Happy New Year!

Dear Family,

Alright, it's hot. It's too hot. In thermic temperature, we have reached 127 degrees in humidity! I've never been one to sweat a lot, but here, I sweat a lot! But it's been a great holiday season! It's been a time to reflect on my life, set goals, and plan. I'm very excited to start this next year. I'm still a little shocked that today is the last day of my black year (the year you never see home). It's odd because I start realizing that more and more of my friends are leaving and that I know less and less missionaries. It's the sign of getting old. . .

So, I know you're all anxious to hear about the transfer, but it's nothing too exciting! I am staying with Elder Borgersen! We're going on for three transfers together. I've only had Elder Porter for this much time. I'll be Elder Borgersen's first companion to stay with him for three transfers. He's taught me so many things! He's only got three transfers left now and he's still a machine and works so well!

The new assistant goes home with President in June. His name is Elder McLaws. He went up as a zone leader with me. He's a great guy and totally suited for the job! It'll be interesting to see how he teaches and works.

Well, this week was a bummer because we weren't allowed to work a lot! With all the events, we lost a lot of time. We had Christmas eve, Christmas day, my companion's birthday, a trio companionship, and a baptism. It was pretty packed. Anyway, our baptism was great! Karina was baptized in the morning and she loved it! She said that she wanted to do it again because it felt so great! She was baptized by Elder Borgersen and I confirmed her. She was such a golden investigator!

Speaking of golden investigators, we found another one! Her name is Paola. She was a contact of two elders that came to do a white storm here. We called her up, fixed an appointment, and then had one of the most amazing lessons ever! She had all the right questions! She loves the idea of modern prophets and scripture. She had already started reading the BoM. She accepted a baptism date for the 19th, but her only problem is that she works night shifts and sleeps during the day. So it will be hard to asist church. I have faith that with a little stranger testimony, she'll make the sacrifice to come! We're going to continue praying for her.

We had one other amazing event this week. The Silverio family, the one we've been activating and where we used skype on Christmas day, has been progressing unbelievably. We had a lesson the other day with them and their two sons, Tommy and Facundo. Facu is older and is about 24 years old. Tommy is only about 13, but both of them are very smart and know a lot of politics, science, religion, and are very good public speaker type people. Anyway, we taught them the begging of the Plan of Salvation and everything was going good until Tommy started his thesis of science. He believes in science and not in God. But as we were trying to explain it to him, his brother just bore the most amazing testimony that God exists and why he is the answer to the question "Why?" to all of the mysteries of science. It was so powerful, then brother and sister Silverio began to tell their own testimonies and Tommy was just silent. He felt the Spirit without a doubt. He just needs to try Moroni's promise and get over his pride. But it was amazing to see the three other members of this family teaching Tommy and us three missionaries (because we were in a trio with Elder Martinez). Facu said he wants to keep studying with us and said he's been reading about the story of Joseph Smith and even knows what the Urim and Thumim is! He said that he wants to go to church next week too! I'm sooo excited to teach them again!

The last thing from this past week is that Elder Ayala left to go home on Saturday morning. So we had to drop him off at the mission home on Friday night. We then were left with Elder Martinez until this morning. It was fun to have a third, young, elder with us and to teach with him. It was a great opportunity to teach him and to give him a sneak peek of leadership.

Well, that's about it from this past week. I definitely have to say that skyping home was the highlight of my week. I needed that so much. I needed to see your smiles, I needed to laugh, I needed to cry, and I needed the extra strength that you gave me. I have to admit that it's completely weird to watch Trevor with Kiersten. I'm such a missionary . . . It was like a sin talking to them and watching them so in love. I'm so happy for them, though! I'm really excited for their future! I was so grateful to be able to speak with each one of my siblings and my wonderful parents. Dad made me cry this time. I was expecting it for Mom, but when Dad began to talk about the end of my mission, I couldn't help it. It'll be very hard for me to finish the mission. Anyone who gives their heart to the Lord for these two years can't help but feel the heart ache when you finish and have to take off that tag.

I love you all so much! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you'll have a wonderful New Years!!! 2013, here I come!! :)

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Feliz Navidad Y Prospero Ano!

Dear Family,

Well, I'll get the update on the week done quick and then answer some questions. But first off, FELIZ NAVIDAD Y PROSPERO AÑO!!!!!!!! :) I love Christmas sooooooo much! The hardest thing about being in Argentina is the lack of the Christmas spirit. Christmas here is celebrated more like the 4th of July back home. Everyone sets off fireworks right at midnight. There's lots of alcohol and a lot of BBQ. It doesn't have the same feeling as it does back home. There are very very few houses with decorations. Nobody says Merry Christmas" and it's sweatin' hot out!!! Ha ha! But it is truly a great time of year no matter where you are in the world. There is still a way to invite the Christmas spirit in our teachings and to help others feel the love of the Saviour. 

We will be having one baptisms on the 29th it looks like. Karina is so prepared and she came to church again. We found out that in about a year she is planning on marrying that friend of hers in Chile that told her to find out more about the church. She's basically a member already. For example, she paid tithing yesterday. She's not even baptized yet!!! That's what faith is all about. Just trust in the Lord and do what's asked because you know it's true. Anyway, we will be ending my "black year" (the year you never see home) with a great baptism!! :)

Claudia isn't going to make it. She wanted to stop smoking so badly today, but yesterday at church, she told us that she got depressed on Saturday and smoked a ton of cigarettes. She's really depressed and feels that the addiction is too big and strong for her to overcome. It's so sad to watch her. I really wish we could help her more, but we all know that each of us must fight our own battles and exercise our own faith.

Griselda still has the problem with her daughter. She wants to be baptized, but is refusing until her daughter accepts her decision. She will make it some day. We have not had a chance to teach her daughter yet. We just need to show her how we're not a sect and that baptism is the best thing for her mother.

The rest of our investigators are still in the same boat. No one really progressing and all needing a little push. We did have the opportunity of finding Walter yesterday. He's a little "slow" It appears, because he was not really focused on the present, but his family was very kind with us, so we are going to try to teach them. We just need to find. We compared our numbers from those of the last transfer and there's a big change! Last transfer we found 41 investigators and this transfer, with one week left, we have only found 11. We've had really great contacts, but we can't seem to find anyone in their homes. This time of year, everyone has weird schedules.

Alright, question and answer time. Tomorrow I will be calling at 2:00 Argentina time. That will be around 10:00 Arizona time. SO be prepared. I will be skypeing from a member's home. I will be able to talk to Justin also, which I'm very excited for! :)  President told us at Leadership council that he's not too worried about the time limit. He said to be reasonable was all. He wants the calls to be inspiring for us to keep working. SO if the call is too long and makes us feel home sick, then it's too long of a call. So, it depends on what we feel is right. I'm not too worried about it though. We generally keep it to reasonable amount of time.

I am fine talking to the family however you want. If someone wants a personal slot, I'm fine with that! I would like to hear from everyone at one point, and then maybe separate for a few time slots, and then get everyone back together again.

Well, I'm not sure what else to say. I'm just really excited for tomorrow! :) I love the holiday season! I love you all too! I'm so grateful for all my many blessings. 

Merry Christmas!

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Amazing Week!

Dear Family,

Honestly, this week was amazing! The Lord did a great job distracting me throughout the events of the wedding. Elder Martinez's sister also got married recently, about a week and a half ago, so it was fun to talk to him about it. Anyway, this letter is going to be really short. I honestly would rather look at the pictures. 

A few highlights of the week were that we had an activity on Friday and we got 160+ people at the church and had a giant dinner! It was sweet! The bishop had to fork out a lot of personal money, though, to feed all the people. It was awesome, though! There was a small nativity by the primary and a chorus by the Relief Society and it was a great time!

