More Investigators than Ward Members

Dear Family,

Don't worry, I'm not going to extend, even though I would love to! I think I'm needed back home more than I am needed here. Plus many missionaries should be getting here once the school year ends in the states. So this past week was kind of long and slow. There were many moments when we just had all of our lessons canceled and we walked around contacting and trying to just find someone. There were some great moments during this week. Many of our investigators made huge improvements. 

First off, Araceli came to church with her mom yesterday and she will be baptized really soon now. She is a super fun girl and just LOVES coming to church and participating in Primary. Her sister and two cousins came too. We filled up the primary with just investigators and less actives! ha ha! It hasn't been too hard to fill up any class recently because every week we have less and less members it seems . . . We were around twenty yesterday in sacrament meeting. 

So Elder Cruz and I have been very worried these past few weeks about our ward. Our bishop is kind of discouraged and the members too. We've had several activities and no members showed up! Sometimes we have activities with just investigators now! So we were praying and studying the scriptures to find an answer and it came in a really interesting way! SO we were walking through the villa (the sketchy parts) when a lady starts screaming in English "Oh my! oh my! Hello! Hello!" We look over and Elder Cruz mutters, "This can't be real! are you kidding me?" The lady was one of the members in his last ward in Avellaneda! She came up and told us that 6 families from that ward will be moving into our area!!! We went to go see the land they had bought and there is a lot of service to be done till they can live there, but it's going to be amazing to have some new members in our ward that is struggling so much! Within these 6 families we have the bishop, the Elder's Quorum president, first and second counselors of the relief society, the secretary of the Elder's quorum, a member of the high coucil, a future missionary, and other members! I'm so excited!! But in order for them to move into their property, we have to clear the land of the waste high weeds, build the houses, put up a fence, and install the plumbing system and the electricity. Then we have to move everything from Avellaneda to here! It's going to be quite the process! But it's going to be worth it in the end. My only worry is what is going to happen with the Avellaneda 2nd ward. ha ha!

We found a great investigator this week with the help of a member. Her name is Alicia. She is a quiet woman who has serious back problems. She needs an operation but doesn't have the means to get it done. Her only true desire is that her family is happy and safe and she is willing to do everything to do that. We talked a bit about the will of God and told her about the blessings of obedience. She accepted the invitation to be baptized. We will be going back on Wednesday to see what she has read and how she's felt while reading the Book of Mormon. 

This week we found an 19 year old kid named Jorge who has had his own house since he was 16. He is very calm and really down to earth. We believe that he may have had some serious family problems and that's why he moved out so early. He was really anxious to come to church and to learn more about our message. He said that he would be baptized after he learns a little more. We gave him a goal to be baptized on the 18th. We haven't been able to talk to him again yet.

The Ugarte family is a part member family that we had dropped a few weeks ago until Claudio, the father, showed up late for church the other day. He came yesterday again too! We have been visiting them again and telling them the importance of being an eternal family, but his wife is against the church. She's quite Evangelista (don't know the translation) and doesn't support the idea too much. We are trying to see if Claudio can bring the children to church because he has a 9 year old son who isn't baptized. We'll see what happens.

Our investigator, Melisa who we found a few weeks ago has been reading quite a bit of the Book of Mormon and she really likes the story of Nephi. She said that it amazes her how he can just keep going when all the odds are against him. I love the story about Nephi and his brothers because it applies to so many of the people here. Many people are suffering so much because of their trails and they often don't think there's a way to keep on going. Melisa said that it gave her more strength to keep moving forward and to not let the circumstances of her life get the best of her. She has about 6 children all under the age of 8 and is 7 months pregnant. Her ex had beaten her and he showed up this past week asking to stay with her again. Being desperate for money to be able to feed her children, she let him back in. She told us that he was beaten up by the Argentine police and sent home after a few days in jail to take care of his family. She said that he's been a better man since he's been back. We're a little nervous to have him there, but he seems to have been humbled quite a bit. We pray for Melisa a lot.

Alright, I'm out of time. there was so much to write about and I couldn't finish. We just have so many investigators it's hard sometimes to talk about all of them. I think my mission is quite different from Trevor's because we teach a lot more people. Having people to teach isn't a problem. It's finding people who progress that is the real trick. Kevin's mission will be more of a challenge to find people. I was talking to a Chilean elder the other day and he said that Santiago Oeste is a rich area and they baptize less, but the members work really hard to try and find investigators. I think we'll have three missions very different from each other.

Well, I have to go. I honestly am so grateful for my mission. It's sad to know that I've got so little time left. My advice to any missionaries in the field or getting prepared to leave is to not waste a single second! Just hit the ground running and don't look back!

