Up and Down Moments

Dear Family,

I'm still blown away by Trevor and Kiki. . . But whatever. I absolutely LOVED the letter she forwarded me! I died laughing! It was cute but totally Trevor! Everyone here who has seen the pictures say that they look very similar and that everyone is going to think they are siblings and not a couple! ha ha! I am super happy for them though! I want to meet Kiki so bad! It's not fair . . . ha ha! Don't worry about me, though, I'm super happy! :)

So this week was amazingly fast! I love how that happens when you're actually working! ha ha! I'm so glad to have a willing and ready companion! Dad's poem from his letter, called "He's Been There Before" was great! I had read that before the mission and it was a great reminder of what the mission is all about! Coming closer to Christ and learning what He did for us individually and then help others enjoy the great blessings of His perfect love.

Anyway, this week had several up moments and several down moments too. The best parts were that we have three baptisms for August planned now! They're all kids of members that we are or have already activated. It's going to be so great to get wet again! ha ha! I can't wait! We just have to help them get to church! So the three  consist of Matias and Cristian who already had a baptism fechas and fell through. Now they're more excited and we moved their date for the 18th! The third is Ludsmila. She is the daughter of Javier and Yolanda, the family I activated with Narvaez and whom he did not want to go visit. But it ends out that Javier had a daughter with another lady and she lives in an orphan home because they don't have the money to sustain her. By the end of the year she will live with them. But now she is allowed to go to church with the family and wants to be baptized! Perfect! I'm so excited! She came to church yesterday! :)

Some down moments were that we had a lot of wasted time because the members started fighting. It's like a giant soap opera and nobody can keep their cool or keep their mouths closed. . . It's so complicated. It's like a bunch of 15 year-old girls all mad at each other. Long story short, branch council turned into branch showdown and everyone was yelling at each other. It's basically over except for that Rebekah Ferreyra is determined to not go to church anymore. We have to go visit her, but I'm not too excited cause she's so overly dramatic! Oh goodness. Time to roll up the sleeves and get dirty. ha ha!

So, Adrian is progressing really well. He offered to drive Paola and us out to the temple open house (120 kilometers away) just so he can see it! It's going to be great! Next week all the magic starts! SO EXCITED!!! I can't wait! I love the temple so much now! I miss going so often back home and in the MTC.

Well, some interesting things that happened this past week are that Cecilio and Rebekah's family received Christmas in July! ha ha! They asked for help from the government a long time ago, about two years back, and all of the sudden these giant trucks showed up with a ton of new things! For example, a new stove, washing machine, dryer, 8 chairs, a table, 7 beds and mattresses, a new window, a door, a dresser, and I don't remember what else, but it was a great miracle to see! Now we are going to go tell Rebekah how she was so quick to forget the Lord her God in the very hour of her deliverance ha ha! I'm going to share that scripture with her . . . Tiempo para bajar la caña!!!! 

Bueno. Madre, ésta parte es especialmente para vos! Te voy a escribir un párrafo totalmente en castellano/español. Ok? Como te parece? Quiero averiguar si estás  estudiando todavía para venir acá. Vas a estar re perdida si no sabés el idioma. ja ja! Tenés que decir más que "hijo" cuando llegues. No voy a poder hablar en inglés mas porque me cuesta mucho. Con Elder Haynie, él tiene que ayudarme muchísimo para que pueda hablar en inglés sin un tartamudeo. Y solamente tengo un año en la misión! Después dos años . . . quien sabe como estará mi inglés?! Bueno, vamos a ver. Mamá, te quiero mucho y te extraño un montón! Te agradezco por todo lo que me has diste, me das, y me darás! Estoy eternamente agradecido a mi Padre Celestial por haberme enviado a una familia maravillosa. Es mi sueno, mi deseo, y mi meta de tener una familia eterna con vos y mi propia familia algún día. Te amo!

Well, back to English. I love you all! I'm super jealous of you all for getting to spend time with Trevor and Kiki. I can't wait to meet my future sister in law someday! Well, I'm off. Peace and blessings! 

