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