Dear Family,
Well, this week was a bummer for the first half and then got
increasingly better!! First, I thought I was better when I was writing
last week, but I ended up with everything coming out of both ends all
week! I finally stopped throwing up Friday morning. But, I still worked!
I won't let anything keep me from working! I didn't have the best
numbers for this week, but that's not everything that matters in the
mission.
The only real story I have to tell this week from the work is with the
family of Virginia, again. First off, she has officially come to church
two times and is going to be baptized this Saturday the 4th! FINALLY!
I'm so excited! We need to review the interview with her and that's it!
But, the real story comes from her sister-in-law, Mari. Anyway, back
tracking a bit, we have brought tons and tons of food to this family and
they are so happy every time we come by now! We visit them every single
day like PMG says to do with your fechas. But with all this food and
presents, we didn't want them to lose the focus of our visits. So, we
had a lesson about Christ and His Atonement for us. We read from Alma
chapter 7 and what he went through. Then, the next few verses talk about
the gospel of Christ and how we need to use the Atonement in our lives
and be baptized. So, we re-invited Mari to get baptized to add more
emphasis with her. She sat for a moment. thinking, then told us yes.
But, she wanted to explain herself before we could respond. She then
continued to recount the dream she had the night before about a woman
who looked similar to Lara, but a grown woman, who descended from heaven
dressed all in white and touched her on the head and said, "baptize."
She said that she has thought, and thought, and thought about it all day
and then during those verses from Alma, it was apparently clear that God
wants her to get baptized even if she doesn't understand the church very
well. So, she was going to try and be baptized with Virginia, who I
actually call Vicki, but she couldn't come to church yesterday. Her 15
yr-old daughter with the baby never came home Saturday night so Mari was
stuck with the baby and had to go find her daughter. Bummer. We will try
to get her baptized the 11th of Febrero now.
Anyway, this family loves us so much. Vicki is so happy to see us now
and never wants us to leave. We are the source of the Spirit in their
home with so many problems. It brings them peace and happiness. They say
that they always forget their problems and fears when we come to visit
them. Vicky even started dancing around a little bit last night cause
she was so happy! Alan and Rici are always hanging out with us on P-days
and the kids love us too. I love that family so much!
So, Saturday night, the bishop's counselor called us and asked if we ever
received the bishop's message. I told him that we had not. Then he
assigned us two talks for the next day! It killed me. I basically had to
stay up late and write my comps talk for him cause he is struggling
really bad with the language and then I wrote mine afterward. I didn't
get to bed until one in the morning. Then I woke up at six to get ready,
finish my talk, and go look for investigators. We gave our talks and
they went really smoothly. My talk was literally a piece of paper with a
list of 5 scriptures nothing more. I got up and gave a full 15 minute
talk on that and using a PMG quote from Pres. Hinckley. So, don't ask
more about my talk cause it was all on the spot! Ja ja! I love being able to
speak the language now. It hardly ever challenges me now. I understand
everything and I only lack vocabulary right now, especially slang words
that Alan and Rici use a lot. I'm learning lots of Guarani too from them
too because they're from Paraguay.
Well, I'm sorry my letters are kind of lame lately. It's tough to write
long letters when we don't get to do much to have stories for you. This
week and transfer should be better because we aren't sick and can
finally hit the pavement, or dirt . . . and then baptize millions!!!
Thanks for all your support and love! I really appreciate all the letters
I receive from my family and friends! Love you all!
Love,
Elder Blake W. Cowan
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