New Area is Beautiful!

Dear Family,

Well, it sure isn't Tomás Flores here, but it's getting better. My old bishop warned me that the first week in a new area is usually pretty tough because you don't know the members. I feel like there's no love, excitement, or spirit in this ward. Church yesterday helped a little, but not much. So few people showed up of a fairly large ward. Anyway, I gave another talk, yet again, I think it's probably the eighth talk this year. But, this time I was given the topic of missionary work. I lowered the cane on them a bit. I talked about how the members need to be involved to help the missionaries find the prepared people because we don't know them. It actually inspired a lot of members. We received a few references and there are a few families that are planning on talking to a few neighbors to invite them over for a family night. I challenged the ward to fast and pray to find someone in their lives to share the gospel. I thought of our own family too. Besides Vince and Pam, I don't really remember our family working too much with missionaries or anything. Mom, maybe you should feed them or give some references to them. It honestly is one of the things that helps us the most! You could pray and fast to find someone new in your life to help and bless.

Anyway, my area is beautiful! There's so many fields and beautiful scenery. I am enjoying the bikes a lot too! My comp is dying because of how fast I like to ride. he he he! But he's losing a lot of weight. Speaking of my companion, his uncle baptized my daddy!!! Yup! Dane Calkins or something like that. He got an email asking if I was the son of the Mesa stake president. That's pretty cool! Look at that, the world is such a small place! My companion is a goober. He is seriously obsessed with Star Trek and is super scared of being robbed, getting weird sicknesses, or any of that good stuff. ha ha! But, we decided to mess with him a bit this week in the pench. So, today we have convinced him to get a swirly in the toilet at the zone activity for the amount of 17 dollars and the chance to throw a pie in my face. I'm down with that! Ha ha! We also took all of his ties and put them in the freezer and let them freeze over night. In the morning we told him he he'd slept walked and woke us all up. He didn't believe us until he went to go get dressed and realized that all his ties were missing. He was a little upset, but then he finally found them in the freezer and believed our story. We still haven't told him yet. ha ha! Also, Elder Salters, Hansen and I all have the same sweater and toothbrush. We also convinced him that the mission gave them to us for safety reasons and he got really worried. Then we told him president called and said not to leave the pench because someone was just murdered across the street at the train station. ha ha! He's a good sport. We like to mess with him cause he's so gullible. It's amazing!

So with the missionary work, we are hitting it hard! We are teaching a lot and finding a lot! The people in this area just are more open! It's so easy! ha ha! We took out a fecha with Melani the other day. She's a little snakish, well, really snakish. She gets jealous when the youth start talking about Carly, but they were a good help with her. She's assisted twice on her own and picked her own baptism fecha. So, she'll be pretty simple like Laura was! We have found amazing couples who aren't married and without documents that unfortunately can't be married or baptized for months. There are a lot of people from Peru and Paraguay here. I've even met some Venezuelans too! I like hearing the difference in their accents.

The area book here is filled with potential baptisms, the ward is made up of part member families, and the inactive families have kids that need baptizing. Needless to say, I think this ward could easily get twenty baptisms in just two or three months. I hope it all works out like it appears! Anyway, We'll see what the Lord has in store. I just can't believe that some of the other elders haven't recognized some of that! Elder Carlson is still in the lost puppy mode and still doesn't know the area really well. We wasted time doing circles one day and then I told him I would get us around. I went and got a youth, Agustin, and he's a champ. He lead us all over the place and didn't mind going for a few hours. He's only seventeen, but he's legit. I'm impressed by his maturity and desire to help in the missionary work.

With my foot, it's not too much different on the bike than walking. I still have the pain. Sometimes at night it hurts. I honestly think I can manage like this throughout the whole mission. But, we'll put it in the Lord's hands. I think I am going to be fine. Maybe we'll operate someday afterwards. We'll, I'm very happy and excited to get to work! I'll talk to you all next week! I love you all. Keep strong!

Love,
Elder Cowan

New Area: Guernica

Dear Family,

Well, here's the news. I'm now is Guernica in the Longchamps zone! My new companion is Elder Carlson, kind of a goober. But he's got a lot of desire to work hard! His trainer, Elder Lem, prepared the area amazing! We should be baptizing 15 soon! I'm ok with that. But, I'm going to backtrack a bit and talk about last week before I talk about today more.

