Change Is Good

Dear Family and Friends,

Okay, okay, I am really panicking to finish my letter today! We enter the internet place and I was writing my letter and then the computer crashed and I lost everything I was working on and now they are telling us that they are going to close in 20 minutes awwww! Ha ha, but alright basically this week there were A LOT of CHANGES! Which is always good. I have come to learn in the mission, well, as long as it is in the right direction.

But, okay, basically we had three meetings in three days. It started Thursday with President and it was a really late notice meeting to advise us of our new game plan for the mission. And then our district meetings got changed to Friday for some reason and then Saturday we had a meeting in Talagante, where we got to hear from Elder Gonzalez from the 70. All the meetings were all about the same thing. Our mission along with Blake's mission and two other Argentina missions are going to try out this new pilot program that the authorities want to try out to see if we can strengthen the missionary work! Basically we are going going to focus on three things. We will be doing this pilot program till December. The three things are  Baptisms, Confirmations, and Less Actives with an Assignment. I wish I had more time to explain this new project that our mission gets to try out, but it sounds awesome! We are basically going to focus almost all our time with less actives. Elder Gonzalez kept saying over and over again that Chile lacks the priesthood in all of their wards and they have thousands of less actives in their membership records. He kept telling us that we need to nourish the tree before it can bring forth more fruit (baptisms) so we are going to focus a lot on less actives! Woo hoo! It will be fun!

So we will teach less actives (and part of the plan is to go in without a plan too! ha ha like Nephi "not knowing before hand what I will do.") We will teach them a short lesson and then we have to give them an assignment in the ward. As missionaries we don't have the right to call people to different leadership or other callings in the ward, but he told us that we can give assignments. And, basically, that's what we are going to do! It's really interesting! But I'm grateful that our mission gets to try it out! And that's basically all we are focusing on. With our indicadore claves, (Blake and Trevor know what those are) we are dropping Members present in lesson, Other lessons, and References and Contactadas! Ha ha and now we are only going to focus on those three. Now we will still teach our investigators, but really only the ones that are progressing and we will still try to have members present in the lessons but when we give in our numbers for the week we are only focusing on those three thing: baptisms, confirmations, and less actives with an assignment! 

Also another fun thing that happened this week was we had a ward activity where an investigator of the other elders got married, which is super rare to happen in Chile, ha ha, no one gets married! But they did! And the activity was awesome!!! And this Sunday guess how many people we had at church!!??? 101!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!! When I showed up here there were only about 45 and now we have doubled it! How amazing! This ward has changed completely and I love the members here so much! Aww and the bishop is a machine now! He is awesome! The ward has turned a 180, really! There is so much strength and unity here in the ward! I talked with the bishop and next week we are going to try to open the curtains and to put up more seats!!! Woo hoo! That has been my goal since I came here for the past 4 months! It is truly amazing to see the Lord's hand over this sector! He is with us! I can testify of that! 

Another awesome thing was Jose, who I think I talked about last week, but seriously he is SUPER PREPARED! We taught him again twice this last week and he is just so awesome! He loves the gospel and loves the Church and wants to be baptized! I kept thinking that he has to have a doubt or problem with something because everyone I have  talked here in this sector always has a problem with word of wisdom or something, but he doesn't have one problem! I think he is an answer to my prayers lately since we have been struggling with our investigators progressing! He will be baptized in May!

Another change was with Javiera who is the daughter of a less active member that isn't baptized. We started teaching her about 2 months ago, but then she rejected everything. And she never wanted anything more with us. I had no idea what happened, but this week we went by and taught her mom and during the lesson Javiera entered the room and sat on the couch and started to listen to the message. And then we finished and asked who would like to end with the prayer. And right away! Javiera jumped up and yelled out, ´´Oh me, me! please!´´ Ha ha. My comp and I both turned and looked at each other with a look of surprise and we let her pray and it was awesome! Another great change! I hope we can continue with her!

