First Transfer, New Area Ochogavia

Dear Mom,

Yes, Blake was right! I had transfers!!! But first I want to thank you for your letter! It really strengthened my testimony! It was great to hear about Zach and Brad! They are such studs!  And thank you for the quotes! They really lifted my spirit which I really needed right now! And yes I am writing you today because yesterday was the conference of transfers and today is New Year's Eve and President knew that we wouldn't have a lot of success today so he changed pday to today!  And today is going to be a really chill day. We have pday till 630 and then president made a rule that we have to be back in our house at 8 for all the festivals here for the New Year and for safety of all the missionaries! Which I thought was a little weird to have to be back so soon, but now in my new area I realize why! . . . ha ha! But first onto my week!

First of all, it was so great to talk and see you guys on Christmas! I loved every single second! I wish I could have talked to you more! I am so glad that you all have a great Christmas! I love you guys so much! So I won't say much about the beginning of last week because I told you guys face to face about that stuff--about the flood in the house which was a mess, and Christmas Eve with the really rich family and with the awesome dinner! And Christmas which was just a normal day. After skyping with you guys we, as a zone, went to the hospital and sang Christmas carols to the sick! It was great! Thursday nothing much, we had the tours of the chapel as we normally do and coordination in the night. And Friday there was a ward activity, A Night of Desserts, it was called. And it was great! All the members brought desserts and pastries and it was so delicious! Ha ha and there were a lot of members and everyone was just having a great time! And Valerie came with us and she loved it and has made a lot of new friends! 

But Saturday in the night we got a call from the zone leaders about who was leaving and who was staying for the next transfers and we all thought that my companion Elder Contreras would be the one leaving. But NOPE! I had transfers!!!!  Awwww!! Ha ha  it was such a surprise and no one saw it coming! Ha ha! They don't tell you where you go, all they say is pack your bags and you're leaving and you will know your new companion and your new sector at the conference. So Sunday was my last day in Padre Hurtado. And I am so grateful for that sector! It really is the best place that I could have started my mission! The sector is great! And the ward is awesome! I will miss them a lot!!!  But I said goodbyes to a lot of families and  investigators! I will send pictures of them with their names. I am sad that I won't be able to see any of the baptisms, but I know that is part of the mission and I just need to keep working where ever the Lord needs me. The hardest goodbye was to Valerie; she was devastated! She was so sad!  But it was also my favorite lesson that I have ever had in the mission yet. The lesson was on obedience and how to recognize the promptings of the Holy Ghost. It was so powerful! I told her that I was leaving, but that she better continue strong in this gospel with all her might! Elder Contreras and I bore our testimonies of how we can receive answers through the Holy Ghost and it was sooo  powerful! I know without a doubt that she will be baptized! Not sure when exactly, but she will! And that makes me so happy! She is one investigator that the Lord has prepared specifically for me and I am so grateful for that opportunity! 

Now onto yesterday!! Woo hoo! Transfers!! I have left the field and I'm now in the city! I am in a city called Ochogavìa! And guess what?! It is the most dangerous sector in all the mission and one of the most dangerous places in Chile! Woo hoo! Ha ha that's what my new companion and Elder Contreras told me. Elder Contreras is training another newbie again. But my new companion is Elder Barraza who is from Chile as well. And actually I am in a trio for right now with Elder Santanas! Both of them received their calls to Venezuela but have had problems with their visas and so they are just waiting for the visas to work out. Elder Santanas should be leaving this week but my companion Elder Barraza should be with me for at least one transfer total. And my sector! Don't worry, Mom! The missionaries are safe here! Ha ha, but I will be honest! It is basically 100% the opposite of my first sector with my fist companion. The sector is super tiny! And very dangerous, my companions have told me that our neighbors at the end of the street are drug dealers, ha ha, which is the main problem here. Drugs run this city basically. And at night it gets crazy and you can hear shotguns going off and bombs! It is very interesting! Ha ha! But everyone knows the missionaries and lets them be and if there is someone who tries to mess with us there are guys who really like us and watch over us basically ha ha! It's pretty awesome, I'm not going to lie! But this sector needs A TON of work! And a ton of help! There are a ton, and a ton, and a ton of less actives! Which another problem here in this sector is the ward.

There is a bishop but he has no counselors because they didn't want to be counselors, so they basically just gave up and decided to not do it anymore. The bishop has no idea what he is supposed to do and, I think, that he doesn't really want to be the bishop. My companions have told me that he is a little crecho, which is a word is Spanish which literally means crooked. But it is like a slang term that means like not obedient kinda. They say that the bishop is a little crecho with the tithing money and other things. And there is a huge problem with the members. There are two groups of members. And each group hates the people in the other group. So there is a lot of division and tension in the ward. And there is one other set of elders in the ward and basically the members in their sector talk bad about the members in our sector and the members in our sector talk bad about the members in their sector. So there are a lot of problems in the ward!! Holy cow! Nothing like the Groves Ward or my last ward. And there are no members that accompany us for lessons and we can hardly contact anyone because they don't want anything to do with us. So we can maybe get 15 contacts in a week, which in Padre Hurtado Elder Contreras and I were making about 70 a week! Ha ha! And there are only about 60 people attending church which in Padre Hurtado there was close to about 140! Ha ha! A lot of differences, problems, and sketchy and ghetto things. But I love it! Ha ha! I know that this is where the Lord wants me and I fell privileged that the Lord has put His trust in me to send me here to do His work, which there is a lot to be done! 

