"Project Utah"

Dear Family,

Well, this past week was great! It wasn't packed with teaching investigators, but we got a lot of preparation done in the area to have more success as soon as possible! SO what we decided to do this week was start something that we like to call "Project Utah!" What it means is to get a block with a fair amount of people that we already know and do everything possible to activate and baptize the whole block and create a system for them to all have visits from members and that they all attend together on Sundays. We decided to do two project Utahs, one on each side of our area. And so far it's working great! We have a lot of investigators and future investigators now.

So, the best part of this new mission plan that we have here is that we had results already. I like fast results. :) So yesterday we had stake conference. It was a satilite transmision for all of Argentina by Elder Nelson, Elder Clayton, and a few other general authorities. The only problem is that we had to go to the stake center that is pretty dang far away. Anyway, we still had six investigators come with us!! Two complete families! One is the Medina Family and the other is the Ruiz family.

The Medina family is the cute old couple that we found the other day. I wrote previously how I had done that rushed contact with the man walking next to us in the street named Ramón. Ramón and his wife, Graciela, are great people! Graciela is epileptic and has seizures and convulsions, but she is a very calm lady. Ramón is a stud! He's 63 and still acts like he's 23! Nothing stops that man. For example, this past week, Graciela locked him outside of the house on accident and then she fell asleep. Ramón tried knocking several times, but when she woke up, she thought it was him working on the house still. So what Ramón did was get on top of the roof, climb over to the back yard, and then jump down on a fence, and then to the floor. It was so impressive! He's the coolest little old man. Ha ha! Anyway, they are so great. We taught them about the plan of salvation and answered their many questions. They really like the idea of being an eternal family and especially the idea of the resurrection. Ha ha! (Ramón is balding. :)) They were doubting going to church because it was farther away and Graciela's ankle was hurting her and got really swollen. We told them that if they had the faith to get over this trial then they would see that it was just one of Satan's tricks to keep them from hearing about how to have their own eternal family. They accepted our challenge and when they woke up on Sunday morning, she didn't feel any pain and was able to walk just fine! They had a great time at the conference and met lots of people.

The other family, the Ruiz family, has a few trails in their lives. Their son, Nahuel, died just a week ago from a lung failure. We found them through our investigator Hilda and have surprisingly been progressing really well. Even their two daughters came to church with us. The parents are Ramón (yes, another one) and Sara. They're quite educated and very polite. When we went to pick them up Sunday morning, we almost were robbed by their son's friends. As we turned the corner and started to clap the house, these two kids came running around the corner with clubs to come take our stuff away but they were so drunk and drugged that Elder Cruz and I could have easily just pushed them over and nothing would have happened, but right as they were coming around the corner, Ramón came out and Sara came out of a store across the street and recognized the kids. They actually came up and apologized to us after that. Ha ha! But they made it to church with us and loved it!

Alright, we need to get to the bishop's house and start working. I have a great feeling about this week! I'm so excited to work.

Love you all! 

Elder Blake W Cowan

PS We have bats in our house!

Crazy Baptism

Dear Family,

Well, I am seriously blown away with what happened last weekend. It almost seems like a dream! Well, to start out with, I'll talk about Ñeca, or Alejandra, which is her spanish name. So Alejandra is the little old woman that we have been trying to teach. She is from paraguay from a little town so small there's not even electricity and not even 100 people. She lives with her sister in law, Lorenza, who is a member. Anyway, Alejandra cannot talk in spanish. She only speaks Guarani. It's been tough teaching her because all of the members that try to translate don't know guarani very well. But we decided to test her comprehension of our visits. We did an exchange with Elder Barreto and he came and did a pre-interview for her in Guarani. And surprisingly, she's learned a lot! SO we called up President Stapley at night and asked him how we could get a real baptism interview done since there aren't any district or zone leaders who speak guarani. To our surprise, he gave Elder Barretto a special assignment to do the interview and she passed! 

At the baptism on Saturday, I got into the water with alejandra and we explained to her using pictures and signs how to be baptised. But, when her head started to go under, she freaked out! Time after time, she wouldn't go under! We even tried using a chair and kneeling and everything. But that woman didn't want her head going all the way under because she's never done that inher life. You have to understand that she is basically like a native american. She's the most lamanitish person I've ever met! Anyway, she got really scared and didn't wnt to try again to get baptised. We called President and he gave us special permission to count it anyway because the intention and desire that she had was what really count. 

