Mother's Day Letter

Dear Family and Friends!

WOW, was that the best Mothers Day or what!!? AWW seriously, I can't get over how amazing yesterday was! It was weird, I will be honest and I can't believe that was the last skype session forever! Or at least in this Cowan generation! The time is flying by WAY too fast. It's literally scaring me now a little! Aww! But whatevs! You guys are the best! I love you all!!

Well, I guess this will be a little repass of the same things that I talked about in the skype session yesterday! But to start off the week we were able to have a FHE with the Aguilar Family, who are from Ecuador (There are about 150 members from Ecuador in this ward). And the Aguilar family is a family of 10! We were able to motivate their son and the father to reactivate and come back to church! IT was amazing sharing the gospel and doing little games with this big lovely family in their humble home! They are so great!

Then on Tuesday we were able to have another training leadership meeting with President and then we were able to find some new investigators to teach. Truly, it was a tender mercy because by the time we got back we only had about 2 hours to work. But we found Luis Panama and Etson! Etson was a reference we got from a ward family that had brought Etson and his family to one of our weekly FHE's that we are having in the church every Sunday night. We passed by and he let us in right away! It was awesome! We are excited to see how this family progresses because the ward family lives almost next door to them and they are really good friends! So we are stoked about that!

Wednesday we had our district meetings and it was a day dedicated to the office because there was a big demand and pressure for us to finish off the projects that President wanted us to finish. And Thursday was a full day in the office as well. We were a little brain fried when it came to Thursday night and it was 9 p.m. and we still hadn't finished off everything. After staring at the screen for so long I just had to have some personal time and went and took a quick 20 min cat nap on the ground ha ha! But por fin! We were able to pull everything off! And to finish it off we were able to go to the temple this Saturday to bring the recent converts to the temple! IT was awesome! A lot came and it was amazing to help all these new converts progress in their steps in this new life as members!

Saturday night was pretty awesome as well! We went and visited Savka who we have been teaching and she has come to church a lot of times and she has accepted baptism, but she has just been scared about a lot of things. We went and planned to read Alma 36 with her. But after reading the whole chapter my comp and I didn't feel anything. So we just started asking a lot of questions to her trying to dig a little deeper to she her need. I remember asking her what importance would it have to her if she had a testimony of the Book of Mormon. She was kinda hitting around the bushes a little bit with her answer when we found out at the end that she didn't even knew what the word testimony meant! Sometimes it amazes me at how comfortable we get in the gospel language! Just as Br. Allison always taught us in mission prep, we are to teach it as if a little kid can understand!

We went on to share with her our personal experiences of when we gained our own testimonies. I explained the experience I had on the Enos Journey as a priest on the Encampment and told her how powerful I felt the Book of Mormon was as I read Enos on that cold and miserable night. As I finished telling my experience, tears came to her eyes as she explained how beautiful that must have been for me. I even got emotional as I nodded in agreement and told her that, that is the reason we are here. Because we have FELT it. The spirit was so strong and at that point she was balling her eyes out. She finally understand why we have been talking about baptism so much and she truly recognized the spirit for the first time in her life! What a powerful experience that was! She begged us to help her have an experience as we did and to have that same feeling that she was feeling in that moment. It was awesome to see how as her understanding grew, her desires grew as well! I could see the hunger for the Holy Ghost in her life. 

Truly, the Holy Ghost is one of the most precious gifts that the Lord has given us! I felt that same spirit yesterday as it was probably one of my favorite days in my whole life! Yes, my life! I don't think I have ever felt so much love before in my life other than yesterday! Starting it off with seeing my favorite sector again and being surrounded with all the people I love soo much. President was there, Elder Smith, Elder Goates, and our converts: Loreto, Rodolfo, Benjamin and Francisca. I was surrounded by them and it brought the most powerful love I have ever felt before for another person. It was such an incredible experience! I can't wait till you guys get to see these lovely people! I literally love them to death! 

And then to top of the day with love, I was able to see ALL of you in skype! What a blessing! Seriously! To top it off with my wonderful family that I love sooo much! It was amazing! I love you guys soo much! I am so grateful to my Heavenly Father as He poured out His love to me yesterday. Something that I just needed and it came just in time! That is what I love about this work, it is all about love. Love for our Savior, our Heavenly Father, our families, and for these amazing people here in Chile. This love in infinite and unbreakable! I love my mission so much! 

And I love you all too! Thanks for everything!

Love Elder Cowan

Pure Love of Christ

Dear Family and Friends,

Woo hoo!! It's MAY!! Holy cow I can't believe it! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THE BEST DAD IN THE WORLD TOMORROW!!!! WOOO HOOO! I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!

Wow and I can't believe that we will already be seeing each other again this Sunday! Where is the time going!? Wow! But I'm excited!!!