At church yesterday we had Karina, Griselda, and Claudia all there and each had an amazing experience and we moved their baptism dates to the 29th. We are going to try and get them all baptized together. Claudia has improved with her cigarettes. She's only smoking about 10 a day now instead of 20+. Griselda's daughter agreed to talk to us soon and that's an improvement because before she never even wanted to talk to us. We saw her in the street the other day and we said "hi" to her and she was really kind to us. And Karina is amazing! She is accepting everything soo easily! We only need to teach her about tithing and we're done! They can all make it by the 29th if we just stay on top of them and help them get ready. :)

I did not get my Christmas package. I will be getting it on the 24th in the mission home. I'm not going to lie, though, I'm more excited than ever to talk with you all!! I really want to meet my new sister!!! I hope she's got lots of questions and great stories to tell me. :) 

Anyway, that's about all I have to say this week. We are struggling to find, but the investigators that we have are great and progressing really well! Pray for my white Christmas! We need these three women to get baptized! Thanks! I love you all! Merry Christmas!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Tough Week--Love My Mission

Dear Family,

Well, this week was pretty tough. Nobody was home at the times we had previously fixed and so we got a lot of street time. But no problem! We also had a leadership council and we had a great time at the mission home for the day. I know my package is here, but guess what. . . They changed the rule this week. Now we do have to pay for packages, they say it's like three dollars though. That's nothing. But I saw it in the assistant's truck, but they are holding all packages until the 24th I think . . . So, I know it's here, but I don't have it yet. ha ha! On Christmas I will be skyping at around 2:00 Arg time and it should be at 10:00 Mesa time. I hope all the Christmas rush has gone by already! ha ha! But it'll be really exiting to talk to my sister-in-law for the first time! Carly sent me a picture today of Trevor and Kiersten holding hands. She was sneaking on them the other day on her way to class. ha ha!

Anyway, I don't have many stories for this past week. We didn't teach very much and we didn't find very many new investigators. Someone new is our other neighbor who's name ironically is Priscila too!! We live between two Priscila! ha ha! But she is a 13 year-old girl and has a lot of emotional problems. Her father abandoned her as a baby, came back into her life when she was about 9 and left her again at 10. He is an inactive member of the church too . . . He caused a lot of hate and heart ache in that family. Priscila's mom doesn't like the "Mormons" now because of that experience. But anyway, Pricila was on the back balcony and I went out there to check out the weather before going to bed. But she was out there and really needed someone to talk to. So I sat there and my companion came and we talked to her until about 11:30 at night giving her advice and helping her see that we're normal kids too. SHe had had a bad argument with her mom the other day and was kicked out of the house for a day or two. She went to her grandma's house and she was so depressed that she cut her wrist. She said the reason why was because she didn't want to focus on the other pain she was feeling and preferred the physical pain over that. She's such a good girl though! She kept wanting to know more about the church and she kept asking us why we're always so happy and how she can be like us. So we talked about the gospel and then told her how to pray and figure out if God exists or not. She had lots of doubts, but was very willing to try it out. She's a great girl, she's just very lost and needs to be loved.

Another great experience was that the Silverio family came to church again!! :) We went to teach them on Saturday night, but it turned out to be wayyyyyy longer than we expected. We got there and started to get to know ther son Tomás who is not baptized. While talking to him and his mom, Alejandro (Hermano Silverio), went and bought a TON of meat to do a BBQ (asado) and those are LONG to cook. We tried to say that we wouldn't be staying to eat but he obligated us to stay and eat. We got home at about 12:40 . . . It was a great time though! We talked with them a bunch and helped them with some doubts that they have. Also, they were set on NOT going to church when all of the
sudden they decided to go again out of nowhere! It's amazing! Alejandro told us that it's something about us two that is different than others that has brought them to church two weeks in a row without having gone in 23 years! :) So it was worth not sleeping! ha ha! We told them that next time it can't be that late though. We have a schedule to follow. But they came to church and we are going back again this week. They also are going to let us skype from their home. (It's a way nice Argentine home :) )

Karina is progressing really well! Although she didn't make it to church yesterday. I think it's from a birthday party that she went to on Saturday night and so she didn't get up in time. Anyway, she is SO
excited to get baptized! Unfortunately we have to plan her baptism for the 29th now because she doesn't have assistance. She's super cool though!

We haven't had too many great experiences this week. We had a lot of meetings and we didn't get to work as much as we'd like and the plans we had didn't come through, but this week will be better!

I can't believe my brother will be getting married this coming week. I was reading in the bible the other day and there is a cool scripture I found that reminded me of Trevor - Proverbios 18:22 "El que halla esposa halla el bien y alcanza la benevolencia de Jehová." So, I took that as in trevor has found his wife and has found what the Lord wanted for him and for that he'll be blessed. I also read in Génesis 2:24 that says that a man and a woman when married become one body or one flesh. I though that was a great analogy. then I thought of Santiago 2:26, It says that the body without the spirit is dead, so is the husband without his wife. I'm so excited for Trevor! I know that all of us have the dream deep down of finding our eternal companion. I know Trevor we'll be so blessed for making this covenant and I know he'll be so much more happier too!! I love the gospel so much. It united families and causes so much joy even though there are trials and terrible things in this life. I know that our Heavenly Father prepared a way for all of us to be happy and it's through the Atonement of Christ. I'm so grateful to represent HIM. I can show people's the Saviour's love through my actions. I know He lives. He has gone through it all. He understands us and for that, he knows how to save us. I pray that each of us can try to be more like the Saviour. That means being Saviour's to others as well!! We need to learn how to understand our neighbors and learn how to save them by being the answer to their prayers.

I'm so grateful for my mission! It is changing me so much. I am a different person that I was several months ago. I know I'm changing for good and becoming more converted and sanctified. And there's no feeling more special and gratifying than spiritual growth. In 2 Corintios 5:17 it says how we become New creatures in Christ. It's an amazing feeling to know that the Lord is forming you into who He wants you to be. and all he requires is your heart.

I love the gospel and I love my Savior. The church is true and I love representing it! I love spreading the gospel and saving my brothers and sisters here in Argentina. They're a wonderful people. I love you all so much and I hope you all enjoy the festivities of the season, especially the wedding! Till next week! Suerte!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Missionary Miracles

Dear Family,

Well, this week was pretty tough because our plans kept falling through and we are trying really hard to find new investigators and we're just not having the results that we'd like to see, but then I go and compare the amount of work we're doing now compared to when I was in Chascomús and it a HUGE difference! Even a bad week here is pretty good. But we only taught 19 lessons and last transfer we were averaging about 25 per week with tons of new investigators! But I can't complain too much. We still were able to witness many miracles this week!

First off, I have to give a shout out to Justin for his birthday coming up! Te amo muchísimo!!! Gracias por tu ejemplo! Sos increíble! Espero que disfrutes tu cumple. Cuidáte! 

Alright, so this past week we found three new people. Say hello to Karina first. Karina is a single mom. She has an 18 year old daughter who is 8 months pregnant and a six year old son named Matias who goes by Mati. Anyway, Karina is the lady that just showed up at the church last week and told us that she wants us to teach her! That's one of those ridiculous missionaries miracles when you look at your companion and he's got "baptism" written across his face and a smile from ear to ear! ha ha! Anyway, we went and taught her the other day and she is soooo prepared and amazing! We taught her the about the Restoration and she just accepted everything! We told her to pray and ask God for an answer about the things we shared with her and she asked, "why? I already know it's true!" Now could a missionary want any other type of answer than that? Let me tell you, "no." Anyway, we're planning her baptism for the 22nd.  . . I'm dreaming of a white Christmas!!!! :) And we taught her again last night and it's just too easy to teach her everything. She's so prepared and offered an amazing prayer! 

Alright, another new investigator was Griselda's husband who has had a rough past. He was caught with another woman a few years back and there has been some major family difficulties. Griselda suffered from a stroke and she is a little askew at times. She also has a baptism date for the 22nd. She's very nervous and her psychiatrist is telling her to take things slower, so it's going to be a bit of a battle. Her kids are extremely catholic too. SO, they aren't too happy about her decision to be baptized. She's already come to church twice now though. We just have to teach her now and that's all. Her husband is a great guy, he really is a changed man. He is a little hesitant about baptism for himself but he is urging Griselda to do it. He believes it'll be great for her.

