till forever! And now the time is now and it is awesome being a missionary! I've never been so happy in my life! I can't wait to spread the gospel and hasten the Lord's work! This gospel is true. I know that without a doubt! I know we have the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ and that Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. I love my Savior so much and that is why I'm serving this mission--it's because I love the Savior. There's no better way to pay him back for all of the things He has done for me and the millions of blessings I have received from Him than by dedicating all of my heart, might, mind, and strength to the Lord!

I want to thank you guys for all of your examples and strong testimonies. You have done a good job, Mom and Dad! ha ha! You have done so much for me and even though I won't see you guys for two years, I know we will be strengthened and blessed by the Lord! My testimony has been strengthened so much for the short time that I have already been here. I can't wait to keep drawing closer to the Lord these next two years and to help people feel of His love and have the gospel in their lives because I don't know what I would do without this gospel! Thank you for everything again! It's been such a blessing to be raised into this gospel! I'm leaving my family for two years so I can help other families be together for eternity! I love you guys SOOO much! Thank you for everything! And I will serve Him well!

Love,
Elder Cowan

Humbling Myself Unto the Lord

Dear Mom,

Alright well I have a ton to write and hopefully I can write it all! Sorry for the pictures last week I can't see what the pictures are because they are all just a list of numbers when I plug my camera in so I just picked some random ones! ha ha but I will try to send better ones! I take pictures of my emails I can't finish because writing is the most stressful hour in the CCM ha ha! But yes my old teacher served in Buenos Aires North and she knew the Gulbransens and she flipped out and took a picture! Ha ha I was hoping you would be able to see it too! And that is great that you are doing that service! And don't be so hard on yourself about your scripture study! You are my number one example of scripture studying. I would see you studying every single night! You are amazing!

Okay, now onto my week. I will be straight honest, this past week was the hardest time in my mission yet. . . I truly had to humble myself before the Lord. So as you know I was changed to a Spanish district and I thought it would just be all fun and games and all but the first couple days were the worst. It was because they moved me out of Alcantara and are making me stay at the CCM which I was not aware of and not planning on. I love staying at Alcantara. It is the best! And it really sucked that I had to leave and leave my old district and the Gilberts. Now I kinda feel like I'm locked here since I am here all day. Alcantara gave me hope everyday because everyone that lives there becomes family and the breakfasts are better and it is all around better. Unlike the CCM. . .And it was a pain to re-pack everything when I know I will have to re-pack once again in a week. But, hey, that's mission life! But the two hardest things were leaving my old district and my new companion. My old district was the best and I love them sooo much! It was really really hard to leave them. My last day with them was very challenging and there was a lot of tears shed. And it has been very challenging in the Spanish District. Please pray for me. It has gotten a lot better than it was the first couple days, but I am still struggling a bit. I have pretty much gone from enjoying my CCM experience to now just enduring the CCM. 

My new companion is Elder Medel from Mexico. He is very hard to read and I still don't really get him. We have gotten closer now but about the first three days we were together he wouldn't talk or do anything with me. He is a very serious, monotone, and quiet guy. He always seems angry and just really hard for me to have him open up. So leaving what I love behind to change and go to him was why it was so much harder on me. The first couple days we hardly talked and I really was wondering if he even wanted to be here. With his bad attitude it made me have a bad attitude, so I pretty much told him our third day together that I didn't really wanna be in this district but with my old district, which I'm sure he already could pick up on. It has been getting better, but it is still very challenging to work with him.

And I know being in this Spanish district will help my Spanish but it's just as you said, Mom, it has been really hard for me to go from the top to now the very bottom. There are so many times where I am lost in class or lose focus and zone out for a while because everyone is talking so fast. And all the rest of the Latinos don't really seems to want to help me and just care for themselves. So that has made it harder too. After the first couple days in this new district, I was on the edge of tears all day long. I felt so worthless and pointless to be in the district. It has been really hard for me. But one thing I learned this week is that the Lord just wants me to be humbled. I remember what Dad told me right before he set me apart about how there are going to be times when it will seem really hard and like you can't go any longer--and this was definitely one of those time--but I remember Dad saying that it is just the Lord pushing me for more growth in the future. I kept that advice in mind and really just focused on myself and didn't worry about anything else. I have really learned how to endure these past couple days. I was having such a hard time that I even went and talked with the president of the CCM and right when I walked in I just lost it completely. I started bawling my eyes out and couldn't help myself. He comforted me and told me that out of everyone here I could do this. And that really helped. I think all I really needed was someone to talk too since my companion doesn't talk with me. 

