Yes You Can! Miracles Exist!

Dear Family and Friends!

Man was it just awesome to talk to you guys yesterday for Mother's Day! I love you guys so much and you all looked awesome! It was awesome! Last night when I was writing in my journal (which Mom I am still faithful and strong and have written everyday in my mission :) ) and I just realized how amazing you all are! I really had a spiritual confirmation that we are an family eternal and that we were together before this life together. . . waiting to take on the world! You guys are the best and I love you all! I have the best family EVER!!!!!!!!!

So I decided to name this letter with the title of "Yes You Can!" Because that is our zone theme this transfer! There are so many changes happening right now in missionary work that it's just evidence that the Lord is hastening His work! And we know that we better take advantage of this time that we have, but we can't do it a lone. That's when the new awesome zone leaders came up with an awesome plan! In our meetings we read about how Moses and Jesus Christ fasted for 40 days and for 40 nights! And right off the bat I thought our zone leaders were crazy and were going to make us fast the whole transfer. But instead we are doing 40X40!!!! We are fasting for 40 days to reach 40 baptisms this transfer which has never happened before with just one zone! But yes we can!! It all depends on our faith! And I know our Heavenly Father is a God of miracles!! So we are doing a ladder fast, I guess you could say! One sector will fast for one day and then the next day another sector will start their fast and keep it going. And then that will be passed on to sector to sector until we hit 40 days! It's awesome! Our sector has to fast 5 times this month and I am soooo pumped for it! We already fasted for one day and it was so spiritual! I have really come to learn of the power of faith! It's amazing! So please pray for our zone and if you want to join in with us with the fasting feel free! :) It's going to be awesome! We are going to see miracles, I know!

And I know that because Elder Alcaraz and I have already seen a miracle this past week! And it was with Jose! He has been the most prepared investigator EVER!! Really he does everything we tell him to do, he has no doubts with anything and is just perfect! Really! And the ward is helping so much with being friendly to him! The past month we have had a baptism date for him for the end of May, but he works 4 days and then has 2 days off and those two days change every week. We realized that the next 3 Sundays we has to work and we were really nervous of how he would be able to be baptized and confirmed! As we started to fast, we received a direct answer! We fasted that everything would work out! So we started the day off and then Jose called us and told us that he asked his boss and he got this Sunday off but only for about 3 hours! What a blessing! But then we were wondering what to do about the baptism because we needed that one Sunday to confirm him. And then he told us that his two free days this week are Thursday and Friday and we finally got it all worked out! This Thursday he will have his baptism interview and then Friday (MY BIRTHDAY!) He is going to be baptized!!!!!! Awwwww what a blessing! And then Sunday he will be confirmed! What a busy and spiritual week for Jose! I am so excited!! And could you imagine a better birthday gift than to see your favorite companion in water baptizing someone! I can't think of anything better!!! Aww, I am so happy!

And then we also had another miracle with Maria, the wife of Jose, who when we first met her was against anything with the Mormon church. She would yell at us and scream at us that we were from the devil and everything. This whole time we have been teaching Jose in the church. Saturday night Jose came with us to the adult stake conference and he gave me a notebook and told me that it was a gift from his wife that she wanted me to have! I was so surprised because she was always so rude to us! Then he told us that she has been reading the Book of Mormon and is reading the pamphlets too! And he invited us to come over to his house before the baptism to invite her to see the baptism! He told us that she is ready now to listen!!!! Holy cow!!! What a miracle! Just a testimony to me that this gospel changes hearts! Just as Dad wrote me a while ago and told me that I am in the heart changing business here doing the work of the Lord! And I can now testify of that! The gospel is amazing! I can't wait to see what will happen with her!

Another blessing and miracle was with the family Peña, who are less actives and a lot of ugly things have happened with this family and a lot of bad things with the ward. My entire time here in this ward I have never been able to enter their house or let alone to talk with them. Then there was another miracle Thursday when we were walking by and looked at their house and the sister had just opened a little shop on the side of her house to cut people's hair. My companion and I immediately received the same inspiration and rushed over there! We yelled out to them and then they just yelled and rejected us like normal, but right when we were heading to the door, I said a tiny prayer in my heart that at least they would talk with us. And then a sister of the mom of the family, Carla, turned around immediately and started to talk to us!!! They still wouldn't let us in, but my companion and I asked them if we could be the first testers of their hair cut salon. This sparked interest in them and they let us in! And as you guys saw yesterday . . . they still need some practice, ha ha, because they cut all my hair and now it's super short! But I don't care one bit because I know it was a sacrifice to get in and talk with them. And! We planned a family home evening night for Tuesday! What a miracle! I'm so excited!

Well, I have to go! I just want you all to know that miracles exist!!! God loves us so much and it just depends on our faith! It was awesome to see all of your yesterday and I love you all sooo much!!!!

Love,

Elder Cowan!