Another new investigator we have is Julio. He was a contact we did the other day, he's 25 and just a stud! He is a definite lady's man, though. He is way smart and loved our first chat! We gave him the goal for the 22nd also and he accepted. The only problem will be getting him to church and to live the law of chastity. He always travels on the weekends to see his girlfriend who lives far away and he stays the nights there. SO.... getting him to church will be a challenge and we will be hitting up the law of chastity soon. He's a great guy, though! He's be such a great priesthood holder!

One of my favorite experiences of last week was with the Silverio family. The other week, Elder Borgersen and I printed off a sheet that had all the kids that were blessed in the church but never made it to baptism. This was one of those families. We went by and fixed another day to eat dinner with them! SO Saturday night, while eating dinner with them, we talked about them and their life story. So, they were both baptized when they were about 15. Hno. Silverio had an amazing conversion story! He had received the discussions from the missionaries as a family when he was 12-13ish and then they dropped the missionaries. But for two years he studied the Book of Mormon and one day, out of the blue, decided he wanted to get baptized. SO it was a Sunday and he walked out into the living room and told his family he was going to be baptized by the Mormons. They agreed to it and he got dressed and went to church after not having gone for two years!!! Now when he did go to church, it was a night, so he went at night, but they had changed the schedule. SO he got there and it was basically empty except for a few young women doing some type of activity. They told him to come back the next week and to talk to the sister missionaries. SO he did. They taught him all the discussions and was baptized and held many calling and so did his wife! But when he was the secretary, he got offended for something. He mentioned that he didn't approve of the bishopric talking about very personal things about the members lives. So they went inactive 23 years ago and never went to church since. . . . until yesterday!!! We had such an amazing lessons with them telling about how we got our testimonies and how we need to accept the will of God and do what He wants us to do, not what we choose. And without even extending the invitation, he said that they would be going to church the following day. And they did!!! There, they met up with old friends and had an amazing time! They enjoyed themselves quite a bit and it was a very spiritual experience! It was wonderful to see a family so far from the gospel come back to church and feel the spirit as they once had. It was wonderful! Although it doesn't show up as a baptism or good numbers at the end of the week, it was one of the most rewarding experiences I've had on my mission. I am so excited to go back to them on Saturday and to start teaching them more and to teach their two kids!

Well, I'm kind of out of things to write about now. It was a great week even though we walked quite a bit, lost a competition within the zone, and didn't reach our goals, but that's ok! It was still amazing! Every day, every week, and every minute you wear the name of Christ on your chest is an amazing moment. There is honestly nothing more rewarding than sharing the gospel with your fellowmen. I love the work. I love the Lord and I love knowing that I am an instrument in the Lord's hand to bring His children back to him again. There is no other place I'd rather be than right where I am now. 

I love you all and I miss you. But the Work is ever ongoing and I hear the Master's call. Till next week.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Four Baptisms!

Dear Family,

Be ready for another really short letter. I'm sorry, but I honestly have about five minutes to write today because it is a holiday here in Argentina and we couldn't find any computer stores to write our families. But thanks for the amazing letters this week! Honestly, they were the best letters I've had in a while! :)

Anyway, I'll start with some bad news first. So on Friday night I get a phone call and Elder De Oliveira tells me that his companion, Elder Albornoz, had a seizure. It was almost 9:00 pm but we talked to President Stapley and we got permission and took off for the hospital in Monte Grande. It results out to be that he had it while in the bus and it was very violent. On top of the bad situation, a woman came up trying to give him water to drink cause she was freaking out and that is the exact opposite of what you should do while having a seizure!! Anyway, the bus driver took him directly to the hospital. When we got there, he was a mess. He had dirt all over him and was having a lot of pain in his head. We took care of him until his companion and one of the couple missionaries could come to the hospital. We got home really late, around 11:30 that night. Elder Albornoz only asked for one thing though. He asked that we pray so that he can stay in the mission. . . I already had a bad feeling about it though. With further investigation, we find out that this is not the first in the mission, but the ninth!! President called church headquarters and they ordered him to send him home immediately. It's a miracle he could even stay on the mission this long. Church policy is if it happens one time, the missionary is sent home. End of story. So, he finished his mission today with five months. He was so sad. President gave us permission to go see him off at his pench. We said bye to him and watched him leave. He should be home in Kordoba, Arg already. It was really hard on all of us. Meanwhile his comp will be in a trio.

Well, the good news is that all of the ares in our zone are working hard and having success and Elder Borgersen and I had an amazing baptism! I'll sent pictures next week though. I don't have time today. It was so spiritual and it was great to see all four of them go through such an amazing experience. I love seeing the change happen when they are baptized. Ana said she felt renewed and the boys all said they felt so great! I can see them as future missionaries someday. I'm so happy for them. 

Alright, well, I have to go now. Thanks for the great letters! I love you all! Take care!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Taught 141 Lessons in Six Weeks!

Dear Family,

Thanks for sending the Christmas package! I'm not sure when I'll get it, but it'll get here. I'm slightly worried about the holidays, though, because I feel as if I might not be in the same area.

With this transfer, we only had a few changes in our zone. Elder Ramos, a young buck who's baptizing tons already, will be coming to help our situation with one elder and the biggest change was that we are taking the elders out of Monte Grande and putting in Hermanas! And guess which two are coming! Hermana Widerburg and Hermana Rodriguez!!! The same ones from my old district! I'm so excited for them!! They'll be doing a white wash, meaning, they both don't know the area and will be starting from nothing! I'm way excited for them and I hope that they can get that area fired up now!

So we will be having four baptisms this Saturday. Ana and her three youngest boys will be getting baptized. We only have to explain tithing and do the interviews. We're really excited for them! We have been working really hard! In six weeks guess how many lessons we taught . . . 141!!! We were teaching a ton!! I knew that we gave it a great effort and now this transfer we have a goal to teach around 190! We're already almost leading the mission as it is, but we want to make sure that we are doing the best and are the best missionaries that we can be and we know we are capable of teaching that many lessons. It'll be a lot to prepare for, though! Sometimes I'm amazed at what we missionaries do day to day and week to week. When you start to add up all the numbers, there's a lot of stuff!!

Alright, this past week was tough getting help from the members. We taught a ton of lessons without their help. We need to get better at that. It really helps us so much to have a member there. Anyway, we were able to have a lot of lessons and to be busy working our buts off! We also have been trying to do a lot more contacts. We decided to make it a goal and we talked to over 60 people this week inviting them to come unto Christ. We are aiming for about 140 in a week. That's a big number, but they say one of every 200 contacts gets baptized and if we are doing that many, I'm sure that we can start baptizing once a week. We need more references, though, from the members. 

So a few investigators that are progressing really well would be Ana and her family, obviously since they're getting baptized. The kids are a bit lazy. The other day they didn't want to wake up from their already two hour long nap and I just went into their rooms (with permission from their mom) and I picked them right out of bed and sat them at the table. Ha ha! I'm not messing around here!!! I know this message is a lot more important than anything else they can be doing. But they come to church and participate when they're not sleeping. Ha ha! Plus their mom is so great! Ana works so hard to get them to church. Pray that they'll remember everything for the interview.

Jesus and Magda are doing alright. We're worried because we can't get them to come to church again. They both are trying so hard to find an answer to their prayers, but they don't understand that they are lacking a key part for them to get that revelation and that is the attendance in church. I know that if they go this week, then they will be baptized in no time. They just haven't been able to see the restored church in action. Last week was Magda's sixteenth birthday and we weren't able to teach them as much as we'd like. But now that seminary is over, we are starting this week to bring a few of the youth with us to the lessons and today we are going to invite Jesus to go play soccer with us and the other missionaries. Hopefully that'll help them out.

So we have had a few crazy experiences with Claudia. She is kind of nuts, but she has been progressing better than any other investigator recently! We invited her to come to the baptism of the other elders in our ward and she came. We invited her to church and she came. We started her on a plan to stop smoking and she is going to struggle big time. I was joking with her that I was going to break all her cigarettes and she went crazy crying and screaming! She only let me break five of the 19 she had though once we delegated it out. She's really nervous and only trusts us two. We don't quite know what to do with her, but if she can stop smoking completely, for a week or two straight, we'll be forced to baptize her. I have no problem baptizing her, we just want her to stay active if we do it. We were looking at some statistics and it's bad. . . this ward here has over 700 members and only 12% are considered active and to be considered active, you have to go to church once within three months! So we're pretty worried about each one of our baptisms trying to make sure they stay active.