Saturday I saw a letter in the mail room from you guys, but unfortunately they sent it to the mission home so I have to wait another week. That made me a little upset because I haven't gotten anything. But Saturday was Medels and I's first teaching together and it went really bad. He just talked the entire time. I think he thinks of me as some dumb American that doesn't know any Spanish. And it has really been hard because since it is the first week for the Latinos I have had to do all the same stuff that I did my first week so I felt like I have been back at ground zero. That is when I started to begin my fast after lunch on Saturday. And before in my life, I have never had a huge testimony of fasting but fasting is incredible!!! I love it! I started fasting for the Lord to give me strength to get me through this challenging time and for help with the language. After lunch, I went back into our classroom and immediately my companion just started talking up a storm with me and we started laughing and it was awesome! And after that we had our next lesson to teach and we both taught the lesson and we teach really well together. He is rock solid in the gospel. And what really broke the ice was when we started talking about our girlfriends and he was trying to say Rachael's name, but he cant really pronunciate her last name well, "Holt." So in the middle of companionship study he turns to me and says, "Hey Rachael's Hott!" Hahaha I freaked out I was thinking what? You don't even know her man! Back off! Ha ha but then I figured out that he was just trying to say Holt but he cant! Ha ha! It was really funny! And we had a stress relief class and it really helped break the ice too because I think Elder Medel realized that I have been in a lot of stress lately with all the change and everything so he wrote me a very nice letter apologizing for his attitude the first couple of days. So those two things really broke the ice for our relationship. 

Sunday was another awesome day! We took our group photo to hang on the wall in the CCM and I can't believe the time is finally here! Sunday was all in Spanish also, but since my last district has been here for 5 weeks they got moved up to Spanish Sundays as well, so it was really nice to just be with them once again for a day. I had a very powerful experience too. We watched The Testament in Spanish and then after that they had us write our testimonies down just on the Savior. And I started to cry again because of the love of the Savior and for everything he has done for me! I know my Savior lives and is always looking out for me! I know he died for our sins and we can use His Atonement to be made clean. I know the Savior knows me personally and knows my limits and I know now that He knows my potential and He put me in this district for a reason. I am so grateful for our Savior and that is why I am here on a mission. . because I love the Savior. It is as simple as that. I want everyone to feel the love of the Savior the same way I have. We are all so blessed with this gospel in our lives! I also bore my testimony in Sacrament meeting about my love for the Savior and I lost it there too and started to cry ha ha. It has really been an emotional roller coaster ride this past week!! Ha ha! But in a good way! It was hard at first being in this new district but after Medel started opening up to me and now we are teaching well and I know that the Savior is looking after me I know everything will be okay! 

Family Night my old district and I sang a musical number that was Blake's idea of singing Joseph's Smiths First Prayer to the tune of Come Thou Font and it was great! They also made me a thank you card with a little countdown in Starburst haha! It was really nice and sweet to read all their feelings they have for me. It was very comforting! So I am not saying everything is just dandy again. It is still a little hard being in this new district and with getting to know my companion but I have just learned to kill him with kindness and make him smile as much as possible. I really like the phrase, "Try your best and the Lord will provide the Rest." I have really put that into practice this past week. D&C 121 verses 7 through 9 have been a great comfort for me too. And I have learned to look at the positive side of everything. Like here at the CCM the exercise is a lot better! Ha ha! So please keep praying for me but I just wanted to let your know that I am fine and you don't have to worry about me! The Latinos are warming up to me and it's getting better! I only have one more week anyway! It was pretty funny, what got the Latinos to warm up to me is when I scored my first goal against them in soccer ha ha! I am getting pretty good at soccer now ha ha.

Okay, I have to go but I also wanted to share another cool experience I had my last night in Alcantara. Elder Gilbert has been having some health problems and has been having a really hard time breathing and my last night, in front of everyone at Alcantara, he asked me to give him a priesthood blessing. It was a very spiritual experience for me. That is the first time I have actually done the saying of the blessing and it is awesome how I could just rely on the Spirit to fill my mouth of what to say. But the bad news is that his health has gotten worse and today at 6 pm he is going into immediate open heart surgery. I am really praying for him and I would like all of you to pray for him too. He really has become a father to me while I have been here! 

But I love you guys! And I have to go! Can't wait to write you guys next week when I am in the mission field!!! Woo hoo! Love you guys and you are all the Best!

Love 

Elder Cowan