A quick update. Yesterday Elder Kimball just went into the hospital for appendicitis and he is about to hit one year. It's a little ironic because I was in his same exact situation when I was about to hit one year and I had my hernia operation. But If you could all keep Elder Kimball in your prayers that would be great!

But this past week has been awesome! Each week in this sector has been getting better and better it's awesome!! Truly, this past week my companion and I decided to focus a lot on the importance of love and charity. That has been our goal from the beginning in trying to develop a stronger love to our brothers and sisters here in Chile. 

To start off, the Lord truly blessed us this past week! There were a few days that we lost because of some problems we had with the office projects and the computers soaked up most of our time those days. But on the other days of the week where we didn't have to go into the office, truly, the Lord blessed us so much! 

For example, on Tuesday we had a dia llena! We had a lot of citas fijado and we didn't know what to do with so many appointments. So we ended up calling the Vedovi who are a matrimonio couple from Brazil and we threw them into a random new investigator's house and told them to teach lesson 1 ha ha! They have only been here for one month or so and still haven't learned Spanish, but it was awesome working as a team in one sector and dividing and conquering! Ha ha, in the end the lesson went great for them!

While they were teaching, we ran to Savka who is a investigator that has come to church about 3 times. Her boyfriend is a return missionary and is progressing really well. On Tuesday we had a super powerful lesson with her in which she accepted a baptismal date. But we went by again on Thursday and she was too nervous and scared because her family is really Catholic that the date dropped. But she still came to church yesterday! Aww, I know she is going to get baptized this month!

Then Friday was a holiday here in Chile which I just love working on holidays! There are so many people in their homes! Especially in our sector since normally they are out working all week long! So we were able to have a lot of success this past weekend in finding and getting into a lot of new houses! I love finding new investigators! It's an excitement that runs through me! I love it! And it just makes me to want to find even more new investigators! IT truly was a blessing to have that holiday for us to find all these new investigators because the past 2 weeks we haven't really been able to find anyone!

Then Saturday was amazing! First off, we got a reference from our ward mission leader of a teenager that is friends with all the young men in the ward that had come to church a week ago. We passed by his house and he was so excited to share with us. His name is Nicolas and is about 14 or 15 years old! His neighbor is a teenager who is super active in the church. We taught him the Restoration and he already knew everything! He told us that he believes that this is the true church and wants to get baptized! IT was awesome! We put a baptism date for the 16th!! Woo hoo :) Double bonus ;) He is an awesome kid! We have passed by to get to know his family even better and they are super nice as well! I love getting references from the members!!! I know Nicolas is going to get baptized!!

Then Saturday night we were invited to the Rañiman family who is a family who aren't all members. And it has been amazing to see the change in this family. When I found them over 2 months ago the two sons Gabriel and Seba weren't really interested in getting to know the missionaries and the mom was pretty cold hearted again the members and leaders of the church from some ugly things that have happened in the past. And her husband Gabriel, as well, isn't a member and never wanted to share with us. But it has been amazing to see the transformation of this family as the sons and mom have reactivated and now they are going to get married and Gabriel is sooo chill with us! He even came to church yesterday! We had a fun little party Saturday night as they had their whole family over for a celebration on their decision to get married. Then on Sunday they invited us over to eat lunch and as we finished eating lunch the family one by one shared their testimonies to us and thanked us for the happiness that they have found again in the gospel.

I love this gospel soo much! It truly is for the happiness of the family! I know Heavenly Father wants the best for each and every one of our families and that He established each one soo perfectly! This gospel is the key to everything! Even unto bringing the eternal life to each family! I love it I love it I love it!!!

I am so grateful for my family that have seen the numberless blessings of this gospel! I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father that takes care of us soo well! I love you all soo much!}

Can't wait to see you all Sunday!

Love Elder Cowan

The Work of the Lord

Dear Family and Friends!

Wow, what an eventful week everyone had this past week! So many exciting things! Way to go everyone! You're are amazing! Congrats to Trevor and Kiersten who graduated! I'm so happy for you two! And for everyone else! Seriously, I have the best family in the world!!!! Coming from the awesome Cowan/Macdonald side to the great Dennis Family! I love you all! And for all the rest that are reading this, we're brothers and sisters too, Don't you forget about that!! Aww, Heavenly Father truly is our loving Eternal Father! What a huge blessing it is to have someone so amazing to take care of all of us! He truly does have a plan for happiness!! I love it! This gospel makes us all so happy!!!

Well, I don't have a whole lot of time to write, but I want to thank you all for all that you do! You are all heroes in my eyes! 

But for our week it was a little bit slower. Elder Daniel and I aren't trying to let that affect us a lot because we know that the month of May is going to be incredible!! I know it! It is a hard feeling to know that there was a whole month that passed without the chance to baptize. But I needed to double it up now for May! The time is clicking and I don't want to waste any last bit of it!