Dario and Pricila came to church this week! In all, we had 7 investigators at church. That's a great number! Anyway, their baby stayed quiet the whole time and they really liked it! Dario said that he found the documents and it's possible that they could take out a marriage date this week!!! That would be a miracle. They need a job, though, SOON! They have a big debt and are really worried about it. They are such a great little family, though. They're in one of the pictures I sent this week.

So that's basically the best news from the investigators. We found some new ones and we need time to teach and see if they will progress now. 

Elder Borgersen and I started to do push ups every day again and I am sooo weak! I have been wondering what I'll do when I get home from the mission and I have officially decided I will be working out to get in shape again. Ha ha! I feel so out of shape all the time now! I just imagine what coach Alexander would say and I'm embarrassed! Ha ha! So anyway, we are working out quite a bit now!

Alright, well since today is Carly's birthday, I have to wish her happy birthday from my email! Feliz Cumple!!!! :) Missionary age now!! Hope it's a great day!

Well, that's all I got for this week. We'll be busy with lots of meetings and lessons. Elder Arnold will be coming to drop the cane on us in a bit and we want to have a good looking zone before he gets here. Ha ha! Thanks for all you do! Good luck with all the wedding stuff! I'm excited to see pictures! :)

Love you all!!!

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Be Bold and Expect Miracles

Dear Family,

Well, this past week (and month, and year) have flown by! I can't believe I'm already writing you again. Before I know it, I'll be talking with you all by skype. So, this past week we taught even more lessons, we didn't find many people, but we are getting ready for some baptisms. Our zone is struggling. We have the goal of 10 confirmations and it looks like we'll only have three. Elder Borgersen and I have looked at our investigators and have come up with a plan. We may be able to baptize 7 in two weeks on the 24th. It'd take a miracle for the seventh though. It could be Jesús, Magda, Ana, Emanual, Daniel, Kevin, and Aylén. Aylén would be our miracle baptism. But we need them all to attend church this next week or none can get baptized. . . We need miracles. Elder Borgersen and I are going to sacrifice Pdays, language study time, and maybe even fast three times a week to pull this off. We don't want our zone to not make the goal. And President expects a ton from us too. Pray for these people and for us. Our motto is "Be Bold and Expect Miracles."

So, last week on Monday, Irma wasn't there, but we passed by later and she treated us quite hostile. We dropped her. We're going to pass by some other time to see if she notices the difference in her life without the spirit from our lessons. Later, we went over to Jesús's and Magda wasn't able to come. So we taught him the Word of Wisdom and he totally liked it! He later went to Magda's and he taught it to her. She liked it too!! And then the rest of the day we walked around trying to find someone without luck. But it was only an hour, so no worries there.

Tuesday started out with a zone training meeting. Elder Borgersen and I decided to reteach some of the things that Pres had shared with us at the leadership council. It went over pretty well except for when one of our district leaders, Elder Ayala, started complaining about something. It set a terrible example for the other missionaries in the zone. We talked to him about it later on that night and he felt bad for having done so. He's a great missionary though. He only has a month and a half left on the mission. In the afternoon we were able to teach some great lessons to Ana, Pricila, and some other people. Pricila is progressing soooo well!!! Ana too!!!

So, on Wednesday we were able to teach Jesús again. Magda had to leave to buy something and we didn't teach her again. But she sends us texts asking for when we are going to come by and when church is. She's way interested still. We taught him the law of chastity and he loved it! We taught him how to pray to overcome temptations too. Those two are so great! Future missionaries! :) We also did an exchange that day. I stayed in my area with Elder De Oliveira from Brazil, but he speaks way good Spanish for a Brazilian, though. He and his companion are struggling quite a bit in their area. We were trying to help them find and to have courage as they do contacts and when they teach.

Thursday was a crazy day! We had to do another exchange to be able to do an interview for Elder Anderson and Elder Bradshaw. So I left to their area with Elder Bradshaw. We taught some great lessons, but the highlight was definitely when I was doing the interview. Elio and Magali were the candidates. Elio had taken the decision and wanted to be baptized. Magali was a little wishy washy still. I still decided to interview her, though. In our talk, I showed her that she was extremely prepared. Long story made short, I promised her right then and there that if she prayed then she would get an answer from God in that very instant. She did. As she asked our Heavenly Father for an answer, she was overcome with emotion and felt the truth of the message. It was an amazing moment and how my calling has given me so much authority and power. I know that the Lord works though his missionaries to bring to pass miracles.

Friday was a little more tough. We had a lot of walking to do. Luckily we had a huge drop in temperature though! It's been REALLY hot lately with 100% humidity and it dropped about thirty degrees on Friday. :) Love it! Anyway, the greatest part of the day was with our neighbor Pricila. We taught her and her boyfriend, Dario and we taught them about the plan of salvation and the importance of our families. Pricila earlier was telling us how she's never going to get married, but now we have her thinking about it. Dario is all for it! For the past few days we keep leaving them jokes, and notes telling them to get married and they are seriously talking about it now, until last night when they decided that maybe today they'll go to the registro civil and take out a turn to go get married within a month! woo!!!! Such a big change and it might actually happen. More baptisms. :)

Saturday was great too! We have three couples getting married soon. Juan and Jazmin, Pricila and Dario, and last Sol and Diego. They're all surprising us and they are all trying to get it done! More baptisms! More eternal families! More happiness!! Nothing is better than uniting complete families. :) 

Sunday we had five investigators in sacrament meeting. The afternoon was great also! I'm out of time, but I hope you understand how much I love each of you. I have had such a warmth in my heart lately that goes out to my family and friends. I may be far away, but you're all still close in my heart. Love and miss you!

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Busy Week--Taught 25 Lessons!

Dear Family,

Real short letter, Mom . . .NOT! Ha ha! I love how you say that you're only going to write a little bit and then you end up writing a novel every single time! I love it. :) And Mom, Dad, stop calling Kevy when he's with that cutie!! Just let him get that kiss!!! ha ha! Poor kid. . . Anyway, sounds like you all never stop traveling. Every week someone is out of town!! Well, this is the start of Elder Borgersen's six months to sexy/six months to sanctified. He just turned 18 months yesterday in the mission and we are dedicated to getting him slimmer to go home in six months! ha ha! SO we went out to run this morning. :) Nothing better than starting the day with a good run! I need to start to do ab work outs and squats because I need to get a head start on mine. . . ha ha! Well, anyway, this week we taught twenty five lessons. . . I don't think I'll be able to tell you them all. But that was also with a big zone leader meeting on Wednesday and doing two exchanges. Needless to say, we're REALLY busy here! In fact, last night Elder Borgersen and I just crashed because we were so tired. We were so wiped out!

Alright, last Monday was way fun being with the zone playing soccer and all, but then in the night we were walking around quite a bit just trying to find someone to teach. But we did have a pretty decent lesson with Irma. She had a friend over and we taught the first lesson over again. It was a good review for her. 

Tuesday was better. We taught a great lesson with a recent convert, Miriam and we cheered her up big time. She had been crying a lot and we helped her feel the spirit again. We got to see Ana and taught her about the ten commandments and the Word of Wisdom. She smoked a little bit and didn't want to give it up, but by the end she decided it was the right thing to do. We talked to her son-in-law and he smokes sometimes up to three packs a day. That's 60 cigarettes a day!! That's sooo much money, time, and health just wasted. I don't think he's willing to give it up. He doesn't have the will to even try. We also saw some other members and invited them to go to the stake conference this past weekend, one being Jazmin. She just had her baby two weeks ago and is sooo great! We're getting her and her boyfriend married within the next month or two and we'll baptize her husband, Juan Andino.

Wednesday we had Consejo de Lideres. All the zone leaders went to the mission home and we had a council to discuss things about the mission and to plan things and receive guidance from the pres and the assistants. It was an awesome meeting!! They paid for breakfast and lunch and an afternoon snack for us! SOO cool! I love President Stapley. He has such a sweet spirit about him and is such a kind and loving man. He is the most involved man I've ever met in the plan of salvation. Everything he does is to be an example and to help people come unto Christ. Anyway, I learned a lot and it makes me feel weird to be one of the leaders. That means I'm getting old. And what scared me even more is that I could only have two more comps and then be done with the mission!!! Or even one! It's going by too fast. I can't believe I've already been here in this area for a month. Oh well, I just have to make the best of the time I have left.