Another great change is that we finally have a Elders Quorum President and he is awesome! He is a returned missionary and is going to town with the Elders Quorum! He organized home teachers and taught an awesome lesson yesterday! He is so excited to work with us! Another great blessing and change!

Alrighty! The internet place is going to close! I will print all your letters and read them later! Sorry I didn't have time to write anyone! Enjoy the summer! It's starting to get really cold here! Ha ha! I love my mission so much! I know Heavenly Father is blessing us right now! I am a little nervous because transfers are on the 5th of May (Dad's birthday, woo hoo) and I don't know what's going to happen! But I´ll go and do whatever the Lord wants! I love you guys so much!

Love,

Elder Cowan

My Sick Son :/

Dear Family and Friends,

How awesome it is to write you guys every week! I love you all so much! You guys are the best!

But I wanna get straight to the week and, well, this letter will probably be a little shorter because we really only worked about 3 days out of the week. :/ My companion last Monday night wasn't feeling so well and then on Tuesday he was horrible! He had a fever and was throwing up and his stomach was killing him. He told me he would go in a cycle of feeling really really hot and then want to throw up and then he'd throw up and after he would feel really really cold and with a lot of stomach pain. And he repeated that process all Tuesday until Friday in the afternoon. Pobrecito! But I was able to play the role of ´´Mama´´ this week and I was taking care of him all week and we watched a lot of church videos together, ha ha, it was fun.

Luckily, the members are so nice here that they were all bringing medicines and herbs and food for him to eat that would make him feel better, ha ha. I love the members here! In general, I love the Chilean people! They are so loving! Chile is the best! 

I wanna thank mom for always taking care of me when I was sick! And always making warm chicken noodle soup! mmmmhhhm!! Soo good! With the saltine crackers too! HA ha! And I realized, mom, that every time you took care of me you never got affected by it! You're like Super Mom!! You're the best mom!! Thank you so much!

But this week was the Semana Santa! Woo hoo! Or Easter! And man, I just loved Sunday yesterday! Especially during the sacrament, in the silence of the ordinance I read in Luke about the resurrection of Christ and immediately taking the sacrament after was such a tender experience for me. I know my Savior lives! And I know that we will all be resurrected! How great is that! I can't even imagine what that will be like! And I cant even imagine how it's even possible for someone to overcome death! How incredible! But with the power of Jesus Christ anything is possible! I love Jesus Christ; He is the reason for my mission, and I am so grateful for His infinite Atoning sacrifice that helps me to be better everyday in my life! 

One lesson that we could have this past week was with Jose! Who is awesome! He is an old investigator that Elder Barraza and I found about 3 months ago by offering service to help him build a fence around his garden. He came to watch General Conference with us and came to church yesterday!! How awesome! And we had a lesson with him after church and it was so awesome! I have never felt the spirit so strong in a lesson before! We taught the Restoration and he just loved it all! He started crying just in the first principle of how God is our loving Heavenly Father. He said that his dad, right before he died, always told him that God loves him. And from that experience he has always wanted to know which church is true. He told us that he already feels like this church is completely true and actually asked us about baptism! Ha ha, that was a little shocker, but great! He now has a baptism date and is so strong! That date isn't until the 18th of May. It's a little far and he really only needs 1 more Sunday to attend to be able to be baptized, but he works a lot and we still have to teach him all the rest of the lessons. But I am so excited for him! I love him! Really, he is a miracle! We have been struggling to find new investigators this whole transfer, we really only have about 3 investigators . . . but he is a miracle for us! 