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Stressful Week

Dear Family,

Alright, I'm a little rushed today because I had to send a lot of documents and things to missionaries and I spent some time writing my mission president, but I'll do my best to write a good letter with the time that is left. So this past week was very stressful. We as a mission have had a really low month in baptisms and our zone has a history of being one of the lower zones as it is. So Elder Cruz and I have been doing everything possible to get the missionaries excited to work and to have success. We have a zone goal of baptizing nine people this month and we had seven confirmations yesterday! SO we were really excited for that, but now we have to get two more next week and the candidates aren't looking too well. So Cruz and I went to the areas in our zone and decided to teach those investigators that could make it to baptism next week. We're praying for a miracle to get the zone goal now. 

Another stressful event was last night. Two of our elders were robbed and we had to go to their pench and look for them to make sure they were ok last night. We got to their pench really late and when we were on our way back, the train was canceled and no buses were coming by. And on top of that, there wasn't any taxi services!!! So we started walking back . . . One guy tried to rob us and we blew him off and kept going and then finally found a security guard who helped us find a bus stop that doesn't stop at night and we were able to get back to the pench safely. We finally arrived at almost two in the morning . . . all just to go get the numbers of two elders and to see if they were ok.  It was a little stressful.

We have taught a lot of lessons lately and have several progressing investigators with a baptismal dates too. May is looking quite promising. We had a dry April, though. I've only had four months of my mission when I didn't baptize. Bummer. May should be a good one though! I'm expecting at least five baptisms! 

The Chilean man, Hugo, is a little crazy but has a huge desire to learn about God and to improve his life. He is kind of deaf and I have to talk fairly loud to teach him. My companion has a soft voice and loses patience with him. ha ha!

We have a bunch of young kids from part member families taking the discussions. This is one of my favorite ways to baptize. We can activate people, improve sacrament attendance, and we still baptize all in one! 

Oh, and I'm going to be a grandpa in the mission! Elder Haynie is going to be training in my zone! I'm super excited for him! We're going to start a genealogy book and pass it on from missionary to missionary. It's going to be sweet! 

Also a member who just found out that she is pregnant decided she's going to name her child Blake if it is a boy after me. I felt honored! This will be the second baby to carry one of my names. ha ha!

Well, I'm out of ideas this week. I'm too rushed to think straight. But I love you all and I know this is the Lord's work. You have to do it how He wants it done. I love my Savior and I feel so much closer to him now than ever. It's a start of a new transfer today and it's the second to last. Just two transfers left. . . I plan to apply myself to the maximum now to be able to be the best missionary that the Lord sees that I can be.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

SOOO Excited for Kevy!!

Dear Family,

Wow I am SOOO excited for Kevy!!!! He's going to be such a great missionary! I can't wait to write him on the mission like he writes me and to talk to him in Spanish when he skypes home and all that great stuff! It's just so exciting to hear! I'm so proud of him for making that decision to go on the mission. I already wrote my trainer (ex-Elder José Vergara) who lives in the Santiago east mission and told him to write Kevy a quick letter about the culture and the people there. He's going to love the Chilean people! They're great. I've met several people from Chile and I have met several ex missionaries who have served there too. Chile is a lot more advanced than Argentina is. It recently changed their monetary unit and I have a few bills from there along with an original soccer jersey that my trainer's mom sent me for my first Christmas here in Argentina. The Argentine's and the Chileans have a rough history. Well, actually, they kind of hate each other. ha ha! They had a war years back and they never really learned to forgive one another. ha ha! I'll just have to start hating Kevin now. ;) ha ha! jk! But seriously, he's going to love it and I'm so happy for him and his call! One more quick thing. The thing that Chileans do to Spanish is instead of saying ¿como estas? sometimes, if you're really close with someone, they'll say ¿como estaí? They have other words that mean different things too. But it's more normal than Argentina Spanish. We're really Italian out here. :)

Anyway, back to my mission. ha ha! So this past week was a bit nuts. We had a lot of success in some ways, a lot of let-downs, and a lot of crazy stuff too! So after general conference, we all left ready and filled with the spirit to share the gospel with everyone! (catch the wave, wink wink ;)) We had a zone meeting planned for Tuesday morning and Elder Cruz and I had a great lesson planned out using an example from the Book of Mormon to really excite the missionaries in our zone. We got in their faces just like Elder Holland does and we got all of them even more pumped and excited to go baptize the world! And they will too. This next week in our zone we have 9 baptisms planned and that's more than this zone has seen in a long, long time! President has told me that Adrogue, my zone, is the zone that has suffered the most and has never really found a way to get some real success going. We now look like we're going to make our goal for this month and it'll just make president sing for joy; I know it! Anyway, the meeting on Tuesday was great and we had really good feedback from the missionaries. 

