Grand Tremblor

Dear Wonderful Family and Friends!

Wow. . . I seriously can't describe how fast the time goes in the mission. Just the thought that I am here, at the same computer, writing another weekly letter to you guys again is insane to me! Ha ha! Each week goes by faster and faster! It's crazy! And, as well, this week I am going to hit ONE YEAR in my mission. It really hasn't even hit me yet and I don't want it to. I can't believe it one single bit. It blows my mind of how something sooooo great can go by sooooo fast. I know I am on the Lord's errand and this is His time right now. But wow! Seriously a year ago I was with you guys! What the?!!!! And I know this next year is only going to go by even faster which scares me a little because this is the best thing in the whole world, being a missionary!!

Okay, well, I have more time to write this week so I will get straight into the letter! Saturday was a pretty scary day for us! Ha ha, well first off, there was a huge rain storm and it was pouring and pouring all day long. Unfortunately, right when you would think the people would be sympathetic, they all just leave you out in the freezing rain! Ha ha, but I'm from Arizona and I loved it! Ha ha but as we were walking and walking around in the rain trying to enter different houses, it got to the point where I was just about soaked all the way to the bones! It was horrible! Ha ha, but it was weird because I was still enjoying the rain! Ha ha you can tell where I'm from! :) Ha ha, but luckily we got into Jocelyn's house, who I just love to death! This family is awesome! Jocelyn is a less active we found knocking on doors and when she opened her door she just gasped out and lusted forward, grabbed my companion and I's shoulder and threw us into the house! Ha ha! Aww, I was so grateful for that because it was about at sunset and being soaked the coldness started to kick in strong. But she let us in and we got to know all her family. She is the only member is her family. She has four kids and her husband, Juan Carlos. They are all soo cool! Like you can just tell that this family is raised on a Mormon background! But Jocelyn was soo incredibly nice to us and got us hot chocolate ready and made us bread and we had a small little "once" as they call it here. But I was still completely soaked and that's when her husband walked in with a pile of clothes and told me to go change. His white shirt and clothes fitted perfectly! It was great! And it felt so nice to get warm again. 

But the scary part was while we were talking and eating over the dinner table, I thought I felt a big semi truck driving by. But then it kept going and things on the table started rumbling and that's when I looked at my glass of hot chocolate and it was like on the movie Jurassic Park when the dinosaurs are close and you can see the ripples in the water. And that's how my hot chocolate was. And that's when it kept increasing and that's when the lights went out and the whole entire house started rolling back and forth and was shaking in all different ways! And yep! It was an earthquake! And that was the strongest earthquake I have ever felt in my life! It was pretty cool but scary as well! It was ranked like a 6.5 or something like that, but it only lasted for about 30-45 seconds. But it seems like it lasts awhile. Elder Kimball jumped up and took the two little kids of the family while I went to the two older kids. But everything was fine! It sure did surprise and scare all of us though! So that was our weekend! Ha ha:)

But to start back at the beginning of the week . . .We were able to find another couple with one of them being less active and the other isn't a member and they, as well, are both named Carolina and Francisco--just like the same couple that I meet in my last sector that just got baptized this month! We were able to enter their house and they are awesome! I love finding families where they aren't all members! It's the best! We were able to teach them and we really found out the doubts and problems that Carolina had with her experience in the Church where she had seen the cold and ugly side of some members and had some bad experiences so she stopped going and went inactive. But now she is really open to listen to us and, as well, she wants her husband to know more of what the Church is. Francisco is super chill and really young and was born in the Catholic church, but has never been strong in religion. I'm so excited to start teaching them! We should be teaching them every Wednesday and Friday now because that's the only times they really have. This family seems so special to me. And we only visited with them for only like 25 minutes. Caroline looks just like my friend, Kylie Kendall! It's cool! Ha ha! 

Then we had like 3 straight days of divisions. One was with our new zone leader and we were able to work together. We went and met Marcos who is one of the two super good families we found right before my surgery. His wife wasn't there but we were able to teach him the Restoration. This is another family that I just love! They have two young kids and there is sooo much unity and love between this family. It really was great to teach them and to testify and promise them that their family can even be more united together and for eternity! Marcos is the one that looks like Marty!

