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