My companion, Elder Barraza, is different from Elder Contreras. He is not as obedient as Contreras and has a terrible memory and is always losing everything. But he is still a great guy! He is very open and last night he just opened up to me about everything in his life and it was really great to start our relationship like that. And he likes to do exercises! Woo hoo! He knows perfect English because he was a foreign exchange student in New York his junior year which is pretty cool! He does things a little differently from what I am used to, but I feel that once we get over the tiny problems we will be great companions! He is really funny too and likes to have fun! He has already made me smile a lot already. I just need to be an example to him to just be 100% obediente and not just sometimes obedient. But it's nothing serious!   

So yea! That is my new crazy sector! I am excited to see what is in store for me here! I can't wait to get to work! The past week with Christmas and all and with pday today and with the conference all day yesterday I haven't had any time to actually work! I feels weird and is driving me crazy ha ha! I can't wait to start working tomorrow! 

Thank you all for your letters! I love you guys so much! Have a great New Year's Eve and a great New Year! It was great to see all you guys on Christmas! Tell everyone I say hi! I love you!

Love,

Elder Cowan

Lord is Blessing Us with Prepared People

Dear Family,

It was great to hear from all of you! Sounds like you are all enjoying the break and relaxing! But to first start off, Mom and Dad I talked to the zone leaders yesterday and, yes I can use Google Chat. I just tried right now to download it onto this computer I am using, but I got a little confused and I don't know exactly what to do ha ha but if we can get it to work that would be great because I would love to talk to all of you! 

And I loved your guys missionary experience this week with the man painting curbs! That is incredible! Way to go! There are a lot of people who are struggling in the world today and they just need the help from the gospel in their lives just like that man! Keep up the great work spreading the gospel! And make sure you call that man to invite him to church!!! And I loved how you said that all you did was ask questions and listened, Mom. There is a chapter in PEM all about that! Questions really help people to open up and share their experiences! Look at you missionary mom! Ha ha! I love hearing stories like that from you guys!

Now onto my last week! Well, first off there were a lot of different meetings and conferences so we didn't have a lot of time to work! But we tried our best! And also Elder Contreras and I are still companions! Woo hoo! Actually in the conference of transfers there were only about 2 changes and then President surprised us all and said that there will be transfers the 30th. 

But onto my week! Monday we had a family night with a member in the ward and they are awesome! One of their sons comes along with us a lot and it is great! I really love this ward! Tuesday we found Nestor and José! Nestor we just started talking to in the street and he told us how he doesn't like how preachers preach the word but don't actually live it and are hypocrites. We shared with him the experience of Joseph Smith and how he felt the same way and that really caught his attention and he liked talking to us and shared with us a lot of his beliefs; it was great! And José! It has been really hot here these past couple days and when we were walking we got really hungry and usually we don't like to stop and eat but Elder Contreras told me that he really needed to, so we stopped at this little restaurant place where the guy who was taking our order was José. He first asked us if we knew a girl in our church which we didn't but he started talking to us about how he likes to investigate other churches and would like to listen to our message! Ha ha, it was super easy! We didn't even say anything! Ha ha so the next day we went to his house and read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with him and taught him a little bit of the Restoration. And he just soaked it all up! He thinks that it all makes sense and that it is great to have more of the word of God! And after finishing the introduction we invited him to baptism and he agreed! Ha ha it was great! He is super prepared! And super ready! I am very grateful that the Lord has been blessing us with prepared people right now! 

After that lesson we went to our other super prepared investigator Sebastian! Who only lives on the other end of the same street as Jose Greese! We didn't have a lot of time but we taught Sebatian the Doctrine of Christ with lesson 3. He agreed to everything again and is reading and praying every day! It is great! Tuesday night we taught Jenny who is the family who showed up at church and said that they wanted to start coming back to church. Jenny has three kids which two of them are above the age of 8 and haven't been baptized yet! So Tuesday night we invited them to baptism and Gillermo, who is 10, accepted but Angie, who is 11, didn't accept but that is only because she is not familiar with everything. And we know that if we can get her mom reactived in the church then she will be baptized! This family is awesome. Every time we teach them they are all so excited to have the missionaries over and want to read and participate in all the lessons; it is great! Just another example of how the Lord is truly blessing us right now with prepared people! As of right now we have 7 baptism dates! Which is a lot for us! It is great!

Thursday was the conference of transfers and Christmas with the whole mission. But there were only like two transfers because one of the elders that I have gotten closest too and was in my group in the CCM, Elder Cummings, is going home for 8 weeks because he had an injury in his ankle. It was really sad to see him leave, but I know he will be back in February! But then we had the conference for Christmas which was really fun. We played a lot of different games and had a HUGE lunch with the entire zone and had a white elephant exchange which I only received a sewing kit, ha ha, but it was still fun! Then after we had coordinating council with the ward mission leader once we got back into our sector, so we didn't have anytime that day to work!

