This morning I sacrificed my p-day to build another floor in this man's house. Yes, I Blake Cowan am now a construction worker and can build houses. Anyway, because I did that for several hours, I didn't have the opportunity to print out emails this morning so when I finally signed on after visiting three cybers to find one open on this holiday (I don't know which, but I think it's fathers day?), I discovered SEVENTEEN emails. Seriously, I about died because I was worried about being disobedient and taking too much time in the cyber. Anyway, luckily it was a bunch of pictures. I love them! But seriously, it scared me.
So all the pictures from the family trip to Utah were great! I was bummed to hear about Kevin's experience. Poor buddy. But I'm glad the rest had fun! Black Friday reminds me of how I snuck out last year to go with RJ and his family . . . Uh . . .Woops. No joke, I really did that. Ha ha! Oh the mysteries from the life of Blake Cowan . . . Some you might never know. Love you Mom!
Dad, sorry to ruin your excitement, but we did not have Elder Christofferson in our mission at all. My mission president did go to the meeting, but just he and his wife, I think. Sorry! I didn't have time to watch the little film yet, so maybe he was in it. I don't know. Oh! Trevor's new room mate is the trainer of one of the missionaries in my zone!!! I can't remember his name but, the missionary here is Elder Smith. I think you talked to his dad the other day about it too. I don't know.
Well, I'll start with the bummer news for you all and then end with all the good things that happened this week. Ok? Well, Mirta and Hilda could not be baptized this week. It was a conflict we had with the ward because there were too many activities going on and there was no time to do it, plus we had a problem with one of those ladies. Hilda is perfect and has passed her baptismal interview and will be baptized for sure next week. But Mirta has this one doubt. Part of question two in the baptismal interview is about the restoration and having profetas ahora. So, she doesn't believe Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. We had her read his talk from this last conference about his experience in Germany with the temple dedication and we prayed with her to get a testimony of the prophet. Unfortunately some other issues arose with her too. The father of Facu is this extremely angry, lying, evil man. He keeps showing up in our lessons and disturbing the spirit and then we have to leave--like running out of the house. He is threatening to choke, hit, and kill Mirta for many, many dumb reasons. Pray for this sweet lady! She has such a spirit and wants to be baptized so bad! Pray for her testimony to be strengthened from this and also to be able to have a response about Thomas S. Monson.
Well, I'll talk about some really funny stories this week! First, mi
amigo. This drunk guy named Julio who is 36 years is now my official
drunkard, I mean body guard. Ja ja! We had this pretty long, pointless
chat with him and his buddy and he told me that I have a beautiful face
and that Elder Vergara isn't that good looking. Ja ja! Then he kept
telling us that if we ever need anything we can come to him and he'll
help us out. Oh and also, he said that if anyone tries to mess with me,
he will go fight them and kill them. He described how, but I won't go
into detail. Ja ja! He's a funny guy and we see him everywhere! He
absolutely loves me! We're supposed to have dinner with him on Friday. I
don't know if we are going for sure . . . We can't teach him because he
is so crazy talkative and just tells stories non stop. But I love him!
He brightens my day.
We had a successful week with taking out baptismal dates. We had 6 fechas and they're all generally pretty good. I think our zone will break the record this next month in baptisms for the mission. We didn't get our 30 this month. Instead, we had about 17 and ALL except two were from our district. Good work boys! We're having a lot of success! Speaking of our district, I am still the baby, but I speak better then the two others that have two more transfers than me! I did about four comp exchanges this week and I was talking like without having to translate and it was awesome! The worst part is that when Elder Vergara gets back, I can't speak anymore. I don't know what my problem is! Whatevs.
Some amazing experiences this week were our lessons. During an exchange with Elder Saunders, we taught this lady Gladis. She cried the whole time! The second I went with Elder Vergara, she said that she couldn't understand anything Elder Saunders said, she could understand me though. But she said she felt something so different than ever before. She's so getting baptized! I love this lady!
Another experience we had was with our bishop. I don't know why, but he decided to lay down the law on a lot of members. He called us and the ward mission leader into his office and basically chewed the guy out because we haven't had a single meeting with him and we hardly have lessons with members. But he was so humble and is determined to work with us now. Also, he called a young guy of like twenty to be a ward missionary. We might be able to do divisions now! But Bishop was inspiring all these people! Then our elders quorum president was back for his first Sunday and his lesson totally fired up all the men to start sharing the gospel! I loved Sunday even if none of our investigators came to church. . . But it was awesome to see the change in them. Our bishop is only like 28 years old and he just scolded a bunch of older men. It was AWESOME! Ja ja!
One more experience from this week, I had a lesson with a member this
week! We showed up for our lunch cita with Hna. Campera and there was
this lady there. We ended up teaching her and she loved it! Her name is
Antonia. She understood everything and wanted to read the BoM so badly!
She is going to come to church next week! She speaks really fast and
likes to talk a lot, but I am keeping up in the lessons pretty good now.
Sometimes when I am tired I just don't understand anything cause I'm not
paying attention, but I am starting to understand the songs and even the
egg man here! When you understand them, you know you have Castillano
down awesome!
Ok, I have to go. I don't have near enough time to write everything I wanted to this week. To everyone who has written me, I am sorry I still have not mailed back. I can't find any form of a post office or let alone a place to buy stamps. . . Every other elder tells me that I can email people, but I have no time to do so. I am sorry! I have a stack of written letters for you all!
Mother, sorry I opened those packages. But you don't understand. . . getting mail here is like finding water after wandering in the desert for weeks! You can't help but open it! Ja ja! I will try to wait with the other ones, if they come. But look at the scriptures, did Lehi wait till they got to the promise land to read the brass plates? No. He started to dig in right away! Same with Packages here. Love you!
Good luck with everything going on up there in the US! I miss the cleanness of everything there. I just cleaned like crazy again earlier. It's so dirty here. . . I moss you all and love you all! I am missing an Arizonan winter. Hot humid summers aren't that fun . . . Except being a missionary is! Ja ja! Chow chow everybody!
Love,
Elder Cowan
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