Baptisms of German, Maria and Shirley!

Buenos Dias Amigos y Familia!!! 

Aww well we just got back from our transfer meetings and aww! I just love President and his wife! They pump me up soo much!! And wow! I really can't believe another transfer has already gone by. Now it's down to the last 6 weeks! And I ain't going without a fight and until the end! I love this mission soo much!!

So this last week a ton of stuff happened so I'm just gonna give a review of the most important things that happened. First off, we got Savka to pull off her first FHE in her house and she invited her neighbor and she actually came! It was awesome to see one of my converts participate in missionary work as she is trying to adapt her life to this new path that she has taken. It truly was a miracle because that doesn't happen a whole lot here in Chile. If you invite someone, there's usually a small chance that that person will actually come. But her neighbor came! And her name is Barbara! It was an awesome family home evening!

To give you guys an update about Erlipper we didn't get to have enough lessons with him as we usually have been having with him, but he is still progressing really well. He couldn't go to church yesterday which we were a little bummed about but he has finished reading the first book of Nephi now and we are getting pretty close to finishing the missionary lessons with him. Mas de nada, he is trying to understand on how to recognize if he is getting an answer to his prayers or not. We have been teaching him a lot recently about the role of the Holy Ghost and how to recognize it's impressions. He told us Friday that he still hasn't noticed anything. We are thinking that he thinks his answer will come in a way of helping get better with his health since he is an elderly man and we have been noticing that that is what he has been asking for in his prayer, that he has better health. Once we can help him to feel the spirit, we believe that he will accept a baptismal date for July!

So that's how the first half of the week was going which was pretty tranquillo, but starting Thursday it started to get pretty stressful. Thursday morning I had to go with a missionary to take him to the hospital which is super far and it took almost half the day to do all the stuff with him in the hospital. But it was nice to be waiting in the hospital for about 3 hours and to see the same stuff that I would like to be doing after the mission.

But we were able to get back in time for lunch and we went up with Elder Daniel who was with Elder Martins and then I was with Elder Martins for a 2 day division as Elder Daniel left to his sector. So the whole transfer of companions with a long slow morning kinda got me a little stressed out. But what stressed me out even more was our sector. I was with Elder Martins for 2 days and I have no idea what happened to our sector, but it was just dead! Ha ha! Nothing happened and they were two really long days of just straight walking. IT was weird because Elder Daniel and I have been taking out the trash these past 3 weeks and then suddenly it seemed as if everything stopped. 

Then Thursday night Elder Martins was going to do the baptismal interview with German and Maria but they couldn't get back from their work in time to get to the church so we had to ask the assistants for permission to be able to do the interview the day before. They told us it was fine and after a whole day walking on Friday we were finally able to have the interviews, but there was a problem with one of the interviews in which it was needed for President to come in and do the interview for German. I'm not gonna go into details, but it was basically a 2 hour long wait as we were talking to the assistants as they would talk to President and then back to us and I just felt back for German and Maria because it kinda just ended up being an awkward situation as they just waited.

And at the same time other missionaries were calling me about some stuff that happened with some other missionaries which resulted in having a missionary going home which were some stressful phone calls and basically that night I just sat against the wall and I could barely sleep as I was trying to wrap my head around everything that was going on. It was probably one of the most stressful days of my mission.

But we were able to get everything worked out Saturday! President came in the morning and interviewed German and everything was fine so finally at about 3 in the afternoon we were sure that we were going to have a baptism that day in only 4 more hours. We are super grateful for President who sacrificed a lot to be able to drive out to us, on the same day of his planned baptism, to come and interview German. So after that we started filling up the font, and las hermanas in our zone had one baptism in the afternoon and we were able to finish the night with our 3 baptisms! 

And ohhh que gozo que fue! The baptismal service was amazing! I am so grateful for the members in this ward! They did soo much! More than we thought they would do. There were 2 special musical numbers and desserts after the baptism service and they really pulled it all off perfectly! It was a huge stress reliever to see the members coming in and pulling the last threads through to pull of the baptism and it was really beautiful! It was so emotional! I had the privilege to baptize German who I know is going to be a future stake president! This guy has so much faith! He has been waiting over a year for this day and it truly was a miracle and a huge blessing to have been able to be the one to baptism him. Elder Daniel baptized Maria and our friend, Jherson, a member that always leaves and does visits with us, baptized Shirley. IT was truly amazing! I loved seeing the 6 of us in white! IT was amazing!

Then to finish it off, we heard transfers and Elder Daniel and I are staying together for one more transfer! Woo hoo! I was a little nervous because on Saturday President told us that he was thinking of changing me to be one of his assistants but today in our transfer meeting he told me that in the end he didn't change me because he saw us our baptisms that we were gonna have that day and decided that it would be better to let us be here and keep baptizing. So it was a little shock I think for the mission because an hour before the transfer meeting, every single missionary that I knew came up to me and told me that I was going to be the next assistant. I think half the mission thought that, but I'm truly grateful that I have these next 6 weeks to keep going strong and to keep baptizing till the end. I love serving here and serving with those missionaries in my zone. This is the place where the Lord wants me and I'm grateful that I have this time to show and give everything I have over to the Lord!! 

I love my mission!

Love Elder Cowan

Casamiento!

Dear Family and Friends!

Wow, I honestly don't know where the time is going! I can't believe that we are in the last week of this transfer. The next time I will be writing you I will already be in my last transfer. Aww, that's so scary!!

But this past week was amazing! Really Elder Daniel is such a stud and I love working with him! In this tiny sector that we have been together in, it has been a blast to be able to take out the trash! We are achieving things that none of us have achieved in our missions before! It's amazing to see miracles after miracles! 

But to give you an update about the sector we have Gabriel and Erlipper who are progressing really well! The both of them came to church, Erlipper for the first time AND he brought his wife with him too! HA ha, it was awesome! Erlipper still hasn't accepted a baptismal date, but we are almost done with all the lessons with him and he is already finishing 1 Nephi almost! He is such a chill grandpa! I love the guy. He doesn't say much, but he says what's necessary! We were able to meet his wife this past week and she didn't know that we were visiting with him so we were a little worried on how she would take it. But the funny thing was that the day that we had a lesson scheduled with Erlipper in which he told us that he would have his wife there, we were actually contacting a new part in our sector and contacted Reina. She was super nice and she loved to talk with us.

Then to our surprise, as we entered the house where Erlipper takes care of his grandsons, (that's where we teach him instead of his house,) we were surprised to see Reina in the house with him! Ha ha!!! We had contacted Erlipper's wife only 2 hours before the appointment we had set to meet her for the first time! Ha ha! And actually we found out that they have a son that got baptized in the Church a long time ago and a lot of their family members from the side of their sisters and aunts and uncles are members too but live in Peru. So Reina already knew a lot about what missionaries do and what Family Home Evening is and everything! They both went to church and liked it a lot! We are soo stoked to see them progressing!

Gabriel Alegria, as well, is progressing really well! He is the dad of the family that we reactivated. Something happened with the wife and she wasn't able to go to church. And usually if she doesn't go her two sons Seba and Gabirel Jr. don't go. But the dad, Gabriel, felt like he needed to go to church to be able to show his gratitude for the blessings that have happened to their family. They are about to have a baby and things have been going really well. So he by himself showed up to church and brought his two sons! It was amazing to see! WE were so excited! Last night we shared the Plan of Salvation with him and tried challenging him to get baptized, but we think he might need a little bit more time. But he's getting there! 

It's amazing to see how this man who has been with the missionaries for over 5 years is really opening and changing so much! He prayed for the second time in front of us last night and it was so powerful! It's amazing to see this change in heart in him.

Then we did another 2 day splits this week and this time I went out of the sector and I was with Elder Kimball for 2 days. And it just so happened to be right when Elder Kimball hit one year in the mission field! HA ha!! We were together exactly one year ago and we were able to have these divisions again! Seriously, I love that kid soo much! It was amazing to see Elder Kimball leading his sector and I got to watch and see how much he has grown in this past year! IT was a really special division!

Then Saturday we had the casamiento or marriage of German and Maria!!! Wooo hoo!!! Two people that have been waiting to get married for over a year now! That part was great and it was amazing to see how the Lord has his timing in everything! 