Well, basically, that was my week! Stuck in the house all day, but we had an awesome Sunday yesterday with Easter and the lesson with Jose! We did buy some Easter eggs and hid them in the house for Elder Hatch and his companion to find, ha ha, but it was only about 5 eggs, ha ha. I did get to clean the house two times and update our area book and read the whole book of Mark while my companion was sick ha ha. I tried sleeping, too, but you know me! The son of Amy Cowan and I can't just do nothing! HA ha :) Love you mom! :)

Oh! Another thing that happened this week was ward council. Normally they don't let the missionaries talk really much, but now the bishop and I are best friends and always tells me that he doesn't want our President to send any other missionaries but just to make Elder Cowan serve here the whole time, ha ha. So I was able to talk to the bishop and he let us have a few minutes to talk with all the members. Basically, it was me talking all the time because I have been waiting for this moment and the other elders all said that I have the best relationship with the members, so I should be the spokesman, ha ha! But I really just wanted to make them excited for the missionary work and to make them see the changes in this ward. There were a lot of ugly things that happened in the past, but now we have a chapel full for the sacrament meeting and in elders quorum we have 21 priesthood holders! How awesome! But as we finished talking, it turned back into a normal ward council meeting, which this happens all the time, but basically all the members started off talking about their called saying, ´´okay bishop here are all the problems. . . ´´ And they really kinda just whine about all of the problems that they have, but they never do anything about it! Aww it bugged me! Ha ha. I started writing down in my agenda, in tallies, how many problems, and how many solutions were made. When it got to the point where there was 15 tallies for problems and only 2 for solutions, I felt the spirit so strong as it was telling me to help them. 

Over and over in my mind I had the impression of, ´´help them Elder, help them´´ I finally couldn't take it any longer and stood up and interrupted. They suddenly were all quiet and I asked the bishop if I could share a few words. I could see the stress in the bishop's face and he smiled and said, ´´please Elder Cowan help me,´´ just as the impressions in my thought said to me just seconds ago. I decided to use the Book of Mormon and use the story of the Brother of Jared. He had problems. . .he didn't have any light in his boats. But what did he do about it? Whine about it? Just went to Jared and told him all that was wrong?! No! He FIXED IT! He went to the Lord first! That should always be the first step! And then he went to the Lord with a solution and a plan to FIX it! He went to the Lord in faith that He would help him with his solution to touch the rocks to make light. And he got his problem fixed! I shared this with them and was really direct with them. I told them to just Fix it! That they are the leaders and they have been called by revelation.

After I sat down, there was a silence for a while and I looked at the bishop and he had the biggest smile on his face. And then after, problems were fixed. Ha ha, after the meeting the bishop came up to me and said basically, ´´Wow! You got a little fire in ya! I like that! Thank you Elder! I was praying in that meeting for help with all the problems the leaders were presenting to me. Thank you for fixing it.´´ It felt so great to be an answer to the bishop's prayer. I love him so much! He has changed so much and he is awesome!

Well that's it for me! I hope you guys had an awesome week! I hope you were able to really enjoy the real reason of Easter, but that's not the only time! Everyday we should remember our Savior and Redeemer. I am so grateful to be His representative! I love my mission and I love you guys! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Cowan

Service!

Dear Family and Friends,

Holy cow! I can't believe that I am already writing again! The time is ticking like crazy! It really feels like yesterday that I was here on the same computer writing you guys! I am literally at a loss of what I should write this week, ha ha, so this weekly letter will be a little shorter, sorry everyone! First off, I want to express my gratitude for Dad! Holy cow, you workhorse!! I hope you will be able to rest soon! And Mom and Justin I loved your guys' experience about the power of prayer and the locked car!

And another shout out to Ian Cresar who is one of my best friends and was only baptized a year ago and got his call to the best country in the whole world!! That's right baby! CHILE!!! Wooo hooo! You are going to be an awesome missionary!!!

Well, this week was dedicated to a lot of service! I know my whole mission is serving, ha ha, but we had a lot of voluntary moments to offer service. It was basically all centered on our presentation musical that our mission is putting on and it's a choir of 24 missionaries singing about the Passover and everything with the new Bible videos in between. It might sound like a low down event, but our mission is putting all efforts into it! And this week the group was traveling to our zone so we had to prepare a lot for it to have the stake center FILLED  with people! And that's exactly what we did! The assistants called us earlier in the week and asked us if we could go out two days and pass out fliers for the concert. So basically, that's what we did all day long on the two biggest streets in the zone and just offered about 1500 fliers, ha ha! And then the third day we volunteered to help the assistants clean the stake center and we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! HA ha. But it was great because I really do love cleaning . . . because I now understand that if I clean the Spirit will be more able to come. And it was great to do that for the church! It is a little sad how much members take for granted in the church and how many little things can make things into a big mess.

