Amazing Temple Experience

Dear Family,

This week was unbelievable. I have been uplifted and enlightened in so many ways. I know the Lord is really trying to form me into the man he wants me to be in these last six months of my mission. I will be eternally grateful for this time of my mission. 

I think the most significant event of my week was the opportunity to be able to visit the house of the Lord. That's right, I was blessed with the opportunity to go to the temple and to do a session. That was on Thursday morning. I'll return to that subject a little later, first I'll share a few events earlier on in the week.

Well, this week was packed with many meeting, activities and missionary experiences. First off, on Monday, we had a great Pday! we helped the new elders move into Monte Grande because we sent the sister missionaries to La Plata after being robbed. We now have a full zone of elders again and it's a lot of fun! We played soccer and enjoyed ourselves. Nothing against the sister missionaries, but one of ours was just so dang caprichosa! That means that she was a big complainer and wanted us to fix everything and she thought she deserved special treatment because she's a woman. It was a trial of faith. Anyway, we're done with that now. But we had one great lesson that night with Karina. She is just so amazing! We explained a little more of the temple and she went and did baptisms for the dead for her grandparents on Tuesday! And she hasn't even been a member for a a month yet! Griselda also went and did confirmations because she can't do many movements after having had her stroke. It was great to see our two converts making such great progress and to see how the ward has jumped on it and helped out a lot. Ana and the boys we baptized are starting to go inactive. :( Ana works weird hours and is never home. She wants to keep going to church, but she's just starting to slip away. She comes to church about once every three weeks now and we can't ever find her! Frustrating. It's so sad to see that the flame she had inside is just turned off now. We are trying to organize a really good lesson plan to excite her spirit again.

Anyway, on Tuesday night we had a meeting with President Stapley and our stake president. We talked about the missionary work in this zone and got some great ideas and plans to improve for this year. Afterward, president took us back to our pench because it was already late. He decided to come in to look at our pench. It's not the cleanest, but we wanted to show him the amount of cloths that missionaries have left here. He was so surprised by the amount of cloths! Good thing the assistants had an exchange planned with us the following day, because we were able to get an entire truck bed full of cloths donated to the mission! Ha ha! So we have a little more room in the pench. 

On Wednesday morning, we had our regular interviews planned with the mission president. Elder Borgersen and I had a separate work shop for each companionship and we had a great opportunity to help them grow. We gave them commitments and things to study. I love teaching missionaries because they want to learn. Some investigators are tough because they just don't have that same desire. Anyway, I was the last one of the day to have my interview. It was amazing! President is so understanding and loving. He gave me some great counsel to know how to serve others and love even more. Then the best part is when he asked what was troubling my mind. Lately, I've been frustrated with a certain situation with our neighbors. So we talked about it and it results that I will most likely be leaving my area in two weeks at the next transfer. 

After interviews, we started an exchange with the assistants. I stayed in my area with Elder McLaws. He's a great guy, but he kind of lacks a little love in his teaching. He offended a few of our investigators and less active families that we've been teaching. It was tough to try and teach in union, but he's a funny guy when he's not in "missionary mode". We had a crazy flash storm out of no where that day too! I got soaked and we had to wait it out for a second to be able to work. Anyway, Thursday morning we took off to the temple to get there in time. We got there at 8:30 in the morning and were going to be in the 9 o'clock session, but our plans changed. We got there and we met up with the temple president, Presidente Fernandez. He invited us to have a private talk with him in his office and told us we should go to the 11 o'clock session instead. So we did! :) In his office, he explained, taught, and shared things with us that he said we are never allowed to share with anyone. And only a few things we will be able to share with our spouses someday. It was amazing! Sometimes as missionaries we start to feel like we know everything too well about the gospel, but then that experience opened my eyes, humbled me, and showed me that I have a long ways to go to know the gospel as well as that man. After that, we went to our session and it was great! We then stayed in the celestial room for a while and we all prayed, meditated, and received personal revelation. That night I even dreamed about the temple. It was very interesting!

The rest of our week as been quite difficult in the missionary work. We haven't been finding much, but yesterday we had another great day! The day started off by having an amazing experience at Church. Priscila and Dani came and they both cried. Mabel, an eternal investigator is coming and loving it; she needs a divorce and to get married. Also, Aylén, this young girl who came to church about two or three months ago came again and we are going to try and teach her and her family again. After church, we had to walk a lot and had little success until we found Raul and Gladis. They are a great couple and married! They're about 50 years old and they have three kids our age! We took out baptismal commitments and we are so excited to go back! Raul is way excited to get baptized too! We'll see what happens. 