This Saturday will be their baptism as well with the baptism of Shirley who is soo ready to get baptized! We are stoked to be able to finish the transfer with 3 more baptisms! 

Seriously, this transfer has been MIRACULOUSLY! I have never seen so many miracles and baptisms in one transfer before! I'm so grateful to my Heavenly Father who has given us all these blessings! I love working and showing my love through my obedience and my trust in Him with my faith and diligence! 

There is a God, and I know without a doubt in my mind that he is our LOVING Heavenly Father. I have felt that love so much in my mission and I love sharing with everyone!

Love you all!

Elder Cowan

Two Day Divisions

Dear Friends and Family!

Wow entonces this past week was amazing! We tried out a lot of new things out this week to test it out and we had a lot of success this past week!

But just to get the stress off of your shoulders since you're probably wondering if Shirley got baptized or not. . . well, the answer is "no" still. But! it's all right! I will explain everything!

But one of the new things that we tried out this past week was to do 2 day divisions/splits with the missionaries in our zone. Normally, we as zone leaders just have to do splits with our district leaders. But because our zone is one of the smallest zones, it's really easy for us to do more than just with our district leaders. We realized that our mindset about divisions was a little bit bad as usually we would just meet up after lunch and work with in splits till the next day before or a little after lunch the next day. We realized that that only allows a short amount of time to get to know the missionary and let alone to work with them. As well, I think some times we look at it as a thing of a checklist to do which we didn't like that mentality at all so we wanted to change it. We realized that we have been able to have a lot of success and that we have a couple sure baptisms this transfer still, but looking at our zone we realized that maybe we were being a little prideful in just trying to better our sector.

So we decided to extend the idea a little bit and do 2 day divisions. That way one of us could be in the other sector and really get to know him and work with him and help him learn how to have success in his sector. And, wow, after the results we saw this week it was dramatic! IT was amazing! WE loved it! And we got to love our missionaries even more! 

So we started Tuesday night and Elder Daniel committed to go to Avenida Matta 2, another sector, to go be with Elder Pederson. And that I would be with Elder Humphreys, (a missionary that I was with in the CCM). So we started Tuesday afternoon and I brought Elder Humphreys to my sector and it was a blast! Since we've known each other since the CCM it was great to meet up again after such a long time. But the interesting thing was that Tuesday and Wednesday there were more protests in our sector, but this time they got a little ugly. The police had come and thrown tear gas bombs all over our sector. And wow, they don't have that name just to call it fancy or anything! It literally makes you cry! The protest had covered over 3/4ths of our sector, so we were only able to work around a few blocks even though we weren't in the strikes or anything. The tear gas had covered the air of our whole sector. And wow, were we crying like babies all day long! Ha ha. Never thought I would be able to say that I have tested what tear gas is like! HA ha! 

Then Wednesday we went by Shirley's who we wanted to challenge to get baptized that weekend, but she still hadn't been able to talk to her mom to let her know. And she was determined that she wasn't going to get baptized until her mom knew beforehand. But she told us that she was able to communicate with her brothers and her dad at least. She said that when she told them that she was going to get baptized in the Mormon Church they started to say some ugly things about the Church. But as Shirley listened she said she had a prompting to correct them. She said she built up the courage and instead of just hearing her family bag on her decision she decided to TESTIFY! She told us that she told them that she knew Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and that this is the true church of Jesus Christ. She said afterwards the family calmed down and accepted her decision. She said she felt amazing inside after giving her testimony. It was awesome to see her telling us that story as we could see that she really has a big testimony of this gospel.

She couldn't get a hold of her mom till Saturday afternoon who in the end supports her decision and even though everything was ready to go it was too late to throw off a baptism service that same day. And this next week is Stake Conference where no one will be able to be baptized because there's no sacrament meeting and that means no one could get confirmed so we put the date for her baptism for the 27th of this month. And she is super excited! She was going around all over church yesterday telling how she was going to get baptized on that date! Ha ha, we are stoked for the end of this month!

