Dear Family,
It was a wife point earning week, I'll say that. Ja ja! There were a lot
of ups and downs and no matter what I always take Elder Holland's advice
and think of the Atonement and Christ when things turn for the worse.
Then it makes me feel like I'm ungrateful and start working even harder
contacting as many people as possible! (We do a lot of that with all the
fall through appointments.)
Anyway, to take care of some of the other stuff, no Mom, I did not wash
my suit pants. I am simply growing taller or the slacks are shrinking
cause they are clear over my shoes now. Also, my waist is growing.
Not going to lie, I like being the skinny guy. But yes, I realized that
my top racing shape is going to be put on pause for a while. I talked to
Elder Zapata this week and he's gained 30 pounds and has only been out
for 6 months! Oh and Mom, Elder Jameson Jarvis IS in my mission. I heard
he got robbed recently. And I have talked to his comps. He's gained 20
plus pounds too. I don't want to be a fatty!!! It is so hard to work out
on my own and without running! I miss that A LOT. . . It makes me even
more determined to never let myself get fat. JA ja!
Also, thank you for sending the packages! Some elders are receiving
their Christmas packages already and you start to feel left out! Ja ja!
I am so grateful for hearing from home. I look forward to it all week
long! I hope I write enough and to satisfy your curiosity to my world
out here in Argentina. I can definitely tell you it is something
different. On P days we are sometimes able to watch Disney movies! Today
I got to watch Tangled and it made me think of back home when I had
watched it. Then when we left all the other missionaries and went back
into the real world, it was a weird sensation. I had just been with a
bunch of spiritual studs, watching a magical Disney movie, and in a
stake center. It was all very tranquil and when I left, I felt the lack
of the Spirit in the world out on the street. I can't describe that
lack. I see all the people on the street and it makes me so sad to know
they don't have the gospel, the truth to their eternal happiness in
their lives. I can only do so much since they have agency to choose. But
it made me rededicate myself to the work of our Lord, Jesus Christ. If
every member in the church could have a desire to share the gospel to
SAVE their friends and families and then ACT on it, the missionary work
would triple. It would accelerate so much.
It is so hard to be a member here in Tomás Flores, though. In church, we
had a total of about fifteen people come. It must break the heart of our
young bishop to watch his ward family act so lackadaisical. I am so
grateful to have grown up in the Groves Ward where we function properly
and have a youth program and scouts. There is nothing of that sort here.
It is pure faith driven. I am amazed at these faithful saints. They have
a life 10 times as hard as we can imagine, yet they know the gospel is
true and that Christ lives. They are so humble. I wish every member from
our ward back home could come here for a week and see the blessings of
our ward. It is amazing. Also, I have to speak in Sacrament next week.
Scary, but it is on trials and I think I apply really well with the
trail of the language, and the general missionary work which is quite
discouraging at times. But I will do my best to show these saints the
blessings that come through hard times. It is to help us remember our
roots and blessing. It is to humble us and grant us power beyond our
comprehension in the life to come.
I haven't even started to write about my investigators. Well, two of our
very secure investigators didn't show up on Sunday. Hilda and Mirta. It
has been an interesting week with these women. First, Hilda is amazing.
This woman continues to testify of how she knows it is the gospel that
has brought her this peace she has been looking for her whole life. She
is so excited to keep going through with all the discussions and get
baptized. She's even had to sacrifice sleep to go to church and hear our
discussions. She only sleeps four hours a night. Think of that, would we
be willing to do that for church or to talk to some odd young men? She
is so faithful. Unfortunately, Satan knows that too. Her grand daughter
had some emergency and she had to leave Saturday night to go help the
family. She will not be baptized now this Saturday but the next. Second,
with Mirta, oh, bless that woman. She is so dear to my heart. I
absolutely look forward to our lessons with her. She knows without a
doubt that these things are true. We had a very interesting day with her
the other day. We went with her to her friend, Maria's house and watched
Joseph Smith, The Prophet of the Restoration. It was great! These women
accept him as a prophet and are willing to live their lives in
accordance with the gospel and the commandments of God. After that long
lesson, we were walking Mirta home with her son Facu. Then the saddest
thing happened. There in the street, was her dog, dead. Facu's longest
life friend was gone. He began to ball and try to wake up his friend.
Mirta's repeated phrase, 'oh mi perro,' added to the commotion. We took
the dog back to their house and Mirta began digging the grave. We took
the shovel from her and finished the project. Then, she disappeared on
Sunday. She didn't come to church, she wasn't at our lesson appointment
that night, and nobody knew were they were. We passed by three different
times in the day and she was never there. Then the thought came to me.
If she has been gone all day, who's taking care of her bed ridden
father? Her dad had told her the day the dog died that he dreamt that
something was going to die. Ironically, the dog had. But now we are
worried that maybe her father has passed away. We need to find her. At
least she now has the gospel in her life. We will teach her about
temples if that did happen.
Well, those are two of my favorite investigators right now. Satan is
trying to discourage them. But we have another family that is great too!
Alan and his family. I love this exciting family! They are always so
excited to see us and are always willing to follow through with their
commitments. Virginia, the mother is even making the kids pray and take
things seriously because she knows their family needs a change for the
better. She is improving in her health too. We are going to be baptizing
Alan this Saturday and the rest of his family later when we have worked
everything out. Alan is definitely an answer to my prayers though. One
day, it was pouring rain. Everyone was turning us down and nobody would
let us in for hours. Without coats or umbrellas, we just got soaked and
continued on. Elder Vergara doubts a bit in these times and I try to
tell him how much the people back home love the rain to cheer him up.
But after hours, I saw someone stalking me really close. As I looked,
Alan scared me half to death! He asked us to come over and teach them
right then. I love that kid. I just wanted to hug him when he saved us
from a terrible day!
Let's see, I can't think of much more I really wanted to share this
week. We got invited to go to a Jehovah Witness church and some
Evangelic church. We might actually pass by to make those people come to
ours. I'm not entirely fond of it, but it could be a possibility. I only
want to see how their church functions so I can understand their beliefs
and help change their point of view a bit into the way of the Lord's
church. But it is a slim possibility. We read all their pamphlets and
even a book this new guy gave us and then go back to see if they read
the BoM. It's hard to teach people who have partial testimonies. They
have had witnesses to the partial truths of their churches, but it is
difficult to help them understand that there is more to their knowledge
that they can have too.
Well, thank you for all the updates! I am always so grateful to hear
from home! Congrats Aubree on signing with the Cougars! Kevy, glad you
had a fun day activity! It pays to be yourself, huh? Justin, good luck
in Utah and I am so proud of you. Hearing about you this week was the
highlight of my week. Keep up the good work. If you ever need help or
have a question about mission life, please write me and I would love to
answer! If anyone else has questions, I would love to answer those too!
I love you all! Especially my parents. You two are amazing and the most
dynamic couple. I am so blessed to have been raised in your home. You
don't understand all the blessings I have received from you two. I know
we don't thank you often or appreciate all you do for us all the time,
but we love you. I love you and I miss my family every day. I have to
get back to work now. As Dad says to me, 'serve Him well, Dad, Mom,
Justin, Trevor, and Kevin.'
Con Amor.
Elder Blake W. Cowan
No comments:
Post a Comment