Then the next day we had district meetings where I was able to teach my district about the importance of humility and a broken heart in ministering to our less actives and investigators. It was a great class! And the elders in my district are doing a whole lot better now, which relieved me of a lot of stress this past week! I am glad that Heavenly Father trusts in me to be one of His leaders here. I am so grateful to be an example to others. I love being a district leader and really just being one on one with the missionaries in my district to really get to know them and then to really help them. And in return they really help me too!

After the meetings, I had to go on splits with one elder in my district and we went to our sector where we realized that there is a whole other neighborhood that is being built at the edge of our sector. We found out that it is our sector now and it has been touch less by missionaries! So Elder Chacon, my companion for the splits, and I both got super excited and just contacted the entire sector all day long! Ha ha, I don't think I have contacted so much but we were just super excited to touch this new land. And this neighborhood is really nice too! They are all two floor houses and pretty well off! It is big too! In almost every house there are big complete families!! Ohhh yeaa! Elder Chacon and I both felt something really special in that area. Elder Kimball and I are going to keep contacting there to see what can be in store! Wish us luck!

The next day after that, which was Friday, I believe, I had to do another division. But this time is wasn't planned. I had to go with Elder Nash, another missionary in our ward, to Sanitago. That was because he has been having a lot of pain in his lower body parts, kinda like me. So it got to the point where he was having pain for like 4 days straight and we got ahold of the medico and they wanted to see Elder Nash in an hour at the office at the MTC in Santiago. It got complicated because it takes at least an hour and a half to get there by subway and his companion had to go do 4 baptism interviews. So knowing that I have had to go to the center a lot recently and I know the way really well, they told me to take Elder Nash there. So it was really last minute, but I left Elder Kimball and we went off! Ha ha, I will be honest, I am sick of going to the center of Santiago. In the past 3 weeks I have had to go there and back 10 times now! Ha ha! And it was worse because when we tried going back it was rush hour so it took about two and a half hours to return back to the mission and our sector. But at the same time I felt like I had done a good deed! :) Even though we lost a day in our sector, I felt glad that the leaders of the mission trusted in me to take him outside the misison.

As I have always been learning in my mission, there is always an opposition in all things! I know that with great sacrifices, bring great blessings and miracles. I would like for you guys to pray for Elder Kimball and I because now that we are getting back into things. We have finished all the divisions and splits and with all other distractions that have happened, we both feel that this week will be a week that we will both be able to focus on our sector and give it our all because we really do need to keep achieving more. We have a lot of investigators but we aren't able to have a lot of lessons with them and none are progressing. It looks like we will just have to keep searching till we find the ONE! :) But I hope you will be able to pray with us to help us recover our sector and get moving again because we have lost a lot this transfer with everything that has happened! 

I know Heavenly Father is leading this work. I love being under His command and I am willing to be His instrument! I know faith always brings miracles and I want to start this next year off great!!! I know it and I know I have seen those miracles and I know they won't stop now. I love this work so much! I love being a missionary! May you all feel this spirit as well!

Have a great week!

Love you all!!!

Love Elder Cowan

Healthy Elder Cowan

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, I will just start off by saying that this letter is going to be really short. There are some things the assistants want the district leaders to do extra every week during Internet time and I haven't been able to do it for a couple weeks now, so I have been behind on turning in the past three weeks of informes and stuff! So that took up a lot of my time today! So sorry that this letter is going to be a little bit shorter!

But woo hoo for you, Mom! You are such a great example to me! With helping that humble family out! That really touched my heart! And, as well, it cracks me up whenever you are writing about your family history adventures with Sister Bunker. It sure seems like you have a new "companion!" Ha ha, how awesome! You guys will do great!

And wow! You guys really did change my bathroom around completely! And yea I would love to see some pictures! I would like the surprise as well, but I know I will probably forget all about in at the end of my mission! So just send those pictures my way! President Wood is a stud! Ha ha! 

