8 Day Miracle Baptism

Dear Family and Friends!

Well! Yes, just to let you all know I got transferred! It was a little bit of a surprise and it was hard to leave Talagante with all the success that Elder Smith and Elder Goates and I did. The both of them are staying there and we have a lot of people prepared for the month of March, which usually happens right before I leave. But whatevs! They are gonna keep taking out the trash!

Now I am with Elder Wagner! From South Carolina! (Yep that's right Trevor! He said he might even remember you!) He is from Goose Creek or Charleston basically and he lives in the Crowfield Ward! I don't know if you ever met him, Trevor, on your mission, but that would be cool! Really, I have known Elder Wagner for some time throughout the mission and he's probably one of the nicest guys! He has already been in this sector for a transfer and he goes home this transfer. So it looks like I'm gonna be killin' another companion this transfer. We are in Republica! Which is basically where the Mission starts from Santiago. I have never been so close to the city before! We live on the 7th floor of a tiny apartment building, right next to a huge highway . . . So we'll see how that goes. 

But the cool part is that Elder Kimball (mi hijo) has been here for 2 transfers now and they just announced today that he is going to be one of our district leaders and is going to train!! Woo hoo!!! I'm incredibly excited for him!! That means Elder Kimball and I will get to talk every night when he gives his redimiento de cuentas every night! I'm so excited! This zone too is pretty small. There are only 9 companionships to which in Talagante there were 12. But it looked like they had a good month this past month so I'm excited for what's in store! 

But now onto the good details of my last week in Talagante. It's incredible how much a missionary comes to love his sectors. When I first arrived in Talagante I was anxious, but at the same time a little resistant because it felt like I gave out all my heart to my last sector with Elder Kimball in 4 Poniette. But with my awesome companions we just took out the trash! I have never had soo many things happen in one transfer before! IT was incredible! And with all those good things, baptisms, and miracles, it was pretty hard to leave . . .

But we ended it with the best way possible! With a baptism!!! Yea! So I can't remember if I told you guys about Francisca last week but Saturday 14 we found her from a reference a member gave us. Her mom is less active and she just separated from her husband who was against the Church and never let their daughters get baptized in the Church until they were 18 when they could be adults and make their own decisions. And with the huge miracle of Francisca turning 18 in December we found her on Saturday, she came to church the next day and just absolutely loved it! She has been waiting her whole entire life to get baptized and be a member of this Church and she even got a little emotional that now everything was coming to pass for real!

And from that point, we knew that she was a miracle and already ready! Her mom, even though she couldn't get her daughter baptized, she still tried everything to prepare her beforehand so that way when she turned 18 she would be ready for the water! Truly, I can't describe how amazing this family is! I love them so much!!! From that point, after attending church for the first time on the 15th we visited her everyday last week. And we were able to teach all the lessons which she already learned from her mom, basically, and Friday she had her baptism interview, passed with flying colors and then chose me to baptize her!!!

OHHH!! What a blessing it was!! I can't tell you guys enough! It was a straight miracle!!! From only meeting her on that one Saturday and to end with the blessing of baptizing her only 8 days later!!! That is truly a miracle!! One of the most incredible miracles I have ever had in my whole mission! I felt so privileged to baptize her. Seeing her true desire to come unto Christ, but having to wait 18 years and now it was finally the time! Her dreams had come true!! IT was AMAZING!!! Yesterday at the baptismal service was probably one of the strongest moments I have ever had in my mission. The spirit was just so strong! Francisca and I were both balling our eyes out! It was the most beautiful feeling ever! She was 100% ready! And was a miracle!

Last night they invited us tomar once and that is where I broke the news that I had changes. . . it was hard to break it to them. Only getting to know them for such a little time but in that small amount of time it was just pure blessings and miracles and then all of that to just telling them that I wasn't going to be there anymore was really hard. It's crazy how in my whole entire mission, from being in sectors for 3 months, 4 months, or 6 months and getting to know a lot of families in those periods of time, the family of Francisca, (the Ceron Berrios family) has probably been the family I have gotten closest too and most attached too than of any other in my mission. And it was only in 8 days. I think that's why having transfers was so hard. But at the same time I know that family was specifically prepared for me. They are incredible! I love them soo much!

Now onto this next transfer to be able to keep the faith to do the same! There's still a lot to do and I can't wait to see what's in store! I want to bear my testimony of the pure love of Christ that one can feel, helping another come unto Him. That is the most beautiful experience I have witnessed time after time, sector after sector in my mission. This gospel brings happiness to all families! It is meant for everyone! And everyone needs it! I'll be honest, I'm nervous for this transfer, but I know if I serve and do my part, I can always feel the love of my Savior. I love my Redeemer Jesus Christ with all my heart. I love this mission. And I love with all my might, this pueblo de Chile.