Friday we taught Valerie and she is still awesome and progressing a lot! We watched the movie "How Rare a Possession" of the man in Italy who found a Book of Mormon but couldn't be baptized until 50 years later. We shared that with her to comfort her with her situation with her job and that she cant attend church. We are praying that in the upcoming year she will be able to change her schedule for her work! 

Saturday we had a service for the community of Padre Hurtado where we planted trees in the neighborhoods. But the place was really bad, ha ha. It is in the poorest part of Padre Hurtade and we planted trees in straight rocks and dirt! Ha ha! I don't know how those trees will survive but it was great to help the community out! But it was forever, though! The service was from 10 in the morning to about 4 in the afternoon. And I remembered to put sunscreen on my face and arms but forgot to put some on my legs. . .so my calfs right now are fried and just super red! Actually it looks really funny! Ha ha it reminds me of that time when Trevor fell asleep in the sun and burned his legs! Ha ha! I have pictures but this computer is acting up a little bit so I'm not sure if I will be able to send them this week! Saturday night the Relief Society had an idea to gather all the sisters and come along with us to at least three of our investigators to sing Christmas carols to the families and to give them desserts! It was great! We went to Ana, Felipe, and Marta y Hugo. It was great for Ana to meet some more sisters and friends in the ward. But we got rejected from Marta and Hugo just because we didn't accept the tea in the last lesson. It was really dumb and they over reacted way too much, but I am really sad that they don't want anything to do with the Mormons now just because of a cup of tea. It is truly sad that they missed out on the true happiness and for their salvation just over a cup of tea! 

Sunday we taught José Grau the less active with the memory loss problem, but he is always tired when we come and never reads or prays so it is a little frustrating with him right now. But I made a mistake last week, his son doesn't have schizophrenia! I don't know why I thought that, but his son has autism! And that is why it is really difficult to teach him! But then we started knocking doors and we found a family of gold! It was great! It's Marcela, Margarita, and Felipe who let us in because of the hot weather and we started talking about the Book of Mormon and they were all so interested in it! And accepted to be baptized if they receive a answer that the book is true! So we have more baptism dates and more prepared investigators! It is such a blessing!

Sunday night there was a stake priesthood meeting with the stake presidency, but the turn out was really sad. Out of the entire stake only 30 men showed up. But out of those 30, 25 were from my ward! Ha ha I love my ward! But each person who taught, talked about missionary work and it was great! And we had a little surprise afterward! There was an activity after the meeting as a stake to watch the Christmas devotional! So that was great to watch that! 

I am super grateful for all the blessings and investigators that we have right now! The Lord is truly blessing us right now and it is great!! And for the information about Skype or Google Chat. We are planning on skyping on Christmas at 4 to 6 Chilean time. An hour for me and an hour for my companion! So I think that Chile is 4 hours ahead so I think that means about 12 on Christmas I should be calling! Is that okay? We can really skype whenever so if you have another time just let me know! But I have to go! I love you all and thank you for your letters! MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Love,

Elder Cowan

More Baptismal Dates

Dear Family,

Wow, I truly am blessed to hear from you guys every week! You are all so diligent in writing me and I am so grateful for every single letter that I get. I realized last week that I have been going over my Internet time, so I am trying to cut down the time so I am not able to respond to all of you, sorry! But now my plan is to print your guys letters in the morning and read them and then come back to the Internet and write you guys back because most of my time is reading all the letters. That's what I did this morning and it has helped a lot!

Now to begin a lot of you guys mentioned Christmas and how we get to talk to one another in 10 days. But not only talk but to SEE each other! Yep! That's right I can Skype! Woo hoo!!! I don't have all the details yet, but I know it will be on Christmas Day. I will have more information to give you guys the next Monday. And next Monday I will need your guys user names for Skype as well. 

And yes, Mom, I am still impressed ha ha :) But, yes, take your own advice and relax! Ha ha and that is great that you and Justin got to go to the temple. That is one thing that I miss a lot is going to the temple! But I am glad that I spent my last couple months before my mission working and going to the temple! And way to go Mom! Member missionary! Way to go! I was so happy when I read your experience of sharing the gospel with Brenda's mom! And give yourself some credit! Don't doubt yourself and say that you didn't do a good job! You bore your testimony and as President always says, If you have a chance to bear your testimony then you are having success. I am sure that she felt the spirit, but it is sad that she doesn't want to change because she is already so far in her life. Actually that should be the more reason to become a member! Because she can correct everything in her life through the Atonement! That is great that you got that chance to share the gospel! Keep it up! 

Now onto my week! Well, first off I have a nickname in our sector, ha ha, which is Dr. Elder Cowan. Ha ha! There have been a lot of missionaries with different problems and injuries lately. And most of them all call my companion because he is the district leader, so I get to hear all about it. But my companion never knows what to do to help them so he always just passes the phone to me and tells me to use my anatomy knowledge, ha ha ha. But it has been great to help the other elders identify their problems. I'm not sure if I am doing everything correctly, but basically I just tell them what their problem could be like in the muscles, bones, or tendons, and then tell them to do some stretching exercises everyday in the morning. Ha ha just more experience for me for when I will be a physical therapist! Ha ha! Also another thing that I have been given the responsibility of is of choir, ha ha. Our zone is going to sing on Christmas for the stake and there are a lot of missionaries and the zone leaders didn't know what to do and then Contreras told them that I did choir so they just let me deal with it, ha ha, but it's fine! But man Latin Americans are really tone deaf! Ha ha! But it is fun to practice with them! 