That afternoon we did an exchange with the elders of Claypole. I was partnered up with Elder Smoot who returns home in just one week. He's one of my district leaders and I love the kid! He's a spaz and a great motivator. So we went and taught a bunch of lessons, took out some baptismal commitments and found some new investigators. One of which is Melisa. She's a poor single mother with several children and six months pregnant. No father in sight. It appears that all the children are not from the same father either. She was beaten by her last boyfriend and he broke a brick over her head once and now she has a bit of a memory problem. But she wants to learn about the gospel and how she can receive help from her Savior. It's amazing the amount of faith these humble people have. Even though she lives in a tin house with a dirt floor, she still has more than most people have, and that's faith. We went and taught her another time with the help of a member and it really helped. The young recently activated mother member shared a sweet testimony that touched Melisa's heart and it was a great opportunity to see the growth there.

We also were able to find a recent convert and her family who are not members. Noelia is a cute little nine year old and was baptized with the help of a member family that lives near her. She has such a desire to go to church and now that we've activated that family that used to bring her to church, now she can go again. Her two older sisters, Daniela (11) and Ayelen (12) both want to be baptized too. Their parents are kind of negligent and don't worry too much about their children, so obviously, they have no problem in letting them get baptized either. Ayelen was the only one who came to church yesterday and I think she enjoyed herself. Anyway, we should be seeing a few baptisms through them in just a few weeks. Also, their aunt, Veronica, and her son, Rodrigo, decided that they want to listen to our discussions also! The only bad part there is that Veronica started sending me text messages saying that she fell in love with me and is obsessed with my blue eyes. Great . . . more snakes. Anyway, we'll see what happens there. She's like 35 too. ha ha! It's amazing how people can be so daring. 

We have been teaching this one part member family from Paraguay, the Correa family, and they've been progressing really well and we were expecting them to come to church, but then they pulled a no show on us. They gave us a bunch of excuses and it was kind of disappointing, but we'll bring other members to their house now to try and get them excited to go to church so we can baptize their daughter Araceli. Maybe we'll plan that baptism along with the other girls' baptisms.

So I've been pretty sick this past week with a terrible cold/virus thing. I still went out to work in the cold every day though and we taught a ton of lessons! :) But for some reason my wind breaker is missing . . . I have no clue what happened to it. It's just gone. So I've just been using sweaters cause it's still not cold enough for my huge winter coat. So I might need to go buy myself a jacket so I can actually get batter and protect myself from all the rain and the cold. Oh speaking of rain, all of the city of Plata got extremely flooded and the capital. I'm right in between the two and many people died and missionaries said that the water got up to two meters at one point!!! It was crazy. Poor people.

Oh by the way I almost forgot to tell you the funniest story of the week. So when Elder Cruz and I were crossing a big field, this guy comes walking out to us as we are reaching the street again. He was acting really weird and was really nervous. I walked passed him but my comp stayed back and tried to give him a pamphlet. He started talking to him and then I go back and when I get there, the guy looks around, looks at me, and then puts his hand underneath his shirt in the shape of a gun and asks for our stuff. I said "you got to be kidding me" and just shoulder pushed past the guy, but Elder Cruz got super excited and then runs and shoves the guy with all of his strength! ha ha. Then I had to back up my companion and I started running at the man who is like eight inches shorter then me and he took off running sooo fast! ha ha! I ran him down for a few yards and scared him off. ha ha! It was such a crazy moment! I couldn't believe my comp pushed him so hard, though! The guy almost face planted the ground! It was quite the table turn on the poor robber. ha ha! 

Anyway, I have to go. My comp is waiting on me and I'm over my time. Love you and miss you! See you in three months from today! 

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

General Conference is like Christmas!

Dear Family,

I'm so glad that I was able to listen and learn from servants of the Lord this past weekend. General Conference is like Christmas for me. . . I'm not sure which one I get more excited for anymore! They're definitely tied, I think. I love the spirit that conference brings into our lives. It helps the members want to be better and it helps the missionaries be more focused in an eternal cause instead of just getting through the time. I particularly like the themes of obedience, faith, family, and many others. I had many questions answered and I could feel a large relief from finding many answers to my many questions.

This past week was another meeting week. We didn't get to work all that much, but with the time we had in our area, we took advantage and used our time to find new investigators and to active less-active members. We had one family come to the conference after having been inactive for quite some time--the Cuevas family. They have been progressing fairly well lately! We enjoy visiting them and we have helped them take action in their desire to become closer to their Heavenly Father. I know that the Lord will bless them as they strive to live worthily to receive promised priesthood blessings in their home.