Love,

Elder Cowan

Miracles at Church!!

Dear Family and Friends!!

Wow, this week was another great one! And it was jammed packed with things to do again! Ha ha, I honestly don't know where the time is going with everything! This transfer has been the best!! I love my companions so much! They are such studs! And we are just taking out the trash this transfer! I have never had so many logros in one transfer before! It's a miracle!

The beginning of this week started off a little slow for us! I think at the beginning of the week we were a little too contento of our achievements from the week before that we were as diligent as we should have been. We saw that in our results the first couple days of the week of barely getting anything done with our time. Monday through Thursday there was just a lot of small little things that would waste our time, but in the end we were able to pull it all off!

After the first three slows days of the week, Thursday came around and we had a special meeting with Walter F. Gonzalez. He had advised us early that he was going to come and talk to the whole mission Friday. But he threw in a little surprise and just wanted a special meeting, Thursday, with all the zone leaders! It was at a little bad timing because it took the whole afternoon and we got back really late but it was awesome being able to be in that special meeting with him! Walter F. Gonzalez is in the presidency of the 70 and the president of the South America South regions! The meeting was incredible! There were about 20 of us leaders and he was able to teach us the importance of being a leader! And how to be a true leader in this true Church! He gave us all his tips on how to motivate missionaries and how to keep their excitement up! I love that part! He talked about motivation and how it doesn't really exist in the gospel language. But he went on to tell us that motivation comes from the understanding of pure doctrine! 

Then Friday we were as a whole mission together when he gave a new capacitacion with us on how to focus more on better goals! He went on to tell us that a lot of times missionaries get confused and only focus on "middle" goals and not "final" goals! He went on to talk about how missionaries just need to fulfill the things that President asked them to do (for example, 30 lessons a week, 4 fechas, etc.), but they never focus on the final goals which in the end of everything is: to baptize! He also used a lot of examples on how we can use the Book of Mormon in EVERY situation! He and his wife did a few role plays to show us! And it was incredible! Even in super awkward or hard situations Elder Gonzalez was able to relate EVERYTHING to the Book of Mormon! It was so cool!! 

As they started to do more role plays as examples for us, they started to show us examples of ministering to less actives and how we have to use the Book of Mormon to guide us to the needs of them. But before he started he turned to President and asked for a companionship of zone leaders to come up. President thought for a moment and then called our names out! Aww!! IT was pretty scary having to do a role play demonstration in front of the whole mission and let alone to a member of the 70! But we did it pretty good and Elder Gonzalez was really pleased with our efforts! Woo! Our hearts were beating like crazy! Ha ha, but it was fun!

Then we were able to teach Ibet who I don't know if I have written about much. Her husband is inactive and we have been teaching her and her two kids, Kelly and Max and they are progressing really well. Then we were able to pass by Mary and Scarlett and teach the Plan of Salvation and they are so ready!! They just know it's all true! So that was a lot of blessings on its own just to see so many of our investigators progressing! But there's even more!!!

Friday night we got a reference from a member in our branch of a part member family. We got this reference a while back but we haven't been able to find them, but Saturday in the morning we passed by and found the mom, Isabel! She has been inactive for a few years now and within the first two minutes of us sitting in her house she just started to cry. She went on to tell us the problems she has had in her family and how she married someone outside of the Church and how he didn't support her in her beliefs at all. They had two kids Reanatta and Francisca. The husband never wanted his daughters to participate in the Church. She told us that a lot of times while he would sleep in the morning or if he had to work then they would sneak out and go attend sacrament meeting because they used to live around the corner of the church. But then they moved farther away and they were never able to attend again.

Luckily, they were able to resolve their problems and were able to separate as a couple and now Isabel lives in a different house (now in our sector) with her two daughters. Right when she finished telling us that story, her daughter Francisca came in! She just about exploded with happiness to see us! She went on to tell the same story of how her dad wouldn't let her participate in the church, but that she always wanted to go to church and be a member. She said that her dad made a contract that when she turned 18 she can decide for herself. And luckily in December she just turned 18! And she told us that she wants to get baptized! Woo hoo!! Such a miracle!!

Then the next day Francisca and her mom both came to church! And, as well, Ibet, Kelly, Max, Mary, Scarlet, and Scarlett's friends Javiera all came to church!! It was amazing!! We were able to bring 7 investigators to church yesterday! We took up a whole bench! It was incredible! And Rodolfo, Loreto, and Benjamin got confirmed in church yesterday as well!!! 

Even though the beginning of this week was a little slow the Lord still blessed us with so many miracles! Francisca is such a huge miracle! We will be able to pull of that baptism really soon! And as well with all the other investigators that came to church! Such an incredible blessing to see so many people progressing in this wonderful Gospel!