This week went super fast for me! Like I cant believe that I am already writing you guys again it's crazy!! I love the mission! But this week started off pretty interesting. Last Monday we had a lesson with Marta and Hugo. They are the family with the two sons who are addicted to drugs and have a lot of problems. Well, we tried teaching them the Restoration and we tried to teach it as simple as possible because they have a knowledge of a little kid. And it was really difficult because they were all smoking the entire lesson! Yuck! One of my ties has the odor of smoke now it's nasty! And they made us dinner and gave us cups of tea, but we told them that we don't drink tea and they got upset and were really confused with all our beliefs. All in all, the lesson was a failure because they kept distracting from the lesson about other things and they were confused about the tea situation and about Joseph Smith, ha ha. So next time Elder Contreras and I have a lesson planned with lots of pictures and the Restoration in simple terms for them. I always remember Br. Allison in missionary prep class always telling us to teach as if they were kids because they don't know anything, and these people really don't know much! Ha ha, but I am glad that I get to help them and to help them learn about their Savior and His Church!

Tuesday was splits again and this time I was with Elder Trejo another Mexican. He is a great elder and we had an awesome day! A couple days earlier Contreras and I found a boy named Sebastian who is 18 years and has a lot of desires to learn more about Christ. We went and taught the first lesson with him and it was perfect! He read the Restoration pamphlet before we came and he loved the part about Joseph Smith! And basically taught us the Restoration! It was amazing! And we had him pray at the end of the lesson about the Book of Mormon and after he told us that he just felt so happy! It was great! He now has a baptism date for the 26th of January! He is a miracle and super prepared from the Lord! We are very grateful for him!

We also taught Ana that day of lesson 3 the Gospel of Jesus Christ and it went fairly well with her. This time she accepted the baptism invitation after many times that we have invited her in the past but she won't commit to a date which is a little frustrating! She also promised us that she would attend church with us but didn't! But that's okay! I have hope that she will actually act on her word! Then to end Tuesday we taught Valerie! My favorite! She is so awesome! She just accepts everything! We didn't have a lot of time, but we gave a summary of the Plan of Salvation and then went to English class with her.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Christina who, if you remember, is the less active lady who got baptized and then never returned to the church and hardly knows anything about the Church. She has a hard time with the belief that angel Moroni took the plates from Joseph and has them now today! She has a hard time believing without seeing. We taught her about faith and shared our testimonies of the Book of Mormon. She told us that she lacks faith and told us it is just difficult to believe, but that she is amazed that two young teenagers 18 and 20 years old can leave our families and friends and everything to go and walk every day and get rejected and teach every person possible. She asked me, ¨How do you do it? Don't you miss your family, your friends? You are so far from your house! You walk in the sun all day long and get rejected a lot, Why? Whats the point?´´ And that was probably one of my favorite experiences that I have had on my mission because I got to testify to her that yes, I am far from my house, yes, I miss my family and friends, but I do this everyday because I know it is true with all my heart. I told her that the point is because I love the Savior and that is the reason I am here; that is the reason I am putting my life on hold. After that testimony the spirit was really strong and she realized how important this gospel is to me and how much I want to help others to have this gospel in their lives. It was a great experience for me and a testimony builder of why I am a missionary.

After we taught Jose and his family who this time the wife is wanting to listen to us now and actually asked for a blessing. They are great! But they have some challenges with their little son who has schizophrenia or however you spell it! He is very hard to control and watch over but they have so much patience; it is incredible!

Thursday we had a conference of new missionaries at the mission offices which was great to see my friends again. After the meeting they took all the new missionaries to this tourist place which I don't know the name, but it is a huge mountain and at the top of the mountain you can see all of Santiago. It is really cool! But from the mountain you can't see our sector because it's not in the city. But it was beautiful! I will send the photos, but they aren't the best, Mom, sorry! Ha ha. With the meeting which lasted till 6 in the night we only had time for one lesson with Ana really quick about church attendance.

Friday we taught Valerie again and finished the Plan of Salvation which was a lot for her to understand, but she accepted it and loved the fact that families can be together forever. We told her that we needed to change her baptism date because she can't attend church, but she told us that for the new year she might have a chance to change her schedule for good! So we are praying that she will be able to attend with the new year! She also told us that she was having dinner with her family when her little brother asked her, "Valerie why don't you get baptized in the Mormon church?" Ha ha it is great that we are starting to catch the family's attention. Then we went to Peñaflor to offer tour of the chapel as we do every Friday and Saturday. We only had one tour, but it was still a good day!

Saturday we taught Jenny and her family who showed up at church and told us that they were less active, lived in our sector, and were ready to come back to church! Ha ha, a miracle! Ha ha, they are great! There is no father in the family, but there are four kids and two of them are over the age of 8 and haven't gotten baptized yet! So we now have two more baptism dates! Ha ha, it was super awesome! 

Saturday we had an activity of the Stake where they went all out! The stake went to a park plaza and set up a whole stage and seats and everything and had the primary act out the nativity with all the missionaries singing Christmas songs. And this plaza is in the middle of the town so it was great to be able to have this huge activity and to have others see and catch their interest.

