Zone Activity

Dear Mom, 

You are such a great example to me! You are incredible! Keep doing that family history work! It truly was a testimony builder to hear about your experiences! You are amazing! Keep up with the great work! And don't be so hard on yourself for not doing missionary stuff in every situation! It all comes in time and practice! Thanks for the update about Emmy too! Holy cow! She really did get engaged! That's awesome! And thank you for the other updates about the Olsons and sharing the bread. You truly do have a missionary mindset and that is awesome mom! Your experiences reminded me of when I worked in the temple this past summer and when I received my testimony about doing family history work! There truly is a great work for those people who have passed away and they are just waiting! 

But I really have to get onto to my letter! We are running a little behind today because we had a zone activity where we went out to Santa Monica where it is basically farm land everywhere, but there are some cool mines that you could walk it and it was awesome! And then we had a good tradition South American barbecue! Haha! It was so good! But out of all the zone there were only 3 companionships that decided to go! I have pictures and I will try to send them to you after this letter!

Alright last Monday, we had family home evening with the Nuñez family who is a family with no father, Hermana nuñez and her four sons, who one is serving a mission. But the two youngest sons are really nice and probably the two people I feel closest too and the most comfortable talking in Spanish. But the oldest son, Mauricio is less active and that is the reason we were there to strengthen his relationship with the Church. It was a great lesson and we visited that family 2 more times during this past week. And all the visits were going really well and we got Mauricio to come back to church! We were so happy! But on Sunday he didn't show up..  we talked with his mom and Satan truly is working on him and I feel so sad. Saturday night Mauricio went to a party and got drunk and passed out till 7 in the morning. It was truly sad to hear.

Tuesday after district meetings Elder Stallings, one of our zone leaders, went with me and Elder Contreras on divisions. It was great to learn from him. Tuesday we also looked on our map of our area from the past elders who were in our area and found that there was a name tag called Ana on a street that we were going to be close to that day. We decided to go find out who this Ana person was and she is awesome! She was taught by the missionaries a long time ago but when changes happened the next set of missionaries didn't keep up visiting with her. She has received all the lessons and is super prepared. She has just been waiting for the missionaries to come back to get baptized! So she was super happy to see us! haha! She is so prepared and we hardly even gave her a lesson, she taught us! Haha and we invited her to baptism and she accepted! Haha! I love the people that the Lord really prepares for us! It is a tad difficult for her to fulfill our commitments because she has a really hard time reading, keep in mind that she is probably around 60 70 years old, so she is losing her eye sight, but we are planning to get the book of Mormon on tape for her.

Tuesday night we visited Alex and Patricia who are a less active family and we have been visiting them a lot to get them reactivated but on Tuesday night they weren't there, but their two sons were. And as we talked with them we found out that they have strong beliefs that there is no god. And it is a tad difficult because Alex isn't the real father to these two boys so the relationship in the family is rough. We tried our best to testify about our loving Heavenly Father and used scriptures to prove there was a God. But they kept rejecting everything. It was really difficult, then I felt like I should just ask them an anatomy question. So I asked them a question-- if they knew what the left atrium does in the heart. Of course, they didn't know and after my question I gave them a little lesson about what the heart does and how it is only muscle but it controls the whole body. After teaching them this, I asked them how it was possible to be able to make a muscle to pump every few seconds and to run an entire body. I then testifed that God created us and how our bodies are magnificent and incredible! After this I realized I had been talking for a long time and I stopped and looked at them and they didn't reject it haha. They were actually dumb founded because they knew that I just proved to them that there was a God. It was a great experience! I'm glad I took anatomy class! Ha ha!

Wednesday was awesome and bad. . .Awesome because we had interviews with President! Woo hoo! It was really short because he is always busy but it was great to just catch up with him. He shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with me and talked about the importance of where are hearts are set. Because in chapter 2 it talks about Laman and Lemuel hearts where pondering on the things they had left in Jerusalem. It goes perfect with your insight you gave to me in your letter, Dad! But then after the interviews we wanted to eat since we skipped lunch for the interviews, but Elder Contreras wanted to eat with Elder Niquet and Sharapata in Maipu where the mission office is. I just wanted to go to a little stand, get some food, and take the bus back and get to work. But Elder Contreras wanted to wait for the other elders so we did. . .and we waited for an hour! When they finished we walked around Maipu and after walking for really long time, we ended up eating in a restaurant which I don't think we should have done. Since it was a restaurant it took even longer and another hour and a half that we wasted. I was really upset! I finally got Elder Contreras and the other elders to leave to Peñaflor and when we did, I think the Lord wanted to teach us a lesson because everything fell through right when we got to Peñaflor. Elder Contreras apologized to me that night so it's all good now!

Thursday was Halloween and it was a pretty normal day for us. We did change our name tags for our costumes for Halloween haha. We taught the Erazo family who is less active as well and shared with them the covenant that the Anti Nephi Lehi's made and talked about the importance of renewing our covenants. They agreed to come to church but they didn't because they went to the beach. . . awww

Friday we decided that the role of members is crucial so we have the video "Work of Salvacion" and we have a goal to show the video to all the members and leave a commitment with them to give out a pass along card the following week. It will help with us getting more contacts, I believe! And for the members to help in the missionary work.

Saturday we had to take a turn at the stake center where we were going to give out tours of the chapel to the entire zones investigators, but we couldn't get any of ours to come or the rest of the zone as well. Only two investigators showed up but, hey, two is better than none! Elder Contreras and I taught about the sacrament and it is truly a blessing to take the sacrament every week.

Sunday was great because Jorge and Jazmine came to church! Woo hoo! Jazmine is so ready and prepared and willing to do everything we ask her to do. And Jorge, being a less active, is ready to change his life around and you can truly see the desire he has to live a righteous life again. It's awesome! 

Alright but I really have to go!! We are really late! Just for update there was a 6.5 earthquake on Thursday! Ha ha but we didn't feel it. We were in a lesson ha ha, but you can see a little bit of damage to some stores and stuff which is pretty cool. And Elder Sharapata pooped out a worm yesterday haha! And with the earthquake we have been without lights for Thursday and Friday which was interesting, but its all good now!! And my companion gave me his crocs and before the mission I thought they were always ugly, but they are awesome! Ha ha I love them!! But I have to go! I love you guys so much! You're the best family in the entire world!

Love,

Elder Cowan