Atonement

Dear Family,

Well, Mom, thank you so much for your letter! First off, I have a few little things to get out of the way! First, you are completely right, Mom, the mission changes you sooo much, which I will be talking more about in my letter! Also, I do remember all the pain with the mission books you had and that's why I have been trying to send pictures weekly with all the informacion, I will try to keep up with that! And I can't wait till you and dad go on your mission! You don't need to worry at all! You will be the best missionaries! Just think, I am here on my mission because of you guys and from your testimonies that I have always heard in my life and so if your testimony can help your boys go on missions, how even greater will it be for the persons that you get to share with that don't have their own testimonies! And thanks for the quotes from the general authorities. I really liked them! And I have a question, whatever happened with that man that painted our curb and that accepted to come to church with you guys? Did he ever show up? Mom, I was reading in the Liahona of a talk by President Monson in the women's section, I believe, about the talk, "We Never Walk Alone." There is an example of a mom that makes bread. It is a great talk and it reminded me a lot of usted! And if you would like I would love it if you could send one of your RS quotes from Uchtdorf. And if you could tell the Waite family that I got their letter and I am so grateful for the letter! Tell them thanks!! 

But alright! First off, for my letter, I think that you guys have finally passed it on to me. . .ha ha. I know that Trevor and Kiersten were sick, and that you were too, Mom. . . well, I guess it was my turn this past week! It wasn't really anything bad, but I just had a small fever one day and have had a sore throat all week. And I have had bloody noses non stop this week. I know it is from the heat because it is really hot right now and I just need to keep drinking more water! But right now I feel all fine! So no worries!

To start off my week, after writing you guys we were leaving the Internet place when we were walking in the street and I saw a really old man standing in front of his house. I saw him a little far up the street and we were late to one of our lessons so my mind was really occupied about being late and how we need to hurry, but I kept getting this tiny impression to just say "Hi" to the old man and as we kept getting closer I kept getting the impression more. I realized that it didn't matter if we were late or not and started to talk to the old man. His name is Alredo and he is 83 years. He immediately invited us into his house and they are the sweetest little couple! And new investigators for us! It was a great experience! The spirit really does work in a still small voice, and I am so grateful that I was able to hear the tiny impression to say "hi" to him. Amazing how the spirit works! Then to finish Monday we went to Hugo and Teresa who are still planning on going to the temple soon. It was a great lesson about temples and we have permission to go to the temple Saturday with them and with our investigator Mara to visit the temple! I'm so excited!!

Now onto Tuesday. . . .Oh boy, oh boy! One of the scariest moments of my life!! Ha ha! I´ll explain. It was before lunch and we were out in front of the church offering tours of the chapel as we normally do in the early afternoons. . .WELL, as we were walking around talking with people, there was a GUN FIGHT! Ha ha ha! Our church is on the corner of a intersection and on the opposite corner one man was using the corner as protection and was firing down the street at another man. And the other man was shooting at the man on the corner which was in the direction of us, towards the church!! Aww man it was so scary! It was seriously only like 200 yards or so away and I saw to my right bullets hitting the ground! We booked it into the church and closed everything. After like two minutes one of the guys got on his bike and left. Oh man! It was crazy! Welcome to Ochogavia! Ha ha! but it is all good! No one was hurt! After that and after lunch we actually had planned interviews with President because he wanted to talk about our sector and what we should do and if he should take the missionaries out. So it was quite ironic that the day there was gun fire a few yards away we were going to talk to President about our sector ha ha! I don't know what President will do! We will wait and see! Then we ended the day with Milena who is 14 years old and is less active and doesn't have much interest to come to church. We were teaching and teaching when I thought to ask her if she has ever in her life read the Book of Mormon, and we found our answer. She has never read it! She has never even opened the book! Well, there's the problem! Ha ha. We asked her if she had one question that she could ask Heavenly Father what would she ask him. Her question was what happens after we die. And that was a great experience! I love using the Book of Mormon to answer peoples problems and questions! It was great to watch her realize that she has had the answers her whole life, but just has never read them! Oh, and also we taught Mauricio, the blind man and we listened to the talk by Pres. Monson about "I Will Not Forsake Thee," and in the story he talks about the blind friend he had that passed a way and talked about how the Lord is always there! It was perfect for him! 1) because he is blind and he can relate and 2) because he has been telling us he has been feeling lonely! It was a great lesson! I love General Conference!

Wednesday we had a zone meeting which was about unity. That was the second meeting in 2 weeks where they have talked about unity and I realized that it was a little wake up call from Heavenly Father probably trying to tell me to be more obedient. I realized that I haven't exactly been lacking patience or love, but the problem is that I have been lacking the humility. The first couple weeks together, I thought I was better than my companion and that I am here because he needs my help and that I am in the hard sector because I am a good missionary. I realized the pride was getting to my head a little bit, but I repented and apologized to Barraza and after we had that talk he told me that he wants to be more obedient now too. It was a great building experience for the two of us! Then after the meeting we went to Teresa who is one of our investigators and we started to give a summary of the first principles of the Restoration that we talked about last time but then she interrupted us and asked us why there are so many churches. Ha ha, it was perfect because we were actually planning to watch the Restoration with her! So we watched it and she loved it! Ha ha, we let her know that Joseph Smith had the same question and there is a way for all people to find out the answer! I love teaching about the Restoration!