Love you!

Love,

Elder Cowan

The Night is Dark Just Before the Dawn

Dear Family and Friends!

Well, I'm just gonna jump right into writing you guys because now I have less time on the computer! President lowered the time on the computer for our benefit to be better and more obedient missionaries! And I love being obedient!!

So this week was insane! Seriously!! We went like 100 miles per hour and then Sunday it kinda all stopped us like a brick wall! But it was still amazing! 

Well, to first start off, Tuesday, we had another Consejo de Guerra where the zone leaders and the assistants talked with President. Well as for the state of the mission we aren't doing that great! We had 92 baptisms in November, 42 baptisms in December, and now we only had 38 baptisms in January. We are lowering and it's bad! President shared a lot of problems that are passing through the mission right now and sadly there aren't a lot of missionaries converted to being obedient. And for that disobedience we are receiving the consequences! So we are gonna be even more obedient! And we put that in practice a lot this week with Elder Goates and Elder Smith!

And even worse is that even though we still had a low number for the total of last month, our zone of Talagante didn't have a single baptism. A whole zone! I just don't know how that happens! But as a companionship we are putting into practice Jacob 1:19. We are taking upon ourselves the responsibility of that because that's just not acceptable! So we decided we need to step it up and look for some baptisms and some miracles!

The next day we taught Rodolfo and Loreto. We finished teaching them everything in that single lesson. It was a powerful and doctrinal lesson! Ha ha, but then we threw in the baptism interview questions and they all responded correctly. We then read Mosiah 18 with them and then challenged them to get baptized. They were a little taken back but at the same time they knew that they know these things to be true. After a lot of mediation, Rodolfo opened his Book of Mormon hoping to look for a sign when he came upon Mosiah 18:27 where it says that those that have should give more on their part and those that have little, give little. Rodolfo took that as a principle of where much is given, much is required. He told us that we have given him a lot of blessings and knowledge of this gospel and since he has been given this opportunity to have the gospel in his life, he too is required to act on his part. So he told us that they were ready for baptism!

It was amazing! I'm so grateful that he opened up to that scripture and that the spirit testified to him of what he should do! We were sooooo pumped! We got so excited and then challenged them to get baptized for that weekend! They accepted and then we left. But as we left we looked at the time and it was 9:22 and we only had 8 minutes to get into the pension. . . and we were sooo far! But we remembered the importance of obedience and we ran! And I don't think I have ever run so fast in my life! I think since we were on a little spiritual high from the lesson that helped us to have the energy to get in on time. And we did it! I don't know how because usually from their house it's like a 25 minute walk, but we ran and ran!! Truly, I know the Lord saw our efforts and helped us get in on time! 

Then the next day we finished teaching them everything. That day, Thursday, President called us and said he wanted to work with us that day, which he hardly does, so we were super surprised but he didn't have enough time to make it out to Talagante. Then Friday came along and they had to do their interview! And that's where we saw a little opposition in the process. We were at the church when they sent a message telling us they weren't gonna go. We were so confused so we took a taxi and rode out there. We entered the house and they were fighting a little bit. You could see how Satan has his power to impede people to come unto Christ. They were just arguing because Rodolfo punished his son for leaving the window open and Loreto thought it was too harsh of a punishment and then they started to fight. I was dumbfounded. I literally asked them if they were gonna lose their salvation over a dumb open window. Ha ha, I wasn't gonna risk it for anything else so I just told them straight forward. They realized it was dumb and got all ready and went to the church and they all passed their interviews!! Woo hoo!

Then we get to Sunday! Really, we couldn't believe how we were about to pull off this baptism even when only 2 days earlier they didn't even have a baptism date. But truly the Lord was helping us a lot this past week! But long story short, Loreto's mom is super Catholic and came over Sunday in the morning and tried talking them out of it all so we had some problems with that because that was during the reunion sacramental. And if they didn't show up for the sacrament meeting they wouldn't be able to get baptized. Sadly, they got there for the last hour of church and then we had to explain how they weren't going to be able to get baptized that day. It was pretty sad telling someone that. I have never had that experience in my life, but they accepted it and they are ready to get baptized this next week! So next Sunday we are having 3 baptisms!! Woo hoo! We are soo pumped!

Really, we saw a lot of miracles this past week! We are gonna change this motion we are having in the mission right now and we are gonna take out the trash and have a lot of success! I know it! And I know it all comes down to our obedience! I love being a missionary! I love the guides we have as missionaries that really help us to be the best we can possibly be! I love my Savior and I love serving as His representative!

Love Elder Cowan

Talagante Legend

Dear Family and Friends!!!!!

