Dear Family and Friends!
Well, with the help of the Lord this past week we have been able to find a lot of tender mercies! Wow! I still can't believe it! I have such an amazing family! Thank you guys soo much! For the numberless times you always pray in my behalf and for the behalf of the work here in Republica! I feel your love and concern on my behalf throughout the week! It's amazing to be so united with you guys in prayer!! You guys are the best and I love you all soo much!!!!! Prayers are amazing!!
Well, to first give a shout out to Trevor and Kiersten for my opinion of what I think the baby is going to be is. . . . . for it to be a girl! :) But either one will be amazing! I'm so happy for you two!!!
Wow, well at the beginning of this past week my comp and I both decided that we were gonna change things up a little and have a "white wash" attitude towards our sector. So we started from the basics and started contacting a lot! And thanks to the help of the Lord we were able to find a lot of new investigators this week! We were able to find 16 new investigators!!! Wooo! What a miracle!!! Just the comparison from last week where we had no one to teach and the Lord was so merciful upon us to find these new families to teach! I won't be able to write about them all and, as well, even though we found the a lot, there are some that may not progress, but we'll see!
First off, the first new investigator that we found was Reginas family. Regina is actually a member but hasn't gone to church for a couple years, but she contacted Elder Kimball in the street! And then Elder Kimball passed us the reference and we were able to meet her husband, Jose, and their daughter, Laura. Regina has all the desires to come back to church and their family is sooo nice! They live in the corner of our sector and it was amazing to be able to find them! They are an awesome family! Laura actually wasn't there the first lesson we had with them so Regina was kinda worried that her daughter wouldn't want to talk to us because she is only 15 years old and is just passing through her teenager "whatever" attitude. But we passed by again and luckily Laura was there and we got off on a really good note! I honestly don't remember what we started talking about, but she opened up to us and we were able to teach the whole family! We'll see how this week goes for them!
Then the next miracle was Miguel and Jordana! They were contacts that the last companion of Elder Wagner did a little over 3 months ago in a park. But they stopped us in the street, told us that missionaries had contacted them before, but then nothing happened. They told us that they were a little down that no one came and then asked us if we could pass by and visit them. I almost just yelled out "YES!" with all the excitement! Ha ha, and another blessing is that they are married and they have two little twin babies that are only 1 year old! And these two babies are models! Seriously! They are the most adorable babies ever! Ha ha! It's just a picture perfect family! They are amazing!!
As well, we were able to find a new investigator through a less active/recent convert family. We looked at the members list and realized that there was still one person left in the family that hasn't been baptized yet. We passed by and met the Suazo family. Two are less actives, and there is another that lives there that is part of our retention. Nino is the only one left that isn't baptized. We taught lesson 1 and put a baptism date! And he accepted! He is really humble and really kind! The only problem right now is his work. Because he works almost everyday. So we are praying that he will be able to find a way to attend church!
Then President had a genius idea this week to do "harvest" within our zones! And we just took out the trash! Basically, the idea of a "harvest" is that all the missionaries meet up in one zone and just contact everyone in that one place and gather all the new investigators that they possibly can find. We started that this past week and there was so much excitement between the missionaries and so many blessings and miracles! Each day was a different sector and we were able to contact from 3 till 6 in the afternoon. And in those 3 hours we were able to "harvest" out a ton of new investigators for every sector. It was a amazing! Elder Wagner and I were in one sector of one of our district leaders and we were contacting the whole afternoon and my companion called me and told me that they weren't having a lot of success. I was with our district leader and turned to him and told him that we'll need to step it up. So we just went ham on contacts and were able to find 6 new investigators, planned 10 more appointments for the next week and were able to put one baptism date! It was incredible!
Then the next day was our turn to have the "harvest" come to pass in our sector. Once again we divided up and started to contact throughout the whole sector. And truly, it was amazing! I was with Elder Hunter, a new missionary, and I just loved his greenie power! Ha ha, he was so excited and we just contacted every building we possibly could! And if we couldn't knock on the door we went to all the windows instead to knock! Ha ha, truly the Lord was pouring out his blessings upon us to help us find 7 new investigators in that three hour span. QUE MILAGRO!!
Then it gets even better! It was such a blessing Friday night. We had scheduled an appointment at the church with an investigator that Elder Wagner had been teaching for some time, but sadly he didn't show up. The appointment was set for 8:30 so we were planning on ending the day with that lesson. We waited a little bit more to see if anyone would show up and then at about 8:50 we started walking out of the church gates to go home for the day. That's when we saw our ward mission leader and we were talking for a little bit when I saw a man walk by us, we both made eye contact and you could see that he was interested in our conversation, but I thought nothing of it and looked away and kept on with the conversation.
Then like a minute later the same man walked back, stared at us and asked, "Where can I make some friends?" . . . . . I looked at the man, at my companion, then our ward mission leader, and then back to the man and was just speechless. I turned to the man and told him, "HERE!! Come on in, you'll make the bestest friends ever here!" HA ha! He then entered the church and we gave him a tour of the place and presented some more members. His name is Jean Paul and he is about 27 years old and is studying and working here in Republica. He is a really calm person and a man of little words but is super nice! After the quick tour of the church we wrote down his address and then invited him to come to our free English classes that we were going to give the next day.
And he came the next day!!! He showed up to the church again and liked the English classes and then the Elders Quorum just so happened to have an activity that day where they were making pizzas! So we jumped over to the other side of the building and had a great time together! Really, during the whole time Jean Paul was pretty quiet and I could tell he was just observing everything with a small smile on his face. The next day, Sunday, he came back to church and attended sacrament meeting with us! Truly, he is a miracle! After the meeting he kept asking us how the church is organized because he was so surprised how well the church was run and how many happy families were there! We told him that we would have to explain a lot and that we would love to have an appointment in his apartment. He turned to me and said "4 o'clock! Today! come on over!" Ha ha, he is sooo prepared!!!!
When we went over to his apartment we taught lesson one which helped him understand a lot about the organization of the Church. He loved the lesson. He had a little note pad and was taking notes through the whole thing. He has a ton of questions too! And they are super good questions! In that one hour we ended up teaching just about everything! Ha ha, all thanks to his questions! But after finishing up teaching the commandments he said he is down to keep them and then we wrapped it all back to the Book of Mormon. I took my Book of Mormon in my hand, looked at him and said, "None of this matters unless you read this tonight and pray specifically if it's true!!" We were in a locked gaze for a while and the spirit was soo strong. He nodded in agreement to which I responded by inviting him to get baptized for the 22nd of this month. He understood the importance of getting baptized, but was a little taken back at how quick the date is. But without us saying anything he told us, "The 22nd seems pretty fast and I don't know if I'm prepared, but God is a God of miracles and why can't he do one with me! Yes, Elders I'll pray to know if I should get baptized the 22nd!" :0 !!!!!!!!!!!! I was taken back at his response! It was incredible! He is just soo amazing! And just soooo prepared!! He is truly de ORO! We are going to go by again tonight to keep teaching him! I'm soo excited! Please keep Jean Paul in your prayers! He is such a miracle and tender mercy for us!
This past week has been incredible! Truly, the Lord has blessed us with soo much that I can't even understand why. But I do know He loves us. I love being His missionary and I love this work soo much!
Love Elder Cowan
No comments:
Post a Comment