Alan's Baptism

Dear family,

I'M TURNING INTO MY MOTHER!!!! JA JA JA!!! I spent all day cleaning the pench scrubbing and scrubbing everything! I think it's finally mom-approved now. I still have to mop the floors and clean the stove though. But It has come a long way!

Ok, for this next paragraph, I'd like to dedicate it to the birthday girl . . . Car, Car, Car. . . I finally got your letter this past week through dear elder! I loved it! Thank you so so much! I can't believe that I have missed your birthday TWICE now! But if it makes you feel better, I had a pretty awesome day on your birthday. I baptized someone for you! I will be writing you back later in depth of a lot of things going on her. (Those funny stories I don't tell my family like the dog baptism and the funny things that happen in the streets of Tomás Flores.) Ja ja! Keep being 'fearless' and don't stop smiling! That's why they pay Disney princesses at Disneyland, ya know. . . Anyway, I have to update my family now that you have a dedicated paragraph in my family letter. Feel better? Oh and I've written in my journal every. single. day. I don't break my promises, Car. P.S. I'm counting all the yellow cars down here as well as the yellow houses. Be prepared missy! And tell your mom to stop worrying about me. Ja ja! She probably freaked out the most with the robbery story. You don't even want me to begin with the death threats I get! Ja ja! Just kidding, there's only been like three. . . Hope you had a great week! Love and miss you! Happy birthday Car!

Hello again family! So, first off, I didn't even remember we had Thanksgiving! I don't think you realize how much you tend to forget about everything back home! So, actually, holidays aren't really all that hard to be away from family. Ja ja! We're always working! And if we're not working, we're sleeping. I LOVE my sleep. It's the best part of the day to lay down at night and just relax and have crazy dreams all night (happens a lot). I keep having dreams that my leg is going to be amputated from some strange bug bite or fungus. Speaking of those eight legged things, I killed the BIGGEST spider in the world in our kitchen a few nights ago! He was about the size of a Droid cell phone! I put his corpse in a clear jar and am keeping it as a trophy of my success. Ja ja! Those things creep me out. Another crazy night story from this past week was last night. We had been in bed for about ten minutes when the pench started to light up and shake! This crazy storm just appeared out of nowhere and flooded our entire street! As we sat and watched the rain for a bit, we saw a door float down the river/street. Ja ja! It was crazy and now it's super muddy everywhere! Oh and Mother, we have a member washing our clothes. There's no stores in our area. There are two pizza places, a few clothing stores, and a bunch of vegi stands/meat stands. And no, I absolutely cannot run at all unless my comp wants to come with me. If we lived in a apartment tower, I am allowed to run the stairs by myself, but not out in the streets. If we work out, we just get to do some push ups and sit ups and that's about it.

Well, thanks to your prayers and much fasting and praying on our behalf as well, the Lord blessed us this week in sacrament! We had a full house and 6 investigators came!!! WOO HOO! Mirta, Hilda, Emanual y su esposa, Alejandro, y Gladis all came to church! And it was thanks to members that three of them came! I don't know what happened during the week, but the ward was inspired to help us out for once! I am so grateful. They all came and it was an amazing day!

Speaking about members, actually we get fed about every day here. Sometimes members forget and we don't get lunch, but that's ok. We tend to have lunch with the same members every week though. It helps to get to know the families a lot! Not like our ward back home when they are eating with a new family every day. The ward here is just one family. They do everything together and they love everyone so much. They're awesome at making investigators feel welcomed. Oh and I spoke in sacrament this week. I spoke of the trial of my state meet race and the surgery and then about Joseph Smith in Liberty and then about the Atonement of Jesus Christ to talk about why we have trials! People really liked it!

So, the answer is yes. Alan was baptized on Saturday! It was another crazy baptismal service! As we went into the hall to go to the font entrance, we discovered the whole church hallway filled with water! Nobody ever turned off the font!!! Ja ja! Elder Vergara got stuck cleaning that because Alan wanted me to baptize him. After Alan was baptized, Crazy George, this hermano in the ward, was baptizing his niece. He's so crazy and couldn't say the prayer right. He dunked the poor girl four or five times! She was so scared by the end! Ja ja! Anyway, it finally got done and I almost had to go do it. After the baptism, Alan and I ran outside to the soccer field and started playing around with the ball as it was raining! This kid is awesome! He's like a little brother and he is so funny! He said that when I get married I have to bring my wife back and show him FIRST out of everyone in Argentina! Ja ja! He is so fun and I love him. I'm giving him my light blue skinny tie because he liked it a lot plus a Preach My Gospel to get him on a mission. His family will be converted really soon too! His little sister who's nine asked Elder Vergara to baptize her! Ja ja! His mom is feeling a lot better too. Virginia is healing from a type of cancer and has completed all the therapy for it. She just has to rest a lot now.

Mirta and Hilda will be baptized this Friday night and it's going to be awesome! We're going to have six baptisms in this area! The next highest for a companionship in this area was four in the past few years. I hope Elder Vergara and I stay together one more transfer. The transfer ends the 19th and we want to spend Christmas together. It's so weird being summer here. It's not all that hot, but it's just wet. It doesn't really bother me all that much though. I just keep working!


Well, we had Christmas in November this week! I got three packages thanks to my beautiful mother! Two Christmas ones for the twelve days and then one that had some peanut butter and sunflower seeds. Ja ja! Thank you so so so much for the packages! We loved them! Anyway, we couldn't wait to do the twelve days stuff and just opened them all! Ja ja! Elder Vergara LOVES you mama! He loves those Hershey's cookies and cream bars and Swedish fish! It made him yelp in excitement!


Anyway, sorry this letter has been all over the place. I'm having a hard time remembering this past week. They all tend to blend together. I lose track of the days so easily here. I freaked out when a member asked me if I'm excited to call home in about a month! It shocked me so much! I feel like I was just saying bye to my crying mother on the telephone in NY. The time flies. So, I can't remember any more exciting moments this past week. It's just gone too fast. Well, I love you all, as always! I look forward to emailing every week!

Love,
Elder Blake W. Cowan