And Mom, before I forget, I was wondering if you could send me some pictures of grandma and grandpa on both sides of the family. Like I said last week I have been working on "My Family" pamphlet, but I almost finished it all but I would like to put little pictures in the little squares to show them! And talking more about family history . . . We were in the third hour of church yesterday when the bishop announced that the ward was going to have an indexing activity this Wednesday. But after we announced that there was just some blank faces and stares at him. He realized and looked at the brethren and asked them "who knows what indexing is?" And, sadly, almost all the priesthood holders have never heard about it! HA ha and the bishop only a little. So he turned to me and I was able to stand up and teach the ward what indexing is and how important it is in the family history research we can do and taught them how they can do it all and everything! Ha ha It's weird sometimes hearing from you guys in the states and where the progress of the Church is there and the difference it is here in South America, or at least in Chile. but I thought you would be proud of me teaching the ward that mom! Ha ha, I was thinking of you!

As well, just to let everyone know, especially you, Mom, that I am feeling super better!!! This whole past week we were able to leave and work every day and I haven't had any pain. At some times it is only sore or maybe uncomfortable, but there's no pain! Woo hoo! So we almost had a complete week of work! As well, Thursday we went back to the doctors because the doctor wanted to see me and he took off my bandages and there are only two little scabs on the left and right side of my belly button. But they are tiny tiny, I thought I was going to have a cool scar--dang it, ha ha! But you could tell that this doctor did a super good job! He checked me out and confirmed that everything was fine! And I have one more appointment with him at the end of this month just to double check and confirm everything is fine! So no worries family and friends! Elder Cowan is fine! But yes, Mom, I know I have to take it easy still. I was out working every day but we aren't pushing ourselves for right now! Hermana Barreiros calls me a lot just to tell me the same thing you tell me. And, as well, not to be dumb. Ha ha, I love her! :)

Well, this week was a pretty average week! Saturday we had a little bit of a problem with a companionship in my district and they were fighting and arguing so I had to do some special divisions for some time to separate those two elders. It really is sad that sometimes the pride can enter the hearts and make some forget all about the charity and pure love of Christ. It sadden me to walk into their pension and was just hit by a wall of a bad spirit. I was able to sit down with the two elders and resolve the problem and everything. It was something that I wasn't planning on, but I'm glad to be their district leader and to help them be real missionaries and to not have them waste their time arguing when they can be saving Heavenly Father's children. But for right now everything is a little better.

Other than that we were able to get some lessons in for the week! And we found some new investigators as well. Like Jose! Who we were just contacting and he opened his door and yelled out to us "HOLA!" We were a little surprised and went to go talk with him and he let us into his house right away and he's awesome! We just had a tiny lesson with him, but Elder Kimball was talking about how we have been called of God to share what we know, and even though we may not be able to talk completely perfect in the language, we know of the message that we share is true. Elder Kimball said that with such sincerity and really  looking straight into the eyes of Jose. And in that moment we know he felt the spirit. He looked up at us and told us, "It doesn't matter what language you speak . . . I can feel it." It was such a sweet moment as he took his hand and was pointing out his heart and kept telling us that he feels it. I am so grateful for the role of the spirit! It really is key in everything we do! I try soo hard to have and keep the spirit with me everyday! It is the factor that changes everything!!!! And I am so grateful and each and everyone of us that have been baptized have the gift of this! How incredible, right?!!! For me, baptisms are very special, obviously, but one of the most special things I love seeing is the ordinance of the confirmation to a new convert! It really helps me to know that they have made it to this point, and even though I won't be with them for long, they have that spirit for a lifetime! And I know they will all be good!

I love the SPIRIT! I love how I have the chance to feel it everyday in my mission. And not to just feel it, but to share it with others. It is such a tender experience to see someone feel this spirit for the first time in their entire life! It is incredible! And I am so grateful to be a messenger of this wonderful Spirit. It really has changed my life being able to feel this so much this past year. And I hope all of you can feel this Spirit every day too because you can! It's incredible! A member of the Godhead can always be with us! Isn't that incredible! It is such a great privilege and blessing! 

I have to go now! I hope you will all have a great week! And a week full of opportunities to feel the impressions of the Holy Ghost. Search for it; it wants to be with you so badly! And make sure to help others feel it as well! I am so grateful to be in this mission! It's the best! And I love each and every one of you soo much! 

Love,

Elder Cowan

Recovery

Dear Best and Wonderful Family and Friends In The Whole World!!!!!!

