New Companion: Elder Thayne

Dear Family,
What an exciting week! Transfers took place on Wednesday and I am now training Elder Thayne. Elder Thayne is from West Jordan UT. He is tall and lanky (like myself) and his favorite color is orange (like myself). I've tried extra hard this week to work as hard as possible so Elder Thayne learns good work ethic early on in his mission experience. At times I'm afraid he is going to hate me because of how much I push him, but he keeps a good attitude and wants to see success. Elder Thayne is the youngest in his family.

I loved General Conference. I wish I could have experienced it with more of my investigators. All of our investigators were doing things with their families during the Easter weekend. Becky and Doreen were really sorry that they could not make it. Doreen told us, "Don't stop coming by just because we have not been able to make it to church the past couple of weeks. We really enjoy you coming by. I've learned a lot from you." When Elder Bednar was speaking and he shared the quote, "Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day, teach a man how to fish, and you feed a man for a lifetime." I have thought about that and I've decided that I need to do a better job at explaining to my investigators that I am not here to give them just enough spiritual food to survive until the next time we come by; I am trying to help them develop habits in which they can drink from the well of living water throughout the remainder of their lives. I really enjoyed Carlson's talk about the three reasons why one does not obey and Elder Bednars talk about teaching little children. Even though he was speaking to parents it directs well to missionaries trying to teach investigators whose testimonies are small like a child's.

The only person who came was not one of our investigators. A member, Brother Jackson, brought his friend to conference. (I'll accept a tender mercy from the Lord anytime!) His friend's name is Charles. Charles really enjoyed conference. Elder Thayne invited him to be baptized, but he recently joined a church and he does not want to abandon it. We are going to teach him on Thursday at Brother Jackson's home. I wish more members did missionary work. It would be great to fulfill our purpose to teach and baptize. Unfortunately, we spend all our time finding instead of teaching. We are going to have a training meeting with all the leaders in the stake. Hopefully we can help the members remember their covenant they made at baptism. I love you and I pray that all will go well with the stake conference coming up soon! I love you! I will tell you more later!

Love,
Elder Cowan