Sunday morning we passed by and she was pretty mad with us. she was so scared and thought that we were trying to kill her! We explained things to her and then we taught her about the confirmation and the holy ghost again. She decided to come to church and recieve that wonderful gift. So she was confirmed and recieved the gift of the holy ghost yesterday and we could finally breathe! It was the most stressful baptism I've ever experienced!

Anyway, we also found an amazing old couple on Saturday morning. They are the Medina Family. We came in contact with them the other day when Elder Cruz and I were walking in the street and there was a bit of flooding going on. This man by my side made a comment about the water and I felt like something punched me from the inside telling me to shae the gspel with him even though we were rushed. So I wipped out a pamphlet and gave it to him and explained that as missionaries we share a mesaage of hope and joy that is centered in Jesus Christ. He accepted, gave us his address and said we would pass by other day. On Saturday we met him, Ramon, and his wife, Graciela, better and they were really impressed by our message. Ramon told us that when I had given him the pamphlet he felt the need to keep and read it because it seemed to wisper to him that it would bring him luck. He said he got home, read a bit, and then left to go run some errands. He said while he was out and thinking about the message in the pamphlet, he looked down and found 300 pesos. he knew it was a blessing from God and knew that he needed to learn more about our church. So they accepted the baptismal commitment and were going to come to church yesterday, but it seems like that had visits show up and couldn't make it.

We have had a lot of lessons and have been working a lot! We have a lot of new missionaries in our zone and I'm excited to get to know each one. I have been so blessed to be called as a zone leader and get to help these missionaries with their problems and thr growth of their testimonies. 

Oh by the way, the new pope hasn't affected us at all. In fact, the argetnines weren't all that excited to have him as the new pope. Most people here just say they are catholic for tradition but really hate the catholic church. And since argentines have a bad reputation for being theives, they believe that this pope will actually just be stealing more money than ever from the vatican. Most people wanted the black guy because everyone loves Obama here.

I have just ran out of time. I sent some pictures and I hope you enjoy them! I love the mission so much! I love the church. I love the Lord and I love Argentina! There's no better place in the world! I love this work and I wouldn't want to be doing anything else! I love and miss you all.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

"Carta Semanal"

Dear Family,

Wow! This week was so much better! I swear, the past month was like a roller coaster. Lot's of ups, and lots of downs. Now I'm hoping to be more on an escalator that is just continually rising up and progressing! I have realized that I only have about four months left, especially since Mom and Dad keep talking about the trip they'll be taking with Kevin to come pick me up. Ha ha! But it's ok. It's necessary to be able to plan the trip right. These last four months are going to fly on by!

I am very, very grateful to have Elder Cruz as my companion now. He has been quite inspiring and has reminded me a lot of myself when I first became a zone leader. Today we decided to go to the transfer meeting to help Elder Gonzalez take his luggage because he actually went home today! He got a call on Friday night from president telling him that he'll be going home on Monday, today. Anyway, while we were at the meeting, the elders and hermanas that are heading for home were ALL my friends! I can't believe that there are only two more groups that go home before me now. Time's running short and I still have so much that I want to do!

So this past week, we exploded in our area again! I swear this is such a ripe part of the Lord's vineyard. We only had two baptism dates and now we have 17! :) Got to love having lots of investigators with the goal of baptism! Anyway, we found quite a few people this week and we were able to put new goals with other investigators that couldn't attend for some reason. One family that is progressing really well is that of Hilda. She is so determined to educate her kids about the gospel now. She makes them pay attention and she takes them to church. They're quite a handful too! She's amazing.

We have another great lady named Alejandra. I don't remember if I told you about her. She speaks ONLY in Guarani. We've been translating bits and pieces for her and she's been super anxious to get baptized. She's this cute, old, Indian looking lady. She's got a wonderful spirit. She's very humble and knows that she needs to be close to her Heavenly Father. With these transfers, one of the new elders in my zone is from Paraguay and speaks Guarani perfectly! He's going to come this week and teach her about everything at once to make sure she gets an idea of what she's really doing while getting baptized. She's going to be baptized this coming Saturday if we can prepare everything for her.

