Araceli Baptized

Dear Family,

Well, I'm not going to lie; it was really hard to talk with you yesterday. I just hope you all understand that my reasons for not wanting to come home are not that I don't love you or that I don't miss you. It's just something very hard for me to accept. I just don't want this to end yet. My mission has meant everything to me. I have never been so happy in my entire life and I really just don't want it to end. 

So this past week we have had a lot of success. We found several investigators and we have been teaching a lot again. The only bummer was that our baptism dates didn't come to church, so they all fell through. We just have to re-fix their goals this week and we'll be doing fine. This past week I can honestly say though that there was nothing else we could have done better. We worked our hardest in every moment possible! We finished the week very tired and ready to sleep. We even did two exchanges this week and had a zone capacitation. 

So I got to opportunity to work with Elder Haynie again this week. I went to his area and we had a great time teaching with each other again. He's changed so much and I love him a whole lot more. I used to think he was a very difficult companion and now he's a great one! We've both changed a lot. Anyway, one lesson that we had was very special. We were teaching this young couple that are both members, but not married. They have had quite the challenging life because of the decisions they have made, but anyway we were talking a lot about prayer and about repentance. Then all of the sudden this example came to my head. Basically I explained that we need to eat to stay alive both physically and spiritually then I said that the real important thing, though, is to enjoy the food! I asked them if they liked eating good food and obviously they agreed. Then I asked them a question, "How can we enjoy our spiritual food then? When is it a joy to be obedient instead of just a duty or an obligation?" They couldn't come up with an answer. Then after explaining a bit about that, the young man expressed that sometimes he feels unworthy to pray because he feels like he just always comes back to the same things and he always repeats and falls short. Then I gave them an example with their son. I asked them how many times in one day that their two year old son just drives them nuts. I asked them why they don't just leave him in the street and forget about him. Then they finally understood. I testified that we have a loving Heavenly Father who will always receive us with open arms and who will always love us despite of the sins we may have committed. They were both crying and committed to being completely active from that moment on. It was a very powerful lesson! I love leaving a home and knowing that I invited the presence of the spirit. It's a great feeling. I'm going to miss that.

We had a lot of other great experiences this week too. I am kind of rushed today. I'll try to write more next week about what happened this week. I'm so glad I still have two months to serve the Lord. These will be the best two months of my entire life! I'm going to make every minute count.

Oh, really quick, we baptized Araceli on Saturday. It was a great service. Short, but powerful! I'll try to send pictures next week.

Love,

Elder Cowan