One Year! Finding Another Way!

WOOOO HOOOO!!! Yea Amazing Family and Friends!!!!

Okay, I just am so pumped right now to share these wonderful experiences that we have had this past week! Ahhh! I just wanna first start off by saying, "The Lord is Hastening His Work!!!!!" Do you guys understand that?!! Just thinking that makes me want to go run out and start working!!! There isn´t time to waste here guys!! And, yes, as most of you know, I did hit one year in the mission! And I will just be honest, I have been trying to think of what I can write to you guys about my feelings about my mission and toward me hitting my one year mark, but I know none of you will understand this happiness and joy that I have and that I hold so personally to my heart. The mission is just indescribable, but I will let all know this, it's the best. I have learned and changed so much in my mission. I really think out of everything in my mission, I have converted myself and have had the biggest change within myself. Other than that, I feel like I won't be able to describe my feelings for this past year without using the typical cliche phrases. But just imagine the happiest moment of your life, and then at least double that happiness and that's what you feel in a mission.

As well, I just feel weird writing about my one year mark because it still hasn't hit me yet or I just haven't accepted it yet. Like really this past year has gone by soo fast that I can't believe it one bit. I was on divisiones when I hit my one year mark when I was telling him about my one year and everything and was just thinking out loud of why something SO great and wonderful has to go by SO fast and short?! Then this elder opened his scriptures and shared Alma 40:8 with me which says, 

    "Now whether there is more than one time appointed for men to rise it mattereth not; for all do not die at once, and this mattereth not; all is as ONE DAY with God, and TIME only is measured unto men."

He shared this with me and told me that he believes that time is just a thing human beings have used to "try" at their best to measure the things a lot greater than those from God. And I don't know, but it was a cool experience. I am on the Lord's time, I know that without a doubt! And His "time" is a whole lot different from our time. And I know this past year has gone by so fast, but it is the best ever!

Well, okay! Now onto my week! I think I will start from backwards of how the week went a little! It was just all so good! Wooh! I am just so excited to keep going and going to hasten the Lord's work!! :) One awesome experience I had was on Friday. We got special permission from our leaders form the mission to accompany the daughter of the second counselor in the bishopric to her school. We went to her school because she had a project where she was in charge of the class for a whole day. So she could do whatever she wanted and teach whatever she wanted to teach. Her name is Kata and being an AWESOME member missionary who is only 17 years old in high school decided to teach her whole class about the Church!! Woo hoo! (And just to let you guys know, the schools here are really different and unlike back home where it's almost impossible to talk about religion in schools, but here it's not a problem at all!)

So we were able to go and help her teach her whole entire class! Ha ha! It was soo cool! There were about 25 people in the class and we taught EVERYTHING! Ha ha, it felt so cool to be in front of this big group and to just testify to them of this truth! I kinda felt like Dan Jones! Ha ha! It was awesome! It really was just a question and answering. And we were able to answer every single question! Ha ha. it was a sweet experience! We taught the Restoration, Plan of Salvation, temples, Word of Wisdom, Law of Chastity, family history work, and the rest of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Ha ha it was soo sweet! There were a ton of questions! Ha ha and the class was about 2 hours and we used it all up! Ha ha! 

There was a question from the teacher who was the most interested in the gospel of Jesus Christ, when she raised her hand and asked us,"If God loves us, why doesn't He just show us that He's here and show us the way? Why does He make us have tests in life?" As I was thinking of the best way to respond, I turned to her and asked another question to answer her own question. I then asked her,"Well, why do you give tests to your students? You want the best for them right? Why don't you just give them all the answers? Why does it have to be hard sometimes for them?"  Ha ha ha, after that the teacher realized the answer to which the whole classed just said "ohhhh" at how I got back at the teacher with my other questions! Ha ha, it was funny!

Then Thursday we had Elder Walter F. Gonzalez from the 70! He is in charge of the South American South zone of the Church and I don't know if you guys remember, but he came in Abril to our mission to launch the new Pilot Plan that our mission and three other misisons are trying out! Well, he wanted to come again to see how it's been going! And it really has been giving GREAT results! It is such a HUGE privilege that I get to be in one out of only four missions in the whole entire world that gets to try out this new pilot plan! As a mission we are baptizing a whole lot more, reactivating a ton more, and the number at our sacrament meeting attendance has shot up as well! We are seeing straight miracles with this plan! And it is so awesome! We are trying this plan out till December and we are progressing and leading South America thanks to this plan! It's incredible!

So he came and talked to all the mission Thursday which was so cool! And he really pumped us all up! I already know right now that September is going to be an incredible month! I know we are going to break records and have an overflowing of miracles! And you know why?! Because HE´S HASTENING HIS WORK! The field is white as Doctrine and Covenants says! So family and friends get your sheaves ready to harvest!!! It's game time! Ha ha! :)

But an ever cooler experience was Wednesday the day before when I got a call in the morning from the assistants and they were inviting me specifically to a special private meeting with Elder Gonzalez and some leaders. Well, I just thought that the meeting included all zone and district leaders. But I got back to the house and was ready to leave when there was another district leader who we live with and I asked him if he was ready to go. He looked at me confused and later we found out that I was the only district leader in our zone that was invited. That made me a little nervous for some reason. But Elder Kimball and I left to the MTC, where the meeting was going to be, and found out that all the zone leaders were invited to this meeting, and only four district leaders out of the entire misison were invited. Woow! I felt super privileged to be there! And out of the four district leaders I knew the other three! They were Elder Hatch (who I lived in Clara Estrella with), Elder Smith (who is the elder with the jumpsuit that one p-day who reminds me a lot of Austin Mills ha ha) and Elder Goates who is a super great buddy of mine who was in my same group when we got here! 