So, power finally came back to the pench on Monday, went out again on Tuesday during the day, and we had it until I left! Yay for technology! Anyway, it was really nice to get working again and helping with the members and investigators. So, all week I was pretty sure that I was leaving, and the fact that President called me on Tuesday to ask me some things, helped confirm that. He wanted to know if it would be better for my foot in a walking area or a biking area. And now I'm in a biking area. ha ha! Anyway, he also said he was going to put me in the office until I complained too much about it and he didn't want to kill me ha ha! I love that man.

So, we had lot's of dinners with members and investigators this past week. And I think I took over 100 pictures, no lie. SO, don't worry mom, I like taking pictures. Oh, I still don't have the package you sent. I finally just went and bought a memory card, 2G, in some little store we found. But I have been on a role taking pictures. So one of the dinners we had was right after a service project, so I got to be in normal cloths for a bit, which was odd. We cut the grass with machete and then fixed a window curtain thing. The most interesting part about that was the fact that the kid of the family, Kevin, was being really disobedient and throwing things when he shouldn't have. He wouldn't listen to me either and then he threw this giant plastic piece of the curtain and hit me in the forehead while I was cutting grass! I started to bleed everywhere and it left a pretty good mark. I was kind of upset with the kid and threw him up the stairs like seven steps so he could go back in his house. He learned his lesson though. ha ha! But now everyone calls me Harry Potter. I'm ok with that!

So, another dinner was with our dueño. Hector and Marta. They were really sad knowing that I was probably leaving soon. But, it's ok, we talked a lot about the church and they retold me their life stories, again . . . anyway, they're a sweet old couple and I'm sure that you'll meet them someday. They want us to spend the night there with them when you come to pick me up. Which I hope you really are planning on that because I've been telling people and the bishop already put it on his calendar.

Another dinner we had was with Alejandro and his family. I wish he could have been baptized. He is awesome! His family is super cool too! We had fun telling jokes and just laughing!

So, some of the mission work that went on this past week is that we were able to contact ten references from members and set up citas para the next elder, Elder White. We were also able to contact and start teaching the family of Leo's sister. Leo, my first baptism, is still awesome in the church, I'm so glad! He's changed a ton and is working hard on getting his whole family converted and now extended family. He's a stud, I'm going to miss him.

So, I'd have to say one of the highlights of my week was a phone call from the bishop last Monday night. He called about something, I don't remember, then asked how Elder Porter was. I said good and asked him if he wanted to talk to him too, he said yes and I passed the phone to Porter. Now, Porter, being a goof, says in English, "What's up man!?" Then to our surprise, the bishop responds in English, "I'm going to kick your a...!!!" We died laughing at that!!! Then Bishop said to me in English, "I said him a cuss word." It was so funny cause it was so unexpected. It seems to me that his companions in the mission taught English very effectively. . .  ha ha!


Alright, yesterday was a really tough day for me. Maybe just as hard as leaving home for the mission. We started the day with stake conference and had many amazing talks about protecting the youth and the mission work. President Stapley even came and spoke. He did great and inspired the stake of Avellaneda to bring friends and families to church for the missionaries to teach. It was amazing! Then the other talks on chastity and going on missions were great. I enjoyed it a lot! On the bus ride back with all the members, they decided to throw me a party at night after a quorum activity. First off, we went to the quorom activity and had amazing success! We visited thirty people in the space of two hours! Unfortunately, two of the hermanos got robbed and only a block away from the pench too! After all that, all the hermanos of the ward gathered in the house across the street of the pench and we started a little party so I could say bye to the ward. They made me cry, though. They went one-by-one and told me the reasons they were grateful for me and what they expect me to do in my mission and life. I held back the tears until Elder Porter got up and said, "Hug me daddy!" in Spanish of course, but I will miss him a lot! We really laughed quite a bit together. I have truly enjoyed our time together. Then the hermanos kept telling me how much they love me and haven't even had a missionary like me in their ward before that has helped them and just been a joy. I think I fulfilled my goal. This ward is seriously my family here. I will miss them soo much! I wish I could bring them with me. After all that, the members all wrote me letters to thank me for what I did and gave them to me. And then people ate and I got attacked by my three snakes, ha ha! The bishop and my comp just laughed as they were coming for me. One took one of my socks, another my pencil, I gave one of them one of my watches, and I gave my tie to one of their dad's. They were stripping me down! ha ha! But, it was fine, I finally got them calmed down. But I honestly am going to miss each of these members so much. I have had serious thoughts about living in this ward here. They're seriously amazing people! Anyway, they're all excited to meet you, Mom, Dad, and Kevy. They are going to throw a big party for us in a year and three months.

