Dear Family,
Well, my ldsmail wasn’t working during my usual writing time, so I am hand writing this letter for the week. (Sorry Mom, you’ll have to type this one up). Well, anyway I’ll write this letter more in two halves, rather than a day-by-day review. So my week went as follows:
First Half: My teacher (who I thought to be Isabel Segura) is Hermana Tartaglia. She is an amazing teacher! I love her so much! She knows exactly how to keep us in line and working hard! Not all of our district is rowdy. Some of us actually really work hard all of the time.
Fast Sunday was a different experience here. I actually 100% enjoyed it. We got extra study time during our usual meal times and we also had mission conference! President Brow spoke on the Holy Ghost and it was AMAZING! I loved it so much!
We got a new investigator—Pamela. Hermana Roerig is acting to be her. She is a TOUGH COOKIE! She wouldn’t be very accepting to our teachings at all. However, when I recited the first vision, you could see her lighten up. The spirit finally took over the lesson at that point. Too bad it was in the last five minutes…Anyway, she agreed to see us again sometime soon. So we have a return appointment! Yeah! J I haven’t been able to teach her at all this week since the first lesson, though.
Anyway, I’ve been feeling sick lately, and I’m just about feeling better. Just some nose and cough type deal. Glad to be able to return 100% to the work healthy.
Second Half: Our devotional speaker was Elder Samuelson. He spoke very briefly on being and “example of the believers.” In fact, I think his talk was so short that the closing prayer might have been longer! This sister prayed for over five minutes!!! Every time she sounded like she was going to close, she’d start praying about something else. The whole MTC population was laughing during the prayer!
On another note, our district had a meeting after the devotional with Brother Boewan (counselor in our branch). He didn’t say much, but the Spirit did. Each missionary took his turn describing his favorite part of the devotional and a big of his own feelings. I was last to go. When I stood up to speak, I felt impressed to do something completely different than I intended. I grabbed my triple and opened the D&C to give a 4-5 scripture chain about not being afraid. I testified to the elders in that room that it’s the Lord’s work. He will provide a way for us like he did to Nephi. After I was done speaking, I looked around the room and could see the Spirit among their countenances. I told them that the feeling in the room right then and there was the Holy Ghost. It was a wonderful experience. I can’t wait to help others feel that in Argentina!
Hermana Tartaglia went to visit her mission in Peru so we will be having a lot of subs the next two weeks. So Far we’ve had Hermana Arcos (from Buenos Aires), Hermano Goodman, and Hermano Young. They are all amazing at what they do. I got to teach Hermana Arcos once and now Hermano Goodman is my new official investigator. His name is Braulio so I get to teach two investigators for a long period of time now! Lovely! I’m so excited! Teaching is my favorite part of the MTC. Hermana Arcos told us of an interesting promise. If you read the Book of Mormon in another language out loud and look up every word you don’t know along the way, you will know the language by the end. That’s how she learned English! I started right away. I’m so “thirsty” to read more in Spanish!
Thursday night is one of the most memorable moments of my life. I got to know our Heavenly Father on a more personal level. We had three questions to pray about individually, one-at-a-time. They were:
1. How does God feel about Jesus Christ?
2. How does God feel about your investigators in Argentina?
3. How does God feel about you and your service as a missionary?
The latter two were great experiences, but I want to focus on the first. I knelt down and simply asked the Father how he felt towards Jesus Christ. Immediately, I felt a type of weight put on my heart. I even felt it hard to hold myself up. Heavenly Father told me how he feels terrible for what He put Him through, yet it was necessary. I then thought of how it feels to willingly sacrifice someone I love so much. Kevin came to mind. If I had to give Kevin to suffer the most painful and difficult thing ever known, I could never forgive myself. I love him so much that I don’t think I could ever consider that. That made me think of how much the Lord loves us. He gave His only Begotten Son, the person He loves most of all, for me, for us all. How undeserving I am of that type of love. For what I have and will yet do that the Savior has felt and experienced makes me feel undeserving. I cannot comprehend the love the Savior and our Heavenly Father have for me. It is absolutely amazing.
I shared this with my testimony and two scriptures (Isaiah 53:3-5 and Alma 7:11-13) with our district in an unexpected testimony meeting. The Spirit was so strong I could hardly look at each of those elders in the eye. When I finally had the strength to look up and around, I saw each and every person in that room with tears streaming down their faces. We could hardly even close that meeting/class. We grew a lot from that amazing lesson and activity. My testimony was strengthened so much. I can’t even describe how amazing that was.
I love it here in the MTC. I can’t wait to get out into the field in Argentina. It’ll be the greatest adventure I will have yet to take. I love this work with all my heart. I love my family. I love my Savior and Heavenly Father. I hope all is well back home! And Justin, I’ll be writing you personally soon. Give me some time, bud. Be strong!
Love,
Elder Blake W. Cowan
I kind of like getting them all in a bunch. The spirit just grows and grows with his time in the MTC. Very first letter I teared up a little bit, and with this one I am sobbing. I think I need to try those questions in prayer for myself, and also reading the BofM aloud in Spanish. What a promise! What a kid!
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