Then after that first division I met up with Elder Daniel and we were able to work a few hours and teach Erlipper who is progressing really well,  but didn't come to church yesterday. And then we went on another division with Elder Perugorria and Elder Perrier. This time Elder Daniel left again and I was with Elder Perrier who is from Switzerland! HA ha, he is a stud! I love that guy! He is really new in the mission and I love being with him. We were able to gain the confidence in a member who left with us from 11 in the morning till 9 at night! HA ha! IT was a blast! And we were able to find a new family of 5! IT was a miracle!

Then Saturday we finished the divisions with them and found out that the divisions helped Elder Humphreys and Pedersons so much that when they both got back into their sectors they went to their best investigator, challenged him to get baptized, and Saturday he got baptized! Woo hoo, it was a miracle! Because that sector hasn't had a baptism for more than a year! IT was awesome!

Then Saturday we took Jean Paul and some other retention to the temple to go do baptisms for the dead! And I was able to see Scarlett, Mary, and Diego from Talagante! Thee 3 of them got baptized after I left! Aww IT was amazing to see them inside the temple! It was a sweet experience to see 4 of my converts in there!

Then Sunday was amazing! There is the Rañiman family that we have been able to reactivate, but the dad isn't a member. He is a jokester and never took anything serious, but we taught the Restoration yesterday and I don't think I have ever taught that with so much power! He has been receiving missionaries for years! And finally in 2 weeks he and his wife are going to get married! So thats why we wanted to have such a great lesson with him. And for years this man has denied to pray to all the missionaries that have passed by to visit him, But we were really direct and we told him that we weren't leaving until he prayed. We bowed our heads and in silence waited. At first he just laughed at us, but we kept in silence as the rest of the family bowed their heads as well. After a few minutes Gabriel, that's his name, gave the first prayer in his life! IT was incredible! After, the rest of the family was crying to see how this man had just been changed through this simple prayer! Truly, it was a miracle! We are hoping that he can progress now and hopefully get baptized shortly after his marriage!

WE are soo stoked for this month! We have 3 baptisms planned for the 27th with Shirley, German y Marria! and we are trying to shoot for one more! There are soo many miracles! 

I love this work!

Love Elder Cowan

More Miracles

Dear Family and Friends!

Buenas dias!!! Estan todos! Aww, I just love hearing from you guys! Seriously, I love hearing from you guys! And all the fun and incredible stuff that has happened in this past week!

But now it's my turn! And to be able to let you know how our last week went! The weeks here are getting faster and faster and I can't believe we have already finished a half of this transfer already! Wow! Only a transfer and a half left! Scary!!!! But even though they are going really fast, they are getting better and better! Really! I love seeing how the Lord is blessing us so much right now!

But to get the details in for all you guys! We visited Shirley a lot this past week and we were preparing her for her baptism for Saturday and we even got her to have her baptism interview Thursday. And she passed! She accepted everything and has a great testimony! But the only down side was that Shirley wanted to talk to her parents in Peru and let them know of her decision. So by Thursday night she said she would talk to them Friday. But Friday some cousins came from outside of Santiago and took her away for the day. So she wasn't able to talk to her parents. Then we were waiting to see what would happen Saturday, but she was having problems with the Internet and couldn't connect with her family. She called us to let us know that she hadn't talked to her parents yet and that she would like one more week that way they would know. 

So even though we didn't have a third back to back baptism this past week, we scheduled her baptism for the 13th. We are praying and hoping that everything will work out fine!

We have been able to find some new investigators that are progressing really well. One of them is Erlipper who was a new investigator that I found almost 3 months ago! But we were able to run into him again. We were able to teach him 3 times this week! He accepted to go to church, but didn't show up. But he is praying to know if he should get baptized the 27th or not. He is a little older in age, but a very humble and powerful man of little words! He is great! He reminds me a lot of Grandpa Cowan.

We also passed by Luis Fuentes who is a recent convert in the ward and we have always shared with him, but never have met his family. We passed by Monday and Friday night and he wanted us to teach his daughter. We met Maria Alejandra who is 18 years old and is deaf. Luis just looked at us and said, "Teach her!" HA ha but she isn't completely deaf. She can hear a little still and reads lips super well. So we were just using the pictures out of the pamphlets that we had and she actually understood. I was so surprised. We even invited her to get baptized and she accepted too! Ha ha it was a miracle! Really, we were able to experience the gift of tongues as we were speaking a foreign language, Spanish, to a deaf girl. But the spirit was there and it was awesome! I am so grateful for the gifts of the Holy Ghost!