So today I finished packing all my things and took off for the transfer meeting in Banfield. There, I got to see several elders from the MTC and past elders I have met. I am blown away at how fast this mission is going. It's ridiculously fast! Anyway, I'm now with Elder Carlson who likes starcraft, is studying to me an atomic engineer or something like that, he is very odd. . ., he just finished his training with Elder Lum who is amazing. Elder Carlson has a great desire to just start working and get everything ready for our set 15 baptisms supposedly. I'm excited to meet the ward and the investigators. My area is called after the city. It's out in a more country area. Guernica, Argentina, look it up! ha ha! My pench is smaller than my last one and we share it with another companionship. It's unbelievably filthy too! I will be cleaning a lot it seems like.

Well, it seems like it's time to go. I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to serve in Thomas Flores. I will miss the people a lot. I hope I will have a lot of opportunities to go back and visit. Next week I'll try to send some pictures for you all! It looks like I can carry my camera everywhere in this area without a problem. But I am excited to help a ward get excited about missionary work! Let's see what happens this week. I'm sure there are miracles just waiting for us! I love you all! Thanks for all your support and love! Miss you! but not too much!

Love,
Elder Cowan

Laura's Baptism

Dear Family,

Well, this was honestly a boring week for a lot of the time. We have been without power until today!!! 12 days without power! So, President Stapley was really worried about us being is a crazy area and all, so we got the rule that we had to be back in the pench at 6:00 every night. We were left with basically enough time for two or three lessons, if they were there. Needless to say, we didn't teach much except for our baptisms we had coming up. Living off of candles was fun for a while though! Several houses burnt down, though, from candles . . . There is just so much work to do! I didn't take too many pictures of the disaster because people are taking advantage of it and robbing all over the place. I did send a bunch of emails attached with pictures though! Enjoy. There should be 11 emails of pictures. Some have a lot of pictures and others maybe only one.

Anyway, surprisingly, we didn't do much service this past week. I thought we were going to be in service clothes all week! But we only did a few. I sent a picture of a house that I built though! It's the bishop's new house! I'm kind of proud of my work!

We have mostly been occupied with preparing Laura and Daniel for baptism and confirmation lately. So, Laura got baptized by Julio Maigua and then Daniel got confirmed! Yaya!! It was a crazy two weeks of baptisms and all that fun stuff! Baptisms are crazy in small chapels because of so many people and having to change in tiny bathrooms and what not. It's a joyful experience! And I also baptized a kid for the ward because he wanted me to. So that's the little kid I'm lifting up in that picture. Carlitos Fernandez! He loves the elders a lot!


So, some funny stories this week. Starting with today, Elder Reyes-Cairo came over to our area for the feria and we made him take a picture on the mini pony horse. BEST DAY EVER! Ha ha! Everyone was laughing at him and it was amazing! Then we convinced him to buy the pictures for a really expensive price! It was amazing. Another story, we were teaching Daniel about the Priesthood the other day and while Daniel was taking in a breathe to say something, Elder Porter farted really loud!!! Ha HA! Then Daniel said, "Well, if the tornado didn't blow my house down, I don't think porter's fart will, but goodness, the smell might kill me!" That made me cry from laughing so hard! Another thing, Elder Porter and I were walking back from the store one day and we saw two dogs. These two dogs were obviously members of the church, though, because they both had their eyes closed while one was sitting and the other had his paws on his head, giving him a blessing! It was too good! I didn't have my camera with me though. I wanted to take a picture of it so bad!

So, transfers is this next Monday. I'm pretty sure that the president wants me to go to the offices because he called me and asked if I knew how to use EXCEL. . . Elder Porter had to explain to me that WORD and EXCEL are different, so President knows I know nothing of the program. But he is really concerned about my foot. I don't know if I would be able to handle the offices. . . I feel like I would die of boredom because I would only be allowed to go out and work one day of the week. I am too much of a people person and I could never be an office worker. But, we'll see what the Lord wants. I'm really nervous about leaving the area when I have learned to love the members so much! I will suffer a lot if I go to the offices.