How incredible it is to hear from you guys! You're all just sooo amazing!! Love you all soo much! Wow, I hope you guys all had an AMAZING week! Because Talagante is exploding with success! Truly, I have been humbled a lot this past week seeing how the Lord is leading through with His work in this part of His vineyard! What an amazing feeling it is to be one of His servants! I love my mission!!!!!!

Okay, well to start off! Tuesday we had a "consejo de guerra" as we call it where all the zone leaders meet up with the assistants and President for a council. I love those meeting and I love President! He is such an inspired man! We usually have these meetings every Tuesday but this last Tuesday, President was really stressed about the status of our mission. Ever since we hit 92 baptisms we just still haven't gotten back up to that level of success. It turned out to be a long meeting, basically from 10 to 2 in the afternoon and it was President teaching us one on one about one of my favorite topics, The FAITH! It was incredible! You could just see that President was just riding along with the spirit! It was amazing!!!!!! Really he told us a lot about the faith but really just how we can exercise levels of faith so that we can have the power to perform miracles! Truly, I know God is a God of Miracles! There is no doubt in my mind about that! Truly, I know the faith, properly understood and applied through our attitude and actions, brings powers from on high, where truly we can see the power of the heavens descend upon us! How incredible!

With that meetings President challenged us to find this power of Faith to pull off a couple more baptisms for this last weekend of the month. So we prayed, looked at all the investigators in our zone that have attended church and we felt strongly about some names and then we went to work! Right off the back the next day went on divisions with the sector Talagante 1-3. They have Jose, a young many in his 20's that has attended church, and his mom is less active. Before the lesson I pulled the missionaries aside and told them we are gonna shoot for this miracle power. I told them they can't doubt ONE bit in this lesson and then I challenged them that we were gonna get this guy baptized this weekend, even though he didn't even have a baptism date yet. But we entered the lesson pumped and ready with the spirit. 

Jose showed us where he was reading in the Book of Mormon and he was already at Jacob 5!!! And he read it twice just to understand it!!! Ha ha, I was so shocked! Normally, that never happens with investigators! I quickly started to ask Jose the questions for the baptismal interview and he testified to every one passing the questions with flying colors. Being a little curious of why I was asking so many questions, I opened my agenda to the part that has the questions for the baptismal interview and showed to him that he was ready to get baptized! He looked up and down the agenda stunned and trying to look for something that might have been wrong, but then you could just see that it just clicked and looked up and started to share his doubts. 

Unfortunately, we really didn't have a lot of time to be there with him, but we testified about the power of the faith and how it's the opposite of fear and just how he needs to step it up and do it. We left without a firm yes on accepting to be baptized but as we left, I put my hand on his shoulder, looked at him and told him that he needs to pray tonight. And not just like any normal prayer, but that he needs to pray for 5 minutes and really open his soul to the Lord. He said he would do it and I responded saying we would wait for his call. And then we left!

We continued that day with a lot of success and then got to the pension. I was helping the missionaries plan for their next day when the phone rang. . . . . and it was Jose. He told us that he did pray and prayed for a lot more than five minutes, and then very humbly told us, "Elders. . . . I'm ready to get baptized." WOOOO HOOO! After the phone call we all got stoked!!! It was incredible! Really it was a short day in that other sector doing divisions but it was a powerful day with them! A day full of miracles! I am so grateful for the power of the faith, prayer, and the spirit, the three strongest things we have!!!

Then the next day we had a training meeting with our zone and two others zones with President. The topic of the meeting was consecration. Ohh it was a powerful meeting! Really there's a ton more that we can do as missionaries! I think that is every missionaries goal is to be a consecrated missionary 100% and for sure that's my goal as well!

The next day we had a tender mercy with Mary and Scarlet. They were two new investigators that we found at the beginning of December thanks to the video initiative of "He is the Gift" But they live soo far. But one day we were walking up close by where they live and we saw Mary who at first I didn't even recognize, but she yelled out, "Oh no!!! Sorry, sorry, sorry! I didn't read the pamphlet!!!" She was devastated! HA ha but it was great to see how serious she was about fulfilling her commitments. I wouldn't blame her, it's almost been two months since we saw that little video with her and it was mostly our fault that we didn't pass by again. But we entered and met her daughter, Scarlett and taught lesson one. At the end of the lesson, Mary told us, "I pray all the time, every day almost, but every time I pray I feel like something's lacking, like there's something else I need to do, like I need to act more or go to a church, or get baptized!" We were happy to tell there that that gap she was feeling could be filled thanks to the Restoration of this gospel and that she truly could get baptized. Right after they accepted baptism dates for February! :)

Then we get to Sunday! A day where we were fasting again as a mission for more miracles and I just love fasting!! It strengthens my faith so much! And truly the lord blesses us. Just like the last time we fasted Diego and his whole family came to church. (A quick update about them is that we haven't been able to teach them this whole week, we aren't sure what happened, but we will keep going along). And truly it happened again this Sunday. Do you guys remember Rodolfo and Loreto, like some of my favorite investigators ever? Well! They came to church! Woo hoo! With their 9 year old son Benjamin! Woo hoo! Finally we have been trying soo hard to get them to church and it finally happened! And it was a great day to come because President and Hermana Barreiros came to our branch too! So it was a powerful meeting! 