Well, we had a lesson with Jesus y Magda on Wednesday in the afternoon. We had prayed a lot for them and we started off just explaining that that was a weird Sunday and we begged them for one chance more at church so that they can see what a real Sunday is like. They accepted!!!!! Yeah, we were pretty relieved after that. We taught them and they're still really excited to keep learning more! 

On Thursday we attempted to cook an original Argentine BBQ with a family by ourselves and we failed miserably. The dad left and it was us and the daughters and we ended up throwing it all into the oven to finish cooking it. ha ha! But it was fun! We've been eating lots of asados (BBQ's) lately. They're soo good though!! :) I sent a good picture of the meat on the grill! In the afternoon we were able to start an exchange and I left to Monte Grande to help out Elder Davidson who is comps with Elder Narvaez right now. We did planning together and worked our butts off. It was great! It really helped him quite a bit. I was excited to see him grow. He's fairly new in the mission and is going to be an amazing missionary. 

On Friday we did another exchange with the Elder's de Luis Guillòn! That's my boy Elder Anderson and Elder Bradshaw. I went back to my area in 9 de Abril and worked with Bradshaw. He's got 11 months in the mission and still hasn't baptized yet. . . He's been with some tough companions who weren't really obedient, but he really wants to be a successful elder! He just never was given the opportunity to be so. But he learned a lot and we were working super hard together. We had some tough lessons with Felecita and with Irma. They're being stubborn and don't want to change. We are giving them one week more and then dumping them.

On Saturday I was finally reunited with my comp. We missed each other. I honestly love Elder Borgersen so much! He's my favorite companion I've had yet! He's taught me a ton and we have had so many great miracles and experiences together. Saturday we had another one. While looking for another family, we did a contact and we found Graciela and two of her kids, Pricila and Lautaro. We taught an amazing lesson! She was just soaking it up like a sponge and accepted everything! We took out the baptismal commitment and she wants to try out Moroni's Promise soo badly. It was an amazing experience! 

On Sunday we had stake conference and the building was soo full that the missionaries all lost their seats! We had to stand the whole time and we missed a few talks. But it was amazing! a general authority came and spoke for 45 minutes about members helping in missionary work! It was awesome! None of our investigators came to church, though. They all chickened out going alone, or were too busy doing other things. We're really praying for next week, though. We need a miracle with Church attendance.

Well, we had a very busy week and this week should be even MORE busy. We are going to be working all week and we're going to try and teach more lessons than any other companionship in the mission!! We're thinking about 35 - 40! :) That's a ton! In one month we have now taught 89 lessons. We're averaging like 22 or something like that. 

Pray for your own missionary experiences. Talk about temples when buying wedding stuff. That's a great contact tool! Well, I'm out of time. I'll talk to you all next week! Love you!! 

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

 

Great Investigator Pool

Dear Family,

This is going to be the quickest letter I'll ever write! I didn't have to opportunity to print off my emails today because of the crazy storm last night that took out power in all of our area. . . I'm in Montegrande doing cyber. But I have a few great stories from this past week. It wasn't the best week but definitely not the worst! We still were able to see a lot of amazing miracles and conversions take place.

Alright, well, here's an update on the family of Ana: They didn't come to church on Sunday because she was feeling terrible and as she was trying to leave the house to get to church, she just about fainted. Lack of water and sleep type deal. But anyway, we started to teach her oldest son who is great! He's totally willing to be baptized with the family and everything. There should be five baptisms with this family.

With Irma, she is progressing really well except for not making it to church. She went out to dance on Saturday and slept in on Sunday. But she is reading lots of the Book of Mormon and having very spiritual experiences with the peace she finds in reading and praying. I think she's scared to go to church without a friend and it's terrible because the member we are using to teach her has a calling in the stake and can't ever go to our ward. So, that's a little bummer, but she's an amazing investigator.

Alright, well, Lucas was dropped because his sister came out and told us how much of a waste of time we are for her and her family. Her mom is a member and I don't see why she is so mad at us. But we have such a big investigator pool that we decided to drop him. Plus he has addictions to drugs, alcohol and isn't married. We decided to focus on the more prepared people and they live far away from everyone else. We're going to be more efficient.

So with Edith, she came to church by herself on Sunday and felt the Spirit soooo strong and we had a lesson with her afterwards in her house and she explained to us her testimony and was crying. She gained the strongest testimony and started to read from the Book of Mormon and started to teach us about the blessing she can receive if she is obedient to the commandments. Too bad she can't get baptized because they're still waiting on getting the money to able to get the divorce. Lots of money . . . They need to earn a thousand American dollars. . . I decided I'd try to help them after the mission if I can. She deserves to be baptized and is doing all she can to do it! She's amazing.

With the inactive Zorba family, we had an amazing lesson yesterday!!! We taught the plan of salvation and used the story from President Uchtdorf when he described an airplane flight only being one degree off will cause it to crash into the mountains. We inspired them big time! The spirit testified to them and they are totally committed to come to stake conference on Sunday! They're way fun and even got a hold of a ton of Mexican chiles for us to make really spicy tacos!!! :) I love Mexican food!!!!

Umm, another family we taught a lot this week was the family of Jesus and Magda. They are such studs! They read, pray and even came to church yesterday! The bad news was that the speaker was terrible. He mumbled for 20 minutes and it wasn't understandable for anyone! Even the bishop was a little mad about it, but the poor hermano was really nervous. But then during his talk, Jesus and Magda asked if they could leave. . . That took a huge blow on us. They were only there about half an hour. It was terrible . . . But we are going to get them back by going to a few activities with them! Pray for those two. We fasted on Sunday, but might fast again on Wednesday and then again on Sunday for them. We need them! They're way too great to be lost!

Juan Andino had his baby last week! We were excited for them! Now they can go get married and he can get baptized.

Last night we got hit with a terrible storm that woke me up at three in the morning cause I was afraid to re-experience the storm from a few months ago. . . My first thought was of our next door neighbor Pricila and her baby Ama. Elder Borgersen and I got some cloths on and went out and helped her. I feel like the Lord used us as a blessing for her and her boyfriend, Dario. When we stepped outside we noticed they were trying to squeegee water out of their apartment. We helped them for an hour and a half doing that and holding their baby and calming them down. We finally sat and watched the calmer rain for a few minutes with them for a while. It was a precious moment. Made me think about having a little family of my own some day and how much it would mean to me if two young men came out and helped my wife and baby out at three in the morning until 4:30. It was a way to gain their confidence a little more and we are really trying to help them get married and get closer to baptism.

Well, we will be out of electricity and water for a while. But hey, stuff happens and yet the work still goes on!!! :) Gotta love the mysteries of the Lord. Well, I got to go write my president. Surprisingly I was able to type really fast and tell some stories for you all! Oh and I also taught a workshop five times in a row at the interviews on Friday with President Stapley. It was cool! We got everyone pumped to work and do their best! Well, love you all! Till next week, and I'm excited to be able to skype my soon to be sister in law in two months!! :) Kiersten, be prepared to meet your favorite brother-in-law. . . :) Chow!

Love, 

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Lots of New Investigators & Baptismal Commitments

Dear Family,

Well, I have the "double dragon" again as we say here. Too much body fluids exiting. Catch the drift? But it's all good! I'm still working and doing my best to show the zone that we are hard workers! I'm way excited for this week too!! I don't want to start it by staying in the pench. I love working too much!! :)

So this past week has been great!!! You better butter us up, because we're on a roll!!!! Elder Borgersen and I in two weeks have found twenty investigators and have taken out about 16 baptism commitments. This area is on fire! Honestly! We're going to be baptizing pretty soon! We were going to baptize Ana this coming Saturday but we decided to wait and get her kids baptized with her in two weeks. It'll be a lot more special! And the youngest is eight, so that way he'll still count as a convert for us and can help our zone goals!