Anyway, it was a great week that opened my eyes a lot! I know that the Lord has been preparing me for my last six months. Yesterday I just had my 18 month mark. It's time to really get to work and apply all the knowledge that I have gained and become the best missionary that the Lord can make me. I am so excited to be in Argentina. I love this country and I love the people even more! I'm so excited for each new missionary and the youth of the church. They have such an adventure awaiting them. SO many miracles. So many testimony strengthening moments. So many loved ones. So much eternal happiness. I hope and pray that every missionary can feel this way and then that the members of the church can feel of this spirit and desire to help in this great cause. I love the Lord and I love doing His work. Miss you all and I love you. You're in my prayers.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Good Beginning, Rough Middle, Great End of Week

Dear Family,

So this past week was an odd one. It started really good and finished really good, but the in between was rough. It started off just like last week, finding and taking out baptismal dates. So on Monday we went to go teach the family of Mabel and Nestor. They have two children that are members, yet they are not because they both need to do divorces and then need to get married. It's complicated. But when we went, we taught the sister of Nestor, Isabel, who has been having a lot of family problems lately. We had originally planned to teach the parable of the sower and talk about the types of people we can be. Usually, if there is a new investigator, we change the plans to be about the Restoration or the plan of salvation, but this time I felt prompted to keep talking about the same thing. So, as we explained that and that we all have the agency to choose eternal life through Christ or to choose misery through the devil, they all understood the importance of every decision we make. We turned to Isabel and invited her to be baptized as one of these key choices to become clean of all her past actions and to keep progressing and be saved through Jesus Christ. She wasn't quite sure. But then Nestor started to read a verse from the Book of Mormon and explained it in such a way that permitted the spirit to touch her heart. She broke down in tears and expressed the great desire she has to get baptized. We testified and then closed the lesson with a pray offered by her. I'm not sure how familiar you are with the first prayer of King Lamoni in the Book of Alma, but her prayer was somewhat similar to that one. She prayed and thanked God for having been able to know two angels, us, and to have received this great message from Him. She prayed to be able to make it to the waters of baptism and to also help her son be baptized and understand the importance of following Jesus's example. It was amazing! It was one of my favorite lessons that I have had on my mission. We have been trying to meet back with her, but she is having a lot of family problems in her home and hasn't found time to be able to have another lesson. We keep in contact through the phone.

Another great experience from the beginning of last week was when we found Noelia. We had contacted her husband, Daniel, about two months ago and we always stop and talk with him in the street when he is on his way to work, but we have never been able to have a lesson with him or with his family. One day of last week while we were outside his house and talking, we asked to come by and teach him again and he didn't know when he would be able to based on his crazy schedule. Then, his wife from the window asked, and why don't you just come and teach me then? So, we set up an appointment and came by with Claudia, an amazing member. They immediately became friends. In fact, they already share a lot of the same friends in the neighborhood. So we let them socialize for a bit and then started to teach about the plan of salvation. She had a lot of great questions and was really interested! She's going to go play volleyball with Claudia and some other women from the church another day. She's awesome!

We also were blessed to find Debora this week. Debora has a sad story. She is recently starting to forgive God for having let her daughter die at 18 years old. She has been mad at Him for several years now and didn't want anything to do with Him. But when we came by and started to testify that her family can be eternal and she will be able to see her daughter again if she starts to follow this path through baptism, she was excited and wanted to know more! Unfortunately, she also has a terrible schedule and we cannot find her very often. She is going to try to get off work a little early to be able to talk to us more.

Claudia made some huge success this week. She came to church and gave us her cigarettes and said she will be stopping to smoke this week. She said that she wants to get baptized and is determined to work for it. Elder Borgersen and I gave her a blessing after all the meetings and blessed her that she will have the strength and will power to be able to drop the addiction forever. Believe in miracles and they happen. So, we'll wait and see.

Wednesday through Friday were tough. We walked a lot and had a lot of lessons fall through. But, it was a good time to reflect on the Savior's experience in the garden and on the cross and know that it was never easy for him, so it shouldn't be easy for us either. We must work for our salvation because it isn't a cheap experience. 

The perseverance paid off. On Sunday we were able to have four investigators at church and each had an amazing experience. The best were those of our neighbors. So Pricila and Dario came to church and stayed all three hours! They almost left, but Dario said he felt so good there and wanted to stay and see why. SO they came back and stayed the whole time! Dario has suffered from a phobia of people and the world in general for years, but he was so open and was actually talking and responding to the questions in the classes. 