And we had another miracle at the last 15 minutes of the sacrament meeting when our phone started to ring. And it was Ines! I don't know if you guys remember Ines but she was one of the new ones we found when we could only teach her for 15 minutes last Sunday and we put a baptism date. Well, it was her calling asking where we were because she was out in the foyer! HA ha! It was great! We ran out and she was able to hear the last part of President's talk in the sacrament meeting! We haven't been able to teach her other than that one 15 minute lesson! But she came alone! She truly is prepared! :) So all in all we ended up with 4 investigators attending church! That hasn't happened for some time here! It was great!

Truly, Talagante is exploding! We have kept the challenge with our zone to always do 100 contacts every week and it's truly changing everything! We almost found 100 new as a zone in just this last week! Incredible! That's so many people! And we have been blessed with more investigators attending church! We are preparing a lot for the month of February! Keep Talagante in your prayers! We are receiving a lot of blessings right now and I know we can pull off a lot of miracles for this next month. Truly, as the title is, Elder Smith, Elder Goates and I are trying to pull off everything we can do for this zone. Truly we want to leave this zone with legends! Not legends of us, but of the miracles that can happen throughout the hearts here in Talagante to see a truly increase in this zone, because this little district needs it and we are ready to do what the Lord calls us to do! Onward to victory! And Onward to Zion! 

I love my mission! I love Chile. I love my Savior even more. It's in Him who I put my trust, and I know He loves us and is always blessings us. Oh how grateful we should ALWAYS be!! 

Love,

Elder Cowan 

101th!

Dear Family and Friends!

I love you all! Ha ha, just thought I would start off on a good note! Well, to get straight into my letter, we had a pretty awesome week! I love working with Elder Smith and Elder Goates! It's just a solid stacked companionship! And it's even more awesome to lead the zone with them.

So to start off this new transfer great, my companions and I were thinking a lot of how we could have the zone kick it off with a bang! We have some "normas de excellencia" from President on the things that we wants his missionaries to do daily, weekly, and monthly. One of these standards is to have 70 contacts a week. But for the zones that are more in the countryside they have always have had a hard time achieving that goal just because there aren't a ton of people out on the street like there are in the city. But we decided again that we need to change things up. And we wanted to eliminate that image in the mission that campo zones can't get 70 per companionship. 

So on Wednesday we had our district meetings and for the last 30 minutes we pulled the zone in together and we challenged them to have each companionship do 100 CONTACTS! Wooo hoo!! They were a little bit nervous but Elder Smith and Goates and I motivated them that they could do it! We sure did set the bar high but the miracles sure did occur throughout the whole zone! 

But unfortunately for us we had a lot of meetings this week as zone leaders which limited us on having the time to contact. Like on Thursday we had a leadership council with President from 10 till 6 in the afternoon! Yea, it was a pretty long meeting, but it was incredible! We had some incredible lessons and classes from Hermana and Presdiente Barrieros! I love them! They really gave us a lot of information but it was awesome! Probably one of my favorite meetings that I have had as a leader of the mission.

From there we had weekly planning Friday morning and our zone conference Saturday. But we still went hard and tried to take advantage of all the time that was given to us. To give you guys an update about our investigators. Diego and his family left on vacations so that was a little bummer. And Loreto and Rodolfo went to the beach this past week. Nora was gone for a few days, but we were still able to teach her a little bit. She has a fecha for the 1st. We just need everyone to attend church!

But Saturday rolled along and we had an awesome zone conference. We each divided up and gave short classes on a topic that President taught us in the leadership meeting from Thursday. I had a class about the authority and faith. President told us in the meeting that other religions go out and preach as well, yelling on corner streets and telling the people to repent, without fear and show their faith through these actions. President told us, "They have faith, but not authority, but we have authority but a lot of time don't have the faith." And it's true sometimes! So I was able to give a talk on how we need to show our faith! I got super excited again being able to teach classes, which I love doing! Ha ha! 