Well, I don't feel so hot, so I'm going to write this letter as fast as I can. So on Monday after p-day, we went to Irma and Blanca. We brought Hna. Patricia Caseres with us and she is a return missionary. She's SOO great! She helped a ton this past week! Anyway, we taught about the doctrine of Christ and we tried to take out the baptismal commitment but Irma is too scared to say yes. She's reading a ton and praying a lot too! She was suffering from a depression attack, but she felt better after our visit. Blanca might not quite be totally sane. She's kind of nuts and talks about whatever. We're trying to see what we're going to do with her. We also taught Pamela later on and we reviewed the plan of salvation and gave a brief overview to her friend by phone. She lives far away, though, but she really liked it a lot!

On Tuesday we had district meeting which was great to not have to teach it! :) We also are having problems with Elder Narvaez. He's trying to fake a hurt knee to get home, I think. The poor guy just still doesn't understand it yet and he's only got about five or four months left. We're trying to help him out. 

Ok, I'm not going to be able to write everything that I want to. So, basically here's a list of people and a brief summary of each:

Emanuel, Daniel, and Kevin - Sons of Ana want to be baptized with their mom. We have to teach everything quickly to all of the family. Ana is doing alright. She's destroyed by the loss of her husband but keeps coming to church and listening to us. She knows what she needs to do.

Lucas - A new investigator that has problems with his family and with drugs, I believe. He needs the gospel and is really interested in everything. We found him by visiting his less active mom. 

Jesus, Andrés, Magda, Hugo, Erma - All live in the same house which has received the name, the Narnia Door. Every time we go there, we find more and more people! They're all great too!!

Braian and Franco - two boys of a recent convert that are now on track to be baptized. They're great!

Maria - We finally found her again. She was an investigator of Elder Borgersen and his last comp. She's such a stud. Wants to know everything and wants to work towards baptism.

Well, those were the interesting people from last week. We did and intercambio with the assistants. It was great in our area, but were I went, in Banfield, we didn't get anything done! We drove around and clapped a ton of houses, but nobody let us in. It was great to get to know Elder Reid a little better, though. Elder Borgersen and Elder Griffin were able to get Irma committed to baptism and found some people too! 

Well, I'm sorry that this letter isn't that informative. I'm not feeling too great today. I'll write better next week once I'm better. Plus we have to leave to go work now. I love you all and miss you. Shout out to Atay and Savannah!! Congrats on going on missions! We need more sister missionaries willing to work!! It's tough, but sooo worth it! 

Love,

Elder Cowan

P.S. I'm just feeling weak and my fingers are aching a bit. That's why I'm not writing so great. Don't worry, it's just a bit of food poisoning. I should be fine in the morning. SO DON'T WORRY! :) ha ha!

Amazing Week of Miracles

Dear Family,

First off, Mom, you need to learn how to relax. ha ha! Your letter compared to Dad's cracked me up! You stress too much. You know that causes you to age quicker, right? ha ha! Anyway, I have to say that I am on top of the world right now!!! This week has honestly been so much fun in the missionary field!! Elder Borgersen is honestly my favorite companion already! We can finish each other's sentences!! We always say the same things at the exact same time and we both just want to work and have fun as we do it! He's so great! He has no fear to invite people to Christ and when he doesn't, he looks so uncomfortable. He is just dying to tell everyone about the gospel! I love him!! He's from Oklahoma and we always are making fun of each other's states and saying our own is better than the other's. We do some of the funniest things together but the best part is that we see miracles. Miracles everywhere!!! We teach amazingly together and I have never felt the guidance of the spirit so much in my whole mission! I just don't even know where to start with all the stories. Well, here goes nothing . . .

Alright so on Monday we hit it off with a blast. It was like starting a basketball game with a huge slam dunk! We went to contact a reference of a family and found ourselves talking to the family that lives in front of them, Jorge and Sandra. As we talked a little bit about our message at the gate with Sandra, Jorge kept saying to let us in and to open the gate already! ha ha! So she did. We started to teach the whole family. Their two kids, Leonel and Aylén were there and participating a lot too! Sandra is way catholic and her husband is pretty much atheist although he states to believe in God. We taught them about our relationship with our Heavenly Father and the need to apply the Atonement through baptism to be able to cleanse ourselves of everything. They accepted the challenge for the 3rd of November.

Tuesday was pretty great too! We basically got dragged by the spirit into a lesson. SO we were looking for a house of a less active family when my companion looks at one house and says, "Alright, I know that's not the house we need, but it looks so familiar and just right. . ." So we went. We clapped, and this young woman about 25 years-old comes out with a giant smile! I whispered to my companion, "She's too happy to see us. Watch out, she's a snake I'll bet you 20 pesos." I literally ate my own words. She came up and without even asking to come in, she invited us to pass and talk with her and a friend. Still a little shocked by how nice she was, we hesitated and then walked in. We sat down and began to teach Irma, the young lady, and Blanca, her friend. It was amazing! We barely said our names when Blanca starts talking about needing to be baptized and Irma was just eating everything up. We felt such and amazing spirit there! We only were there for fifteen minutes and we left them with pamphlets of the Restoration. It was so cool to find them!

Wednesday's highlights were a meeting with President in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to and contacted a friend of Gretel, this girl in our ward. We found Ayén, another one, and her mom Yesica. They were so great! We taught the first half of the plan of salvation and we took out the baptism dates for the 27th of this month. Aylén already went to church last week and she absolutely loved it! She wants to be baptized ASAP! We taught another investigator named Felecita. She's this old catholic lady and we actually convinced her to go to church on Sunday! She was telling us at the beginning that she wasn't sure if she wanted to keep studying and mix up her beliefs. But it was miraculous and wonderful how we explained testimony and receiving revelation through church attendance.

Thursday was the beginning of one of the most amazing missionary experiences I've had yet. We had gotten a reference from Hermana Barrionuevo on Monday and we finally were able to go with her to teach Ana Nubolí. Ana is one of the most prepared people I've ever met on the mission. Her husband had been in the hospital for the past two months and we felt the impression that he might be moving onto the spirit world soon. We taught the first half of lesson two, the plan of salvation, with her and talked about the importance of the Atonement and how it is the nucleus of this plan. She easily accepted the baptism commitment and is set for the 27th. She seems very worn out and is looking for help from above. She is so willing to do everything. We were way shocked after that lesson. Had it not been for Hermana Barrionuevo, we would never have found her. That's the key of the members in missionary work. They know the people who are more prepared than going door to door and asking people we don't know. I'll get back to the story of Ana on Saturday and Sunday. . . Also we saw Irma and Blanca again today. We first talked with Irma a bit before Blanca got there and she started to tell us how praying and reading the pamphlet had made such a big change in her life. She told us how she normally suffers from too much stress and a bit of depression but when she was reading and praying, she hasn't felt that anymore! She said that she's just been so peaceful and happy since Tuesday when we left her. She just was loving that! Blanca came and we taught about the restoration and invited them to be baptized but Blanca kind of was scared and Irma, being a follower, denied also. She so wants it, though! They both do, they just are scared to make the commitment without knowing enough.

Friday was weekly planning and we got that done in time to go work in the afternoon. We found this less active family, La familia Zorba, and they're great! They're a younger couple and they both have such a desire to get active again. I'm so excited to get them active again. They're way fun and ready! We also got to have dinner that day which was special and we met the Cruz family who are recently married and way too funny! I almost peed my pants and I was crying so hard because Matias was giving funny marriage advise and teasing his wife big time!

Saturday. Wow, we taught Ana again and she is soooo prepared. The first thing she tells us is that her daughter's birthday is on the 27th, the same day as her baptism date. She said that her daughter had invited her over for lunch that day and Ana told her NO!!!! She said that she has something a lot more important and meaningful to do in the morning and in the afternoon she'll go to spend time with her. What a stud! She just turned down her daughter's birthday to be able to get baptized! Her husband was getting better in the hospital and she was just glowing and was a lot more happy. She wanted to learn everything! We taught the second half of the plan of salvation and she understood it way well and wants to make her family eternal. We also went and taught Jorge and Sandra again. They are great and even read a bit from the Book of Mormon. They are going to be hard to teach because they are only available on the weekends and have a lot of birthday parties and things to do. We'll see what happens.

