Monday, September 17, 2012

Revelation

Dear Family,

Well, this week was pretty good! We had some great lessons and experiences. So with the changes of the house, I'm going to ask that you don't show me and I'll just be surprised when I get home! :) I do have to admit something, though, with college, if I extend the mission, I may not be able to do the first fall semester. I think that's honestly what I'd prefer to do because I would LOVE to extend my mission. We'll see what happens though!

So I'll start with the bad news. Mirtha is not going to be baptized in Chascomús. She moved last Friday to Varela and I'm passing the reference today. She's so desirous to do it though! I hope she'll find her way to the waters of baptism soon. So it's a bitter sweet week for that reason, but we have been finding other people, too, which is great!

Alright, this week was basically normal. We visited a lot of the same people and just prepared the group of girls better for baptism and we got many to be progressing better. We haven't been able to take out any baptism dates, though. We had one experience that was pretty great with Rosa Cabrera. She is the mom of many young less active members and she never was baptized for a complicated situation of divorce and marriage. But she used to be an active eternal investigator for a long time! So on Wednesday, Cecilio and Rebeca, the first counselor and his wife, left to go do some visits and stopped by her house. As they shared a message from the first presidency, there was a moment where they began to talk of the problems of Rosa. She shared that her oldest son was recently put in jail in Dolores. As they kept reading from the talk, there was a part that says when visiting teachers go to a house, the family is blessed as well as those faithful teachers. Then, at that moment, that oldest son called the phone saying they let him out of jail. Rosa knew right then that the blessing was brought through the faithfulness of Cecilio and Rebeca and for letting them come into her house and share that message. The lesson ended in tears and hugs. They both described that moment as definitely feeling the spirit and not being able to deny it. We passed by on Saturday and had a great lesson with her from the Sermon on the Mount and talked a lot about our relationship with God, an attitude of gratitude, and being willing to show our gratitude. She committed herself to go to church this next week because she was going to have visits yesterday. She told us that every time that she reads, listens to us, or thinks of the gospel of Jesus Christ, that it calls to her. I shared Rev. 3:20 that talked about the Lord standing at the door and knocking. It fit perfectly and she is deciding to go back to church and to help her children find their way back to church. So that was one of the highlights of the week for us! :) 

I had a leadership meeting this past week and I did it by skype this time. It was terrible! I couldn't hear or see anything. I won't do that ever again! It's worth the waste of time traveling to Buenos Aires. Anyway, I called someone and they filled me in on the details of what I need to do.

We did another sports activity and only two kids showed up. We played a bit of sports and then we left to go work again. The activities we plan always seem to back fire. ha ha!

So funny/scary story. After a long lesson and dinner with Paola, we were heading back to the pench late and we were going pretty fast on the bikes. Well, there was this scooter coming from the side street and this drunk/drugged kid came zipping around the corner and nailed right into my companion!!! Luckily he didn't get seriously hurt! The bike was destroyed, but besides that, my comp just has a bruised leg. I felt terrible, but it was one of those out of body experiences just watching it happen was so weird! Well, for now we don't have bikes. Luckily, the mission is going to buy us new ones soon! Oh, and the kid that hit him, which was totally his fault for driving on the wrong side of the road and speeding around a corner, just cussed my comp out and kept on riding. . . jerk.

Well, Mom, you were asking for experiences about personal revelation. Well, in our fireside with President Eyring a week ago, he was talking about a personal experience about calling the missionaries to their mission fields. He said it comes in a strange way. It's not very loud. He hears no whisper. He said that one mission just seems to appear a little brighter, a little different, a little more correct. But just barely! And that's how he knows. It is so slight that if we aren't prepared for it, we won't be able to do it. He made an interesting comment, though. He said that it is a very humbling experience knowing that such a decision can cause a young man's life to change drastically and he'll never know the outcome of that decision made within a few seconds! He said that we are either helping in this great work or we are in God's way. There is no in between. To receive personal revelation, we have to prepare, pray, study, and wait to let the spirit brighten something a little more. Revelation usually comes in the form of yes and no. We need to come up with the question, specify it, and propose our plans to God. In the words of President Eyring, one will just seem to appear a little brighter, just barely. Then we need to have the faith like a trusting child and just go with it even though the answer, or revelation was nothing extraordinary. That was something very interesting to me. It reminds me of how I received my testimony of this Church and this great work! The decision I made when I was 17 years old was like that. It just appeared a little brighter, a little bit better. The results show the truthfulness of that revelation.

Well, I know this isn't the most amazing letter. My mind is very blank this week. I'm grateful for your letters this week! I enjoyed them a lot, especially Dad's spiritual thought. I love you all! I am glad to be a member of this amazing Church, the Church of our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Hope all is well! 

Elder Blake W. Cowan

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