Well, I will be honest . . . it is hard starting this letter off . . . as I have been on the computer and reading all your guys letters, I have just been balling my eyes out in gratitude. I don't think I will be able to describe in the least bit of how much love I have for each and every one of you. I have truly been blessed in my life beyond measure where I don't know how the Lord could be so merciful to have blessed me with the best family and friends in the world! 

Well! Here I am! I'm alive everyone! Don't worry! Ha ha! But I will go into detail of how everything went down with the surgery! But first of all I want to express my gratitude for each and everyone of you! I wish I could tell each and every single one of you in person to thank you for everything you have done for me! And to be able to be there to give you such a big hug. I love you all so much! I especially want to thank each and every one of you for your prayers. Just thinking of how many great and wonderful people who have been praying for me nonstop this past week has really just put tears to my eyes, with a heart full of the love you all have demonstrated this past week! I know prayer is real. If there is one thing that I have learned this past week is the power of prayer. To just know that all my family, friends, a lot of missionaries, and to know that my name has been put on prayer rolls in temples across the West Coast, has really endowed me with the strength this past week. I can't thank you all enough! There have been countless number of times where I have felt all your prayers in one moment this past week! I love you, I love you, I love!!!!

Well, onto my week! Let's start right off back with Monday! To be honest I wasn't nervous at all to have the surgery! I was really calm and relaxed and ready. But we started off by arriving to this HUGE hospital to where I had to wait at the reception's desk to fill out a lot of documents which started off with the tiny obstacle to where they almost didn't let me go to have the surgery because, I suppose, that one of the people in the mission office was supposed to give me a paper that says that the church will pay for the operation, but I never heard anything. The receptionist was a little upset and said that if there was no payment . . . no surgery. I called all our different leaders and while Elder Kimball was talking to the lady, I just bowed my head and offered a tiny prayer to let this all work out in order. I looked up and right then the head office manager at the hospital just so happened to pass by and asked us what was the problem. We explained it to her and he looked at my name tag and yelled out, "Oh! They're the Mormons! I have had patients from your Church, you are all really honest and I know you guys will pay in the future." Ha ha! So then he turned to the receptionist, gave her a little look and after we didn't have any more complications. :)

Then they showed us to my hospital bed room where I had to change into one of those awkward gown things where you feel like your are basically walking around naked, ha ha! And from there and for the rest of the afternoon, they did a whole lot of tests! They first put me up to a IV to where the nurse missed my vein like 3 times, ha ha! I actually kinda had to help her find it and push it in, ha ha, good thing I love anatomy! Ha ha! From there they took some heart rate tests, some blood tests, and an ultra sound test. Which now I finally feel what women have to go through when they're prego ha ha! But then, finally, I was done and they made me shower with this special skin cleaner shampoo stuff and rushed me off to the operation room!

From there the last thing I remember was the really attractive nurse who told me to count down from 100 and I remember I got down to about 91. . . and then I was out! Ha ha. I woke up to Elder Kimball and two other office elders from the mission next to my bed. Ha ha, they said I was pretty out of it and was pretty funny. Ha ha, I still don't know exactly what I said, but I hope it was not as embarrassing as my wisdom teeth video. The other elders just told me that when I woke up I was just talking about the attractive nurse who put the sleep medicine in me right before the surgery. . . ohhh mmyy. Ha ha, a little embarrassing ha ha. But they told me that the surgery was about 2 hours, but it only felt like 2 minutes to me. But from then it was about 5 and from then I just rested and had a huge team of nurses that took care of me the whole night! Elder Kimball, poor little thing, slept on a little 4 or 5 foot couch bed thingy that they made him, but he is such a stud! I wouldn't want ANY other companion to be with me unless it was Elder Kimball! He was a rock star this week! And I think I will always be indebted and grateful for his service this past week! 

President came in at about 11 at night with his wife and that really made my day! They are the best! We talked for a while and that is also when I was able to talk with you and Dad, as well Mom! And as I said on the phone, they weren't letting me fall asleep until I went to the bathroom. Well, that was a little annoying because I didn't have any feeling in my lower part of my body, but I knew I had to go to the bathroom. But finally at 1:05 in the morning I called the nurses, told them to get me up, and I went to the bathroom. For a couple of hours they were trying to make me pee in bed into a weird medal thingy. But it was just awkward, so I was grateful when I stood and gravity did all the work! :) Ha ha and  I was able to sleep through the whole night!

