September 19, 2012

That is awesome! What an amazing story! And the picture is great! Is that Grandpa and his sister? Please send my thanks to Grandpa and tell him I am excited to receive his letter. Thanks so much!

From: John Cousins
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2012 11:45 PM
To: Robert Cousins
Subject: a picture for you

You have been sent 1 picture.

Dear Rob,

Sent a letter to Quinn this past week in response to his query about the conversion stories of his great grandparents and the role of the missionaries. This is a photo of Elder Foss Flake who baptized my dad in Oct. of 1939. He and Elder Poll taught my father the gospel. Strangely enough our paths would cross many years later. Elder Foss Flake was the uncle of David Flake who married my sister and Richard Poll was the head of the History Dept. at BYU when I was a History major there and helped me secure a loan on his signature from a bank in Provo that provided the funds for me to go to France for 3 months in the summer of 1960 to do research for my Masters thesis. Small world eh. My dad got the Aaronic priesthood before joining the Canadian army and going overseas in 1941. If you could get this info to Quinn I would be grateful. I enjoy the blog and it sounds like Quinn is doing great. Love Dad

 

September 19, 2012

Hola! P-day once again. Only one more I believe before the field! Craziness, but I am ready to get out there.

Regional Conference? How big is the region? It's wild how different the church is over here. There are 2 stakes in all of Madrid (soon to be 3!). There are 3 in little old Lindon. You definitely don´t see quite as many steeples, haha. 

Sigh. One thing I don´t miss about home is futbol americano. Haha, obviously when Madrid and Barcelona play the world stops to watch. Speaking of which (and maybe I shouldn´t spread this around, but) the word on the street is that Pres Jackson allows his missionaries to go to one game during their mission. Let´s just say I´m super stoked.

I haven´t met Pres Jackson yet, but from what I´ve heard he´s great (see the above)! I´m excited to get to know him, and I´m sure my surgery will be a lively topic of discussion.

You heard from Elder Oakes? Like, apostle Elder Oakes? Ridiculous. I´m in the MTC nine weeks and never see an apostle. You know that Elder Anderson spoke in Provo the day I left? It´s all good, we get to watch the most amazing devotionals here.

Since when has Sarah started watching Dr. Who? And David Tennant as her screen saver?! Isn´t that a betrayal? It is pretty dang good, as all my friends from school know ;)

Rebekah is getting ready for the GRE´s?! That is crazy! It´s also crazy that I don´t know what that means. Does that mean she´s graduating or getting ready for more school? Or both? Either way, good luck Bekah!

Thanks for the news (sorry if I forgot some). Sorry there is really nothing to share from here. I have a new companion Elder Scheible, from Germany (his father is German, his mother is Spanish). He also speaks excellent English, so we are able to communicate. It´s a lot louder around here with all Spanish missionaries, but my Spanish is getting a lot better. I can understand nearly every word in a conversation, but I´m still working on responding. I went for a run yesterday on a path that just goes through this part of the city. It was nice, with little parks and trees all over. I really like this city. Sorry I have nothing exciting to share, I´m really just waiting to get out in the field.

Thank you so much for the package! I was not expecting that. It´s expensive to mail stuff! I will send the memory card as soon as I have a chance. Thanks for thinking of me, for your love and prayers. I love you!