"The Spirit saith unto me, Look and I looked . . ."

Dear Amazing Family and Friends!

Thank you all for your comments, prayers, love, and letters on my behalf! You are all tremendously important in my life and I love you all! But as you all have been waiting to hear! Yes! I Had transfers today! Wooow! The time is going even faster! I feel like the 4 1/2 months I was in 4 Poniente flew by as if it was only one month!!! And yes it was a little harder to say goodbye this time. It seems like each ward I go to in my mission is a little harder and harder to say goodbye. 

But we left with a bang! Woo hoo! The whole week Elder Kimball and I just gave it our all! He really is my best friend! I'm going to miss him so much! But I'm for sure going to his homecoming and then we are going to party it up at BYU! Ha ha! But for some reason the beginning of the last week we lost a lot of time because of meetings and baptism interviews I had to do and everything! But finally we got special permission and Elder Kimball and I along with Nancy and Alejandro went to the temple!!!  Woo hoo (oh yea by the way! the Phoenix temple looks so beautiful!!). But yea! Us four went to the temple Saturday and we were there almost the whole day! And it was a little stressful but it all worked out in the end! 

We decided to go to the 2 o'clock session to do baptisms for the dead. but when we got there Nancy really wanted to look for the names of her parents that have passed away and there were some complications with that, but after a lot of patience from the temple workers with Nancy they were able to find her parents names. As well, the whole youth of a stake planned to go to the 2 o'clock session so it was super packed! And we were running around going here and there and losing our converts in the temple and everything ha ha, aww it was a little crazy and not really organized, the temple workers were getting really stressed ha ha.

But in the end of everything we did the baptisms. Oh, and as well, Mom, I decided to print out some of our names for Elder Kimball to baptize me. But the temple worker printed out all the male names that needed to be baptized ha ha so I got baptized for 18 names! It was really awesome! Hope that was okay to do so many baptisms! :) But after Nancy and Alejandro just loved the temple! They want to go at least every month! And that's the goal we have put with them!

And the awesome thing was Elder Kimball and I being able to enjoy our "fruits" Sunday when we had already heard that we had transfers and all but in the sacrament meeting we were able to see Alejandro pass the sacrament, receive a calling to be the building coordinator of the chapel, and he gave a talk!! Aww, he is seriously progressing soooo fast! He gave a simple but powerful talk about the importance of the Book of Mormon in our lives. And that's where the title of this letter comes from because Alejandro based his talk on the dream Nephi had with the angel. He first pulled out a HUGE book and told the congregation to look at it, told them how much it cost and showed how big it was and nice it was. But then behind the big book he had his Book of Mormon and then cited that scripture of when the spirit told unto Nephi, "Look and behold I looked and saw. . . " He gave his testimony of how we just need to "look" at what we really have in our lives and always strive to strengthen our testimonies about the Book of Mormon. Aww it was soooo incredible!

Then after that it was a day just full of goodbyes. I will sure miss 4 Poniente. It has been another ward that I have seen that has been changed a lot. Today at transfers meetings President came up to me and said, "Wow, Elder Cowan you sure go to work on any ward I put you in!" Ha ha, I love the members here in Chile! This is the best place to be! Even though it was hard saying goodbye to them it was a great feeling of satisfaction that really they can go on themselves and keep achieving more and being better! I love them all soo much! Especially the family Garces! Aww, that one brought tears to me eyes! For sure we will have to visit that family when you guys come!

But now onto the BIG NEWS!!  . . . . TRANSFERS! Elder Kimball is staying in 4 Poniente and received a Latin companion. And I left and now I am in Talagante! Woo hoo after a year of being in the city I have returned back to the country side! I actually passed by Padre Hurtado, my first sector, to get here! Aww, crazy how fast the time has gone! But yep! I'm back out on the countryside. Even more countryside now than what Padre Hurtado is! It is a really big sector but I'm excited! President has been changing some things around in the mission and now has put all the zone leaders in trios now because a lot of the zone leaders are going to finish their missions in December and January. And I got assigned in one of those trios! I'm a zone leader now!!! Woo hoo! My companions are Elder Alonso and Elder Brady. Elder Alonso isn't here yet because president didn't tell him that he had transfers because President decided to change some things around last minute! Ha ha, so he is getting his suitcases ready in his last sector in the coast! Ha ha he's probably not going to come back till the night or tomorrow morning.

But Elder Brady is from Show Low Arizona!! Woo hoo! An Arizonan companion! How cool! This is Elder Brady's last transfer, as well as Elder Alonso. So I better step up my game and learn how to be a good zone leader because after this transfer I'll be riding solo! Ha ha! But I'm super excited! And you called it Mom! I got called to more leadership positions! Ha ha 

And another cool thing that happened this transfer meeting is that Elder Alcaraz is going to train! Woo hoo! I'm going to be a grandpa in the mission! Oh wow! That makes me sound old in the time of the mission. But it was a little sad this transfer meeting because Elder Contreras, my trainer, just finished his mission. It's really weird to think that he isn't going to be here, but I will keep going and follow in his footsteps!

After the transfer meeting, Elder Nuñez from the seventy came and talked with us for like an hour! It was awesome! He talked about his mission and how he was a good and great missionary. He worked hard and was obedient, but after explaining all that, he told us, "Just being a good and obedient missionary isn't enough, I wasted 22 months of my mission being a good and obedient missionary up until I truly understood what it meant to lose yourself in the work, up until my last two months is when I gave it my ALL to the Lord. Do the same elders" Oh wow, it was so powerful! It really motivated me to really give it my all! I know it's good to be a great missionary, but with the progress of the Lord's work hastening, I know there is a whole lot more, and to be able to get the better, I have to be better! 

There are 27 missionaries in this zone. And it's a big zone! It has fields and hills and the country side! Luckily, I know more than half the missionaries in my zone already and I'm super excited to work with all of them! So yea, I think I will be a little bit more busy with the Internet time on Mondays but keep your letters coming please! You are all so great! I know this is the Lord's work. This is where He wants me to work now and I will go where ever He calls me! I love this work! I love my family! Tell grandma and grandpa that I love them soooo much and am so grateful for all their work and efforts and legends they have left for us! They are incredible to me!

Have a great week! Love you all!

Love Elder Cowan