Then we taught Mara who has a baptism date for next Sunday. Please pray for her. We actually had a member present in the lesson which is a miracle in itself. We taught her about tithing and it was a great lesson! She is just having a hard time not trying to drink tea. She has given up coffee with no problem, but tea is a little harder for her. We have a lesson with her right after Pday! Hopefully, it will go well! Then we visited a family in the ward to try to get references from them. We watched the Work of Salvation video and it went really well. The way of misisonary work truly is changing. I know that my mission doesn't use Facebook and tablets, but we are almost always sharing videos on the Internet of Mormon messages or of other videos we have. It's great!

Thursday we started the day of with going through the members list and visiting people because there are so many less actives here and then we had a lesson with Barbara. It actually went really well! I was mad before because she didn't really care about the law of chastity, but I realized in this lesson that it's not that she doesn't understand it, it is because she doesn't understand the Atonement and with the Atonement the process of repenting. It was a great lesson to explain more about the Atonement and everything Jesus Christ has done for us. Actually, she was wanting to fast for help, but she felt like she was laking the faith to receive the help. That's when I went seminary style with her! Ha ha (Hopefully you can send this to Br. Patterson, Mom). She was having a lot of doubts about faith and why we are here in this world and how to receive happiness. And that's when I used like 5 scripture masteries back to back to help her answer all of her questions! It was pretty sweet! The scriptures are so awesome!

Then we got a new investigator named Sergio. Who has gone through a lot!! He used to do drugs and got divorced from his wife who took his two daughters and he had nothing and didn't have anything to eat for almost two weeks. When he was at the lowest point of his life, he had the impression to read one of the the only things he had left. . his bible. As he started reading the bible, his life started to get better. He received food and money, but as he was reading he felt like it was good but that something else was missing. He went to a lot of different churches, but still felt like something was missing. And then that's when he met the missionaries, the missionaries in the sector next to us! He just felt their testimonies and spirits and we were able to teach him and it was such a powerful lesson! The spirit was so strong!

Then Thursday night on the mountain we could see a fire and it looked really cool! Ha ha. I don't know why I'm telling you that exactly, ha ha, but actually there has been a big fire going on somewhere close and so in the afternoons the streets are all smoogy with smoke and sometimes it is hard to see. But okay that doesn't matter, ha ha, sorry. 

Friday we had splits and Elder Cole, our district leader came and I lead my sector. Actually with splits and with the district leaders, they are supposed to go on divisiones with the senior companion first and to watch him in his sector and then later on go with the junior companion. Well, I had division because Elder Cole thought I was the senior companion, ha ha, so that was a nice compliment! But the divisions went well with him. It was Elder Cole's birthday that day which I didn't know, so we were in a lesson when our phone started to ring and I looked and it said President Barreiros! Ha ha. I started to get really nervous of why President was calling us, ha ha, but it was just to wish Elder Cole a Happy Birthday, ha ha, it was funny! Friday we started classes of English here which only 4 people showed up, but it was good.

Then Saturday we had a meeting with the Bishop and with the Stake President, who I love! Presidente Lopez is really focusing on this ward right now. He kinda chewed the bishop out a little and has made a lot of new changes! Right now there is finally a counselor in the bishopric! Ha ha. It was great! He attended church and shared a talk with the members and it was great! He is really helping us a lot with this sector and ward, which Sunday went really well! We had Mara and Teresa attend sacrament and 8 new less actives come back to church and two of the recent converts to come back to church, as well. We had an attendance of 78 which is almost 20 more than last week! We are improving every week! The Lord truly is helping us! Sunday the president of the stake actually got all the youth together to come along with us missionaries to visit the less actives in the sector. It was great! But that was when I realized that I am not a youth anymore. It was great to be with all the youth, but I felt so uncomfortable with them, ha ha. I realized that I have matured a lot in the mission! Even how I walk now! Ha ha. I realized how slow I used to walk before my mission; I was actually having a difficult time walking with them, ha ha, I probably looked really funny!

But to finish. . .Saturday was a really hard day for me. That was when I felt really sick and I just felt terrible. All of our lessons fell through except for one. I was a little down on myself and we were walking a ton that day since all the lessons fell through. As we were walking, I just saw so many people doing drugs and yelling at each other and drinking and all different sorts of bad things. As I was thinking about all the bad things I saw in the streets, it started to get me down a little bit. But that is when I remembered why I am here and offered a tiny prayer to help me have more energy and excitement for the work. That is when I had a testimony building experience of the Atonement. I know that there are all sorts of bad things in this sector, but I remembered that Jesus Christ has suffered for all of it. I can't even imagine what it must have been like for him. It is so sad to think that we have all made him suffer a tiny bit. But He did it out of love for us and the spirit testified to me that I know the Atonement is real. I know He knows me. I know he died for me and for every single person. And because of his Atonement there are also tons of good things in the world! It was a great experience for me!

But I have to go! Sorry Trevor and Dad for not writing back! I love you all! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Cowan