One of the awesome things that happened this past week was the Rañiman family. They were a reference from about a month ago and the mom, Ana, is less active as well with her two sons Seba y Gabriel. The husband, Gabriel Señor, isn't a member and we had heard that he likes to drink a lot. But when Elder Daniel got here we have been visiting them every week and they are progressing so much! Yesterday we were able to sustain Seba to be a teacher and he passed the sacrament in a whole new suit! It was awesome to see how this family is pulling through and coming back to the Lord. 

There are some matrimony missionaries that live within our ward and normally they just work in the office and that's about it. But there is one couple that just got here from Brazil and they are not the office type people. They are called los Vedovi. They honestly don't know any English or Spanish and only talk Portuguese. They have been teaching me a lot and know I can talk to them in Portuguese a little. It's awesome! But since they don't like the office they have been coming out with us to visit people. And it's like the perfect team! We do the teaching and they do the sistering and brothering to whomever we are visiting. And they have been helping the Rañiman family soo much! We have seen a HUGE change in the husband, Gabriel, who now has come to the ward activities and we have had a FHE almost every night and now they have a date to get married and the ward is helping so much! It's awesome!

We also had another FHE ward activity last night and we were able to pull off another successful FHE. The members are starting to feel more and more of the obra misional and it's awesome! We had another 50 or so people in the church! And we received about 4 references and it's gonna be great! 

One night we were able to pass by Austin who is from Ecuador who was an old investigator from Elder Wagner and me. He's 18 years old and I really don't know what happened, but when I was with Elder Wagner we kinda just lost contact with him. But we were able to pass by and we taught lesson 1 and he just soaked it all up! Seriously! He told us that he wants to change his life around and we wants to become a new adult again. He accepted a baptism date for my birthday!! Woo hoo! HA ha it was an awesome lesson!

We are praying a lot that everything will go well with Austin. Other than him we are still in the look for new investigators! We are kinda drying out in our flow on investigators and we know that there are prepared investigators! We just need to find them! Ha ha! But I know the Lord is with us and guiding us! I love working side by side with Him.

I know the Lord is hastening His work! And we want to work as his servants in this part of his vineyard! I love His work! And I know we will be able to achieve a lot more for the month of May!

Love you all so much!

Elder Cowan

Temple Blessings!!

Dear Family and Friends!

Wow, this week was amazing!! Seriously! First off, all I just want to say is that I am so grateful to be sealed to my family! What an incredible blessing that is! As well, I'm so grateful for temples! What a blessing to have them so close in our lives! We were able to have a lot of experiences in the temple this past week! I LOVE THEM!

So to explain, President got the revelation from President Monson's talk that he should let his missionaries go to the temple more often to help us remember the covenants we have made with the Lord. He decided that each zone would go week for week this next month. 

And since we are the closest to the temple we had the blessing of going to the temple first! We were able to go Tuesday morning for an endowment session! Wow, it's been almost over a year since I have done an endowment session! Oh, how I love the temple so much!! As we approached the temple grounds I just felt like my soul was longing to be inside. As if it had been too long and just as a lost kid wanted to return back safely home. So even before entering the temple I was getting emotional! HA ha! But it was amazing! The session was so beautiful and I learned so many more things. I know that the Lord is the Lord of Covenants. He has so many promises for us and He loves us so much and wants us to return back to Him. Temples are the gates to heaven and I am so grateful that we had that blessing to be in there. IT was amazing to feel the peace again and to just have a stop in life! It was so needed!

Then we were able to go to the temple again on Saturday as the assistants called us to let Elder Daniel know that his converts from his 1st sector were gonna get sealed in the temple!! What a blessing! So we went to the temple again on Saturday and we were able to be present in sealing of these two young adults. It was so powerful! That was the first time I have ever seen a sealing in live action! And the spirit was so incredible! I was thinking of Trevor and Kiersten and Justin and Stacie and how powerful it must have been you guys! Aww!! I just love the temple!! And it was even more powerful when we brought in their 1 year old baby! And from that point I think everyone was crying! It was amazing! We were able to talk to the guy in the changing room as I saw him talk with Elder Daniel as he hugged him and thanked him for leading him to this gospel. That was such a powerful moment for me to literally see the outcome of all that we do and to see this brother of ours in the temple now getting sealed in the temple! What a miracle! This gospel changes lives! And blesses them for an eternity!

Well, that was a little about our experiences in the temple, but now I will go on to how it went during the week. We were also privileged with a new experience that happened on Friday. The secretary of the mission called us and asked us if we could do divisions with some Elders in the CCM. And al tiro we responded yes!! So Friday afternoon we were able to have 3 Elders that have been in the CCM for 5 weeks. IT was amazing to be with them! I don't know if you guys remember but they always let the American group of missionaries to do these divisions there last week in the CCM. But since I got changed into a Latin district I wasn't able to participate. But I guess the Lord has a time for everything and who knew that I would have the chance to be on the other side leading these new missionaries and showing them around of what missionary life is really like! 