Tuesday the office missionaries came again. They came to pick me up and they dropped me off at our pension. So on Tuesday I don't really remember a whole lot. I remember sleeping almost the whole entire day. Wednesday I remember was probably the most painful day and the hospital gave all my medical papers and with the prescription of the pills I needed to take, and gave them to the office missionaries who didn't realize they had those papers until Wednesday when they were finally able to come by and give me my pain pills which made that night a whoooole lot better than the day and afternoon! Ha ha! And basically from there, each day I took recovering in the house. Yes, Mom, I was obedient and didn't leave the house. But just being in rest and recovering wasn't going to stop me from doing something!!!

So I was able to read all the books of Luke and John and half of Acts in the New Testament. I watched all the church movies we had in the house. I finally made my "My Family" pamphlet and filled it out with pictures and our information. As well, I read the entire Liahona from May of this year and read all the talks from General Conference and I read all my journal entries from day one up until now! So even though I was in the house a lot, I was studying, studying, studying!!!! 

But I will be honest, Wednesday was the most painful day . . . but Friday was the worst. Not physically, but just mentally. I was going a little crazy just being in the same house in the same place, not being able to do anything. It was really hard for me. But that is when I felt most of your guys prayers came into effect. Right when I finished the movie, "To This End Was I Born" I was left thinking a lot of the life of the Savior. And with earlier in the week already reading the first half of the New Testament, I have been pondering a lot of our Savior's life and ministry. That is when I started to be a little bit more chill and realized that we as humans will always have the ability to be better . . . to change. At that moment I read a general conference talk by Elder Bednar about "the load" and Elder Uchtdorf's talk about gratitude. Those two talks helped me a whole lot to be able to really humble myself, to realize more of the Lord's hand in my life at this moment and to know that everything will be fine. That everything . . . no matter what will work out for its good. Another confirmation came to me as I read over my mission journals and as I read time over time of the miracles and tender mercies the Lord has blessed me with this past year in Chile. I knew He hadn't left me. I knew He wouldn't stop those miracles. And I know without a doubt that I have been protected by Him this past week. Today was evidence of that as I prayed for the strength to be able to write you guys today. And as I got off my knees in the morning of this humble prayer . . . I was able to raise straight to my feet without pain and started to walk without pain. 

I know my Heavenly Father has been watching over me. There is no doubt in my mind. I still can't describe the force, the love, the feeling of comfort and peace, that you guys' prayers gave me. Those prayers really raised me up. I am grateful for the chance to have this past week to get to know my Savior and Heavenly Father on a more personal basis. I am grateful for my companion, Elder Kimball, who was the most patient through it all, who was always there on my side to help me. And I am grateful for the power of prayer. That through the many struggling times this past week, I know the Lord hasn't stopped His work--to which was confirmed to me in your lovely letter, Mom, which brought tears to me eyes to know that you were able to take over and bring those souls unto Christ where I couldn't. Some might think that with almost two weeks lost in the month of August, that there isn't must time left. But Everything happens for a reason! There will be nothing to break my faith in my Savior Jesus Christ to believe that miracles still exist, that there is ALWAYS a way, even in the mist of the darkness. I know He lives. He loves us and watches over us. He has been with me and is still with me. My heart burns bright for the love I have for my Redeemer. There is nothing to worry about. I know I still have more time to recover, but in time and in order the Lord will bring worth His work and His glory here. 

Again, I humbly and lovingly express my gratitude for all of your prayers that really physically, mentally, and emotionally have healed me this past week. I have been praying every day that for all the people that are praying in my behalf that they may be blessed in returned. May the Lord be with you all. May you all feel His love. And I hope you can all feel my love for each and every one of you in this letter. I know I can't express it well just over an email, but I know how the Spirit works, and I pray that it will testify of these things to you all. I love you all. Thanks for everything! I will keep going forward until everything will work out! Don't worry about me! Good ole Elder Kevin Cowan is alive and strong! May you all have a great week! 