Sunday just topped everything off! Felecita and Ana both came to church! They loved it too! They were able to only go to sacrament meeting but they both were able to feel of the spirit through all the testimonies of the members. There were so many people too! Like 90 or 100!!! It was the complete opposite of Chascomús! I loved it so much! After church, we were teaching the family of Edith and Gustavo, who Gustavo is a member and lived in Salt Lake for five years, but then we got a text message from Hermana Barrionuevo and it said that Ana's husband had passed away. . . Ana asked us to come by and to share a message with her. We dropped the plans we had and we left right away for her house. We got there and Ana was unusually calm. She was definitely stricken with the loss of her husband, but she was being very strong. Elder Borgersen's and mine feelings were right about that. Anyway, we shared a message about the spirit world and about Ether 12 about trials and that they only strengthen us. She even said one of the most beautiful prayers I've ever hear before. We then gave blessings to all of her children and to her to give them strength and peace during this tough time. It was a tender moment but a testimony to know that our Heavenly Father had prepared her with this knowledge just right before the death of her husband and that she is still willing to go through with everything and she is being strong. She's amazing! She's an example of steadfastness and faith. We spent a little extra time there based on the circumstances and we told her to call us for anything even at two in the morning. She is totally looking to the church for the help and answers that she needs in stead of closing up and pushing everyone away.

I honestly can't fit all of the miracles we saw this week in just one letter. It was an amazing week. We were able to find tons of people, get new baptism candidates and were able to increase in our testimonies. I am so grateful for answered prayers. I am so grateful for this area, Nueve de Abril A. I am so grateful and I can't even describe how strongly I feel the Spirit guiding us every minute of every day. It's amazing! I love the mission. I never want to finish it. I just want to stay here for the rest of my life preaching the gospel and helping people change their lives.

I love you all and I am so grateful for you letters. Look for missionary opportunities. They're everywhere. You'll never regret opening your mouth and sharing these truths with anyone. Well, I am over my time limit, but I had to just tell you all of that. Till next week. Chow!

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Zone Leader in Monte Grande B Zone

Dear Family,

Well, I'm on now. And I have four minutes to write. Sorry. I'll have to hand write what happened this past week and I'll send them to you later, I guess. So the big news for me is that Elder Cowan is now the new Zone Leader in the Monte Grande B Zone!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!! Best zone in the world!! My new companion is Elder Borgerson. He's from Oklahoma and played football and lacrosse before the mission. He was in Elder Jarvis's MTC district and we're already the best of friends! I'm so glad to have a great companion! I've had way too many difficult ones for way too long! We have only been together for a day and only worked for three and a half hours yesterday and we already found four new investigators, took out four baptism dates, taught two lessons, fixed up four other lessons and got a reference from a member. He is great! He only has a few months more than me in the mission and he went up as a ZL last transfer. So we're both relatively new and we have a lot of plans and excitement to make our zone the best in the mission! We're pumped!!!

Alright, so we did get to baptize last week. Zoe and Shakira were baptized on Saturday between conference sessions. The first session I was busy getting some things organized and working for the branch that's when I walked into the Spanish room, I walked in just as President Monson announced the new ages for missionaries and I totally screamed!!! All the members were shocked and looked at me like I was nuts but I'm so excited and I know we're going to have sooo many more missionaries coming!!! There are so many areas that are closed in our mission for lack of missionaries. We need some serious help here with those new missionaries. Addressing all of Kevin's questions, I say wait till August. It won't put him too behind and having the experience in Argentina will put his mindset perfectly to enter into the MTC with more conviction and determination--especially if he has to learn another language! I Honestly believe that I was able to grasp onto the missionary life so quickly because I was prepared by having been to Mexico several times and seeing/hearing the cultural difference. Plus, four years is a long time. . . he he! :) 

Well, I am now five minutes late for a lesson with a lady we found yesterday. Got to go! Oh, by the way, we wrote today because everything was closed down yesterday for the holiday. It worked out just fine though! I'll be on for a little bit more if you have any questions. Make them quick! I love you so much! Take care in Hawaii! Chow!

Love,

 

Elder Blake W. Cowan

 

Visit from Mission President

Dear Family,

Thank you for sending those names into the temple. We've already seen the blessings of that! I got the package you had sent. Thank you so much! I am only left with the peanut butter and taco seasoning. The rest is gone . . . ha ha! I gave most of it away to members and investigators. I think I'm learning a lot of patience recently. I know that because I feel more and more impatient everyday! ha ha! That way I get to practice it more. We have one week till the transfer. So this week we have had a few landmarks that made it especially quick. A few meetings, birthdays, exchanges, and working with President and his wife made it fly by!

So starting with last Monday, it was Hermana Rodriguez's birthday, so we decided to go to Dolores and celebrate during p-day time and work with the hermanas in the afternoon because they've been having a few troubles in the area lately. So during the day we threw a little party for her and it was pretty fun! We made Hawaiian hay stacks and we played sports and drew funny pictures on the chalk boards. It's been weeks, actually months since I've played sports or have done something on a p-day! I really needed to let my hair down a bit and enjoy myself that way. Afterward, we did contacts in the hermana's area and we got them three fairly good references to work with that live right by the church too! One was especially fun because we were talking to an atheist and when we asked him if he had even a desire to know if God exists, then he said that he had actually wanted to but can't. It's always a bummer doing contacts in other people's areas because you can't go back and teach them. I hope they can be great investigators for them. The last lesson of the night we were talking to this less active family with the hermanas and they teach SOO differently than us. They are way too nice. I tried to apply the quote dad had sent me from his leadership training with Elder Bednar. He had said, "If everyone loves you, then you're a lousy stake president (or missionary). You need to challenge them to repent and do difficult things" somewhere along those lines. But I decided to challenge the family with a bigger commitment and to get them to repent and return to church. It was a little more penetrating than they had expected but it really got them thinking. I hope they can actually do the right things and return to the church. Then I went to the pench of the elders and I had to sleep on the floor. Tile floor. Remember, carpet doesn't exist in Argentina.

On Tuesday we had our usual district meeting. It was great! We talked a lot about the gospel of Jesus Christ and how to teach and apply it to people's lives. I have found a great joy in teaching missionaries. I love district meetings and I love studying and preparing the workshops we do. Afterward, we made hobo dinners and ate pretty good! I loved it! Once we got back to Chascomus, we hurried and did groceries and other necessary p-day things because we weren't here on Monday. We then went off to a dinner and talk about charity. We left late and we crashed pretty good that night especially me because I hadn't slept well from the previous night.

Wednesday was one of our only days to work in our area. We had lots of opposition that day. I'm glad President re-planned his visit till Friday because it wasn't a good day for us. First off, the door of our apartment broke and I spent the morning fixing it. It now works, so you know. I'm becoming quite the handy man during the mission! So, after that we visited with Diego, a less active for a bit and talked about how he's been doing reading in the Book of Mormon. He's been trying to read the book of Alma lately. He thinks that the Book of Mormon is boring. I think he doesn't understand it. Afterward, we went to lunch and the whole afternoon was a fight with the bikes. They broke down a lot! I am praying that the new bikes get here soon! I can't even work when these bikes break down so much! It's the worst. We had to cancel a lot of our lessons and had to just not go to some because we didn't have a phone number. We finally left to the plata to stay the night and then in the morning headed to a meeting for new missionaries and trainers.

The meeting was great! It was exactly what I wanted to hear at the moment. I had fun seeing a lot of friends in the mission and I got to meet a lot of new missionaries. I can't believe the way the new missionaries seem to just look so . . . new! ha ha! They're all so shocked by the changes and are so dependent still. I remember back to my training and I remembered that after a week I made a decision to not be a greenie. My trainer always commented to me on how well I picked up on things and how he felt as if I was training him. I also didn't struggle too much with the language either. I just wanted to hit the ground running. I'm grateful for that blessing I had since the beginning. After the meeting, we stayed with the assistants! I got to be with Elder Guzman one more time! I miss him as my zone leader and he is going home in one week! He told me how he and Elder Pratley had tried to get me called as a zone leader when I had one transfer in the mission field! ha ah! At the leadership meeting, when president asked for ideas of possible leaders, they threw my name out and president considered it for a moment and then decided it would be better to gain all the experiences through training and as a district leader. I was so surprised by that! But anyway, it was nice to work with Elder Guzman at night and to spend some time right before he goes home.