We found a few more families and had some great lessons. We still don't know them very much nor have total confidence with them, but they were fairly interested in the message we had to share. One family fell through, though. . . Anabella was a contact that Elder Tantachuco and I did. She had recently lost her pregnancy and was really sad. Elder Cruz and I went by this week and we had an amazing lesson with her! She accepted to be baptized and wanted to do it in two weeks! She told us all her problems and basically asked us to tell her what to do in order to receive God's help. When we passed by another day, we met her husband that was very receptive at first. He listened, answered questions, and was listening attentively, but when we took out the Book of Mormon, he flipped out and got all defensive and didn't want anything to do with us after that. He asked us to never come back to his house and told us we weren't allowed to talk to his wife anymore. Bummer. We were so shocked that he was so against reading the book. I believe that Anabella might search for us anyway, though. She had so much faith! All we can do now is pray for her.

Alright, well, I have to go now. My time is up. I'm super excited to keep working and I think I'm working harder than ever! I lost another four kilos. I am getting back to my original weight from before the mission without even doing crazy amounts of workouts. I've just been dedicated and working with all of my soul to bring to pass this marvelous work of our Father. I love Him soo much. I love my Savior. I'm grateful for the plan that they have provided for me and the rest of you. I'm so glad to carry the name of my Redeemer over my heart and bring this glad message of hope and joy to all my brothers and sisters in Argentina. These people are so beautiful. They have amazing spirits and I never thought that my heart could be so capable of loving people I hardly know. My heart yearns to help them understand the gospel. The mission is the best thing that has happened in my life. I'm so grateful for it. I'll never pass a day without thinking about my mission. I'm sad to know that I'm coming up on the final stretch. I love you all and am so grateful for your support and love. I feel the strength that comes from your prayers. I miss you dearly. Well, until next week, remember to be happy and to just smile!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

New Companion: Elder Cruz

Dear Family,

Where do I begin? This was quite the eventful week. . . I almost spent more time with the Mission President than in my own area. I'll explain in a second. But this week I have realized many things about myself and about other people. I grew a lot closer to President Stapley and have spent hours in deep and meaningful prayer. In all, this week was one large challenge, but I have come out of it as a better person and very relieved of many things. 

First off, I think you'd all like to meet my new companion. Elder Cruz from Brazil!!! He's a stud! He just got here today actually about two hours ago. In his last area he had more baptismal dates than any other missionary in the entire mission! I'm excited to work with him. He's a little bummed that he'll loose 13 secure baptisms in the next three weeks, but I know the Lord will bless us for his willingness to go where the Lord sends him.

Second off, you're probably wondering what happened to Elder Tantachuco, well, that was the main challenge of this past week. It started early on last week when he started to say some nasty comments to me and criticizing me a lot. Then he just wouldn't talk to me at all. He got quite mad at me for some reason and decided to ignore me for a few days. We had leadership counsel on Wednesday with all the zone leaders, assistants, and the mission president. There, he got mad at me again for nothing. We taught the zone together on Thursday and he barely was willing to prepare the workshop with me. I couldn't feel the Spirit with us much and we weren't teaching very well. 

So on Friday morning I decided to call President for our companionship problems and for the many problems he had with disobedience. I'm not going to go into much detail. I don't think it's necessary. Anyway, President told us to be in the mission home in a few hours and that we would be having interviews. 

Long story short, the results were that Elder Tantachuco had to leave the area in an emergency transfer. He was demoted to junior companion, and he had many items to turn in to the mission home to be saved until he finishes the mission in seven weeks. Also Elder Gonzalez who lives upstairs will be sent home early on the 29th of March for other things that I had told President about. 

So you can imagine that it was quite uncomfortable for me to be with those two in the same pench and working with them from Friday to just a few hours ago. Crazy stuff. . . But I learned a lot from this experience. I learned the importance of being exactly obedient and of being completely honest. I am super determined to finish the mission as strongly as I can and nothing is going to stop me from doing so! Not even one of my closest friends in the mission like Elder Tantachuco. By the way, he did thank me in the end for what I did.

Well, enough of that, I'll let you know about the investigators. Not much happened this week. Ha ha! I didn't get to teach much this week. But we'll have more success very, very soon! 

I love you all very much and for all you missionaries and future missionaries, don't be afraid to talk to your presidents about these types of things. He'll know how to help. For the others out there, trust in your bishops. They can help you with anything! I am so grateful to have leaders called of God. I have a strong testimony of callings and I love the promises that the Lord extends to us through them. I miss you all and I love you dearly.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan