18th of September

Dear Family and Friends!

Holy cow! I really can't believe that I am writing to you guys again! It feels like I just got left the Internet store to write you guys! Holy cow! It's crazy how fast the time flies!

Well, wonderful friends and family! I really am kinda at a loss of what to write! I feel like all the days just blurred into one this past week! And because I was almost done writing my letter to you guys but then the computer crashed so here I am writing to you guys again! Ha ha! 

Basically, the whole thing that occupied us this past week was the 18th of September which is the HUGE Independence Day for Chile! And when I am talking about HUGE I really mean it! They go all out for this date! And they prepare months before for this one day! Ha ha! Let's just say was the best Independence day I have had and probably ever will experience in my whole life! It was incredible! 

But since it is such a huge thing that means everyone is occupied with it! Basically, from Tuesday up until yesterday everyone was off and basically had the whole week free to celebrate! But with that, it just includes a lot of parties and a lot of visits to peoples houses. . . all in all a slow time for missionary work. But it was still amazing to celebrate this great country's Independence! CHILE RULES!!!! Ya Po!!! Seriously, I am in the best country ever! I love being here! It's the best to be a missionary here! 

Well, the 18th fell on a Thursday I'm pretty sure if I can recall well enough. So we were able to have Monday and Tuesday to have two straight working days, but other than that it was all slow. Monday we had a family home evening with Paolo Fuentes who is a super cool new member that just moved into the ward. They told us that we had to plan the lesson for them, ha ha. Well, we didn't really know what to share with them since we didn't know them, but we both decided to watch the "4 Minutes" general conference talk. It actually was perfect for them because it is he and his wife and his new born baby girl. But the thing we didn't know is that they haven't been sealed in the temple yet. So we were able to motivate them that they need to take advantage of their time and get married! And now they have a time in the middle of Octubre set for the temple! Woo hoo! Aww I love the temple sooooo much!!!! Take advantage of having a temple only MINUTES away!

As well, we were able to meet with Gustavo who now has a baptism date! Woo hoo! For the middle of Octuber and he is going great! We found out that his parents are 7th day Adventists but he's going strong! Ha ha! He is actually applying for Juilliard (I hope I spelled that right) but it's that huge famous musical arts college and he's applying for! And holy cow! He plays the piano like crazy! It's incredible!!!!! I have never seen such great talent before! The applications are gonna start in December though. 

After Monday and Tuesday that is when the 18th just took over everything basically. Wednesday we had our district meetings which I have such an awesome district! They are all such studs! Then Elder Kimball and I had to go to the church to help set up the decorations for the ward activity which took the whole day and we didn't have a ladder so we had to improvise like the Chilean way and put two tables on top of each other to put up the banners and flags! I was the tallest so they made the tall "green go" go up on the wobbly table and do it. But the roof was just outside my reach so I had to be on my tippy toes the whole entire time from about 4:30 till 9 at night almost! Oh man, yea, you could say that was a heavy calf work out! Ha ha. I was dead the next day! But it was actually really great to gain a ton of the trust of the members now! Since we were the only missionaries that stayed here this transfer they trust in us a ton now! 

Then we had the big 18th celebrating which we started at the 1st counselors house for lunch at about 1 in the afternoon and had a ton of empanadas! Holy cow! You wouldn't believe it! Just at that house alone Elder Kimball and I both ate 7 each! And they are so incredibly good! AWW!! I love empanadas! That's a traditional thing to eat on the 18th. Then we went to the ward activity right after that where we partied hard! Ha ha! There were tons of games and activities to do and a ton of dances. It was great! And even more empanadas! We had a total of 8 that day! Ha ha! That with a ton of other food! Woo, we ate so good! Ha ha and I got crowned as a official Chilean!! Woo hoo Ya po!! That's because I won in a lot of the games and activities and they were all super impressed! All the members were so happy that I've become a real Chilean! HA ha, it felt pretty great to tell the truth to be told that! Now I'm a Chileano greengo! Ha ha! It was awesome! We had a great time with the members! The activity was all day long and it was just endless games and dances (but, no, we didn't dance ha ha). 

After that Friday up until Sunday everyone was dead. Ha ha including Elder Kimball and me. We hardly could visit people and the only people we could talk to were the drunk people from the parties from the night before, ha ha. But we were able to have two tender mercies Saturday when I had a terrible headache. We were just contacting the entire day because we couldn't get into anyone's houses and I really just wanted something to eat. But we kept going and contacted the entire day while my headache was getting worse. That is when we just ended up talking with someone in the street that didn't want anything to do with us and I just closed my eyes and offered a tiny prayer that Heavenly Father would help me with my headache. And not even 5 SECONDS after I ended that prayer I turned around and there was a women walking super fast and whipped out a bag of chocolate chip cookies and said, "Here you go elders!" . . . . I couldn't even believe it. Just two seconds after my prayer was answered. I couldn't even control my emotions and just said thank you and had tears in my eyes for how merciful the Lord is sometimes. I really was such in shock of what really happened that I turned around to go talk to that nice women but . . . when I turned around she was gone! As if she just disappeared! Elder Kimball couldn't believe it either and we back tracked a little bit and knocked on the same doors to see if she went into one of those houses, but we couldn't find her in any of them! I am still confused to this moment of where she went, but I can testify that she was an angel sent to bless us! I have never been so grateful for cookies before! As well, later that night we got a call from a less active that is recovering from cancer and she yelled in the phone that we needed to go to her house now. So we hung up and ran over there to which we opened the door and it was the whole bishopric and half the Relief Society basically in this tiny house singing "Happy Birthday" for my companion! Ha ha, they were a little confused and thought his birthday was that day, but it's actually not till the 3rd of Octuber ha ha, but they had a ton of food and cake for us and it was another tender mercy to share the time with them since we had a really long day with no success contacting. I love this ward! I love every ward I am called to serve in! And more! I just love the Chilean people! They are the best! 

I love Chile so much! It is a place that is and forever will be saved in my heart. It really is the best place and I know my Heavenly Father is so merciful enough to have sent me here to serve this pueblo! I love it, I love it, I LOVE IT!

I love you guys as well and hope you have an incredible week!

Love,

Elder Cowan