Sunday was election day for Chile for the president, so a lot of people were gone and were in Santiago voting. But we got to teach the Nuñez family and we did the Attritbutes of Christ activity in PMG and we also taught Ulisses and his family and shared the Proclamation to the Family. It is great to see the change in the father after his car accident and to help his family out and lead them through the gospel now.

Well, I have to go! Thank you all so much for your letters! I love you all! Good luck with all your tests and finals! Get better Mom and Trevor and push through this week Blake and Kiersten. Dad keep up the great work and Justin I am glad you made it back home safely! Good luck with the job searching!

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Cowan

Lessons, Service, Church Tours and Grass Fire

Dear Family and Friends,

Ha ha I'm not even sure if i should put friends because they probably don't read my letters! Ha ha but anyways! We had an awesome week! A lot of surprises and fun things! Ha ha! But first I want to say one thing first and that is, Mom, you are awesome and a beast! As I was reading your letter when you were sick and all the things you still did when you were sick it just amazes me! You are such a hard worker and great example to me! I hope you feel better! And we are actually using the quotes from Ballard and have made little cards to give to the members to motivate them and it is helping a lot! 

Okay onto my week! It first started off with a miracle! If you remember Jose from last week he is the man who asked for a blessing and had a baptism date but we found out that he actually is a member but doesn't remember because of his accident. It's a little sad to see that he doesn't remember much but that's where the miracle happened! On Monday we taught him and taught about the power of the Holy Ghost and how it teaches us and shows us the truth. The spirit was very strong during the lesson and my companion made a promise that if he strives to have the spirit in his life that he will be able to remember things! And the next thing that happened was awesome! The spirit was very strong and there was just silence after my companion said that, then after about 3 minutes of him pondering he looked up at us and had the biggest smile on his face! And he told us that he remembered the day of his baptism now! It was incredible! He told us detail by detail of the experience whereas before he couldn't even remember that he did get baptized! It was such a great experience! And during the week we got two more phone calls from him telling us that he remembers his wedding now and when his son was born! And he said that he started to remember these things because he started reading the scriptures everyday! It is such a great miracle! Heavenly Father truly does bless his children when they are obediente!

Tuesday was another day of divisions where I was with Elder Niquet the Mexican and we were in our sector. So that means I had to call all the shots that day and to lead the sector! And it was great! I hardly had any problems! It was a little stressful but Elder Contreras and the training program in the mission has really helped me a lot to become a better leader. Every day Elder Niquet and Contreras tell me that I am ready to train and that when I am a assistant that I better remember them ha ha! Who knows! Ha ha! We taught Felipe Tuesday about 1 Nephi 8 about how after Lehi took of the fruit he wanted his family to partake as well, so we related that to his situation with his family and it went really well! As well we taught Valerie about faith in Jesus Christ and how we can receive miracles when we act in faith. We related that to how we need a miracle with her job to change so she can attend church with us on Sundays because she is SOO ready for baptism, but the only thing that is stopping her is her job and she is so upset about it, ha ha. She is awesome! She told me that the reason she started to talk to us the very first time we met her was because she saw me and she had a prompting that she needed to go talk to the greengo. It was a great experience to know that the Lord is preparing people specifically for me. After she came with us to English class which I was the teacher, but I had no idea that I was and didn't have a plan. Usually the classes are very boring and the people don't have a lot of fun. That's when I decided to change things up and play Pictionary with the students which I guess isn't really well know here in Chile. But I first taught them different things about Christmas and then after they knew all the words in Ingles we split up into two teams and played pìctionary where they had 10 seconds to draw a picture of the word and the team had to yell the word out in Ingles. Ha ha it got pretty intense! And they all loved it! 

Wednesday I got to play the role of Dad for a little bit because we got a call from Susana who is a less active in the ward and lives alone. And Elder Contreras and I had the chance to put up her Christmas lights up! Ha ha don't worry, Dad! No injuries! Ha ha! But it was really fun! For the rest of the day we knocked on doors and talked with a ton of people. And Wednesday night we taught Ana who first just started to cry because of some family situations, that's when we shared some comforting scriptures in the Book of Mormon and it was awesome to help her feel peace and calm just from reading from the Book of Mormon! It is such a blessing to have this book!!! Then as we were returning to our house we saw this huge cloud of smoke close to our house! So we booked it to our house and about 500 yards from our house there was a huge grass field fire! Luckily, the firemen were already there and trying to control it but it was pretty big. But we couldn't get a lot of sleep that night because there were a lot of sirens going off everywhere and we weren't sure if we should start packing just in case we needed to evacuate! But eventually the firemen stopped the fire and it was all good! Since we couldn't sleep I decided to make my brownies which are in the photos I sent.

