Dear Family and Friends!
How's everyone going?! You guys are the best. seriously! Thank you all for always writing me and keeping me updated! I love hearing from you all!
Well, I have a juicy letter to write for this week so that's why I'm writing my letter first in order to get straight to the business!
So just to describe our sector a little bit more it is huge! Ha ha, not like huge huge but it sure has a diversity of a lot of things! It's like having a bag full of stuff and pulling any random thing out! Ha ha, that's how our sector is! We have at the bottom of our sector the hospital with all the fancy rich 3 story houses up until the plaza of Talaganate with all the busyness of all that to up to the top of our sector which is at the base of the mountain and hills where it's the most humble place I have ever seen in my mission. Really, we have A LOT to work with, but I'm so grateful for the Lord that He has given us this! It's going to be awesome!
Well, the last week I forgot to mention about Manuel. He was a reference we got our first week and we went and met him. He talks perfect English! [Note from Amy--Obviously he's forgetting his English--"speaks" perfect English!] It's cool! We have already had like 3 lessons with him and it's so hard! Ha ha, it's hard because I'm forgetting English! Aww its so weird! Ha ha, Elder Alonso told us that he understands Elder Brady's English, but with with mine it's hard to understand everything, ha ha! But who cares! YO AMO ESPAÑOL!! Ha ha, but to get back to Manuel . . .he is super prepared! Really he has a lot of challenges in his life, but he says he just wants to get rid of all the guilt in his life and be a new person. He kept asking us over and over again of what he has to do to be able to have this change in his life. It was a beautiful experience to testify to him that he can change! And that through the repentance process and using the Atonement of Jesus Christ we can be forgiven and be born again through the waters of baptism! His light just lit up with joy as he explained to us that he is willing to do it! He's great! Seriously! He came in contact with the missionaries just in time for the Lord to put him in our path, which is the theme of my letter! This past week has been multiple testimonies of that principle for us!
Tuesday was a day of a lot of meetings! We had leadership training with President and the assistants and with all the other zone leaders, (which I found out that almost all the zone leaders are finishing their missions in December and January) ha ha, it was a little weird being there. My buddy, Elder Goates, was there, who is in my group and we were the youngest there. We had a super spiritual uplifting meeting on how we can baptize more and how we can lead our missionaries better! Then in the night we had our branch council meeting and this branch is INCREDIBLE! Seriously I already love them so much! The meeting was focused on The Pilot Plan that we are still trying out and it was incredible to be able to see such awesome leaders magnifying their callings. We started to talk about what families we wanted to focus on as a branch and their was a lot of names that were yelled out, but then the branch president stood up and calmed everyone down and said, "Now this is the Lord's Church and we are going to do in it in HIS way! We are all going to kneel down right now and pray to know what families we need to foucus on and we will fast this weekend and Sunday you'll all come with the list of families." It was such a powerful moment to be able to kneel down as a branch! These leaders are awesome! Sunday the presidents of all the organizations came to the branch president and had their names. And it was incredible to see that since Tuesday these leaders weren't together, but through the power of prayer and fasting they all came out with the same names, without even telling the one or the other presidencies! Really, I know the Lord guides and works through His leaders! They have a grand responsibility!
Then Wednesday we were just walking in the street while some of our appointments fell through when Elder Brady felt we needed to go contact a tiny street on the more humble side of our sector. It was really a tiny street, but we decided to go. Then while we were there. . . . no one answered . . .we thought it was just a dead end street but as we got towards the end of the street there was a big house around the corner that was hidden. It was a big house! Ha ha, we were able to squeeze around the backside to contact the street and we yelled out to see if anyone was there. But with the same result . . . no one answered up until we started to turn around and there was a man and his daughter walking towards us with their groceries! We went and helped them with their bags and found Rene, the dad. He let us straight in to his house and we were able to teach his whole family! Rene is a boss of a mining company and his wife is in dental surgery. . . so you can say they are pretty well off. But as we got to know Rene he told us, "You guys must have been put in my path." He went on to describe that he has been passing through some troubling times and he might lose a lot of stuff in his life, and as well, his son who is a fighter pilot needs to learn English before he leaves off on a flying program in the U.S. and luckily there we showed up! Two North Americans to help him with English and the three of us to help his family with this gospel! I'm so excited to teach them again!