Our other neighbor, Dani, surprised me so much! As we were getting ready in the morning to go to church, we saw her and her nephew who is almost her age come home at seven in the morning!!! Dani slept for an hour, got back up, and went to church all without even having been challenged! She has been watching movies of the church and Mormon messages to learn more because we haven't ever had a formal discussion. She even began to read in the Book of Mormon and is finishing first Nephi. She told me that it has made her cry and she feels something so different about all of this. When she was at church, she was absorbing every minute and every words that was said. When the meeting started, the bishop came down and told me to give a short message of 7 minutes, so I told how I gained my own testimony and I challenged anyone in the congregation who is doubting or questioning to ask God in a prayer and the answer will be given. It was perfect for the investigators. I had no clue what I was going to say, but it came out perfectly and I almost cried, but I held in the tears. But later on Dani was making more comments about how great she feels in the church and how she loves the classes! Our gospel principles teacher gave an amazing lesson about Jesus Christ and the need of a savior. She also touched a bit on eternal families and it was perfect! Dani leaned over to me and said that's what she wants. She wants her family to change and be eternal. After that, in Relief Society and in quorum the lesson was about baptism and the gift of the holy ghost. It was awesome!!! Perfect for investigators! We left church feeling really great and walked back with Pricila, Dario, Dani, and I held Ama, Pricila's baby who's SOOO cute. :) Great day.

The bad news of this week is that my memory card was infected with some type of virus that has infected my pictures from the past three months. . . SO it appears like they were erased, but the memory is still being used. SO, we are hoping that I can get a technical guy to restore the lost files. I really want those pictures! They're the pictures of these past amazing months that I've been with Elder Borgersen. I want to keep those memories. Pray for my memory card to work!

Anyway, I've got so many things to write and no time! I wish that you could all see what happens her in Argentina. It's truly a miracle. Everything that happens is because the Lord's hand is touching the hearts of his children. I know that I am being used as His instrument and am being blessed for my service. The time passes so fast. It's almost sad. I love being a missionary and know that everyone can receive more joy by helping in this great work! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Amazing Week with the Zone!

Dear Family,

So this past week just wiped me out! I hit the pillow last night just exhausted, but in a good way, because I knew that I gave all my efforts to the Lord. So, the whole excitement started with the zone meeting we held on Tuesday last week. Elder Borgersen and I had the opportunity to teach the zone and to give some great advice to the missionaries in our zone. So, we talked about being obedient to the commandments of the Lord and that one of those is to always invite people to be baptized in the very first discussion at the moment the spirit is strongest. We also showed a part of the Best Two Years when Elder Calhoun is fasting late, waiting for an almost hopeless contact to call him back. Then, they say a prayer and right as he prays for the call, the phone rings and they all look up to the ceiling and Motab begins to sing Hallelujah. We explained that we need to expect and anticipate miracles every single day, and if we don't, then we will be just an ordinary missionary and will struggle finding. It was so strong with the spirit and we were able to motivate everyone with a competition to see who would take out more baptismal commitments and new investigators. So, this whole week the zone was on fire and we went from having 9 baptism commitments to 34 in just one week!!!! Elder Borgersen and I beat everyone with 8 new baptism commitments and 10 new investigators. We had amazing numbers this past week. And we even baptized!! :)

So the baptism of Griselda was great. We had planned it so well, but not very many people went to church. We prepared a musical number and guess who played the piano? Me. That's right, I'm practicing. Don't expect any miracles, but I can play a few hymns now. Anyway, the best part of this baptism was that we invited our investigator, Daniela, who's twenty. She came a little late but in time for the ordinance. She had previously finished watching the Best Two Years movie that I lent to her and she felt the spirit so much! She said that she felt the need to cry but wasn't sure why. While Elder Borgersen and Griselda were changing, we watched two Mormon messages. One was about how all of us will have our terrible Fridays, but Sunday will always come and the other was about forgiveness and how it lightens our loads. They're so powerful and we lent her the DVD afterward. She had so many questions and desires to learn more, but wants to have the charlas in the church. Griselda was super happy for her baptism and I confirmed her on Sunday.

The only trial of this past week was actually Daniela. Although we had an amazing experience with her, she is one of my snakes. She always tries to come talk to us when we get done with work for the day and it is a huge distraction. Recently it's been pushing the edge on being too flirty, so I sat her down on Saturday night and I gave her a little talk about how we missionaries have made a promise to the Lord that we won't do that and that we need our time at night to plan and work. She then told me that she's been feeling bad, but that she likes me. So we made a deal. She promised that once I'm gone, she'll listen to the missionaries. She doesn't want her feelings for me mixing with her desire to know more about the church. And I promised that I would come visit her after my mission, which shouldn't be too hard since I'll be coming back with part of the family. She's a great girl. I hope she gets baptized someday.