Elder Daniel was with one elder and I was with two others. Their names were Elder Stevn Taylor form Mesa! HA ha, it was cool to be with someone from Mesa again. OH! I almost forgot when I was in the temple of Saturday I saw Elder Isaac Strong too! Another buddy from Mesa! HA ha and I was with Elder Parker Spanbauer from Idaho. Both of them aren't coming to our mission, but it was amazing walking around with them as they were experiencing real mission life for the first time! And we were able to take out the trash too! We were only with them for about 3 hours, actually a little less, but we were able to have 4 lessons with 4 new investigators as well! IT was such a blast! I was trying to give them all the advice I could possibly give them in that short amount of time! They are going to be great missionaries!!!

Thursday was a little weird for us since Elder Daniel and I both got a little sick because we ate stomach for lunch. That was a first time for the both of us and it didn't go so well. As well, there are a lot of universities in our sector and there was a student riot going on so we weren't able to do a lot of stuff. Ha ha.

What was cool, was our lesson with Regina who is reactivating really fast! She is awesome! She told us that she got a lot of revelation in the general conference about the importance of an eternal marriage and families that now she wants to get married to her basically husband and she wants them to start participating in the church. A about two days later, we were able to teach her husband, Pepe. And we read 1 Nephi 8 and read how Regina wanted her husband to participate in the fruit as well. He was really open with us and about the idea, but still hasn't committed to anything specifically. But I'm excited about the future for that family.

As well, Sunday was an awesome day! They let Elder Daniel and I both give talks in sacrament meeting and they were great! Elder Daniel talked about the Holy Ghost and I talked about Obedience! All the members really like our talks. And then we had a ward family home evening at 7 that night where over 50 people came to the activity! WE were not expecting that! But we were able to pull everything off and it was amazing! The spirit was so strong! A family brought their next door neighbors who aren't members and they had a great time! We are going to have another FHE with them next week! So we are stoked!

We are really trying to work a lot with the members here! Because we have seen that with all the universities and businesses in our sector there aren't a lot of places to go contact. So we are trying to think of more idea of how to find new investigators with the ward. Please pray for us as we continue trying to find some more prepared investigators!

I have to go now! But I am so grateful for each one of you! Congrats to Justin and Stacie who are on that awesome vacation trip and congrats to Trevor and Kiersten who are going to graduate! Woo hoo!! And Blake way to go with showing your diligence in your studies! Push to the end buddy! And Mom and Dad I love you two sooo much!

Thank you for everything! I love Chile!

Love Elder Cowan

The Office Life

Dear Family and Friends!

Well! I honestly cant believe I'm at the computer again writing to you all again. . .I don't want the time to go away so fast!!

But I do love hearing from you guys! You're all the BEST EVER! Seriously!

So this letter probably won't be as interesting as my other letters have been. It was still an amazing week because 1. I'm a MISSIONARY and what's better than that??! NOTHING! and 2. I still get to preach the gospel every day!

This week was a little different just because President has put a lot of stress on making our new Rescate books and wanted Simi Squad to make, check, edit, and revise, over 100 books in this past week. It was pretty insane. And since there are only 2 missionaries in Simi Squad, and one arriving only the week before, the work process was going really slow. They called us and, holy cow, Elder Daniel is a boss with computers! I got to know him a lot better this past week and he was home schooled and graduated from high school at the age of 14!!! And then went to a Texas university for a year and at the age of 16 he was already going to BYU in Utah! It was insane! HA ha, so yea, basically he's a genius! And even a better missionary! He is a stud! 

With the huge work load that we had to do, they threw me into the mess with the computer and I was able to learn a ton of new things about computers this past week. We were able to have a normal day after Pday last Monday but starting Tuesday till Friday we were in the office all day and all night long. There were some pretty stressful nights! Luckily, President called us and was able to lower the project to only do 45 books that he needed ready for a training meeting for the stake of Olimpo. So the four of us missionaries just went to town and we took out all the records of all the members and made a new Rescate book. It's pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie! Elder Daniel has made a program that basically copies all the records from all the stakes in our mission. I have no idea how he did it, but it's awesome! 

We worked day in and day out in the office. I thought the "office life" would be a little bit more lame, but I had a good feeling throughout the whole week that I knew I was doing something good for the rest of the mission because I know these Rescate books are going to be a lot of success to the mission. So really we were pumped the whole week. But in the nights I was wiped! Luckily, we were able to finish the books by Saturday afternoon when we had to fix some things with the the print shop guy but everything worked out and all the stress was over.