Thursday! Was service day! Ha ha! We woke up and got a call from a lady in the ward that needed help with her garden, ha ha, but it ended up being a huge project! Ha ha and not only was it a garden but more like a farm! Ha ha and we had to clear a big space in the field to start planting tomatoes. And there was a ton to plant and it took almost all afternoon and I got roasted! Ha ha! Thanks Mom and Dad for always teaching and showing me how to work hard! For a lot of the time the other elders and my companion got distracted and started to play around with a soccer ball while I was continuing planting the tomato seeds. Then afterwards we had our weekly planning session but only about 20 minutes into it we got a call from the zone leaders that they needed help with the tours of the church in Villa La Foresta Penaflor. They told us that there were no district or zone leaders there and that the elders and hermanas were getting a little distracted. Which by the way, the tours is a regular thing now. Everyday of the week there are assigned companionships who go to Penalor and invite people to come and tour the church. Well, it takes about 20 to 25 minutes by bus to get there and when we got there no one was working and they were all planning on leaving. But as they were wrapping things up they realized that they didn't have the keys to the chapel and that Elders Niquet and Trejo had them, but they left early and were in Padre Hurtade. So we had to take the bus back to Padre Hurtade meet up with the elders, get the keys, and take another bus back to Penaflor and then give the keys to the other elders and by then the time for the tours was over so we had to take another bus back to Padre Hurtade to go to our appointments. All in all, we took 4 bus rides and we were on the bus for a total of almost an hour, ha ha, it was a little annoying.

Friday we taught Valerie and read the general conference talk "A Sure Foundation" which is about the importance of reading, praying and attending church regularly. It was a great lesson. Also we taught Natalie which I doubt you guys remember, but she is a less active and we haven't seen her in a long time but we entered and immediately her roommates were there and one was really sick so we gave her a blessing and taught all three of them and the two roommates are now new investigators for us! Ha ha cool! 

Saturday it was our turn to go to Penaflor and offer tours to the people there. But as we were offering and talking to people we met Pedro who is a very angry man. He started yelling at us that we are so rich and that our church isn't true and just kept protesting in front of the church. We tried multiple times to talk to him, but he kept telling us that he didn't want to talk to us rich people. He kept telling us that we should be taking our nice fancy ties and white shirt and giving them to the poor. We tried multiple times but he was jut an angry man. Finally, as he was leaving he came up to me and asked me if I believed in Jesus Christ and I said of course I did! And then he told me that Christ always helped the poor and that he was poor so that means that I should give him my tie. Ha ha I knew that he was just trying to test me to see if I would actually give it up and, of course, I did! Ha ha I wasn't going to let him be correct with his judgement that we are just rich and keep to ourselves. So I took off my tie and said "Here you go!!" And he was just dumbfounded and couldn't believe that I was so willing to give it up, ha ha, he eventually took it and left! Ha ha it was one of my purple ties, but I don't care! Ha ha so afterwards I didn't have a tie but we have streamer paper so I took some and drew on it and made myself a tie! Ha ha that's the other photo that I sent! 

There is a new initiative as a zone that every missionary should at least invite one person to baptism everyday. So we decided to try it out and knocked on a door and met Alex. He didn't have a lot of time, but we gave a summary of the Restoration and then invited him to baptism and he accepted! Ha ha a contact, new invest., and a baptism date all in 5 minutes! Ha ha it was a miracle! He is awesome!

Sunday none of our investigators attended which is a big obstacle that we are having in our sector, but one of our less actives, Mauricio, attended! So that was cool! After we had coordinating council and it was great to work with the ward. At the end, though, the Bishop just went hardcore mode and basically started to chew out the leaders because none of them are really taking the missionary work serious, which is true they tend to believe that coordinating council is just a time to sit and chat. It was awesome, though, to see this bishop take a stand and get these leaders into shape! Ha ha It was awesome! Sunday we taught Felipe and helped him start his Duty To God. Taught Ana as well and read Mosiah 18 about the desires of the people to be baptized by Alma in the waters of Mormon. And Ulisses who is the recent convert. But his dad was surprisingly there and he was in a really bad car accident about 2 weeks ago but he said that because of the accident he has a new mindset and is now reading in the Book of Mormon and was asking us a lot of questions that he had about his reading. It is awesome to see the change in this man to follow the Savior and to lead the head of the house now with the gospel! It is such a blessing! After that it was really late but we got a call from a Hermano in the ward that we needed a blessing so we rushed over there and gave the blessing and then afterwards it was 9:55 and we had five minutes to return to the house but we also realized that we were 3 people short to achieve our weekly goal of contacts of 60. We knew we didn't have a lot of time but we prayed that Heavenly Father would help us and He surely did. After the prayer, we started walking back to the house when the next three people that crossed our path and started asking us questions about the church and they were really interested! Ha ha so we got 3 more contacts and made our goal! And an example that Heavenly Father does answer prayers!

I don't have any more time but I want you all to know that I know this gospel is true and that Jesus Christ lives and is our Savior and Redeemer, I am loving this gospel so much! Thank you all for everything! I love you all so much!