Then the next day our own bishop called us to see if we could clean our church building too! Ha ha, so we accepted and cleaned our church which REALLY needed it, but it took twice as long because it was only Elder Alcaraz and me. But it was actually really fun! Ha ha. He cracks me up so much! And he loves dancing and singing, it is hilarious! We had a mini high school musical break down session in the young women's room. And then a Motab session in the Relief Society and much much more! Ha ha, he always keeps me laughing and smiling! 

And then the day after that, the assistants called us again to know if we could help set up all the chairs for the concert and pass out more fliers for a couple hours right before the concert. They really put a lot of effort in for this concert and a lot of money too, ha ha. But we did that and finally were able to wait for the concert to actually happen, which was awesome! Those new Bible videos are SOOO AWESOME!! It was an awesome event and the church was filled! We lost a lot of time not working in our sector, but it was great to help with this great activity! And it was great to get to know the assistants better and to hang out with them!

But the crappy part of my week was when we had splits with our district leader and I went over to his sector which they are really struggling and their sector is super tiny and so the companion of the district leader and I walked and walked and walked the whole entire day! I know we walk a lot as missionaries, but I have never walked so much in one day. And what made it worse was that my knee pain came back again. That's been the first time in all of my mission. I was praying so hard that it wouldn't last forever. The pain only lasted that day and I haven't felt it since, which I am really glad because I was really nervous. But the worse part was during the splits I got this pain in my left eye and it was bugging me all day, then Friday I had a headache only on the left side of my head, and then Saturday I had a headache all day again but in my whole head. And then Sunday, the day of the concert, I just felt like crap and felt like throwing up and was really sick. What started with my eye spread to the left side of my head, to then my whole head, and then my spine and then eventually my whole body. So I was doing all those services with this pain. It was horrible. I felt so bad last night, but I asked Elder Alcaraz and Elder Hatch to give me a blessing and it was such a neat experience. And I know the power of the priesthood is real!  Right when they started the blessing, I could already feel the headache going away and my companion specifically said in the prayer that I would feel better Monday morning. And it's true! I fell asleep last night at about 11:10 and didn't wake up till 11:30 today! Ha ha, they decided to turn off all the alarms and let me sleep. I was a little mad because I know that's not following the rules exactly, but I am actually really grateful for that! And now I feel all better!! It's great!

Alright, I know this letter is really lame, but I can't really think of anything that happened this past week! I know the priesthood is real! I know that I hold the higher priesthood and it amazes me that our Heavenly Father lets only 18-year-olds hold this great power! After the blessing from my comp I just had tears in my eyes!  I love this gospel and the  chances of service I was able to give this past week whether I was sick or not. I know I was serving my God just as it says in Mosiah 2:17. I love my Savior so much! I am so grateful to serve during this month of His Resurrection and Passover! I love Him and am so grateful for what He did for me! I wouldn't be here on my mission if it wasn't for Him! I love His gospel and all of you guys! Thanks for the letters! Have a great week! Serve others with Love!

Love,

Elder Cowan

Conference Week!!

Dear Family and Friends!!!

FIRST OFF I JUST WANNA SAY THAT I HAVE THE BEST FAMILY IN THE WORLD! I LOVE YOU GUYS SO MUCH!! AND I LOVED GENERAL CONFERENCE! 

Okay, I don't have anytime, but I loved General Conference so much and I could write a book or long letter about all the awesome talks. Just like you, Mom, I came with questions to conference and all of them were answered!! I was able to watch all of the sessions too including the priesthood session, which was just awesome! If I could, I would just re-label this letter AWESOME because this week was just awesome! So, yes Mom, I might pull an RJ Masssey and use one describing word for my whole letter, ha ha! Joke joke! Ha ha! I was able to watch all of them except for Uchtdorf’s talk Sunday morning about gratitude, which was a bummer, but we were trying to get our investigators to the stake center on time. First of all, we had Jose who is an awesome investigator and wants to learn soo much! I love his desire to learn the truth; he was just going to town taking notes during conference.