LOVE YOU!

Elder Cowan!

Surgery

Dear Family and Friends,

Well, as probably most of you have heard, I'm going to have surgery Monday!! And for those that haven't heard, it's because I have a hernia. But the operation will happen at 2 in the afternoon and it is going to be in the best hospital in South America. I went last Wednesday and seriously, this hospital is HUGE! Ha ha! It's incredible! The Church really does take care of their missionaries ha ha!

But with this whole hernia problem and all it has just slowed down everything. And just as everyone knows me . . . I don't like taking things slow . . . especially in the mission! Ha ha, but it has been a great time for me to reflect on the Lord's will and to trust in Him even more! I know I will just need to develop more patience this week ha ha! But with this health problem, it took up about half of this week! Because after I wrote you guys Monday, we were able to work a little bit but I was having a lot of pain so we couldn't get a whole lot done.

Then Tuesday we had to go to the CCM (MTC) which is about 2 hours in subway to go meet the mission doctor for all the missions in Chile. His name is Doctor Johnson and super cool! Ha ha! And he was able to identify in about 30 seconds that I had a hernia. And from that 30 seconds he was already on the phone with another doctor scheduling an appointment for me to have surgery. Ha ha, it all went really fast! But after that I had to do some small paper work and we were able to finally finish everything and head back to another 2 hour ride in subway and bus . . .

Then Wednesday, we had to return to the CCM to go meet up with Doctor Johnson and he took my companion and I to another hospital that is about 30 to 40 minutes more away to where I got to meet that biggest and nicest hospital I have ever seen! And the biggest and best in South America. It's called, Clinica de los Condes. It's super fancy. There we met Dr. Ferrario who is super cool! Ha ha, I just love doctors! Ha ha, I think all my time in physical therapy and studying anatomy so much has just changed my mind to enjoy all this stuff. But Dr. Ferarrio lived in Chicago, I think that was the state, where he studied and practiced surgery. You can really tell that he is up there on the high list of the doctors in this hospital. After talking with him, I felt really comfortable with him doing the surgery. He really knows what he's doing! So don't worry anyone! :)

But anyway! Other than those trips to and back from the center of Santiago which took up the whole first half of the week, we were able to get out and work a little bit. And this week has really been a humbling week for me. I don't know how the Lord can be soo merciful and loving to His children. This is because as we are starting a new transfer, and knowing that this surgery was going to slow some things down, we realized we needed to find some more prepared people. We had a great last transfer and we were able to find a lot of people, but a lot of them haven't been progressing. So we realized and have been studying a lot in Preach My Gospel on how to help our sector. After a couple days, Elder Kimball and I were talking about how the Lord is hastening His work. As we thought about that we came to a conclusion that if the Lord really is hastening the work, that means He really is preparing people for us, and if He really is preparing people for us, that means we can get baptisms this month! It was our only conclusion! So we decided that as a companionship we would do contacts to find more new investigators, we wouldn't write any of the contacts information unless we knew and felt that they had the potential and were prepared. And I don't know if any one of you have read Elder Free´s letter, but it's quite ironic because just as Elder Free and his companion decided to have a theme for there transfer, Elder Kimball and I did the same. Ha ha (Even though he's in Japan and I'm in Chile we are always connected as best friends ha ha!) Our phrase is, "Si quiere el mejor, tiene que ser major" which in English it is, "If you want better, you have to be the better!" We realized that we had a good transfer this last transfer, especially as a whitewash companionship, but good isn't sufficient for us. We want the Best! Just as the talk, "Good, Better, Best!" So we have decided that the only way to hasten this work--which evidence that the work is hastening--is by having baptisms. We knew we needed to find people that could be baptized within a month's time. And, oh my, . . . how merciful the Lord has been with us these past couple of days!