So really we had Monday night, and Saturday night, and all day Sunday to work in our sector, which did take it's tole on the sector, but I know that we were sacrificing something bigger for the mission and for that I know the Lord will bless us with success.

One cool thing that happened was our Consejo with President which happened Thursday. The state of the misison made President really worried on what we should do. All the zone leaders were there in a semi circle as we discussed what we could do to achieve more in the mission. I had a strong impression that I have had for a few months, but I have always felt that I shouldn't say it. But in this Consejo the impression came so strongly that I knew it was my time to speak up. I raised my hand and president let me talk. I talked about the manipulation. There are a lot of times where we invite someone to get baptize and they say no because of some reason but as missionaries we will do anything to be able to have a baptismal date. So a lot of times we will manipulate the people in having them accept it, but not letting them accept it out of their will or agency. I told the leaders that our missionaries are looking in a prideful way at the manera we look at our fechas. There our a lot of times where we try to "show off" to show how many fechas we have. Even though we manipulated that person into accepting it and as well they never go to church. So we lose baptisms.

After my comment by heart just sank, I had been holding that impression in for a long time and I have never known how the mission would take it. I turned to President and told him that the idea I had was that we should teach the missionaries to not manipulate and to depend more on the spirit when they are inviting someone to baptism and that we shouldn't count the baptismal date until they come to church. Up until l they come to church, it will be a Fecha Real!

There was a little pause in the room as President thought the idea over. I was pretty nervous, but he turned to the rest of the leaders and asked, "what do you think?" And surprisingly they all agreed with me. So President ran over to the whiteboard and had one of his assistants write out the new standard for what a baptismal date really is. He said he liked the idea so much that we as leaders were gong to have a zone conference Saturday in the morning and that we would teach the whole mission on the new standard. I was pretty set back at how fast he responded to my idea.

Well, we had the zone conference and the whole zone liked the idea, but knew that it would be a little harder now for them to keep their baptismal dates, but as well it will help the investigators to progress faster if they commit to coming to church. So it's kinda cool to think that thanks to that one comment in our leadership meeting the standard of the whole mission has changed now! 

I'm excited to see how to will turn out for the mission! I have to go now, but I promise my next letter will be better! Please pray for us that the Lord will guide us to prepared investigators! There's still time in Abril to baptize and I don't want to miss one more moment! 

I leave with my testimony that I know this is the true church. This church and gospel is lead by our Savior Jesus Christ. It is a church of order and love. I love being one of His missionaries and blessing the lives of those that look for Him. I love this work and I love Chile!

Love you all too!

Elder Cowan

Revelation from the Prophets! GENERAL CONFERENCE!!

Dear Family and Friends!

Awww IMO in a little panic mode right now trying to think of literally where is the time going. I can't believe I just finished another transfer. And to think that I only have 3 more freaks me out. But I know everything will be fine! 

Well since transfers ended, Elder Wagner has gone and I have a new companion. But really I just wanna say that Elder Wagner is one of the best missionaries I have gotten to know. We are different and we had our differencias but truly he is true servant of the Lord. I know the Lord is so proud of all the work that he has done here in Chile! I learned so much from him!

So! Onto my new companion! I'm companions with Elder Daniel now! He is in the same group as Elder Alcaraz and he is a stud! He is from Texas and is a genius! Seriously, he programmed video games for Andriods before the mission and is his only 19 years old too! He is a stud! As well, I'm so glad he is here! Because in our ward and sector we actually share it with two elders from the office who are called the Simi Squad. With our Rescate booklets with all the registers of members in each sector they are in charge of all of that. The last elders had some complications and they weren't able to get the new booklets out. But now with Elder Daniel he will be able to take out the trash and finish it. So it looks like we will be in the office at some times during this transfer but that's fine! He is a great guy! Actually, this is his first time as a zone leader and he was the trainer of Elder Peterson! Ha ha, how ironic! We are soo pumped for this transfer! There are going to be amazing things that are going to happen! I know it!

Well, General Conference I will jut say off the bat was incredible! I loved it soo much! Really receiving personal revelation is one of the coolest feelings EVER!! This was an amazing conference personally for me! Truly one of the main topics was marriage and the family! Woo hoo but don't worry President already told us today that those don't apply till after the mission ha ha! :) Well, the part about marriage at least! I truly loved all the talks! There was soo much! But I focused on 3 things. Revelation for right now for me, revelation for after the mission since this would be my last one, and revelation for my investigators. And with the questions I brought to conference, and only focusing in those 3 fields helped me a ton! I loved it! Elder Holland's talk was amazing!!! Wow! And Elder Utchdorf's talk! That was probably the question that got answered most which was that I wanted to deepen my conversion of the power of the Atonement.