Alright, so we found a ton of new investigators just by doing contacts. We taught most of them just a quick lesson about the love of God or about the Atonement and the ability to change or about the importance of prayer. And most people accepted to be baptized once they know these things are true. So, we need to work with them. The best of them was a 17 year old girl named Micaela, who is the girlfriend of Nico Alegre, who we are recently activating with his family. After inviting her to be baptized, she said that for about two years now that she's been wanting to do something like this and is excited to keep reading and praying! The only downside is that Nico and Micaela fought the other day about something really dumb, but now they're trying to fix things again. Dumb young love. ha ha!

Last night was really sad. When we were done passing on our datos from the zone to the assistants, Pricila, our neighbor, was having a melt down. We listened to her talk about some of the saddest things and then gave her a blessing. I finally convinced her that she needed to go walk around a bit and cool off and breathe some good air. But it was something that just ripped my heart out. I love her and her cute little family. Her husband, Dario is such a great guy and their baby, Ama is so cute. I wish I could do something to help their situation. I honestly wish that they could come with me to the United States and live with me. 

So tomorrow is my six months left mark. Elder Borgersen's dad says that the differenence between 18 months and two years is the difference between men and women. SO I need to become a man in these next few months. Also, I have to get back onto my "six months to sexy" ha ha! I need to work my belly off and get into shape somewhat. I've been slacking lately. I can't believe how fast the time flies by. I'm amazed that I only have four more transfers after this. I probably only have one more area and maybe two companions, one of those, for probably a short time. It's sad to think about and every time I try to imagine myself being at home or in the USA, it just seems like some old dream. I only imagine myself living here in Argentina. I just have come to love these people so much. I just wish they would learn to accept the will of the Lord more.

Alright, enough trunky talk. I have to go now. This week is going to be another great week! We are going to try and keep the missionaries excited and to keep finding always! Thanks for your letters and comments! I love you all! 

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

"I'm getting old on the mission . . ."

Dear Family,

Ok, I'm pooped. ha ha! Last night we had no water and I couldn't shower after a hot humid day. SO I stayed up fixing the water pump and talking to our neighbors about it until way late and of course all the people on the block love us so there was like a party going on outside of our house. It was terrible. Then we had to get up even earlier today to go get Elder Borgersen's documents done. It took four and a half hours of waiting in lines!!! One of our neighbors came with us though. That was nice! But besides all of that, I haven't slept and I am still way happy! :)

This past week wasn't all that great. We found some new investigators and had a few great miracles, but it wasn't very packed with a lot of things. So, new years was so much fun! We stayed at the pench, but all of our fun neighbors were home and we stayed up talking to them until the fireworks went of. Then we went to bed, super tired. Also, that same day, my companion just about broke his ankle playing basketball. He jumped and then landed on my foot and it gave him a really bad high ankle sprain. He got so inflated! He's now making it by with my ankle brace. That thing has come to a lot of use! who knew that when we bought it, that it would help several elders on the mission?! But my comps recovering quite well. He's got a good foot and ankle specialist as a comp! Ha ha!

So, something miraculous from last week was during our weekly planning. We were planning and worried about being able to baptize when all of the sudden we got a text message from Griselda saying that she wants to get baptized on the 12th! That's this coming Saturday! So we get to baptize again!!! :) Elder Borgersen is going to do it because he's a lot stronger than me and Griselda had a stroke a while ago. She can't have too much movement of the head nor can she change temperature very quickly. So, It's going to be an interesting baptism. We almost decided to baptize her with the two of us in the font, but we don't wont to cause any unnecessary attention. That was a sweet, tender mercy from above.

We didn't see too much progress in anyone this past week. Karina is still amazing. Yesterday at church, she organized a volley ball activity! She's only got a week as a member and she's taking control and being super fun! She's amazing. She's going to be going to the temple to do baptisms on the 22nd! She also finally told us that she is engaged to Edgar, her "friend" from Chile. So it's official. We'll be having a sealing in a year from now! :) 

So I'm starting to realize that I'm really old on the mission. . . We had a zone leader meeting on Friday in the office and afterward all the district leaders showed up for another meeting after ours. It was odd because there's a lot of new, young, district leaders and they all look up to us. And it was odd because only the zone leaders were in suits, so we stood out. Also, the time is flying by. I'm almost entering into my last six months of the mission. It's kind of sad. . .But at the same time it frightens me because the real world seems so scary! I like just helping people and not having to worry about myself.

Well, I'm out of time. I need to write my president. I love you all and am so glad to be on the mission. It is truly the best time of my life! I never want it to end. 

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan