February 6, 2013

Dear Family:

Wow, you guys are almost as excited about transfers as us missionaries are!  Alright time to end the waiting! Are you ready? I am now serving in Madrid Barrio 6 with Elder Berton as my companion! Haha, no, I haven´t been transferred. The only change in our piso is that Elder Levorson went to the office and Elder Ponsoda (Native Spaniard) is now companions with Elder Fisher. I was pretty disappointed Saturday night when I found out (I mean, I want to see some other places!), but I was also sick as a dog, so that didn´t help. Since then I´ve realized that I´m supposed to stay here and that I´m actually really happy to. I really love the ward here and some things have happened that make me feel like it´ll be worth it to stay here.

One of those things is that we had an entire family of investigators in church for the first time on Sunday. I don´t know if I´ve written about Eduardo and Paula before. They are a couple from Ecuador with 2 kids. We´ve been teaching them for a few weeks. It´s actually a really cool story how we found them, I don´t remember if I told you. We contacted Paula in the street, but couldn´t get a hold of her afterword. A few days later we contacted Eduardo and found out that they are actually husband and wife and from there we were able to get a lesson with them. So it was super cool to see all of them in church on Sunday. They also brought with them a friend named Daniela who is a few years older than us. She has been in a few lessons with them and yesterday we met with her. She said she really liked church and what she has heard us teach. In fact at church she asked us when we could meet. How cool is that?!

The other amazing thing that happened Sunday is what Beatriz told us. My companion came in in between classes and told me Beatriz wanted to talk to us. When we found her she looked at us and said: "I´m getting baptized" (except in Spanish of course). I was speechless for a second. She explained that she wasn´t going to wait anymore. Kancho is leaving on vacation, she is moving in with a family in the ward, and the sooner she can be baptized the better. She has her interview tomorrow so we´ll see from there. I am super excited! At the same time, they have tried before, so I´m trying to stay cool and make sure everything happens right, but she was very sure about it when we talked on Sunday. Mostly I am praying a ton that everything will work out okay and that she can be baptized. If we are able to be the ones to baptize her, it will be more than worth it to stay here. I would stay here and work with her my whole mission to get her baptized, honestly. So keep praying, and I hope next week I´ll have some good news.

That´s pretty much all that´s going on here. A roller-coaster ride of emotions everyday. I´m still working on improving my teaching skills and trying to understand people better and learning to rely on the Spirit for absolutely everything.

Thank you for keeping me updated on everything that´s going on at home. I´m really glad that Sister Killpack´s surgery went well, I´ll be sure to keep praying for her and her family.

That´s a super cool story about the priest´s quorum mission prep. Thanks for sharing that. I´m excited to start getting some new missionaries.

Oh no, I forgot to wish Grandma a happy birthday! Say hi to her from me and give Grandpa my thanks for the money. It means so much to know that they are supporting and helping me. They both rock!

Well, back to being a missionary. It was good to hear from you, and I hope you´re not too disappointed about transfers. I love you guys and I pray all the time that you are all safe and happy. So be happy! Love you!

Elder Cousins