Dear Family and Friends!!!!
WOOO HOO! I am just so pumped again! I love this mission so much!! Everything is just awesome being able to serve others! And, yes Mom, just as Dad told you, I have already come to see how my Spanish has already improved just in these last 7 days! The Lord is truly looking over me and I know He is helping me and guiding me along this journey being a missionary! I want to thank you for the quote from Grandpa. It actually brought tears to my eyes to know that he has had so many experiences in his life and I just hope that I can be half the man that my grandpa is.
Thank you all for the photos and letters! I am so blessed with so many people that pray and care about me so much! And Happy Valentines Day! I want to express my love to you all! You are all such a huge blessing in my life and I am the man I am today because of each and every one of you! Justin way to go to scare mom with that scorpion sucker thing, ha ha ha, that's so funny!
Okay, now onto the thing you are all waiting for . . . . duh duh duh!!! My son!!! Ha ha! He is incredible and such a stud. My new companion is Elder Alcaraz from San Juan Argentina! Yep that's right, Blake! I finally have an Argentine as a companion! And he is the best! He is 23 years old and, yes he is older, but he is rock solid in the gospel. Actually, the reason he came out so late on the mission was because he went inactive for a really long time. Before the mission he was a dance teacher! Ha ha, and he has some pretty crazy moves! Ha ha, also when he was inactive he was at a dance and was dancing when the floor fell through and broke. He fell 20 meters and landed on his ankles and knee. Part of the stage of where it fell through landed on him and crushed him. He has some pretty cool scars! Finally, after being in pain and crushed by part of the stage, and being in the darkness for 4 hours, others were finally able to reach him. After that experience he realized how much the Lord blessed him with his life and he decided to go back to church. When he was returning back to the church, he was called as an institute teacher and then after as a ward mission leader! So he basically already came pre-trained! Ha ha. He is such a stud! He looks really young and I still can't believe that he is older than me!
We get a long soo well! Seriously we are already best friends! And after sharing the experiences of how I was in a knee brace and did physical therapy for a long time, I found out that we like all the same things, really! It's crazy! He really is my son! Ha ha ha! Just kidding! But really! We both had periods in our lives where we went to physical therapy for a long time. He used to swim when he was younger and because of his accident he loves studying anatomy and about the body and wants to study it after the mission! Ha Ha, it's just like me!! I love swimming, I went to physical therapy, I love anatomy and want to study it too! Ha ha! We are like twins! Ha ha! It is such a blessing! He is a miracle for me, especially for everything that happened and with all the struggles in the last transfer! The first day I just kept hugging him because I was so happy to have him as my companion! He has such a solid desire to work hard and be obedient which I couldn't have asked for anything better! This past week has been a little stressful with being a trainer and leading the sector and everything, but he really helps me out and really came pre-trained! Ha ha, he is such a stud! And I love him so much! We are going to get soo much done this next transfer! I am learning so much from him! He is helping me with my Spanish so much too! It is awesome! I miss people helping me with my Spanish. Elder Barazza would just talk to me in English the whole time, which I hated! 
And, yes, he is from Argentina, but he doesn't have the horrible accent from Buenos Aires (ha ha ha, Blake ;) ) San Juan is really close to Chile so he speaks perfectly like a Chilean! Also Elder Hatch, who is a friend in the mission, also received a new missionary as well from California and we all want to work hard. It is awesome!
Tuesday Elder Hatch and I got to go to the temple with the other trainers and it was perfect! I have never felt so much peace in my life! I LOVE THE TEMPLE! Actually, they have the new video or the one that was in the temple when I left! It was great! But the most powerful part was not actually in the session for me this time. Before entering I was a little nervous about training and all and for some reason I was just thinking a lot about you guys and that is when we passed by the sealing room in the temple. And I could just feel each and every one of you in that room. It brought tears to my eyes and I just started to cry a little just to feel your guys' love for me and to know that we are truly together for eternity and I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father to make that possible for us. I know that temples are the house of the Lord. I know through the priesthood that we are sealed in His temples. I know He is always watching over us and I know and have received so many blessing from your guys' prayers in my behalf. Thank you all so much!
This past week we focused a lot on the ward. Our zone, Ochogavia, has always had this bad image in comparison of all the other zones. The zone is truly hard, but at the same time there is so much work to be done! We are focusing ten fold on the members! It is awesome! This is truly the time to change the image of this zone especially with my new companion who wants to work hard. We are going to change this sector and zone right now! We know that we are called here from the Lord and have His power and His authority to help this sector! Now is the time!!! I can't wait to give it my all in this sector!
Sunday was a fun day! It was the confirmation of Mara and she is super happy! I have never seen her so happy before! Also Sunday, I had a really humbling experience. We went to go pass by and visit Jose and Maria. Maria is really against the Book of Mormon and only believes in the Bible. It was really hard to help her understand about the Book of Mormon because she has some really weird beliefs about our church. I started to lose my patience with her and when we both started to argue a little, I realized that the spirit was not there at all and just decided to let my companion take over. And that is when he simply told her, ´´Sister, we don't know the beliefs in your church, just as you don't know the beliefs in our church. So because we don't know what you believe we aren't going to judge you and just how you cant judge us because you don't know our beliefs.´´ Ha ha, it was awesome! After he said that, she just shut up and started to listen to us, ha ha! Just another example of how much of a stud my companion is!
Sunday night we also taught Alejandro which was a really hard lesson. He doesn't really want to listen to us because he now feels uncomfortable with us and only liked listening to my last companion. :/ So we couldn't really teach him anything. Also, he is mad at God because his sister lost a baby in her pregnancy and he doesn't understand why God permits suffering in this world. And he doesn't believe in agency, which I can't really understand how someone can't believe in agency because we chose and make decisions every single minute of our lives! Tambien. He just believes that God knows all so it doesn't matter what we do. It was really frustrating to teach him, but the next time, hopefully, we can help him. Any advice to help him realize why God permits suffering and pains in the world would be great! But other than that hiccup, the semana was awesome! I am so excited to work with Elder Alcaraz!
Wish us luck! I love you all!!!!
Love,
Elder Cowan
No comments:
Post a Comment