And that's where Julio comes in!!! And he is incredible!!!! But he was an old contact that went really well that we did about a month ago. But we had almost forgotten about him. Thursday as we were able to leave a little bit to go work all of our lessons fell through which just made us contacting the whole day, basically, which walking made the pain even worse. But I knew the Lord would help us! And as we were contacting for hours, I realized how late at night it was getting and we were going from door to door and we could only talk to 3 people. I could tell that Elder Kimball was getting a little down and I just tried to motivate him to keep going. I shared with him that there MUST be an opposition in all things first. I shared with him examples of this in swimming and of how Coach Rob would murder us in practice to destroy our bodies to just have us, as a result, receive the joy by winning our races. And also of how Joseph Smith before he had the First Vision (something HUGE) had to have the opposition first when Satan attacked him as he started to pray. I told Elder Kimball that as long as we keep going, and push through the opposition there will be a great reward and it will all be worth it . . . .Then three houses down we knocked on Julio's door . . .

At first, we didn't even recognize that it was Julio, our contact from about a month ago. But he came out and opened the door with a huge smile and just yelled out, ´"Come on in!!" Aw, I was soo relieved to be able to enter a house, which at this time it was 8:30 at night and we only had 30 more minutes to work that day. But we entered his house to meet his whole family. His wife, Ivonne, and his daughter, Jennifer! And even just writing this story is already making me teary eyed. But I can testify that this family has been prepared from the hand of the Lord. As we started getting to know them, they just shot off questions that you could tell that they have been waiting for some time for someone to answer. It was mostly Ivonne, the wife, who I felt the Savior's love for soo much in that lesson. She asked us what is the fundamental of our church, and why are there so many different churches today, and what makes our church different than all the rest. Elder Kimball and I both smiled at each other and were happily ready to start teaching them about the Restoration which they just LOVED! We testified about the second principle about how this gospel can bless their families and that is when Jennifer and Ivonne started crying. And the spirit was SO strong! After talking about the ministry of Jesus Christ and His Atonement the whole family was crying. And then, as we started talking about the Apostasy, Ivonne looked up at us and said, ´"What you guys are saying right now about this apostasy thing is exactly how I feel in my life." She then went on to tell us that she had felt lost for soo many years. She told us that she has always had a belief in God, but has never been able to express it in any other church.

At the end of the lesson, we testified with all the will and power that we had in us to testify of the power of the Book of Mormon and the importance of the priesthood and how that is what makes our church different from all the rest. They just awed in amazement as you could tell that they were finally receiving the answers they have been waiting for, for so long. They all started crying again, including me a little. When Ivonne expressed just how this world always destroys the hope in people, I was able to turn to the Book of Mormon and had her read Ether 12:4. And she just soaked it all up! She looked up, wiped away her tears, and asked us, "Do you have the ability to bless others?" As I started to respond, the spirit was overwhelming as I testified to her that we have been called from a modern day prophet to declare this message of hope to all. After Ivonne and Jennifer both asked for priesthood blessings of strength. Elder Kimball and I gave each one a priesthood blessing and that is where I thought the spirit couldn't get any stronger, but it sure did! It was amazing! One of the most powerful lessons I have ever had!

As well, we were able to find Paola who, as well, was an old contact from about a month ago and right as we knocked on her door her husband came home from work and opened the gate and let us right in! And this family, you can just tell that they have the family appearance as a Latter-day Saint family! Actually the husband looks a lot like my cousin, Marty. We were able to share with them for some time and they are super prepared as well! And both of these families are married too! Woo hoo! So we won't have any problems with that! Woo hoo!

But just from these past two days from when Elder Kimball and I decided to be a little bit better and to focus on hastening the Lord's work by teaching his elect people the Lord has blessed us in this short amount of time with these two wonderful complete families! Aww, I already love them sooo much! I have just been really humbled on why the Lord has blessed us with so many families to teach. This has never happened in my mission before, but I know the Lord loves me. I know He trusts in me to help these wonderful families become eternal. I will try every single whit to be better so that they do the best thing in their lives to come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ by taking His name upon them through the covenant of baptism. I am so grateful for the Lord's hand in everything. I know the Spirit testifies of the truth. And I am so grateful to be a messenger and the hope of Israel! Woo rahh! Woo rahh! What such great blessings!

I love you all soo much! Don't worry about my surgery. The Lord is with us. I know He knows me. He knows my weaknesses and I know we can be perfected through the grace of His Atonement. Thank you to all who said that they will be praying for me. I appreciate it a lot and I have the best family and friends in the world! May the Lord be with all of you!

Love you tons!

Love,

Elder Cowan