Then Sunday came and we were contacting and trying to get to our goal of 100 contacts. And approaching the hundredth we were able to find Ines! Who truly is prepared. Her door was open and we decided to knock on it. She came out and at first told us that she only had 10 minutes to talk. We told her that if she let us in, she would feel the spirit and that we would be able to do it in less that 10 minutes. She kinda looked at us as if we were trying to challenge her to see if we could actually do it, so she let us in. Right from the beginning I just asked her, "If there was a prophet of God here on the earth, would you follow him?" She was a little stunned at how blunt I was in my question, but said of course she would. So Elder Smith told her right away that there was one and how that shows that Christ has restored His church. We then talked about baptism and told her that if there was Christ's prophet here on the earth today we have to get baptized in His church. That's when the light bulb went off for her and you could see that she was pondering a lot. She then asked us, "Can I come to your church to see if it is really Christ's church and to see if I should get baptized in it?" In that moment the spirit truly was testifying to her! We invited her to attend and get baptized for the 8th, she accepted right away and then we left with a prayer. And all under ten minutes. As we were leaving, she told us, "You guys were right! Really that was the best ten minutes ever! I did feel the spirit!" 

Really, we were all stunned, but we all knew that it was the Lord blessing us for our efforts to hit 100 contacts. That's why we wanted the zone to do 100 contacts because we knew that if they could first act and contact, then they would be showing their faith. And if a missionary shows his faith through his actions (100 contacts) we know that faith precedes the miracles and that the Lord will bless us. We saw that throughout the whole week. Just getting different phone calls from our missionaries during the day of how they were able to find some super prepared investigators! Really, I know we have to show our faith to the Lord through our actions, without fear! I know He is a God of Miracles and just waits for us to show our trust in Him!

We were able to see that when we hit the 100th contact. Really, we thought the 100th would be someone awesome! All three of us have never contacted so many people before. But just as the Lord works, He always wants us to go the extra mile. Finally at the last minute of the day we were able to contact one more guy we saw in the street--the 101th contact . . .  He let us talk to him and we found out that he loves our Church. He told us how when he got divorced, he literally had nothing. He lived in the streets with his daughter up until a Mormon bishop came and took him under his wing. He said that from that moment on he knew this man was inspired from God to come to his aide. He told us that he still visits this bishop once a month to show his gratefulness. And told us that with those monthly visits he reads the Book of Mormon with this Bishop! :) Tan bakan!! :) He really is another one prepared from the Lord!

I am so grateful for all the tender mercies that happened this past week. Not only for us, but for our whole zone. There were a lot of companionships that hit 100 contacts as well! Truly, the Lord works on the level of our faith! And we just have to show that faith through our actions, without fear! I love how the Lord works! There are miracles! I know anything is possible! 

Love you all! I hope you all have a great week and will be able to show your faith to the Lord! (Just like Heidi did on her plane ride!) Way to go!

Love you all soo much!

Love Elder Cowan

Miracles thanks to FASTING!

Dear Family and Friends!!!

Wow! I'm just so pumped right now!!! We just had our transfer meetings today and Elder Goates and I are still staying together, woo hoo! And I know President really does receive revelation because the changes that happened throughout our zone (which President turned a lot around) is going to be perfect for what the Lord has in store for us. So with a new fresh zone and a new transfer we are ready to roll!! And we are gonna do it in a trio again!! Yep! President had a little surprise for the mission again and went back to having the zone leaders in trios. I understand because that way we are able to do more splits and help our zones out. But the thing that I'm SUPER stoked about is who we received!!!! Elder Smith is with us now!!! Woo hoo!!! Elder Smith, if you don't remember him, he was in the zone Ochagavia with me when I was in Clara Estrella. Actually Elder Goates, Smith, and I were all together in Ochagavia! And now we are all comps!!! Aww, I'm so stoked! As well, I'm pretty sure I sent a picture a long time ago with a guy in a 80's jumpsuit on Pday, well yep! That's Elder Smith! Really we have been good friends during our whole missions and now we are together!! Woo hoo! Dream come true! He reminds me so much of Austin Mills. And Elder Goates reminds me of Jacob Rogers, so I'm just in heaven with these awesome studs!!! :)

And on that note of excitement I'll move onto to our awesome week that we had! Woo hoo! Miracles!!! :) Well first off, I wanna say that I kinda feel for you guys that are sick because actually I got pretty sick these last 3 days as well! But now I'm all fine! But as I kinda talked about last week, Elder Goates and I were wanting to change the things up here in Talagante. So with a lot of meditating and pondering of what we should share with our zone when we would have our district meetings we decided to have an awesome meeting! After the missionaries finished their district meetings, Elder Gaotes and I moved all the benches in the sacrament meeting room back and just moved 3 benches to make a semi.circle. From there we started off with a prayer and Elder Goates and I then went off with our testimonies of missionaries work and about miracles. We wanted to start off with that right away in able to have the spirit present. 