Love 

Elder Cowan

Spanglish, Leading Sector & Conference in Maipu

Dear Family,

Alright I am back! And now for my weekly letter! But to first start off, Mom last Wednesday I got the Christmas package! It came super fast!! Ha ha but don't worry!! I haven't opened any of the gifts yet! I remember when either Trevor or Blake didn't wait and you got really angry with them! But I have been eating the little candies everywhere in the package! So don't worry I am being patient and waiting for the 13th of December to open the first gift! And I don't care that you didn't take that part about the worm out of the letter! I will let you know when to take things out or not! And you also asked about the language. It is still coming a long. . I don't really know ha ha! I can teach all the lessons and I even lead in giving and starting the lessons, but my Spanish vocabulary is very, very well when it comes to gospel topics. But when it comes to just normal talking and small talk kind of stuff it is quite difficult. My companion says my Spanish is really good and especially my grammar, like when to use past tense and future tense and all that. But the only hard part is just understanding and listening to the people because they talk really fast here. But I am not letting it get me down. I know it all comes in time and I have only been here for 3 months. I have caught myself a lot thinking in Spanish and I am also writing in my journal in Spanish because when I write in English it just turns into Spanglish because I tend to write Spanish words instead ha ha. Also my companion has made a goal for me to lead the sector every other day. So that means I am in charge of everything for that day, where to go, who to go see, what to do, also in charge of all phone calls we get and have to make, and in leading the lessons and in contacting. That has been helping my Spanish a lot and has helped me become a better senior companion. My companion keeps telling me that I am so ready to be a senior companion and ready to train already! Ha ha! He keeps telling me that so I don't know! Maybe I will--that would be cool! Ha ha! Also I just thought of this but I get to practice my frisbee skills a little bit here in the mission. When we get references from people we plan to go visit them shortly but sometimes the people don't answer so we get a pass along card and write a little message and then since all the houses have fences you have to throw the card to the front door step. And I have gotten pretty good at it, ha ha! My companion is surprised every time when it lands right in front of the door, ha ha!

Okay, but onto my week! Last Monday nothing really happened after Pday. We had a lesson with Ulisses but nothing really exciting. Then Tuesday I woke up with an ear infection. I have been wondering when they were going to start coming back. But a little miracle occurred, I believe, because I woke up and knew I had a ear infection and so I got the drops and put them in and then I haven't had any other problems! Usually the pain lasts for a couple days! But it's all fine now so you don't have to worry, Mom! And I am on medicine for the worms--you don't have to worry about that either! Tuesday we also had divisions where Elder Wilson, one of the zone leaders, came along with Elder Contreras and me for a day. And he counseled us to make more little sectors and to really work and focus a lot in the little sectors everyday. So we drew new lines on our maps and started to knock doors. But as we were knocking on doors we looked across the street and Jehovah Witnesses were across the street knocking on doors as well, ha ha, so we had to stop and we have been waiting a little bit in order to retun back to that sector. Ha ha, but it was pretty funny! Also on Tuesday we taught Valerie who is probably the main focus in this last week! She is just awesome! She is so interested and accepts everything and is just willing to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ in her life. We taught L3 with her and extended a baptism date with her which she willingly accepted with no problems!! :) And even after the lesson we were walking away when she asked us about our beliefs about coffee and tea, and we basically taught a 5 minute lesson about the Word of Wisdom and after teaching that she just looked at us, thought for a little bit and said, Okay, yea that makes sense, I will follow those things as well. Ha ha she accepted it even when we didn't even extend any type of invitation to live it, ha ha, she is just awesome! And, well, Tuesday night Valerie came to English classes because she really wants to learn English and it was just awesome! And after the class we gave her a tour of the chapel as well, ha ha. Ha ha, I don't think I can use the word awesome enough ha ha! So, yea, Tuesday was a great day and a lot of the time was with Valerie!

Wednesday we had a conference in Maipu with three different zones and it was great! There we did a lot of role playing and practices and it helped a lot! President was sick, but he still came and talked to us and it was great! That was the day I got the package! Seriously that thing came within a week! I am so surprised about that! And you probably are to, Mom, ha ha! And then after the conference we had a miracle contact! We were just walking in the street and saying hi to everyone like normal when a lady walked by and we said hi and then she stopped and turned around and asked us where our church was. We gave her the direction and then she said, "Hey, this is my house right here would you like to come in and teach my family?" And we were like umm yea! Of course! Ha ha, and she has a husband and two sons. Her name is Marta and the husband is Ugo. The sons names are Mauricio and Ugo Jr. And the two sons were high when we first entered. They have a lot of problems with drugs and have a lot of addictions. It was really hard to even breath in the house because they were all smoking. But I just remembered that they are my brothers and sisters and they need the gospel in their lives really badly! I thought of the general conference of when one of the apostles quoted the story of the missionary who saw all of his investigators the same way and saw them in white. It was a great miracle that we were able to find them and have them all be new investigators for us. I am excited to continue to teach them because I want to help them so bad! Wednesday our recent convert in our sector Ulisses called us to let us know that his dad got in a really bad motorcycle accident. Ulisses didn't really care because his dad separated from them a long time ago, but he wanted us to come over because his mom was very depressed. So we rushed over and taught a short, sweet message about hope and the power of the Book of Mormon to try to comfort her. Ulisses, though, lives close to the farthest boundaries of our sector so after it was already 10 at night and we were supposed to be in our house, so Elder Contreras and I decided to book it back to the house because there were no taxis or buses at that late hour at night. And it was super fun, actually! There are dogs everywhere, as you know, and anything that is fast the dogs chase after so when we were running we turned around to find a pack of like 10 dogs all chasing after us ha ha! But we stopped and started to walk and then they all skidded to a stop and went their different ways, but it was a little scary ha ha!