I testify that Jesus is our Savior! He loves us so much! Just as Elder Holland taught, we are NOT in a continuous and helpless freefall. I have witnessed time after time in my mission his arms around me. I know He lives! His mercy and love are so infinite that it's incredible to feel. It's for the Atonement of Jesus Christ that I'm here as one of His representatives! I love Him soo much! What a blessing it is to have this gift open to us 24/7! The love, peace, happiness, and forgiveness that we need and want is reachable! And it's all thanks to Him! I love my Savior so much!

As well, one one talks that hit me to the center was Michael T. Ringwood! Truly, just as he told in the story. "Heavenly Father knows He is successful, I know He is a successful missionary so. . . who else matters?" I want to serve and consecrate myself for nobody else except for my loving Heavenly Father! I serve to please Him. Even though that is hard at times and there is always the tentacion of comparison and pride, but that is one of my goals now: to do everything for the glory for Him and nadie mas! I really only have about 4 months and I want them to be the best that they can possibly be! I loved that talk so much! It helped me a ton!

But for an update for the week! We are still teaching the reference that Jean Paul gave us to his friend, Lyryel, and she is progressing really well! We had to teach her outside in a little plaza but it didn't matter at all! We told her that we could just reschedule for another day to come sincel she is having a lot of pain in her thigh and is about to go under surgery for it so hurts for her to walk. But on the phone she got mad and said, "No! I want you guys to teach me and I'll do whatever it takes!" Ha ha, so she walks all the way down from the building and we taught her in a park a block away! And even though it was in a park it was so spiritual. That's what I love about this gospel! In any moment or at any place, when we testify of this gospel, we truly become part of the world, but not of the world.

As well, we are teaching our investigator Savka. who is a girlfriend of a return missionary that we ran into last Sunday on a corner of a street when they asked us where the closest church is. Truly, this return missionary understands his duty! The mission didn't stop after the two years for him. He came to us! And now we are teaching his girlfriend and it's going great! It was a miracle finding them!

And our investigator from Colombia came to general conference, Ferney! And Soni, who is from the Dominican Republic, came to general conference too! They liked it a lot! They are progressing little by little, but its just a little hard for them to understand everything so things are going a little slow for them. But it's alright!

As well, our zone is so amazing and we had 3 more baptisms this Sunday! It was a miracle! I was on divisions with one of the elders from the office and he was telling me how one of their investigators wanted to get baptized, but that they had not been able to teach him everything. I immediately called my comp and told him to go with his companion, find this investigator and do a practice baptismal interview. Well, he went and did it and called me and said that he felt like he was ready. They told us that in the morning the next day which was Friday. I debated if we should wait for this Sunday or for the next weekend after general conference. The elder I was with told me not to worry about it and that he could just get baptized the next weekend. I was fighting with a strong impression and just told him, "If someone happens to this teenager within the next week and a half and he doesn't get baptized the next weekend, the condemnation will fall upon me, so . . .let's go." So we left early in the morning and I went into this investigators house without even knowing him and woke him up and told him we were gonna do an interview! Ha h, Alex is his name and you probably could have imagined his facial expression! Well, by about 9 in the morning we had the interview and he has such a strong testimony! And he was baptized yesterday! IT was amazing!

As well, it was another tender mercy yesterday as Elder Wagner had to go to Maipu during the two sessions so that way he could stay there for the goodbyes that were gonna happen in the night and I got paired up with Elder Ramierz and we went to his zone to go watch the last session of conference and can you guess where it was? It was in Ochagavia! My second zone! And I was able to see all members from Clara Estrella again! IT was the best!!! Aww it was so nice to see those members! They mean so much to me!

Well I'm super pumped for this next week! Please keep us in our prayers! There's a lot to do and we still got to baptize!!! Woo hoo! I'm so grateful for transfers and to continue working in the Lord's vineyard! 

I want each and every one of you to know how much I love you. (Mom, I got your letter that you gave to Elder Peterson! Thank you soo much!) I love you Dad and Mom, Justin, Stacie, Trevor, Kiersten, Blake as well as my future niece! HA ha And for all my incredible friends! I love you and I'm so grateful for the endless amount of blessings that the Lord has poured out upon us! I know families are eternal! I love you all soo much!!!

Love Elder Cowan :)

His Grace is Sufficient! Miracles of Baptisms!!

Dear Family and Friends!

WOOO HOOO! Wow, well first off I'm so excited right now!!! And second of all sorry for not writing yesterday! Elder Wagner had to go do some go homer stuff and that cut our p-day a little off. But here we are writing you guys again! Woow! There was SOOO much stuff that happened this past week! Seriously, it was probably one of the most jammed packed weeks I have had in my whole mission. But seriously has been one of the most beautiful experiences as well! 