When the meeting started President introduced Elder Gonzalez to the leaders and told him that there were four district leaders who He trusts in a lot and who have had a lot of success and great results with this pilot plan. Woow! I was just a little embarrassed and blushed! But each one of us got to talk to him personally for like 30 seconds and shake his hand! It was so cool! And then the meeting started, well, it really wasn't a meeting, it was just a big discussion. We were all sharing our thoughts about the pilot plan. The point of the meeting was to see how the plan is going and to see what else we can do for it to go better and to work out the nits and bits of the plan. 

Seriously, if I could describe the meeting, it was as if Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were in that room. You could just feel the power and just the feeling that we were laying down a legacy here for the Lord's work! And if I had to relate it to something, really I felt like one of the Founding Fathers of the Constitution but instead, a Founding Missionary for the Hastening of His Work. I know that not a whole lot of missionaries get that type of opportunity. I know and can testify without a doubt that that meeting will go down for one in the record books in the history of the Church! It was such a great experience! Elder Gonzalez even told us at the end, "Elders! If we can work out all the tiny knicks and tweebs of this pilot plan, then this will go forth throughout all the Lord's work and not just in four missions right now and it will be a testimony that He is really Hastening His work! Wooow! That's huge! And I will be able to say that I was at the counsel meeting! :) Amazing!!!!!

Now onto the time we had for working in our sector which, as well, we had miracles! Woo hoo! The huge miracle was with Francisco (another new new Francisco ha ha) and his parents, Alejandro and Nancy! We have been struggling lately with new investigators and with the investigators that we have right now to progress. But we decided to go to a new part in our sector. Just as Elder Kimball always tells me, "We have to Find Another Way, because we're not going to give up!" So we decided to changed things up and go to the farthest part of our sector. It's like an extra 30 minutes walk and it's a new, new neighborhood with houses that have 2 floors (which is rare) and you have to cross all this farm land. It's really out in the middle of no where, but it's in our sector as well! So we decided to go and start contacting. We realized right away that this sector is a little more wealthy so the people are a little bit more prideful and stuck up. But we decided we were going to Find Another Way! So we started contacting, contacting, and contacting. . . We contacted from about 3:30 till about 8 at night And for almost that whole entire time we only entered one house. It was hard, but we kept going!

We even ran into the "president" of the neighborhood and he was a cranky rich man that told us straight up that we weren't going to have success there. But we just smiled and told him, "If the Lord wants, we'll just have to see!" Ha ha, and then we walked away! But as we were there all night we got really hungry, so we went to a tiny shop and bought some snacks and we were just wiped! I was exhausted! We were eating our food when there was a young man (Francisco) who opened the door right next to us and called out to us. We hurried and swallowed our food and only when we were able to say our names, took our hands and pulled us into his house! Ha ha! Then there was a lady on the couch who looked a little sad, but when she saw us, jumped up and started yelling in excitement and kept saying, "Oh yea, oh yea, they really did come!" We were a little confused and asked her if she was a member. She told us she wasn't but that she has been waiting for us to knock on her door (even though we technically never did!)

She went on to explain that she saw us some time before contacting and knocking on doors. She saw us when she needed to leave and go buy bread at the store. She went on to tell us that when she saw us, she was hoping that maybe we would pass by her house. But having to go by bread she didn't want to miss the opportunity so she told her son, Francisco, that if we came by to let them him. She continued to tell us that she hurried and bought bread and came back to only hear the sad news from her son that the missionaries never came by, she told herself to just forget about it and that maybe we left to another sector. But at that same time, Francisco who has a lot of health problems right now (which they don't know what he has, but it's pretty serious) was having a hard time breathing and wanted to go take some fresh air. So that is when he opened the door, just to see us eating right in front of his house! 

We were able to enter and meet the whole family and they are just super prepared. I know Heavenly Father has been so merciful to us with having this family prepared. They are incredible. Tuesday we just had a tiny lesson where we were able to find out that their nephew and brother in law just passed away. And, as well, we found out that they have been looking for a faith but are too confused on where to go to find the "one."  :) :) :)

We were able to pass by again Saturday in the night where we were able to teach the Restoration. Afterwards they invited "a tomar once" which we found on the table coffee and tea. I was a little nervous that we had just found these new super awesome investigators and now we were going to have problems with Word of Wisdom. A lot of times when we have entered houses for the first time where we eat once and when we try to tell the people the reasons of why we don't drink coffee and tea and, with my experiences in the mission, it really just closes off the investigators because they don't understand, especially if it is in the first lesson. That's just how it was on Saturday with our first lesson with them. But we were able to teach the Restoration and, as well, they didn't get offended when we explained the situation about coffee and tea. And from there we were able to teach the Word of Wisdom which I have never been able to do in the first lesson with investigators, but that just proves of how prepared they are. And they understood it all! And, as well, they accepted to go to church. Which! They did attend church with us yesterday and it was just incredible because it was our ward conference, as well, and the Spirit was so strong in the meeting! And! The best part! They accepted baptism dates for the 20th of September!! Woo hooo! Seriously they are incredible! The Lord is Hastening His work. And the only way to do that is by helping us find His chosen elect! 

I hope that you guys can join in our prayers and fast this Sunday for this baptism date. And that they can make it to this date to be able to make this covenant with our loving Heavenly Father! I am so grateful for This Work! I love being a missionary! I am a little nervous because the 8th of September we have transfers which I hope I don't go! But if it so be, so be it! I love this work so much it doesn't matter where I am!

I love you all so much! I hope you will be able to be witnesses just like me in seeing the Hastening of the Lord's work and to feel the love He has for all of His children! 

Wish you all a great week! As well to all those who are starting up their studies! God Speed!

Love,

Elder Cowan