Thursday! Thanksgiving! Ha ha just a normal day for me! We went to Penaflor where as a zone we were going to work together from 4 to 7 and invite people to come and tour the chapel. We had 6 tours in total but we didn't really have a whole lot of success. But it was cool to see all the zone go out and have missionaries on every street in this area going and inviting people. One elder decided to take a white board and wrote "We are selling Super 8s" (which are basically kit kats here) ha ha but we didn't have any, but a man came and wanted to buy a Super 8, but we promised him that he had to tour the chapel first and then he could buy one. Ha ha so while some elders were giving the tour, another companionship booked it to the closest store, bought a super 8 and returned just in time ha ha. We decided that we shouldn't bribe people and that it was wrong to do that. But it was still funny! 

Friday we taught Valerie again!! I love teaching her! And this time her little brother came and wants to listen to us know! So he is a new investigator too! And we extended an invitation to be baptized, but Valerie kept talking so he couldn't reply, but basically I believe he will want to be baptized too. And he likes the belief that families can be together forever. And he is only like 15 or 16 years old, so we believe we can get the whole family baptized ha ha! Yeah! And after the lesson Valerie asked us if she could apply to have Liahonas sent to her house! and we were just like, "Yea of course!" ha ha, she is just awesome! Friday we also taught Oscar who is the old investigator who thought he needed to read the whole Book of Mormon first and then to pray to receive a testimony. But in this lesson we read Moroni 10:4 where it says when you receive these things. . .and so on. We shared with him that if the Book of Mormon is true, which it is, then one verse is true as well and we shared with him that it is when we receive these things not when we end these things. He agreed to read and pray about the Book of Mormon now!! Woo hoo! I am so excited! But at the end of the lesson he was a little upfront and a tad rude to me. When I teach I always try to make eye contact, but at the same time I am trying to think and translate what I am saying in my head, and when I don't know exactly how to say something in Spanish I pause for a little bit and think and then keep going. But Oscar got mad at me that I don't keep eye contact and that when you don't keep eye contact it is a sign that what you are saying isn't true. That hit me pretty hard. I tried telling him that it's just me trying to translate in my head from English to Spanish and not because I don't think this is true. After I told him that it is just me translating in my head when I don't keep eye contact he apologized and said he was sorry. After that lesson we were really far from our house and we needed to get home on time, but we were still really far, but luckily there was one taxi that night but I only had 2000 pesos so we just decided to go as far as we could with the small amount of money but there was another tiny miracle. We ended up right in front of our house when the pager was at 1975 ha ha! We barely had enough money and we got home just in time! Ha ha!

Saturday we got a call from the young mens leader that there was a lady who wanted a tour of the chapel and needed help with English. So we went and gave her a tour, her name is Mary and we helped her with her English for a long time and she is really interested in the church. But then finally at the end of everything and the end of being at the chapel for like 4 hours with her, we found out that she actually lives in the Hermanas sector so she is their investigator. . Ha ha but it's alright! I am still glad that I was able to help her learn English! While we were at the chapel we got a call from the zone leaders that there was a man that wanted a blessing. So we wrote down the reference and went straight to the house. And it is a man named José. We asked him why he wanted a blessing and he replied and just said that he believed that we had power and authority. Ha ha we were really surprised at that response and so we gave him the blessing. And he wanted the blessing because he got in a bad car accident a while ago and lost some memory. Well, we kinda passed over the part of the memory loss. . you will see why. . . Ha ha, after talking with him and talking about how we actually do have the power and authority, we taught him the Restoration and he was really open with it all and accepted it all. He told us that it all made sense and that he believes in Joseph Smith. Well, at that response we were even more excited and surprised. I was so surprised and excited that I invited him to baptism which he accepted. But here comes the funny part...remember the part about the memory loss well we talked to a hermano in the ward who knows him and he actually is a member but doesnt remember anything about joining the church! Haha. But hey at least we get to help him come back to church! Haha. I was so excited that we were going to have such an easy baptism. Haha. But its all good! And really funny, too!

Sunday was when I had a little Thanksgiving for myself. We had lunch with the Lopez family. It was Br. Lopez's birthday so they made a huge lunch with all this chicken and salads and everything! Haha, and after dinner they had different types of desserts and cakes! Ha ha. So I will take that as a little tender mercy from the Lord for me to have a Thanksgiving of my own! Haha. ;) Sunday we finally got to teach Felipe as well We haven't seen for almost over a week! But he is still doing great! He got braces and had to get teeth pulled out so he was basically on his bed resting and sleepy all week from the drugs. But he is great and still excited! 

Well, that is my week! Thank you for all the prayers and letters every week! I love you guys so much! I know this gospel is true and there is so much power in the Book of Mormon! I hope you guys are reading it everyday! I love that book so much! It is meant for our time and it is true without a doubt! I love you guys and I hope you all have a great week!  Dad, good luck with your busy week! Mom, enjoy the Christmas season. Blake, good luck with the girls. ;) And Trevor and Kiersten, enjoy each other's company for the break that you have and good luck with any upcoming school things you may have. And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JUSTIN!!! I know I already sent you a personal letter but Happy Birthday, big brother! I hope you are enjoying traveling across the country with Nathan! That is so cool! I love you all so much!!!!!

Love,

Elder Cowan