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

P.S. Justin and Trevor need to write me!!!! I'm expecting it next week!! Thanks for everyone who already does write me!

New Companion: Elder Haynie

Dear Family (Mom, Dad, Justin, Kevin, Blaze, Mango, The Turtle, Trevor and KIERSTEN aka Kiki!!! :) ),

I. Am. Speechless. I can't even say "wow!" this week! I seriously am so stunned that Trevor is getting married!!!! I can't imagine how Kiesrten must feel. I'd be pretty bummed too if Trevor was going to be my eternal companion. ha ha ha! JK!!! I just loved hearing about that from everyone! I have to admit that Aubree has burst the bubble before anyone though. ha ha! Who would have thought? So, now I know I have a future sister-in-law, but I hardly know anything about her, the story, how they met, NOTHING!! I need an email from Trevor and another from Kiesrten so I can get both sides of the story. I'm so excited! I can't believe I'm not going to be there though! I'll be just seven months away! Ha ha! But who cares! I will be expecting a package to get lots of pictures. :) and I will probably be able to talk to Kiersten through skype a few days before the wedding and meet my sister! Crazy . . .

Well, now that my mind has been officially blown, I'll start by telling about my week. First off, it was pretty boring. Not going to lie. I traveled SOO much it wasn't even funny! So I was really tired of traveling a lot and I don't ever want to get on another train in my life.

Well, Monday night, I stayed in the Plata with Elder Reynolds and Elder Lem. It was pretty fun! Especially with the little adventure we had. So, we were running to the train station because we wanted to take a train before it left to go back to the pench at the end of the day. But the train already started to leave but we decided to jump onto it as it was leaving. Lem and Reynolds jumped first and then I jumped on last. But somehow, Elder Lem fell off!!! He fell from a moving train and cut his hand up pretty bad. It was so sad, but we couldn't help but laugh either. The worst part is that he was alone for half an hour as Elder Reynolds and I had to go back and find him. Good thing every one of us had our phones because we were able to call him. But that was a story we will never tell to President, or he would kill us! ha ha!

Anyway, Tuesday we traveled a lot again and finally made it to Banfield to look for our new companions. We had a meeting for the trainers beforehand and it was pretty long and a repeat of what they told me last time, but it's ok refreshers are nice!  So we finally headed to the mission home and there we entered singing Called to Serve like usual and we started getting matched up. I was almost the last one, but I was matched with a fellow Arizona boy, Elder Brad Haynie from Tucson!! He's shorter than me, loves to sing, did lots of musicals, a definite tenor 1 voice, served two transfers in Spokane Washington waiting for his visa, and is really excited to be in Argentina! His Spanish is alright for a newbie and he tries his best! He's a lot different than Elder Porter, my first hijo. The poor kid had to be dragged along on all my travels this week, though, and he's been wiped out. I think he had fallen asleep during a companionship prayer I offered! He's a good sport though. He's the third oldest of TEN CHILDREN! No thanks. ha ha! I couldn't ever do that. Props to Mama Haynie.

Well, we couldn't travel to our area on Tuesday night so we stayed the night in the mission home as well as three other elders and three hermanas. There was this one Argentine Hermana that is training Hermana Nelson, from Mesa Mountain View also, and she had learned English by watching MTV! ha ha! She speaks really good too! Anyway, we all ate and slept really good that night! The best part was when I got to go speak with President privately for about thirty minutes. He told me some things to help me in my area and some other interesting things about his life. It was great to get to know him better!

Wednesday we got to work for half a day and we went out with Presidente Cignoli and did a few visits. Then, Thursday we had to travel again after a sports activity with the youth. We barely have been in our area! ha ha! Friday, I was gone ALL DAY LONG in Adrogue at the mission offices at a leadership meeting. It was great! I was super tired though! And the best part is that we received a lot of information about the temple dedication! It's going to be so cool! I'm so excited! It's going to be a one in a life time event!

