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