After our short testimonies, we opened the floor to the zone to do the same. And man, can I just say these missionaries are incredible! A lot of missionaries got up and bore their testimonies as well and others shared incredible miracles that happened in this past transfer. From there we were able to read a talk by, I don't know who, but it talks about our divine calling. And how we have been selected from eons of years to come into the battlefield now. That really made the missionaries feel good and then on that note we opened it up to a big zone council. We were all there sitting down (Elder Goates and I in the middle of the semi-circle) and we discussed what we did good and what we didn't do well this past transfer. Really the spirit was present because we came up with a new plan of action for this new transfer. A lot of new ideas that really is obvious to see that they came from revelation. 

We then challenged all the companionships to come up and say in front of the zone how many baptisms they wanted. And that was the moment for each companionship to show their faith--to really commit themselves in front of the zone without fear of what they really wanted. Really the missionaries showed their faith and the meeting was very edifying.

During the week we focused a lot on the new families that we found on New Year's Day, who are Nora, and Diego and his parents. Sadly, Nora went to the beach this weekend, but we shared with her a lot during the week and she is progressing really well! And Diego!! Aww, I love Diego! He is only 14 years old, but it's because of him and his faith that he is leading his family to this wonderful gospel! We have been sharing with Diego and his mom, Angelica, for some time, but Angelica was pretty sceptical and nervous about a lot of things. Diego really has been trying to motivate her up until Friday where we were able to meet the dad, Juan. We were kinda nervous because we didn't know where to begin exactly with him, but to catch him up we basically taught lessons 1-3 right on the spot. After understanding it all he looks at his wife and says, "Why don't we go to church, love?!" We were surprised! It was pretty random, but we were so excited!

Saturday we tried to pass by EVERYONE! And that day we decided to fast to help us have investigators attend church and to have the attendance increase in the branch, (because it's been lowering every week) And Saturday was probably the hottest and most tiring days I have had in my life. But Elder Goates and I kept a good attitude and just soaked in our sweat. We would yell out, "It's just one of the wife-point days isn't it?!" Ha ha, we decided to shorten it and just yell out WPD! Ha ha, it helped us get along with the long day. Saturday was a pretty hard day as well because other than the terrible heat and on top of that fasting, we passed by almost everyone in our sector to invite them to church. We even passed by again to visit Diego just to verify and their family wasn't so sure if they were going to able to attend the next day.

We tried not to let that effect us and we kept going and walked all day long. It was pretty miserable, oh, and I was sick in the stomach. I don't know what it was but I was having to go to the bathroom every 15 minutes or so it was pretty bad. But at the end of the day I could honestly feel the love of the scriptures in 2 Timothy 4:7 which says "I have fought the fight . . . and have kept the faith." Even though we didn't have any straight signs of success that day, I had a feeling of comfort knowing we did our best. And that we really did show our faith that day.

And thanks to the action of our faith Elder Goates and I were in the sacrament meeting waiting and waiting and waiting up until the sacrament ended and we thought no one was gonna come. But! then Diego and his parents and his niece all showed up! You should have seen the look on the branch president's face as they walked in. Sadly, it has been some time since this branch has seen investigators in the church, let alone a complete family. And oh, how contagious it all spread throughout all the branch as the meeting left and they basically just encircled them and wanted to know them. Ha ha! It was incredible! We finally have baptism dates and investigators attending!! Woo hoo!! 

But I know that was a miracle thanks to that powerful fast. Even though it was hot and miserable, and my stomach was killing me, we kept going and we didn't give in. I know fasting is a way we can manifest to the Lord our faith in Him. I'm truly and eternally grateful to my Heavenly Father to have let us have this family attend church with us! We are finally rollin' along with the things and I'm so excited what the Lord has in store for us!

Miracles do exist. Sometimes it just takes a good endurance through our trials that the Lord willingly gives us to make us show what we are capable of. I know He is hastening His work! And I know that work is gonna start to hasten a whole lot more this next transfer!!!

Love you all!!

Love Elder Cowan!

Cycle of the Nephites

Dear Family and Friends!

Wow, seems like this week was pretty jammed packed for the Cowan gang! That's awesome that everything went through with the wedding! I'm so happy for you all! What an awesome experience! And while we are talking about awesome experiences, last week we had our zone activity and we went bowling!! Ha ha, it was probably the most run down bowling place I have ever seen but it was awesome! I love our zone! We had a blast playing together! I'll send you some pictures of the adventures!

And I wanna give out a shout out to my Bro Hunter who is gonna be entering the CCM soon!!! Woo hoo!!!! So cool!!! Ha ha, good luck!

But now on a more serious note! This week we had a lot to do. . . whoa it was a packed week! But after the bowling session and after working Monday night we got a call at like 11 at night from the assistants that there was going to be a special capatation tomorrow as a mission with President. We thought that it was pretty weird but then President had all the reason to have that meeting . . . 

