Hilda's Baptism

Dear Family!

December is here and it is time for a Case quote- "OH MY HEART!" It is SOOO HOT here! I officially don't like the humid days. About every three days it is unbearably sticky/wet. You open up the front door and get drenched! Ja ja! It's so weird having a full year of summer . . . I keep waiting for it to get cold, but it's only getting hotter! Yummy yum yum delicious. But don't worry because I'm always so excited and happy to be a missionary! Even when I think that I have 20 more months of this, I'm still feeling great! And you know why? Let me tell you. I convinced my Latin comp to go running every morning this past week!!! Yeah baby! I'm already losing my weight again! I missed running so so SO MUCH! I only get 25 minutes, but it is so worth it! I love the sore leg feeling and just pushing yourself. It's great. I don't even mind that I run around a soccer field the whole time. It is the best. What a blessing! So I am pretty darn happy this week!

One more thing to add to my holiday spirit is that Hilda was baptized!!! Yeah! I love this woman. Right before she entered the font, I told her that she is about to become the most clean person in the whole world and she started to cry. After the short, small service, she told Elder Vergara, one hermana in the ward, and I that these missionaries (us) will always be her brothers from her soul and she will never forget us. Elder Vergara described her as the most prepared person that he has baptized in his whole mission. I'd agree since she's read about half the BoM already. But she is amazing. She wanted to convert her whole family so badly and is already bearing her testimony to them. I would love to see her get sealed in the temple before the end of my mission. Oh and she is SO excited to meet my parents. She called you guys saints for having raised me the way you did. I just told her that you two had nothing to do with that part. Love ya! Ja ja! But yeah, she is wonderful and fits amazingly well into the ward.

Unfortunately, Mirta did not get baptized. I went to the lesson with one of the zone leaders to do the interview, but she finally admitted that she hasn't read or said a prayer on her own yet. Her friend, Maria, was there and laid down the law on Mirta for us. Ja ja! I'm grateful for that! But then she continued to tell us that she knows the BoM is the word of God and she still wants to investigate a little longer before she will accept a baptismal date. But she is really progressing well. She's clever and really understands the lessons and everything. The BoM is really the key in everything. If you find out that book is true, then everything else just falls into place and fits all the puzzle pieces together. Elder Nelson promised us in the MTC that if someone will just read the first chapter of the BoM and actually try to understand it and then pray about it, then it is a guarantee that they will get baptized. 20ish verses can change their lives for eternity.

So, Mother, you need to call sister Jarvis and tell her that I talked to him on the phone the other day. He has had a different experience as a missionary here. Right after training he was called with another elder to be co-senior-comps. Crazy huh? They have shared duties and everything. His Spanish is coming along, but the new program definitely shows a difference in the missionaries. He hasn't had as much luck getting people baptized but I think he just had his first one. But yeah, tell his mom that he's doing just fine! And he's still gaining weight. Ja ja! Told ya he's in my mission.

Well, this week we had a zone conference with Elder Ajducaidis from the quorum of the seventy come. He checked some penches and gave some amazing advice. Everything he told us to do was an act of repentance. Especially our planning as a mission. He attacked that sucker pretty well. We are all trying to focus on bettering our planning. Before we did weekly planning for about two hours and now we are doing it for about five!!! Crazy! I am dead by the end. Ja ja! But it was an amazing experience with him. I do kind of suspect that he is a little crazy, though. He kind of has that crazy eye/laugh thing going on and it made us all laugh sometimes. Love him though!

The investigator of the week has to be Alejandro Lopez. This man is a stud. Last week we helped him build a floor in his house and yesterday he finally understood what we are all about. He understands the importance of baptism and wants a change in his life. He said he will read and pray every day and go to church every Sunday until he has an answer about the church. The only other thing we need to do is get him married. His wife is a little more skeptical of everything but is still willing to go to church with Ale to help him. I hope Elder Vergara and I stay together one more transfer here to see these two get baptized and their family. But I love them so much! They will be one of the most rewarding baptisms.

Oh good thing you sent me those caramels because I'm giving them away! We have an investigator named Gabriel and he wants to quit smoking. So I asked him to give me all his cigarettes and I would give him caramels because that's what he likes and they help take the cravings away. So I felt really weird having cigarettes on me for a little while till I could destroy those little servants of Satan. Gross. But Gabriel is great! He's really smart and wants to help people a lot. He's buddies with my drunk body guard, Julio, who was actually beat up pretty bad the other day trying to buy drugs in the villa . . . Almost dead kind of beaten up. But Gabriel isn't into that stuff. He only smokes. But he wants to quit and keep learning more from us.

So, we having been finding a lot of new people to teach and dumping anyone who is a waste of time. We were promised in the zone conference that we can baptize every single week of our mission if we are determined and find prepared people. That's why we lifted our standards and I now make twenty new contacts everyday!! That's a lot. Some elders can't even do a contact at all. But we are finding a lot and are always fishing! You can't catch fish if you don't have your net in the water! That's what President always says.

Well, I've spent long enough typing up this letter. I sent nine pictures already and Mom is demanding more. Ja ja! SO I have to go work on that. Thanks for everything! I love you all! And Happy Holidays!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan