He is The Gift!

Dear Family and Friends!

Well, first off, I better give another shout out to someone super cool and awesome! And that's my new sister-in-law Stacie!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOO I can't wait to hear and see you on Christmas to meet you for the first time! AWW I'm so excited!!!!!

And, yes, I am writing today because yesterday was a holiday here in Chile, so basically everything was canceled! But that's alright! Here I am still writing you guys! :)

So I think the basis of this letter will be focused on the new initiative that is passing throughout all the world right now with the Church, which I assume that you guys already know what I am talking about, which is the video of "He is the Gift." Awww! I just LOVE that video! We have only had it for two weeks now but I have probably seen it over like 50 times no joke but every time I just love it! It's so short, but yet so powerful! As a mission we are dropping all old contacting styles and just using that video as our contacts. So that is the ONLY thing we are talking about with the people. And even though our mission is a little behind in the digital techy stuff and that we don't have any tablets or anything, our smart President has tried to make us the most "up to date" South America mission. So every companionship has a USB drive now. And in that USB is all the talks from the last year's general conference and the Christmas video of "He is the Gift"

So basically that was our focus and vision this past week that we put with the zone. Just about everything we are doing as missionaries is focused in that one single video. And man, did we see some good "fruits" from our efforts! We were able to find 66 new investigators thanks to that single 3 minute video! Really, the spirit of Christmas is touching the hearts of all! And surprisingly and thanks to the efforts of members all around the world who are sharing the gift, a lot of these new investigators have already seen the video before on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter, etc. How amazing it feels to know that just about EVERYONE is sharing this single video!!! That's so cool! 

And just as the video says we have to descubrir (sorry Mom, I am pulling a blank on how to say that word in English ha ha) and we have to accept the gift, and then share the gift. And I want to challenge all that are reading this to SHARE THE GIFT! We are seeing the results thanks to other members sharing it and just imagine if every member shared this wonderful gift of the birth of Savior! There's still time to share the gift! Always! 

Really this past week we started with a lot of success! Elder Goates is probably one of the funniest guys I know! I love being with him! He reminds me so much of Jacob Rogers! Its the best! And with the changes that we just had, the zone of Talagante is stacked!!! Aww it's incredible! This transfer President sent some incredible missionaries! So now we don't have to worry about problems about obedience or anything like that like the last transfer that we had to do. But now it's the dream team! And we are gonna take out the trash! December is going to be awesome! 

Talking about trying to be a more techno updated mission, as well, we just got off a conference call with the assistants and all the zone leaders. Ha ha, so that saved us a lot of time instead of traveling and losing time in our sectors! Ha ha, I love using technology to the benefit of the Lord's work! How incredible! We're getting there! Ha ha, but other than that, as we talked as a leadership as a misison, really December is going to be awesome! Aww man it's gonna be so awesome! I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!! I Love my Savior mas de nada! 

I want to update you guys of two of our investigators that we are focusing on this month to get baptized. One is one that you already know who is Pilar (who actually she told us her first name and it's Elizabeth) so that way you guys know now not to get you guys confused or anything. But we visited Elizabeth and met her husband and her spouse and, aww, they just know! I know it! They keep telling us story after story of how they have felt such a strong spirit in their lives as they draw closer to the "Mormons" like whenever they read the weekly letters from their nephew who is on a mission or when they participate in activitidades with their family who are members. Really, the spirit really does testify of the truth! Now we are really just trying to help them recognize these impressions to be able to commit to baptism. They also have to attend church so that's what we are trying to do with them.

One of the miracles that we witnessed this past week was Loreto y Rodolfo! They are two investigators that we found thanks to the video, "He is the Gift." We saw Loreto outside of her house just watering her plants and we were walking back from a lesson when we just started talking to her and asked her if we could share a 3 minutes video of Christmas for her and her family that will really invite the spirit in their home. And she let us in right away! And there we met her spouse, (yes! It's a miracle that they are married! Woo hoo!) and they have a nine year old son named Benjamin. We watched the video and talked to them afterwards of the impressions that we felt. Loreto had already seen it and was wondering from what Church made the video, and then we showed up! She said it was a little coincidence that we showed up because they have been having a lot of experiences with running into Mormon stuff the past couple of days.

She went on to explain that she first saw the video on Facebook and then as her husband and her were looking through YouTube in the night they watched it together again and then saw on the side a Mormon video. And they said they just loved it and were actually crying at the end of it. And they told us the name of the video and it's, "The Other Side of Heaven!!" Ha ha! How awesome that they have already seen that! Ha ha! They said they loved the video and then started talking how they have been married by the law of the church, but are lacking the marriage in a church. So we were eager and happy to explain to them how we get "married" in our church and how the families can really live for eternity. They both loved it! And as we were leaving they just told us, "No, don't go, you guys brought such a sweet spirit into our home!" Ha ha, man they are awesome and super prepared!

Yesterday, after p-day we were able to visit them again and we taught the Restoration and invited them to be baptized. They didn't accept a date right away, but really they understand the importance now to read and pray. They said that when we left they were practicing praying from what they read in the pamphlet we left them. We then asked Loreto to give the closing prayer. She got all excited and told us that she was practicing all week (we were shocked because normally you will never hear that from an investigator, ha ha) and as we knelt to pray she gave such a beautiful prayer! She started to cry at the end and thanked us over and over again for coming! Aww, it pumped us up so much so see how prepared they really are! And they are really a young matrimony Rodolfo is only 29 years old and Loreto is younger. But I just love teaching complete, married, families! They are the best! We have our next appointment tomorrow so we will see if they will accept a baptism date and then come to church with us this Sunday! I'm so excited! All this thanks to a 3 minute video! See the power in sharing this Gift?!

I hope that we will all be able to share this gift to everyone and everywhere! I know that if we do we will see miracles this Christmas! Really, my gift to the Savior this year is another family that will enter the waters of baptism! I know that more than ever right now the Lord is preparing people for each and every one of us! The Spirit of Christmas is so powerful and contagious! I love this time of the year! I know Jesus Christ is the Redeemer of all mankind. He is our oldest brother and loves us so much! 

Love you all so much!

Elder Cowan!