Well, to start off with the week we had. We had been working like crazy this month of March to be able to get to new limits as a mission. We were shooting for 100 baptisms again and we were sure we were gonna do it this time! But as the month rolled along there was a lot of opposition and adversity. When we started last week our zone had baptized 3 people already, which was pretty low. We were worried that our zone wouldn't be able to pull off with our part to help the mission. As we started Monday, we saw that we only had about 2 or 3 names of people in the zone that were probably going to get baptized. We realized that it had to start with us with the example and then to use our example to spread it throughout the zone. So there was a lot of pressure on us on Monday. We knew that if there were going to be baptisms in our zone then we would be doing interviews almost every night. And that meant we were only going to be in our sector in the night on Monday. 

So we decided to go to Jean Paul. We brought the 2nd counselor of the bishopric with us and we read 3 Nephi 11. I was so nervous the whole lesson because that lesson meant make it or break it for us to see if he was going to get baptized. We finished reading and focused a lot of the role of the Holy Ghost. We studied with him of how the spirit was preparing these people for the coming of the savior. We did a lot of questions to Jean Paul which he was responding fine up until Hno. Labra just went ham and just told him, "Jean Paul, you have faith but do you know what you are doing right now? Your hiding it! Show your faith Jean Paul, try the Lord. Dare to test Him! And get baptized this week!" Ha ha, it was incredible! My comp and I were both in a glaze at the Hermano who was just testifying his soul out! Finally it was silent, and then Jean Paul turned to us, and told us, "I tested the Lord. . . I'll get baptized!" WOOOOOOOOO it was so powerful! All thanks to that member that we brought! So all you members reading this! You too have the power to testify! Don't be afraid! Thanks to this one brother in our ward Jean Paul accepted to get baptized! Really it all comes down to ones faith and the confidence one has in our Savior Jesus Christ! That lesson was incredible!!

So from that moment we used the example of Jean Paul and challenged the whole zone that people can still accept to get baptized and that it's not too late for them to get baptized this weekend! We did a lot of calls, actually we ran out of all of our minutes and then on Wednesday we testified of the power of the faith that we can have to show our investigators that they are ready for baptism. And truly it was amazing. One by one the missionaries started to pull out names of investigators that they were going to challenge to get baptized. I forgot to tell that a week ago President personally called us and told us that he wanted our zone to baptize 10 people this weekend. At the end of the meeting with the zone we pulled out 10 names of people that could get baptized. And then from Wednesday till Sunday were just filled with miracles!!!

First off, Wednesday night I had to go to the sector in Avenida Matta where I had to do an interview of an investigator of Elder Kimball, his name is Pierro. He is only 10 years old. He is a really stubborn kid and is a little rude. His mom just got baptized a few months ago and now they wanted him to get baptized. The whole interview Pierro didn't say a word. I had his dad present in the interview and it wasn't going anywhere. But truly I love how the Spirit works through us through personal revelation. When I was on the subway going to that sector there was a man with a plate selling little cake candies. I had no idea why, but I felt I needed to buy the candies from the man. At first, I thought it was an impression to do it to help the old man, so I bought some of his cakes and got on the train. 

Not until I was in the middle of the interview that I remembered I had these cakes in my backpack. I told Pierro's dad that if he didn't want to cooperate he wouldn't be able to get baptized. I then turned to the little kid, looked him in the eye, and told him, "Hey I'm not here to waste my time, if you cooperate with me I have some cakes to give you, but only if you help us in this interview." He just stared at me and told me with a cocky attitude, "I bet I don't even like the cakes you have." So I pulled them out and right when he saw them he jumped up and started screaming, "Those are my favorite! How did you know?!!" From that moment we were able to break the ice and he was able to have the interview which he passed and then I gave him the cakes. Truly, it was not just an impression I had to buy those cakes to help that old man, but it was because the Spirit was telling me that I would be needing them in the future! I'm so glad I followed through and bought those cakes!

At the same time I was doing that interview, Elder Kimball was in the room next to me doing an interview of a married couple. He was dragging the first interview for a really long time so I decided to do the interview of the wife. I pulled her in and interviewed her and she answered everything perfectly. But then at the very end when I asked her if she was ready to get baptized, she frowned and firmly told me, "No!" I was shocked! She had passed the interview with flying colors, the Spirit was there and I knew she was ready. I had her pray to ask if she should get baptized and afterwards she still denied it. I honestly didn't know what to do. For the sake of time, we had to end the interview to which I ran into Elder Kimball who told me that her husband had passed his interview and was going to get baptized. Then I thought to myself "Oh great! What am I supposed to do now with his wife?!" Elder Kimball started to panic, but I calmed him down and I pulled Jose and Edith, the couple in the room. I frankly told them that Jose was going to get baptized but that Edith wasn't. Jose looked at his wife wtih a surprised look and it got really serious. The rest of the elders came in and tried convincing her to get baptized while I left and was pondering in the hallway what to do. We had gotten permission to stay out later that night and I was tired. I finally went back into the room--to a room full of contention and everyone talking over each other. I kinda yelled at the elders to leave the room and the 3 of them left to where I was alone with Jose and Edith again. I told them that we respect marriage. We respect that a husband and wife are one. I pulled out a picture of the temple and told them that this was the reason we wanted them both to get baptized. I told them that they could have an eternal family but first they would both have to get baptized. I testified over and over again to Edith about the temple to which finally I told them, "Look you guys are a married couple, you should talk this over as a whole, as a couple. I will be waiting outside for you to tell me if the two of you are going to get baptized or the two of your aren't going to get baptized."

