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