Saturday we got back to our area and went out to invite people to the temple open house and gave away about 50 invitations. We went and did some visits and got a few lessons in there too.

On Sunday, we had 30 ion Sacrament, zero investigators though so Matias and Cristian won't be baptized on the 28th anymore. We need to find those kids again. They're always so busy! But they'll be baptized in August for sure! And soon! ha ha! We need to baptize!!! 

So the possessed kid is still doing bad. He got better for a bit and now it's back. I talked to President about it and he said it isn't really an evil spirit and that the kid is most likely involved in drugs and has mental damage. We found out that that is the case yesterday too. He did smoke a lot of marijuana but that's not a too harmful drug, addictive and strong, but doesn't cause damage like other worse drugs. He stopped smoking a few years ago though. So it's kind of a mystery still. We'll visit him this week. 

Needless to say, Elder Haynie and I are very excited for a full week of work now and are going to be having amazing numbers this week! We're stoked!! I'm also so happy for Trevor and Kiersten. They're super cute together, of the one picture I've seen. . .

Oh and the new hermana in my district from Chile won't believe me that I'm American. She is convinced that I am Argentine because I speak really good! I love that! It's my favorite compliment. :) Well, I have to go! I'm over on my time and we HAVE to be obedient to get the blessings from Heaven! Love you all! Take care! Send pictures of the love birds!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

PS Look what my companion brought me from the states!

Training Again!

Dear Family,

Well, uh, wow. ha ha! That's usually all I can say about the mission. It probably shouldn't shock me now, but Heavenly Father truly answers prayers and knows us all WAY too well and gives us exactly what we need. So you are all probably wondering what happened with transfers and who my new companion is. Well, I still don't know. . . I have to go get him tomorrow fresh to the mission field!!! That's right! I'm training again! I'm SOOOO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!! You have no idea! I was writing president last week and I felt prompted to ask for another chance at training based on the fact that the new missionaries bring such a beautiful spirit with them and I will be blessed and the branch too. So, I don't even think President got around to reading them, but he called me as a trainer again! Currently, I'm with Elder Lem (who trained Elder Carlson) and Elder (who was in my first district when I got here). They're both training and are both district leaders too. It's really fun being with them! We'll be in Banfield tomorrow to get our hijos! SO much fun!

Anyway, let's talk a bit about the last week with Elder Narvaez in Chascomús. So, it was a tough week getting him out of bed and getting him to go out and work, but we did get to visit a few families throughout the week. One of the most important visits we had was with Laura and her sons, Matias and Cristian. We took out baptism dates with the kids and challenged Laura to go back to church and they all accepted. They didn't make it to church, though, this past week. We'll have to figure out why this next week. Luckily, it is winter break now and we'll be able to visit a lot of youth this week. Matias is ten and Cristian is eight. They're very smart, though!

Alright, mission accomplished. Chascomús Branch asistance [attendance] yesterday: 33!!!!! YEAH!!! We made the goal of thirty! And passed it!! I was so happy! We even had four investigators show up! Tito, Ariel, (the mom of the Hermana Paola), and her brother, Cristian. We found the first two at a family night with the Ferreyra family and we played Uno with them and challenged them to come to church. It was great! And the other two are another story. . .

So, Paola is the really cool Hermana in the branch that talks in a radio show and cuts our hair. She has been helping a lot in the missionary work and is trying so hard to be a good member! She was baptized about a year ago by the assistant, Elder Guzman, who used to be my zone leader in Avellaneda. She's preparing to go to the temple and everything right now! She's way cool! Anyway, she sends us a text Saturday morning saying that her brother who is 22/23 is having severe spiritual problems. So after reading that, apparently, Elder Narvaez had dreamed about casting out a demon or something like that the night before (not sure how accurate that is) but he was all worried about it and I was getting worried about him getting too involved in this like President had warned me. Anyway, we went to go see him and it was something different. I honestly don't know what it was, but this poor kid was having serious problems. He couldn't look at the light and couldn't stare at us in the eyes. He was so weak that he couldn't even get out of bed. When we walked into the room, there was an odd presence there that almost felt like my asthma had come back. Something seemed to be holding my lungs down a bit. When we talked with him he explained to us about how this all started about three months ago and he was being spoken and visited by someone. I don't want to go into all the specifics, but this kid had some type of black magic thing going on. So my companion and I gave him a blessing to be able to rest and to be calm. After that, he got better and the presence left the room. Later in the day, about an hour later, Paola called us and told us to go back because it was happening again, so we canceled our plans and went. There we found Cristian again with more energy, but he was having a melt down and crying to his mom and sister. Then we called the branch president and he said he would come immediately. President Cignoli talked to him with us about how we, having bodies and being sons of God, have more power than anything and that Cristian has more control and power than this thing that has him right now. We decided to fast together for Cristian and give him a special blessing after sacrament meeting to cast out anything unclean from his body. And he came to church, was really jumpy and nervous and then we gave him a blessing afterwards. He seemed a bit better and then he was up and out. Yesterday night, Paola sent us a message saying that Cristian was better and working again and laughing with his friends. So, it was perfect! There were a lot of other things that happened in this experience, but I feel restrained to tell the entire experience. The Lord knows best. Anyway, that was my exorcism type story of the mission and I hope there is never another one in my whole life!

Well, that was my crazy story of the week! Ha ha! But yesterday we left Chascomús at about 3:30 and got to La Plata at about 5:30. We went out to work with the zone leaders of that zone and had fun with some hard working companions. Then, we had fun that night with SIX MISSIONARIES in one pench. That means disaster. We broke a bed, a mini plastic table, and other things. It was a mess!!! Elder Wheeler from Colombia is a monster and Elder Watt from Cali is crazy and then throw in Elder Neal (from the MTC, remember?) and me into the picture and it became a giant wrestling match and it was super fun! ha ha! We still got to bed, though, eventually.  I get to go there again on Thursday night before my leadership meeting. :) ha ha! Don't worry, we'll be better. Maybe. :)

Today, we got on the train and we started to sing hymns! We sang for almost an hour straight!!!! Then we would do mini sermons and pass out pamphlets and it was super fun! There were about twenty missionaries all on the train with us. Anyway, we got to the transfer meeting and I watched my trainer, Elder Veragara's, last testimony! He is on his way home to Chile now. I'm going to miss that guy! He was always so much fun! And now I'm just chilling about, waiting for my hijo tomorrow.

Well, Mom, after your traveling story, I want you to imagine doing that in Argentina where robbing is a daily thing. We go through that every transfer! :) Dragging suit cases through Argentina on trains, buses, and walking and always trying to watch everything from getting robbed. Crazy, huh? You'll see once you get her in about a year. . . wow almost a year. I turn one year in this month and transfer! Crazy!!! Kevin said something like 11 or 12 days! I don't even know.

Well, pray for my new companion! I hope he's prepared for some good  jokes! JK! No, but I hope he is a hard worker with a huge testimony of the work! It'll be really fun! I love you all! Thanks for your continual emails! Take care!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

 

So Many Blessings!

Dear Family!

I am SO happy this week! :) I seriously love seeing the blessings from my Heavenly Father. He knows me way too well. ha ha! I have been looking forward to writing you all week to tell you about all the fun adventures and blessings we have had. So, I'll start with last Monday. We had some plans and they all fell through. Right when Elder Narvaez was getting discouraged again, we called Hermana Paola and she invited us to go eat dinner with all her work partners. So, we went! There, we found some amazing people! Adrian, Jonathan, Flabio, Yanina, Marcos, Susana, and Eduardo. They're all different ages, but everyone gets along and everyone is so funny! They just a few bad habits like cussing and smoking but they are such a happy group of people. We ended up staying there for WAY too long and didn't get home to the pench until about one in the morning. . . That was bad, but it was still worth it because we were able to find new investigators. Adrian and Jonathan are really interested and the rest listened very well and attentively when we shared a message on Friday in depth. The only one that doesn't really want to learn and listen is Flabio. He looks like Tom Cruise and is from Spain. But he's really fun!

So Tuesday we didn't go to Dolores for district meeting because it was canceled due to interviews with the president on Thursday. So we got to go and visit a few families. We talked with Javier Ferreyra in the church and he told us all the problems that they have had and why they haven't been coming to church. Also, we talked a lot about his brother, Cecilio that is the inactive counselor. We came up with a plan to go help others come back to church. Afterward, we visited Maria Elisa and the family and they were doing really well! They're excited to keep going to church and help lift the branch out of this apostate position. Later on we went and visited Cecilio Ferreyra. He's always such a nice and fun guy. We decided to do a family night with them and while others were watching a movie, Cecilio and I made the pizzas for everyone. I got to say, one of the things I love doing now is cooking! It's kind of fun and I am always in the kitchens helping the hermanos with the food. Maybe I'll be good enough to make some great Argentine dishes for you all after the mission. Anyway, Cecilio and I were getting along just great as we made the pizza. Needless to say, it was a great day and we had fun with the members! 

On Wednesday, we went and ate an asado with Adrian and the gang. That's a big honor! Ha ha! It was really good and then we were all getting along so well that we decided to all smoosh into a car and go the the chapel to play ping pong and snack on crackers. We had a blast!! It was so much fun! They loved the chapel too! They thought it was really pretty and they all were asking questions like what does apostasy mean and Melchizedek and things like that! It was perfect! So we actually stayed with that group of people ALL day long! From noon till about nine at night. They were amazing and kept asking amazing questions. They invited us to eat lunch on Friday again!

On Thursday, we traveled to La Plata for interviews with President Stapley. I started with him and we talked for about 45 minutes!!! Usually interviews are about 10-15 minutes. SO everyone was making jokes like I had broken some commandments and was going home. ha ha! But that's not the case. We talked a lot about the area and certain members that he wants to go visit in the next coming weeks. He gave me a few scriptures to help me as a district leader and also he gave me some advice with my companion. We talked a lot about Narvaez and his known past of being disobedient. He used to have a PSP and a personal DVD player and a bunch of toys. . .ha ha! Needless to say, he is leaving Chascomus next week and I will be getting an amazing missionary. "One of the best" according to President Stapley. He also is going to put Narvaez as a senior comp but with the most obedient junior comp there is in the mission. I was really grateful for having the opportunity to talk with him a while. He also told me a few personal things about his own life. Like when he was called to be a mission president and how President Eyring had told him that he had certain missionaries that needed his counsel and guidance. After that, President Eyring's granddaughter was called to this mission! ha ha! And he told me how he's a big baseball fan, and he's a big Yankee's fan too. (Laugh all you want Car. ha ha!) Anyway, interviews were great!

After interviews we got back and went to a family night with the Cabrera family. We only played one game of Uno but it took almost two hours! It was ridiculous! But it was pretty fun! We have enjoyed ourselves a lot teaching and getting to know the members better. It's looking very positive that some are going to come to church this Sunday. :)

On Friday we had lunch with Adrian and the gang again. It was great! We taught the Restoration to them and they all understood really well! Eduardo's mother was a member and the others had great questions and wanted to learn more about the Plan of Salvation afterwards. Then hermana Paola helped a lot with her personal testimony of these things and it had a good impact on the lesson!. It was really powerful with the spirit! Later, we taught Javier Ferreyra and his family and it was an even more spiritual lesson! We talked about testimonies and how we have to continually strengthen them like a fire or they may go dormant. We used some key scriptures in Alma 5 to really open up their hearts and make them susceptible to feeling the spirit. It worked. They were blown away at the message we shared with them! And they decided to get over their problems and committed to come to church. I was so thankful for those lessons we had.

On Saturday, we had more exciting adventures! One that I will never forget is that in the morning we were invited to talk on a radio show called "Of Saints and Sinners." Ha ha! We got to talk for two hours about the church and our beliefs. We received calls and text messages and answered questions! It was amazing! They recorded it on a CD for us and are going to give them to us on Tuesday. They also invited us to go back and talk again in a few weeks. The spokesman guy, Santiago, asked amazing questions and we ended up talking about the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, temples and eternal marriages, blood transfusions for a local problem with the Jehovah Witnesses, the 13 articles of faith, and the main commandments that distinguish us as Mormons such as the Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity. It was great! And Santiago was blown away at how we don't drink mate ha ha! It was really fun!

In the afternoon, we went to the ex branch president's house, Paul Ribeiro. He has a personal invitation from President Monson to return to church. We went there and talked to him and the family a bit. The interesting thing is that they taught themselves basically! They are so excited to come back to church now. They went out of town this past Sunday but are determined to go this coming Sunday. They came to an activity that we had today though! SO they are progressing very well! Such a strong, fun family. Exactly what we need in this branch. We also visited the Oroño family again and they are doing great, just tired because it was the Hermana's birthday and a lot of people came to visit. Afterward, we went to the church to help set up with Presidente Cignoli and talk about what we've done this past week. The poor man is dead for not having slept much this past week and working from 2 in the morning to 2 in the afternoon. He's such a good man with good intentions to serve the Lord. 

SO Sunday came along. And the most interesting this is that Cecilio Ferreyra and Javier Ferrayra and their families came to church!!! And just in time because Paola got sick and the family Zapata, an old couple that always comes, weren't there. So we got up to 23 in sacrament meeting again! We tied our record! It was nice to have had new people in the church. We had a lot of kids too!! Elder Narvaez and  had to teach primary and WOW it's tough being in primary! ha ha! But it was worth the sacrifice. Sacrament was great and everyone was so happy! I'm so glad to have seen some success this week. Our only problem now is consistency. If everyone who has came to church comes this next week, we will be 40!!!! Our goal is thirty and I am praying that everyone has the desire to go this week.

After church, I helped President Cignoli do tithing and then I helped him cook lunch. We ate a ton! Elder Narvaez didn't want to go work and he got his wish because Presidente Cignoli and I had to go back to the church and do the trimester report and print off things to pass out to the members today. Today we had an activity devoted to the independence of Argentina today. We cooked and played ping pong and soccer all day! Right now the members are watching 17 Miracles while we are writing emails. And a lot of members are there including Javier and his family and Paul Ribeiro and his wife! Needless to say, I am SOOOOO happy!!!! :) Looks like things are going to be looking a lot more brighter here the next few weeks! Just a lot more colder . . . brrrr. Winter has officially hit. 

Well, I got two packages this week from Mom. Thanks for the contacts and treats! Unfortunately, the foot pad things hurt my foot worse, so I don't use them. But it's still not getting worse. So don't worry! I'm good! OK, well I am grateful for all the letters I received this week! I love hearing from my friends and family! The pictures in the package and the ties were my favorite part! I hope you all have fun in the sunny summer there! I'm enjoying using multiple layers of clothes here! ha ha! It's the coldest weather I've ever experienced in my life. Mom's going to die when she comes in August next year. July and August are the coldest months. Well, I have to go! Thanks for everything! Love you all! Keep smiling!

Love always,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

P.S. Trevor, get married already would ya? How many weeks has it been now?! Like four?! Hurry up!!!

Forgot Birthday! Great Testimony Meeting

Dear Family,

Well, I've got a lot of mixed moments on this past week. It was kind of bitter sweet. So, to answer Kevin's question, birthdays in the mission are just like any other day. Even so, that I forgot my own birthday. Yup. We were in a lesson with this man and I invited him to be baptized and although he denied, I checked my watch for the date and was blown away that it was the 28th of June! I couldn't believe it! But that was about eleven in the morning. ha ha! The only thing I did for my birthday was go to a members house where they gave me a cake and we talked for a bit with them and my comp went with the kids and watched The Simpsons Movie. . . For my birthday, he did let me work for the majority of the day. Thankfully, but we ended up walking around trying to find where Pablo, the contact we did last week, lives. Unfortunately, his "house" doesn't exist. I was looking forward to that all week and we couldn't find him! It's alright though. That day I had an eternal satisfaction for having worked hard and doing my best.

Yesterday in church I was really disappointed at first, but it turned into one of my favorite moments of my mission! SO at the beginning, we were only seven people. . . Nobody showed up. SO we coordinated a trip to go to the temple open house in August. After the first hour, I decided to go outside and just call as many people as I could so they could come to the last hour, sacrament meeting. After call after call, finally a few families answered me. Two said they would come. SO when the first came, it was Paola, the awesome member we have that gave me the cake on my birthday. She is really disheartened with the church because no one comes and she wasn't going to come yesterday or the next week, but for my phone call, she realized that she is needed and she has to be strong for her kids and all her descendants to stay strong in the faith. Then, the other family is the family of Maria Elisa. We've been visiting her a lot lately, trying to help her come back to church, but she hadn't come. But during our phone call, she said, "You know what? We're going to go today. Yup, we're going. We'll see you in half an hour, Elder" and she showed up! 

In sacrament meeting, I was really worried about 45 minutes of testimony time with so little members. . . So after a few testimonies from the branch pres, and my companion, etc, I went up and just couldn't help it. I shared my experience in the MTC of how I related the Atonement with my relationship with Kevin and how I could never give him willingly to be the sacrifice for every person that has lived and ever will live. I am too selfish and I know that I need him too much that I couldn't do that for strangers, but our Heavenly Father did. He did that for us because he loves us so much. I shared that experience and then how much it hurts me to see so many empty chairs in our chapel. Then the tears came. I couldn't hold them in. I told them of how so many are called but few are chosen. I told them that they were those chosen people. They are the elect and most strong because they can come to an empty church and stand alone and face the world even though the world laughs at them in the face. I urged them to stay strong and not to forget what brought them to the truth.

After my testimony, Hna. Paola got up and bore one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever been able to witness. She was only baptized a little over a year ago and she has grown unbelievable in the church. But one moment in her talk she looked at Maria Elisa and told her how much she needs her to stay with her and not to leave her alone. It made the perfect connection. After that, Maria Elisa got up and shared how bad and sad she feels to have left someone alone and how she wants to help be part of the strong generation and to help build up this branch again. Everyone was so strengthened that day. I was very glad I called those two women and that they will be able to progress together. 

So that was the success of this week. I'm so grateful for that! It made all the trails worth it in the end. Por cosas pequeñas el Señor se realizarà cosas grandes y maravillosas. I have a testimony of that! He is watching over this work. He watches over us and wants to bless each of us. He is only waiting for each of us to keep His holy commandments so that he can bless us with what he has in store. 

Ok I'm going to put something in practice this week. I've decided to do a type of study. My motivation just came from my friend, Aubree. She just sent me a quote by Lewis Mumford, "A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind." I'm going to smile more this week. I'm going to keep my positive attitude and just rely totally on the Lord and the tools that He has prepared for me. Let's see how the weeks results will change. This past week we were 13 in sacrament meeting and we were able to teach about twelve lessons. I'm going to see what happens with just fake it till you make it! Here goes nothing! The Blake motto lives on - Just smile!

Ok, well, I seriously am expecting a wedding invite in the mail, REALLY soon. ha ha! Trevor, keep working! I want to have a sister when I get back! Kevin, you're right, I did have a girlfriend when I was 17. So, hurry up! and Justin, the best advice sometimes is nothing. Do your best to be an example to others! You're an amazing example to me. Thank you! Mom, Dad, keep up the good work. ha ha!

I love you all and thanks for all your prayers and encouragement! Thanks Uncle Mark for your comment last week. I'm trying really hard to adapt my eyes to see people the way the Savior sees them. For example, I love my companion! He's really fun and I enjoy being with him. He just frustrates me how he doesn't work. 

Have a great week!

Elder Blake W. Cowan