Friday was an interesting day. We sat around at the mission home all morning waiting for president to get ready. He had told us to be ready at 9:30 and we ended up leaving at 12:30! It was a cool moment to help out at the mission home, though. In the car ride to chascomús with President and his wife, we got to talk a lot and we learned a lot about him and his wife. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's and they even bought us ice cream! It was awesome! ha ha! In the afternoon we got to visit three families with president. We saw Diego and taught him about how to get a testimony of the Book of Mormon and then President challenged him to read Moroni 7 several times and to think of all the many blessings the Lord has given him and what he needs to do now. After that, we bought a cake and brought it to Javier and Yolanda because it was Javier's birthday and we shared how important the temples are and that they need to prepare themselves this year to be able to go and seal themselves as an eternal family. We took a lot of pictures and had cake. Afterward, we taught a very spiritual lesson with Rosa Cabrera and her daughter, Romina. We talked about the need of baptism and what the Atonement does for us. We challenged Rosa to get her divorce finally done and to get married and we challenged Romina to get married to be able to get baptized too. It was great! Then, President had to leave for the coast. It was a slightly stressful day having the mission president watching everything you do and all. 

Saturday was great. We taught a lot of lessons and we had a great branch counsel! And all those visits and lessons paid off because on Sunday we had a grand total of 40 people in sacrament meeting! YEAH! That's the best yet! From 12 to 40!!! I was way happy that day! And then we also taught the fifth Sunday class about missionary work. We nailed it! Everyone is way exited to help us out now! I am very grateful for that chance to teach the members. Anyway, I am out of time. I think we will be baptizing next weekend between conference sessions. We'll see. . .

Anyway, I will be finding out if I stay here or not this next week! I'm way excited for conference too! I miss you and love you all! But could you stop the talk about me coming home? I don't like thinking about only having 299 days left and all that. It's fine if we are planning school or you coming to pick me up, but if it is necessary, keep it on a down low. Thank you! :) 

Love always,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Refining Week

Dear Family,

I'm still surprised about your response to my last letter. I had written a very long one about how I received my personal testimony but then felt to not send it, so I wrote that about President Eyring. I guess that's what you needed to hear then. Well, a quick response to Dad, my mission president had commented to me that he had received word that maybe Elder Bednar would be coming to visit our mission in November to do a big conference for us. Maybe it's actually going to happen! It'd be nice if I could talk to him about his meeting with you! I've always wanted to meet him because he reminds me of you so much. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if you were called to be a general authority someday. 

So I have a few names that I would like to be put into the prayer roll at the temple, if possible: Camila Sives, Adrian Rivarola, Juan Cruz Riveiro, Paola Manrique, Flavio Borja Tejero, and Gustavo Ribeiro. They all need help from above. If you could bring them to the temple, I'd be very grateful along with them too! I know the power of the temple and the ordinances done there and now we are allowed to go to the temple once a year! :) I'm so excited to go to another session! When I leave Chascomús, I'm going to go as soon as possible.

Alright, this week was very difficult. The members wasted a lot of our time and tended to use us as babysitters and personal chefs. I was kind of frustrated by that, but I got over it. My companion blamed me for not having had more success this week. He called me arrogant, proud, and impatient. I guess I still have some more changing to do. I stayed up to about one a clock last night writing him a letter of gratitude and of why he's a great person and missionary. I went through three, front and back sheets of paper. He hasn't said anything to me yet. I have learned a lot of humility and patience in this time of my life and I think the Lord needs me to work on it just a little bit more! So be it.

I had the opportunity to work with Elder Brown this week in an exchange. I had to do another baptism interview for them. This time the brother of their last baptisms wanted to join the family. Great! So during that time I was able to rethink about the old times with him in the MTC and how we had so much fun with our district. I miss the MTC. I would love to go back for a few more weeks now. It was absolutely a blast now that I look back on it! I remember how badly I wanted to leave there, though. I felt like I was in a prison, but a happy prison. I hope all missionaries can learn to love the MTC while there because it really is a once in a life time experience. It's probably one of the most sacred places on earth especially since it is protected by the Lord's angels.

This week has had a theme of the language. My companion has never felt so confident before with the language and he is starting to join in on lessons more and trying to learn new ways to say things. It's a great moment in the mission when that happens. It's a gateway that allows you to start organizing a plan to improve the language. Luckily that happened very quickly in my mission. I was reminded several times this week of my great accent. Several people didn't believe that I wasn't from Argentina. I love that compliment but it makes whatever missionary next to me feel bad because they don't get that comment. I never know how to respond except by saying thank you.

So with the work in Chascomús we were able to have a tender mercy of the Lord this past week. So when we were on our way to stake conference in a bus, Elder Haynie had been talking to the bus driver's daughter and all the other kids in the bus and it he said he didn't have the guts to ask the bus driver to listen to us. Anyway, as we were looking for an old investigator the other day, we clapped a house and asked if Adrian was there. They said that he had moved away a few years ago. But then I recognized the man as the bus driver from Sunday! We were allowed in and we shared a message about the Plan of Salvation with them and it was really great!. We were able to have a second chance with the impression that my companion had received on the bus. It was great! We had a great time with them! We have another meeting set up with them when President Stapley is in Chascomús. He's coming this next Wednesday and we're hoping to have a lot of success with him! 

On Sunday we had a few new people show up at church. One being Rosa Cabrera! I've been working with her since my first week in Chascomús. We're having president talk to her too about actually getting her divorce done and getting married with the man she's been living with and has had seven kids with! Then she can finally be baptized! She's already way smart and knows a lot! She has been a "partial member" for a few years now. We're praying for a miracle with president's visit to help inspire her to get everything done to get baptized. Another person that came to church was Pedro Andrade. I talked about him a few weeks ago. He's a very smart, young member that just doesn't want to marry his girlfriend. If he could do that, he would totally be an amazing member! He still pays tithing and everything! He is actually more actively involved in the area than the active members! ha ha! The last of the new people was Hermana Adriana Guzman and her daughter that she wants to get baptized. We're getting blessed a lot by that. The hermana is a little strange and has had a sketchy past, but I'm looking onto the future with hope based on what she has been doing lately. As my best friend RJ wrote to me today, "The past is history, and the future is a mystery, but today is a gift, and that's why it's called the present." We'll do the best we can to help her stay active and to baptize her daughter.

So the reason I wrote so late this week is because I am in Dolores again to spend the day with the sister missionaries here. They haven't been having too much success here and I am hoping to help them out a bit with the members here. They're great girls! I don't understand why they haven't received as much help from their branch like the elders do. Anyway, it's also one of their birthdays and we had a little party earlier because it's P-Day. It was pretty fun! Anyway, I'm out of things to say.

Thank you for all that you do for me! I know I have been such a pain in the neck at times. I am trying my best to give my heart to the Lord and let Him mold me into the man He wants me to be. I've been studying a lot from the talk entitled "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson. He spoke of many things that I need to fix in order to become more like my Savior. I have been extremely blessed by my Heavenly Father and have received blessings I don't deserve. I will dedicate my last ten months of my mission even more so to Him! This really is a great cause as Joseph Smith stated. I love it and can't believe that I only have ten more months left! I can count that on two hands now! I don't want it to end ever. I love being out here. I love the people. I love the missionary lifestyle. I love the Lord and I love my Savior. Charity truly is the most cherished gift our Father has to give. Let's try to be worthy of such a gift. I love each of you, especially my family. I've never been so far away from my family in my life, but never have I felt so close to them. I am grateful that my parents have raised me up within the gospel and that that knowledge was able to change my life when I was at the lowest point of my life. There is no greater work than that of our Father. Elder Holland said the hour is getting late and we better prepare and fight for our salvation. I know whom I've chosen and I'll serve Him till the end.

Love,

Elder Cowan