Then we had Halloween!! Talagante goes all out for Halloween unlike my sector a year ago where it was just a normal day. But, as well, it was Elder Brady's birthday! And can I just say how awesome it is to have an Arizonan companion?! Seriously, it's the best!!! We were able to eat a ton that day because a lot of families invited us over to celebrate and all! It was pretty funny at the end of the day when we were on our way to the house when Elder Brady just told us, "Hey I'm not just gonna pass Halloween without a little trick or treating!" Ha ha, and then went up to a lady in front of her house and yelled out, "Treat or Message?" Ha ha, while he held out his Book of Mormon. Ha ha, she had a surprised face, but sadly she went with treats and gave us all treats instead of listening to our message. HA ha!
Then he were able to find Mary as well! We were contacting one day when we knocked on her door and at first she didn't want anything to do with us. Luckily, we were able to get our foot in the door to be able to testify to her about the blessing of have the restored gospel in her life and for her family. After testifying she let us in :) to which she started to cry to us in the lesson of how lost she feels. She is an older lady, but she is still really sad from the passing of her parents years ago. As she wiped her eyes away she told us, "I feel like I just pass my days from one to the next without any purpose, I know I have been far away from religion in my life, but maybe you guys being here is a sign that the Lord is sending help." Once again, it was another testimony to me that really the Lord guides His missionaries to the people that need us. He prepares the people for us and puts them in front of us to teach. How marvelous is the Lord's plan! I love missionary work! And I love being on the Lord's errand to His lost sheep!
With this same testimony, we were walking early in the morning starting our day on Friday when we stopped at an intersection to where we hear a lady behind us say, "Well there you are! When are you missionaries gonna pass by my house?" We turned around to find Ana, who we were just lost from the way she greeted us, was a less active sister from the branch. We set up an appointment for the next day and when we passed by we found out that she wasn´t a member at all! Ha ha, she told us that she can lived in a lot of different places in her life. But it always seems that wherever she lives, there is always one of our temples close by for her to see. She has always noticed that and recently almost all her family has become extremely sick. She took that as a sign that she needed the Lord's help. She was diagnosed with cancer a while back and really thought she was going to pass away. Up until she had a dream where the Saviour touched her and then hugged her and whispered, "Your time is not up." It was sure a powerful dream for her to which a couple days later waiting at the crosswalk, she found us! How wonderful are the ways of the Lord! I know he wants all of His children to participate in this glorious gospel!
Then Saturday night which we had that awesome lesson in the morning with Ana, the afternoon was really slow for us. The whole afternoon and night it seemed like we were walking the whole entire day! We were dead tired. Up until 8:45 and we had 15 minutes left before we had to enter the pension and I turned to Elder Alonso and Brady and said, "Lets find a miracle down to the very last minute!" We pumped each other up and I felt we needed to contact some apartment complexes. We started going up each floor up until the very last floor, right before 9 o'clock and Alex opened the door and let us in. He is a young man with three little kids. He is divorced from his wife and the kids come every weekend to see him. He also helped with the construction of one our are chapel buildings which he told us was a beautiful experience to work in such a holy spot. That memory has always stuck in his head and then the missionaries showed up! Ha ha, we were able to give him a small spiritual lesson which really motivated him a lot!
Then we get to Sunday, which was the last testimony builder to me that the Lord REALLY does put people in our path! We went to all the meetings and sacrament meetings like usual until church ended and as we were about to leave we saw a women crying at the front doors. Her name was Liliana who we pulled into another room where she balled her eyes out to us. I felt so bad for this sister, and I felt the desire that we needed to do everything possible to help her. I gave her a blessing to which she was able to calm down and she explained that she has a very aggressive spouse who they had a huge fight the night before and she is really scared of what to do with her life. She went on to tell us that she has had thoughts to end her life to get rid of the misery. But as she left to go buy in the plaza, she passed by the street of the chapel where she told us she never really goes that way, but then saw the church. She told us that something was pulling her to enter as if she was caught like a fish being reeled in on a fishing pole, so she went through with the impressions and found us in the front foyer at the perfect moment for us to help her. Sadly, she isn't in our sector, but at least is in our zone. We testified to her about the redeeming power of the Atonement and how through the grace we are saved after all that we can do. She was overwhelmed with the spirit and was extremely grateful that she was able to enter our church and find us.
It made us all a little emotional to have been able to have found so many people throughout the week that the Lord really put in our way. I know this is His work. I love being an instrument in His hands. I know this gospel is all about families and am so grateful to have such a loving, strong centered family in this gospel. Trust in the Lord that He will guide you to the ones that need your help! Because I know without a doubt in my mind there are people that need each and every one of your gifts and talents and most importantly to have this gospel in their lives. I don't know what I would do without this gospel. I love it I love it I love it!
I hope you all have a great week! Thank you for your examples and for your prayers always! I love you all!
Love Elder Cowan
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