We also have Victor who is a new investigator that is really difficult! But the cool thing is that he speaks perfect English! Ha ha, it’s so cool! He lived in Utah and in Canada for the last 40 years! But the sad thing is that he is basically like a hippie, ha ha, he just kept telling us that he´s done with life, with working, with everything and now is the time to just “chill.” As my district leader and I were teaching him the first lesson about the Restoration (we were on splits), he just rejected everything. He is so blinded by his knowledge that he believes that we are just sales people, basically. You can probably imagine that I was able to let him know face to face AND in English (which helped me) how important this gospel is. He is just blinded from all his philosophy beliefs and everything, but we decided to leave it up to the prophet and let him change his mind. Victor wasn't really receptive during the conference, which made it hard to feel the Spirit, but he got better.

Another thing I want to testify of is about the importance of cleaning! Ha ha. President has now cut p-day by two hours and for those two hours every Monday it’s dedicated to cleaning the house! And how much easier it is to feel the Spirit in a clean home! Yes, I feel like I’m quoting Josh Free from his letter a while ago, but now with cleaning it really makes a difference!

Also, this week was AWESOME BECAUSE OF THE BAPTISM OF VALERY!!! Aww . . . it was so great to go back to Padre Hurtado and visit my home town! Ha ha. I love that place so much and my heart will always have a special place for it! The baptism was wonderful and such a miracle! After 6 months she finally got baptized! I just started balling my eyes out as she came out of the water! And I was able to be a witness of the baptism too which was special! She is so happy right now and I love her! She is so strong! She is now in Mosiah in reading the Book of Mormon—how awesome!

Back to conference! I have already shared a specific talk with everyone in the family except you, Mom! The best for last! Ha ha! The talk that made me think of you the whole time and actually made me cry was the talk by Richard G. Scott on how he talked about love. How the two women that are the most important to him now are the ones that were the most faithful and most loving. And it is the same with you, Mom! I love you so much!! I have the best mom in the world!  I am truly grateful for the love you always showed me and you’re still showing it every day in my life. Even on the other side of the world, I still feel your love every day!  Also the talk that made an impact on me was the talk by Marcos A. Aidukaitis who talked about not searching through crap on the Internet. I want to apologize, Mom, for all of the hours I wasted watching TV, or being on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, while I could have been hanging out with the coolest person in the world, my mom! I’m sorry for wasting so much precious time. I realize now that I have lost all those opportunities, but I hope after the mission I will be able to share my love more for you!  Just as another apostle said in another talk . . . when it all comes down to it, the relationships we have are the most important! I love my family and friends sooo much!!! Thank you for everything!

I also loved Robert D. Hale’s talk about obedience and David A. Bednar’s talk about carrying Christ’s load. The theme that stuck out to me the whole conference was the scripture, “what manner of man are ye?” It seemed all about strengthening our personal conversion which I loved!! One of my favorites was by Gary E. Stevenson about the 4 minute race we have here on earth—or in my life right now—only 17 months to use it all to be the best missionary I can possibly be! It motivated me so much to work and go a little bit harder every day in my mission! 

I don't have any more time, but I hope you all enjoyed conference! It is such a blessing! I know Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet today! We just listened to the word of God! Have you really thought about it that way? We are listening directly from what God wants to tell us! Such a blessing and how awesome!!! I know I received a lot of revelation these past two days! It went by so fast, but I will never forget it! I hope we all will follow the promptings we received and to study the talks in the next 6 months time, which I just realized the next conference I will have over a year! Awww so scary! Ha ha, better use my time wisely! Get off the computer and get to work and let my faith shine! Thank you all so much! I love you all! Have an “awesome week!” :)

With love,

Elder Cowan