Well, I'm sorry this week's letter is really boring. I haven't had much excitement happen this past week. The tornado kind of killed the work for a bit. I'm hoping we will have a little more success this coming week now that we have lights. I only want to leave you with my testimony. I know this is the work of the Lord. I know that I have been called by a prophet of God, who receives the revelation that we need everyday! I know that my Heavenly father knows me and is glad for my work here in Argentina. I know that when I am back in the presence of my Heavenly Father, the thing that will cause me to have more shock is to see God's face again and how familiar it looks. I know he smiles down on each of us as we live his holy commandments. He weeps when we have trails and lose our way. His only desire is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man and it is only possible through the Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that Christ paid the price for my sins, pains, afflictions, and the temptations I have had. I know that he is always willing to help us, with his hands stretched out to all. One day we will see those marked hands and bow down to him as our Lord and King. I know His gospel is true. I know it is the only way to return to my heavenly estate and to have an eternal family. I have left mine for two years to help others have theirs forever. I know these things are true and could never deny them. I am so grateful for my mission. I am grateful for the inspired men and women who are leaders for this Church of Christ. I am grateful for my sweet mother who has sacrificed so many hours, money, and time for me and my brothers. I love my brothers. They mean the world to me and I would do anything for them to experience this joy I have found in this work. I am grateful for an amazing father. He has been the best example to me in this life with all his determination and dedication to his family, work, and most of all, his sacred callings in the church. I may be few of words at times when I express myself, but I think it is sufficient to say that my heart is full of love for my Heavenly Father, for the Savior, Jesus Christ, for my wonderful family, and all the many friends and acquaintances I have gained so far in this life. I am excited for the future and look forward to it with a smile on my face and hope through Christ and invite everyone to do the same. My life couldn't be any better!

I love you all, thank you for all your support and love.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Tornado!

Dear Family!

Felices pascuas!! Anyway, this week is definitely out of the norm. . . I'll start off by talking about that I think. Well, we got hit by a tornado. Yes, a tornado attacked our area and a lot of our mission. It's so bad that they are wanting all the elders in dangerous areas, like us, to stay in penches out of the area with a ton of elders. We somehow got lucky and sweet talked the assistants into letting us stay in our area so we can work. Anyway, the storm/tornado tore out a ton of trees! Every street is covered in leaves, branches and debris from fallen houses. It honestly looks like a war zone because of the damage. Huge factories are all broken and the metal sheets they use for roofing (I can't remember what they are called in English) are twisted and bent around everything! We've heard of a couple people who died in the storm and a lot who were hurt. We have a huge list of service to do though now. We went without water or power for a day and now we are still waiting for power to come back. The storm hit us Wednesday night and we were told that we would be without lights for 15 days! It's ridiculous here! We have a ton of new rules too. We have to be back to the pench at six thirty, we have to avoid fallen power lines (that means our whole area), and we can't teach someone after dark or if it is sunset. The robberies are getting so bad here that the army is now patrolling the area with their big guns and everything. Now the people are upset without power so they are protesting and blocking off all the major roads so the buses can't pass. They burn all the branches in the middle of the streets and cause even more chaos. At night we can here gun shots in the distance. Overall, we're having a great jolly time using candles to study at night and cook.

So, the update with my foot is just that I have gotten an x-ray. The doctor is waiting for it to get to his email and then tomorrow will tell me if he sees anything suspicious. From what I have told him, he said that I will most likely need to come in and see him and to probably expect a surgical operation of some sort to remove cartilage that has been forming. We'll see and keep our fingers crossed. But I honestly don't know what else they could do to help my foot get better.

With the work, Daniel is baptized!!! Yeah! He got baptized yesterday after church and we will have to do the confirmation next week. Also, we have found two new investigators getting baptized next Sunday!! They are Laura, a daughter of a less active member who left the church twenty-five years ago and she is 13. She came to church the past two weeks with a family in our ward because their daughter is in her class at school. The Maigua family is helping a lot! And we reactivated them just a few months ago! And then the other new investigator is Carlitos. He also is a child of a less active family that we just got to come to church yesterday. Carlitos will be baptized next week after church with Laura and then confirmed another week or even at stake conference on the 22nd. Then on the 23rd I think I'll leave this area. I think that'd be a pretty good way to leave the area!!