Then I left, I ran to another room and starting praying and praying. We all waited in the hallways for a few minutes, then 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, and finally just when it was too suspenseful for us, they opened the door, pulled me in and said, "Elder. . . .we want an eternal family. . . . we accept to getting baptized this Saturday." Truly, I lost it, I just started crying, they went on to tell me that they had been investigating the church for more than 5 years and up until I started testifying about how their family can be eternal they had never accepted baptism. Trul, it was amazing! It was so powerful!!

After I hadn't planned on staying so late there in the church so I had to go to the other elders pension and sleep on the ground. Then woke up early the next day, studied and ran back to the stake center in our sector to help another district leader do an interview in the morning. She passed as well in the final. From there I ate lunch in my sector and then went on divisions to Carlos Valdovino where I had to do 4 more interviews. Thursday as a zone we had planned 6 interviews in total. By the time of traveling and with a rough night, when I got to Carlos Valdovino, the other sector, I was wiped. But I went to the church building where I did the interview for William. An investigator tan bueno! I enjoyed that interview a lot. Then the next was Francisco who I couldn't finish because he needed to have the interview with President, but luckily my comp called us and told us that President just arrived in our church building so I shipped him off over there and he was able to run into President and President did his interview and he passed. And then I had to do the interview for Diego and Vicente. They called the elder I was with, Elder Hunter and said that he was in a business meeting and that he wouldn't be able to get to the church till about 10 at night. I called the assistants and they gave me permission to stay out late again to be able to get those interviews done. So finally at about 10 at night Diego and Vicente came and I did the two interviews and they both passed. But at the very end of the interview of Diegos it was going on till 11 at night and I was tired, who know that interviews suck the energy out of you! Now I know how you feel, Dad! Aha way to go!

But as I was finishing talking with Diego, and as I heard the results of how the rest of the interviews went, Elder Hunter told me all but one passed. I told Diego the experience of this week and how we have been able to see the Lord's hand over our zone. It was amazing. That's when I shared with him Moroni 10:31-34. Truly, the grace of the Savior was being poured upon us. We were being blessed soo much! It was amazing! I started to tear up at the end of the interview knowing that I had done everything possible and did my part and I know the Lord was doing His. That night we got back to the pension really late again and was able to have a little better night than the night before.

Then Saturday came around and we had to plan 3 different baptismal services with all the 9 people that were going to get baptized. With their jobs and everything we had to plan one at 11 in the morning, at 4 in the afternoon, and then another one at 8 at night. So we were in the church all day long filling up and cleaning the baptismal font before and after each baptismal service. I had a terrible headache as well, I just wanted to sleep and I felt so tired. But I knew I had to finish till the end. Finally at the 8 o'clock baptismal service, which started late because Jean Paul fell asleep ha ha, but it all worked out and I had to give the talk at the service. Right as I started to give my small talk, I looked at Jean Paul and my companion who were in white and my headache automatically went away! I was so grateful because then I was able to enjoy the service even more. I was blessed to be the testigo for Jean Paul's baptism as he went down and came back out of the water, a new person. It was such a powerful moment for me!

From that moment, we were able to pull off 9 baptisms that one day with a total of 12 baptisms for the month--something that hasn't been done before. It was a miracle. The mission didn't get 100 baptisms, but I knew that we had done our part and for that the Lord blessed us so much. His Grace truly is sufficient, as long as we do all that we can in our part first. Those 9 baptisms that we were able to pull off weren’t thanks to our district leaders or because of my companion or me. It was the Lord. He shed his Grace from His Atonement upon those investigators and truly gave us the miracles. There was so much. I have never felt so consecrated before. Yes, it was a stressful week. Yes, I lost hours of sleep and was dead tired, but being able to rest my head on my own pillow, Sunday night, truly, I knew I had done everything possible for my zone. I know Jesus Christ is my Savior! I know He loves us! I know He blesses us when we do all on our part. I am so grateful for the miracles we saw this week. His grace is sufficient always.

Love you all!

Elder Cowan