I don't know if you guys remember the announcement that I gave out a couple weeks about the achievements of our mission last month in November but we did a new record and had 92 baptisms! That is the highest that we have had in years! But just as the title of this email says, just as the Nephites prospered in the land, (or when the mission had 92 baptisms) the Nephites started to forget the Lord and pride entered their hearts. . . . President started showing us that from November we went from 92 baptisms, to December with 42. We had lowered 50 baptisms!! And that's a lot! Yet 42 baptisms is still a lot of people to baptize and reason to rejoice, but the fact that we lowered soo much has never happened in the whole time President has been here in the mission. So lets just say. . . recibimos muchas palos. . . ha ha, or he got on us pretty hard in the meeting. 

We had a zone leader meeting right before the meeting with the mission where President just spilled it all to us. And it's true, we could really see in the month of December how the mission got comfortable, or maybe lazy and didn't try as much as we did in November. But the focus on the meeting wasn't to just get down on the missionaries, but to really set the vision for 2015 and January. It was a great meeting! It really helped all of us to re-focus and to start from the beginning which is gaining, maintaining, following, and trusting in the Spirit. Really the Spirit is the one that makes the changes necessary, not us. We learned a lot of the role of the Holy Ghost in our lives and really we are all now dedicated to go for more! A whole lot more!! 

And on that note! We left behind December and 2014, we repented, and now we are focused on 2015!!!! Awwww just saying that sends a shiver down my back to think how fast time is going!!! Well for New Year's Eve we didn't do anything exciting, we actually had to enter the house early at 8:00 at night and Elder Goates and I decided to take advantage of it and sleep, so it really didn't even feel like a new year when we woke up. But even though it was nothing for us, the next day we could see the results of the New Year"s Eve "partying" . . . . .

Just how I was telling you, our sector has like three parts. In the middle is the city with all the stores and everything and below that is the new neighborhood where there are 3 story houses. And above the city, crossing the train tracks, is the more humble side of our sector. For the 1st, on New Years Day we had some appointments set up for the sector above the train tracks. So we decided to go up and cross the lines and started to work. But at first none of our appointments were there, that or they were all sleeping. And then it got a little scary. . . in the more humble side of our sector where we already were, there were drunk people everywhere! It seriously looked like a mob of dead zombies all walking in the street. But worse was what they say us, (which we stick out pretty easily) everyone just wanted to come up to us and touch us, or hug us. It was pretty nasty, I'm not gonna lie . . . From that moment I literally felt as if the spirit had departed and we were alone. We tried to get one more appointment in but for an hour I had this huge impression telling me, "GET OUT!" 

I fought that impression for about 45 minutes up until we were at the top of our sector and from then my chest was beating and I kept feeling the impression, finally I turned to Elder Goates and told him "I know this isn't gonna make a whole lot of sense since we are at the highest part of our sector, but we have to leave and leave now and go down to the new neighborhood." He agreed and from that point at the highest part of our sector we decided to lower down and basically cross our whole entire sector. And from that moment, the impression kept coming "GET OUT" And as we started lowering down it seemed as if all the drunk people decided to turn on us and tried everything to stop us. We eventually ended up running down since it seems Satan was controlling that sector.

Then we were finally able to get to the new three story neighborhood where we were able to do a lot of contacts and meet more complete families. And we were able to find Nora and her son, Thomas! Who lives like 3 houses from our ward mission leader! They are a great family! And we were able to find Angelica and Diego another great family! As well, we were able to contact a reference we had who is an inactive member that the sisters gave to us. We went by his house too and met Gonzalo. He is about 40 years old, but got baptized when he was 10 and he has been inactive since basically. His brother who lives in Viña is now a bishop and that has sparked up his desires again to look for the church again. We were able to meet with him and he is super nice and the rest of his family aren't members! Woo hoo! So just in that last hour and a half we were able to have a lot of success!

It was such a great feeling to know that we were literally lead by the spirit to these three families! Really, I have now learned to NEVER deny an impression from the Spirit! Really, I know that 2015 has begun and just as some of you have told me, this is all down hill now for me. . . and even though I already know that, I know something else. . . that there is still a lot of work for me to do. I want to be able to feel the Spirit at every moment these last months! I won't give up! I have put a lot of goals for this year and I need to get working! Yes, Talagante is a hard sector, yes, there have been no investigators attending church for over 4-5 months, but I know the Lord has called me here to work, and just as it says in John 5:17, "But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." I know this work is never done! And because of that I too must go to work! I love this work of salvation! As I have submerged myself in this glorious work, I have received those blessing and testimonies of this marvelous gospel! I love the Spirit. I love having, feeling, following, and trusting in that Spirit. This is HIS work and I cherish it soo much! 

I love each and everyone of you SOO much! You're all such a huge blessing to me! Don't you ever forget that! Happy New Year to all! May this year be one of many blessings! :)

Love Elder Cowan