And we had another miracle with our investigators German and Maria. We were on divisions again with Elder Hatch who was in this sector over 7 or 8 months ago and he found them. Ever since then they have been receiving the missionaries. They have always wanted to get baptized, even the sister of Maria and the son of German have already gotten baptized. But German and Maria haven't been able to get baptized because they aren't married. They have had a lot of problems with their papers because they are from Peru and it's complicated here in Chile sometimes. Back in November they were able to go to the centro and pull out a date to get married by the government. But in November of 2014, they gave them the date of the 20th of July 2015! Sometimes it's crazy like that! 

But the missionaries have always passed by them and Germana has already read the Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Convenios, Pearl of Great Price, and now is half way through reading the New Testament. While we were visiting with them, German's other son, Edwardo, came from Peru, and it seems that Edwardo is going to live with them. 

During that lesson it was great to see Elder Hatch who had found them originally, finally invite them to get baptized for the 27th of this month! They both accepted and it was a really powerful epxerience! These two people have waited so long for this! And now it's coming true! I'm so grateful that the Lord has put me here just in time to see these two get married and get baptized!

And another miracle was that we passed by later on in the week to see how they were doing and when we entered we were soo surprised. German had already shown the Restoration video to his son Edwardo and were watching the Book of Mormon story videos on Youtube! Ha ha We were able to teach Edwardo and he is super interested in the Church. He explained to us that he has always been so confused of why there are so many churches. He accepted to offer the ending prayer and asked 3 times to know if this was the true church. And on top of that he attended church yesterday as well! So we are gonna try to invite him to get baptized the 27th as well with his parents. Ha ha even though he has been in Chile for 4 days now. HA ha whateves! Salvation can come at any place at any time! :)

Truly, the Lord is blessing us so much right now! We have a lot of potencial of investigators that can get baptized this month. As well, the attendance in the sacrament meeting is growing and growing! What used to be at 180-190 we were at 264 now! Woo hoo! It was incredible to see the church filled!! I didn't even have a seat left to sit in so I stood in the back for the whole meeting! But it was incredible! We were able to bring 5 new less actives to church and it was the first time in years for some or months since they have gone to church! 

Our sector is bringing a lot of fruits right now and now the only trouble we are having is trying to motivate our missionaries in our zone to do the same. We had a zone conference last Saturday to pump them up and it was awesome. But when we got los datos yesterday it wasn't too great for our zone. We are going to be doing a lot of splits this week to help our missionaries out. Our goal is that they can feel the love in the work and not just do the things day to day which sometimes we feel they fall into that trap a little. But we want the best for them so much! So we are going to be trying to help our missionaries feel the LOVE for this great work that we are in!

Truly, I LOVE THIS WORK SO MUCH! I Love this country with all my heart. Chile is the place for me! And I love working side by side with my companion and most importantly with the Lord's angels as we bring them into His fold! I LOVE THIS MISSION!!

Love you all!!

Elder Cowan

Baptism of Nicolas!!

Dear Family and Friends!

Okay, so I’m sending pictures this week so I apologize in advance if I can’t write to all of you! But thank you Stacie and JUSTIN for writing me! Woo hoo!! :) Love you so much!

So this past week was another full week of tender mercies from the Lord. Really, when one has the faith in the Lord, and trust and puts Him in 1st place, His grace pours out! 

With that, we had another baptism! Woo hoo that's 2 back to back baptisms now for this transfer that we have started! This week was Nicolas! And the week was a little stressful trying to get him baptized but it was amazing! We weren't able to teach Nicolas until Thursday and we were a little worried that we weren't going to be able to teach him everything. But we repassed through everything and he remembered a lot so we scheduled the baptism interview about 2 hours later and he passed! Woo hoo!!!! Miracle!

