Reactivating and Welding

Dear Family,

Wow, in about a week, I'll be eight months old!! I can't believe I've lived in Argentina for half a year now. Crazy huh?

First off, Mother, it's not quite as hot here anymore. It's autumn and getting a little cooler. Send the Reeses for my bishop! He'll love it! And no, I don't think I need anything else. Maybe just some really easy recipes. I'm getting tired of eating the same things every day.

I'm glad you got a lot of those pictures! I took a lot the other week so you could have some. And those were all taken with the old camera. I can only take five pictures with the new one before it says the memory is full.

Anyway, I'm really glad that Kevin had a great time on the trek being a big brother! It's honestly one of the things that has brought me so much happiness! I miss being a big brother and looking out for Kevy. I remember how we'd be in my room every night or sitting on the kitchen counter just talking. I still wish I would have done more for him and the rest of you in the family. The mission really makes you realize how important and how much you love your family. Speaking of which, long letters are fine. You always apologize for long letters, it's ok! I print them all out in the morning and come back in the afternoon to respond. That's how I don't waste my time.

This week was really average because people didn't want to be in their houses. ha ha! We had to walk a lot and didn't teach a lot of lessons. I tried my hardest though, as usual! The only part that I really didn't like was when I had to listen to Daniel talk for two hours outside the pench as he told me his life story and how he's in love with the member who lives across the street. That made me really tired and we didn't get to bed until midnight. He's ridiculous. He doesn't listen even if you tell him you have to use the bathroom or anything!!! It's impossible to leave without being slightly rude.

So, we found a few old investigators this past week that Elder Vergara and I had found. They're doing alright and some have had some mighty changes in the past few months. For example, Carlos. This Adventist kid that we found a long time ago. He went through a major operation to take liquid out of his brain or something and is recovering now. Maybe now he's been really humbled to accept our message! Also, his sister and girlfriend are now listening to us.

In the past two weeks, we've had about fourteen baptism dates fall because of church attendance. . . That is always the hardest one!! Nobody ever goes to church, if they do, they usually get baptized. We tend to reactive more than baptize, though. That's one reason this ward has grown to like me so much. I have basically visited 60% of the inactive members here and I visit about twelve more each week! By the time I leave, I think I would have visited every single member. That's just a big focus of the mission lately.

So, I learned how to weld on Saturday. I am now an expert gate/fence maker. I'll take a picture when we finish. It's super cool, really! I'm proud of our work! We're being kind of artistic with it too! I miss doing art! It's something I always enjoyed. I did cut myself pretty good with a piece of jagged iron that fell on my hand, but it's totally fine! It just bled a lot, but the cut is pretty small.

We did take out one more baptism commitment this week with a lady we found named Laura. She is really, really nice! She's about 55 years old. All we did was teach her about what the Book of Mormon is and read a bit of the introduction with her. She cried as I told her about the promise of the book and receiving a testimony. She said she would get baptized, but her husband is about to go through an operation so we have to wait a week till we can go by again. She is quite the animal lover too. She kind of reminds me of Grandma Cowan. She has all these animals that she feeds A LOT!!! There's this weaner dog that might be fatter than Franky. I'm not even lying! Also, she has ducks and she goes outside to feed the ants on the sidewalk! Ha ha! She's awesome!

Anyway, this week was kind of boring. We went to a lot of houses and nobody was there. We ended up walking around a lot this past week and not teaching much. This next week should be better though! And general Conference is coming up soon which makes me really excited!! I can choose to watch the Spanish translation in the chapel of the stake center or go into the side room and watch it in English. The English version is just better because they have more emotion attached to their words! Plus, I hear Spanish all day long anyway. ha ha!

Well, I don't know what else I could tell you from this past week. I get Carly's first package tomorrow! Finally! I'm excited for it. We also have interviews with president again and a few other meetings this next week.

I love you all and miss you! I do love receiving pictures from friends and family! I miss seeing everyone everyday! But I am so glad to be a missionary! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan