Media Referrals

Dear Family,

I fooled you! You would have been right about me emailing tomorrow if I was not a zone leader and had to send in reports to the mission president. Also, tomorrow is zone leader council. This week has been quite interesting. President McConkie pulled me aside at zone conference and told me that a local member was going to be joining Elder Pack and me for a week to help him prepare for his mission. On Monday evening Elder Brown from the Myrtle Beach Ward arrived in Florence. On top of the week long member exchange, we received a letter in the mail from the mission office in which they gave us a list 16 pages long of media referrals that had never been contacted in the past. The media's were all from 2007. I think the Lord knew this list was coming because, for some reason, we had a ton of miles left for the month. The past four days we have been driving out in the country to random houses to deliver books, DVD's, and most importantly to give people the opportunity to learn of the restored gospel. We met a lady in Greeleyville which is an hour and a half away, but she is so cool! She told us that she used to drive to Columbia for church, which is two hours away from where she lives, so an hour and a half is no big deal for her to drive to Florence. This lady's name is Laura. Laura was not able to make it to church this week because she had family in town because her nephew was graduating from college. We have an appointment with her on Tuesday.

Bill Smith dropped us. He did not want to change his life to agree with the standards of the church (coffee). Sister Selph has been really busy this week and we did not have the opportunity to see her. She is still smoking, but she has not given up. We are continuing to pray for her.

Another funny story, while in Lake City, we stopped at the McDonalds, and while we were eating, one of the workers came up to us and told us that missionaries had visited her 7 years ago and they helped her quit smoking. She then moved to Florida and lost contact with the church. She recently moved back to Lake City. Her name is Patricia. Patricia really wanted to come to church, but she got called in. :( I am thankful for whoever it was that taught her before because she has the highest respect for the church because of what those missionaries did for her. She is still smoke free to this day.

Dante is a stud. He came to the Book of Mormon class we hold on Wednesday nights. We read from chapters 3 & 4 of 2 Nephi. As we read through, we had a question of "who was Joseph Smith's spokesman?" We were all discussing it and as missionaries we could not agree who it was talking about and then Dante answers, "It was Sidney Rigdon. He was mighty in word and he wrote down what Joseph Smith translated." It blew us all away. This investigator answered the question that us full-time missionaries could not agree on. Dante came to church this Sunday and really enjoyed it. I feel so bad for his situation. He knows the church is true and he wants to join, but his girlfriend does not want to get married. He knows he needs to move out, but he has no money. Business has been slow at the barber shop. He also does not want to abandon his kids by moving out. He is trying to be the best dad he can be. We are praying that we can teach his girlfriend and somehow get her excited in the gospel like he is. Well, I need to go, I've been on the computer way too long. I had a quite a few reports I had to send to President and the stake president. I love you all! Have a great summer!

Love,
Elder Cowan

Moving/Cleaning Apartments

Dear Family,
Don't be shocked, but I am actually sending pictures! :D what is the world coming to? ;) What a crazy week. Monday was move day. We moved out of our apartment and moved into an older apartment to save the mission some money. We had to carry everything down three flights of stairs, load it into the mission trailer, and then we had to carry all our material up a flight of stairs to the apartment we are staying at now. The new apartment was gross. The place was a mess and it smelled bad. Elder Pack and I have attacked the apartment with Clorox bleach and we feel we have killed everything. It has been quite the adventure moving into this apartment. Our dishwasher is broken; it flooded the the entire kitchen. We told the apartment management about the problem and they said they fixed it, so we started our dishwasher before we left to work on Thursday. When we got home that evening, the kitchen was flooded once again. We told the apartment management AGAIN, and they said they would fix it. The management told us they found the problem and removed the clog. We started our dishwasher again today and guess what happened? You got it! It flooded again. :) Monday and Tuesday were completely taken up by the move/cleaning of both apartments.

On to this weeks proselyting activities. We had someone call both of our phones on Thursday and I gave a call back and the person on the line denied that he had called me. I didn't think much of it until the same phone number called us back eight hours later. Elder Pack answered the phone and it was a man by the name of Bill Smith. Bill was a member in Myrtle Beach 20 years ago and he was "antied" really bad so asked to have his name removed from the records of the church. After 20 years, he has recognized all his so called "friends" who "antied" him were all wrong about the church. Bill wants to come back to the church. Bill asked to meet with us on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. Bill was all set to come to church, then Saturday night he left a message on our phone saying he was not going to make it. I hope he is alright. We met with Dante. He said he would come to church, but he did not make it. I am out of time. I love you all! Sis. Selph quit smoking!

I love you,
Elder Cowan

New Area: Florence

Dear Family,

The long awaited time has come, the anticipation has past! It is now time to reveal my new area! I am currently serving in the FLORENCE WARD! I serve in the Florence county and parts of the surrounding counties! I think this ward geographically is the same size as the last stake I served in (Greenville East Stake). I am serving with Elder Pack and Elder Earl. Yes, you got it! I'm serving in a three-some. Elder Earl is actually only going to be here for a week finishing his mission. He didn't fly home at transfers because he had a surgery earlier in his mission which threw everything out of whack. 

Transfers are always an interesting experience: a new companion, new area, new investigators, and a new apartment. We are actually moving apartments later today. This gives me the great opportunity to deep clean an apartment that I have not even used yet. :) The area map needs quite a lot of work put into it. Along with moving to a new apartment, I will have the opportunity of creating a map of our area, AND creating an area book, so the next missionary who moves into the area can open up the book, read the information about the investigators and then hit the ground running. As soon as I finish these three projects, I'll probably move to a new area! That's how transfers work!

We are currently working with  Dante and  Brother and Sister Selph. Sister Selph is one of the sweetest ladies and she is currently taking the discussions. The Selphs have been living the Word of Wisdom for the past three weeks. As soon as Brother Selph gets baptized, Sister Selph will be baptized with him! Dante is a man that the previous Elders knocked into. Dante has a testimony of the gospel and has a strong desire to be baptized. His hold up is that he lives with his girlfriend and she has no desire to get married. Dante is conflicted with the idea of moving out because 1) He has nowhere else to go; he works at a barber shop and business has been non-existent, and 2) He and his girlfriend have a two year old son. I feel bad for his situation. We continue to encourage him and pray that he will be able to work things out in order to be baptized.

On Friday we had a zone development meeting in which I had the opportunity to meet all the missionaries in our zone. I know none of them! I feel like I've been transferred into a new mission! All the missionaries I've served with have all served in the up-state. All the missionaries here have served their entire missions in the low country. It's going to be great to work with each of them and to lead the Lemuel Zone (name of the Florence Zone) and help them to reach their full potential.

Random story, last night the Bishop gave us ice-cream Oreo pie and I was really hungry the whole ride home from the bishops. When we got to the apartment I "tried" to offer the prayer over the pie we were going to eat, but I failed miserably. :) I started the prayer "Dear Heavenly pie." It was a complete accident. I felt so embarrassed, but at the same time I could not stop laughing at the situation, actually all three of us could not stop laughing. I know I need to be better when I communicate with my Father in Heaven, but after a long day I was pretty tired. My "flesh" was weak. Anyways, I need to get back to the apartment to continue to clean it so we can pass inspection, then move everything down three flights of stairs, drive across town, and then take it up one flight of stairs. :) What an adventure that awaits! I love you all! I pray for you! Look for missionary experiences. (Especially you Dad, with the speech you have to make, you may not be able to say much during the speech, but afterward, when people come up to congratulate you, you can invite them to learn more! I love missionary work and I know you do too!)

Love,

Elder Cowan

Quick Update

Dear Family,

 

Wow. I need Justin's email. I need to email him and see how his adventure is going! What an exciting time. I will admit I only have 10 minutes left on this computer. This week was great. Update on the Sullivan's. We taught Doreen. She still has not asked Heavenly Father if these things are true. We went over "one true church" while we were there. She said that some time during this next week she will ask Heavenly Father if these things are true. I hope she follows through with that commitment. 

 

Just kidding. I only have five minutes left. We stopped by Cynthia's house (a recent convert of Elder Bowles when he served here). We read 1 Nephi 8 and committed her to reach out to her family and invite them to hold to the rod. When church started, none of our investigators were there and Cynthia was not there either. After Sacrament meeting, when they opened up the doors, Cynthia walked in with her daughter Natasha and Natasha's children: Maureen (15 yrs old) and Sean (9 yrs old). They enjoyed church and they are planning to come to church again. Natasha smokes weed, so I'm not sure if she has a desire to stop, but the children will learn quickly and have the opportunity to be baptized if they choose! It was great to see this recent convert doing missionary work. I hope you have success Dad in getting the members more involved in finding people to teach. 

 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!

 

Love,

Elder Cowan

 

P.S. Congratulations James on receiving your mission call. Suggestion: GO TO THE TEMPLE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE! Once you enter the mission field, you will not have the opportunity to go to the temple. :( Also, memorize Preach My Gospel. :D