Another great family we have found is the Correa family that has come from Paraguay. They speak on and off Spanish and Guarani. They have a little nine year old girl, Araceli, who was baptized in Paraguay but was never confirmed, so we are going to have to baptize her again and do the confirmation right this time. They are a great family! Their family is large and has a great base of knowledge of the Church. I am glad that we can help them come back to church and help their progression to being an eternal family.

We have had the privilege to work with the members more. We are continually getting comments like, "I'm so glad we have hard-working missionaries now" and "It's been a while since we've had missionaries with such excitement to do the work!" It's great to hear that the members are feeling that way. We have been trying really hard to get this ward excited and wake them up from the routine of things and do a little bit more, to go the second mile, and to help others come unto Christ! It's been quite fun visiting the members, getting to know them, and helping them with their individual/family challenges with the restored truths of the gospel of Christ.

We had our zone leader meeting this Wednesday and we finished by hearing the testimonies of those that are going home in two weeks. Of those, includes Elder Borgersen, Elder Jarvis, Elder Griffin, Elder Lem, and Elder Creager. They are all really great friends of mine in the mission. It was really touching to listen to their powerful testimonies. They truly are great missionaries and will be highly blessed for their service. It was really special to see Elder Borgersen's testimony. It was the first time he has cried in his entire mission and in several years. It touched the hearts of all of us. He was pretty embarrassed though, ha ha! I'm going to miss him, though. He was my favorite companion.

Elder Ruz and I have been getting along really well lately! He's such a funny kid! I'm going to miss him when we part. He's such a punk and I love it. He likes graffiti, skate boarding, and loves my type of music. We have fun teaching each other English and Portuguese also. He's such a hard worker too. He always has good ideas and works hard. His girlfriend will be leaving on her mission really soon to temple square! He's kind of bummed about that. We both have about the same amount of time, but we are both focused and working till the end. Thanks to other missionaries, I found out that on Saturday I hit my 100 days left mark on the mission. I'm in double-digits now. Scary. I don't want to finish the mission. It makes me sick to think about.

Well, I have to go now. I've got a lot to do and little time to do it! I love you and I miss you. Thanks for the constant letters and prayers.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan

Testimony of Our Savior

Dear Family,

I'm sorry that I didn't write yesterday. The truth about that is that here in Argentina, a country fairly Catholic, had the weekend off for Pascua. Today also is a holiday to remember those who died in the war of Malvinas (Faulkin Islands), so they decided to just put it all together and make it a week of holiday! So, because of that, I could not find any cyber, or computer shop that was open to be able to email. Right now I am at the offices of the mission and I was given permission to write a quick email to explain that.

This past week was not that amazing work wise. We got a lot of help from the members, though! We went out to work with the bishop, and a few other members this week, but unfortunately, the plans we had didn't come through. I think it has to do with the fact that it was a long holiday weekend and everyone went out of town or had family in town. Needless to say, we didn't find many quality investigators although we did challenge about 10 people to be baptized.

I'll finish by leaving you with my testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that He lives. There is nothing that gives me more joy than knowing that He overcame the fall. He has paid the price of sin and has suffered for all of us so that we don't have to be miserable. He did everything that He did because He loves us. I know that we can have a personal relationship with our Savior and our Heavenly Father. The interesting thing about a relationship is that it is two sided. Each person has to do something to make it work. One can't take upon himself all the load. The same with this divine relationship. Christ teaches us, He loves us, and He died and resurrected for us. He's done his part and keeps doing more and more. Our heavenly Father has organized this great plan of happiness and has done so much to bring to pass our own existence. He's done his part and keeps doing more. Now it depends on us if we want this relationship to work. We need to keep the commandments and be diligent in our effort to become more like them. We have to do everything we can now to love like the Savior does. As a missionary I do everything I can to teach as he taught. As children of God, we must do all we can to serve our brothers and sisters as He would desire. It's a divine relationship that we have. It's special to me and I can testify to all that I know my Savior and I know my Heavenly Father. And this is eternal life, to know God the Eternal Father and his son Jesus Christ. I am so grateful for what Christ did for us about 2000 years ago around this time. I know that He atoned for our sins and that He lives. Now I invite you all to be more worthy of His love and mercy. We could all improve in one way or another.

I love you all so much. I feel the blessing from your consistent prayers. I miss you all, but I couldn't ask for a better gift than to be a missionary of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm happy where I am. I'm happy as I serve my brothers and sisters in Argentina. These people are so amazing. They're absolutely beautiful. It will be very hard for me to say bye to them some day. A part of my heart will always remain here among these people. I know this gospel is true and that this is the great work of our Father. Let's remember to do our part to keep this relationship working with our Heavenly Father and our beloved brother, Jesus.

Love,

Elder Blake W. Cowan