Miracle Baptism

Dear Family!

Hooolllyyy cowww Mom and Dad! I know you guys won't read this letter for a week, but you guys are crazy!!! Ha ha, to just jump onto a cruise and get away! Ha ha, that is awesome! Both of you deserve it! I can't wait to hear all about it! 

Okay, I am sending this letter to all you bros because you all told me to send the family letter to you because Mom isn't here!  

But Mom and Dad missed out on a great letter!!! This week was a week of miracles! It was so awesome!! And it all started last Tuesday!!!

Tuesday we went to go visit Camila and Mara and teach them. My companion and I had been thinking of postponing the baptism date for Camila because she is really timid and we just thought she was only listening to us because of her mom. We weren't feeling so sure about her testimony because she is really timid and shy. But Tuesday we went and passed by to invite Mara to a meeting at the stake center with the stake presidency for all the recent converts in the stake. Camila decided to go with us and it was a really short meeting, barley 30 minutes at the most. But the stake president and his two counselors just simply shared their testimonies and shared about the importance of attending the temple and continuing in the gospel. I looked over and I could just tell that Camila and Mara were just eating it up! It was really short, but really powerful!

After the meeting we walked to their house to teach them a lesson. We taught lesson 3 and explained about the importance of baptism. She had a baptism date for this last Sunday and I asked her why she really wanted to be baptized. And after a long time of silence, she finally broke out of her shell and with a very humble quiet voice told us that she wanted to be baptized because she wanted to be happy like her mom and to have God more in her life. She went on to explain these two reasons and I was just taken back! I was so surprised that she was opening up and sharing all the reasons and all her feelings towards baptism!! It was awesome! It was a very great opportunity to see how the Spirit works differently in every person! 

After sharing her testimony basically we asked her if she still wanted to be baptized this Sunday and we told her that we haven't felt the date is right and that maybe she needs a little bit more time, but she looked up at us and yelled out, ´´No!´´ Sunday is the day! Ha ha, and we were just taken back from everything in that lesson! That night we called the district leader to let him know that we needed him to do a baptismal interview and he was just shocked and was so confused because we had just told him two days earlier that we were going to change the date of Camila. Ha ha! He could only do the interview Thursday so that meant we had to finish all the lessons Wednesday! Ha ha, it was pretty crazy, but basically we taught all of lesson 4 in 45 minutes! Ha ha, it was pretty impressive! Ha ha, and she was completely different in that lesson. She was really wanting to participate and learn all that she could. We told her that maybe we could teach her the last couple lessons right before the interview, but she just yelled out "No!" again and told us to continue! Ha ha, it was awesome!

So Thursday came around and we had the interview and she passed it with flying colors! And then we had ward council right after! But during the ward council we realized that we had to prepare a baptism in 3 days! And it was a good thing we were in the ward council because we were able to explain everything to the ward and they were all shocked that there was going to be a baptism in 3 days! Ha ha! Everything was a shocker this week! Ha ha! But the ward helped a ton! The ward is doing so much better and the leaders and members helped so much for the baptism! And this past Sunday we had 89 people assisting the sacrament meeting! It was awesome! Each week we are progressing more and more! I have the goal to hit 100! Woo hoo! And yesterday we finally received a ward mission leader!!!! Woo hoo! Por Fin!! Ha ha, we can now really help the work go along a lot faster with the ward! And the missionary leader is Hugo Gonzalez who I reactivated in the last transfer! How awesome it that!!! It is so cool to see him changed as a completely different person! I am so excited to work with him!

Friday we had a zone conference with President from 9 in the morning to 6 in the night!! Holy cow, was it long, but it was an awesome meeting! I love President soo much and I know he is called of  God!!! The next day Saturday we were offering tours at the church when we decided to start with a prayer to have people come and be interested in having tours. I gave the prayer and I have never prayed so specifically in my life! Ha ha, we started at 1:10 in the afternoon and we had to end at 2:15 to go to lunch. I am not even sure what happened during my prayer, but I prayed that Elder Hatch and his companion would find someone and have a tour of the church before 1:45 and that we would have a tour before 2:10. When I finished the prayer the other elders were all looking at me and were all shocked by the prayer and how specific it was. But I can testify that prayer works! We can receive revelation and answers when we pray in faith! We went out to go contacting  and we were talking with a lot of people and not really having a lot of success. That's when I looked back at the church and saw Elder Hatch with the biggest smile on his face with someone who wanted to have a tour. I hurried and looked at my watch and it was 1:42!!!!! Ha ha, and then after that it motivated us to find someone, but we were not finding anyone. Actually there was no one around! We were looking for people when we looked at the time and it was 2:05. We hurried and offered a small prayer again to let us have one tour. And right when we ended the prayer I looked up and there was Elder Hatch with two people. He was waving at us to come in and we went over to find out that it was a less active that we know and one of her friends. And they wanted a tour but asked Elder Hatch specifically for us to give the tour! It was an answer to our prayers! It was such a testimony builder for me! 

And then Sunday came around! And that is when we had the baptism! And it was my first baptism!!! I know Mara was technically my first baptism, but Camila was the first person I have actually baptized! It was such a great experience! The members helped out so much and the service went great! I remembered all the words and her name and it was such a special and touching moment for me to be able to baptize her and to see the big smile on her face! I know baptism is the first covenant we make with our loving Heavenly Father! I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to help others come unto Christ through baptism. And most importantly, I am grateful to help a family be eternal! Mara was so happy to see her daughter get baptized! The spirit was so strong and I don't think I will ever forget that moment! I love my mission so much! Thanks for everything you guys do for me! And for all your examples and for all the love you have shown me! I love my mission and my Savior Jesus Christ! This is the best!!!

Love you all so much!!!

Love,

Elder Cowan