So, our members had a little get together last night for the Easter season and invited us over toward the end. We came by because we only had thirty minutes of the day left. Upon arriving, they were talking about me and how much they are going to miss me in two weeks when everyone thinks that I'm leaving. We still don't know. But they are planning some huge party to throw rice, feathers, ketchup, and all kinds of things on me at a ward party. They said that I am considered a ward member and a son. They said that no other elder has brought so much joy and fun to this ward like I have. And then they started to joke about me living in the ward forever and two of the hermanos offered their daughters to marry me. Ha ha! Well, I'll just say that it was nice to be appreciated, but I think I tend to not accept compliments very well because I felt super awkward! But I am kind of sad when I think about leaving this area. This is where I grew up in my mission, where I learned the language and where I have walked all the streets and memorized every part of the area. I honestly think I can walk this area blind folded and know exactly where I'm at. ha ha! It's been quite an adventure here. I wouldn't mind one more transfer if I get the chance! I just love this ward sooo much! I could see myself living here, even if it is kind of a dirt hole. Mom, my homecoming better be REALLY good, or I might just have to come straight back to Argentina in the Thomàs Flores ward. 

Well, I am kind of running out of things to say. . . I think I am forgetting the weeks more easily because I stopped writing in my journal about 4 weeks ago . . . ooops and the truth comes out. Carly will kill me. ha ha! Don't worry, I will go write in it soon. Maybe next transfer I'll start again. ha ha! Alright, tonight it is.

I love you all!

Elder Blake W. Cowan

General Conference was Amazing!

Dear Family,

Estoy muy sincero cuando digo que no tengo muchas ganas de escribir más. Estoy cansado y quiero terminar el projecto de servicio aca en la casa de nuestro obispo. Alright, I am super busy today. We're sacrificing pday again to do service with the bishop and a few hermanos of our ward. I can officially say that I know how to build houses now! I'm building all kinds of things herein Argentina.

Well, first, Mother, it is NOT my ankle that hurts. It is my FOOT. It is where they shaved the bone on the connection of the third toe to the foot. That is hurting me a lot. I have to go get an x ray this week. The mission president and his wife are really worried about my foot and are calling me like everyday to get me to go to the doctors. The thing is that I don't want to go and find out bad news and I don't want to go and waste proselyting time out at the hospital. Anyway, I'll be going in a few days or maybe tomorrow in the morning. I just need to get an x ray and then the mission doctor will take me.

So, this week was pretty disappointing for me because we spent a lot of time sick in the pench and sleeping. Elder Porter finally feels better now. I recovered pretty fast, but Elder Porter either stays sick longer or milks the time to rest, I'm not sure.

Well, General Conference was amazing! I have been so excited all week to listen to the prophet of God and the twelve apostles. I LOVED every session! Too bad I can't go to priesthood. It starts at nine o clock at night so I can't stay for it. Anyway, the four other sessions were amazing. I listened to the Sat morning in Spanish with an investigator, then the rest of the sessions I got members to sit with all the investigators that we have. So, we watched the rest in English. It's better because you get the emotions of them and hear their own voices. I especially liked the talk of Elder Holland and of the Profeta.

We have put a lot of time into our investigator Daniel who will be getting baptized this next Saturday! Our Zone baptized 24 people this past month and will be baptizing a lot more too! We are so excited for baptizing again. Daniel went to every session of conference except for priesthood. He even went alone on Sunday! He has been making a lot of big changes in his life to get baptized. He has been changing into a happier man is what he always tells me. I'm glad to see him be accepting of the gospel now. His assistence [attendance] at church and conference have severally changed his testimony forever! That is seriously the key to the first level of conversion.

I am not sure what else to update. I am rushing this email so I can go help with the service outside. I like construction now! After all, I might be the handy man that I never thought I could be. Well, time to go! I love you all! Have a great week and apply the scriptures and conference talks to your lives and you will be blessed! Thank you for sending another package. I appreciate them a lot! I will talk to you all next week!

Love,

Elder Cowan