The baptism was Saturday and there was another couple getting baptized that same day from the other companionship of missionaries. So it was amazing to see so many people in white! We got Jherson who is my favorite teenager in the ward to baptize Nicolas. They are neighbors and they have grown up together their whole lives! So it was neat to be able to see these long time friends building their relationship even more, but through this glorious gospel! The whole family of Nicolas came to the service as well and they were all touched by the Spirit. The grandparents of Nicolas, who at first were the first ones to be a little negative to the whole fact that Nicolas was listening to us, but after Nico left the water, tears came to their eyes and the Spirit was so strong. It was amazing to see how powerful the Spirit touched the grandpa. A old man that has lost his way in alcohol and drinking. But to see him in that moment crying as he watched his grandson leave out of the water and receive the remission of his sins!

We couldn't get Shirley quite prepared to get baptized this past week. We had less time to teach her this past week which made us a little worried. We had to go on divisions with other elders in our zone. And on Friday it was a busy day with meetings and zone interviews with President. And then afterwards the elders in our zone got to do divisions again with the new missionaries in the CCM. And it was an awesome experience! It motivated us and pumped us all up! I love greenie power! but it wasn't all that successful because it all ended up being contacting for like 3 hours but it was still super fun to be with them. I cant believe that I'm in my 2 to last transfer., I still feel like this greenie missionaries leaving from the CCM. And I hope I have that attitude till the end. Because I already know its going to be hard trying to accept that this will all come to an end one day.

Even though Friday was a full day with those splits and meetings and interviews, we were blessed at the very end of the day as we were able to find a complete family of 3! They had received the missionaries before and were about to get baptized, but they have been having some problems with their family and that's why they dropped away. Elder Daniel and I testified our hearts out to them as we taught how this gospel blesses families! Truly, that is a principle that I have seen day after day as a missionary!

Well, to finish up, Sunday we had a FHE with the family Cruz and with Shirley. We taught a lot of things and we were actually able to finish teaching everything. She now knows everything and is reading and praying and even going to institute with a family member in the family Cruz. She has already seen 2 baptismal services now and I was a little upset that she just hasn't accepted to be baptized yet. At the end of the FHE I was determined that I wasn't going to leave that lesson until she accepted baptism. I took out my agenda and went to the page that shows the baptism interview questions. But I got another paper and covered the title that said that. So I then gave her my agenda, told her to read all of the questions in her mind and to think personally, without letting any other influence come in and to see if she understands everything. She told us that the only thing that wasn't clear was to know if Thomas S. Monson was a living prophet or not. So we testified of that and she felt better afterwards. 

I then told her to undercover the paper to see what it was hiding and to figure out what those questions were for. As we took off the paper and read, "Questions for the Baptism Interview" she was taken over by surprise as she realized that she had responded perfectly to everything. I testified to her that she knows everything and then asked what else she wants to feel more prepared. She responded saying there was nothing other than learning a little bit more about the life of Thomas S. Monson. So I turned to her and said, "Shirley, if there's nothing else impeding you from getting baptized, you are going to have to answer to these same questions Thursday." She looked at me in surprise and asked, "Why Thursday?" And then I explained to her, "Because Thursday you're going to have your baptism interview, and you're going to see just how ready you already are. Will you go to the interview this Thursday to be baptized this next Saturday?" 

She thought about it for a while, looked back at the agenda and looked through the questions one more time. And then finally accepted and told us that she would be willing to have her interview. She is going to some family members Friday so she told us that she wasn't sure if she could Saturday. But she said if she feels good in the interview then she will accept the date to get baptized this Saturday! WOOO!!

We will be in a lot of fasting and prayer these next couple days as we are hoping that everything will go well for her baptismal interview and that she will be motivated to completely accept everything in her life to get baptized this Saturday.

I hope you can all join us as we pray for Shirley and for the elder from another sector that will have to do the interview. I feel confident that she will get baptized. I know it. I know the Lord can help her to feel the need to get baptized that way she can be born again and receive this glorious gospel completely in her life and to receive the remission of her sins. I am so grateful for baptism. I know we have the power on this planet to be able to take away the sins of our brothers and sisters as we can help them to come unto Christ. I love this purpose. And I love seeing the blessings and happiness that come to those that accept these covenants in their lives. This is the true gospel restored upon the earth and I know this is the true Church of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love my mission soo much!!!

Love you too as well!

Love, Elder Cowan